The “Time Slider:” A new idea for Google Earth

[Fun as it is to toy with Google Earth, it’s even “funner” to dream up ways to improve it. Here’s one idea I had for improving an already amazing program.]

The time slider

5.21.08

Kenneth Burchfiel

The current software for Google Earth lets us view in three directions: North/West, South/East and towards the center/away from the center. Aren’t we missing a fourth?

Don’t take me the wrong way. I’m not asking that we use live cameras for the Google Earth feature, nor do I devise a way to take users back to the days of Moses or the dinosaurs. Rather, I have a pretty simple idea for giving users a sense of how our Earth—natural and man-made aspects alike—have changed.

We all know that the satellite photography in Google Earth is updated quite rapidly in some areas. At the moment, it seems that the new imagery simply overwrites the old, giving users an updated, yet static relief of a given area. Is there not wasted potential in those less recent pictures?

This is where my idea for a time machine—a “time slider,” really—comes in.

Say that you’re looking over a certain part of New York. All the familiar controls are at your fingertips, with one addition: a slider connected to a bar depicting five or so calendar years. Move the slider to 2003, and you’ll see the 2003 Google Earth photo of that area. Shoot it ahead to 2006, and you’ll see new buildings appear, new roads paved—or, perhaps, a new shot of your car pulling out of the driveway. In short, the time slider would allow one to view past Google Earth images for a given area by means of a tab that slides between certain years of aerial photography. This would allow them to see, firsthand, how places have changed over time.

Things get even more interesting when we consider the possibility of historic aerial pictures. Let’s move eastward to Berlin. Placing your cursor on the time slider, you go from 2008 to 1947—discovering a black-and-white scene of desolation. You then slide the tab to 1973, and—what’s this? The Berlin wall is up! One more shift, this time to 1993, and a bird’s-eye view of the reunited capital shows yet another change in the city’s makeup.

The time slider might also be an ally in the fight against global warming. Let’s travel south to Antarctica. The wall of ice on our screen looks imposing enough, but—what’s this? If we move the time slider back to a 2006 Google Earth photo, we can see just how big that ice shelf used to be. Darfur activists could move the time slider back to 2003, then advance it slowly to watch the Janjaweed’s swath of destruction.

However one uses the time slider, they’re sure to begin seeing this Earth in a new dimension.

Writing for Charity: a Blog Idea

[Ever wanted to rant about dress sizes and feed the hungry at the same time? Well, here's your chance? (Not yet, but... you know... I'm working on it. Here's my pitch to an imaginary web developer.]

Writing for Charity: A Blog Idea

5/13/2008

Kenneth Burchfiel

It’s always been a dream of mine to write in a manner and method that helps out someone other than me. Problem is, writing doesn’t pay much to begin with (I should know, as I haven’t received a cent from it J), and charity work is associated more with boot drives than with experimental poetry. Still, I figured there had to be some way for writers to pitch in for society.

The thought came to me during physics class. Say that you have a blog—nothing all that fancy about it, though there are some coding and payment issues that you’d have to work out (more on that soon). Anyone can post anything on the blog, but first, they must pay a certain “commission—” 1 dollar, 10 dollars or 100 dollars per 100 words, depending on the “level” of their post. Before publishing their comment, the user would have the total calculated and pay the site—which we’ll call “Writing for a Cause” for now—however much they owe for publication. This money will then go straight to charity, giving the user that warm, fuzzy feeling that writing alone can’t provide.

To spice up the idea a little bit, I propose a series of “levels” that donators can pick and choose from. Level One, at $1 per 100 words, simply puts the reader’s post up and bumps it down as new posts arrive. Level Two users, though ($10 per 100 words) will see their post stay on top of the others until (A three Level One posts are published or (B another Level Two post is published, in which case their entry will “detach” from the top and slowly get bumped down along with all the others.

Level Three, at a near-philanthropic $1 a word, has the best premiums of all. Users get to choose their text color and (to some degree) font size, and their posts occupy an exclusive column to the left of the Level One and Two posts. In other words, if someone publishes a Level Three post, no amount of Level One and Two posts will remove it from the front page. Nor will bloggers feel guilty about hogging all the attention; the money’s going to charity, after all.

I’m not much of a webmaster, but I figure that this is a simple enough idea that setting up a working site would not be terribly difficult. My hopes are that I can find someone over the summer willing to implement the plan.

Until then, get your posts ready!

CrisisScope.org–A website for the weary

(An ongoing concept, though I’d like to see a site like this take shape soon.)

Mission statement:

“The purpose of CrisisScope.org lies in its name. This website focuses with crises, natural or unnatural, motivated by man or a greater force. Perhaps there are more popular things to deal with—celebrity culture, for one, or politics—but one eye, at the very least, has to be turned to those things from which others turn away. And yet, we are not just an eye, but a scope, a site determined to zoom in on the very worst conditions on this earth and record every find. To get the clearest image, we cannot simply stand in a safe zone and pan the lens around; rather, we must travel as close to the truth as possible. Both the crises and our findings may be disturbing, perhaps searing to the mind, but all the better; this domain would be worthless unless it directed the public to the most accurate depictions of hate and tragedy possible.

The most important part of the URL, however, may be the .org at the end. This sight was not made simply to “raise awareness,” however pivotal a first step to change that may be. Rather, we are here so that any given crisis we report on might be resolved. We are here so that, by the end of our time, there might not need to be a CrisisScope.org. Through donations, activism and personal support, that dream might just come true.

Thank you for visiting the site. Our goal is not to keep you up all night from the images and descriptions you view, but rather, to have you play a part in giving the victims of these crises the rest they deserve.”

Website Overview:

CrisisScope will feature a “Crisis Bar” on its main page. It will list, in order of severity, the top ten disasters and atrocities unfolding in the world. A “Crisis Rating” might accompany each item to give a rough idea of the relative magnitude of each.

Four links will lie within each individual bar: one, a general overview of the situation, two, media (some graphic) that will serve to foster understanding on the viewer’s part, three, links to groups and campaigns associated with the crisis, and four, direct links to charities operating in that region.

Links outside the Crisis Bar will direct readers to a re-post of the mission statement, a section called “VictoryScope,” which will list some of the most successful recent humanitarian campaigns, press releases, contact information, a summary of the world’s most impactful charities and a “donations” box for site purposes.

If there is sufficient user demand for the feature, the web page might allow users to keep a running financial account on the site from which they could quickly donate to relief efforts for any given crisis.

Advertising will be kept to a minimum, but humanitarian organizations (Red Cross, Worldvision, etc.) may have the opportunity to establish links on the site.

Concept by Kenneth Burchfiel. Webpage by…?

MallBall–A sport for the nation’s capital

In the market for a new sport to try out? Check out MallBall, my linear take on the American pastime. (Click on the image to view the full guide.) 3/16

Schreiben College (my ideal school)

SCHREIBEN COLLEGE: AN OVERVIEW

1/31/2008 Kenneth Burchfiel

From the moment they arrive on campus, students at Schreiben University know that they’re in for something special. On the edge of a snow-covered hill

in central Vermont, Schreiben overlooks a vast array of mountains that serve up opportunities for hiking, skiing and even a little ice fishing. The real story,

though, lies inside the college’s walls.

“There’s probably nothing like it, and that’s what I love about it,” one sophomore said. In some respects, Schreiben is a typical liberal arts school.

It’s small, with 1,747 undergraduates and some 120 professors. It focuses mainly on the humanities, and offers few courses in business administration

or law. The rest of the school is like none other–from the campus architecture to its academic approach. As one student put it, “You can sort the nation’s

colleges into two groups: Schreiben, and the other three thousand.”

A cozy campus

Most colleges, these days, boast modern campuses with world-renowned architecture. At Schreiben, the architecture is just as striking, but for a far

different reason. All but a few of the dorms and halls on campus have a distinctive A-frame look, with wood-and-stone walls, brick fireplaces

and spiral staircases that cut up through the center of each hallway. Most of these buildings have four or five stories, but the largest, Squall

House, has ten. “I live on the top floor of Squall, and it’s insane,” one senior said. “If there’s enough snow, I can jump out of the top window,

slide down the roof and hit a snow bank at the bottom without a scratch.” Another student raved about the dorms for a different reason. “I feel bad for

kids who have to live in utilitarian, ‘modern’ residence halls,” she said. “I want my house to be like this. There’s nothing cozier than a roaring fireplace,

a sloped ceiling and a soft blanket.”

Sled jumps and Supertennis?

Fireplaces and blankets might come in handy. The average January low at Schreiben is 11 degrees, a temperature made none the more comfortable

by the snowstorms that frequent the area. While some students abhor the weather, most seem to fit right in. “I don’t know what I’d do without

snow,” a sled-toting junior said. “You can build jumps at the bottom of your dorm, go to the roof and slide right off them.” Sled jumping might be the

closest thing that Schreiben kids have to an athletics team, though another unorthodox sport ranks close. In “Supertennis,” players stand at opposite

ends of a road or field, racquets in hand, and slam balls from one side to the other. The goal is to hit the ball over the player’s head and past a goal

line for a score, which is easier said than done. “Some people here are really into [Supertennis],” one student commented. “They’ll spend long hours

discussing serve formation while the rest of us are asleep.”

Real dedication

That not-too-extensive list of sports teams may hint at something else: at Schreiben, the focus is on academics, not athletics. With selective admissions

and challenging courses, the small college holds its own when compared to big-name schools further south. Even so, the intellectual environment is

different from any other school. Students can take classes at four different “levels:” overview, comprehensive, focus and dedication. The fourth level

is what has made Schreiben both famous and infamous, as one senior explained. “You can choose to ‘go dedication’ as early as your sophomore year.

Basically, it means that you spend half your waking hours studying, thinking and dreaming about one subject alone. If you pick the wrong subject for

dedication, you’ll experience burnout within weeks, but if you make the right choice, you’ll find yourself surrounded by people with raw passion

for the same course you like.” According to most, upper-level success doesn’t just require skill and focus, but heartfelt appreciation for the subject at hand.

One senior recounted his own dedication saga. “I was an idiot and decided to go D in engineering. After two weeks, I realized that I hated that

course and switched my dedication class to Spanish. I never realized how much I loved foreign language until I found myself next to others who

loved it even more. Of course, I still take engineering as a Comprehensive course.”

Most are quick to explain to skeptics that the dedication system is only half the picture. No matter how skilled or immersed in one course they may

be, students are required to take at least five overview courses and four comprehensive courses each year. Some pass this off as “another dumb

liberal arts requirement,” but most appreciate the chance for academic diversity. “What’s cool is that I’m discovering bits of science in things like

Australian literature and Drama,” a physics dedicate said. Nor do students have to specialize early on. The majority of Schreiberites

take a mix of overview, comprehensive and focus classes until their junior year, when they assume a dedication. Regardless of their path, Schreiben

kids have a reputation for their curious, rather than competitive outlook on learning. One professor found this especially satisfying. “In my focus course,

nobody studies for the grade–there is none–or for the rank–there is none. They’re here because they’re passionate about what I teach. You could say it

rubs off on me.”

The absence of a competitive spirit makes for a friendly, warm, engaging student body. “You get to be pretty good friends with your fellow Dedicates,”

a senior said. “Actually, you get to be pretty good friends with everyone.” It’s that camaraderie, combined with heavy snow, self-driven academics

and, yes, Supertennis that make Schreiben a school without peer. The creative and excitable students here wouldn’t have it any other way.

Shorthand Alphabet

This is a basic shorthand alphabet that I occasionally (okay, very rarely) use. I included only a few letters in the entire project, but that makes memorization and implementation a bit easier. Enjoy!

Blooklot

[A friend and I came up with an idea for a website in which people could post chapters of books in ongoing blogs, or "Blooks." We actually (gasp) implemented the idea and got a few users, but spammers later overtook the operation. Nevertheless, it was an interesting taste of the dot-com era.]

Blooklot Welcome Message

8/24/2006

Kenneth Burchfiel

A Blook is a simple concept: take a book, break it down into sections, and

publish each section in a separate blog post. The results? The entire web

has access to the book, no manuscripts have to be accepted by publishers,

and readers can easily comment and critique the work.

People have different reasons to write a “blook.” Some, perhaps, have had

a pre-existing manuscript denied by publishers. Blooks put the power

back into the hands of the author, allowing him or her to post section by

section of the novel online. Others may be attempting to write their first

novel; by writing each chapter online, the aspiring author can receive

feedback and support from an online community.

Blooks are a new concept, but have already caught on over the internet.

For the first time, authors don’t have to “get published-” they do so

themselves, with the extra bonus of a community that will support and

critique their work. However, for new blookers, attracting viewers still isn’t

easy, and no directory exists where users can search through genres and

find a new book that they would enjoy.

Until now.

Blooklot allows users to sign up, and, for free, publish their books online,

read other blooks, and receive tips and advice for novel writing. Instead

of having to attract viewers to your own site, at Blooklot you post chapters

of your book in an environment already containing other users, each

looking for a good blook to read. At the same time, you can browse

through other blooks at Blooklot, instead of having to search all over the

internet for a good online novel to read.

Excited? So are we! Whether you’re ready to start writing your first novel,

or have multiple manuscripts that you can’t wait to publish online, the

Blooklot team is glad to have you here. To start posting your blook on the

site in seconds, simply click on this link in order to register:

http://blooklot.com/profile.php?mode=register&sid=a35662b037d81227e68648af9fb6ecbb

The other topics in this section will give you further information on

Blooklot, including how, exactly, to post your Blook on the site. Here’s

hoping you have an enjoyable experience, and, once again, thank you for

choosing Blooklot!

Ned Burchfiel

Co-Admin, Blooklot.com

(Vintage) Five factors for a successful video game

[A few ideas I had back in the day, and still have about how video games could be better—a lot better. Take a look if you’re into that kind of stuff, and forgive the spelling errors.]

Video Games: Five Factors for Success

5/13/2006

Kenneth Burchfiel

I thought of these objectives about a year ago and feel they are necessary to further advance video games- you may find the described advancements a bit general, but nevertheless are important if games truly want to expand beyond today’s average game. These sound pretty boring at first, and I’m not going to lie- they are, and were written down mostly so I could remember my ideas, but reading through them will likely change your perception of what, exactly a video game is considerably. Just a thought.

1- 3D planets

No matter how “expansive” a terrain in a game is, be it a Tony Hawk level or a GTA city, sooner or later players are stopped somewhere- a wall, fence, or perhaps ocean that disallows any movement beyond that point. However, if gaming environments are to be advanced, a necessary adoption is that of a planet-like environment- all maps in the game are laid out over a sphere or similar three-dimensional object to eliminate any sort of impetement. GTA4, for example, should not be just a flat city, but instead a curved environment- high speed chases aren’t blocked by the end of the map, skaters in Tony hawk can manual back to their starting locations. These planets need not be extremely large; Super Mario Galaxy, for example, features environments fully accessible anywhere and yet can take just seconds to run around.

2- Full customization

Customizable characters are a start, but players should be able to, if willed, build up an entire game from almost scratch. Timesplitters’ create-a-map was an excellent start for customizing the game, giving creative players near-unlimeted options in map design. What, then, is next? Create-A-Gun. Create-an-ad. Create-a-city. People should be customized completely, as if drawn from scratch- perhaps the DS can see something of the sort, along with other characters. Imagine, when playing a WWII game, putting your own drawn-out characters (ducks vs. zebras, for example,) onto your created city (coastal islands linked by conveyer belts,) and giving each atomic bombs to play with? It may sound far-fetched, but a bit of leniency on the part of the creator, scenarios like this won’t be hard to duplicate.

3-Randomness

You die, your character falls down in a bloody cutscene, and seconds later you re-start in a predetirmened location with a predetermed gun with a predetermined objective. Die again, and again, and the game begins to get repetive. The excitement of attempting to win whatever is placed before you becomes a bore-fest of dying the same death after and after. This should not happen, but instead, have everything random.

Let’s imagine the possibilities- Goldeney’s Facility level, the beloved second level of the Goldeneye Single Player. No matter what, you start in the ducts, die, and re-start in the ducts. You have the same gun, each and every time. Your objective is always to lay the bombs and escape at the end- even if you may start at a new checkmark after making it through an area, or perhaps having extra objectives to fulfill, all of this is linear. Now let’s make things random. You die. Bang! You’re overlooking the gas tanks and this time must make it back to the bathroom and defeat a guard. But wait- you don’t just have a PP7, but instead a rocket launcher. Not that that’s going to help much- the guards, in completely different locations instead of their pre-determined spots, have snipers that can gun you down in one second. Die again, and you’re outside the facility completely, armed with grenades and a machine gun. Perhaps sometimes, you forget about the tanks completely. Perhaps sometimes there aren’t any guards but instead a bomb that must be disabled. Funny thing is, we already see nearly all of this in Multiplayer. Why not adapt it to single player?

Or perhaps just forget about the level schematic altogether. So you’re in the facility and you die. What? Bond is dead, and now you play as Natalya, staring down spies from inside the Citadel (Let’s pretend they actually included this level.) Heck- you don’t even have to be a good guy! Once she’s down you join up with Ouromov trying to take Bond out on the train. As gamers, we’ve been used to the cycle of death and respawn with nothing changing between. Having absolutely everything change- placement of character, character, guns, bosses, enemy placement, objectives, is a huge step, but would create unlimited gaming possibilies.

4- Full Destruction and Full interaction

Fun shooting through windows, using rocket launchers to blast away trees, and annhilating other cars in GTA, no? Thing is, we’re only on the iceberg of what game companies so-call “Total destruction.”

Let’s imagine a scenario- GTA, for example. First off, we have to have full interaction, another important category. Full interaction comes from the pain of trying to open a door in a city-based video game but finding it nothing but a 2-D image. We can’t go in this mysterious building, nor destroy it- nothing but something designed to enhance the image of the game. Full interaction requires that any door, any wall, any road, can be tunneled through, opened, viewed. If you’re wondering how a character can go through wall after wall after wall without eventually coming to the end of a level, see the first category- with a planet-style map, players could tunnel through the road all the way to the other side, or perhaps destroy the buildings and bomb the landscape until the entire planet is wiped out, akin to slowly licking off the sides to a lollipop. Full interaction means you can find any building that you like, walk inside, and see an office environment, a basketball game, or any other kind of structure. It would have elevators for you to ride if there are floors, walls you can shoot through to find other walls, and, using the basketball game as an example, a court in which you can steal the ball and dunk a basket on the other side. But we’re just getting started- back to full destruction. Shooting down signposts and stoplights is chicken feed. Imagine walking up to the top of a building, setting a bomb, jumping off and then detonating it- the building would collapse to the ground. No pesky door or random wooden structure blocking you from accessing a level would stand in your way upon total destruction; players could shoot through walls, through ceilings, and through windows to access any point of a building. Most of all, too much shooting and weakening of the structure would cause it to collapse on you. If there are guards in a tower located close, try tunneling underground, past the tower, and to the other side- or sending it to the ground with a rocket launcher and seeing crumblings of floors, computers, and wall decorations on the ground once you walk past it. Would this require processing power well beyond our reach at the moment? You bet. But once such power is acheived, full interaction and destruction with the landscape will be necessary.

5. Online Play

Unlike the other facets we’ve seen so far, Online play is already up and running. The benefits of online include unlimited gameplay possibilities and interaction with other gamers, helping enhance realism of a game. When combined with the other four, online play would enhance games further, as with the other ideas we’ve seen so far.

There you have it. We’re already starting to see the planets aproach with Super Mario Galaxy and Online with Xbox live- hopefully the other three won’t be soon to follow. [face_cool] Thanks if you read, I don’t blame you if you didn’t. [face_tongue]

Multiple Desktops Patent Idea

[I never got around to submitting this as a pending patent, as it turned out that someone had probably done something quite similar in the past. At any rate, here’s a formalized idea that deals in the electronics business.]

One monitor, multiple desktops

10/25/2005

Kenneth Burchfiel

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to the field of computer desktops, and more specifically to the creation of multiple desktops for one user in the same user base.

Summary of the invention

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Today’s computer interfaces are based on a ‘desktop’ computer area which works as the homepage for a user and his or her computer. The desktop contains links to icons, which redirect the user to programs or documents that are opened in windows.

Such desktops have icons ordered in a specific way, but all icons are put on one desktop only, limiting users from putting a certain number of icons on the desktop without cluttering the screen and making it difficult to both organize and/or find certain icons, regardless of sorting of said icons. In some cases, the screen itself and the resolution of that screen does not permit more than a certain amount of icon space on the desktop without having to overlap icons.

Flash and Java are two programming mediums in which sound, images and video can be put directly on a certain area such as an internet browser or a computer desktop. These programs are able to be visible without opening in a prescribed window, unlike programs such as Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word which are opened and then manipulated in by windows. Flash and Java-based programs are not hindered by the need to maximize or minimize the stated programs and thus can be viewable while a user is working on other areas of the computer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention calls for a Flash or Java-based computer application in which the user of the computer may select multiple desktops with each having the ability to hold a unique set of icons. The implied use of such an application will be to sort the icons of a user by various categories and having each category relating to one of the desktop screens.

The desktop selector will be placed at either the bottom or the top half of the computer screen, suggested placement being directly above the taskbar, positioned and colored in such a way that while the user is able to rapidly select a desktop, the selector does not distract a user from attending to his or her computer. An option to hide the desktop selector so that it is obscured except for a small box, such as a maximization box on the top left of a page opened in a computer to maximize the desktop selector to its standard image, will be present and easily viewable. The style will be easily customizable with a default skin relating to the current version of the computer of the user, with additional skins present on the function and additional downloadable skins should a website for such a program be created. A custom skin creator will also be present and available with easy-to-follow instructions and the option to add images to such a customizable desktop included. The actual desktop selector, although customizable in dimensions as well, will consist of a long, thin rectangular bar with aforementioned options positioned to the left side. A total of five desktops may be created; unused desktops will be shown in a small, gray square in which clicking on one will present the opportunity to create and customize the new desktop. A created desktop will be marked by a colored square. The colored square can either be the default color assigned by the position of the desktop in the entire menu, a customizable color selected in the skins creator, or an image thumbnail either of the desktop or of an unrelated picture selected by the user. When the mouse is run over such a square, it will magnify the square so that it pops out over the bar and lets the viewer see what the desktop is. Upon clicking the square, the viewer is transported to that desktop, and if a new desktop is not chosen within the default 10 seconds or a time set by the user, the square will minimize and the bar will retain it’s default appearance.

After the program is downloaded or uploaded into the computer, depending on the medium the desktop selector will originally be stored on, whether the internet, a compact disc, or another way to store the program information, the program will instantly recognize the current desktop as the default desktop and program it into the selector. If all desktops are deleted by the user, this default desktop, which cannot be removed or changed by the user, will retain it’s position as the default and will once again be marked as the first desktop. Thus, until a user creates a new desktop with new icons, this desktop cannot be deleted from it’s current position. If a user is to click once on a gray square, the following message will pop up: “Desktop not in use. Double-click on the gray square to create a new desktop.” By double-clicking, the user is taken to a full-screen page which, if minimized, will be represented by a small red box in the corner of the desktop selector bar. From here, the user is asked to select which icons to put on the desktop; actual choice of the desktop screen, screensaver and other options will be chosen as normal on the user’s computer as default. Icons will then be dragged around the screen or sorted by name, size, type, or modification date either vertically or horizontally, and spacing between sorted icons will be selectable as well. When the user is satisfied with the icons and their arrangement, they will click ‘ok’ on a box in the lower right-hand corner, which will then take them to their newly formed desktop. The desktop background will be gray, and the user will be prompted to go to their computer menu and change the desktop. Once they do that, an animation will show the new desktop be added to the desktop selector grid in either red, yellow, green, blue or violet depending on it’s placement in the grid, red is assigned to the first desktop, yellow to the second, green to the third, blue to the fourth and purple to the fifth. If the user wishes to do an image preview of the desktop as their default box appearance, the animation will play out with that instead; such options may be edited in the options tab on the left hand side of the desktop selector.

Depending on the computer software and the version of the computer, it may not be possible to alter the computer configuration so that the computer will accept a multiple desktop. This can be solved by one of two ways. First, the program would not tell the computer to create a new desktop, rather, it would cover up the icons that do not relate to the icon choice. For example, if a desktop was to consist of only the blue icons, and the current desktop had red and blue icons, the desktop would simply cover up the red icons so that a certain type of ‘camouflage’ screen, either java or flash based depending on the program settings, would cover up the icons. Another option would simply be to keep the original desktop and have the new desktops arranged in windows that could be open or shut like browser windows, with copies of the icon pictures linking to the original icon shortcuts replacing the actual icons. Either way, a computer will not need to have any extra programming to accept the new desktops, whether they are actually new desktops or methods of covering icons to create different patterns. Thus, this program could run on any computer that accepts java or flash and would support links to the original icons and their corresponding programs

Forum City: a Message Board

[An old (archaic, in internet years) message board that I started up a long, long time ago. Key word: long, long time ago. This bit of memorabilia is an advertisement I used to convince some people on another message board to join the site, which turned out to be a lukewarm success. Welcome to the summer of 2005.]

“Forum City” Advertisement

8/14/2005

Kenneth Burchfiel

Come join PM’s official message board! http://s7.invisionfree.com/NetCity

Please read the message before clicking the link. After all, you can’t judge a board by its homepage. http://s7.invisionfree.com/NetCity

If you have received this message, you are a regular here at the PM boards who I think would be a great person to come and post at Forum City. We get hundreds of posts, thousands of hits, and new members signing up every day.

Why not just post on IGN? you ask. Well, here at the PM boards, we’re a great community, but there’s only one thing we talk about- paper mario. Besides in the community chat, all we can discuss is paper Mario, and nothing else.

Because of this, it’s been a tradition to have a ‘side board’ where PM regs can discuss ANYTHING they want, without getting banned or shunned by other users. We have 4 community chats and places to discuss just about anything- be it movies, caption contests, or battles between PM characters. We have over 20 different forums and subforums for general chat.

But it just starts there. What really makes this board special is the FREEDOM. Put images in your signature! Upload icons directly from your computer! Don’t get banned for cursing by junior mods! And, of course, there’s a spam board for your posting pleasure.

We also have special features that even IGN can’t beat! Here at IGN, member rankings simply consist of small stars, and there are only 8 of them. Here at Forum city, we have 40 MEMBER RANKINGS… EACH WITH THEIR OWN ICON! 8 or 40? I’d take the latter.

Another thing we dominate IGN in is our smileys. IGN has tiny smileys, some of which are animated. Thanks to smiley central, we have LARGE, 3D ANIMATED SMILEYS that you have to see to believe!

Please sign up and join. We need to establish a side chat, as it’s been a long-running Paper Mario Boards tradition. I hope you’ll decide to join.

-Broncostar