October 2019 turned out to be a big month for the Know Direction network, big enough that it’s time for a quick State of the Network, our occasional updates on what’s been going on and what to expect from us going forward.
Thank Yous
For the last two weeks (or one block because our schedule operates in a two-week pattern), a dozen guest bloggers took over the site, giving our regular bloggers a well-earned break.
These guests were a combination of talents working in the tabletop RPG industry and influential members of the Pathfinder hobby. Virtually everyone I approached was excited to share their experiences and views with the Know Direction audience.
In case you missed any, here there are, collected and hyperlinked.
The Care and Feeding of Your Freelance Artist by Jacob E Blackmon
Playing to the Crowd by Rick Sandidge
What GMing For Kids Can Teach You About GMing For Adults by Lucas Servideo
An Unofficial Volunteer Admin’s Perspective on Equality and Inclusion by Angie Powers
An Unofficial Volunteer Admin’s Perspective on Equality and Inclusion
Making the Most of your Downtime by Dustin Knight
Getting Into the RPG Industry, and How a Little Fanzine Called Wayfinder Can Help by Tim Nightengale
Getting Into the RPG Industry, and How a Little Fanzine called Wayfinder Can Help
Normalizing Diversity by Lj Stephens
One of Us… by Stephen Glicker
So You’re Building a Writing Career with No Prior Experience by Andrew Mullen
So You’re Building a Writing Career with No Prior Experience
Joining Order of the Amber Die by Rob Pontious
Eat, Play, Love: The Life Cycle of a Volunteer by Hilary Moon Murphy
Safety Tools in Your Pathfinder and Starfinder Games by Kate Baker
I recommend you check out not only their contributions to our site last week but the various websites, blogs, podcasts, and other project they’re associated with. I recommend everyone on this list and am shocked and humbled by the response the Guest Blogger Takeover received.
Hellos
You don’t have to go far to check out the contributions of two of our guest bloggers. Rob Pontious and Dustin “Kitsune Warlock” Knight have joined the KD staff as bloggers, starting earlier today with Rob’s blog.
Rob will be writing Investing In, where he will covering areas of the rules, the community, and the hobby, that he is connected to and passionate about. Picture it like a review blog for experiences instead of products.
Meanwhile, Dustin will be writing Fox’s Cunning. It will be very similar to his existing blog, wherein he will be looking at 2e mechanics through various lenses. This can include reviews, new options, or pointing out interesting facts about the directions the game can go when new mechanics are introduced.
Additionally, we are welcoming Monica Marlowe back into the blog rotation. As a network, we strongly believe in raising awareness of social issues in the hobby and Monica’s absence from the blog rotation has meant what I consider a major part of the site’s identity has gone ignored. Look for the return of Inspire Confidence tomorrow morning.
And More!
We got a lot of positive feedback about the Guest Blog Takeover, both regarding the fun and different content, and the special banners we ran for the event. To that we say you can expect more guest bloggers in the future, and that we are currently exploring a site redesign that we’ll debut in a few months, which will include staffer-specific banners.
If you would like to contribute an article to Know Direction, or if there’s someone you’re interested in hearing from that you’d like us to approach, let us know in our Discord channel, either in the Blog section or via private message.
