Monday, January 28, 2013

Back So Soon?

About four days ago, I sadly announced the death of the blog.

The outpouring was, in a word, amazing.

I had people offering to mail me computers, people offering to donate money to buy me a new computer, and I had people tell me many wonderful things about this blog, and how important it is to them that it keeps going.

As of today, it looks like it will.

I have a new computer, and it is nearly set up as I need it. Not quite there, but almost there. That means the blog will continue in some capacity.

I am a little behind on review material, however. I did have some products downloaded that I intended to review, but I lost a great many of the RPGNow reviewer codes I had amassed to review. If you are a publisher and you are looking for reviews, drop me a line at tommybrownell@gmail.com.

I aim to contact the seven publishers that offered prize support for the Birthday Blog Giveaway, and ask them if they mind me extending the contest deadline in the hopes that everyone that previously entered will re-enter so I can finish the Birthday Blog Giveaway properly. I hope that becomes a reality.

Most of my digital RPG collection was amassed via RPGNow and is replaceable. A few pieces were not, gained from direct e-mails from publishers, or playtest files that are no longer available. I had made massive updates to the Marvel SAGA roster files that had not been shared with anyone in ages, and are now completely lost. As well, every one of my game session notes that wasn't posted on this blog were also lost. That is quite disheartening. A TON of e-mails are gone, too, but I've now synced my ISP e-mail with my Gmail to hopefully prevent this from happening again.

All of my comic work was lost, but I am piecing much of it back together via e-mails with my collaborators. There is work that will need to be redone, but I think I can get my projects back on track.

I thank you all for the kind and generous comments and offers when the announcement went out. Fact is, I have had an awful year, and this was one more kick to the teeth I didn't need. I had no idea when I would get another PC, and I sure didn't expect it to be this soon, but I've had some good friends and some good fortune come through for me in the middle of the frustration and setbacks. I wasn't trying to be dramatic...just didn't want to leave anyone hanging if I disappeared for weeks or months at a time, especially with the giveaway in full swing.

The blog will live on...and I will never doubt its readership again.

If you wish to support the blog, the absolute best way you can do so is via purchases using my RPGNow affiliate links, which in turn gives me store credit that I can then use to purchase more RPG products that I can review.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for the wonderful offers and the kind words (like the ones Timothy Brannan offered over at his blog).

I'm back...and with any luck, I'm not going away for a very long time.

Keep reading, and I'll keep writing.

Tommy

9 comments:

  1. Awesome. I'm so glad to hear it. (I've a computer that is about to be decommissioned, so best I could do was offer a hard drive.)

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  2. Wonderful news, Tommy! That rocks!

    -clash

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  3. This is excellent news. Welcome back.

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  4. Fantastic.

    Glad to hear you are still going to stick around!

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  5. Sounds like with the new computer you should invest in Google Drive or a similar free Backup program.

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    1. I am taking steps to prevent a repeat occurrence, starting with routing my ISP mail through my Gmail and purchasing an external hard drive for regular back-ups.

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  6. I am glad you are back. I have enjoyed this blog since I first discovered it

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    1. I appreciate that! With any luck, I will be around for a long time.

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