This was originally just going to be called "XKCD Isn't Funny Isn't Funny". It would've been written entirely from someone else's point of view, someone who held a deep personal grudge against me and actually hated everything I stand for. It was going to be vaguely in the style of Cracked, back before Cracked went to shit, in a countdown of my five worst failures on this blog during 2014.
But, for better or for worse, I've decided against that. For one, I feel like it would come off more as smug self-awareness than anything else. For two, I don't want to kick off the new year with a meta blast of self-hatred; bad vibes, man. Also I was going to have my friend Frank write a "Top Five XKCD Isn't Funnys of 2014" list but that just seemed like an ego stroke, even to me the moment I thought of it.
This is just going to be a big apology for my mistakes, and an expression of hope that I have learned my lessons and will be able to continue to grow and improve throughout 2015. If you want to read what I had of the original version of this post, you can find a rough draft of what would have been #1 here.
Anyway.
Mistake #0: Tagging every post the same way
For a while, every review was tagged with "critic, criticism, not funny, phoning it in friday, xkcd, xkcd hate blog, xkcd is not funny, xkcd isn't funny, xkcd not funny, xkcd sucks", pretty much entirely out of ignorance for how the tagging system worked, and then out of habit. At some point I will go through my blog and re-tag everything to fix the current, less broken, system.
Mistake #1: Editing the comics in early reviews. (example)
I don't remember exactly why I thought this was a good idea. Branding, maybe? One of the edits has an alt-text of "DADIST GLORY", which doesn't really clear anything up. Regardless, it was a dumb idea and it won't happen again unless I decide to do a "Make XKCD funny" thing like xkcd-sucks used to do.
Mistake #2: #PhoningItInFriday
"#PhoningItInFriday" was an idea I came up with when I was reviewing a comic on Friday and realized that I really didn't want to think that particular day. Instead of just waiting until Saturday like I tend to do nowadays, I tried to slice a third of my workload off my plate early on. It's not something I would do now, with an audience that is actually reading this stuff (hopefully).
Mistake #3: Using the word "etrospeak"
I have no idea where this came from. I thought "etrospeak" was a Trope, but apparently not. This entry was going to be about my using TV Tropes -language in reviews meant for everyone, but I guess it's actually about my using words that have never existed. I'll, uh... stop doing that, then.
Mistake #4: A paragraph from my review of #1370
The third-to-last, or pen-penultimate, paragraph in that review is just not needed. Not only does it have a swear for no good reason, it brings unnecessary attention to my age. It's just really immature. I think I was in a bad mood or something when I wrote most of that, and I shouldn't have posted it the way it was.
Mistake #5: A comment on my review of #1381
My review of #1381, is, by popular consensus, wrong. I didn't want to admit this, in another display of immaturity. But the worst part definitely exists in the comment section, which is nice because less people will see it. For some reason, I decided to post an essay-length response that I cringe at when I read now. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't waiting for someone like you." Ugh.
Mistake #6: "XKCD Isn't Funny - #1396 - ACTORS"
This one is the entire reason that this post exists. Read the rough draft, it explains everything, but... I... I just hate the Greg that did this, and I hate that that Greg was me.
Mistake #7: Using pre-made arguments on #1431
#Confession: A not-insignificant amount of my reviews are thought up in some form ahead of time. "Go develop a castration fetish" had been thought up before I even started the blog. My review of #1431 is what happens when I try to apply arguments I've come up with that don't quite fit. I stand by what I said, mostly, but it definitely makes me look like the smaller man when I'm complaining about preachiness and he's complaining about homophobia. What I should have done was wait until Randy came up with another preachy comic that actually deserved a full lashing.
All of these mistakes will also be acknowledged in edits of the above reviews, but I wanted to centralize them in an announcement of sorts.
Reminder: I read every comment I get (even if I don't always respond*). If you have an idea on how I can improve, tell me so that I can produce better content.
* reasons I didn't respond to your comment:
- I meant to, but had to do something else first and then forgot
- I did, but then Google+ did that weird "delete all the text" thing and I didn't see it until weeks later
- Someone else responded for me (Thanks, Menacing Banjo!)
- I didn't have anything to add
- You don't have replies enabled
- You are Jon Levi and I am unsure of how to react to a comment from my better
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