I haven't been around the C-Blogs for the longest time or anything, but I have received a pretty warm welcome. I'm quite thankful for that and I look fondly on the community blogs as an outlet for writing; which is quickly becoming a new hobby. One of my strongest motivations for playing games these days is actually to write about them. Still, just because I'm new to the blogs does not mean I'm new to the community. I've been wasting my life way on the forums for years. I--sirs and madams--am a forum veteran with an E-Penis almost 2000 posts long. My Electronic Wang spans several Information Super Highways.

By this point point I know my way around both the forums and the blogs, and I seem to be a minority. Most people seem to stick to just the blogs because of its greater popularity. As a result I often see people post content on the blogs that logistically just shouldn't be there. The forums deserve a lot more attention than they get, and if you ask me the way people treat the blogs sometimes is hurting the community. As quoted from Destructoid's own rules:

"Forums are meant to foster active conversations. Forum readers do not expect you to organize or present an opinion, facts, or even cohesive paragraphs per se. This is a place to talk. Have a brief question? Want to make a quick comment on a topic to get a group discussion going? Forums are the best place to do this."

I can think of one popular type of C-Blog that should immediately get thrown out the window after reading this: The game announcement blogs. Don't lie; you've all seen them. Just to avoid any misunderstandings, I'm not on a crusade. Merely trying to make things better for everyone. Let's sum up some general examples of blog posts I have in mind. Things I don't really think belong around here. See if this sounds familiar to you as you browse the blogs: "Tatsunoku vs Capcom is coming to the States! Awesome!" "New characters for Street Fighter IV!" "Here's some new screenshots of Valkyria Chronicles 2!" "I just bought a Playstation 3!" "Hey guys, I need some game recommendations!"

You know what all of these boil down to? They're the sort of thing you initiate a conversation with, and conversations are a wonderful thing to take to the forums. If you're privy to any information on a game, I'd really suggest taking it to the proper avenue. Trust me when I say it's better that way. The blogs aren't where that sort of content belongs. I've covered this before, but remember that if someone spent a week on their masterpiece of an article and you spent 10 minutes making an announcement blog, there's a good chance you're pushing a very worth piece of reading slowly off the front page.

Am I saying your blogs have to be epic masterpieces to be worth posting? Fuck no. Am I saying I'm going to stop you from making these sort of blogs? I don't exactly have that sort of power. All I can say is that If you have EVER put immense amounts of work into an article or any creative work, you should know how unfair that sort of scenario feels. For the news blogs in particular, you've got to keep in mind that Destructoid itself is a game news site. More than likely the exact same information is going to be on the front page. If you're doing more than just recycling information, of course that's cool in my book. BulletMagnet in particular does very nice news pieces. However when a person writes their article it only has one chance to shine. Let's be considerate and not block the sunlight for some people when you could go stand somewhere else.

Destructoid's a great place, especially because there's different avenues to do different things. What the forums are great for is getting to know your community members better, being able to have a really good conversation, and being able to continue that conversation for as long as it lasts. All these game news posts that we see don't do anything productive on the blogs compared to what they would in the forums. Conversations in the forums can last for days and weeks at a time, and your news would help add fuel to that fire. Your contributions there would last much longer, and have a much greater impact. What's more you don't have to constantly monitor a forum thread. If you go to bed it's not going anywhere. If people keep on talking it'll stick around, and if you decide there's something new to add you can shoot it right back up to the very top of the front page.

The forums are just great in general. Even if I weren't writing this piece on improving the blogs I'd still be telling you to go make a forum account before I kick your ass. There's tons of things to do in the forums. You can arrange meetups, you can dick around in the off-topic boards, you can trade your shit with other people, and again you can have awesome conversations and really get to know eachother. We even have gigantic threads dedicated to talking about ANYTHING in regards to games. What's more someone will probably be interested in talking to you about it. The thread is called "The Arcade." If you see it: check it out.

Be a buddy to your Destructoid and help the community grow. Make a forum account. Enjoy the greatness and help make the place more active. You don't need to write articles to be a part of Destructoid's brotherhood. I've been enjoying it for years without even touching the blogs. I implore to you all that as you write a new article, ask to yourself "Is this an article or a conversation starter?" If you go make a forum account and hit the Meet and Greet section to introduce yourself, I don't think you'll regret it either way.


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