Just a couple of quick notes about DIY Games (http://www.diygames.com) that may interest developers and gamers alike. Forgive me if this seems overtly spammish, but I'll take my chances :)

#1: I'm having a new contest that may interest developers. It's called the DIY Games IGF 2004 Entry Free Contest (http://diyg.com/archive/index.php?mesid=673). Basically just submit games to the email address provided in the news post and it has a chance of having the $100 entry fee into the IGF paid in full. $100 might not seem like a lot of money, but I know of a number of devs who have not entered the IGF because of the entry fee.

#2: With all the discussions on newsletters recently I decided to get off my but and put one together. It goes out on the first Sunday of every month and features:

- Top 5 news stories of the previous month.
- List of games released over the last month.
- Quick snip reviews of 5 various games
- 10 Questions (Ten standard questions asked of a different developer every month)
- Cheats section (cheats, trainers, etc)
- Exclusive content (This issue it's a new gameplay movie from World Fables. Future issues will include new levels for existing games, first look screenshots/movies, and possibly early demos).
- Free games. Every month we'll give away a free copy of each game reviewed since last issue.

Right now I'm waiting for my tech guy to add a "subscribe now" box to the website, but in the mean time you can just subscribe by using old fashion Email, click it! (subscribe-956605283@ezinemanager.net?subject=subscribe)

If anyone has any questions or comments then don't delay, let me know! Help is always appreciated, so tell me if you want to make sure something is included, or you just want to take part in 10 Questions.

This is not a spam thread at all. You're a regular contributor to these forums and I think the contest for the paid entry into the IGF is a nice idea too. It's more work for you to be involved in that and benefits a developer more than it would for you at this point.

Originally posted by Hydroaxe
This is not a spam thread at all. You're a regular contributor to these forums and I think the contest for the paid entry into the IGF is a nice idea too. It's more work for you to be involved in that and benefits a developer more than it would for you at this point.

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words. Contests seem like a good way to get linked since most everyone likes free stuff.

I'm always looking for more contest ideas, so if anyone has ideas let me know. I plan on buying a about five copies of DavidRM's indie survival guide book and doing some contest with that around it's release date. It's difficult to come up with stuff that doesn't cost an arm and a leg though :(

Tom whoever else here uses Ezinemanager.com, have you had problems accessing the page all day today? I havn't been able to get there since early this morning, it's getting pretty frustrating to say the least. Not a great first impression, especially since I'm paying to use it.

Greg,

Great job on the contest. Its great seeing independant support!

As for your ezinemanager, just a quick thought. I registered today, but found it a turn off to have to email them to be added. Perhaps you should add a script to your site?

Great job again.

Alex

Originally posted by Sirrus
Greg,

Great job on the contest. Its great seeing independant support!

As for your ezinemanager, just a quick thought. I registered today, but found it a turn off to have to email them to be added. Perhaps you should add a script to your site?


Thanks! And I agree that the email is a turn off. I'm ignorant when it comes to the ways of HTML coding, so I sent that off to my tech guy. Asked him to do it Monday, said he could just write a program to manage the newsletter by tuesday but I still insisted he just add the subscribe box to the site, now it's saturday and no word from him, even after a number of emails :(

For reference. We finally got a little script thing for subscribing to the newsletter, so you don't have to click on an email link. Good thing too, I hate doing it the other way.

And if anyone subscribes and wants a copy of the last issue then just let me know. The forums very own Sirrus answers our "10 Questions" section this time around.

How about posting your subscription sign-up script? What method/tools are you using? Is it PHP and are you storying the email addresses on the server, or just sending them somewhere, like to another tool?

I'm a bit paranoid about using a 3rd party system after SpiderWeb's big newsletter blowup. Someone hacked their provider and screwed with their list, angering quite a few customers.

Uhmm :) not to be annoying, but seems to me a bit strange that a hacker want to destroy their mailing-list!!!

They're hosting at network-solution, a well know company (the one of Verisign!), so seems strange that they don't have anti-hacker protection... the company I work for now is really SMALL but has really nice anti-hacker protection (of course nothing is safe 100%).

Maybe they just lost it by accident? :D I know I am a bit malicious! :)

Anyway, what kind of 3rd party software they were using?

The ONLY 100% safe way is to send them from a single pc not normally connected to internet!

Originally posted by Jack_Norton
Uhmm :) not to be annoying, but seems to me a bit strange that a hacker want to destroy their mailing-list!!!


Hackers do a lot of things that seem strange. Like bringing down Ultima Online servers, or using cheats in other online games to ruin the experience for everyone else. Why do they do that? Just to be pricks. They don't really need any more reason than that.

And no, they didn't just "lose" the list.

I hate the term hacker =) I prefer more like stupid immature programmer better...since hacker also includes to those programmers who are more responsible and break security systems for the purpose of informing the people of problems with it (and ocasionally paid for it).

Anyway, nice to know about the contest even tho I doubt I will enter.

I hate the term hacker =) I prefer more like stupid immature programmer better...since hacker also includes to those programmers who are more responsible and break security systems for the purpose of informing the people of problems with it (and ocasionally paid for it).

yes, if they only hack in systems for fun but do no harm, they're hackers :) if they do bad things like that, they're "crackers" (at least this is what I know)

When I was younger the word "hacker" just meant somebody who hacked at something until they figured it out, which included programming or electronics. It was a work ethic and not a condemnation of illegal activities. The media started using the term to describe people who bypassed computer security systems and it stuck.

My brain likes to associate cracking with illegally changing software, and hacking with illegally breaking security systems or messing with networks/websites.

I don't really think about the good guys though, It makes my head hurt :D

It all began in the 1960s at MIT, origin of the term "hacker", where extremely skilled individuals practiced hardcore programming in FORTRAN and other older languages. Some may ignorantly dub them "nerds" or "geeks" but these individuals were, by far, the most intelligent, individual, and intellectually advanced people who happen to be the pioneers and forefathers of the talented individuals that are today the true hackers.

As the last sentence says, these are the true hackers. These people that enjoy crashing *put here the mmorpg you want* servers or cheat in counter-strike multiplayer games, are NOT hackers.