Purpose of this blog

Dmitry Yudo aka Overlord, jack of all trades
David Lister aka Listy, Freelancer and Volunteer

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

History Feedback

I've been writing articles here for a few months. So far we've covered every type of combat (Ground, Air and Sea) from 1914-1983.

While the readership has been steadily growing, I have noticed some trends. So I wanted to take this time to gather feedback from you, the people who read my material.

The subject of the articles is something I wanted to ask about as well. Looking at the amount of readers it shows up something a bit odd. The two best performing articles had about three to four thousand readers. The last two articles have had under 500 each.
Now at a glance you'd say its because of the subject matter. However theatres other thank tank based have done well in the past.

So in short, what do you want to see articles on? Or any other feedback on the history articles I've been writing. This is the time and place to speak up and effect what happens to the articles over the next year.

Thanks for your time.

25 comments:

  1. I'm disappointed that you've not gotten more views. I very much enjoy the articles. I don't really know what else to say.

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  2. I've really liked every article you've written. The Furious Migs article is one of my favorites.

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  3. I liked all of the articles and don't know what you could do even better. Personally I am more interested in the time after WW1, but a WW1 story here and there is nice too.

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  4. I read all the history articles since I find them all very interesting.

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  5. I've liked and read all of them. I'm wondering if perhaps view count is off? Many of the articles can be fully read scrolling the front page, so if someone reads it that way but never clicks on the Comments, would the view be counted?

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  6. I have enjoyed them all. They are short, well researched, and situations I would not otherwise have had the chance to hear about.
    The subjects themselves are all still covering the same genre. I don't mind that the subject matter changes the theater described.

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  7. All been really good Listy. The only thing I would suggest is getting a good english speaker to proof read them before posting as there are a few grammatical errors in some of the articles.

    Apart from that, spot on!

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    1. As I've said before, the reason for the poor English is I actually have a minor learning disability (and/or I'm just a thicko ;) ).
      A Copy Editor is a bit of an issue, as I'm not an employee of Wargaming, nor do I get paid for this.

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    2. I would be happy to proof read them for you m8 - get Overlord to get my email address off the comment and drop me a mail if you want. -

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    3. If you head over to the facebook page and send me a message, we can have a chat, and see what may come of it:

      https://www.facebook.com/historylisty

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  8. I read all of the articles, but I like the ones concerning tanks and the people who operate them the most. I like articles with lots of pictures more than pure text.

    But, to be honest, I come here to read about WoT and the history articles are just the icing on the cake. So any "inside view" of wargaming.net (but please nothing like the really awful, information-free "mega factories" drivel by National Geographic) would be very appreciated.

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    1. Lots of pictures, got it.

      In most cases where I can I find pictures of the subject the article is talking about. But often that's not possible, so I have to use stock pictures.

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  9. g'day Listy,
    I am still enjoying reading each of your articles. the main part of your style that keeps me reading is your nack of bringing the people out from behinde the dry facts of a situation and making them real. During my pilot training in the 70's we were told about the RAF tail gunner that survived an 18000 ft fall without his parashute but you made mr Aklemade a real person. I was facinated to find out that German royalty not only still existed in the 1940's but fought on the front lines too.
    WG make games with tanks, planes and soon warships for us to play at fighting each other. there are plenty of articles out there where the game mechanics are explored and the technical history of the real machines that we play game versions of are discussed.
    So the direction I would like to see you follow is to continue to bring out the humanity behind the machinery in little snipits of stories. cover all enviroments, land sea and air over the first 3/4 of last century.
    keep up the good work mate.
    Tony.

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  10. Thanks all for your replies so far. I'm glad its all working well.

    So far we've set an date limit of the early 1900's, so its got to be part of modern warfare. But how late should I go?

    One issue I've been wary of is politics, as we get closer to the modern age the politics will become more of an issue. I was a bit nervous about doing the Yom Kippur war article for this very reason. There again that turned out all right.

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    1. I think you're safe from a lot of that, David, because your articles are predominantly encounter-orientated. They narrate and describe relatively small-scale tactical engagements rather than grand, sweeping maneuvers and campaigns. Not that you should rule 'big-picture' blogs out altogether mind, it's just that those topics are the ones more suited to wider contextual references to politics, economics and so on.

      To put it another way, your blogs tend to have more of a "Commando comic" feel to them than a "doorstopper-sized textbook" feel. Much easier to digest on-screen.

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  11. Everything is very cool - however the most interesting articles I have seen are the ones with detailed action. Although good for a story I am not super interested in reading about people getting transfered between different regiements or what they achieved. I want to read how they achieved it instead if possible (though I fully realize information is often scarce).
    Also pictures of tanks and cannons always makes me more interested :-)

    Keep up the good work and thank you...

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    1. Information is a pain sometimes. Oddly I'm having more trouble with more modern conflicts. There's a couple of good stories but I can't find the details to write the article like you suggest.
      Hence why they're on the back burner for now.

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  12. How about getting rid of the anti German/Axis bias after all they did take part in the war and a heroic or interesting action/story is just that, regardless of the army they were fighting in.

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    1. What Bias?
      Just intrigued why you think that?

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    2. Because I can never remember an article on this site that, centered around or where the main character/s, being talked about were from the Axis side, they are mentioned only as they were the adversaries of the unit/individual being talked about e.g Tiger Gruppe Fehrmann was only mentioned as it was the adversary of Able Comet.

      Why not do an article on Tiger Gruppe Fehrmann as it was an unusual unit, or e.g the operations of the Brandenburgers or KG200 or the German frogman units or any one of dozens of Axis soldiers who are unknown to the general public, you could make a start by picking out one of the(only) 98 men who won both the Knight's Cross and Close Combat Clasp in Gold.

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    3. I thought that might be the answer.

      Japan:
      http://overlord-wot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/light-tank-regiment-to-guns.html

      Finland:
      http://overlord-wot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/obsolete-outdated-and-out-classed.html

      I'd also point out that I've never ever done a Russian article, ever. Also only one article for the French and US.

      The answer is two fold. First German stuff is fairly well known, I've been trying to find article subjects that aren't well known.
      Second, I'm British, most of my books are British, and I've been reading and researching about British forces for most of my life. Finally within 45 minutes of me there are three major sources of information on, British units.

      I actually have two articles planned for the Germans, however I'm still tracking down sources, which are proving harder to find than I'd like.

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    4. Well I was referring to the sites bias in general, I wasn't picking on you specifically and OK you've written 2 articles from an axis side so apologies for that.

      The popular German stuff is fairly well known but there is still a lot that the average man in the street won't know e.g who is Marine-Schreiber-Obergefreiter Walter Gerhold or KorvettenKapitan Hermann Buchting or Obergefreiter Eduard Hug or how about Front-Line Detachment 200 in Afghanistan.

      I'm British too but I would estimate that two-thirds of the 3,500 books and documents I've got are on the German forces and so over the years I've read and learnt a lot about the 'non popular' stuff regarding the German forces.

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  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  14. Maybe synergies could be explored?

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  15. I know my enjoyment of your articles has lessened, but that's entirely due to long work hours and the holidays! Heh, so it's not you, it's me.

    I usually read this blog from my IPhone from breaks at work, or while my wife does some shopping. I am very glad for your articles and hope for my sanity you keep 'em coming.

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