10 years of The Ghost Howls

Exactly today, my blog turns 10 years old. It is a huge achievement. Or better, it is a HUUUUUUUGE achievement!

This morning I started thinking about this since I woke up. And a lot of emotions started going through me since then. I feel surprised to have reached such a milestone: when I started, I thought no one was going to read my articles, and I would have closed this experiment maybe in 1 year. But 10 years later, I’m still here. But I also feel unsure about the future: a lot of “life” happened in these 10 years, and it was hard to keep writing notwithstanding all the difficulties, but I’m not sure this platform will survive other 10 years… probably not, but let’s see. I am scared for a future made by AI slop posts and short-form videos, which don’t fit with my way of creating content that is real and informative. I feel proud of what I have done: I have informed the community about many things, I have given light to small projects that then succeeded, I have tried my best for everyone. I can also feel the weight all the 10 years of sacrifices to keep this platform up: the costs for the website, the huge costs of the trips to attend the events, all the free time sacrificed writing newsletters instead of having fun, all the times I really wanted just to “cry in a corner” because of something bad but I still kept writing. And all of this was done just as a side gig, because my real job is being a developer/entrepreneur! I am very grateful because of the many people that the blog allowed me to know: if I had just stayed as a developer, I would have known a few colleagues in Italy, and that’s it. Instead, thanks to the blog, I have many good friends from the VR community around the world. Probably this is the thing I like the most about being a blogger/social media person: human connections. I feel lucky for all my trips around the world, the insightful conversations I had, the lessons I have learned, and the good food I have eaten (and also the many times I ended up on the toilet for some bad food). I also feel the pain of all the bad comments I have received over the years, the sadness for all the times I worked hard for an article, but in the end no one cared, but I also feel joy for the people thanking me for my service. I remember the few moments I had a scoop, the one occasion when an incorrect speculation of mine spread like wildfire (I still feel ashamed for that), the moment I interviewed important people, or the moment I walked into some important companies (like Huawei and Alibaba a few months ago). I also feel proud of having always stuck to my values of having an honest relationship with you: I’ve always tried to be as real as possible, as objective as possible. I laugh at all the stupid things I’ve written to give you a laugh: I still remember when people on Reddit were surprised that I said in an article that the controllers of the DayDream looked like anal plugs (I mean, they TOTALLY looked like big anal plugs, it was impossible not to see that!). I feel old watching my pictures on this blog from 10 years ago. I feel amazed by all the various awards I have won over the years, both the online ones and the physical ones: it’s great getting some recognition for the hard work. But still, above everything, I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. This has been a constant since I started with this career.

This is the year of my 10-year celebrations. I will write in the coming months some special content that is dedicated to my long career, like for instance some lessons learned over the years or some fun stories of things that happened during my trips. I am also trying to cook up some other special articles, like some special interviews, but they are still work in progress; let’s see what I’ll be able to do. Maybe I’ll also do an AMA on Reddit in the next few days, if people seem interested in it. I also thought about throwing a party, but I’m not sure how many of you would travel to Turin, Italy just for the birthday of my blog (spoiler: no one), so I gave up on that idea. But who knows, maybe I could do that during some major VR event.

Today I just want to end this article by thanking everyone who made this result possible, starting from all my readers… even if you read just one article and said “fuck this guy”, still thank you for coming to my platform, reading my post, and using all your energy to summarize it in the “fuck you” sentiment (well, it’s not exactly the sentiment I wanted… but it still means I was able to make you feel something…). Among all my readers, let me give a special mention to Matias Nassi for having followed me since the early days, and Ivan Aguilar for all the interesting links he sends to me every week. A special thank you also to my Patrons, who have been supporting this platform financially: this blog has high costs, and Patreon helps me in covering a part of them (If you want to support me, this is the link!). A special thank you to DeoVR for being my biggest Patron without asking anything in return. Huge thanks to Gianni Rosa Gallina for bringing me to VR, Tommaso Di Bartolo for giving me the suggestion to start a blog, and Massimiliano Ariani for creating this website for me: without these three people, the blog would have never existed. Thanks to Alvin Wang Graylin (aka “Mister President”) for being my first big guest. I also want to thank Alvin, together with Nikk Mitchell, DannieVR, Miss S, and Cynthia “Cinzia” Tan for all the help they have given me in my trips to China. Jussi Salonen for doing the same in Finland. Thanks to NVIDIA and DELL for being the two companies with which I had some sponsored collaborations and that let me improve a lot professionally. And also last but not the least, a standing ovation to Rob Cole, an amazing guy that I can’t even define a reader anymore, since he’s now written quite a good number of articles of this blog, sent me a lot of links for my newsletter, and facilitated a couple of interviews: if this blog was big enough to have a team, he would definitely be part of it. There would be a lot of other people to thank for the help they have given me over the years, so I’m sorry if you have helped me and you don’t see your name here… it is just because I can’t mention everyone. But trust me, I still have you in my heart. Thank you to everyone who helped me across this 10-year adventure! I love you all.

Happy birthday to my blog! Wow, what a journey…

This article was originally published on skarredghost.com