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Tuesday, April 5, 2005 6:19:58a: *
Today, I'm going down.
To Pittsburgh. For an interview. Not, you know, "swoon" going down or "hummer" going down.
Not really much else to say right now. Inner Circle folks know the score and should also have received an important e-mail; everyone else, wish me luck. Wednesday, April 20, 2005 12:00:00p: * The Good News: I managed to secure funding for the site through April of '06, so there's no danger of the domain going away. The person who gave me the money has requested not to be named or identified at all; out of respect for the generosity this person has shown me I will not reveal that information, now or ever.
The Bad News: I decided to close the site anyway. Now, this is not a permanent closing by any stretch of the imagination. I have chosen simply to make good on my promise to redesign the site in a more standards-friendly way. Looking at the front page, even, the site is an awful, hacked-together mess and there's simply no excuse for it-- especially if I'm trying to pass myself off as a professional web designer. So, that being said, this is (almost) all you get 'till it's done.
What's Still Active: The forums. The server change wiped out everything else, so until I can figure out how to get it back, the site is completely kaput.
What's Gone Forever: I'm making the decision to axe, permanently, the following features: the Webcam page (which hasn't worked in two years), the Video Games section (I do enough game rambling at Netjak) the d20 section (which has garnered exactly zero interest-- probably because Wizards of the Coast have done exactly zero promoting of d20 Modern), the AMV of the Month (I walk a fine line as it is in terms of bandwidth, so I'd rather not risk too much on this), The Way of the Gun (Gunslinger Girl vol.2 came out a month ago and I still haven't picked it up-- but the subsite is going anyway as I never actually updated it), and the Goblin Dice Dynamic Toy ('cause that's never worked).
What's Coming: First, I'm going to force the site to look the same on any resolution, so that means that there are going to be great big gaps on either side of the text if you're running higher than 1024x768. It'll look something like this, maybe. Next, you'll be able to choose your background color, and maybe even some other options. The site will generally be more customizable per each user's preferences. You'll be able to store your preferences in a cookie, or in a public profile. Some features, like adding custom links, won't be available unless you register-- and trust me, I'm not going to be evil with the registration or anything. The profile will basically just ask for your name, age, and that's about it. However, you'll be able to store your answers to the quizzes and the like in it. I'm also considering revamping First And Last so that it relies on the profile system. Oh yeah, I'll also be putting up new games in the Dynamic Toys section-- a slot machine and video poker are already somewhat complete; I just have to rewrite them in Perl and put graphics to them. Most of the real work will be translating stuff into Perl. I also want to try to reduce the pages' reliance on the MySQL server as much as possible. Finally, I want to know what you guys think should be on the new site. Post in the forums if you have any ideas, no matter how outlandish.
What About The Blog? I'll still be writing, but mostly in the forums until this site redesign gets done. I want to try to have it done by the end of May (which means I might not actually start until after my birthday, or my novel's first draft is done, whichever comes first).
So that's that. Wish me luck, folks.
John "TheFurryOne" Zeitler