How's your Dutch? Shade is your newest Community Manager!

Have you ever thought to yourself: "Wow, I wish I could get my blog frontpaged, but it wasn't about fighting games so I bet Strider-senpai won't notice me..."?

Well worry no longer, because from now on I'm also going to be a Community Manager for this here website!

The main new powers that have been bestowed upon me are that I can now delete spamblogs (woo!), promote your Cblogs to the frontpage, and eventually I may be able to do the Bloggers Wanted prompts and such. Two of these powers I've already used. I thought it rather fitting that my very first act as site admin was to delete spam, but right after that I went to work on promoting Jinx 01's excellent blog on catgirls in bikinis.

So, who am I and how do you get Shade-senpai to notice you?

I'm a long-time reader of this site: I came here in 2010 after the sites I previously frequented all decided that it was time to start sucking. After setting up shop here and generally acting like I owned the place, I started writing blogs. For the most part, I stuck to the Bloggers Wanted topics, then still called Monthly Musings. True story: the folder which I use to store my blog pictures is still titled 'Musings'. After doing that for a while I started to branch out with other kinds of blogs, and after a few years of that I got scooped up by the Cblog Recaps team. I've been doing the Thursday caps for over 3 years now, and I'm showing no signs of stopping! But now I'm moving further up the chain of command, ever closer to the glorious presence of the based Niero, who art in video game heaven.

Things I love include Nintendo, Zelda in particular, Eevee, indie games, JRPGs (Monolith Soooooft!), Phoenix Wright, Anna Kendrick, satay, Lord of the Rings, Eevee, Eevee, H.P. Lovecraft, Beast Wars, mythology, Studio Ghibli, midriffs, grim-dark anime, Groningen, Monty Python, penguins, martial arts movies, Eevee, and my cat.

Things I hate I'm not going to tell you, because nobody cares. 

- Instead, here is an IRL anime gif.

That's all well and good, but what you want to know is how to get my attention.

The most important points to me when I read a blog are topic, tone, and a synonym for formatting that starts with a T (you know, for consistency's sake). 

Topic: if you're writing about something I've already heard a thousand times, I'm probably not going to read it super carefully. We all know that the Virtual Boy sucked, let's give it a rest already. What I'm much more interested in is a different perspective; any kind of different perspective you can give me. Maybe you have very fond memories of playing the Virtual Boy with your little brother; that's something new and exciting! I also like to think of myself as something of a pseudo-intellectual, so I like to read about the deeper meanings of games. I think Spec Ops: The Line is one of the most interesting things ever done in video games. If you can tell me that Dark Souls 3 is really a commentary on nuclear war and mankind's animalistic craving for strawberry ice cream in the aftermath of the apocalypse, I'm down there with you. But most of all: I like reading about things you enjoy. Constructive criticism is always fine, but I still want to hear about what you think games did well, rather than what you hated about them. Negativity can be such a drain.

Tone: don't lecture me, don't yell at me, and don't talk to me like you think I'm an idiot. This may all sound obvious, but tone may be the most important aspect of your writing. Simply put: if I don't like your tone, I'm closing the tab. Write in your own voice, but give me the feeling that you're passionate about what you're writing. If you're writing that ice cream blog, you'd better fucking make me believe that you see ice cream subtext all over Dark Souls.

- He burns with the fiery passion of a man who has not tasted strawberry in three lifetimes.

Tormatting: if I'm going to frontpage your blog, that means I'm going to have to make it fit into the frontpage format. That means that I need a header, an eyecatching yet representative title, I need a few introductory paragraphs before a break, and I need a body that can keep people interested. I need a good structure, clear paragraphs, some pictures to spice things up, and I need to go over your writing with a fine tooth comb for spelling, grammar and style. That's right, you're going to have a non-native speaker critique your English. All of these things are things I can already do on my own, but you make it a hell of a lot easier on me if you take this into account while writing your blog. Ideally, you want me to open our blog and think "Wow, I could get this on the frontpage in a jiffy!"

Keep those things in mind, and I'm sure I'll see some fine-ass blogs from you. And who knows, I may just wield my supreme authority to get your blog among the Hall of the Great Ones on the frontpage!

You can always contact me if you have recommendations for blogs, if you want to push your own work (but please be considerate), if you spot some spam I overlooked, if you have other problems that I could help you with, or if you would like to rub my thigh for a bit. You can either PM me on here, or you can send an e-mail to [email protected], and I'll get back to you. Being in Europe I have a slightly different timeframe than most of the other staffmembers, so keep that in mind.

So that's it for me. I'm off to delete spam, promote blogs, and then probably delete more spam.

- This is real. I deleted this today.

Dus kom maar op, sukkels: hoe goed is jullie Nederlands?

- Us heroes, we have so much to do

LOOK WHO CAME:

ShadeOfLight   

Larx   51

OverlordZetta   38

James Internet Ego   27

Dreamweaver   26

CelicaCrazed   20

Luckrequired   20

Ray Porreca   14

Agent9   14

GodEmperor Paige   12

Wes Tacos   12

Floppablecat   11

Anthony Marzano   11

Alphadeus   10

Shinta   10

Occams   10

Robo Panda Z   9

Malthor   9

Zer0t0nin   9

Elsa   8

Scrustle   8

Churros89   7

Morty   6

Axarrey   6

Bardley   5

Marcel Hoang   5

JPF720   4

GoofierBrute   4

Cynric Cyning   3

TheLimoMaker   3

Gamemaniac3434   3

Dinosir   3

serethyn   2

Whispering Willow   2

Luca Blight   2

TheBlondeBass   2

arkane9   2

Avoclefo   1

Double Monocles   1

NakedBigBoss   1

Dr Mel   1

Dango    1

Fuzunga   1

Funkotrons Finest   1