On Blog Classifications

For no reason besides organization, I have done my best to come up with a classification system for blogs by their lengths.

Blogpastas
These are those blogs that are extremely short while still being a self-contained story. Usually around 1-20 posts, a blogpasta is basically a creepypasta in the blog medium. Y'know, a short story. Doesn't even have to be horror; none of these classifications do.
Examples: alliterator's The Ripeness is All or And When the Sky Was Opened, The Visitor's Terrific, or my Harlequin Metropolis.

Blogellas
Like a blog novella, these are usually bigger than blogpasta and usually smaller than "proper" blogs. As a result, this is a pretty damn loose term, but according to my classification system, they can range between around 15-100 posts and offer more conflicts than a blogpasta but fewer than a "proper" blog. Yeah, apparently the difference between a novel and a novella is more than just length, and I like the idea of the blog equivalents being similar.
Now obviously, due to the nature of the blog medium, it's very common for a blog to be what this system would call a blogella. A novella has more focus on mood and a few complex characters rather than a complex plot like a novel, and since blogs lend themselves to a more personal first-person narrative, these are common! But as the Fear Mythos evolves, I think we're seeing a lot more experimentation in plot. But the point is that a blogella is the kind of short-ish blog that focuses more on the development of one or a few characters.
Examples: alliterator's Snowball in Hell or Ontological, TheSomnambulist's Urban Malefic, or my Testing in Progress or Built For Two.

Blogs
This is the equivalent of a novel, you could say. They're actually fairly rare, considering their size and effort required. They can range from around, like.. well, they can have as little or as many posts as you like. But they have to have a focus on plot or-- okay I don't even claim to know. But I think the common consensus is that they have to be longer and greater in scale than blogpastas and blogellas, with a considerable amount of conflicts or arcs. I guess it'd also make sense for, say, multiple companion blogellas to thematically join together to make a single "proper" blog "suite" "story" thing. Am I making sense? <:D
Examples: TheSomnambulist's The World Through These Eyeholes, collaboration blog A Realm of Emptiness, Shayde's Not To Touch The Earth, or my Jordan Eats Normally Now.

Epics
If you want to get technical, you could classify these as Blogs, as they tend to follow all the same classifications. But an epic is generally even longer, with even more conflicts or arcs. If you want to go to the real-world equivalent of epics in terms of the novel and film genre, an epic has a large scale (usually worldwide or larger) with far-reaching consequences that are often given much focus or impact. They're also sometimes called sagas and legacies, and they can either feature many protagonists or one hero whose exploits are detailed in (close to) full.
And above all else, an epic is almost always long. The blogosphere has some of these. You can probably see the examples coming from a mile away.
Examples: Omega's Mephi, TheSomnambulist's Amalgam Saga, CuteWithoutThe's collective Dying Man saga, alliterator and I's Topography Genera, and my OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING.

Do note that, in the end, you can call all of these "blogs." That's an appropriate blanket term.
As for how to refer to the "blog" classification, I generally say either "feature-length blog" or "proper blog." Though I suppose maybe capital-B Blog might work.

Thank you for your time!

THIRTY SECONDS: The Silence Before the Battle

I'm going to school on Monday. After that, I will have school every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

So.. basically, this blog may very well turn into a more traditional OOG blog. I might start talking about blah blah blah people I know and schoolwork. But I think I'll try my best to keep a firm grounding in the Fear Mythos, as I view that to be my profession. I intend on trying to see if I can lure a few people I meet in college to enter our mythos, too. >w>

..god, can you imagine if I got a video camera and was able to make a full-on Fearvlog?

ALSO I'm gonna get to play Black Mesa today. This mod has been in development for eight years, and I've actually been waiting for it this entire time. I was introduced to it shortly after it was announced; I got into the Half-Life series when I was about nine or ten. And.. well, eight years of development hell later, Black Mesa has finally come out! For reference, it's a complete re-imagining of the original Half-Life into the source engine and closer to the standards of present-day Valve titles. It's made entirely by fans, and as it's a mod, it's absolutely free!

But the only catch is that, although it's finally being released, Black Mesa isn't exactly finished. The last four chapters of the game aren't included; the mod ends after "Lambda Core." Now, this is actually fairly understandable, considering the last four chapters of the game are somehow reviled by most fans (*shrugs* They happen to be some of my favourite chapters in video game history, to each his own) and are just.. god. Without trying to spoil anything, they provide such a contrast to the rest of the game and they try for things that not many video games dare trying. And are beautiful. owe But the developers are, indeed, hard at work on them! The rest of the game will be released and updated to the mod sometime in 2013.

THE POINT IS THAT 5/6 of the game are still there to play, and the thing about Half-Life is that those 5/6 of the game are still among the greatest chapters to any video game ever. And after eight years of waiting, I'm stoked to get to play this.

I'd do an LP but I'll be playing on my brother's computer. :C

So yes! This has been, quite possibly, one of the most.. significant weekends in my entire life. OH AND NANQUEST

CLICK ON THIS FUCKING LINK

THIS IS NANQUEST

THIS HAS BEEN AND CONTINUES TO BE A MASSIVE INFLUENCE ON ME

NanQuest is a /tg/ adventure about Nan, an adorable goat repairwoman who has a job to do in a hotel. I.. won't say much more. It's the spiritual successor to RubyQuest, which was about Ruby, an adorable bunny who wakes up in a strange metal lab. Both stories have adorable art and utterly terrifying content. Though NanQuest is still ongoing, in my opinion it seems so much better for so many freaking reasons. I still love RubyQuest, though! Fantastic freaking story. A classic horror tale, expertly presented and wonderfully enacted. It's just that NanQuest has a much richer focus on storytelling and somehow managed to capture every terrifying thing in the world in one frightening hotel. I love spooky hotels. Hotels, forests, highways, and modern cities are my all-time favourite horror locations. >W<

..but yes. The reason I bring this up is because I recently checked up on it and it turns out the sixth thread has been released. Plus the fifth thread got a second half that I never read. So I caught up and just oh my god this story is so brilliant.

SO YES BEST WEEKEND EVER

Educational Video: "How to Design a Blog"

For all you aspiring Fearbloggers out there, let me tell you a thing or two about how to make your blog look fantastic. :D

List of my Fearblog Reviews

Earlier reviews
CuteWithoutThe: The Hunter
alliterator: Snowball in Hell
proxiehunter: To Light a Candle

Modern reviews:
Allanbag: Memoirs for Breakfast
TheSomnambulist: The World Through These Eyeholes part 1, part 2
The Visitor: Terrific
queenofinsanity6: Take the Myth
Omega: Mephi Act 1
Multiple: A Realm of Emptiness
GraciousVictory: The Public Castigation of a Lowly Hypochondriac
Acelegin: Daniel & Friends The Gods of Darkness Arc
Multiple: The Puppet's Game 2 (half-assed review)
AmeliaTanaka: A Fly on the Wall part 1
Malus: Blank Space
tgecko: Penny Dropped part 1, part 2
RedRockingHood: City of Sinopia part 1

The Fear Mythos has a website!

The Fear Mythos now has a unified and organized website!

Click that picture to go there. Or alternatively, type in http://www.thefearmythos.com/ in your HTML URL bypass shit browser.

Most of the content on the site was written by me. :DDD And it's still being added to! But the important part is that you tell your friends, spread the word, get us big!


..still can't believe the site doesn't mention Rapture anywhere. That'll change!