It was something that needed to happen - but I do, in fact, think I need a different outlet for it. I am considering creating a “digital junkyard” - a place for brain dumps that really serve no purpose other than getting them out of my mind so they don’t consume brain cells. ;)

Yeah - I wasn’t planning to… I actually thought I would only write four or five pages, but on page five I started into a brain dump that carried on to page six, and by the time I’d wrapped everything up I was on page seven…

I haven’t begun to write yet… 🤣

So, for today’s writing, I went longer than I had planned. I thought I was going to write four-five pages, but then I had a surprise page at the end. (No details, but it was about some related things that I’ve been avoiding.)

Heh - I’ve seen my reputation go down for various posts, but not anything like the hit you’ve taken. Hopefully this account will be better for you.

I’m digging pretty deep into something that has been on my mind for close to five years at this point… That’s why I can write so much about it.

So, I posted my page count today: 5. I’m still trying to keep with my writing everything in second person. Trying to be more detached about some topics so I can try to look at them objectively - the idea of putting a bit of distance between yourself and the topic seems to be helping some. (These are topics I’ve never written about in any journal before…)

Thanks Libb!

When I was in school it wasn’t too hard to find narrow rule - almost any stationery store or drug store would have narrow ruled paper.

These days I’m generally around 7-8mm width. I started writing with a fountain pen a few months ago, so having a bit more space works better.

Sure, just thought I would share my reasoning for coming up with the 300–350 words that I put in the original announcement.

Also, something else that I forgot to mention… If we went by 500 words per page, that would mean that a daily entry would be around 1500 words. 1500 words is within 200 words of the FediWriMo goal of 1666 words. I didn’t want to have a goal that was too close to the FediWriMo goal for writing a journal.

Oh, I forgot to mention the page rule portion. Yes, a lot of people still use college rule paper. Personally, I used to prefer narrow ruled paper. The thing is, there are a lot of variations throughout the world… See an article like How Far Apart Are Lines on Notebook Paper? A Complete Guide to Ruling Standards to get an idea.,

This is why I was suggesting around 300–350 words per page. I didn’t want to go with the standard 500 words per page (which I’ve known since college), and I felt that 250 would be a bit on the low side.

So, the idea of 300–350 words per page was to not over burden new users, while still making the goal significant.

Another reason for the 300-350 goal was the proliferation of different paper sizes. I feel like more people are likely using A5 sized notebooks, whereas in the past they were more likely using A4.

In the end, I don’t think emphasizing the word count or the page count is the important aspect for this event. There are two things that I think are more important:

1. The writing should be significant to the author. IE, you want to write about something that is important to you, and may even take you out of your comfort zone a bit.

2. The frequency of the writing. While not everyone can do every day, getting into as regular of a groove with writing a journal is important. I suggested in the introduction guide that I’ve reached the point where I don’t feel quite right if I don’t write something every day. That’s the kind of thing I hope this event will help others with.

Well, I managed to write four pages today… I focused on a single topic, but didn’t follow the prompt.

Yup, and the article (Ranked: The Best-Selling Video Games Since 2020} that was published using that data mis-represents it:

This visualization ranks the best-selling video games from 2020 to 2025 based on global unit sales using data from Video Game Sales Wiki (Fandom).

IMO - I find the “Visual Capitalist” site to be a questionable source of information… There are quite a few red flags when it comes to that site.

Oh, I get it…but my point is not everyone will get it, and the information is inaccurate. Sorry you can’t understand that data presentation isn’t just about gamers…it’s a much larger issue these days… And this is just a really good example of it being handled badly.

There’s nothing about this that says “Best-Selling Video Games Released Between 2020-2025”.

And, the tagline “Where Data Tells The Story” really means they should be explaining exactly the data they are presenting. Accurate framing is every bit as important as the information… You can’t assume that two people looking at the same piece of information are going to interpret it the same way unless it is properly framed and presented.

Not saying it isn’t…but we don’t need to have MediaWiki in PieFed. 😀

If that’s what they are counting, then the graphic should say that…

I was more embarrassed that I hadn’t subscribed… One of the problems I’m noticing is how some of the communities are categorized – like this one is under “Things People Are Into” instead of something like “Hobbies” or “Writing”.

You can hate me for saying this, but there’s no way Minecraft shouldn’t be on that chart. If this data is right Minecraft Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025), the sales between 2020 and 2023 would be ~100M.