On November 24 2011 19:18 Manifesto7 wrote:
Spotlighted for the sole reason that I wanted the word "meta-blogging" to appear on the front page. Im expecting Chill to show up and punch me in the face at any moment.

I love that you are the #1 spotlighter even though you said you were gonna quit TL.
Great post, great spotlight. I love this feature!

Bibbit

Canada5377 Posts

November 24 2011 14:16 GMT

#44

On November 24 2011 22:55 Skeggaba wrote:

Show nested quote +

I love that you are the #1 spotlighter even though you said you were gonna quit TL.
Great post, great spotlight. I love this feature!

And I love how he freakin' spotlighted me ! <3 Manifesto, even if he did it mostly to spite Chill. : )

Also much thanks to the people who like this. And those who dont, ~~well screw you anyway~~ thats fine.

MasterZilla

Sweden234 Posts

November 24 2011 14:56 GMT

#45

Somehow, this blog made me want to write battle reports for my crappy ladder games..

Enjoyable read!

marttorn

Norway5211 Posts

November 24 2011 14:59 GMT

#46

While we're here, talking about bad blogs, I'm sick of blogs titled "Road to ___". Most commonly "Road to [LEAGUE]"

They're incredibly common, and not limited to blogs, and I don't even have a sensible reason to hate them, but whenever I see one of them in the blogs section of TL, I pause for a moment and shake my head while biting my lip in disbelieving anger.

Manifesto7

Osaka27146 Posts

November 24 2011 15:01 GMT

#47

Just to spite Bibbit Im going to make a road to Gold blog next week. Watch for it.

thesideshow

930 Posts

November 24 2011 15:16 GMT

#48

On November 24 2011 20:28 Felo wrote:
When a blog is written in the forest, but nobody around reads it, is there a blog?

I see what you did there :D

StarStruck

25339 Posts

November 24 2011 15:34 GMT

#49

On November 24 2011 22:55 Skeggaba wrote:

Show nested quote +

I love that you are the #1 spotlighter even though you said you were gonna quit TL.
Great post, great spotlight. I love this feature!

Mani cannot stay away from the blog section.

blubbdavid

Switzerland2412 Posts

November 24 2011 15:42 GMT

#50

You should have written this one year ago.

Enki

United States2548 Posts

November 24 2011 15:45 GMT

#51

I would rather read 10 ladder blogs instead of one more "omg im so nervous i cant play sc2 ladder, what do I do gaiz?"

Luckily those seem to have died off. Hopefully it stays that way.

nRoot

Germany928 Posts

November 24 2011 15:49 GMT

#52

Well there is one good thing about ladder blogs, they don't get highlighted unless they are somewhat interesting/insightfull

This blog however .. : (

RogerX

New Zealand3180 Posts

November 24 2011 15:57 GMT

#53

Heheh, pretty sure you made a lot of players upset though.

IrOnKaL

United States340 Posts

November 24 2011 17:04 GMT

#54

Nice read, got me to laugh quite a few times

Very much of what you say is true though.

Bibbit

Canada5377 Posts

November 24 2011 17:10 GMT

#55

On November 25 2011 00:57 RogerX wrote:
Heheh, pretty sure you made a lot of players upset though.

Heh, ye. Look one post above yours. ^_^

StarStruck

25339 Posts

November 24 2011 17:11 GMT

#56

One word comes to mind, Eureka!

Vortigan

Denmark306 Posts

November 24 2011 17:14 GMT

#57

hahahahah love it!! ..... btw I think I wanna go pro?!

Umpteen

United Kingdom1570 Posts

November 24 2011 17:17 GMT

#58

As a (mostly) ex-ladder-blogger myself I'd venture to suggest another reason for lower-level players to kick the habit:

Nothing turns subjective impression into cold, hard fact quicker than sharing it with others.

I dodged this particular bullet a few weeks ago, when I started a blog post about my laddering experience this season. I was struggling greatly in ZvT and ZvP: it felt like my opponents always had a free choice of strategy and those strategies - regardless of how extreme or one-dimensional they might be - always had to be countered exactly and precisely just to prolong the game. The idea of actually going into a game with a plan seemed absurd. And because there were so many T/P strategies, and it seemed the range of Zerg counters to each was so narrow and predictable, I was only ever going to get a tiny amount of practice countering and following up compared to the practice my opponents were getting executing and following up.

I had this big, whiny post almost finished when, by chance, I was forced to set it aside over the weekend. When I returned to it on the Monday and read it through, it struck me as - not reasonable and sensible, as it had at the time, but biased and narrow-minded. Sure, some early aggression does mandate a very specific response, but the task of detecting and responding is not all that arduous, and deflection often pushes the odds of an eventual win far above 50%. Why was I not thinking, instead: "All I need to do to win 90% of those cannon rushes or proxy gates is send a drone around the edge of my base? Bargain!"

Only in a small subset of these builds is it genuinely tricky to come out ahead, but in my post I had generalised the worst case, the better to win sympathy from my readers. Nor is it even the case that every T/P strategy must be dealt with uniquely. The later the focus of their strategy, the more opportunities there are to impose myself upon the game. Again I was generalising the worst case, ignoring nuance and opportunities, casting myself as the perpetual victim.

Aside: Nor do I believe I am alone in this. Maybe the world is not a Zerg's oyster at the 0 minute mark in the same way it is for a Terran, but I think a lot of Zergs have allowed the claustrophobic early-game to colour their perception of the game as a whole.

What surprised me most, however, was how influential a post contrived to convince readers can be upon the writer during the process of creation. I almost bought into my own hyperbole, almost made it part of my online persona - and while I've trained myself not to invest too much ego in being right on the internet, attaching oneself to erroneous public proclamations is at best a desperately unproductive pastime.

soujiro_

Uruguay5195 Posts

November 24 2011 17:34 GMT

#59

congrats on the spotlight, your blogs tend to be good

nRoot

Germany928 Posts

November 24 2011 18:16 GMT

#60

On November 25 2011 02:10 Bibbit wrote:

Show nested quote +

Heh, ye. Look one post above yours. ^_^

I don't mind your blog, I was just sad it got spotlighted for no reason and i wasted my time reading through, waiting for something interesting to come up :/