Mapping the Blogosphere - My Corner

 If you have not seen it, there is a great mapping of many of the popular OSR blogs put together by Elmcat. I found it via JB at B/X Blackrazor, who in turn found it from James at Grognardia.

The map is based on linking, so if a blog doesn't link out to others or is not linked to, then its presence on this map is less. There are various clusters of blogs that are closer together than others. I am out in a region known as "Community 4."

There is a lot of value in this map, and I am quite impressed at the Herculean effort put forth here. 

The ability to see growth and decline over the years is rather amazing. I guess 2016 was a banner year here at The Other Side. Maybe I should go back and reread some of those posts!

The ability to see who links to you is great. Maybe they are praising your blog? Maybe they hate it!  It appears I link to a lot of "bigger blogs" (naturally, that is why they are bigger), but there are also a lot of lesser-known (to me) blogs linking to me. I am going to make an effort to link back to those blogs more. This includes blogs like Seed of Worlds, who is my top linker. As one commenter (@farmergadda.bsky.social) said, "We (bloggers) have GOT to get sluttier (link more)." 

While I feel we, OSR Bloggers, are a community as a whole, there are obvious sub-communities. In statistics and research design, we have a tool called Cluster Analysis. This is not that, not exactly, but we can draw some similar ideas from it. Namely, that various clusters have more similarity within than between. And these clusters can have themes or names. I don't think I'll offer up any names for these clusters, some are obvious. For example, the blogs in Grognardia's orbit tend to be more classical old-school, playing by the book or how Gary intended it, sort of blogs. The mini-cluster I am in tends to be old-school, but with a twist. There are a few blogs nearby that also add more elements, like horror, to their games. But that is a massive over-generalization.

It is all rather fascinating and a reminder that even while I am sitting on my own typing away at whatever nonsense comes up in my mind, I am not really out there alone am I? It's like the Police song "Message in a Bottle,"  "it seems I am not alone at being alone." Well, I never felt alone, but it is nice to be part of something larger.

Hopefully, we can use this data and excellent work by Elmcat to improve our community. 

To that end. Here are the top 10 blogs linking to me:

1. Seed of Worlds
2. THOUGHT EATER
3. Wasted Lands: The Official Blog of Elf Lair Games
4. B／X BLACKRAZOR
5. Dreams of Mythic Fantasy
6. Dungeon Fantastic
7. Tenkar's Tavern
8. CROSS PLANES
9. OLD Elf Lair Games Blog
10. Sea of Stars RPG Design Journal

The top 10 Blogs I Can't Believe I Have Never Linked To:

1. Age of Dusk
2. Numbers Aren't Real
3. Rise Up Comus
4. A Knight at the Opera
5. Ars Ludi
6. Whose Measure God Could Not Take
7. Throne of Salt
8. Coins and Scrolls
9. Goblin Punch
10. BASTIONLAND

I could probably keep doing this all day. But that is good for now. Will check more later on.