A significant amount of my years in the workforce have involved occupations, dealing with the collecting, analysis and dissemination of information. My current position in Construction Reporting fits that description as well, though, unfortunately I have 0 interest in the construction industry and thus, find my current job boring as all hell! My main reasons for remaining were because of the close proximity of my office to my home and because the company provided Health Insurance Benefits worthy of a Greek God! Dirt cheap, to boot! Not only did corporate move my office last year, but effective this year, they've downgraded our insurance to much more human levels. It's still compares fairly well to what most companies offer, but represents, for me, an income hit amounting to several thousand dollars a year. So, it's time to dust of the resume. I hate job-hunting.
But dealing with information is something I really enjoy and when it involves a cherished subject like gaming, it's a lot of fun. I'm immensely gratified that so many of you have found the OSR News so useful and that so many new gamers are finding their way to my blog.
Currently, the main thrust of the OSR News is to inform everyone of Old School new release items available for purchase and also of downloadable free content. I also report on Old School convention news, video blogs and podcasts (I need to do some more research on these, as I'm sure I'm missing some stuff) and whatever product reviews I can find.
On occasion, I link to a blog post or series, if it's something I feel strongly about sharing. But, overall, I try to keep that sort of thing to a minimum. Mostly because the OSR News is most emphatically not a "best of," kind of thing. It's about what's available, period.
There are over 200 Old School blogs out there, now. Active ones. Linking every post with actual gaming content would be both impossible and undesirable. Sometimes, though, I see something so cool, that I just have to share it. Or, I'll do a Blog Spotlight section, if I have the time. That also fits in with the secondary purpose of the News. Pimping everyone's stuff and blogs. Which is one of the reasons why I don't link directly to files. If you're making and sharing all this awesome gaming gear with everyone, then the least we can do is actually visit your blog and check out your whole post. :)
I have no idea exactly how close I am to completely covering what I've set out to report. As this thing gets bigger and bigger, it's getting harder and harder to do so. Taking into account research, writing and formatting, the weekly News post takes about 7 - 8 hours a week to compose. This means I often have no time left to take part in the various discussions, taking place on blogs and in forums. Or, sometimes leave very short comments. I do keep up with everyone and appreciate your hard work and dedication!
While I don't see a problem for the near future, I may eventually have to scale back the scope of the News. The bigger the OSR becomes, the harder it will be to keep up with everything. That's a Good Thing!
If anyone has suggestions, about things you would like to see covered, feel free to share. If you have any items of interest, new products you're releasing, etc., you can certainly shoot me an email. And if you have an active blog, which regularly features Old School content, let me know and I'll add you to the 666 Layers. :)
James, my fiancee went thru much the same as you recently. I wish you the best of luck in finding the right job for you.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tenkar! I hope everything's going well for your fiancee.
ReplyDeleteShe landed well, in a position she is excited with. The cop will be marrying a social worker - well never be rich, but my health bennies are priceless. ;)
ReplyDeleteCool! And congratulations on tying the knot!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the hunt, man. Things are rough out there but I hope you find what you are looking for/need.
ReplyDeleteYou do such a good job aggregating that I am not sureI would ask you to go in a direction. I think you have a pretty good sense of what is interesting/quality so I would stick with/listen to that rather than trying to be comprehensive.
As always, greatly appreciate your work. Just picked up Stars Without Number in hard cover after checking it out from the supplement you linked to this week.
Thanks Doug n' Dragons - Hope you have fun with SWN!
ReplyDeleteI too have been on a job hunting expedition for quite a while now. I call it an expedition because it is almost a job in itself looking for a job. Anyway, thanks for hard work you put in for this community, James. It does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. I wish you all the best in finding a new salt mine to work in! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Shane and Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteHi James, this job you've made for yourself is way too big, or at least will be, for one person to do. You do an excellent job, but if you think it is becoming too large (and if you spend up to 8 hours a week on it then it is definitely way above the call of duty) I wonder if you have thought of delegating some more of that. Enlist people to help, maybe instead of a weekly blog post you could have a biweekly zine of news contributions? I dunno, just an idea.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the job hunt, James, and thanks for delivering all this great info to us every week.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is regular stop off for me. You're doing a great job, and the amount of resources you've collected is awesome. I know that pretty much any time that I'm looking for something old school related I can just visit the old underdark gazette and there it is.
ReplyDeleteGood luck job hunting, I'm doing the same thing right now, and man it's a drag.
I really look forward to your weekly updates (and of course any posts in between). Dan might be on to something - maybe it's not a bad idea to have someone help you out from time to time or maybe just to have a link for "Have an idea for the OSR news or a submission" too, so you don't have to be so pro-active about keeping track of everything yourself. It's probably hoping for way too much, but I'd love to see snail mail newsletter (email would be good too), speaking as an aging 'zine scene follower from back in the day. Incidentally, is the gray text background getting darker or am I getting yet more blind? Cheers and best..
ReplyDeleteGood luck, at least you've got a steady thing while you search for a ship to jump to. This blog has become one of my daily routines, so keep up the good work as long as it is within your power to do so.
ReplyDeleteI'd hate to lose the weekly updates, but you gotta do what you gotta do - life trumps hobby.
ReplyDeleteYes, life intervenes, repeatedly. I always look forward to your posts as being something that will clear some of the noise out my mind after reading through blogs all week long.
ReplyDeleteI think what Dan and ze Bullette are suggesting with having multiple contributors or correspondents helping out might be a good idea, but I'm not sure. I initially thought "you need 3 grad students to be doing the grunt work" (grad students in what, I don't know). Then I wondered, would you be comfortable becoming essentially an Editor of the Underdark Gazette? That is, having to alter other peoples' writing or content to fit the style here?
Good luck in the job hunt, James. If you should need to take a break, you need to take a break, no big deal. But all of us appreciate your efforts in pointing out things in the blogosphere we might have overlooked. I know my blog has definitely benefited from your efforts.
ReplyDeleteJames - how about this approach - instead of having to hunt down interesting things, maybe set up a collection system each week to get ideas for the next week's OSR news?
ReplyDeleteInstead of combing the blogosphere each week and making your own notes, you'd just review the list of suggestions and confirm the newsworthy?
I realize it would be a big philosophical change, but it might let you keep putting out the news without the huge time sink.
For instance, a weekly post where folks should drop a note about their freebies, reviews, new products, etc, in the comments. Then you just have to repackage it as a news post.
Then you'd have more time to comment.
Good luck with the job hunt.
Just to add my voice to the choir, thanks James, your work is much appreciated by many. I hope everything works out well on the job front. I agree with the folks above like Dan and Beedo.
ReplyDeleteI know you've heard it a thousand times, but I love the blog, and I hope you can find time between job hunting and family life to keep this as active as you had in the past.
ReplyDeleteYou could always change the model to a submission approach. In other words, "If you want something to be featured, let me know about it and I'll check it out and put it up here."
Everything's cool for the moment, but January saw a big bump in the OSR and it looks like that trend is continuing, so the Chaos is likely to spin out of control, soon! :)
ReplyDeleteWell I have to say that I am a big fan of your blog and appreciate all of the effort you put into it. It is the only one that I eagerly check every week to see what new cool OSR stuff there is out there (free or otherwise). But I understand that life sometimes has to intervene and you aren't really getting paid to do this so you've got to do what you've got to do.
ReplyDeleteI also want to thank you for adding my blog to the 666 layers of the OSR Blogisphere. That's something that I hadn't even considered doing as I've been kind of selective in the blogs I put on my page. I appreciate that you are directing traffic to my blog as I'm sure others are as well. The fact that there is one page you can go to to see the full list is really cool but you are right, this thing is probably growing far faster than you can keep up with it...
I love what you do, James.
ReplyDeleteHowever, dont feel obligated to do anything for anyone out here in the internet wilderness. Do what you want. You are the most important person in this equation. I pledge to support whatever you decide moving forward.
Best wishes on your job search, and thanks for all your work on this blog!
ReplyDelete