Shall the Ballgunner give up his (official) blog?
April 21st, 2008, 10:01 am · 4 Comments · posted by jhogg
It doesn’t appear that too many people care about the Ballgunner’s ramblings. This doesn’t bother me too much, because I enjoy writing about this sort of stuff. But, if nobody is reading it, perhaps I shouldn’t be doing it on the corporate nickel.
I could say that big media’s coverage of military matters is bad, but that does not quite do justice to the severity of the situation. Your CNNs, Foxes, et al generally haven’t any idea what they’re talking about. There are exceptions, but they are few indeed. The Ballgunner’s honest efforts are intended to get neck deep in the bilge and explain the situation. Either A) I’m doing a lousy job (on par) or B) no one gives a badger’s evaluator. At any rate, it’s time for the Ballgunner to consider freeing up space on the server.
Fear not, my devoted… uh… fan, the Ballgunner will not be abandoning his post entirely, but, if he casts off this company coil, will only resurface again, probably with more pictures and fouler language.
If the Ballgunner does disembark from the News Herald he will post an alternate link, which will hopefully garner at least a click or two to the less glamorous blog of his own choosing.
Yours in the madness,
The Ballgunner
April 21st, 2008 at 11:19 am
Give it some time. You are relatively new to the NH and you haven’t yet built up a following. There are plenty of active and retired military in this town who have an interest. Also, I would suggest renaming it because it really because “ball-gunner” is more know to insiders than the general public. Last, Ed Offley has been a military reporter for many years; I would see if he has any ideas (as far as column focus and topics) as a result of his years doing military reporting.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I say keep with it. It takes time to make something like this work. New media is a lot like running an insurgency in that, for the most part, the only way you can lose or fail is if you give up (or die). As for your company, they should know by now that success only comes after risking something.
Tell me, are they advertising your blog at all? You’re not going to find a readership by simply blogging and hoping people type in your URL by sheer luck. They need something to tell them to come here.
April 21st, 2008 at 7:33 pm
And with Anonymouse and me, that makes FOUR fans! One more and you can field a basketball team!
I too am disgusted by the majority of the military experts on television. They made the claim “we make our own reality” some time back and that about describes what we get from them. The newspapers have more depth, but not as much as what you get from a specialized blog like this. The newspapers are also saddled with putting out the “official” story from Washington, and locally the press is further handicapped by being from an area that has two military bases. They will not be putting out harsh articles and commentary, they already have enough trouble keeping subscribers. The service that you are providing the local community should get you some kind of an award, or at least an “attaboy” or a “good job”, not bring about discouragement. Offering an alternative view at the news which explains away the illogic of the “official” story has always been a worthwhile endeavor. It certainly is a welcome addition to the News-Herald’s lineup of blogs. If I come to the News-Herald website and you have a new article, I’m a happy camper for the next five minutes or so. And that and a dollar will get you a lotto ticket.
Since I usually have an opinion on everything, I will offer some feedback. I liked your earlier columns more, because you took care to add a few pertinent links in each one. Your most thought provoking article was the one on the shooting at the mall in Chicago and your commentary about self-defense that went along with it; but you haven’t yet gone back and done any more in that vein. I didn’t comment on that link, but thought about it for days.
I am extremely interested in weapons systems, so much so that I annoy the active duty folks at church asking them about them, but usually they just tell me “it’s classified” all the time. I understand that I’m too nosy, but descriptions of weapons systems would be nice.
Speaking of links, almost every military blog I go to has links to places which helps the guys overseas, or links to places which help the guys now fighting the lonely fight of the hospital wards. Links to honest charities and which ones to avoid would be a public service. It would also would remind everyone that less than 1% of the population is bearing 100% of the brunt of the two wars, and might could swing some small bit of needed help to those who could use it.
There has also been a paucity of stories locally about the local guys who have gone off to war, not political stuff but human interest stuff. Guys from somewhere else currently stationed out at Tyndall have always been considered local.
Just ideas. Like the other two fellows said, give it some more time. You are doing just fine.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
You want to throw in the towel now when the gettin is good?!? YOU ARE WEAK! There is no room for such a defeatist attitude here. We already have enough of that from those panzies in France. Stand up straight soldier! You aint seen nothing yet!!