Posts Tagged 'spam'

Over the last year I’ve been in significant battles with spam on my forums, so much so that I’ve purged them three times this year. I always make sure I have the latest version of SMF installed, I have the email confirmation turned on and the Captcha feature turned on.

Unfortunately people were still posting a ton of crap on there and so I have now made it so I have to approve members, which is basically my way of NOT approving anyone who signs up. I’ll more than likely remove the forums completely if I can’t find a better fix in the near future, so for now just email me or post a comment on the blog if you have a question.

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So I’m about to get personal. Perhaps even cross the line. As most people who know me in real life, know that I am someone who is at most times emotionally detached from the people and on-goings that surround me. But something that happened recently that awakened a part of me I had not thought of for some time, and while this may sound like the beginning constructions of a poorly written fictional narrative, I assure you this is my most honest self.

I received an email with this subject from someone who I would be lying if I said I had never Googled their name when I first truly began to use the internet back in ’97. I even signed up with that Class-Mates site out of curiosity though I seem to have forgotten my password and well, I never paid for the site’s features at all anyway, so I suppose it doesn’t matter.

There was a time before I became the person I am today, before I became what some might call a cold, indifferent bastard, of the likable sorts…Odd I know. In that time there was a girl, one of the many I wish I had stayed friends with but because of various unforeseen circumstances I could not. Vagueness may be taking hold here, but it’s important to keep things this way given our current state of affairs.

In any case this email, though simple and innocent, brought with it a flood of emotions, memories and a past I had chosen to forget. Now that this door has been opened, I feel an uncontrollable curiosity, the kind that would kill cats, to find an answer to the queries I proposed in reply and perhaps to find a resolve with this knowledge that would help me to now cope with the questions asked.

If you are indeed out there, I would like to know, and of the others in the group who were unfortunate enough to experience the purgatory our breeders should have endured I would ask you to reply. If for nothing else than the fact you opened Pandora’s box and messaged me with but a simple, singular question, upon which so much has been influence upon my hatred of the very nature of what said groups may stand for.

Wow, do I sound full of myself or what? But seriously, I responded to an initial inquiry that lead to no reciprocation. Ok, I guess I am a bit pretentious online.

Perhaps I should have simply answered. Yes.

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So in preparation for the promo I will be doing for the new book coming out in 16 days I went a little overboard and made pages at a few more social networking sites. In addition to the Myspace, Facebook, RPGLife, and RPGBomb I have made pages at Friendster, Hi5, Bebo and Orkut

Edit: ugh, now I know why I hate these sites so much…I went to login and I wasn’t paying attention and the login was actually a thing that sent every email in my google address an invite…Whoever made that function needs to seriously get punch in the stomach once. At least add in some type of confirm feature before I start getting no reply responses from “orders@amazon.com” /sigh.

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Well it’s official now, RPGHost, RPGwriter, RPGnews, etc… has all started migrating into Jame’s new site: rpglife.com




I’ve replaced the old exchange code on our partners page with their new code, and have begun populating their site with Morbidgames info.

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I was curious today and took a look via Google on RPG demographics. It seems like nothing recent has been done in great detail and the most accurate feedback received was from WoTC back in a 99 survey of 20,000 customers in the US.

If you can believe quantcast’s website stats though… 18-34 with low incomes and college educated and for the most part, it’s not as male heavy as I imagined.

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The fall update emailer went out this morning. You can find the full announcement, here

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Moving forward with the extinction of the d20 license we will be removing the d20 logos and language from our products in accordance with WoTC instructions. I have updated the free PDF’s available from our site just minutes ago, and will begin work on our for sale products over the next couple weeks. We plan to have the new files up at all of our vendors before October 1st, 2008. No other changes will be made to the products at this time.

As for our print product, we have until December 2008 to update the distribution channels or discontinue the products print availability. In all honesty, unless something changes our print sales have been so low that at this point it wouldn’t make sense to pay the fees associated with updating the print product at places like B&N, Amazon, etc and we may just discontinue print, however, the products will still be available from places like Lulu.

In the past I have mentioned my dislike for the GSL, and have thrown my support in with many other indie publishers in not adopting the GSL, hence no 4th edition compatible Ave Molech. That said, since the game is more d20 Modern based it shouldn’t really matter to our audience. However, we have been asked about it enough that I am considering making some 4th edition campaigns set in the world of Ave Molech. More on this as I have time.

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The Dante’s Inferno Test has banished you to the Ninth Level of Hell – Cocytus!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers) Very Low
Level 1 – Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful) Extreme
Level 3 (Gluttonous) Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) Extreme
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) Very High
Level 6 – The City of Dis (Heretics) Extreme
Level 7 (Violent) Extreme
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) Extreme
Level 9 – Cocytus (Treacherous) Extreme

Take the Dante’s Inferno Hell Test

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While I was gone this weekend, I came back to find I had 34 comments attempting to get posted to the blog, fortunately I was able to use my API key to activate Askimet and this problem should subside. I’m still sifting through the legitimate emails and reports now, and I should have an email ready to be sent out soon sometime this week.

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It’s been a couple years now since GenCon SoCal has closed it’s doors and I can’t help but shake the feeling that the venue should have just relocated instead of canceling. It seems like the latest trend of most companies, from any size and demographic, aren’t really looking for ways to expand, but to downsize. Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking on my part, but I would have liked to see GenCon SoCal moved to the Bay Area, perhaps in SF or at the SJ Convention Center where the Game Developers Conference is held. Of course, now that I am in Vegas, maybe they should think about having GenCon Vegas :)

That aside, it’s obvious from attendance and product releases that this market is shrinking. I’m not sure if it’s just due to the economy, or simply a lack of interest, or some other outside source. Large former-rpg companies seem to just be pumping out card games and licensing them for poorly written and constructed TV Shows and Video Games that tend to just be long advertisements for the card game.

Something needs to be done to grow the market, to get people interested in the social aspect of gaming again. For a long time now this culture has had the stigmata of nerds and geeks in their basement telling stories to each other. While this may still be the case in some instances, we desperately need a makeover, a new marketing campaign, one that shows people who go out on a Friday and Saturday night to the club, they can relax on Sunday afternoon with a few friends, several drinks, pizza and get their game on.

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