So here we are, one year into our .com stardom! Oh what a year it was.
In this article, we'll take a look back at the ups and downs of PsychoNoble's
first year and then briefly touch on some things to come. So sit back and
relax, because this is The State of the Website Address: Year One.
It all started with
our big move from a lousy free web-hosting service into the .com world. We
were finally freed from bothersome ads and confining disk space. We could
now fulfill the full potential of our dream... kinda. It actually took
quite some time to get everything transferred over and get things straightened
out. But it was also a good time to organize a somewhat cluttered website
and make it more user friendly. It was also a good time to learn more
about the inner workings of a real website. I mean, just figuring out what
the heck an FTP is took me so long. Sure, I looked pretty dumb not
knowing, but now you the viewers have some sweet Freestyle Walking videos to
download. So there!
Speaking of FSW, our
Events section held strong. Although there were a few events that never
got off the ground (pretty much anything with jousting in the title), Freestyle
Walking was taken to another level. Unlike years before, FSW had many
updates and also for the first time ever, downloadable videos. Oh what a
great year of FSW it was. As for the future in Events, I know there is one
nearly completed, along with the planned addition of Misc Events. These
will be a variety of Events that aren't necessarily ongoing, but deserve to be
labeled as an Event. Post your ideas now on the Message Boards!
As you can see, I
like to plug the Message Boards a lot. This is because I believe that
having a strong community is necessary for a prosperous website. Although
our Message Boards are anything but popular, they are active and add to the
website experience. Often I post news that isn't found on the main website
or ask for people's thoughts on different topics. It's a great way to get
in touch with the people who run this site directly and voice your own opinions
of things you want to see. There are also the great off-topic banters such
as Skeletons Vs Zombies which was brought to our attention by our own
Stretpharmacist. So if you have time, stop by and say "hi".
The Crazygame High
Score Contest is probably one of the most popular attractions on PsychoNoble.
Crazygame started out just as a game that my friend Simon introduced to me.
Unable to find anything on the net about it, I decided to do it myself. I
reviewed the game and put up a contest. Little did I know that there were
plenty of people out there just waiting to send in their score. For the
first few weeks my inbox filled up with entries. It has finally started to
dwindle now that the high scores are getting insanely high. I'm barely on
my own high score table! There has also been controversy over the top
position which I finally settled. Crazygame has brought in so much
attention, that the author of the game actually sent an email, finally
explaining some of the few questions left about the game and revealed a hidden
secret. Butterfly. We'll leave it at that.
Just as popular, or
even more so believe it or not, is our Pathetic Tributes. For many years
before our .com age we had our Bill Brasky Tribute page. Once we finally
made it to a .com, we realized just how popular the tribute was. For
months, Bill Brasky dominated as our leading search string, bringing in 100s of
hits a month. With the obvious success of this Tribute, more would have to
follow. The Pathetic Tribute to Doug Funnie was added, which has brought
in almost equal success. I believe we plan to have more Tributes, but
nothing is set in stone yet. I'm thinking Conan O'Brien...
Articles are
undeniably the foundation of PsychoNoble thus far. Our archive of articles
has tripled since we've gone .com. We now have over 60 articles as of this
writing, with topics on everything from religion, to sports, to comics, to coin
wallets. Yes, coin wallets. Expect the Articles section to continue
being one of the cornerstones of PsychoNoble.
Recently we have
added The PsychoNoble Store. Although it is quite small currently, we have
plans for much more in the future along the lines of T-Shirts, Stickers, and
other possible merchandise. Be Warned, it's not on the top of our to-do
list. That would be The Story of Trek.
Poor Story of Trek.
It's just one of those things that keeps getting put off do to one issue or
another. It's quite hard to put together such a huge collaboration of
memories and stories when everyone is going to college full-time (and I live
1500 miles away). Oddly enough, come December of this year, the idea of
Story of Trek will be a year old, yet not nearly completed... No matter
what though, this will be finished one day. It may not be soon, but it is
a story that must be told.
Not as forgotten
about as Story of Trek but still somewhat neglected is our Reviews page.
There have only been a handful of new additions over the year, but they are not
to be frowned upon. I think the Reviews section has great potential for us
to show what the good and the bad is of the old and the new from all genres.
I don't know if that sentence made sense to you, but my belief stands.
Reviews... there will be more.
Then there was
August. Don't remember August? That'd because our website was down
for the whole month. Apparently our web-hosting service had some massive
system crash which caused a website rewind of sorts. This lead to some
downtime for us and some of our ownerships being changed, making us unable to
update for a period of time. All is better now, and we got a $5 credit.
Split 4 ways, that's $1.25 each! It's burning a hole already!
Well, how would you
like some fun facts?
-We now have over
24,000 visits. I'd give the exact figure, but the stats thing only keeps a
record for the past 12 months, thus erasing our first month of November.
-For the first 5
months, our visits nearly doubled every month. They now currently
fluctuate around that level. There goes our exponential growth...
-I was once
threatened with a $10,000,000 lawsuit for an article I wrote on this site.
-So far this month,
32 people have found our site by searching McDonald's Characters, and 2 have
found our site by searching George Lucas Neck.
Now, I'd like to
give some thanks to everyone contributing to the site. Thephilomath and
captainsupremexl,
although you guys hardly ever update anymore, I'm glad to have your guys name on
the Who We Are page. Blake, thanks for those articles you offered up, and
hopefully you'll get some more in down the road. Cole, did you even write
an article for the site during our .com status? Matt, your articles are
always so far out there I don't know if they are stupid funny or genius funny.
Either way, keep them coming. Thanks to everyone who checks out this site
on a regular basis, whoever you are. Thanks to the people who post on the
message boards, you guys rock. And of course a thank you to
Stretpharmacist, who is my
co-updater and co-main contributor to the site. Here's to another year
man!
So there you have
it. Chalk up The State of the Website Address: Year One as another article
for the archives. I'm not quite sure what the next year in our history
will bring, but I plan on making this an annual thing. So stay tuned for
The State of the Website Address: Year Two, coming in 364 days!
Jaybird currently
resides in Seattle where he reads comics, works in a
library, and writes for this site. He has also
been known to blow your mind, rock your world, and
eat pizza.