A View From the Aerie: A 2007 Retrospective

The day after Christmas (Boxing Day, in most of the English-speaking world outside the US), Matticus posted a "Best of World of Matticus" review of 2007. He suggested others of us do the same, which sounds like a capital idea to me.

August 2007: Kestrel’s Aerie takes flight.

As so many others have done, both before and after me, the first WoW blog I read was BigRedKitty. I found his blog after reading one of his columns for WoW Insider. With a hunter as one of my mains, and the class I’d played since beta, BRK’s writing resonated with me. It was informative, entertaining, and insightful. But there was also a lot there I didn’t really grok. For instance, Karazhan. At the time, I was as likely to get to Kara as I was to Neverland. From BRK, I followed links to other blogs, all of which I devoured, gaining more knowledge by post. But once again, a lot of what the writers had to say was way beyond my experience.

So, I thought to myself, "Self: You’re reasonably literate; you love the game; you play it decently, and you enjoy yourself. What other criteria does one need to become a blogger?" And so was born Kestrel’s Aerie (named for my primary rogue, and a character name I’ve been using since Asheron’s Call). My intent was to post for the more casual player, using my own rather narrow definition of "casual." Following BRK’s example, I created my blog on Blogger, and the first article was posted on August 15. It even garnered a comment! (Thank you, Mania!)

My next post started a short-lived "Reader’s Digest" weekly column highlighting some of the best blogging of the preceding week. While that column was generally reviewed favorably, with so much outstanding blogging going on, it was very difficult to keep it going long-term. 

Later in August, I moved from blogspot.com to wordpress.com, and almost immediately after that to my own domain. Essentially, I wanted more creative control over the look and feel of the site than either Blogger or WordPress provided on their free-hosting bases. Originally, I used another database and subdirectory from my Guild’s website (which I own and maintain); more recently, I established the current domain. And I think I’m here for the long haul.

Numbers Game 

I haven’t done a lot in the way of tracking statistics, but here are a few to keep the numerologists entertained:

• Including this post, there are currently 115 posts and 434 comments, contained within 25 categories. That’s not quite one post every day (I’ve been up for 138 days through December 30). Of course, I also was in Hawai’i for more than a week, and just returned from a Christmas trip to Tampa during which I didn’t post much (and since returning, this is my first article).
• Since moving to WordPress, I’ve had 22,709 visitors.
• My "Best Day Ever" was Tuesday, October 31, with 2,900 page views, most of which were generated by an article on WoW Insider, citing my "10 Commandments" post.

• According to FeedBurner, 90 of you subscribe to my articles feed; none of you subscribe to the comments feed. Thank you.

Favorite Posts

I could go through and determine the most-viewed post, but instead, here are what I consider to be the "Best of Kestrel’s Aerie," month-by-month.

August

• On Mods and Macros

• So what’s a "casual" player, anyway?

• Holy Tree 41- or 51-point talent idea

• One instance at a time: The Underbog

September

• Favicons

• Here’s to the Theorycrafters

• Xornot’s Gem Finder — A 5-Star Resource

• Addon of the Week: Ace2 (Sadly, another weekly column that isn’t very "weekly")

• Addon of the Week: FuBar vs. Titan Panel

October

• Voice Chat: Initial Observations

• Kestrel’s Ten Commandments for Casual Groups (Big surprise, hmm?)

• Yes, Virginia, there ARE girls on the Internet!

• Temerity Jane: Exalted with WoW

November

• Add-On Overview

• Add-On of the Week: Prat 2.0

• 2.3 and Me

• A Tip for Crafters (and a second cite by WoW Insider!)

• Some Quickie – and Handy – Pet Macros

December

• Shadow Lab Redux, and an Epiphany

• 5 Worst Wipes

• Call to Arms

• Another Day, Another PUG…and Lessons Learned

Acknowledgements

As those of you who blog are well aware, this isn’t always an easy hobby. I know too well the meaning of "writer’s block" now. And sometimes, when you have written what you think is an eloquent soliloquy, which you hope will spawn some spirited discussion only to have zero comments, you can feel a bit discouraged. But then you write something that really starts an exciting dialog across several blogs (maybe including WoW Insider, too!), and it’s all worthwhile.

Right now, I want to pay homage to a few people who’ve helped me in one way or another, be it through technical help, inspiration, discussion, insight–you name it, they’ve given it:

Mania and Galadria, for your early and continued encouragement.  

Phaelia, for encouragement and more than a little technical assistance.  

The Egotistical Priest, Matticus, and Kirk, for your awesome blogs, your encouragement, and frequent comments here.

BBBB, Balia, Sellia and Pike, thanks for your support through comments and links. (Pike, I finally added you to the blogroll–something I thought I’d done months ago! Forgive me?)  

Ratshag, thanks for your support and encouragement, and your never-failing humor! Speaking of humor, I can always count on TJ for a smile, a chuckle, or a laugh.

There are many, many more I could name: every one of you who’ve left a comment, or linked to me in an article, or put me on your blogroll, and the hundreds of you who simply lurk and read. Thank you all!

Happy 2008 to you all!