So here we are half way through the #RPGaDay2016. I decided today this would be a good muse. As I look over the questions so far I noticed my thoughts on the entire endeavor were mixed. Three years ago I took part in the first of the #RPGaDay blogging marathon and, I loved it ! It was new and even then a ton of people participated in the event. The questions were decent and it flooded my blog with a ton of blog posts. I gained many new viewers and as well as many followers from taking part in it.
Going into year two I was excited but after 30 days of blogging, I was happy to see it go away for another year. I try my best not to ever phone in any of my responses. But 31 short blogs in a month on top of regular blogging is a hefty workload. I wrapped up year two drained. I was one of the vocal people that begged, please give out the questions a few weeks earlier next time to lighten our personal work loads. Thankfully they heard the comments and about 2 weeks before the 1st they revealed the questions for this year.This year’s questions are much deeper and require a lot more thought than in years past. I like that.
So what are my though’s overall this year ? Mixed, Some of these questions have been excellent, some not so amazing. That said you can not make everyone happy all of the time so if I like at least half of them I would say you have done a damn good job with the selection for the year. So I will declare this years questions a good set at least personally.
BUT….
Yeah, I am going to stir the pot a bit. I find myself with a growing complaint/Gripe/concern. In the first year, a few bloggers and Vloggers and fans took to the internet and took part. In year two it became somewhat of a slow moving avalanche. More and more as the days went by people joined in the fun.
This year… nothing short of a terrifying amount of people are doing #RPGaDay2016. I see it everywhere. I wonder how do I cut through the noise ? Is it worth it to keep doing these questions ? I weigh the burnout factor of the workload vs the determination of trudging through. I exaggerate in some regards, yet not in others. I welcome the tidal wave of responses and input from the community. At the same time, I fear a ton of very good blogs responses will have been lost in this ocean of Hashtags. I also wonder if my very own followers might be growing tired of the day after day RPGaDay content growing wall on my blog.
In the end, I have decided to gut it out and keep doing them for now. I do not know if it is the #RPGaday that has generated the conversations or new and awesome followers that are eager to share their thoughts. But one goal I have always wanted to reach in my blog is my audience interaction. I have had several replays on more than one day of This years #RPGaDay content and I am thrilled by that. Here is hoping it continues.
Are good posts being lost in the mix ? Maybe, I can’t honestly be sure. What I can tell you is that I spiked several hundred views the first week. Also my second week my total views were noticeably lower than average as well. So who knows ?
So, I will end on a question. Do you think the concern is valid ? That the #RPGaDay hurts the blog more than helps ? Or do you enjoy the questions that are posed and interested in replies I have on the topics ?
UPDATE: I wanted to also wanted to point out the fact that years later some of my #RPGaDay topics still get consistant hits each month! That is impressive!