Monday, August 25, 2008

Immediate and Long Term Future

As you maybe saw, I have yet to comment on last Friday's comic. Partly that's because I have little to say besides "eh" but that's never stopped me before. I've been very busy and will be for the next two weeks. It's possible I will have time to write some quick posts and it's possible I will do some kind of end of the week summary of the week's comics. I'm not sure yet.

Anyway I figured this is as good a time as any to reflect on the monster I have created here and what its future is.

It's been about 4 months since I started this blog. That means it's been around, oh, approximately 3 months and 28 days longer than I was expecting. I have come to love it in a strange way, and this is emphatically not an announcement about ending the blog. I have no plans at all to end it.

However - I am wondering if there are any changes you would like to see. On my end, it's basically been the same deal - each time there's a new xkcd up, I read it, think about why it's bad, tell myself I should give it another chance, check the forums to make sure I'm not missing something important, and then, usually just before the next one goes up, I write the post. Occasionally some other topic comes up and I write about that.

So there are a few ideas I've had and I am curious which ones you guys think you'd like. For example -

---Branch out - talk about other webcomics more (sort of like the PBF post)
---Mock the forum-dwellers with more regularity - perhaps a weekly post making fun of one commenter in particular
---Go back and analyze some of the older comics, both good and bad
--a variant of that: Intersperse my generally negative comments about the newest comics with analysis of good older ones and why I think they work well
---Tone - meaner? Nicer?
--- More posts from other people

Should I write more? Less? Should I skip the occasional comic that doesn't interest me?

Anything sound good? Or do you have your own brilliant idea?

Basically I am looking for any and all feedback. As usual, put it in the comments or e-mail czwheeler@gmail.com .

9 comments:

  1. Use more limericks, haiku, and sonnets. And villanelles.

    Seriously.

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  2. I wouldn't mind seeing your take on the forums. I think the sycophants there are part of what's allowed Randall to get so lazy.

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  3. Please ignore comics that you don't care about. There's nothing more boring than "meh. whatever."

    I don't really like the idea of pointedly making fun of specific people (rather than making fun of the whole forum, or a specific thread or trend), but that's because I'm a softie who doesn't like inter-site flame wars. The denizens of the xkcd forum seem like the type of Goons who'd flame out quite a bit over any slight.

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  4. What Sarah said, plus they'd start examining our snarkiness and I'm only comfortable with feeling better than others, not equal to them. However, judging a mass reaction to a comic is always a good time.

    My favorite posts of yours often bring up older xkcd's (especially ones showing how Randall breaks his own rule-punchlines). If you feel truly indifferent about a certain comic, I would advise that you outsource the rant to a willing guest or attach it to a different comic's post with "About Friday's comic: not bad. On with the show!"

    Your mean/nice scale has been pretty well-tuned so far. Just be outright in calling the shitty comics shitty and being a kind analyst when you think a comic is onto something.

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  5. I suggest making fun of the forums when there is nothing really interesting to say about a particular comic (or it happens not to suck).

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  6. I actually like all of the ideas presented on the blog and in these comments, except for the ones for restraint.

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  8. Does anyone else think Randall may be reading this site and has given Carl a breather for now by posting a meme-related chart?

    C'mon Carl, make up your mind before the dick jokes start back up!

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  9. Compare new comics to comics that may have the same general punchline, or even old XKCD comics. I don't think it's enough to tell what's bad about a comic, tell what should replace the material.

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