I lurk too much and it annoys me

[Machine God]

Hi Dragonlover.

 

Nice post very AA!

 

8th Edition and Primaris has made me a Lurker too I haven't assembled and painted a model in 2 years, although you will see me more these days in the Liber.

 

I bought some paints and a couple of SM Heroes and they are mocking me as I type from 6' away, but it's easier to type than to get the modeling urge 

[MaliGn]

It's posts like this that make you think about what makes for a successful plog, is it the quality of the models alone? Is it the reputation of the op around the forum as a whole? Is it the frequency of updates? Is it the snippets of fluff added alongside the models? Is it seeing progress from plastic to painted? How much impact does "building to a list" have?

 

Almost every log I've ever looked at has some elements of all of these, unique modelling ideas, some feature incredibly detailed fluff breakdowns of the unique heraldry of every single marine in the army and the history of the battle plate they wear. Some feature battle reports, some four between various projects as that fraters total output. Others rest dormant for a while as other projects take control (as indeed mine currently lie as the majority of my efforts with a brush at present require sizes of at 1/2" some I have a lot of work to do on the New house) .

 

Everyone who takes the time to prepare such a post and to update it as best as they can is bravely putting their work out there onto one of the platforms that can yield the harshest criticism (albeit in a small subsector that is on the whole broadly supportive) in the form of the internet and each one of them has their own take on the hobby. Some logs languish in relative obscurity despite featuring work easily on a par with some of the bigger names, even when those names themselves are modest types that don't understand their own success. This is where events such as the ETL really come into their own in semi-forcing people to view each other's work (although too much of that and they'll Never finish their own vows!).

 

I may haVe slightly rambled off topic, but i guess an idea that we could all adopt is that if someone comments on your plog, and they have one of their own, even if the subject matter is not something you have a particular affinity for pay them the courtesy of a return visit and maybe even a comment of your own. I recently started posting my necromu da things over on yaktribe having never played before and the overnight response from their members to my humble contribution was staggering, I then went on to invest many hours in reading through several of the key members and commenters on my blog's blogs in order to better understand their community and boy am I glad I did! Similarly my own word bearers have taken inspiration from numerous other members whose blogs I began to follow back on warseer but are duplicated here and it all boils down to dialogue - the back and forth between op and commenter that has kept momentum up.

[Panzer]

 and it all boils down to dialogue - the back and forth between op and commenter that has kept momentum up.

This is quite important. The plogs I follow the most are the ones were the OP actually engages with the people who comment on it. I don't care much for plogs where the OP just posts his things and at most gives a thanks to the people who comment on his work. Engage with each other. Ask questions. Specify what you like and why ... or what you don't like and why. Suggest things. Do what you'd do when you'd be sitting in your FLGS with other people talking about your army. Hence why I don't really like people who exclusively make posts that boil down to pressing the 'Like' button but with words. It doesn't give anyone anything to interact with except for saying thanks.

 

Also it always depends on the kind of plog. I follow some that convince with their conversions, I follow some that convince with their painting and I follow some that convince with theme.

WarriorFishs Slaanesh Marines for example aren't big on conversions and the level of his painting is on the average side but it's an interesting colour scheme, he talks a bit about the fluff side of his guys which is greatly supported by the odd batreps inbetween which also stick out by not being netlists and instead using lots of regular Chaos Marines walking into melee range and finally he engages with the people commenting in his thread, often by asking for feedback on some ideas and such, so there's some back&forth that makes the reader involved with that army.

All in all you'd say the work itself is on the average side as goes for hobbying, but it feels like I'm actually talking with a person who actually likes their army and it has just enough going on to make me interested instead of being just another Emperor's Children plog.

 

Oh and the quality of the posts itself is very important.

I don't like looking at pictures you can barely see anything on, that includes super grainy pictures, bad lighting, no cropping and so on. You want to show me your models? Then show them! (I'm not judging you for having no good camera, tho with proper lighting a modern phone works well enough even if it isn't the latest model, I then just don't care what you try to show me. Photoboxes help a lot there and are rather cheap to build)

Furthermore I also don't like if the posts are done in super broken english (I'm not judging anyone not being fluent in english, I then just care much much less for what you write), if it's just one huge wall of text without any formatting or if your last 5 posts was nothing but several paragraphs of text without actually showing anything. On the other hand posting just the pictures without having anything to say about it is just as boring and gives me much less to engage with.

An interesting post includes a balance of text and pictures, and both possessing at least some basic level of quality to make me actually want to read it and look at it. If that's provided the chances of me posting something on your plog that can snowball into a nice conversation is much better.

[Claws and Effect]

I go in spurts.

 

I'll be really talkative and active for a while and then disappear for weeks or months at a time.

 

I've been doing non40k stuff lately, and I can't really tell you all about my M:TG decks or Fallout adventures, so I've been quiet.

 

I'm also quietly painting my son's Necron army and working out a paint scheme for my Knights of the Raven (thank you GW for putting Leadbelcher in a can).