Monthly Archives: September 2007

Abandoned Places comes onboard

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Great news! Abandoned Places has joined Bunny Abandonware. Well, they haven’t joined as such, I wouldn’t expect that it’ll turn pink, but it’s great that voh trusts me enough to hand me his site like that. And such a great site it is. I’ll take such good care of it! -_-

Abandoned Places has been around for a long time, and is known for the quality of sites it contains. Maybe I was lucky to get accepted onto the listing with my loverly pink and yellow back in Bunny Abandonware v1.0 ;)

I notice that The Abandonware Ring now hosts the abandonware adult games site o_O That’s good, but I hope it doesn’t put it down in the rankings around the world (both in people’s minds, and in search engines) because it’s got adult content. You could say it’s okay because most people who remember the 80s are about 30 now, but I don’t agree. I think they should have separated them. Just a bit of opinion-ation on my part ;) What else is a blog for right? o_O

The Abandonware Blog has started up again, that’s good news. I was really funny about that at first, blogging about abandonware o_O. I guess it didnt occur to me that Bunny Abandonware is essentially a blog – the damn site sits in WordPress doesn’t it! :o But it’s a new spin on the old DFL, which was a good site – but I guess people get bored and leave them to rot. I don’t know, maybe people put everything into these sites hoping to get rich and famous and it doesn’t happen. Or some intense self-satisfaction that never comes. So they give up. Maybe they weren’t that dedicated in the first place if just keeping it up to keep yourself happy wasn’t enough. Maybe their computer died and they decided to get a job and get married. Maybe that’s a lot of maybes.

I also noticed with dismay that the Home of the Underdogs hasn’t been updated in a year! A YEAR DAMNIT! Come on Sarinee ;) You have to keep it up! We’re supposed to be representing :)

The scene is scarce of dedicated people. With voh handing over AP I am honoured because it’s a gesture that contains so much (trust, recognition and friendship) but it’s also another person who is withdrawing that bit more from the scene. It’s unfortunate, I hope that he comes back one day with another BSOD :) Bring back BSOD!

#oldgames on IRC seems to be going strong still though. I’ve not been as active as I should have been, I’ve been idling on and off for the last couple years. Being in other countries made it kinda hard, but now I’ve made it my resolution to be a bit more pro-active. Fserve on the way!

Well, things do change, so we’ll keep rolling with it. I’ll always be here – that’s for certain ;)

Gerry McGovern – web guru

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Gerry McGovern is the man, it’s as simple as that. If you have anything to do with the web – developing, maintaining or authoring content, managing a web services team etc then you need to get in the know with this man’s teachings.

I was lucky enough to get to one of his workshops a week ago. I ended up on the waiting list – and lucky for me someone pulled out. I came away inspired, overwhelmed and completely confused. I didn’t know what to do next! Could I revamp everything that was happening? It was so much to take in. I guess all I can do is start at the beginning.

He has a few really good points:

  1. writers are never taken seriously
  2. web services and content management/creation is never taken seriously by management/senior management
  3. we have become “putter-uppers”, uploading millions of pages of crap that nobody wants
  4. when you upload crap you don’t give people more information, you make it harder for people to find what they need
  5. if we don’t take ourselves seriously, and respect what we do and our timeframes/deadlines then nobody else will. We need to act like professionals – expect to be treated like professionals – and we will be treated like professionals. Be upfront about your standards, your timeframes. Enforce them by demanding respect, not being mean
  6. tasks, tasks, tasks, tasks, people want to perform tasks, not sit and absorb crappy information (read: ministerial media statements)
  7. we need to re-evaluate exactly what the tasks are our sites are there for, go back to the core tasks and do them well.

And that’s only a small part of what he had to say. :)

If you ever do get the chance then you should attend one of his talks or seminars. He’ll inspire you to do things the correct way, and to stand up and be strong and firm in your role as a webmaster.

Check out Gerry McGoverns website, and subscribe to his mailing list. Plus you can also buy his latest book Killer Web Content that covers everything he spoke about

Oh, and only the Irish could give a two-day workshop and keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time! :D