What's
with the pop-up ads?
After years of resisting using more intrusive advertising, we have finally
been forced to start showing pop-up ads in order to keep this site alive. We
appreciate any understanding you can muster for this situation. The number of
ads that appear has been capped. Pop-up ads are timed so that you should only
receive one of them during any particular visit. The takeover ads that can
appear before the page loads will not appear more than once per user during
any 24 hour period. [Back]
What
are the ground rules for forum posts?
The idea behind the news forum is to provide a place to discuss gaming news.
There are very few hard and fast rules. Here they are:
- Disagree all you want but attacks of a personal nature will not be
tolerated. Treat others as you want to be treated.
-
Do not post links to warez sites or instructions on how to obtain
pirated software.
-
Abusing the forums in any manner that could be construed as
‘griefing’ will not be tolerated.
-
Ethnic slurs and homophobic language will not be tolerated.
Thanks Bronco. [Back]
Are
your headlines available for inclusion on other websites?
We are pleased to say the answer is yes, the
headlines can be found here in RSS 1.0 format. [Back]
Where
can I find that Doom to Quake TC?
The Your Path of Destruction Doom TC homepage is on Moxill
Interactive QuakeTC Headquarters. This question arises from a British
gaming mag that included my link in a story about the TC, but forgot to
include the TC's URL, so people look for it here. [Back]
What
do you use to edit your site?
Since February 1999 Blue's News has been database driven. [Back]
Hey,
can I ask you an HTML question?
Nope, sorry. This is a game-related site, there are plenty of great HTML
resources out there designed to help with this. A good starting point is Webmonkey
which is as good a resource for those just learning HTML as it is for
professionals. [Back]
Okay,
can I ask you a game-related question?
You can ask, but in most cases I won't respond. The reason I don't just say
not to bother is that sometimes questions will reveal an area needing further
coverage, so actually that can be helpful. As for general questions, the
answer is probably available elsewhere. Please find some other way to get it
answered. Posting it on the appropriate message
board greatly increases your chances of getting a reply. [Back]
I
want to make a news site. Where do you get your news?
The short answer is, you should make a website about something you know. If
you are not already tapped into some source(s) of interesting information not
readily available, you probably should make something other than a news site.
[Back]
What's
Blue's News best viewed with?
Eyes and brain are required, but no browser in particular. Blue's News is Lynx
compatible, is viewable with browsers that don't support frames, and works
fine in resolutions as low as 800x600 (try 640x480 at your own risk). The site
contains no ActiveX, is decaffeinated of Java (although it does use JavaScript
for some nonessential features). Other than your browser's default, the
primary fonts used here are Verdana and Arial with Arial and Helvetica used as
alternates, but everything will work just fine without installing any fonts.
Here are the appropriate font archives I found on Microsoft's
Free TrueType fonts for the Web page: Verdana
for Win32 (320 KB), Verdana for Windows
3.1x (165 KB), Verdana for Apple
Macintosh (206 KB), Arial for both
Win32 and Win3.1x (415 KB), and Arial
for the Macintosh (344 KB). [Back]
What
did you use to make those cool graphics on your site?
Nothing: I am not the artist. You would have to ask the creators that question
(see the credits page). [Back]
Who
does those cool logos?
Walter |2| Costinak. [Back]
I
love that logo, but the old one was cool too. Could you please...?
...yeah sure, here's a link to the old one,
a link to the even older one (both by Walter
|2| Costinak), and here's a link to the old
flaming Q (by Sujoy Roy). You can also
check our Old Logos Archive for
the full, annotated collection. [Back]
Why
didn't you answer my email(s)?
The volume of my mail is really high. If I spend any amount of time
responding to each message, I simply will not have enough time to maintain
this site. I'm not happy about not answering mail, but it's more or less how
it has to be. Also, if I don't post something, and you think I'm blowing it,
don't be afraid to remind me...with my high volume of mail, I am prone to
mailbox glitches, mail client crashes, and simple human error resulting in
lost or misplaced messages.
200 emails at one minute each to read and respond (which is a
low time estimate) is over three hours a day. 300 emails (which happens) at
one minute per is five hours a day. Two minutes to respond to each of 300
emails is 10 hours a day. This is not a rudeness problem; it's a math problem.
[Back]
Why
didn't you print that thing I sent you?
Most common reasons stories don't get printed:
- The story was not of the type that usually appears. Clan news, new
site opening announcements, requests for links to homepages, reports
about mods that haven't yet been released, mod reviews, most editorials
and opinion pieces, and other assorted stories that would fill entire
news pages of their own, aren't generally posted.
- The story has already appeared (we receive dozens of emails a day
pointing to news we've already posted). Run a search for a word that
must've appeared in the story, you may find it might already be on the
site.
- We also refrain from printing stories about cheats, hacks, cracks, and
proxy bots that help players cheat in Internet play unless it is already
extreme public knowledge, or the post will help combat the cheating. I
love gaming, and in my opinion those things are detrimental to
everyone's enjoyment. [Back]
How
can I get a link or a mention?
Be significant and/or newsworthy in some area. The sites I end up linking are
the ones that are sources for news stories, or that fill unique niches. [Back]
Where
does the nickname Blue come from?
In the first two Wing Commander games, the main character didn't have a name
(his name was whatever you typed in), and the developers at Origin called him
bluehair for his Superman-Blue hair. I took the nickname BlueHair as an homage
to that, which eventually became blue (lowercase "b"), which became
Blue when I became weary of half the people who used it capitalizing the
"B." Sorry you asked? [Back]
What
do you do for a living? How does that work?
You're looking at it, I'm not sure if that makes me a journalist, or a
professional webmaster, but it does make me one of the luckiest guys in the
world. I have to thank all of you for the support that's made this possible.
How that works is advertising (period). The only income for this site is from
ad banners aside from what little we take in from selling t-shirts. [Back]
Who's
da man?
You da man. [Back]
Articles CGI copyright © 2000-2005 James "furn" Furness &
Blue's News.
