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Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - 10:24 pm  Simcountry World News www.Simcountryworldnews.com Message includes: 1. Thanks 2. Issues 3. Solutions 4. Process 5. Conclusion A Big Thankyou! First off, SCWN would like to thank all Simcountry players for their great interest in the fan/news site. When initially launching the site, there was a great response, that has remained, and for that I say thanks! Did it all for you! Issues Our Hopes We address Simcountry World News as the "CNN" of Simcountry, however, we wanted it to be a bit different than that. CNN is closed, as it is a business, while I desire SCWN to be open to the players of Simcountry. Where the news doesnt so much come from myself (though some things would of course) but would come from the players themselves, especially the "uReport" section. The idea is to have "reporters" in Simcountry, that are able to report on news stories throughout Simcountry. Also, if players liked to have an article in the News, they could submit it directly from SCWN (commentaries, special reports, etc). The idea for the uReport section (which will be changed) is to give players the ability, to go directly to SCWN's uReport section, input their news story, and have the site update immediately for all viewers to see the news. The news would be searchable, and passed throughout SCWN so that everyone can access it. The other sections would be able to pass their news throughout the site also, updating on every page for all to see, even in the form of RSS feeds. This would make the SCWN not like a "newspaper" but "live news". The site would become FAR LESS reliable on me, and almost completely dynamic. Video Content The Gamer's Guide as well as some news broadcasts would be available as video, via video stored in the site, or live streams in some cases, further connecting and cementing the bond in simcountry between players, the news, and their worlds. PROBLEM! So, thats all great right!? Yes! Its awesome, but its not currently what SCWN does. Whats the deal? Well, when I began building SCWN, I was learning HTML (all over again) and CSS (for the first time). HTML is static, mostly, and CSS helps streamline the look of the site without me having to do every single thing. CSS is awesome! But I have now reached my limitations with HTML and CSS. It took me only 2-3 weeks to learn, and Ive prospered at it, with the dawn of SCWN 2.0. But SCWN 2.0 will be shortlived. The news has been slow because I'm coding/designing the site while trying to meet the demands for news at the same time...LOL, disabling me to accomplish either. The site is still reliant on me, and if i continue any further with HTML/CSS, it will make be bite a pile of bricks...im not even gonna mention what will happen to the goats. I do not want to be a dictator to this site, by any means. I want to be just a moderator as well as editor of the site, organizing the data, and presenting it to Simcountry Players. Solutions So now, here's the good part! SCWN 3.0 is coming! What does that mean? Well for one, it means that I am currently learning PHP (im becoming a programmer, lol). I am also learning MySQL too. SCWN will be operated via databases where all the news stories from each section of SCWN will be organized, stored, etc. Using PHP, SCWN will do a few different things, DYNAMICALLY and automatically! Once a story is submitted on uReport, from a player, the story will show as a preview immediately on the site, instantaneously. When someone clicks "submit" the site will send the article to the database, where it will be organized, then send it to uReport showing a preview, while at the same time sending it to uReports "full story" section, where it will be shown as a full article, available when someone clicks on it. ALL BY ITSELF! All I will have to do is program it! For SCWN staff, including myself, they will be able to login to a "Staff Section" (unnamed as of yet). There they will see posts from other members and from the editor, us talking to each other. When they submit the news, the will be able to fill out a form, selecting which section, put their article in, and click submit. The article will be sent to database, organized, sent to website and updated...again without anything further needing to happen! I will program the site so that it can be EASY to maintain, use, and change. Ill then be able to spend time adding the videos, creating tutorials for Simcountry, etc, etc! The Process of Time So what will happen between here and there? Well, for one, the site will not shut down. I will leave it operational, and it may be updated once a week, like a weekly edition. I have already started the programming, and its awesome! When I started SCWN I decided that I need to learn everything from scratch so that I am able to meet the demands of SCWN readers. The outcome is amazement that its coming together in such short time, as well as satisfaction, that SCWN will be able to contribute to Simcountry, and may even be able to attract alot more attention from online gamers. The News may be slow, as some may be saying "isnt it slow already?" LOL...and Id have to agree, noting the issues above. It may be slow but still active. Conclusion Thank you guys again, so much! Wait until you see everything on the site that I can see in my head, OMG!
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