What is Avoider.net?

Updated on 27 June 2023, subject to further change.

Avoider.net is an online outlet for deep appreciation of everything under the sun through the lens of entertainment and recreational media and beyond them, exploring dimensions of experience through digital adventure from here to parts unknown.

This is a creative repository for pursuing knowledge, exploring interest, and kindling passion, which are continually refined them through writing and commentary. This is neither a news website nor a content regurgitator. This is not an outlet meant to just keep its author relevant.

You can expect reviews, features, editorials, guides, lists, and video content here. Whether it’s serious or nonsensical, practical or pretentious, long or short, all content here is meant to dissect the tried-and-true while trying really hard to tread new ground simply because it’s worth doing.

Curation over critique is the key principle. The trap of cynicism without substance is alluring and deceiving, and many self-styled critics have fallen for it because they think being a snob bestows upon them the cloak of discerning taste. While critique is important, sharing experiences — both good and bad — is even more so.

The aim is to connect dots and fill gaps to spark curiosity and make better sense of the world through the perspective of the author, even if it’s a tiny bit. If anything here piques your interest and makes you think in any way, then that goal has been achieved.

History

The blog dates back to 2009, when there was still no clue whether it was going to be a review site or just a personal blog. It was then expanded from a Blogger site to a hosted website in 2012. Despite procrastination and wavering interest, it remains alive to as an experiment gone both horribly wrong and somehow right at the same time.

Everything in the website had been built from scratch through the course of over a decade. Its development continues to move at a snail’s pace, but with the certainty of celestial cycles, much like that of the author. It remains as the author’s main hub for learning new skills and exploring new ideas.

Etymology

Avoider.net came from Avoiderdragon, the brand’s former name which was conjured from sudden inspiration after waking up from a nap in an Internet cafe one afternoon on 2004. It stuck around for over 18 years until the author decided to rebrand and truncate it to its current form in late 2022. You may learn more about the rebrand here.

The name best represents the author’s philosophy and personality, as well as his affinity for the unusual and the unorthodox. With the rebrand, that representation has been bolstered as its former ridiculousness has been shed to reveal a more concise and substantial essence.

Current State

At first, it was merely a blog about gaming and other forms of entertainment and recreational media. It has since been expanded to cover a host of other topics that the author is interested in. Its inspirations include websites like Kotaku, Boing Boing, Tested, Cracked, The Modern Rogue, and so on, which are also blogs and magazine-style websites that feature a variety of topics.

Other than just blog posts and articles, there are also plans for videos and other forms of content. There is always a need to diversify for any sort of online publication, but there is also a need to focus on a specific thing to have direction. As it continues to grow and change with the times, perhaps more light can be shed on what Avoider.net should really be about.

About the Author

Sonny Go is a freelance writer and multimedia artist based in Manila, Philippines and the proprietor of Avoider.net. It takes stubbornness and questionable thinking to stick with such a silly and seemingly pointless endeavor, but it keeps existential demons at bay and provides an outlet of self-expression, which is worth having in these increasingly absurd times.

He does other things on the side, like being the lead commentator and ring announcer of Manila Wrestling Federation and popping up in other people’s content every now and then. His three main passions in life are writing, history, and martial arts. Everything else in his life is somehow related to one or more of these three, and this blog serves as a way to chronicle and converse about his observations and experiences related to these subjects and its countless tangents.

His aspirations for Avoider.net are not lofty. He only wants to have an outlet where he can express himself fully in his own terms. There are countless successful blogs on the Internet, and he has even written for some of them. The only heights this blog has to reach is the continued fulfillment of its goal to explore experiences and connect dots.