Quote from: Benoist;590939I completely disagree. If you are truly humble, you realize you cannot make that pronuncement on your own. This is something for posterity to decide, not you. You might think whatever you say is crap inferior to lolcats, but you're not deciding for me or anyone else what I think about what you post and whether it is more worthy than LOLcats, or Gary Gygax, or what/whoever else.

Posterity *has* spoken, Ben! With their cash. People buy stuff they think is important. It's REAL simple. If my stuff was worth it, more people would buy it. Cut and dried. That's a measure of importance which is not *my* judgement. It's disinterested. Anyone can apply this simple metric. People vote with their money for what they think is important.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;590942Posterity *has* spoken, Ben! With their cash. People buy stuff they think is important.

People pay to read Internet kibitzing? Shooting the shit with fellow fans, kicking around house rules, bitching about bad rules, and passing advice back and forth?

I don't think so. People buy products, they enjoy forum posts. Occasionally products might premiere here, or grow out of copious posts here, but almost none of this has real commercial value. So whether or not it sells is beside the point.

Whether or not people are inspired, amused, or educated is very much on point. Again, IMHO.

Quote from: flyingmice;590942Posterity *has* spoken, Ben!

-clash

You know I love you Clash but... fuck you it hasn't! You're not judge, jury and executioner in the matter. HPL, Clark Ashton Smith and countless others lived in misery all their lives. Their literature was considered sub par, and still is in some quarters. You're not dead and buried man, you have no say in the matter. People will judge on their own. And if I may speak for myself, I love Outremer. I certainly think it's more worth than lolcats or ... your own posts right now.

So fuck you, my friend. You're not getting away with it that easily.

Quote from: Benoist;590949You know I love you Clash but... fuck you it hasn't! You're not judge, jury and executioner in the matter. HPL, Clark Ashton Smith and countless others lived in misery all their lives. Their literature was considered sub par, and still is in some quarters. You're not dead and buried man, you have no say in the matter. People will judge on their own. And if I may speak for myself, I love Outremer. I certainly think it's more worth than lolcats or ... your own posts right now.

So fuck you, my friend. You're not getting away with it that easily.

In celebration of Google+ and Clash, you should run a Hangouts Outremer campaign, Ben.  

Quote from: flyingmice;590942Posterity *has* spoken, Ben! With their cash. People buy stuff they think is important. It's REAL simple. If my stuff was worth it, more people would buy it. Cut and dried. That's a measure of importance which is not *my* judgement. It's disinterested. Anyone can apply this simple metric. People vote with their money for what they think is important.

Cash is marketing x product. You can make a lot of money with a crap product or just as easily make nothing with a great product.

Quote from: flyingmice;590942Posterity *has* spoken, Ben! With their cash. People buy stuff they think is important. It's REAL simple. If my stuff was worth it, more people would buy it. Cut and dried. That's a measure of importance which is not *my* judgement. It's disinterested. Anyone can apply this simple metric. People vote with their money for what they think is important.

That not a truism either, the history of creative art is littered with artists whoes works were only appreciated after their death. Granted it not that common but it does happen.

However for any individual, me, you, Gygax, etc, etc. You can't predict any of this. The only thing an individual can do is pursue best ideas, and put in the hard work. In short be ready for the opportunities  but don't count on them.

From reading Playing at the World what struck me about Gygax the most was all the work he put into his hobby. For many years he was just another fanbody who loved his hobby and worked hard at it. Because of that when it came together for D&D he was ready to take advantage of it.

As for you, I don't know what prosperity will wind up thinking about your work and writing. But I do know that if you do get the opportunity you are well positioned to take advantage of it.

And just to tease you a bit, for a guy who writes what is essentially history and alternate history you are being a bit dense about the possibilities here. ;-)