Update: At the bottom I just added an email address.
Since taking over Old-school for Matt, I've been trying to figure out what the best direction to take the community. So begins my reign of terror.
Of course, I don't want to change anything-- The whole point of the group is to reminisce about a different time. But I'm also thinking about what is my obligation to the community.
Everything I'm about to say is up for debate, and I'm definitely open to suggestion! Don't be shy about voicing your opinion.
One thing that Matt did was end the paid subscriptions before I took over. I'm thinking of starting those back up. Reason being that a paywall for posting comments (but not viewing content) is the best way to prevent trolls. (Also, I can't figure out if there's a way to let non-supporters post, so, the community might just die by default if we don't have a subscription model.)
I also don't think I'll be creating enough content to justify taking that cash for myself, so I've been thinking that I'll try to find a charity that's non-controversial as well as not useless. Then 100% of the revenue would go to that charity.
And I also would like to actually create some content to drive traffic. That's where I'm kind of coming up empty.
That's where I got the idea of the Old-school Gazette (with some inspiration from ProJared's "Now in the 90s" ). That's still something I'd like to continue doing. Maybe also make an audio podcast version, though my voice is terrible for something like that. Kind of awesome that the first week I did it had the release of Yar's Revenge, considered one of the best games made for the Atari 2600.
I'd also like to create something else, but I don't know what yet. Movie reviews have been done to death. Comic strip reviews? Might not actually be a bad idea. But I'm still trying to think of other ideas.
I'm a child of the 90s, but it's fair to say that "90s kid" is greatly over-represented on the internet, and the 80s had way cooler stuff. Plus the 60s had the best cartoons. (Except for "Whacky Races". That was a weird one.) So, I figured the 80s would be a good focus.
1996 is when I consider the era of "Old-school" to be over. Because that's when the Nintendo 64 came out. For the nineties kid, there is a hard delineation between pre-N64 and post-N64. (As an adult I like Sony Playstation way better, but Nintendo had better marketing back then, so I didn't know the difference.)
Thoughts? Questions? Complaints? If you're not a supporter already and can't post comments, feel free to send anything you like to [email protected]. I just set that up for communications purposes.
(Also, if anyone knows a way to allow non-supporters to post comments, let me know!)
This was supposed to be out over a week ago, but things have been nuts for me lately!
This is a not-quite-official announcement of the Discord server I just created. Completely free. Don't need to be a supporter on Locals. Don't even need to be a member.
It's definitely not a secret that this community hasn't been active since Matt Hartley hasn't been involved. I think there are a few reasons why (one being that I had a lot less time to devote to it than I realized), and I think that making a completely free alternative would help, and I unfortunately don't think I can do that on Locals! You have to pay if you want to post. Discord should be free (unless I did it wrong).
Feel free to come join! It's still kind of experimental at this point, and I don't know how well I'll handle content moderation, which will probably be the biggest challenge.
