From The Warp… Exit Stage Left, Take A Bow
Ladies and Gentlemen, Children and Unicorns, I’m sure you’re aware that From the Warp is closing shop. I’m proud to bring you a farewell interview with Ron, the man behind the blog.
I’ll make my introduction brief. On February 20th Ron – the man who is From the Warp – announced the blog was entering stasis. He would no longer accept new members and would no longer post content to the site.
The blog would stand so the quality material he has collected over the years wouldn’t simply disappear. He pointed out FTW would remain a great jumping off point for access to its many members… among them being my poor offering, Strictly Average, as it has since I began my mad project in 2009.
Still, let’s be honest, an unsupported blog can count its days numbered. It’s also fair to say the news came out of the blue, shocking the blogosphere.
Ron’s emblem is epic – in my humble opinion the single best logo out there – and instantly recognizable. It graces I don’t know how many blog pages. The site itself has almost 1000 members, which is enormous for what’s basically a one-man show.
So… why?
What follows is my interview with Ron. I’ve been planning it for weeks now but obviously it became much more important to bring this to you after the news dropped. Ron was gracious enough to take the time and answer the questions I asked on your behalf. The questions and answers are unedited.
Question: How would you describe From the Warp?
Wow, start with the tough one. I’ve always thought of it as a jumping point for readers. Some place they could come to, find what they were looking for and then head off to check it out. In this case, I tried to collect other 40k bloggers so we could all keep track of each other. I know that goes against the common practice of trying to get readers to your site and keep them there, but I was just looking for a way to be able to keep up with other bloggers and what they were doing each day.
It definitely changed over time. I certainly did not set out to build what I did, it just sort of grew into that.
I’m not sure I had a particular destination or goal in mind when I started the site either. I knew I wanted to be able to keep track of what was going on out there and I sort of figured it out as I went along. I wish I’d been able to do it better in the end. Sorry to be so vague.
It might have started that way, but it didn’t stay that way for long. I’ve had tons of help from others as the site grew. I was fortunate to have a number of people help me with all kinds of little things from ideas, to writing code to providing artwork for the site.
Equally important were the folks who decided to share their time and work with the community by bringing their own material over to FTW. Things like the Tuesday Top Ten, Rogue Trader Fridays and the Weekly 40k Podcast Review to name just a few. And that doesn’t include all of the Guest bloggers who shared their content on FTW instead of posting it on their own site. Without those folks, I would never have been able to do what I did.
Question: One of the largest contributions From the Warp made to the community at large is its Links section. I find this really interesting… after all, everyone has a set of links, but there is arguably no more important place to be than in one of From the Warp’s blog rolls. How did that happen? Is it something you intended? How do you feel about it?
I don’t know about that one. Maybe I see them differently, but I think of the rolls as a collection of like minded bloggers who all want to share what they’re up to with everyone else. I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say they are “important.” I like to think of them as helpful in collecting all those folks in one place.
How they came about is a good question. When I first started blogging, I came across a blog that had a community feed type thing on their site with links to all kinds of other blog posts that they were keeping track of. I thought it was the coolest thing. I figured I could build something similar so I could keep track of other 40k bloggers. I guess you could say I intended to collect the other sites (so I could keep track of them) but I never anticipated it growing into what it did.
In the end, I’m glad it grew into the monster it did. I like to think the rolls helped connect a lot of people together who might not otherwise have crossed paths. I know it’s helped me connect with tons of people in all kinds of hobby aspects. Maybe the rolls have been a bigger success in connecting like minded people more than anything else. I’d be happy with that.
I do remember. That policy comes from my own feelings about language and the hobby. It has no other basis than it’s how I think it should be. I know we’re playing a game about war and toy soldiers and all the horrific aspects that go along with that reality, but this is not reality. I thought FTW might one day have the potential to reach both young and old gamers and I didn’t want to be someplace a Dad could NOT take his Son when they were doing hobby stuff together because of the language on the site.
I knew it was going to upset some folks, but it was an aspect I was willing to accept. I never tried to censor the language or change the content people posted on their sites, it was the opposite in reality. I think one of the great things is the sweeping variety of material out there. I just made it clear which ones I would promote through FTW and which ones I would not.
Because of it, I’ve had people send me hate mail, call me names… all kinds of things. I’ve had people get really mad with me when I would not include them in the rolls due to the language they used on their site. The flip side is that I’ve had a few people thank me for that policy as well.
Question: I remember at the time being astounded at how much time it must take you just to managed the posts! How much was that, and did it become overwhelming at times?
It took a huge amount of time and yes, it was almost always overwhelming. In the beginning, it didn’t take too much time to keep up with everyone, but as it grew, it became harder and harder. If each blogger gets a minute of my time and I’ve only got 25 to 30 bloggers to keep up with, that’s managebale. Up the number of bloggers to over 750 and it quickly gets out of control.
I’d say I spent about 10 to 15 hours a week conservatively doing what I call “Admin” stuff for the site once it grew past the initial stages. Towards the end (meaning the past 6 months or so) it was closer to 20 hours a week. Everything from answering emails to checking the blogrolls, adding links, updating the archives…. it goes on and on and that doesn’t include writing my own posts or anything hobby related (modeling and painting).
Honestly, it all becomes more time consuming. Not so much harder, but everything just took longer given the volume of input from the Group. As the site grew, I had to deal with what you could call growing pains and having to constantly rebuild aspects of the site to accomodate the growth. The blog rolls are the perfect example. Who knew they only hold 250 blogs before they start dropping random ones from the list. Same goes for making them scroll so folks could access all the info quickly. Once you make them scroll, it changes the code so you have to then adjust them for width and adding thumbnails and links. One thing becomes another and so on and so on. And I’ve got no professional blogging experience so it was a lot of reverse engineering and trial and error which is insanely time consuming.
Success story? Thanks, but I don’t know about that one.
As far as advice, that’s another tough one. I think the single best thing a blogger can do is figure out what it is about the hobby that is most important to them and then blog about that. Don’t try and do it all, don’t try and do what others have done and don’t worry about what others are doing… find the one thing you’re passionate about and focus on that.
You won’t be the best at it if you’re copying what someone else is doing.
I think everything has it’s place and time.
It had to end because of the impact it’s having on my life now. While it might seem selfish, I would want other bloggers to do the same with their site if they found themselves in a similar position. For me, it’s a matter of perspective… while the hobby (and hobby time) is important, my family and time with them are far more important. For those who have children, they grow up so fast and you can’t replace the time you get with them.
FTW wasn’t created for the impact or getting a specific number of readers, followers, or page hits. I’ve always appreciated that others took the time to sign up and promote the Group or become a Follower of the site or even just leave a comment, but I’ve realized that I only have so much time in a week and it needs to be spent in certain places at this point in my life.
Question: What’s going to happen to all the content on From the Warp?
I have no plans on removing any of it. I still like to think the site serves as a great jumping point for people to find other things.
Without a doubt, it’s the friends I’ve made. I never imagined I would meet the people I have and learned the things I did from other hobbyists.
For that, I will be eternally grateful.
Sure, but I don’t want this to come across as a plug for the new blog. A small part of FTW was my ongoing commission work and I tried to share that stuff with readers when I could, but as FTW grew, the site took on a life of it’s own and my hobby work (and personal life) took a back seat to it. That bothered me more and more as the site grew.
My new “micro blog” as a friend called it the other day is going to be focused on my hobby stuff. It’s not designed to take the place of FTW, but rather be an outlet for me to share what I’m working on and more importantly, the stuff I’m learning as I continue in the hobby. I enjoy the modeling and painting aspect of the hobby most of all and being able to help others with the same thing is rewarding for me. Ultimately, I’d like for my new blog to serve as a place for readers to visit, see what I’m up to and be able to relate as I struggle with the same things they do when it comes to building and painting little toy soldiers and keeping life balanced.
A good book is bittersweet because you don’t want it to end… but it almost has to, doesn’t it? After all, you can’t really appreciate something until you can look at it in its entirety.
It’s how I feel about From the Warp. Honestly, the news he was closing up shop hit me pretty hard – and I had to give it a good think before I could understand why.
From the Warp had more impact on me as a blogger than any single site, and I touched on the reason in one of the questions. You see, I’m an adult that uses adult language…
…and I like me some bad language! Some of the articles I’ve written for places like Blood of Kittens and House of Paincakes are downright naughty – and that’s not even mentioning my foray into the wonderful world of podcasting over on Off Topical!
Adult language has its place… among adults. It never occurred to me children might be accessing my little blog; but it occurred to Ron. His simple desire to keep From the Warp family-friendly cost him in a real way: as in real hours and real work. He didn’t beat me over the head with all that, but rather did it all in the background. I don’t know if I ever told him this but I respected that enormously.
Because of his standards, he created more work for himself. Because doing it the right way meant something to him.
From that day forward I edited myself. It made Strictly Average a much better site and me a much better blogger.
That’s the debt I owe Ron. From the Warp was simply one of the best blogs out there. It embraced the spirit of community and made it work.
Now he wants to spend to more time with his family. Here’s hoping we can pick up and carry on.
Cheers!
Thoughts? Comments? Hugs and… aw, forget it! Just say your piece already!
