I've actually been working on Tendo City lately. It's good to have free time again. I just wanted to talk about some of the things coming (and going).
First, the going. We all know how successful we've been trying to operate a dynamic, up-to-date webpage. It hasn't worked, and it's unlikely it ever will. We don't have the time, the manpower, or the interest to keep it going. When it was up, few read it, and most of the important stuff ended up on the forums anyway.
So, I am going to do away with it, somewhat.
It's true that there were some features of the page that people did like. Those I will keep, and restore from long ago death. Creativity will be brought back, with links to Comics, Shiggies, and other creative works made by Tendocitizens.
Reviews are now finally a part of the forum itself. They are now easily seen, easily accessed, and easy to post to. You'll see them every time you come to the boards, so there's no excuse not to drop in and write one yourself every now and then! I will need someone to perform moderating duties for Reviews, and unlike other mods, this one actually will have to do work, as I don't want non-Review threads or posts in this forum, and they will be moved out or deleted. Yes, there are actually rules at TC, whod've thought? :D
The last major announcement is the Archives.
This is the final thread ever posted in Rumble City:
Quote:Over the last three hours, Abstractica and I painstakingly saved every single remaining thread in the entirety of Rumble City, from all 34 pages of RC's topics, to Ramble and ROTM and even Forum5. I will make an effort to eventually archive them somewhere, so that we will always have our history. ana, thanks again, from the bottom of my heart.
Long Live Rumble! I will see everyone at Tendo, for this is my farewell post here.
~Ryan Usher, AKA Weltall
05-03-2000 ~ 02-15-2001
POsts: 935
*walks away*
I have been promising to build these archvies forever. Now, thanks to a brilliant Dark Jaguar idea, all of these threads I've had for so long have finally been given the works. All of them have fixed images, working links, and everything. They are just as you will remember them. What remains is that these threads need to be indexed. This will take a while, as it will likely have to be done by hand.
I also have all of the TC threads from Apr. 2001 - Dec. 2002, and they will also be given the works and archived the same way. Since there is a lot more complexity involved here, it will take awhile longer.
But there is finally light at the end of the tunnel, and I can finally make good on the promise I made four years ago.
So, there's going to be a need for help with the indexing. Anyone who has a good HTML editor, some time and a lot of patience... I'd love to have you on board to help. We're also going to have to do some major spring cleaning of the server.
Like I said yesterday, I'll try to help out if I can.
Quote:Reviews are now finally a part of the forum itself. They are now easily seen, easily accessed, and easy to post to. You'll see them every time you come to the boards, so there's no excuse not to drop in and write one yourself every now and then! I will need someone to perform moderating duties for Reviews, and unlike other mods, this one actually will have to do work, as I don't want non-Review threads or posts in this forum, and they will be moved out or deleted. Yes, there are actually rules at TC, whod've thought?
... rules? Tendo City? but... we don't have rules! I thought that was the rule... :)
Anyway, it's funny to see us go back to this system... (given how 'reviews are in forums' was the system we had before you switched it to this one... :D). I thought it worked then, and I'm sure it'll work again now. I know the reason you changed -- it'd be nice to have a standardized review format and scoring system -- but I'd suggest solving that by having a sticky post in the review forum with guidelines for reviews. After all, just because you post them (and not use a template) doesn't mean that you can't have them follow a format...
Quote:First, the going. We all know how successful we've been trying to operate a dynamic, up-to-date webpage. It hasn't worked, and it's unlikely it ever will. We don't have the time, the manpower, or the interest to keep it going. When it was up, few read it, and most of the important stuff ended up on the forums anyway.
So, I am going to do away with it, somewhat.
It's true that there were some features of the page that people did like. Those I will keep, and restore from long ago death. Creativity will be brought back, with links to Comics, Shiggies, and other creative works made by Tendocitizens.
We've always had SOME kind of main page, though, even if no one cares about it... what will it be this time? "Click here to enter the forums"? :)
Really, I don't know... there should be something, but I'm not sure what. A real site, like we have now, gets ignored. Or it gets used a little (like the version we had a few years ago), but not nearly as much as it'd have to be to make it worth it. So that's out... just a simple homepage like Rumble City had, with 'current popular threads' and forum-info or subsection links? (reviews, creativity, archives, etc)? I don't know... that's a start though.
Quote:I have been promising to build these archvies forever. Now, thanks to a brilliant Dark Jaguar idea, all of these threads I've had for so long have finally been given the works. All of them have fixed images, working links, and everything. They are just as you will remember them. What remains is that these threads need to be indexed. This will take a while, as it will likely have to be done by hand.
Web.archive.org will be a great help for reconstructing a few of those thread-list pages. The other threadlist pages will have to be made from scratch, though... archive.org's better than nothing but not as good as you wish it would be, as usual.
A Black Falcon Wrote:... rules? Tendo City? but... we don't have rules! I thought that was the rule... :)
Anyway, it's funny to see us go back to this system... (given how 'reviews are in forums' was the system we had before you switched it to this one... :D). I thought it worked then, and I'm sure it'll work again now. I know the reason you changed -- it'd be nice to have a standardized review format and scoring system -- but I'd suggest solving that by having a sticky post in the review forum with guidelines for reviews. After all, just because you post them (and not use a template) doesn't mean that you can't have them follow a format...
That's a good idea. There definitely needs to be a standard.
The reviews were always technically within the forum, but now they are actually a forum themselves. It's the same but different :D
We've always had SOME kind of main page, though, even if no one cares about it... what will it be this time? "Click here to enter the forums"? :)
Quote:Really, I don't know... there should be something, but I'm not sure what. A real site, like we have now, gets ignored. Or it gets used a little (like the version we had a few years ago), but not nearly as much as it'd have to be to make it worth it. So that's out... just a simple homepage like Rumble City had, with 'current popular threads' and forum-info or subsection links? (reviews, creativity, archives, etc)? I don't know... that's a start though.
Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking. Something perhaps a tad more complex than rumblecity.net (the archives alone will ensure that), but something not much more complex. By the time someone thinks to post major gaming news on the page, and worse still, by the time anyone reads it, everyone's already seen someone's post here about it.
Quote:Web.archive.org will be a great help for reconstructing a few of those thread-list pages. The other threadlist pages will have to be made from scratch, though... archive.org's better than nothing but not as good as you wish it would be, as usual.
I'm considering several options. One involves our new hero, etoven. You may have noticed the site went down this afternoon. Turns out our database somehow fell prey to several serious errors, stuff I would have had no idea how to fix. ol Erich had us back up within ten minutes.
I think he's earned his Hot Chicks Room.
It worked?! I mean, of course it worked... um....
Anyway, I was willing to help make that batch converter if you wanted, but good to know you did it yourself just fine, good to know because now I can be lazy and still get credit :D.
So, good on ya mate! I like where this is going.
I have notepad :D, which is the HTML editor I always use.
Anyway, send me a /tell (er, PM) and I'll do what I can to help you out there.
Quote:That's a good idea. There definitely needs to be a standard.
The reviews were always technically within the forum, but now they are actually a forum themselves. It's the same but different
No, the current reviews system isn't in the forum. It's in the homepage software. :) But you knew that.. :)
Anyway, the question is, what standard for reviews should we use...
Quote:Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking. Something perhaps a tad more complex than rumblecity.net (the archives alone will ensure that), but something not much more complex. By the time someone thinks to post major gaming news on the page, and worse still, by the time anyone reads it, everyone's already seen someone's post here about it.
Given our current forum, rumblecity.net is probably the best model... tendocity.net would require more work, and that's exactly what failed so miserably with this homepage. :) (though it'll need modification, as you say, of course)
Yeah, a 'news' section would be kind of pointless here. I mean, have some newsbox or something somewhere (to keep that one "new homepage!" message in, for the next year... :D), but don't expect it to be used much. :)
Quote:I'm considering several options. One involves our new hero, etoven. You may have noticed the site went down this afternoon. Turns out our database somehow fell prey to several serious errors, stuff I would have had no idea how to fix. ol Erich had us back up within ten minutes.
I think he's earned his Hot Chicks Room.
Found a replacement for demon, then? (though he's still on msn sometimes) :)
... something bad happened to the site? Any idea why?
Quote:Anyway, I was willing to help make that batch converter if you wanted, but good to know you did it yourself just fine, good to know because now I can be lazy and still get credit .
He found a program to do it, I'm pretty sure, easier than making one yourself... :)
As Review King, I hubmly request the position of official Review Forum moderator. If you must remove my Debate Forum priveledges to do so, I'm willing to accept that. I think I've used them...twice?
But you're an admin, who cares what forum you're the mod of? Just for the principle of the thing? :)
Hey, here's a suggestion, for both the Comics Forum and Reviews Forum. Can you have the forum set to default to sort by TITLE instead of Most Recent Posted? That'd be great, if possible! Alphabetical order... no issues with moving the posts around by posting in old threads. Yes, you always could just resort it that way yourself, but it'd be easier if it was just made default, especially for the Reviews Forum.
That's something that you can do manually, but I don't know if you can set it up to that automatically and only for that forum.
I wasn't sure if you could, which is why I asked...
Heh, Weltall picked that monkey boy for his avatar.
You're the funniest part of that picture, though! Next to maybe Jellybean or Ryan.
I still laugh everytime I see that picture. :D
Sounds good. Whatever kind of frontpage you do make, make sure the forum is highlighted. I can imagine someone finding the current frontpage and leaving without ever clicking on the forums.
Yeah, it is a small button, isn't it...
Yes. It should be clear to any passer-by that the front page is an appetizer and the forums are the entree.
The problem is, how many passersby do you think we're getting?
Very, very few. We haven't been linked by ... anywhere ... in years, and that's how you get people.
It's so hard to do that anymore, though. One gets the impression we almost need a dynamic site to achieve some sort of popularity. Unfortunately, I have neither the time nor the energy to spend on such a project, and I don't think anyone else here does either.
Yeah, I know... :( And hence the problem.
We need some sort of grassroots drive.
For instance, we can spraypaint the URL on the sides of people's cars.
I know, we can create a virus that uses a horrible flaw in Internet Explorer to force everyone to make TC their homepage, bookmark TC 100 times, and only have the ability to browse TC while other sites will force TC to be bookmarked another 100 times. It's genius I tell ya! Of course, if people keep forgoing IE for Firefox we're screwed.
If I printed a thousand stickers with the website's URL and just stuck them randomly everywhere...
It'd be like that All Your Base shit, only in real life and with tangible results! People would come out of sheer curiosity.
*thinks* Okay, I got it. Sattelites. Are you with me here? Giant sattelites. In orbit. With the url in letters as tall as Empire State. Expensive? Yes. But it will work!
That's actually being DONE by companies, the satellite thing. You see with an orbit as far as the moon, the size you'd need would be ridiculous, but the orbits most human made satellites are in, WAY closer, a mere fraction to an extreme degree, they are just like RIGHT up there, you can make an image as big as the full moon appears with just a mile diameter satellite. The idea is to just use a really huge sheet, and what with the lack of gravity (well you know what I mean) and the total lack of wind sheer of any kind, there's 0 stress on it that might cause it to rip. Just get some light on the thing and bam, you have yourself the SHAME of a SPECIES.
Quote:I know, we can create a virus that uses a horrible flaw in Internet Explorer to force everyone to make TC their homepage, bookmark TC 100 times, and only have the ability to browse TC while other sites will force TC to be bookmarked another 100 times. It's genius I tell ya! Of course, if people keep forgoing IE for Firefox we're screwed.
Not a bad idea there... who knows, could work... :)
Though the side effect of maybe getting arrested wouldn't be good. I mean, our post rate would go down again! :D
Quote:If I printed a thousand stickers with the website's URL and just stuck them randomly everywhere...
It'd be like that All Your Base shit, only in real life and with tangible results! People would come out of sheer curiosity.
The problem with the internet is that it's a worldwide thing, so having an appropriate real-world ad campaign would be a bit hard... even if you limit it just to the US. :)
We need to hire telemarketers to call random homes nationwide and threaten them to come to TendoCity or lazyfatbum will eat their children/pets/selves.
...
Or maybe we just try to advertise someplace popular?
Let's advertise in the US Senate! People are always talking about THAT!
Splendid idea!
I like the spraypaint idea best. Cars move around, yunno. Specifically target cars with out-of-state plates.
I have an idea!
*children are crying*
Officer: I got a call that some deranged asexual cat thing has been brainwashing children to spout out a website's address on command and tying them to mailboxes.
DJ: Thank goodness you're here officer! That's the perpetrator, right there, by the phone!
Darunia: Hey what, NO!
Officer: You're taking the fall son! *bang bang bang*
DJ: Wow, I can't believe you fell for that.
Officer: WHAT did you say?
DJ: Nothing. Um, did I mention what a tremendous lover you are?
Officer: No but... wait a sec...
*flashback to 3 weeks ago*
Officer: Do you know why I pulled you over?
DJ: Why no officer. Did I mention what a tremendous lover you are?
*back to now, presently*
Officer: Hey! You're that cat thing who threw a water balloon filled with PAINT at my windshield speeding by at 170 MPH!
DJ: Um, sorry you must be confusing me with someone else.
Officer: Oh, my mistake.
DJ: Idiot! You were supposed to see THROUGH my ruse and drag me away in chains!
Officer: WHAT?
DJ: Nothing!
Officer: That's it, you're taking the fall this time! *bang bang bang*
DJ: ooowiiiie!
Great Rumbler Wrote:Let's advertise in the US Senate! People are always talking about THAT!
That's a great idea. I'll talk to my friend Barack Obama and see what he can do. I voted for him so he has to do something, right?
Of course! Since you helped elect him he has to whatever you ask him to do!
umm....did i mention that i am confused?
Quote:Of course! Since you helped elect him he has to whatever you ask him to do!
Yup!
Quote:I have an idea!
*children are crying*
Officer: I got a call that some deranged asexual cat thing has been brainwashing children to spout out a website's address on command and tying them to mailboxes.
DJ: Thank goodness you're here officer! That's the perpetrator, right there, by the phone!
Darunia: Hey what, NO!
Officer: You're taking the fall son! *bang bang bang*
DJ: Wow, I can't believe you fell for that.
Officer: WHAT did you say?
DJ: Nothing. Um, did I mention what a tremendous lover you are?
Officer: No but... wait a sec...
*flashback to 3 weeks ago*
Officer: Do you know why I pulled you over?
DJ: Why no officer. Did I mention what a tremendous lover you are?
*back to now, presently*
Officer: Hey! You're that cat thing who threw a water balloon filled with PAINT at my windshield speeding by at 170 MPH!
DJ: Um, sorry you must be confusing me with someone else.
Officer: Oh, my mistake.
DJ: Idiot! You were supposed to see THROUGH my ruse and drag me away in chains!
Officer: WHAT?
DJ: Nothing!
Officer: That's it, you're taking the fall this time! *bang bang bang*
DJ: ooowiiiie!
Well, you could try it... :)
Quote:umm....did i mention that i am confused?
You've taken your first step in becoming a true member of Tendocity!
Hmm, I just thought of an idea so brilliant my head would explode if I even BEGAN to know what I was talking about!
*later on the news*
Reporter: A horrible series of accidents has occurred today on roads across America, with lives lost totaling in the thousands. Chopper Dave, over to you.
Chopper Dave: Thanks Lucy. I actually have a number of things to report. First of all someone who's had it with being cut off all the time has started putting land mines at the end of merging lanes. Those of you who always wait until the last second may want to get your affairs in order. Also some clever soul has discovered a new fad that's sweeping across the nation. Apparently if you spray a parked police car with automatic gun fire as you speed by, there's at least a 50% chance they won't chase after you. Finally, an entrepreneur in the field of advertising has discovered an amazing new way to get ads noticed. This person, going by the name of "Dark Jaguar" (ooh scary, must be some Goth) has begun throwing flyers coated in super glue on the windshields of cars as they pass under bridges. The death toll has been nothing short of catastrophic but the site owners have justified the practice by noting a 10% increase in site hits. Back to you Lucy.
And when they arrest you, just say Grand Theft Auto made you do it! That'll get you off, right?
Chopper Dave: HEYOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! *explodes*
Uh oh!
....
Let's just imagine that for a second shall we?
Bill Tieguy: *issa driving anda cell talkin'* Yeah Dave I got the results right here but there's some numbers we have to run by the *splat* WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!! OH DEAR LORD IN HEAVEN I'M BLIND! *crash* Huh... tcforums.com eh?