Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #97 - Blogatog

Episode Date: February 14, 2014

Mark talks all about his Tumblr blog.

I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay. Today, I'm going to talk about blog-a-tog. So for those who have no idea what I'm talking about, I have a blog that I do every day called Blog-a-Togs on Tumblr. And today, I'm going to talk about the origins and the evolution of my blog. So, I talked about this a little bit in my Tales of the Pit podcast, but I will repeat the part that's relevant for my blog. So what happened was, I kind of accidentally backed into doing a daily comic, and I posted them maybe for like a week, and Evan Irwin of the

Magic Show fame says to me on Twitter, oh, you should post these somewhere to keep a collection of them. And he said, oh, you know, Tumblr's really good for that. You should post them on Tumblr. And I had never heard of Tumblr, or I had heard of it, but I wasn't super aware of it. And so he goes, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you've got to post heard of Tumblr. Or I had heard of it, but I wasn't super aware of it. And so, he goes, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you've got to post it on Tumblr. Get a Tumblr account. It's free. So I get a Tumblr account. It's very easy to set up.

And so I set one up. And originally, I just called it Tales from the Pit, because all I was planning to do was post comics. So, what happens is, I post it, and then there's this little innocuous little box on it that says would you like to answer questions from other people? And I said, sure!

Why not? Now, I'll be honest, I had no idea when I said sure what I was, the floodgates I was opening. I just, I don't know. Like, I thought, oh, what I was, what, the floodgates I was opening, um, I just, I don't know, it, like, I thought, oh, maybe once in a while I get a question, I naively said yes, so, um, so what happens is, I say, okay, you can ask me questions, so questions start rolling in, um, I mean, what had happened was, I had done, you know, I had done enough comics that

a few people knew I was on Tumblr, and so, I, I started getting some had happened was I had done, you know, I had done enough comics that a few people knew I was on Tumblr. And so I started getting some questions. So I started answering questions. And then, apparently, when you answer questions, you know, when you're in the know and people ask you questions and you answer them, more people ask you questions. And it, like, early on, I would get, you know, five, ten questions a day. Then I started getting, like, 20 questions a day. Then I started getting 30, then 40, then 50, then 100. And now I get hundreds. I mean, it depends on the day, but I usually get hundreds of questions a day.

One of the things that I always say in my email is that I read every email. But I've given up on reading every question just because I can't keep up. I read as much as I can. And the way I do my blog is I always start from the top. So whenever I go to my blog, I go to the most recent and start working backwards. And the reason for that is, for a while, what I did was, I would read up to a certain point, and then when I came back, I would continue reading from where I was. And first, I was half a day behind, then a day behind, I was getting like a week behind. I decided that I wanted my questions to be topical when they can be, and so I now start from the top.

topical when they can be, and so I now start from the top. Okay, so let me answer some questions that people have about my blog. So what happened was, I pretty much do four things on my blog. Is that correct? Well, I mean, every week, every day, I post my Tales from the Pit, which is my comic. Every week, I post a link to my Making Magic article. Every week, I post a link to my two podcasts, Drive to Work podcast. And then I answer questions.

So the questions are unique to Blogatog. So if you want to see me answer questions, the questions I answer on Blogatog don't go anywhere else. Every once in a while, someone will link to them. And if I learn how to link to them, maybe I link to them more often. But the other stuff, obviously, I have a bunch of different social media. I'm on Twitter. I'm on Tumblr. I'm on Google+. Soon, actually, by the time you hear this, I should also be on Instagram.

I'm planning to start on Instagram. and I'm working ahead on the podcast. So hopefully by the time you hear this, I'm also on Instagram, trying to stay with today's youth. Okay, so the way the questions, so my policy is that, I mean, there's some things I cannot say. I'm not at freedom just to answer anything I want when it involves information that's not public. But I play fast and loose. I will say this. If you go back in my blog and look,

you know, go back a year or something, go back far enough that I'm talking about things that, you know, are, you will discover if you go back and look that I'm talking about things that, you know, are, you will discover if you go back and look that I make, I give a lot of hints. Now, it's buried against a lot of other stuff, so my hints aren't, you know, I don't draw attention to them, but I do, if you go back and you look at me talking in the past, you will be surprised by how many things that later come up I make reference of. Now, to make sure

that I don't give that away, I also talk of a lot of things that aren't coming up. So knowing what is future bearing and what is not is not easy. But there are a lot of clues. While I'm not at liberty to just tell you things, well, I guess there's a couple things. I'm not at liberty to tell you information I'm not allowed to tell you, but I tease a lot of stuff. Although, I guess there's a couple of things. I'm not at liberty to tell you the information I'm not allowed to tell you, but I tease a lot of stuff. Although, like I said, a lot of the stuff I'm teasing, you might not know that I'm teasing it, but I am. And there's a lot of just behind the scenes, like the questions I try to answer is where someone says to me, oh, well, why did you do such and such? Now, be aware, one of the things that I've decided, having done blogatog for a while,

is I've decided to prioritize getting as many questions answered rather than going in-depth on questions. And the reason for that is I have a column where I go in-depth on topics, right? I write about a topic for, you know, 3,000 words. And if someone writes to me and I think it's a worthy topic, I might use it later on for a column. But I've decided that I would rather get to as many people as possible on my blog. And so I tend to answer pretty quick, fast questions.

So if you want me to answer your question, I have a couple tips for you. Number one is keep it short. For example, one question. If you ask me a bunch of questions, I feel like, oh, I'm supposed to answer all these questions and I want to answer all the questions because I'm trying to be fast. And so if you want me to answer, for starters, one question. Number two, the more general interest the question, the better. And the more different the question. One of the things that happens is, I really should get an FAQ.

Once again, I've got to learn how to do an FAQ. I get asked a lot of the same questions. And because I know I have a lot of readers in this turn, I answer the questions that I've answered before. So if you want to know my address to mail me cards to sign, I tell you probably every other week what that address is. But be aware of what I've tried to do now. If I answer questions that I answer a lot, cards to sign. I tell you probably every other week what that address is. But be aware of what I've tried to do now.

If I answer questions, I answer a lot. I try to add other information to them. Another thing I've started doing is birthday greetings, where if it's your birthday I'll do shoutouts for birthdays. The new thing now is for you to ask for a piece of trivia. So not only am I saying happy birthday, but I'm giving a piece of trivia so for the people

that could care less that it's your birthday, they can get some trivia. So not only am I saying happy birthday, but I'm giving a piece of trivia so for the people that could care less that it's your birthday, they can get some trivia. And so, in general, I answer, so if you want me to answer a question, that's okay. So keep it short. Try to keep it different. The more unique the question, the greater the chance I will answer it.

Also, one of the things I've tried to do on my blog is I've tried to make it a little more fun. It's definitely not so serious. I make a lot of jokes. I mean, I answer some serious questions, but there's a lot of joke questions, and I mess around, and there's a decent amount of humorous answers that I give.

And what tends to happen is I tend to answer something and then people are interested in my answer. And so every day there tends to be a different topic that just is the topic of the day. I mean, it's not planned. But what will happen is just something I talk about gets people interested.

And so it generates a lot of questions. And so I answer questions about that. And it self-feeds. Once I have a topic where I'm answering questions about a bunch of people, then write in. And what that topic is can vary greatly. You know, it can be like one day it could be about what color pie are pop culture people? And the next day it could be about, you know, why Champions of Kamigawa is the greatest set ever made.

Oh, that's another thing, by the way, if you hop on the blog. One of the things that I try to do is give straight and honest answers. And what I've discovered is some people don't necessarily agree with my straight and honest answers. Although, I use Champions of Kamigawa as a good example because it's a very famous one. Which is, somebody said to me, how did Champions of Kamigawa do? And I'm like, badly. And they're like, well, what do you mean badly? I'm like, well, by every metric we had.

It sold poorly. It turned a ton of it down. It didn't do well on Magic Online. It didn't do well on every metric, every real-world metric we look at. It didn't do well. It just did not do well. And there's some people like,

but I love Chimta Kamigawa. I think part of it is, because of the commander format, it has a lot of attention, because all the rare cards are mythic. I'm sorry, not mythic. All the rare cards are legendary, so all the rare creatures are usable as generals,

so there's a lot of generals used. I think a lot of people weren't around for the original Champions of Kamigawa, and they liked the essence of Kamigawa without having to have played all of it. But anyway, I try to give the straight and honest truth. Did it do well? No. Are we going to do it again? Eh, odds not. Why? Because it didn't do well. And part of what I'm trying to do on the blog is give a straight and honest answer.

I mean, like I said, one of my big beliefs, and this is something that I've obviously spent now 18 years doing, is I really believe in a dynamic in which there's an open communication between our public and ourselves. And I put a face on that, and I actually try really, really hard to interact with the public as much as I can. Like I said, I do a daily comic, I do the blog, I do a podcast, I do a column. I try to interface with the audience

in as many ways as I can. And that the blog is nice because the blog is the most two-way communication. I mean, not that this podcast or my columns or my comics can't interact with people. On some level, I will reference things people talk about. I've answered letter columns, and I'll take topics that people bring up.

So, I mean, it's not that my other forms of social media can't communicate, but I find that my blog and my Twitter, especially, that those two are more directly with the public, and people ask me stuff, and I respond, and things like that. So those two are more directly with the public and people ask me stuff and I respond and things like that. And I'm trying to give straightforward, honest answers. Look, I will be blunt with you that I am a spokesperson for the company. That does mean that I'm going to try to put our game in a positive light.

A, because I very much believe in it. But B, you know, I'm not around to trash our game. A, I love it, but B, that's not my role. But I will be honest. If I think we've done things wrong, I'll bring them up. If I think things weren't successful, I will bring them up, you know. I do my state of the design article every year where I try to be critical of the previous year and try to look honestly at what we did right and wrong.

And so in my blog, I'm trying to give straight and honest answers. What I've determined, having done this for a while, is some people don't, whenever you say something negative, somebody's unhappy because they liked it. And I understand that. And I, hey, if you like Champions of Gamakawa, my goal is not to make you not like Champions of Gamakawa. I will tell you why I think it failed. You know, I'm more than happy to sort of walk through what didn't

didn't work. And something people have to realize in magic in general is we try to make magic for as many different people as we can. But there are certain things that are proven not successful and even though a minority might like them, if the majority dislikes them enough, it's hard for us to do. Now, there are certain things that have proven not successful. And even though a minority might like them, if the majority dislikes them enough, it's hard for us to do.

Now, there are certain things we can do in small numbers. For example, you know, certain kinds of cards. Well, if lots of people hate card X, well, whatever, we can make card X. A lot of people can hate card X. But if a lot of people hate set concept X, that's harder. We need everybody to buy our sets.

If we do a setting that the majority of people don't like, well, that's a problem. We can't have the majority of people not buy our sets. If we do a setting that the majority of people don't like, well, that's a problem. We can't have the majority of people not buying our sets. So anyway, so what happens is, on the website, is I will answer questions. And then there's a nice dynamic that happens where people respond to my responses. And there's some give and take. And like I said, one of the things, I'm big on

transparency. I'm big on, like, how, like, for example, and this is important, I believe I'm good at my job. If you ask me why I'm good at my job, I believe that one of the most important things I do is interact with the public. Why?

Because my job is to understand what the public wants. And like I said, it's not that I do the blog. The blog is an interesting mix in that I enjoy the blog. Like I said, the vast, vast majority of my time on the blog is my personal time. There's a little bit of question answering at work, but most of it is on my time, not work time, not scheduled work time. It's at home or whatever. It's in down times where it's my own time. So the vast majority of me doing the blog is me spending my own time.

And that's okay because I enjoy doing the blog, but I also believe that one of the reasons I'm good at my job is because I have a means and multiple means to get feedback. If people don't like something, I need to know they don't like it. And you know what? I need to know why they don't like it. You know, because my job is to make sure that the future sets I make are something you want, something you're excited by. And then if I make a set that you're like, eh, that's not good for us, you know. And so one of the things that's awesome about my blog is I get to ask

questions directly of my audience and I get feedback. Now, if you read my blog, one of the things I do all the time, I constantly ask questions. And yes, some people ask me, do I read the responses? To the best of my ability with Tumblr's interface, I've discovered that a lot of my readings on my phone, that Tumblr doesn't always post all the answers at times. Usually it does, but it acts up. Another thing that happens sometimes is the Tumblr thing, where I'll answer questions, and then the answers don't get paired with the questions I answered. So for example, and this is the funny thing, so someone will say like, so Mark, was cycling a successful mechanic? And I'll say, it sure was, people loved it. And then Tumblr will mismatch my questions. So the question will be like, do

people like Manus Crew? And like, yes, people love it. And I'm like, well, that's not the answer to the, you know. No, they do not like Manus Crew. Is it good for the game? Yes. Do they like it? No. So, one of the dynamics that I care a lot about is I want to have this interface because I want to learn from the public. I want to know. And,

and, this is from my communication background, people do not connect with ideas. People do not connect, I mean, people have ideas, but they don't have a bond with ideas. You don't bond with an idea. You bond with a person. And so one of the things that I want to do, and I've tried hard to do, is I want to put a face

on magic. Because if magic's just people inside a black box doing some mysterious thing, that's not the same thing as just people you know that you have some faith and trust in working hard to do what they do. We're going to make mistakes, and we're not going to do everything perfect, and we're going to do things you dislike, but I want you knowing that there's actual people doing that, that you can understand and know. One of the reasons, for example, I do a lot of personal columns is I want you to know me as a person, that I'm not just some faceless sort of company man.

I'm a guy who, this is what I do. And I love it. It's my dream job. I'm happy to be there. No plans to go anywhere. I love making magic. And part of the fun of making magic is that there's an audience that enjoys what I do. Now, I don't know how many people have a job where you do something, and there literally are millions of people that get enjoyment out of what you do, but it is awesome. One of the reasons I love the job so much is I get to make people happy.

Yeah, yeah, I frustrate people. I'm not saying all my emotions I generate are positive, but the majority I make people happy. People play magic because they have a good time. And so I like interfacing with the public because, A, I get to hear that too. So never, by the way, never, ever, ever. You have positive things to say, please, I love to hear them. I never get tired of people saying they enjoy my work and what I do. Never, ever, ever, ever get tired of that. That's awesome. On the flip side, I want criticism.

If you think we're doing something poorly, if you think something could be improved, if something was done better and we changed it or something should be changed a certain way, tell me. Now, you telling me doesn't mean it'll automatically change because I'm taking the feedback of lots of different players, but if you have a good idea and it only takes one you have a good idea,

and it only takes one person with one good idea, you get it in my head. If I hear about it and it's a good idea, I can execute on it. And there's lots of cards and concepts. I mean, let me bring this up. I'm not allowed to hear card ideas. Can't hear mechanic ideas. I'm not supposed to hear general set ideas.

I mean, I can hear, like, go to Western World. That's fine. But it's just a rule laid down. But there's things I am allowed to hear. If you want something to come back, that's fine to tell me. You love something, bring it back. If you think something is awesome but in the wrong color, I think you should do a green version of blah.

That is fine. color. I think you should do a green version of Blah. That is fine. If you like two existing things in Magic that you're like, could you just do these on the same card? That you can tell me.

I can't hear brand new cards. I cannot hear brand new mechanics. But you saying, here's things you've done. Here are ways to tweak things you've done, I mean, within reason, be careful, I can hear that kind of stuff. And, like I said, all it takes is one person

to get a good idea in my head, and it's in my head. I've heard it. And also just feedback in general, which is, look, make your voice be heard. If you don't like something, let me know. And conversely, if you like something, let me know. The reason I will do things again is because I believe people like them.

The reason I will stop doing things, I mean, I use I, I really mean we. Magic is made by a whole group of people. It's not like I single-handedly make magic by restricting imagination. But anyway, the reason we will do things is because we think people like them

and we'll stop doing this because people don't like them. And how do we know that? Because of the interface. Now, the other thing that I have a lot of fun on is my background is in comedy, comedy writing, improv, stand-up.

I mean, I've done a lot of comedy. So one of the things my blog is fun for me is I like goofing around. So I have a lot of fun answering questions and just having fun. A lot of my answers, I mean, I try to make sure you understand when I'm being tongue-in-cheek

and I have a little smiley face I use a lot. I mean, it's not that I'm not serious on my blog. I am. I answer some very serious questions. I don't tend to answer ones that take too long. Like, sometimes people send me questions, which are very interesting questions, but it's like, oh, it would take me 20 to 30 minutes

to correctly answer this. And that, instead of doing that, I could answer 40 other people's questions, or whatever, 20 other people's questions. I would rather answer, you know, a lot more people's questions. That's what I consider the blog to be, is an interface. It's not the place where I dig down deep. I have a podcast, a 30-minute podcast. I have an article where I write 3,000 plus words a week.

I have places to dig down deep and talk about magic, and I do. And I feel like kind of what my blog is about is a little more surface. I mean, I will answer quick and easy to answer questions. It's not that I don't have deep questions that are just easy for me to answer. But a lot of the questions, like, people ask me all the time are, like, really thought-provoking questions that I appreciate the thought-provokingness of them. But it's like, you know, if, you know, you were going to pick five cards in magic and those were the only five cards you could seal in an envelope, so 4,000 years from now, people could learn about magic, but you had to communicate everything there was to know about magic in those five cards, what would you pick?

I'm like, that's a complex question. Awesome question, but a complex question. And every once in a blue moon, I will answer a complex question. Oh, so here's another thing about the blog. I don't see every question. If you post a question, I might not see it. So I have no problem with you reposting questions. Now, there is a point that I don't answer your question that maybe I'm not answering your question. So I'm not sure if repeating the same question forever, although I do have some people who are very adamant about posting the same question and I appreciate their diligence.

Those people know who they are. So, feel free to repeat questions. Anything's fair game in the sense that you shouldn't censor your questions. I will censor my answers in the sense that there's not everything I can say. Oh, a few things that will keep you off getting answers. Decide, A, asking multiple questions or asking questions too deep that I really can't answer them. Next is answering questions on material I can't talk about. For example, I've spent a great deal talking about the reserve list. I can't go too deep into it. I can just explain that we can't get rid of it

and I can't explain why we can't get rid of it. Once I tell you I can't tell you something, asking questions about why I can't tell you will get you no further. If I can't tell you about it, I can't answer questions about why I can't tell you about it. Also, things about the future. You can ask me about the future

and I'll be coy. Not that you can't ask me, but be aware, there's a lot of things I can't tell you. I will not tell you things I cannot tell you. I might tease and there's lots of snippets of information. Also, if you swear, and this includes in your name of your

in the name of your account. I can't have swear words. I'm a family-friendly site, meaning that I assume that kids can read my site. I write as much as kids can read. I don't think the majority of people who read my site are kids, but that means that I stay away from R-rated language, I stay away from PG-13-rated language,

I stay away from subject matters that are just not appropriate. And it's not that I'll never tackle serious topics, but I, anyway, I'm family friendly. If you want me to answer you, you gotta, you have to be family friendly. The other thing I ask is, I just ask for some general politeness of tone.

You can disagree with me. You can tell me I'm wrong. You can, you know, I don't mind a little bit of confrontation. That's fine. Hey, I've never backed away from confrontation. My issue is, look, I'm spending my time and energy doing this. I ask for a little bit of politeness. If you don't like something I did, that's fine.

Hey, say you don't like something I did. But you do not need to be rude. And I will not answer, you know, I try not to answer rude questions. Every once in a while I answer them to say stop being rude. But, you know, hey, ask me, ask me nicely. You know, I'm more than willing to be critical. I'm more than willing to examine things that have not worked. It is not like I'm trying to put a rosy glow on everything. I will be straightforward with you. In fact, the funny thing is, here's the irony, I think, is that I think on some level I'm more rough than some people want me to be.

That, like, you know, I will honestly say, oh, yeah, that didn't work. We don't want to do that. And they're like, what? No, no. And, you know, I think at times I'm a little rougher than some people want because I'll speak the truth about what And, you know, they... I think at times I'm a little rougher than some people want because I'll speak the truth about what I, you know... If I think we're not doing something again, I'll tell you I think we're doing it again.

Oh, that brings me up to the storm scale. This is a popular thing. So I have five minutes before I get to work. So let me walk over a few of the things that people... kind of an FAQ, if you will. So the storm scale was something I started when something said, what's the chance of you reprinting Storm?

And by that, they didn't mean supplemental products. That actually turned out to be high. It was in Mattermasters. Was in a normal, you know, expert expansion set, like a normal set that would be available for standard, what's the chance of us bringing something back? And on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 is really likely to bring back, and 10 is no chance of bringing back. Storm was a 10.

And I call it the storm scale. How likely is something to come back? And note, by the way, that I judge in a vacuum, meaning I know things. So when I'm, I sort of assume I don't know things and pretend as if I didn't know what I think the chances would be. So it's possible I could say something is a little higher up, even though I know we in fact are bringing it back, but it's like, well, if I didn't know we were bringing it back, this is what I think would be my guess.

Anyway, the storm scale is something I use to sort of give people an idea of, you know, what the chances are of something returning in a standard, you know, viable set. I have a bunch of characters to answer things. Currently the big one is Marobot. Marobot talks in all uppercase letters because he's a robot. He answers. I have programmed Marobot to answer questions, so he'll answer questions. But you have to ask Marobot directly to get the answers. He's a robot, so he answers like a robot. I have an evil twin that every once in a blue moon answers questions. There's Maro from the future, like from the year 2054, I think.

Anyway, there's a old man Maro that comes back in time sometimes and answers questions. Um, there, uh, for a while I had Bizarro Maro who, uh, was the Bizarro version of me, who was the exact opposite of me in every way based on Bizarro, the, the imperfect clone of Superman. based on Bizarro, the imperfect clone of Superman. There's a Maro Magic 8-Ball that you can ask questions of that will give 8-Ball-style answers to things. So you can ask about the future from the Maro Magic 8-Ball and it'll give you a cryptic answer. What else have I done?

As you can tell, as I recap things. Oh, so a few things that people ask for that I do not have. Doug is the king of the hashtags. I do not hashtag. The reason is Tumblr does not let you hashtag directly in the thing. I think Doug goes more for quality than quantity. Well, I am trying to have good quality. I am also trying to have quantity. So I just don't, it's too hard for me to hashtag. I've answered, by the way, a lot of questions. I believe up to today, I've answered over 25,000 questions. Yes, let me repeat that. On Blogatog, in the last two years, I've answered over 25,000 questions. I'm trying for volume. I'm really trying to

interface and get as many people's questions answered as I can. I'm not kidding when I say I do that. I answer a lot of questions a day. If you do not want your Tumblr thing filled up, I am pretty prolific. In fact, I have had some people ask me to answer less questions, although the majority said they are crazy, answer more questions. And, by the way, you'll notice as you get on, the Blogataw community is very interesting. They're pretty supportive, although'll notice this as you get on. The blogger talk community

is very interesting. They're pretty supportive, although I have a few people that are hypercritical, but those exist. As long as they're not rude, I'm fine with it. But it is fun,

and like I said, there's a lot of in-jokes. I've not labeled all of them. I just labeled a few of them. There are definitely things where I I make reference to other things I do so there are running jokes that go on I definitely have posters that post a lot that you might recognize certain people posting

when I answer questions by the way I check the post to make sure they're not swearing or something if you have a good question, I will answer it. If you're the same guy that answered another good question, I'll answer it as well. I do not... I answer good questions. I do not worry about who's asking them. I'm more focused on the question than the people asking.

I do use blog and talk from time to time. I definitely use it for research. The questions I'm asking, I mean, be aware. Not every question I'm asking is super relevant, but I do sneak in relevant questions in the questions I ask. So sometimes I'm asking things just because I'm curious and I want to know your opinion. But sometimes, you know what, I know R&D would like to hear your opinion because I'm asking something that we are actually doing. So I ask a lot of questions, and not all of them are relevant to the future, but some of them are. So I answer them. When I ask a question, I very well could be asking something that's going to be, that's going to directly impact magic. So those questions are important. And yes, I do go back

and read the answers, especially on questions. I try to read everything, by the way. I try to read all the answers. Tumblr doesn't always make it easy for me, but I do try. And because I read them in order, if you answer an old question a little later, sometimes I won't see that. I love the give and take. I love having... I mean, for the people that are...

Oh, the people on Blogatog, I refer to them as question marks. That is my name for my Blogatog people. So if I say, hey, question marks, I have a question for you, I'm talking to you, the reader. Oh, if you want to ask me questions, I think the way I have it set up right now is you must be following me for two weeks before you can start asking questions.

That is to keep sort of people that aren't serious. It's to keep people that aren't sort of magic focused. The idea is essentially if you follow me, you can ask me questions, but I need just a little bit of time to make sure the infectors are following me. It avoids some... There are some things that can happen from people who are just screwing around and mess with people, but it's not worth their time to follow them for two weeks. So that guideline is on there.

One day I'll get an FAQ. I don't know how to set it up, and I need time to make it. What other questions do people always ask me? Um, it is me. I, I answer the questions. Um, you know, if you've never been on Blogatog, uh, I, I mean, it, uh, you go to Tumblr. I think it's like Tumblr's hash flag

Mark Rosewater I think I mean if you search for Mark Rosewater oh so what happened was by the way originally it was called Tales from the Pit

because it was just going to be the comics for Tales from the Pit it was going to be a repository which by the way it's ended up being a horrible repository

I mean you can see them and if you read me on Tumblr you'll see my comics but it's become a bad repository because I have so much

stuff in my thing now you just can't go back that far there's only so many pages that'll go back so it's become a bad repository because I have so much stuff in my thing now, you just can't go back that far. There's only so many pages that'll go back. So it's not a great repository for my, um, for my, uh, comics. I'll have to find some other place for that at some point. Um, but anyway, at some point I realized that it really was its own thing. And so I gave it a name. I call it Vlogata-Tog for my love of 8-togs. It's named sort of after a tog-a-tog. So Blog-a-Tog, people always ask me how many columns of the 8, and my answer to that officially is no comment. But anyway, like I said, today is mostly sort of saying that, look,

I do this cool thing. I interact with the public. I'll repeat this one last time. In the last two years, I've answered 25,000 questions plus I probably I may even be up to 300,000 at this point

I answer a lot of questions I answer daily I mean there are a few days where I'm busy and I don't answer but most days I answer

and usually I answer a bunch of questions if you want to ask you know if you want to have the ear of Magic's Head Designer I have a blog in which I answer

lots of questions every day. No guarantee I'll answer your question. You might ask something that I can't answer or for other reasons that I will not answer. Also, just because I don't answer doesn't mean it's not a good question. It doesn't mean I won't be willing to answer it. Sometimes I just don't see it.

Or sometimes I'm in a rush. Or sometimes another thing that happens a lot is we get into certain topics and so sometimes I let in a rush. Or sometimes, another thing that happens a lot is we get into certain topics, and so sometimes I let certain things lie because we've been hitting them heavy. So you might ask a question that's just in a topic I'm laying low on. One of the things I try to do is ebb and flow the topics. It's not just the same thing every day. So sometimes I answer certain style questions and not answer other styles. So you might just be asking something that I'm laying low on for that day or that week.

So keep asking. Keep coming back. If you ask questions, I'll eventually answer your question. I answer a lot of questions. And like I said, if you've never listened to Blogatog, please give it a try. It is a lot of fun. And you get to see a lighter side of me. You get to see me screw around a lot.

I have some fun. I definitely, you can see some of my writing chops, hopefully, telling jokes and such. So, and like I said, there's running jokes and there's give and take and I definitely have a rapport

with the Blog Talk audience. The question marks and I go back and forth. So, if you've never tried it, check it out. If you do, thank you for listening

and a lot of people when they tell me, it's very funny that a long time ago, it used to be, oh, I read your article every week, and the new one people see me as they go,

I read Blogatog, or I listen to Drive to Work. So I'm glad that people are listening and reading and such. And anyway, I'm at home. I'm at work. So it is fun talking about Blogatog, but please go read Blogatog. But now, less talking and more making magic. Talk to you guys next week.