My thoughts on Ngee Khiong's Blog Closure

In the beginning of the month, Ngee khiong announced the closing of this close to 5 year old blog which served many gundam / gunpla lovers news and information. That was one move that came so sudden and affected many "lifestyles". The question come into my mind at that point of time was "is he doing the right thing?"


It took Ngee Khiong a couple of days to do his concluding post and pour his heart out about his disappointments and what had happened along the 4 years plus journey of his blogging. While Ngee khiong final post is out, many in the gunpla community were already discussing which blog or website will take over Ngee Khiong rather than hearing out what Ngee Khiong have to say. I guess many are concern about being feed rather than what has happen to the feeder. (tired smile ^^;)

Ngee Khiong want to be a Rich blogger?
If Ngee Khiong was out to get money, then he had been doing a lousy job as there were so little advertisements and no sponsorship on his blog. His blog was never given the recognition officially by Bandai  for the works he had done but strangely some speculate he work for the company to milk their money by sharing the news. Instead of recognition, he received hate and threatening mail. It is definitely not about fame.

So why Ngee Khiong share Gundam news with us?
One word. Passion.

Unlike many bloggers, Ngee khiong actually read lot of gunpla news from the long links on his last post. And out of what he read, he then blogged those that he want to share to his reader. He did not read for the sake of blogging but it is something he enjoy doing. Unlike some bloggers who read for the sake of sharing on the blogs and some simply cut and paste others content and make it their own just to gain search engine traffic.

What so good about his news?
It is because his news is fast? Hardly. Most of  his news were already posted on other website and what he does was to do a compilation about it. In his post, he will organize the products linking to other sources while verifying the truth behind the news by other channels. Sometime he need to translate Japanese, ensuring release date and inter-linking related topic link with the knowledge he has for Gundam while constantly forbidding himself not to give bias comment for the benefit of his readers. That is the quality of his post and his success formula. Yet with even unbiased view, the reader biased-ness came in and spoils the soup…

Who will feed me with gunpla news now?
Good news is that all these 4 years of blogging, Ngee Khiong made many disciples (unofficially). On one hand some follow the Ngee Khiong standard of sharing the news while on the other hand some shameless webmaster rip every latest post of Ngee khiong and post it on their own domain for web traffic.

In short, Ngee Khiong have set a trend and expectation on how Gundam news should be presented. It is a real challenge for anyone to match his shoes. I am not talking about showing lots of news photo that already posted on the web somewhere but the knowledge, information and more of all unbiased news to be out for all to read. That is the value.

What Ngee Khiong shared on the last post change anything?
You tell me. I do hope everyone will be better from this lost.

Ngee Khiong you are forbidden to close your blog!
The truth and fact is that Ngee Khiong never owe us anything. He did not made any promise that he will blog on Gunpla news forever and neither did we pay him for his services. So there isn't any binding terms and maybe we just took it for granted that his blog always be there.

Did Ngee Khiong did the right thing?
To the readers, it will never be the right thing. To me, Ngee Khiong never lose anything too. He is still reading Gundam news (it’s just that he doesn’t need to share it anymore on his blog), fixing his model kit and busy with his work just with lesser things on his mind to worry about. Furthermore, he is still blogging on another blog of his, Ngee Khiong Ex.

Although Ngee Khiong said that he did not graciously end his blog, many of his readers expressed their gratefulness and sent best wishes to him. I personally salute his ability to let go somethings which he have achieved just like that.

Whatever it is, I am looking forward to read more of Ngee khiong as a person at his Ngee Khiong Ex blog.

Ngee Khiong is still around if you are interested to know him as a person and a blogger. :)

Disclaimer: The above writing is done based on my point of view regarding Ngee Khiong blog. It may not represent on in part or full of what Ngee Khiong feel or did.

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