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[avoider-net]

Rebranding is hard

Even if it’s something barely anyone looks at, it’s something I spend quality time shaping and honing at my leisure. While I only do it for fun, it’s still something I pour a good bit of my soul into, which is why it’s worth considering somewhat seriously.

But for me, the thing that gave me difficulty wasn’t the rebrand itself since my old one was such a long edgy-ass name anyway, so this new one is a welcome change. What put my balls through a salad shooter was dealing with the main asset of the brand, which is the website.

Website

It was expensive since I had to get a new domain name — the very thing that made consider the rebrand in the first place. If the domain weren’t available and I didn’t fall in love with it at first sight, I would’ve stayed Avoiderdragon for at least another 18 years.

The blog has a decade’s worth of posts. They’re not a lot since I couldn’t be consistent with writing posts throughout the years, but there are some bangers in there with SEO that I didn’t want to lose. I had previously paid for the old domain for the next 10 years, and I did the same for the new one. The good thing with that splurge is that I could set up a redirect.

Unfortunately, the only real way for me to do that is to find a service that has better options for redirecting. My current hosting service doesn’t have one that lets its https domain redirect to my new one, so I had to route it to another service that turned out to have such an option.

I split hairs for a couple of days and spent thousands of pesos (which I can afford, so don’t worry) to finally find a way to make every URL in my old domain redirect to my new one and still be able to use whatever minuscule chunk of SEO I got for the past decade.

Perhaps this time, with a new and better brand, I’ll be motivated to write stuff that will get way more views so I won’t have to care about the SEO of the old domain anymore and I can finally put it to rest (and save some money).

YouTube Channel

The reason I really wanted a rebrand was so I could be assed enough to do something about my long-abandoned YouTube channel, which I stopped uploading to in the middle of 2018. While making videos has never stopped being fun for me, it stopped being so for that channel with that name due to mistakes I made along the way and all the toxic comments I foolishly deigned to read.

I gave it a long-delayed spring cleaning. I downloaded the old videos I uploaded there as far back as 12 years ago and then deleted them. It used to be my personal channel, so I had some really old stuff with my friends in them. As I counted down the years, it made me think that perhaps I really should’ve uploaded more, but I couldn’t do that just because I wanted to blow up because I know that would only result in shoddy work and questionable ethics.

Video is a lot of hard work, and I don’t want to fall into the trap of doing it just because I had to. This time around, I got a bunch of drafts I would like to try turning into videos I can be proud of. I think I’ll do that by starting over and redoing the videos that have remained in the channel. If I can improve on them, I know I can redeem myself.

Facebook Page

I live in the Philippines. Therefore, I’m on Facebook. That’s just how it goes. While I have multiple YouTube channels because I have no lick of sense, I have one Facebook page I upload all my vids and share all my blog posts to. I also share links and write statuses on it. I don’t expect it to blow up at all since it’s neither a meme page nor full of lewds that would attract eyeballs.

But I’ve had a couple of videos go viral in Facebook. That brings me some hope as while the YouTube algorithm is a cruel mistress and going viral on Twitter is basically setting yourself up for public torture, the Facebook algorithm seems to be a bit more fair. I should upload more on it and see if I can find some traction with more content.

I also used to stream on Facebook because it was easier for me to get an audience through it, no matter how small. But there’s no way to blow up as a streamer in that platform unless you’re a pretty girl playing Mobile Legends or a known online personality. And even if you’re famous on Facebook, you get up to a few thousand viewers at best, nowhere near Twitch numbers.

While its a surprisingly ok platform for video, it’s being superseded by TikTok. Even if Facebook now has reels, YouTube also has Shorts now, so its a double whammy against it. Meta lost several billion dollars this year due to what now-former Meta VR consultant and executive John Carmack would describe as “inefficient and fragile”. Just give the Meta Business Suite a try and tell me it’s not a convoluted mess.

However, Facebook is the only platform I was able to properly rebrand to Avoider.net with. All other platforms don’t take the dot on either the profile or the URL, and worse is some don’t take it on both (fucking YouTube). Perhaps the one sacrifice with this rebrand is that I don’t have a consistency with URLs on every social media channel like I used to.

(I also was able to do so with TikTok, but I haven’t been on there long enough.)

And before you say, “Why not just make it avoidernet?”, I counter that by saying that the point of having the dot there is to promote the website. Perhaps in the future, I’ll get rid of that separator and just have it be ‘avoidernet’ once I get over the need to promote the website through it, but that’s not going to be for a while.

Other Channels

If I get really active, I should post on other platforms like TikTok and Instagram. However, the caveat here is that minding more than two platforms is not recommended as you’d stretch yourself too thin and won’t be able to do your best work in the platorms that actually matter for your brand.

But if making shortform video content becomes a part of what I do, then I might as well give some priority those platforms as well. 

Conclusion

I can’t promise that I won’t be lazy. But so far, with this rebrand, I’ve been feeling quite motivated. Let’s see how it goes for 2023.

[avoider-net]

I’m cleaning up my old YouTube channel and had to look at my past attempts at making content. They make me cringe not only because they were bad, but also because I realized that I made them without any long-term vision in mind. I was merely imitating whatever I saw that time, and I didn’t even work hard enough to make that work.

The video that made me quit is also the one that got the most views. I made one measly mistake that I shouldn’t have been troubled with, yet that was what made me go off the rails. I made a mea culpa video to acknowledge my mistake, then I couldn’t will myself to make more.

I still regret letting myself fall off the wagon like that. If I had just kept going, perhaps I would’ve made some stuff along the way that I could’ve been proud of. But alas, I have to console myself with the adage, “The best time to plant a tree was a decade ago; the next best time is now.”

From this day forward, this Tumblr blog will serve as my journal for how I make content going forward. I don’t expect people to read these posts, but I hope that I stay on course this time around and make stuff that makes me happy. While I don’t like how my past content turned out, I remember enjoying working on them. Maybe I should just focus on the process and not just the result.

Maybe by doing that, I’ll end up making things I can be happy with.

[avoider-net]

The Battle of Alesia Continues to Inspire Me

Maybe I should write more about military history every now and then just to mix things up a bit.

I’ve written a good bit about military history on this blog, comparing generals to martial artists and professional gamers. Since I’ve been learning more about them and their battles, perhaps it’s time I specifically focus on them to expound on what made them tick and what interests me about their motivations and leadership. Each has their own motivations and styles of leadership, but there was…

[avoider-net]

More on Playing Lame and the Art of Defense

This blog post took me almost two weeks to complete, but I say it was worth it. This is a follow-up to an old post I did 7 years ago.

This is a follow-up to one of my favorite blog posts I’ve ever written. It’s understandable why defense is seen as lame and boring, while self-sacrificial offense is seen as valiant and entertaining. We can have idiots who deliberately put themselves in harm’s way and get people cheering their lungs off while downing gallons of Bud Light, then not be given even an ounce of shit about when they…

[avoider-net]

Fool on the Hill: Cyberpunk 2077 Tarot Card Meanings

Since the game is now kinda back in vogue, I can finally put out this old draft and be done with it.

After almost two years, it seems like Cyberpunk 2077 was able to pull off a No Man’s Sky by pulling itself out of the pit of shame with great effort, along with help from the hit Netflix anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. I haven’t finished watching the show yet, but it already got me back to the game after 20 months. While my return hasn’t been entirely smooth as I’ve forgotten much of the…

[avoider-net]

Getting a Synology and My Past NAS Experience

It's expensive, but it becomes more worth it as time passes and you learn more about how to maximize it.

In July 2022, I gave myself a belated birthday present of sorts by finally pulling the trigger on a longtime wishlist item. I finally acquired network-attached storage, which I’ve been dreaming of getting for years. While my wallet is now much lighter, I believe it’s worth the expense to have my own file server which can also be used for other purposes. This is about my experiences with the…

[avoider-net]

Maono AU-AM100 Maonocaster Audio Interface Review

I thought it was going to be an upgrade for me. I now understand what it's really for, but it just wasn't for me.

For the longest time, I’ve coveted famous streamers for their setups, especially their audio gear. I would yearn for a camera with good enough visual fidelity to take advantage of Nvidia Broadcast, as well as a dynamic microphone fit for professional voice work and an audio interface to match. This year, I gained the ability to obtain all the gear I ever wanted, and I did. While it didn’t make me…

[avoider-net]

Akko 5075S Barebone Kit Custom Keyboard Review

Akko 5075S Barebone Kit Custom Keyboard Review

After customizing my Keychron K2 V2, I thought I was done with keyboards. Perhaps I should’ve known that it wasn’t yet my endgame and I would soon yearn for more. It took almost half a year for me to feel the itch again, but I did eventually get the urge again to look for something new, especially one with a knob. I also wanted to try using a new switch since I wanted to see if there was…

[avoider-net]

Canelo vs. GGG 3: Perfectly Calculated Risk

It wasn't that hard to analyze this fight, and boxing is usually the hardest combat sport to analyze.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is in an interesting spot in his career. He’s in his prime at the age of 32 and is one of the most technically interesting fighters in boxing today. He tried to capture the light-heavyweight world title only to be upset by Dmitry Bivol, who turned out to have the perfect game plan against Canelo’s style. Having taken the second loss in his career, he set out to prove that…

[avoider-net]

The Three Levels of Combat

Reacting is basically standing still while waiting for disaster to happen, whether you're fighting or playing video games or investing in the stock market.

My eternal quest to find the parallels between real fighting and video games will go on for as long as I live because I have to compensate for my lack of skill and talent in both. My unwillingness to dedicate a significant amount of time in practicing either of them is equaled by my overwhelming need to seem knowledgeable and insightful by bridging the gap between them in increasingly convoluted…

[avoider-net]

Cartuber Explains Postmodernism Better Than Jordan Peterson

As of this writing, I’m going through this 3-hour epic on lobster enthusiast Jordan B. Peterson, Canada’s benzo-addled middle child. Mind you, I’m not 100% a JP hater as I like it whenever he plies his actual field of expertise. I even find his lectures and interviews insightful. However, he’s insufferable whenever he delves into subjects outside his scope. Whether we like it or not, he’s a…

[avoider-net]

Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Coping

Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Coping

If there’s one character in Elden Ring that I both get annoyed with and can relate with, it’s Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing. That combination makes him insufferable, and that’s what also makes him a memorable character, especially near the end of the game. But I didn’t have to finish the game to get his schtick since that had been spelled out by the intro. The epithet of “All-Knowing” is not…

[avoider-net]

Dipping Jab: The Noob Tube of Fighting That Bewildered Amanda Nunes

This is basically me piggybacking off of Uncle Jack Slack, who's a superior fight analyst.

Jack Slack is one of the best combat sports writers out there, known for insightful analysis. He never fails to educate even veterans who have been training for decades, and I recently experienced the Jack Slack effect for myself. His analysis of Julianna Peña’s upset victory over Amanda Nunes for the UFC women’s bantamweight title greatly informed my viewing of their rematch. The way Peña…

[avoider-net]

Canelo Alvarez Does Muay Thai... Sort Of

Two months late, but it's less about the fight and more about what Canelo does.

It has been a while since I wrote a blog post about boxing, and especially  Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. He has since been pulled a couple of notches down the P4P rankings due to his decision loss to WBA light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol. But while most would say he lost due to being too small for light-heavyweight, that takes away from Bivol’s performance. The answer he came up with for the…

[avoider-net]

Thomas Midgley Wasn't Just a Well-Meaning Idiot

For many, Thomas Midgley is an interesting piece of trivia. To me, he's yet another valuable lesson.

This post is meant to rectify an old blog post I wrote about well-meaning idiots, specifically the inventor Dr. Thomas Midgley, Jr. In that post, I put him in the same category as John Chau, the American missionary who willingly got himself killed by traveling to the Sentinel Islands to preach the Gospel to its infamously solitary natives. But now, I know better. It turns out Midgley wasn’t…

[avoider-net]

Don't Drink G Fuel or Gamer Supps

Oh no, I'm adding a health and fitness section in my blog. That's like an incel talking about cunning linguistics.

One type of product I took particular interest in is the energy drink powder since I’m a fiend when it comes to stimulants. Being a lethargic and overweight dweeb who needs caffeine and nootropics to stay awake and be slightly productive means that products like G Fuel and Gamer Supps would certainly pique my interest. But soon enough, I realized that I can’t keep imbibing this stuff for the sake…

[avoider-net]

Elden Ring Game Review: Broken Masterpiece

Really late game review. Having too much fun.

While it’s four months later since release as of this writing, I still felt compelled to publish my review of Elden Ring due to how much it has enriched my life. This is the very first game by FromSoftware that I actually got into. It made me relive the wonder I last felt over a decade ago with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. However, this game has what Skyrim lacks, which are fun and engaging…