1,457
Meeting and getting to know someone you think is interesting or that you look up to is exciting. Knowing that someone thinks you're interesting enough to interview is, arguably, even more exciting. Unfortunately, interview blogs are becoming less about getting to know someone and becoming more about posting the blog itself and getting experience to gain levels on Planet Minecraft. Too many interviews are written for the wrong reasons; ask the same, shallow questions that have been asked a thousand times; and use mostly writing provided by the person being interviewed, leaving the final product nearly devoid of any writing contributed by the poster. This rise in poorly-written, spammy experience-grab blogs has prompted me to write this is response since it is so frustrating for me as a writer to see this happening.
If you're thinking of posting a thread in the forum asking if anyone wants to be interviewed or if anyone wants to interview you, don't. An interview should be given because the person conducting the inerview genuinely finds the subject interesting and wants to learn more about them and their life. Fishing in the forum for interviews or sending mass messages to whole groups of moderators asking for or asking to do interviews makes you look desprate and doesn't make me as a reader want to view any of your work-- past, present, or future.
Too many interviews as the same questions over and over. Questions like "how did you find PMC" and "do you like Minecraft" may be relevant and are fine to include in an interview in my opinion, but if your entire line-up of questions consists of these kinds of shallow, overused questions, why would I stop to read your interview? I wish more people would ask deeper questions about their subject's past and actually try to get to know them. I would love to be interviewed by someone who asked those kinds of questions and I would certainly love answering them.
Over the past few months, I've been interviewed by a number of people and just recently a though occurred to me: all of these people are just copying and pasting the answers I give them and that's all their blog is. I've written blogs for these people and they've posted them. They've made no effort at all to add their own input regarding my answers and the whole thing felt very one-sided once I read the end product on their profiles. This thought has been circulating in my head for while, but I just have to say how frustrating it is for me as a writer and a moderator to see these people doing absolutely nothing to write their blog besides come up with 5 or 10 questions while I write them a few paragraphs of answers, successfully generating an entire blog for them.
It seems like every time I blog it's something kind of ranty, but I hope someone reading this decides to re-evaluate the way they give interviews and realizes they really shouldn't be asking people to interview them. From now on I'll certainly be a lot more picky about whose interviews I accept because of the points above and I hope some of you will too.
If you're thinking of posting a thread in the forum asking if anyone wants to be interviewed or if anyone wants to interview you, don't. An interview should be given because the person conducting the inerview genuinely finds the subject interesting and wants to learn more about them and their life. Fishing in the forum for interviews or sending mass messages to whole groups of moderators asking for or asking to do interviews makes you look desprate and doesn't make me as a reader want to view any of your work-- past, present, or future.
Too many interviews as the same questions over and over. Questions like "how did you find PMC" and "do you like Minecraft" may be relevant and are fine to include in an interview in my opinion, but if your entire line-up of questions consists of these kinds of shallow, overused questions, why would I stop to read your interview? I wish more people would ask deeper questions about their subject's past and actually try to get to know them. I would love to be interviewed by someone who asked those kinds of questions and I would certainly love answering them.
Over the past few months, I've been interviewed by a number of people and just recently a though occurred to me: all of these people are just copying and pasting the answers I give them and that's all their blog is. I've written blogs for these people and they've posted them. They've made no effort at all to add their own input regarding my answers and the whole thing felt very one-sided once I read the end product on their profiles. This thought has been circulating in my head for while, but I just have to say how frustrating it is for me as a writer and a moderator to see these people doing absolutely nothing to write their blog besides come up with 5 or 10 questions while I write them a few paragraphs of answers, successfully generating an entire blog for them.
It seems like every time I blog it's something kind of ranty, but I hope someone reading this decides to re-evaluate the way they give interviews and realizes they really shouldn't be asking people to interview them. From now on I'll certainly be a lot more picky about whose interviews I accept because of the points above and I hope some of you will too.
| Tags |
tools/tracking
2745257
6
my-view-on-interviews
![[Mobile] How to Move to Server Hall in PMC Chat Minecraft Blog](https://static.planetminecraft.com/files/image/minecraft/blog/2020/022/13425899_s.jpg)
MarioLuigi
Ryderlb09
PufferFishGuy_22
Hippopotamoss
Christ8Pizza
![Confirmed kiruna campus locatoins [BENT] Minecraft Blog](https://static.planetminecraft.com/images/layout/missing_image.png)
GoldenScientist
Ender Sparkle
Escapazition
ShellyD
Create an account or sign in to comment.
Thanks for posting this!
Interviews are meant to be informative, yes, but the general "How did you find PMC"-type questions are just dull and repetitive. I prefer, and am connected to the deeper, more personal questions (as you said) as an interview is always far better if all 3 parties involved feel like they are part of a conversation. (The interviewer, interviewee and reader that is). I wholeheartedly agree with the suggestion that the person interviewing should always provide a response, or explain why they picked the question: why is it pertinant? What response are you hoping to gain? Why do you think thsi particular question would make the interview more enjoyable as a whole? These kinds of interviews, much like your one with me2367 are a joy to read; I am instantly drawn to divulging myself.
I've seen you around the site a fair bit, but never really read up on your work (well, apart from that Life Of Steve contest entry which was stunning!) - I am so glad I decided to give this a read. I have subscribed and eagerly await any new content!
to be fair that was forever ago my dude