10 years ago a small, unassuming web page made a hesitant depute into the newly formed Internet. It wasn’t much.. a collection of comments from web pages that the author found interesting.
This grew, slowly but steadily, more and more comments were posted. The free server that the site was hosted on was given up in favor of a professional hosting service. This was exchanged for the service that we are currently running on. Over the years we have gotten over 2000 unique visitors a month. (not hits, our hit count is around 10 times that much.) The page itself had around 300 articles and a number of features.
In February 2005 we began an experiment in blogging and today we have over 400 posts and 552 comments.
Last year we started experimenting with database driven publishing. We started running the Odd Empire on TikiWiki, but our staff here complained that it was too far off of Wiki standard and didn’t really lend itself well to collaboration. I asked them to find a package that IS closer to standard and does lend itself well to collaboration.
So they did, they implemented Mediwiki which happens to be the standard.
I was skeptical at the time, Mediawiki is not as easy to set up, but we worked with them, I did a couple of test pieces and found the format was a bit easier than Tikiwiki, I really like the version tracking features. My staff assures me that all the content from the old page can be brought over and updated without too much trouble.
So, by dint of superhuman effort and a few hours of fiddling we bring you a completely revamped Empire of the Odd web page that ANYONE can edit.
SO, on our ten year anniversary I want to invite all of my friends and foes alike to join the Odd Empire in collaborative insanity. The main focus is spelled out on the home page
http://oddempire.org
The only rules are
- NO CP.
- No Dox.
- And always; have fun funseekers!
Well; there are a couple of other rules, you can read about them here.
And to my freinds and foes alike on this Halloween-eve, thank you for everything. In friendship we are defined, in adversity we are strengthened. In debate we gain knowledge.
It’s all good!
OE