State of the Blog – May

oh hey it’s a month and apparently monthly State of the Blog addresses are a thing I do now

uh

Καλό μήνα!

(in Greece people literally wish each other “good month!” on the first of each month – like, just as a standard greeting; I’ve had supermarket cashiers say this to me – and I kind of love this and think the English-speaking world should adopt it)

The past month’s accomplishments include reviews of Naganadel and Stakataka, as well as my… truly exhaustive and exhausting discussion of the Detective Pikachu movie, which I hope served to show that this film is something of a landmark achievement for Pokémon (and not just because it’s live action), and of course answers to several questions from my talented and stylish readers, including musings on the godhood of Arceus and thoughts on the potential of the Battle Bond ability. This month was also statistically the blog’s best ever, narrowly topping March (which was an anomaly because of the announcement of generation VIII) in both views and unique visitors. On the agenda for June: the last Ultra Beast, Blacephalon, then… well, I’ll be soliciting opinions from my Patreon supporters, but I imagine probably the four Tapu, followed by Solgaleo and Lunala. I actually have a fairly short question queue at the moment (feel free to jump in and stock me up for the month!), but upcoming topics are a continuation of the debate on Arceus and the nature of morality, and a rework of the Symbiosis ability.

Meanwhile, according to Duolingo my Japanese is now about as good as my French, German and Italian. Frankly, this is not good news for my French, German and Italian, but I do now know three different ways of refusing to eat vegetables in Japanese, so THAT’LL be useful for the secret project I want to do in 5 years or so (I’ve said too much; speak of this to no one).

This blog now has six extremely intelligent and attractive Patreon supporters: Verb, Bradley, James Crooks, hugh_donnetono, Esserise and Hamish Fyfe. It is thanks to their efforts that this blog is now powered by WordPress Premium, which allows meaningful customisation other than just switching wholesale to a completely different theme (this is why in-text links are now in a colour that you can actually see, and there is now a search bar). For seeing fit to pledge a truly astonishing $12 per month to my lunatic cause, Verb is also the first member of my Dark Council (unique title to be determined), who will one day rule the ashes of this world alongside me.

As long as we’re here I might as well talk a bit about my Patreon tiers:
$1/month makes you a Minion, and means you have the right to be consulted (as a group) on matters of blog business from time to time.
$4/month makes you a Cultist; everything at this tier and above gets you a listing on my Acknowledgements page (if you have a website or something that you want to promote, I can include a link there), and questions that you submit to me through Patreon (either by DM or by posting in the “community” section) will be prioritised over stuff from my regular question box.
$8/month makes you an Acolyte; at this tier and above, you can see “behind-the-scenes” posts I’ll make from time to time about my writing process or other idle musings (now that I have at least one person who’s entitled to it).
$12/month makes you a member of the Dark Council; members will each receive unique titles (determined by my whims, in consultation with individual Councillors) on the Acknowledgements page, and each month, the Council will be invited to nominate and vote on a topic for me to investigate for an article (in addition to my existing plans).

(At some point I feel like I should review what each tier gets, in consultation with the existing Patrons, and maybe shuffle things, but for the moment this is the structure)

The funding goal I currently have listed is $30/month to upgrade to WordPress Business and unlock plugins, which is what you need for basically any really interesting or powerful site customisation. I’m honestly not 100% sure anymore that the upgrade is worth it, since I’ve managed to add a search bar on my current level and most of the other things I might be able to do are cool, but basically bells and whistles. Still… although I’m not sure at the moment what an appropriate monthly goal would be, I am going to need to buy a Nintendo Switch at some point if I’m going to review and discuss the generation VIII games, and every little bit helps.

Right. I think that’s all the business we have to attend to. I now release you to get on with… whatever it is that you do when you’re not reading this blog (I assume… running drugs from outer space? Hunting endangered mammals with an obsidian handaxe? Writing fake Shakespeare plays in your own blood? You know, normal hobbies).