Update Blog
Stock Check Sacked…For Now
Tristan Oliver, Founder | July 3, 2008
Well, because the new version of the Stocks widget I was using to deliver you real-time quotes on the site screwed with our posting interface, I’ve deep-sixed it for the time being, or until I can find a different stock ticker widget.
This is for the better, because had I kept it, all of our staff would have needed to bring you the news through hard HTML coding. That’s no good. >_<
It was fun while it lasted.
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A 5PM News “Test…”
Tristan Oliver, Founder | May 18, 2008
Please join me live Friday at 5PM ET for TSSZ News at 5 on SonicEatsRings.com’s Ringcast.
This isn’t going to be a permanent thing, at least not on SER, unless it is REALLY tuned into. This may only be for the week, or it may be for the rest the Fridays in May. Really, I just want to get my chops back in doing audio again. (Yes, it’s a precursor to something bigger.) I don’t think I’ll have all the bells and whistles my previous shows over the past however many years contained, but at least it’ll be me, reading the news, with some emotion.
Why 5PM? Because I work early weekday mornings, and if I did a later news, I’d be incoherent. Even 6PM is pushing it after a long day, and a long week.
So…please listen this Friday at 5PM ET. The program will probably last half an hour. There *will* be News that Didn’t Quite Make…the Headlines. =D Maybe I’ll set up a Skype interview or something too. We’ll see.
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Moving
Tristan Oliver, Founder | May 6, 2008
I have no problem telling all of you I’m on autopilot right now.
I’ve…kinda sorta completed a move from Boston to Philadelphia. New job…old life…better life. But it’s been difficult. As it stands, I don’t have all my furniture built, and it may be some time before I do, because it looks like I’m doing it all by myself! I’m not exactly the…crafty type, if that makes sense. On top of that, I’m in an early morning shift, which I happily accepted–all to get me home, and hopefully in better strength to get this site at the top of its game.
That said, I don’t…technically have the Internet yet, so I’ll be spotty the next week or so. This is just one of the days where I’m…well, not spotty. A big thanks to everyone else on staff for filling the gap.
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Um…Late April Fools?
Tristan Oliver, Founder | April 6, 2008
OK, we were duped. We admit it.
There were about 12 hours on Saturday when you could see exactly what got us. There was a fake story concerning a need to install the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV. One of our reporters picked it up and published it. Our stats indicate over a quarter of you visiting on Saturday read it. Ow.
Unfortunately because I sleep at all random times of the day, I didn’t realize it until two things happened. First, the reporter actually E-Mailed me to admit he screwed up. He asked if he should write a correction, blow it out, or do both. All the while he promised he would never do it again. I told him it was cool (and this is coming from someone who said just in the last post that one of my missions is to get things to you with accuracy!) and I blew it out.
The second thing was a total burn fest over on Sonic Eats Rings. They were mostly from some of our British audience (which, at presently, is a good chunk of our readers, about a fifth of you hail from the UK.) These are folks who are really spoiled when it comes to getting information–you have BBC News and ITN and the newspapers! (Not the crap ones like the Sun or the Mirror…I’m talking more like the Guardian and Telegraph and such.) I’m lucky my cable system gets BBC World! I’m envious! I want my television to educate me and PBS is just so damn boring!
I regret the error, and so does the reporter. On something like Grand Theft Auto in the context of this page I’m not as gravely concerned, but if this were really to the core of our audience…certainly some credibility we’re trying to restore is at stake, as it would any story. This was actually why I was a bit concerned over doing any news on April 1. Little did I realize I had to look out for the 5th! Just like the good ol’ U-S of A, we can never let our guard down! They could get us at any time! Troops at SarcasticGamer for 100 years!!!
…But seriously, this wasn’t nearly as bad a goof as in the site’s previous “casual” incarnation, when *I* made the judgment call to post an Asian dude going to Virginia Tech, touting his guns on Myspace…and it wasn’t the guy who shot up all those folks on that fateful April day at the university. Yes, evidently there were 2 Asian nutjobs going to the Tech. CNN did a story about it. It was odd, but also devastating to my personal integrity, and I couldn’t really continue with the site until…well, now.
If Gamespot, Kotaku, and the others who admittedly are MUCH more credible than we are at this point can run fake news in the course of this week to a laugh and a whim, maybe we get to have a pass too, even if it’s late. No, it wasn’t great timing, but it wasn’t the worst mistake we’ve been through either.
Certainly, if there’s something you want us to know, or something we got wrong, we have a News Tips section. What you fill in there goes directly to me. That’s a good way to get in touch.
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The Big Red Bar of Doom
Tristan Oliver, Founder | April 3, 2008
Breaking news is important to me. Breaking news is how we were making news, and getting information that’s accurate and relevant is one of this site’s primary missions. And if it’s anything of interest to you, I’m sure you’d like to know about it as soon as possible.
Before launching the site live I fooled with a semi-automated “Breaking News” bar. It’s red, goes just below the section drop-downs, and I only tend to use it in a situation where A) It’s important, and B) I only have time for a few lines. It’s a lot like the red bar CNN used to have. Of course, now, they have the red bar and the yellow bar for (Developing Story.)
I think that many variations is pushing it. But in talking to a few folks, they believe even the red bar, big and giant as it is, is also crossing a line. The thing is, only I have access to it at the moment so it’s not abused…but I’ve already had to use it twice in a week. And to me, it can be a bit…brash, but in the whole, it takes up much less space than a whole article would. And when I’m done with writing a full article, the thing goes away.
I’m curious to hear reader thoughts. Are you annoyed by the red bar for Breaking News, or is it tolerable or even informative?
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New Dog, Old Tricks?
Tristan Oliver, Founder | March 30, 2008
So on Saturday evening I upgraded our system software to the wonderful Wordpress 2.5. For someone who used to code this site in HTML when he was 13 *coughFrontpage* it’s one of the most amazing content management systems I’ve ever dealt with.
With one…no, actually, two screw-ups.
The first actually made me convert to Firefox as a lifelong IE user (yes, I’ve been that bad.) I couldn’t take advantage of the brand new Media Library Wordpress has. I got a ton of script errors and I couldn’t insert the graphics that this site needs as part of its system. Once I flipped to Firefox and ditched IE7…the problems magically went away. Huh. I guess there is something to this newfangled Mozilla thing for someone like me! Given how I also bought the iPhone recently, maybe I’m…*gasp* being whisked away from a PC state of mind!
Except there was one other problem.
For some reason the “Register” link on the top right page was separating itself from the rest of the line. There was no p or br tag attached and I was puzzled, so I consulted with one of my old friends from high school, who gave me a quick CSS fix. (Thanks, B!)
But while checking the site for me, he found that the bottom bar of our site (you know, the one with all the legal crap) wasn’t giving him clean results. Adding to the confusion was that he is using the same version of Firefox as I. The bar even works in Internet Explorer 6 for God’s sake.
Is anyone else having this problem? Do let me know via tristan [at] tssznews.com. You know the drill, replace the [at] with the symbol thing. It’ll be great.
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What is a “Soft Launch?”
Tristan Oliver, Founder | March 27, 2008
Very quietly we have launched TSSZ News again. Re-inventing ourselves over and over again is typically indicative of an identity crisis. I’d like to believe we haven’t lost our identity more than we’ve got it back.
One of the first things you’ll notice is that I’ve brought back the original TSSZ News logo. To many in the community, it wasn’t so much a logo so much as it was an important symbol, as big as the logo for IBM, or the eye logo for CBS. The logo is unique and instantly recognizable ever since we flipped to it in accomodating for the changing world after the September 11th terror attacks. But on that, the Sonic Scene name, which we had before 9/11, is also back, as the name of our Sonic News section. Andrew Paulson, who assumed the name for his independent Sonic News site when we were in a bit of purgatory, is also back, and he’ll be covering the hedgehog more aggressively than ever.
You’ll notice we have some new sections. The two biggies are Review Slew, where we review games of today and yesterday, with the goal of bringing you something other than the usual flare of categories and scores other sites have. The other big one is The Tangent, where Solus will offer commentary on pressing issues in Sonic circles and the gaming community.
We’re not 100 percent–that’s why it’s called a “soft launch.” We’re not tooting our horn for anything big until April 2nd, the site’s official 9th “birthday.” By then, our site history section will be open, as well as a few other trinkets I think you’ll enjoy. We’ll be uploading old TSSZ News podcast specials and formalizing our plan for SonicStream, a new service similar to that of the old Seven and Update podcasts that’s launching in May.
In the interim, enjoy what we have to offer, and stay put, because it’s only going to get better from here. To be in the know, be sure to hit this page up often.
