So What's Next?

[Binkatron5000]

Triple post, BAM!

It's just case sensitive. Sorry about my outburst. Carry on.

[ntw3001]

Wow, so Dween's last comic was where we all found out he won $50,000 and a trip to central america... did his plane crash maybe or something? It's ridiculous to think that something like that could have happened and we'll never know unless he comes back or has been in touch with someone, which clearly wouldn't occur if he's dead. Crazy.

That is basically what I thought when CYP died. If Saltine hadn't happened to be around, we'd have just thought she left without explanation. As people sometimes do, you know?

[Binkatron5000]

onoz this is depressing.

[PonderThis]

It's just case sensitive.

Yep. Sorry I should have mentioned that. If it doesn't recognize the user name it reverts to "view all".

FYI, you can also specify user ID number which normally no one would have a reason to do, but it does lead to a fun side effect. If you specify user #1 (which does not exist) for some reason the SQL query gives you this. Although the page title says "Spamuser Comics by Anonymous" what it is actually doing is giving us all the comics by users who have had their account deleted.

Remember what we saw with Alph Tech/STUART? Apparently there are a few others as well. The latest one is from August 2008. I wonder what the heck happened to cause that. Maybe some hiccup from the last time stevenf did a forum software upgrade?

[PonderThis]

I have also now rearranged the two pages so that they are consistent in the appearance and linkage of what is at the top of the page. Clicking on the logo at the top always brings you back to the index page. Clicking on the index page logo had taken you to Spamusement!, so I have added that to the navigation bar so the link is still there.

I also changed the index page so that the comic titles now link to the comic page for that item and from there one can click on the "Discussion" link to get to its forum thread.

[Null]

Ever wanted to have a URL you could send to a friend to just see your comics? Well you can do that now using this format:

Code: Select all

http://www.spamusers.com/comic.php?id=1&spamuser=myusername
http://www.spamusers.com/comic.php?spamuser=myusername

The first line goes to your first comic, the second line goes to your latest. By way of example, here is Dween's first comic.

I can't imagine wanting to see my own, but this is a great idea for research and such. It still doesn't tell me where EsBe got his avatar from.

Hm, just out of curiosity I wonder what my "Latest" one looked like--sure enough it's one of my most popular ever!

[chrismachine]

I also changed the index page so that the comic titles now link to the comic page for that item and from there one can click on the "Discussion" link to get to its forum thread.

That's really interesting, and I think cool.

[Saltine]

That is basically what I thought when CYP died. If Saltine hadn't happened to be around, we'd have just thought she left without explanation. As people sometimes do, you know?

Death is the ultimate form of leaving without explanation.

[EvilJekyll]

Wow, so Dween's last comic was where we all found out he won $50,000 and a trip to central america... did his plane crash maybe or something? It's ridiculous to think that something like that could have happened and we'll never know unless he comes back or has been in touch with someone, which clearly wouldn't occur if he's dead. Crazy.

Last time I talked to him via the IRC (sometime in 2009,) he was busy with his child and unfortunately looking for a job.

[EvilJekyll]

Not that there's an abundance of Spamtivity, but were we doing anything else with the site?

[PonderThis]

Actually I'm thinking maybe if we add a few more things maybe we can get people involved and get more activity maybe?

[EvilJekyll]

Is there anything you, the spamusers would like to improve or features you'd like to have, no matter how outlandish? I mean the worst we can do is laugh at, I mean with you. Seriously, this website is here for you guys, you should some say in how things are.

[ntw3001]

I don't really know, the problem for me is that I'd most likely only be interested in the forum. I'd love there to be some more activity here, but being a forum with no real purpose, attached by a thread to a defunct webcomic, we don't have a lot to entice people. Perhaps if the front page were to be worked into something more regular-updates-webcomic-y it would be better. We do have a backlog of excellent comics, and really as far as I'm concerned the whole thing would be a front to draw a few new people to the forums. As it is though, I rather fear the number of regulars dipping below critical mass.

Or I guess those of us who've stopped making comics could start again. That forum is the one people start in, and there ain't a lot of action going on. not that I can criticise, having drawn maybe one comic in the last three years or so.

[sum yun gai]

i guess it depends on the kind of activity we want to attract. i know when i've mentioned this site to people i know who actually *like* to draw stuff, their response is usually "oh that's not really my kind of thing". so, either we artsy it up around here to attract "those" kind of people, or we find another kind of activity that draws the type of people who like to read forums all day. it seems like the two are mutually exclusive for some reason...

[Null]

Well, when the "None of the Above" section is the most popular one, that's a sign of something.

I'm curious why people like Portals, Enfanta, and others arrive, do some great cartoons, then depart seemingly never to be heard from again. (I know Portals came back a couple of times but she's not been heard from lately.) Lots of classic folks, too, like Igloo Jeffrey and PixieWolfe. Maybe someone, I dunno, an admin or someone could contact these people via PM and find out if they're coming back, and if not, why not. Seriously, completely honestly, why not.

Or not.

[jvcc]

Igloo Jeffrey seems to come and go quite a lot; I don't think he's gone forever.

I don't want to invite people I know personally to the forum, because I somtimes use this place as a sort of diary, albeit a diary that responds to me and can offer advice.

[EvilJekyll]

Maybe someone, I dunno, an admin or someone could contact these people via PM and find out if they're coming back, and if not, why not. Seriously, completely honestly, why not.

I think it'd be fine if someone who feels close to the spamuser contacted them. I think it comes off "needy" if the admin contacts the person. "Like, please visit my site, please, please?" It is understandable that people who have been here long enough to have an influence on the site, who then disappear to contact them wondering if they were okay/still alive.

I was mostly trying to improve the general use of the site for the people who are consistently here (and hopefully will still be) though. I just want the site to be the best it can be for everyone who uses it. For example, is having a spamuser quiz fun and enjoyable, is it easy to find, is there a better way we can do things? Would you guys like links or a page to the audio stuff that's spamusement related (music project/james reading things.)

[Null]

I think it'd be fine if someone who feels close to the spamuser contacted them. I think it comes off "needy" if the admin contacts the person. "Like, please visit my site, please, please?"

Does it really seem "needy"? All it would be is an inquiry. "Why did you leave? And be honest, please. You don't have to come back, just let me know how things were." If there are things to be learned, then they should be learned. A contact from a friend would be more of a reinforcement. "Were you right in doing this?" "Yes." "Well, okay then."

A contact from an admin would seem less like point-scoring and more of an attempt to see what might be wrong, what can be corrected, where the future lies. If the other way is the direction, okay, but it needs to be presented as more personal and less site-oriented.

[MysticalDescent]

I suppose that if you go on the Spamusers.com main page there's not really much of an explanation of what's going on to anybody who happens to stumble across the site. Maybe a little explanation underneath the 'official spamusers fansite' bit? Perhaps it could just be the description off the main page of the wiki with a little bit more detail added to it. Also, what if there was a classics gallery or something like that? Get together a few of the most popular comics of all time (but ones that are pretty simple for newcomers to understand) and just stick them on a page that you put a link to in the little explanation for newcomers suggesting that if they still don't get the concept, it would be a decent place to get started. Those are just a couple of things floating around in my brain at the minute.

I remember how I found Spamusement in the first place. It must have appeared on JengaJam about 20 times. Coincidentally, JengaJam isn't in particularly rude health these days either. Not that I'm saying that this forum is in particularly poor health, it has little lulls sometimes but it's doing alright. That said, right now I'm online on my own with three generic bots. I go on another forum and the lowest amount of posters it has online at any one time that I saw was 100.

I don't know any linkdumps anymore, otherwise I would be spamusering all over that jazz.

[Skimba]

I put in a vote for Hound Negotiator.
Also, I think either a personal or an admin PM would be ok, and that is assuming some folks still check back here. What about e-mailing them if there's still a contact address on their profile? That should sway towards coming from someone who was closer to being a friend, maybe.
I know the old chats helped a lot, but we all seem to have run out of things to say to each other/have been busy/playing WOW/switched to Firefox and never remember to sign on my AIM and such.
Maybe see what it costs or something to get some advertizing on some sites, especially those we enjoy. Like Toothpaste for Dinner, Pictures for Sad Children, some more comic or just web sites? I have no idea how that works, so that'd be up to someone else.
I try and get catass involved, but he hears about what's going on with you all through me.
I think we should bombard Nik and kupo with PMs and e-mails. That's just to start, of course.

[EvilJekyll]

I know the old chats helped a lot, but we all seem to have run out of things to say to each other/have been busy/playing WOW/switched to Firefox and never remember to sign on my AIM and such.

Chatzilla + our IRC room?

[DaVince]

nnHow about an (automatic) local backup of all spamusements posted? That way they'll never ever get lost (unless spamusers.com goes offline, which I don't hope will happen anytime soon).

Since maybe this would take up a lot of bandwidth, perhaps some of the images should qualify depending on their popularity or something, biased as this may be. Or hosted manually on an image hosting site, if they don't delete the stuff.

[giantsfan97]

Traubster brought up the swear filter in another thread... can we get rid of it? I think Stevenf implemented it to keep his site clean, but we really aren't his site anymore.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'd rather see it go.

[PonderThis]

I'm not averse to getting rid of it. It never accomplished much of anything in the first place and the whole "shіt" becomes "poopcakes" joke wore off a long time ago.

Meanwhile there's several good suggestions here. I'll look at things this weekend.

[jvcc]

Yes, please rickin'-frackin' get rid of this poopcakes swear filter, you tuna sandwich.