A Blogger's Challenge

[vexillia]

And now for something completely different...

Jonathan Freitag runs a long standing blog, the Palouse Wargaming Journal, which has just celebrated its 13th anniversary 1. In his latest post 2 he mused on the effect blogging has on battle reports building on a post from 2019 3 which looked at how visitors read battle reports.

I know Jonathan as we are both active on the Society of Ancients forum and from Jonathan's statistical work on the Great Wargaming Survey.

After I'd commented on his anniversary post 4, Jonathan replied that he would enjoy seeing my views on the topic of battle reports. A challenge I couldn't resist; even if it does lead to a blogger writing about blogging!

https://blog.vexillia.me.uk/2025/09/a-bloggers-challenge.html

[Jon Freitag]

Good to see you picking up my challenge!

[Imperial Dave]

Really good article. I am one of those self confessed 'visual' people who will search out picture heavy reports preferentially. Even at the risk of missing out on very good but mainly text driven reports

[vexillia]

Different strokes...

[Imperial Dave]

Exactly. Not all people are built the same way. I also think it illustrates my butterfly attention span somewhat!

[dwkay57]

I seem to recall we had a forum discussion this a while back (we usually have  ) and the conclusions were, I think:

1) Available time to read something was critical

2) If the time is available then it is probably having an interest in the specific period or armies involved.

3) Then it was down to the length of the article which came back to having the time available.

[Keraunos]

"Time like an ever rolling stream bears all its blogs away"?

[Erpingham]

Still not sure how I feel about game reports, blogged or otherwise. I find some of my thoughts apparently contradictory, too, which means I haven't really worked out what it is I do and don't like 

I think I like images of nice set-up.  I like to admire the figures and a well-laid table. Also helps to get the feel of the game. I like reports that explain how rules tackle situations sometimes but prefer a good narrative not overly laden with rules explanations and jargon at others. And, sad to confess, I often skim the text and just look at the pictures.

Character in the blogging I think is important and, preferably, an interest in the subject. But I have wider interests than medievals and ancients that rarely get mentioned here 

As to blogs as an art, they are probably dying in the face of other media like You-Tube or the short form reportage of things like Tik-Tok or Instagram but they do have advantages still in terms of record and ideas, I think.

[vexillia]

Very "confused of Tunbridge Wells". 

[Imperial Dave]

Give me pictures...

[dwkay57]

I have noticed that as my battle reports have got longer the level of readership has dwindled.

But as - in line with the AI analysis - the author still enjoys them in a quiet moment.....

[Imperial Dave]

Well i like them....!

[Jim Webster]

Ditto