Sunday, April 4, 2010

Discarded ideas for the blog

While I do listen to what readers tell me in the open Sunday thread, or by e-mail, I do not do everything they suggest. Here are some ideas that were suggested to me, which I discarded, plus my reasons for doing so.

Wyrm suggested I install a chat room on this blog. I looked at it, and it seems technically feasible to do so. But then I looked at the numbers, and found the idea not very realistic: My blog on average gets only 1 comment per hour. That is enough to keep a conversation going in the comments section, but not in a chat room. Furthermore I believe that the idea some sites have that they need to offer everything is not necessarily a good one. Better to concentrate on just one thing and do it well than to spread out too much.

Syrien asked me to cover iPhone or iPad or Android games. It isn't as if I had any principal objections against mobile gaming, although in my personal situation I don't really see when and where I would do that. But the main obstacle here is that I simply don't own an iPhone, iPad, or Android phone. I have a rather simple mobile phone without games, and with a prepaid plan without monthly cost, as I'm not using it all that often. An iPhone 3GS with 32 GB costs 679 €, and the cheapest monthly plan costs 30 €, here in Belgium, so for the first year I would basically pay over 1,000 €. I consider that a bit too expensive, given that I don't really need one.

Which brings me to the last idea, where a reader suggested I put up a PayPal donation button, and I was thinking I could neatly combine that with the previous idea and make it a "Buy Tobold an iPhone" button. ;) But with only 1% of visitors even leaving a comment, we can assume that the percentage of people willing to leave money would be even less, and the donations would be small. I'm pretty certain it would take years, if ever, to get the money for an iPhone together. Also accepting money would mean I would have a certain obligation towards the people who pay me, and I value my independance more than that.

Anyway, even if I don't accept all the ideas, you are welcome to make suggestions by e-mail or in the open Sunday thread.

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