There are few things more frustrating than spending time and energy on a blog post about a very interesting topic only to discover, after having nearly completed it, that I'd already written on this exact topic thirteen years ago, but had forgotten I'd done so.
With just shy of 4000 posts in the archive of Grognardia, I suppose this was inevitable. Unfortunately, it seems to be happening more and more lately. Either I'm getting more forgetful or I'm running out of things to say. I'm honestly not sure which is a more frightful prospect.
On the other hand, this is a great opportunity to revisit the articles you wrote and see if your attitudes and opinions have changed since then.
ReplyDeleteTrue! In fact, I have a couple of those already in the works.
DeleteWell, it happens to me with less than 130 posts, so...
ReplyDeleteMoreover, it's an interesting thing to see: how much did your take on the subject changed, in all these years?
There are probably plenty of new(ish) readers like me who weren't with you 13 years ago. We won't mind some recycled material.
ReplyDeleteHeck, I barely remember stuff I read last month, so every post is like new to me!
I find myself doing this lately, thinking I have some new great idea only to find I wrote about it a couple years ago...
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the "Getting Older Club." We spend our time wondering why we walked into a room, searching for glasses that are resting on top of our heads, and looking for keys that we eventually discover are in our pockets.
ReplyDeleteUse your Search bar before starting a post. I use it to see if there was anything written on games I like.
I think you've complained about this before, haven't you James?
ReplyDeleteAlmost certainly.
DeleteHowever are your thoughts the same as when you wrote the original post?
ReplyDeleteEven if they are not that different a "redux" post highlighting the topic again and your perspective 13 years later, still would be interesting.
In the particular case of what I was writing about today, my thoughts hadn't changed at all. However, you're correct that, in many cases, I have in fact changed my mind and so it might well be worth revisiting those topics with the benefit of more than a decade's thought and experience.
DeleteFor what it's worth: I started reading your blog recent-ish, and am currently going through all of your past posts in a semi-random reverse chronological order, and suspect it will be a long time before I notice any posts on the exact same subject with the same contents. (at the moment, specifically going through all the 'retrospective' posts while ignoring the rest for the time being, and currently have managed to arrive at 2012). In other words, please don't stop writing because of this, as I really enjoy all of it, and plenty of other people seem to do so as well.
ReplyDeleteThere's no immediate danger of my stopping writing. I was simply annoyed that I'd spent a lot of time writing a post on a topic I'd forgotten I'd done before.
DeleteLike the saying, "We are going to be friends until we're old and senile. Then we'll be NEW friends!"
ReplyDeleteIf Hollywood can reboot batman every three years what are you worried about.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm over 2,000 posts and I'm no longer shocked by the number of times I've repeated myself.
ReplyDeleteRemember when Happy Days and Happy Days Again were both current shows? It can be like that.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain! But, you really need to tell us what you were going to talk about, and which previous post covered it. Darren Naish, an awesome zoologist blogger, revisits his old posts (spanning 4 different blogging sites) consciously and often. https://tetzoo.com/
ReplyDeleteGood point. I agree, now that it is out there, I have become very curious what the topic and previous post on it were.
DeleteBut what was it? ;)
ReplyDeleteI was writing about Gygax's list of inspirational reading from the back of Mythus Magick and comparing it to Appendix N.
Delete