[RSPW.Net] Info, New Features, Future Plans, and Begging
Ned Ryerson - BING
>From: "RSPW.Net" NOT...@rspw.net
>Date: 7/2/2003 9:45 AM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <Xns93AC62F1...@216.168.3.44>
>
>WHAT IS RSPW.NET?
>===================
>
>The purpose of RSPW.Net it to try and re-create the sense of community
>based on common interests that once made this newsgroup a powerful and
>influential force in the wrestling business,
Neither wrestling nor usent nor the internet today are like they were in 1995.
as well as provide
>entertainment, information, historical perspective, and a central
>archival point for some of RSPW's greater moments.
We've been waiting a year.
>
>It's not our intention to "take RSPW too seriously," but let's face it -
>a lot of us have spend a significant amount of our lives here.
Mwahahahahahahahahahaa.... I'll say!
In many
>cases, more than a half-decade, and in some cases well over a decade, of
>our lives has been spent in contact with this newsgroup. Nobody's trying
>to turn us into the DVDVR or tOA crew - with all due respect to those
>folks, if that's what RSPW wanted, that's where we'd be.
>
>Plus, in spite of what you may hear, RSPW *is* still the 400-pound
>gorilla of Internet Wrestling Fandom.
How about some actual quotes backing this claim up?
>
>Our collective history stretches back to the late 1980's, our in-jokes
>have made their way into the wider world,
Name one.
our alumni populate every facet
>of the wrestling business from the bleachers to the booking team to the
>ring.
And outside of a few low-level indie folks still here, all of them have moved
on from RSPW.
>
>To those of us working on the site, this is a history worth preserving
>and acknowledging.
I can do that through Google Groups.
>
>That doesn't mean we have to be on-topic all of the time, or that we
>think RSPW is the be-all and end-all of wrestling fandom; there are
>plenty of fans that have never heard of this place, and that's fine.
>
>But for those of us who are here, it's a hard case to make that any other
>online wrestling discussion is as lively, entertaining, or capable of
>keeping us interested, even when our interest in wrestling itself has
>waned under the relentless power of piss-poor booking.
My goodness you prattle on. You haven't taken my advice yet: KISS.
>
>
>NEWS
>=====================
>
>I'm sure most of you have been following the ongoing soap opera regarding
>RSPW.Net over the last few weeks, from the RSPW.Net Usenet Gateway
>(temporarily offline due to overloading the server) to the first RSPW.Net
>DVD (killed due to copyright concerns),
"Copyright concerns" = I tried to pirate someone else's copyrighted material
and got caught.
the polling center (I guess one
>could call it the RSPW Voting Booth. In fact, I think I may do that),
Wow, how long did it take to think that one up?
>the sooper-sekrit rumblings of a new FAQ engine that will allow for the
>creation and display of a new RSPW/Pro-wrestling FAQ (since Scooter
>absconded with it), and of course the ongoing feedback, good and bad,
>that the site has generated, along with (of course) my relentless
>shilling.
>
>One of the primary concerns of RSPW.Net right now is to make it self-
>supporting. While the server bill isn't much, it's a whole lot when
>you're unemployed, and in spite of some generous help over the last 6
>months from one RSPWer, and a half-dozen or so interviews (out of some
>480 resumes sent), I'm still pretty broke, and even a little thing like
>the costs of operating RSPW.Net and LowGenius.Com can become quite a
>hurdle.
>
>To that end, I have entered into a partnership with Amazon.Com, the
>world's largest online retailer, to create the RSPW.Net Bookstore.
>Currently we are offering 9 titles, including books from the Hardys,
>Blassie, Heenan, Piper, and even JR's Cookbook, and we'll be adding more
>throughout the day and then maintaining an up-to-date list.
>
I knew this was coming. I'm sure you'll be skimming what you can off the
top.
BTW, I'm seriously thinking of picking up the Wrestlecrap book when it comes
out and the Zenk book if that ever comes out, and I'm going to make a specifc
point of NOT doing it through your site.
>We're not just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks -
>the book selection is culled from the (currently) 612 wrestling titles at
>Amazon.Com to represent what we feel will be in the interests of the
>smark wrestling fans here.
LOL, you should have mentioned "The RSPW.net Executive Board created a special
sub-committee to select these titles" so I could drown in the bullshit instead
of just wading in it.
You won't find the kayfabe books, such as
>Hogan's or the various WWE-produced fluff on this list. Only the good
>stuff, the titles that we think you will be interested in, are included,
>and they're ranked in order of interest - for instance, JR's cookbook
>will stay at the bottom of the list, while books like "Sex, Lies, and
>Headlocks," the upcoming Wrestlecrap book (available for pre-order), and
>Mick Foley's wrestling books will stay ranked toward the top of the list.
>Piper's book, being half-kayfabed but still interesting, and Foley's new
>novel, will appear somewhere in the middle.
>
>Plus, if you don't want anything on our list, you can still help support
>RSPW.Net by using the 'Front Page Link' to Amazon.Com, which can be found
>on the bookstore page. If you go through our site to make your
>Amazon.Com purchases, a small part of your purchase price goes to funding
>RSPW.Net.
>
I wonder if you think this is still 1998 where you could get rich by putting
pop-up ads and banners on your site, and make billions and billions (courtesy
Carl Sagan) off of referral links?
>
>THE FUTURE (nJoeyMatthews)
>======================
>
>Future plans include:
>
>- the design and deployment of yearly and monthly 'Poster Awards' for
>things like funniest thread and best song parody, including a nomination
>process and a mechanism to avoid vote-rigging (currently in place in the
>polling system)
Why wouldn't we just do that on RSPW?
>
>- a gallery of previously-heralded comedic contributions to RSPW (Ted
>Burton, Jesus Joins the NWO, song parodies, and more)
Just post a link to Deja.
>
>- Raw, Smackdown, and NWATNA reviews
Why wouldn't I just go to WrestlingObserver, PWTorch, 411Mania, or 1PopUp?
>
>- Regularly updated wrestling news and information
Are you going to have any exclusive content, or is it just going to be copy n
pastes from the big sites? If so, why wouldn't I just go to the sites
themselves, or go to a Lords Of Pain or one of the other 70 sites that copy and
paste already? Going by the history of RSPW.net, they'll at least do it every
day while you'll update the damn site every month.
>
>- a complete revamped and re-written RSPW/Pro-wrestling FAQ
Sure to be filled with errors and typos. Hint: rip off other FAQs that have
done it better already.
>
>- a comprehensive listing of television broadcast information for pro-
>wrestling around the world
Why not just click on TVGuide.com
>
>- an RSPW.Net/Amazon.Com video store
Another money making scheme. Can I assume you'll be selling original videos
or is this another referral link thing? One can only hope its DVDs made from
shoddy VHS copies of handheld camcorder footage of poorly lit independent
shows. And for only $35.99 apiece.
>
>- a voting system by which you can rate the wrestlers featured in the FAQ
Why would we want to do that?
>
>- a rating system for the FAQ entries themselves
WTF? What, do we get to vote on whether something is a fact or not? "NO! I
don't believe Hogan beat Iron Sheik for the WWF Title!"
>
>- comprehensive information about the demographics of RSPW - average
>ages, locations, that sort of thing
The only thing that might have a point existing on RSPW.net. But I'd probably
get bored real quick with it.
>
>- an online memorial for those wrestlers who have passed where RSPW'ers
>can post their memories and accolades.
>
>- lord knows what else we'll come up with
>
>
>BEGGING
>===================
>
>The downside to all of this, for the immediate future, is that Amazon
>only pays royalties on the quarter, which means that this isn't going to
>help the immediate situation.
>
>If anyone wants to throw a couple of bucks at us to help try and keep the
>site running, you can make a donation in any amount via paypal at
>http://www.lowgenius.com/util/support.htm.
Wait, we're supposed to support a site that doesn;t actually have content yet,
and probably won't for a long time? Sounds like a scam to me.
>
>Any donations recieved (and frankly, I doubt there will be any at all,
>but it can't hurt to ask) will be put toward the costs of server space
>for lowgenius.com/rspw.net (they're currently hosted on the same space).
>The domains are also up for renewal in a few months; hopefully by that
>time the financial crunch won't be so severe and I can manage the costs
>of this myself.
It's your personal site, you pay for it.
>
>It's worth noting that one person - who has asked not to be named - has
>been kind enough in the past to contribute a fair amount of cash and
>equipment to this project - on the order of several hundred dollars, when
>you count the cost of the equipment and software.
>
It's Chad Bryant of course.
>Unfortuantely, that was several months ago, the cash has been used,
Several hundred dollars can buy only so much cigarettes and malt liquor.
the
>equipment hasn't been able to return it's investment the way we'd hoped,
>and frankly, I don't wish to continue pressing on the same individual
>over and over again to help maintain a project for the benefit of
>hundreds of people.
>
>With all due respect to everyone, it would be nice to see some more
>people getting behind this. I do this work because I enjoy doing it, as
>do the RSPW.Net editorial team, but we're also doing it for the benefit
>of the group, and we think you'll be very pleased with the projects we
>have in progress right now, as well as the plans we have for future
>expansion, and we think it's worth supporting.
>
Basically it's a blackmail attempt and a guilt attempt: "This site won't exist
because you don't care enough, and if you want conent, you better start payin'
up!"
>I can think of a MILLION things I would much rather do than ask anyone in
>RSPW - or anywhere else - for money.
Work ain't one of 'em.
> It's embarassing, and it's
>humiliating, and it makes me feel like a friggin welfare queen or street
>bum, panhandling.
Admitting you have a problem is the first step towards recovery.
And what is it with you? Are you a masochist or something? You enjoy
admitting you feel humiliated and embarassed and pathetic to the whole world.
Why do you do that? I mean, if I was humiliated, I try not to admit it to the
world.
>
>It's also necessary. Sorry. Believe me, nobody hates reading this half
>as much as I hate having to write it.
I love it. Good entertainment.
>
>FOR JUST THE PRICE OF A CUP OF COFFEE YOU CAN HELP AN INTERNET WRESTLING
>GEEK GET A WARM MEAL~!
To screw with you I should deposit a penny, and then take it back.
>
>Help us out if you can, please. If each regular poster (as defined by
>the Netscan survey) here contributed just $2, that would be enough to pay
>the server bill and domain charges (at current rates) for the next 2
>*years*.
>
>Surely, with your help, we can get through the next couple of months
>until the click-through royalties from Amazon start coming in.
>
>
>FINALE
>==============================
>Register!
>
>Vote!
>
>Read!
>
>Make suggestions!
>
>USE THE SITE!
>
>That's what it's there for! It's YOUR site! It's *OUR* site!
>
>Want to contribute time and effort? Send me an e-mail! Development is
>not complete, we may not have anything for you 'right now,' but you can
>rest assured that at some point, we will.
>
>There's an FAQ to be written including bios for wrestlers, federation
>histories, and more; we need people to find quality posts in the google
>archive to be included in the humor section; it's not possible for us to
>have too many volunteers.
>
>The more people use the site and participate, the less able promoters and
>wrestlers will be to continue blowing us off as "a bunch of 12 year olds
>in their mom's basement."
>
>Make suggestions, write articles, do what you think you can do best, but
>above all else, USE THE SITE. Register, vote in the polls, amke your
>voice heard and, by doing so, make OUR voice heard.
>
>No, we don't want to take it too seriously, and we don't, but we have
>*all* put some serious time and effort into this group, and it's
>certainly worth the effort to maintain our little neighborhood and keep
>people interested.
>
>Thanks for reading this ridiculously long-winded pile of crap.
>
LOL
-----------------"
It's no wonder the WWeeeeeee just blows chunks, when an unbalanced psychopath
is running the asylum." - Bob Barnett, 7/1/03