An Open Letter to the Blog Banter Community

Dear Banteratti

as you may have noticed, I’ve been a bit slack with my Blog Banter administration duties of late.

For that, I owe the community a heartfelt apology. I dropped the ball (it was either that or the baby).

Why Blog Banters are important to the EVE community 

Blog Banters are a community tradition dating back years and I feel they play an important part in creating a common ground on which all EVE bloggers can touch base. Originally they provided a way of forming the “blogosphere”, but they still play a role in maintaining its structural integrity. Blog Banters may not be a necessity, but they add colour and unity to the EVE blogging landscape.

The Blog Banter is an inclusive grassroots community initiative which has seen over 150 participants and enables budding writers and established institutions alike to connect, share ideas and butt heads. It underpins a significant segment of the EVE community and provides interesting snapshots of moments in EVE’s history.

Blog Banters deserve better than to be left gather dust for weeks. I have always been very proud of having the opportunity to run the Blog Banters and would like to see them continue.

However, I’m no longer confident I can do them justice.

Why I’m No Longer the Man for the Job

Over the last few years, I was able to devote plenty of my time to EVE community projects and duties as I was able to balance my professional career with my hobby of writing (mostly about EVE).

However, in a strange twist of fates, as injury scotched my healthcare career, my hobby evolved into an income opportunity, which has been a bit of a life-saver now I’m no longer on the NHS payroll.

However, things are much tighter now. The arrival of my baby daughter and the end of my paramedic career have polarised my need to prioritise on things that pay the bills. Now I’m self-employed, I never clock off and I can no longer afford to devote 10-20 hours per week to voluntary EVE community duties when that time is better spent elsewhere.

With writing now being my only source of income, hours spent writing for free (or for ISK) feels like a frivolous indulgence when I need to be building a new future. This may also explain the lack of content on Freebooted, although I intend to maintain that in some regard.

In truth, I would love to have continued running the Banters and posting more. Essentially, they became how I played EVE. Letting the Banters go is genuinely quite a heart-rending proposition and feels like an end I wouldn’t choose.

But time and tide and all that, the community marches on regardless. I will certainly be continuing as an EVE writer, observer and occasional player/ship-spinner too.

I hope we can find a new Blog Banter custodian who can keep the tradition alive. I’ll be consulting the Banter mailing list members, but please contact me via email (seismic[dot]stan[at]gmail[dot]com) or Twitter or any of the other comms channels we have available if you have any thoughts. Hell, write a blog post and link it in the comments below if you like – that would be fitting after all.

Whatever way the wind blows, it’s been an absolute privilege.

Mat/Stan