Updating Team on Status...of Everything

I’m not going to lie – I’ve kind of been out of it with the site. If Manny had not kept pushing me, I probably would have been stagnant on basically everything.

But I’m slowly getting back into things. That said, here is the list and the status of everything I’ve been working on for the past couple of months:

- Comics: Chris and I have been working on the Comics section over the last few months and it’s come a long way. I’ve gotten the first 10 issues of the Star/Marvel series online.

Check it out and let me know your thoughts – http://www.thundercatslair.org/comics/marvel/marvel_index.html

- Cartoon: Since Celesta left, I’ve been working on this on my own. For now, the current format will stay, but I will be restructuring everything over the summer months (starting in May). The only thing I have to show right now is the DVD subsection and I will upload a sample page in the coming days.

Also, Neil sent me a videotape of Exodus the movie version. With my new computer, I will be adding the scenes not seen on the DVD release. Thanks to Neil for that.

- Toys: I’ve also been working with Neil and Manny to “clean up” the Toy section. That pretty much means fixing errors and adding the correct photos to the collector’s guide.

What I’ve been working on my own is a new layout for the AFA subsection. I will also be finally adding the photos that Craig contributed.

- Message Boards: I’m still running into the MYSQL database error which means vBulletin is not yet up. I have to contact the host for some information in order to get that fixed. I’m really sorry about this Manny – I know you’re really excited to get the new forums up.

- Animation Art: I haven’t really been in contact with Mark, so if he has any new updates to that particular section, I am not aware of it just yet.

- Restructuring of the Site: Over the summer, I will be making some major changes to the site’s format. While some of you may not agree with some of the decisions I will be making (which I will address to the Section Managers when the time comes), I think it will be a mass improvement over the current format. I’ll let everyone know more details in the coming weeks.

- Asking for Help, Change in Graphics: When the new message board eventually goes up, I will be using the graphic I posted in the other thread for the main logo. Sometime in the summer, I will also be chaing the main graphic (the one on top of every page) to one that Jon (Graphic Designer) and I have been working on. It will not look very different from the new board logo, which you guys liked. As for help, I may be putting up a message on the front page for those interested in helping out with content for the site. Again, you guys may not agree with it, but I think it would be great to add more people to the team and see some fresh ideas. It’ll also probably re-motivate all of us.

- Personal Update: I just recently got promoted to Work Director (AKA Supervisory Role) at work, which means I won’t have as much time on my hands until I can get used to the whole change. I WILL do my best to keep the site active as much as possible.

So that’s my update to everyone. I’m hoping that I can find some motivation in myself to keep chugging along.

Whew, that was a long post. :shock:

Thanks for being patient with me.

Comic section is looking good!

Soon I’ll make a start on the sub sections I promised again, then you can add them all at your leisure Manny.

Keep up the fantastic work everyone!

Oh and congrats on the promotion at work Manny!

Congrats on the promotion!!!

Chris here…

[QUOTE=TCL-Manny]
- Comics: Chris and I have been working on the Comics section over the last few months and it’s come a long way. I’ve gotten the first 10 issues of the Star/Marvel series online.

Check it out and let me know your thoughts – http://www.thundercatslair.org/comics/marvel/marvel_index.html
[/quote]

Oh my God, that is so amazing - everything about that is PERFECT, I love everything about it! :eek: The thumbnails, the layout, the way you’ve changed “Review” to “The Verdict…” - wow, just wow!

Seriously, this is exactly the motivation I needed to keep ploughing ahead with this - Manny, you’re the heart and soul of this site!! Thank you so much!!

Sounds good - are you at liberty to share any of the details of your plans to restructure that section, or would you prefer to keep that to yourself for now?

That’s cool, but are you able to give some indication as to what you mean by “restructuring” - are you talking about the site’s appearance/design, the way it’s run internally, or something else? Obviously if you’d prefer not to disclose this stuff for a while then that’s cool, I’m just curious.

I’m happy with that, at least in principle - for starters, there are two guys posting on the Cartoon & Comics Board who seem to have in their possession a lot of amazing cartoon materials, which IMO desperately need adding to the site!

It’s me who should be thanking you for being patient with me! Thank you, Manny, for all the amazing work you’ve done - and, massive congratulations on the promotion at work! If you work as hard at your job as you do on this site, you definitely deserve it!

Take care…

Hey Chris, we’ve all been slacking lately.

When I mean restructuring it pretty much can go in all different directions. I plan on changing graphics, making navigation easier on certain areas of the site as well as cleaning up the directories behind the scenes.

There is always room for improvement, especially since we’re all doing this for the first time. I don’t expect to change the main focus and direction of the site, but as I learn more and more about site development, I need to apply all the cool things I am being exposed to.

I’ll let everyone know more details as the summer months near, but until then, just keep chugging along. 8)

Another status update:

Thanks to Neil, we have very cool downloads for the cartoon section. If you add the blooper reel and the cartoon bumpers (all of which have yet to be publicly shown), we have a TON of stuff for the media download section.

Downloads:
[ul]
[li]100 Greatest Cartoons Intro[/li][li]100 Greatest Cartoons ThunderCats[/li][li]Broom Cupboard Andi Peters and Edd the Duck Intro[/li][li]Various clips from the movie version of Exodus[/ul]I actually played around with the video quality (better quaity=bigger file)…most of the files range from 12MB-58MB. I know thats HUGE for those who don’t have cable/DSL internet connection, but if I make it smaller, the quality drops a lot.[/li]
Also, when people download such files from us, our bandwidth takes a hit…and although we probably average 1-3GIGs a month (our max is 100GIG if I recall correctly), we would probably increase it to 15-20 GIG…which is still under the max.

If you guys checked out the stats from the other thread, when I posted those concept designs, we had a ton of visitors. In one week, we got more than double the average we usually get. I will try to keep the momentum by getting an update up within the next week…hopefully

So more visits, cool downloads, and an update by the end of the week. I’d say that TCL is doing pretty good.

Take that Purrsia…JUST KIDDING.

All sounds good!

I know we have probably the best toy guide, because no other site delves into carded figures and their variations as much as we do. Hopefully with all the new additions we will be able to say the same about the cartoon section as well

[QUOTE=TCL-Manny]

Take that Purrsia…JUST KIDDING.
[/QUOTE]

Make Purrsia your inspiration Manny…LOL. Oh and one more thing, eot.net is still stuck on their dumb topics like: Thundercats 1st word, Funny caption#40…I tell you that they must not have anything else to talk about except things like vote once a day,funny caption # wahtever and hold on what the hell is Thundercats 1st word huh?..Anyways we need the next update to really show something to the haters out there Im tired of Purrsia this Purrsia that…let’s prove her wrong once again. Hold on and anybody noticed how the awards was mostly Purrsia’s site and eot.net…we didnt even get anything for new site. Truthfully I dont care it goes to show what they think about us

Manny, just between the team (which I know I can trust not to take this any further) I couldn’t agree with you more.

My personal opinion of Purssia is very low at the moment. I emailed her ages ago about an issue with one of the comics and Stinger. She never replied to it. Months later I ask Celesta to have a word with her and then I also ask her straight out on the EOT.net forum. Here’s what she had to say:

“Actually I did get it but it was back during the time where I was really uncertain about the motives of the site, and wasn’t in a particular rush to give aid to a possibly elitist new site. So rather than respond and sound like a wanky jackass, I just shelved the email and then forgot about it later”

If needed, here is the link to the full thread:

http://www.eyeofthundera.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=3204&hl=thundercatslair

Now, I find that very unprofessional and a little on the spiteful side. She could have replied simply with something along the lines of “Sorry, I can’t help you on this”

Completely ignoring an email from a fellow fan, nevermind a fellow site I find totally ignorant.

There just isn’t an excuse for the way both Tom and Purssia treated us. Why didn’t they ask about that thread on he-man.org and was actually part of the team before they started their mud slinging? It generally is a good idea to get your facts straight first before judging others. She said she was unsure of our motives. Didn’t it ever occur to her to email us and ask?

I did put my feelings about Purssia and Tom on the back burner all this time because it just didn’t matter I guess. If you notice in my replies to Purssia, I avoided confronting Purssia about her rudeness on the forum and I just focussed on the Stinger comic issue and the postives of joining our forum. I knew if I confronted her, I’d look like the bad guy.

If I’m being honest I’m glad Purssia posted all what she did about thinking our site was elitist (whatever that’s meant to mean!) because she really did come off as a big headed, narrow minded person who thinks she’s queen bee in the Thundercats community. What’s laughable is she rants on about ego’s, yet from her posts she comes across as the person with the biggest ego on that message board. I’ve read that thread a couple of times and even after you set her straight Manny, she still rants on about how and why she her created her own site, even suggesting someone should have defended it on the he-man.org forum, again trying to play the victim in the situation. Once she found out she had got the wrong end of the stick she never had the curtesy to apologise once about the mistake she had made concerning the he-man.org thread! :mad:

When all is said and done, had she done some research she would have learnt what we were all about. I mean I came from a small basic crappy geocities site that has been online for a few years so I’m not gonna maliciously trash another fan made site considering what my own looked like. It would be the kettle calling the teapot black type of situation.

I’ll admit it right here. I can’t stand either of Purssia’s and Tom’s site layouts. They are too cluttered (especially EOT.net) to follow and find things with ease. I find that EOT.net forum terribly layed, what with all the ads trying to flog the Thundercats DVD sets! :roll:

I’m just not gonna bother posting on EOT.net. I found out what I wanted to know from the horses mouth all those months ago. I think I’m best just keeping my distance from them, though I will work with them should I have to if the situation ever came up.

Oh and the fandom awards results don’t surprise me at all (though they were that significant to me in the first place, I totally forogot all about them anyway)

Yeah, I agree with both of you. In respect to Celesta, I didn’t really reveal how I felt about Purrsia and the way she reacted to us. They are friends and it’s not right for me to insult her friend.

That said, I decided on an alternate route for the podcast a while back. Instead of collaborating it with Tom and Purrsia, I think we’ll make it our own. They didn’t seem too excited anyways and I’d rather we implement our own ideas instead of trying to please others (besides our future listeners).

I respect what Purrsia and Tom has done for the online community, but they’ve lost my respect personally. I know I’ve been slacking with the site and 2/3 of the site is bare…but it takes time to build this type of site. I definately am not giving up on this site especially seeing how far we’ve come, but it’s a huge undertaking and people have to expect that content is going to come eventually.

I think we’re really starting to create our own image…a lot of people say we’re trying to be the He-Man.org of the ThunderCats community. That would be great, but let’s face it – He-Man.org is unique and one of a kind. We can try to duplicate the success, but there will never be another community like the .org forums. What we can do however, is create our own identity within the TC fanbase and go from there.

Personally, our forums are a lot more active than the other two said sites. The upgrade to vBulletin has really made the forums more comfortable for a lot of people. As for the awards, we are a fan-site like the rest of them…but I really could care less about receiving an award from Purrsia. It would be cool, but we should try to put this site on a whole other level.

Having Purrsia be pessimistic about us keeps me motivated. Manny knows that and that’s what is reinvigorating me at the moment. The concept design also had something to do with it as well.

But yeah, if I have to stay up every night to get an update done this week, I will. 8)

What those "awards"pretty much boil down to is not just who has the best content out there or who has the best layout or best new site…what it pretty much boils down to is that if you’re in their clique which we are not then you get an “award” since we are not part of their little clique we are pretty much the outsiders. We’ll let the site speak for itself. Ever since the bashing thread over at eot.net I think i may have posted once or twice. Purrsia’s level of unproffesionalism did it for me and there is nothing worse than judging another website or people for that matter as being elitist…might as well call us arrogant and big headed for that matter. By putting us down and basically calling us arrogant and big headed she and Tom have put themselves in such a spot that they really dont want to be in. When you act as unprofessional as she has then all you can expect is more drive from us and I think thats where we need to be at.Purrsia and Tom really doesnt know what they have thrown themselves into for saying the comments they did. All I have to say is Thanks Tom and Purrsia.

Chris here…

The sad thing is, it seems to me this kind of ego-mania is pretty commonplace with TCats sites - aparently Ian Burkhard (?) who was the webmaster of http://thundercats.vpga.com is not a very pleasant guy to talk to and would regularly ignore e-mails, and my own personal first experience of working on a ThunderCats website (which, I would add, never sort the light of day) was working as something of an underling for David “Hordak” Matthews, who frankly I found to have a massive ego and to be very, shall we say, “self-absorbed”! Ask Neil about David and I’m sure he’ll back me up - David was planning a site much like this one, but was obsessed with making sure that it was his site, and so consequently ended up carrying the project almost single-handedly. It was supposed to debut on 1st January 2001 - needless to say, we’re all still waiting…

I think perhaps some of what motivated us to do our own thing rather than throw our lot in with Tom at EOT.net (which you may recall we were criticised for, even back in the original He-Man.Org thread) is because we wanted to create a true “team” site where egos were set aside and the focus was on creating the best site for all ThunderCats fans, as opposed to creating a site that is one person’s vision of a site. Whilst we’ve all had our problems, I think we’ve all shown that the most important thing at the end of the day is the site. And if that makes us different, and consequently means we don’t fit into a clique, then I say that’s a good thing!

Take care…

Well said Chris! I think having a site run by a team does make us different from everyone else.

Hey team, just read through this entire thread and was shocked to see such rivaly between the sites. This is quality because I hate to lose! If I have anything to do with it, this is going to be the best site. Maybe not straight away, but eventually it will overtake the rest. Even if we match the other sites, I promise that I will produce artwork and illustrations that they won’t be able to compete with.

Bring it on lol!

Keep it going guys!!

Ha! I hope the stuff we talked about here doesn’t make us look like a snob Kyle. Speaking from my own personal opinion, Purrsia has a tone of great content that no one else has on the net. That being said, when I visit a site the first thing I look for is how reputable the site is based on content and design. The content part she got covered nicely. The design, not so much. And truth be told, our design isn’t all that great either…but I think having it be simple, clean, and easy to navigate is a step in the right direction.

It’s fun to have competition – it makes everyone want to work harder to be the best…and that’s a great thing.

It’s just…when I see Purrsia write things…I see it as a negative thing towards us; I may be wrong, but that’s just the way I read it.