I am curious about everyone thoughts here, but I am getting the impression these days that people don’t go to their fave web sites anymore, rather they see links to stories or sites they know and follow those links or they just google a topic.
Do people write articles online anymore or is it all video and Youtube and linked from twitter??
What is interesting – speaking as someone who is on a team that produces a lot of original content, it is amazing to see the amount of reposting and linking that goes on when you do write an original story (vs reprint a press release). In one sense, everyone is microblogging to the few remain people who are actually blogging.
To be honest it was Scott Bourne who first called our site a blog to me – until that point I had never really considered fxguide as a blog – heck we started in 1999 – many years before the term blog was first heard.
Recently, I was also called a journalist – again this caught me off guard as we see ourselves as cg artists working in the community. I guess regardless of what fxguide is called, we really just love the community around the site. So it has been great this last week to watch the huge wave of support from the Latino or Spanish speaking community to our latest effort to expand to service the Spanish market. I have to say it has been a pretty big learning curve. For starters – who knew there are so many versions of Spanish spoken worldwide?
Initial reports from just the first episode indicate the Latino community like the work Maria and the team are doing with this new venture (and we’d love you to spread the word if you know people in your area that are Spanish speaking vfx artists).
Anyway as much as we hope to expand our video content to markets such as the Spanish community – we still believe very strongly in the written word, and the community around fxguide’s special blend of stories, news and tips.
I can only speak for myself when I say that I still will check my favorite websites. I tend to open each of my top websites in their own tab each morning and leave them there during the day. Nothing can replace the written (+140 character) world though linking to is the new rewriting.
well for my part google reader help me to check just what I want to. Sooo many website/blog to follow, you cannot visit all of them, and there is good information everywhere that popups sometimes even on a small blog. So RSS reader help me to get a quick overview of what as been posted and what would interest you. Then if I find a nice topic I usually click on it and go read it on the real website.
In another hand twitter is more to me like getting the lastest news before everyone else and re-blogging(retwitting)
I still read quite a bit online, and actively seek out those websites that still produce their own quality content. As far as I’m concerned, all of the linking and re-posting are just a lot of feeder streams all leading back to the source. In fact, that’s why I’ve been following FXGuide for years and signed up for FXPhD- because I linked through some article re-posts back to FXGuide, enjoyed the site, and eventually signed up for the classes. In general, I seek out written material and new sites constantly, but I’m much less likely to try watching a video or listening to a podcast unless I know the site is professional.
I use Google Reader, then I can link blogs that I find valuable. I usually only discover a new blog through a link of one I’m already reading. I never search out blogs anymore. I delete the ones that provide consistent valuable content and add new sites as my trusted blogs recommend them.
Speaking for myself, I tend to start out searching about 4 of my favorite sites. I’ll glance at each to see if there’s anything new that really jumps out, then start poking around for articles I may have missed or may have passed up for something else that I really wanted to see. I love articles, and I love high-qual video (and podcasts Mike!) but they offer me a different pleasure. Reading an article, it can be much more verbose yet more controlled and on-topic. When I watch video I am more looking to analyze how they did something (Dark Knight, Philips Frozen Moment Spot), hearing about it and seeing reference or “play by play” onscreen, or to simply drop to my knees and pray to the VFX gods “we’re not worthy”. The audio ‘casts are great hearing personal stories and hearing what went into creating something (the District 9 ‘cast was awesome). The audio/video ‘casts are great in their own right, BECAUSE they can lead down tangents delve into topics we might never hear about otherwise. I think both have their place and always eager to see more from you guys.
I read tons on-line. Much of it is 206 blogs to which I’m subscribed. In fact I just subscribed to this blog. (I didn’t know I could ’cause you don’t have any RSS badge or friendly links. I tried anyway and it worked.)
I also read forums like RedUser.com … although less frequently and then usually when I’m looking for specific answers.
I use Google when I’m looking for something new that I don’t already know where to go. I seldom use any of the link aggregates except the ones that are part of a blog such as TechDirt.
I also listen to podcasts such as RedCenter and CreativeScrinwritingMagazine now that I have an hour commute per day. This has entirely replace the car radio for me.