A blast from the past.

[The Wraith]

If you have ever thought I have ever had too much time on my hands, I invite you to take a peek at some of this GFH HTML I found laying around. Pay special attention to the "GFH Constitution". Yes, everything in there was well thought out and took weeks.

GFH Old School

I also found this while deleting old junk off my hard drive. Enjoy.

Historic i82 chat

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

Now those are some bylaws!!!!
sheesh....
That was extremely well planned and thought out....
So what ever happened to GFH???
Didn't the organization wnat to move onto other games???

[the wolffman]

i remember that chat. quite fun, though this version is editted. the chat in its entirety was better.

[The Wraith]

It took 4 people collaborating for weeks to define those bylaws. Anytime an "issue" would come up we would refer to them. I had them memorized at one time. *rolls eyes*. The GFH moved slowly to Tribes 1. We reformed, briefly, for T2 but never really re-organized. Primarily because, in reality, "Re-forming" actually means several dozen people expect me to code HTML/CGI several days a week so they have a website. Without a website, they don't feel "complete". I killed myself doing that in i76. I spent so much time updating grandfunkhighway.com I hardly got to play. Then, then came i82.com - and it just got worse.

When I want to play a game, I want to play the game....not spend my evenings doing fluff Constitutions. So, in this light, I never actually re-formed the GFH for T2. I created a in-game tribe. Several former i76ers "joined" it, not to be GFH members, but to keep in touch with past i76ers...and that's about it.

There are some motivated former GFHers who branched out to other games, with my consent. Birdman runs a GFH in CounterStrike, etc. However, the T2 GFH would be the last I would ever lead. It's simply too much "work" and playing with new-found HTML skills isn't all that it was cracked up to be, then.

Now, it's just effort.

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

I had no idea it was that much work to keep a site going like that, I know Zorro is in the back ground doing something for AK.....

I guess when it starts cutting into all your gaming time it no longer becomes worth it...

[[AK]Hylander]

I think thats why it's sometimes best to go with a CMS (Content Management System) like Post Nuke or PHP-Nuke, etc so that everyone involved can contribute to the website and all you have to do is the 'content'. Let the PHP and database do the work for you.

[Widowmaker]

That makes a lot of sense to me, Wraith. Games are for fun. Once they become work they are no longer recreation.

[the wolffman]

hylander:
if i remember right, i82.com was 95% run by cgi scripts. made it easier for wraith and staff to update and monitor every aspect of the site. still, takes a lot of time and dedication to maintain a site. so using server-side languages and databases does shorten some of a webmaster's time but not that much really.

p.s. those nuking programs you mentioned suck. please do not mention them again.

[The Wraith]

"I think thats why it's sometimes best to go with a CMS (Content Management System) like Post Nuke or PHP-Nuke, etc so that everyone involved can contribute to the website and all you have to do is the 'content'. Let the PHP and database do the work for you."
- Good advice, however, the first grandfunkhighway.com site I deployed was in the first months of 1996. There weren't any "canned" scripts. Hell, NewsPro didn't even exist yet. I had to hand code all my own automated, backend processes. Also, I should mention, I'd never coded Perl before so I had to LEARN how to hack the code, then write it... Deploying an automated website is easy in 2002, many things to download and perform minor tweeks on. In 1996, this was not the case.

"if i remember right, i82.com was 95% run by cgi scripts. made it easier for wraith and staff to update and monitor every aspect of the site."
- Very true. However, I wrote 90% of those scripts, just short of the hit counter. The "news.cgi" which ran i82.com was written from the ground up with the help of the guy who wrote "CougaLinks", Paul, if I remember correctly. I worked on CGI scripts for 6 months before we even announced i82.com existed. We're talking 24, 48, sometimes, 72 hours days...I'd work straight through without sleeping. Makes for going to work difficult, especially, when you're active duty in the USMC. Ever considered how difficult it is to run 5 miles at 6am when you've been up three days straight? I'm sure I about died.

It was this time I decided I would "train" myself on less sleep. It took several months of cutting back an hour here, an hour there...but I got myself down to only needing 1-2 hours of sleep per night WITHOUT AID OF STIMULANTS. I wasn't tired, either. It's amazing how much you can get done per day when you have 22 hours of productivity time. Even this, was difficult. Every 2 months I would need to sleep nearly 24 hours. Needless to say, "working on websites" taxed me physically and mentally. Which brings us to the moral of the story which I already stated, "Leading a gang/clan/tribe online isn't fun."

"p.s. those nuking programs you mentioned suck. please do not mention them again."
- Odd you say that, it was a point of contention in the community at the time. The GFH constitution mentions we "will not" do any such thing. However, as some may remember, the GFH once hosted a "Hack Roast" via a ICQ chat room. The night was spent with nearly 80 members of the community coming and going in/out of that chat throughout 6 hours, forming 4-man teams and infiltrating hack hosted games. I gave instructions how to obtain IP address information about all people IN a game, the information was reported back to the main ICQ chat, and we nuked/crashed people all 6 hours. I'd also custom build a "paint nuker" for each game entered. I must have made hundreds of crasher varients that night.

A community member named, "HackKilla", from the gang "Great Hack Jihad" lead most of the coordination efforts in the chat. He formed the teams, he picked which servers they would go to. I was doing it at first but couldln't hand out crashers and form teams simulaneously. HackKilla was/is a Former Marine.

The GFH took much flack for hosting such an "abusive" event. However, people who truly hated the GFH showed up to participate for an hour or two. It was a great community building event. Brought a lot of people together.

[[AK]Hylander]

Wolffman,

For the purpose that it serves, PostNuke and other PHP based CMS programs do the job very well and I do not agree with you that they "suck". I employ Post Nuke for my personal webpage and for that purpose it does perfectly fine. These programs that "suck" may not be for hardcore e-commerce solutions (Security issues, organization, etc), but they work for sites like slashdot and such. Database driven sites can be coded in numerous ways to make the actual administration much less time consuming.

I know a thing or two about the burdon of running websites.

High Gear (simracingnews.com)
SportPlanet
GameSpy
NASCAR-3.com (Former Webmaster)
PowerSims.com (Former-Owner)
MMMGI.com (Motorsports Media & Marketing Group, Inc) (Former-Owner)
IMN.net (Internet Motorsports Network) (Former-Owner)
PowerSimsMag.com (Former-Owner)
TheUSPits.com

I've either owned, volunteered, or was paid free-lance at the above sites. I've also owned a hardware review site that I sold to a larger entity which I am not allowed to disclose the name of.

Wraith.. I know the feeling about being 'self-taught'. I have no formal training in tech/computers, but have alot of receipts for books and alot of time reading off the net and printing out tutorials. Very time consuming as you said. I don't know enough to be an expert, but I know enough to cause a whole lot of havoc!

I will say it sounded like you were dedicated to the cause.

No matter what platform you employ, if someone truly wants to bring it down or hack it, if they dedicate the time they will most likely achieve it sooner or later. It's easier when everyone is using a 'canned' site, especially when they don't update with security patches once known exploits are known.

[Slaughter]

I remember those days when Wraith slept like 24 hrs... You would like ICQ him and he wouldn't respond.. that or he just never talked to me...

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

What is a hack roast???

[[AK]Hylander]

DD,

I imagine it's when you get a bunch of guys together in a chatroom, IRC or such, and you all work together or compete to hack a site/server/etc.

[The Wraith]

No.

A "Hack Roast" is when you organize nearly 100 non-hacked (non-cheating) Interstate 76 players into an IRC/ICQ Chat room and go "roast" some hacked (cheating) players. You first roast them by joining their game and "talking smack". Then, we "end" their game. Our mission was to NOT allow any hack hosted games that night. It was to be a "100% hack free" night on the gaming servers. Hence, we "roasted" hacks all evening, keeping the multiplayer servers hack free.

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

I think that's a pretty good cause....
I think there is a lot games out there that could have used it.....

Of course it was led by former Marine.....