I CAN HAS BLOGPACKZ?

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Another post concerning things outside of the EVE Client (I swear I have an article about spaceships that I'm writing, it's just not done yet!).  Today we're going to take a look at some of the history of the EVE Blogosphere because I'm So Meta, Even This Article.


While EVE blogs had existed for a long time (I can find EVE players blogging as early as 2005, but I'm sure there were others earlier, even if they didn't last) something extraordinary began to take place in the Spring of 2008.  A blogger by the name of Crazy Kinux had decided to compile a list of all the EVE Blogs in existence in order to list them for others as the EVE Online Blogroll in April of '08.  Two months later, he would launch the EVE Blog Pack, a list of premiere EVE Bloggers, but calling it a list doesn't quite do it justice.

By his own admission, the idea of a Blog Pack wasn't created by CK, his application of the concept to EVE Online had never been done before.  He had taken a group, originally of 17 bloggers, and was beginning to form a community out of them.  Blogs that would interact with each other, participating in blog banters, commenting on each other's blogs, and fostering an environment of growth and mutual benefit in stark contrast to the cold cruel world of New Eden.

In February of 2009 we had leap forward for bloggers in EVE when Black Claw, a member of CK's Blog Pack himself at the time, launched the The EVE Online Bloggers Portal.  EVE Bloggers infused the entire EVE blogging experience with a dose of technology, coming complete with an EVE Bloggers domain and a list that updated in real time as new posts were made with a short tooltip preview of the blog's content.  It allowed anyone to simply sign up, and immediately get exposure for their blog to anyone passing by.  It's how my own blog got its start; by signing up my blog went from 6 views in a month to nearly 500 on the first day.

Unfortunately things have not always been smooth sailing as in August of last year Crazy Kinux's new job in the games industry created a conflict of interest for him to continue to manage a community in another product.  However, it didn't take long before two people stepped forward to ensure that neither the Blog Pack or its Blog Banters would come to an end.  A great sigh of relief was breathed by the entire blogging community, as two prominent bloggers, Rixx Javix and Seismic Stan, carried on CK's tradition.  Back on the EVE Bloggers front, Black Claw announced in January of this year that he'd be quitting EVE and shutting down the Portal, only for Marc Scaurus to step in and rescue both the evebloggers.com domain and the valuable service it provides.

That brings us to this week, in which Rixx Javix announced that, owing to new job responsibilities, he would no longer be able to maintain the EVE Blog Pack in the manner he felt it deserved, and handed the reigns over to Marc Scaurus.  So now Marc has found himself as the proud owner of both of these great institutions in the EVE blogging community.  In a case of One Site to Rule Them All, Marc has moved the EVE Blog Pack not to his own blog, but to the evebloggers.com domain name on the subdomain brilliantly titled blogpack.evebloggers.com and conducted a bit of retooling of the blogs featured.

Which brings us to today, in which Marc loses his mind and decides to include me as a member of the EVE Blog Pack.  Marc's poor judgement aside, it's an honor and a privilege to be included in a group of some of the best of the best of EVE bloggers.  Coming Soon™ here at EVE FNG will be the inclusion of the Blog Pack's blogroll and some fancy art to spruce up the place.  Also included in the updated list are the blogs of Poetic Stanziel and Corelin, which I encourage you all to stop by to congratulate.  Go on, run along now, go congratulate them.

Regarrrds,

FNG