I would like to talk about something if you have a minute.
This is a longer post but I think it's worthwhile. It's my response to a comment posted elsewhere in the blogging world. I originally planned to email it out but I think it has enough merit on its own to be posted here for everyone to read.
This is my response to a comment about the benefits of being a member of the FTW Blogger Group (or lack thereof).
You are absolutely right on a number of things with your comment.
First, the "FTW" bloglist and the "Community" blog list were merged a while ago.
Second, there is no "real" benefit from actually joining the Group.
Third, there are FTW members who have never displayed the logo and rarely participate in anything the Group has done.
So why remain a member then?
Why display a silly little logo and be associated with something that you get no benefit from?
Why be a part of something that has "requirements" like commenting on other blogs and watching what you write and supporting other bloggers if you don't actually get anything out of it for yourself?
These are all realy good questions.
But maybe another question you might want to ask yourself is WHY do you blog about 40k?
And when I say that, I mean for you to seriously look at your own personal motivations for blogging.
This isn't meant to judge you on them... some people do it to make money, some people do it to show off, some do it as a hobby (blogging) and some don't even know why they do it, it just fills a space inside of them for some unknown reason.
But here's why I blog about 40k and why the FTW Blogger Group is important to me even though I don't get any "real" benfit from it... at all.
I started out blogging as a way to show others my stuff and hopefully work towards getting more commissions so I could make my hobby self-supporting.
Then I came across a blog called The Chicago Terrain Factory. On his site, he has a small thing called a Community Feed. At first, I thought who in their right mind would put somethinig like this up on their blog? It has links to other blogs to go look at and people won't stay and look at mine. What a stupid idea.
And then I realised something. I kept going back to CTF to keep looking at that little Community Feed to see what everyone else was doing in the hobby.
There was so much more out there about the hobby that I don't know about, that I still don't know about. And I'm sure there is even more out there beyond the reach of the FTW Blogger Group, I just haven't found it yet. And I'm not talking about rules or things like that, but opinions and ideas and painting and modeling tips and tricks and all kinds of things.
Things I would have never been exposed to if I hadn't first seen that Community Feed on CTF and then started that very thing specifically for 40k with the FTW Blogger Group.
So why remain a member then?
Because I'm selfish and I want to see what everyone else is doing out there and I want to show them the things that I've learned from them and discovered on my own. Do I "need" the FTW Blogger Group? Probably not... but I would be lying if I said that I wouldn't be keeping track of everyone's cool projects all the time and talking to and supporting them anyway.
Why display a silly little logo and be associated with something that you get no benefit from?
Because I'm proud to be associated with a specific group of Bloggers who share their hobby experiences and support each other.
Why be a part of something that has "requirements" like commenting on other blogs and watching what you write and supporting other bloggers if you don't actually get anything out of it for yourself?
Because I like to believe it helps the larger 40k hobby community. For however silly that may sound or if you think the rose colored glasses I see the world through have skewed my vision... I want to think that it helps motivate people and push them to do more or maybe take that extra step when it comes to modeling or painting or whatever... something they mignt not have done on their own.
I know I've learned countless things that have changed the way I play 40k, changed the way I paint, the way I model, the way I build army lists... the list goes on and on. Things I would have never of learned by trying to do it all on my own.
So I proudly display the FTW logo at the top of my blog, I use my FTW dice whenever I actually play 40k, I tell everyone I know about the Group and I work at being a "member" every single day... even though I don't actually get any "real" benefits from the Group.
An more importantly... I hope that the FTW Blogger Group, whether you're a member or not, whether you display the logo or not, whether you participate or not, has been able to help the 40k community and players in some small way no matter how silly or trivial it may seem.
Thanks for reading guys and thanks for participating.
