As I approach the tenth year of Eveoganda it is natural to start reflecting on the history, the content, the sheer amount of work that has gone into these pages over the past decade. And to perhaps wonder, where do I go from here? Is it even worth continuing? Where did everyone else go?
When I started writing the Eve Bloggersphere was a vibrant, challenging, exciting place to be. I had been reading other people's blogs about Eve Online for almost two years before I finally decided to take the plunge myself. At that time I was already six years into my own companies blog and had written pieces for MoviePoopShoot (Kevin Smith's website), Aint-It-Cool-News, and other blogs around the internet. So I wasn't a noob when it came to understanding the platform, the dedication it required, or how hard it would be to stand out in such a crowded field.
As I said in my very first post, "As the artwork I produced started to add up I began to think about putting it somewhere, and that is where this blog comes in. A place to put the art I do for Eve and a place to talk about the game, how the art came to be, and anything else I can think of. We'll see how it goes."
So here we are ten years later and most of the Eve Bloggers have vanished, my reading list has dwindled, and most of the content these days gets streamed, or happens on Discord. (I refuse to acknowledge Reddit) And while there are Blogs of note still going, Blogging has certainly dropped in importance over the past few years. In fact traffic to this blog has dropped 10x over those years. In 2013 I averaged 4,000 visitors a day, on average. Today I'm lucky if 400 people visit this blog. So why keep going?
It's funny now. But back then when I'd say things like, I write this for myself - people would mock me for it. But it remains as true now as it did back then. Primarily this blog remains a journal of my personal journey as a player of Eve Online. And as long as I remain a player in the game, I will continue to write about that journey. That's what a journal is. Secondly, I don't care how many people visit, or read, or enjoy the blog. I will keep writing as long as someone is reading it. It could be a few people a day, or hundreds, doesn't really matter. I'll keep plugging away. I've always had a tremendous amount of respect for the readers I do have. And I see no reason to change now.
I also take a certain amount of pride in being one of the longest running Eve focused blogs remaining. And while other blogs have been running longer, most of those are not primarily Eve Blogs. Or they don't post very often, if at all. And while it is annoying that when most people think about Eve Blogs they tend to remember ones that aren't even around anymore, that doesn't change my approach to writing in these pages. And continuing to share with my readers.
Nothing stays the same, change is a part of life. Eventually I will stop writing this blog and Eveoganda will fade into the history books. Before that happens however, I hope to continue to write, challenge, document, and have fun playing Eve Online. And as long as that continues, so will this blog. Even if no one else is reading it.
2,310 posts later and still going strong.
You try it, it ain't easy.