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Over the past two years, I've been fortunate enough to work with some great writers/people who have contributed greatly to the success of our site's front page. It's a job that takes time and effort, and only pays with the occasional "nice article" and subsequent warm fuzzy. With any job, there is turnover, people's job and family situations change, people begin or continue personal projects, and sometimes even burnout can set it. As a volunteer position, it is typically the easier thing to let go of, so leaving is completely understandable and has always been on great terms. I am very appreciative of those who have helped out in the past and only wish them the best of luck; your articles are still welcome here should any of you get the itch to write one.
With some recent turnover, I've been struggling a bit to provide content to our readership (though we still haven't missed a deadline) and have been putting much more free time than what I have into making sure our front page is a beacon that draws in potential members. As a result, I am putting out a call to writers for anyone who might be interested in joining our staff. Right now, I am looking to add one or two writers to take on one article each per month. Though this may not sound like a lot, I can assure you that coming up with a topic each month and creating a good product is a little more time consuming and taxing than one might think. Our staff adheres to a strict (but flexible when needed) schedule and articles must be turned in on time so that they can be reviewed and set back to fix if there are any issues. Writers must also stick to site guidelines in terms of content; though are forums and personal blogs are pretty much a free-for-all, our front page is a direct reflection of our site and as so, strives to be informative and family-oriented.
Continue reading A Call For Writers
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Dear Distinguished and Not-so Distinguished Members,
Recently, some of you (especially our older members) may have noticed a change to our home page. What once was a page filled primarily with announcements of podcasts and playthroughs, has been revamped with continually revolving feature stories of game reviews and video game related articles. Only a few days prior to the Metal Jesus video and Kotaku article releases that drove many members to our site, I spoke with Shadow Kisuragi about how I felt that the site was lacking in releasing quality gaming articles for our front page. Of course, Shadow (as he always is) was very receptive to my concern and agreed that we should do something to liven up the primary portal to our site. Little did I know, I would be asked to lead this charge....okay, so maybe I kind of knew.
Continue reading 2014 State of the Blog Address
At RF Generation, we try to give the kids want they want. A few people thought it would be cool if the staff blog script was modified to allow anyone to use it. Initially, I didnt want to code it, I thought it would be a royal pain in the ass to do. Issues such as security and actually creating unique blogs seemed as though it would cause a task that simply would be a pain in the ass to do. So, I had two potential pain in the ass projects to work on, the next version of the submissions system, or community blogs. I chose to start working on the former.
Continue reading It's a Nice Feeling
I suppose I don't need an image in this post for you to figure out that something is different. Three months ago, a decision was made to begin the process of redesigning the site. This site would be cleaned up greatly and it would also be using Cascading Style Sheets, something that the previous site sorely needed. Today, June 8, is an important date. Three years ago today RF Generation went live, and today, June 8, 2007, we launch our new site design. Clearly, this may take some time for you to get used to if you really, really enjoyed the old design, but we feel that the new design is cleaner, more professional, and more structured than the old site. It also has some new features that the old site just didn't have. Let's look into those:
First, we have a new front page script. It's really complex, and I guess you could call it a blog. As with most blogs registered members of this site are able to comment to any posts made to the blog, via a comment box on the article's page. Additionally, if you would like to be able to keep track of news or any other topic on the blog you are able to subscribe to that tag and get a lovely RSS feed of that. This new front page design is the reason why we promoted Tan to Front Page Editor, and I know that he'll do a damn good job with the front page. Of course, a good front page editor needs a few good writers, so if you are interested in writing for the blog please let Tan or I know. We are grateful for Tan's willingness to shape the blog, and with his knowledge and leadership I am certain that the blog will flourish.
Secondly, we have some new sections. At the top, there is an about section, where you can find out about the site or its staff, and you can also get some cool promotional images. I should mention that if you are a registered member and you also have a collection you should probably check out the "Promote" page. We also have a home for our weekly features, which can be found in the "Features" section (big surprise there). Lastly, we have the tools section, which for right now are the collection tools. It is rather likely that some day way down the road there will be more tools on this site, stay tuned for that.
I'd like to make the point that during this redesign there has been no removal in functionality of the site, save for System Checklists, which will hopefully make its triumphant return in the not too distant future. Aside from checklists, you should be able to find everything still somewhere on the site.
This project would not have been possible without assistance from many other people, and I'd like to thank Eddie Herrmann (St0rmTK421), Dennis Gruchala (den68), Keith Brown (Tan), Ken Wozetek (Mezmoron), and Scott Williams (Tynstar) for their assistance in addition to the members who unknowingly helped test the commenting system. If I missed thanking you please know that while I missed mentioning your name I am ever grateful for your assistance.
As always stay tuned to RF Generation, there will always be more to follow when you keep it tuned to channel 3.
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