Conference Call Summary: TNL Is Closing . . .
TNL is closing in on its tenth anniversary, so I set up a Skypecast earlier today to discuss various issues. Unfortunately, the whole Skypecast thing is still in beta (though it is still more reliable than Hellgate: London at this point) and almost no one could get in.
Josh jumped in and set up a conference call with me and seven other lucky participants (plus two that were booted or left).
The main topic of discussion was three get-togethers we will be planning for 2008 - and by "we," I do mean "we." There will be a get-together in Chicago and one one both the east and west coast (of the U.S.). A lot of our readership comes from Texas, Florida, and Ontario as well, but we are keeping it to those three official gatherings.- New York City is where bahn was living when TNL started in May 1998, so I think there should be a New York get-together in May 2008.
- Southern California was the headquarters of Gamefan. ECM helped kick off GameGO in March 2001, so there will be a Los Angeles get-together in March 2008.
- Finally, Chicago is my hometown, and I took the reins from bahn, who inherited the bulk of the community after ECM left. We will have a Chicago get-together in October 2008, since GameGO, as I put it in the call, exploded in October 2001 and sent its human shrapnel into the heart of bahn's forum.
(Kenshin and Haohmaru were instrumental in building this community, for those keeping notes, but they don't fit easily in my bulleted list, so they get this paragraph.)
There will be a separate thread on the planning for these events, so if you can make any or all of them, start thinking now about restaurants/halls where we can rent a room, activities that might be interesting during the day, etc. All events will be held on a Saturday in the three months I mentioned.
We also discussed upgrades to the site and my level of involvement. The years 2004 through 2007 were emotionally busy ones for me and took me from the site quite a bit. I always check on this place, but I have only worked on it in spurts that have been few and far between. There are more changes coming, and there might be some work for some of you. My goal is to finish work I've started (the Wiki, T-shirts, a consistent game release calendar, etc.) I also want monthly contests (at least one or two contests every month starting in January) and a regular podcast.
Josh says he and a friend can help with some of the editing, and we have a lot of people that can participate in at least one podcast. We would love, of course, to have Kano and Stibbons at the center of it. There will be a podcast thread coming, too.
I am working on a community toolbar that you should see in the next few days. I just touched on it in the conference call, but - right! - there will be a full explanation posted.
I also extended my thanks and appreciation to the community for the consistently entertaining nature of these boards. The rest of the message boards on the Net, particularly the pop culture ones, just aren't as good. It also feels very, very good to know that whatever changes are made, there will be much intelligent and constructive feedback.
So, as has become my motto on TNL, more to come.
