makeshift patriot

Ah May, when it finally becomes clear winter has ended, the month of my birth. May brings mixed emotions, mainly, shame and frustration.

I'm writing this news post with muscles in my hand I haven't been forced to use since grade school, actually physically writing this news post on a note pad. You see dear reader, I've been crippled by my sedentary lifestyle.


This is a two-part news post, first the depressing explanation of why I have been absent for a while, and second some big upcoming changes I want you guys to check out.

How the internet turned me into a sloth and cripple

By Max Goldberg, age 25 26

It all started with YTMND. The responsibility of maintaining this site started out as a fairly simple task and has grown to become a beast of burden and responsibility. I started YTMND because I like to make widgets, doodads and new features. I am in love with research and development. Over the years, my administrative tasks such as moderation, monetization and "community management" have made R&D more of a side benefit to an otherwise tedious job. It's because of this that I took a break and decided to work on weblog.

Weblog is a project I have held near and dear to my heart for many years. It originated when a pal created a script to log IRC chat and filter out the links back in 1998, before "weblog" was a synonym of an online journal, before the term "blog" was even invented. A few years later it died so I decided to make a new version which captures the images people link in chat rooms as well. I got really into it, wrote an entire bot from scratch and did all sorts of templating and other frivolous coding that has never really been used. This was in the beginning of 2004 and in the middle of creating this site, I made YTMND, which quickly became my main focus.

Over the last few months I have been thinking more and more about weblog, a site which at its heart is completely unmonetizable. I decided to make a new version, something spectacular. A project I could put my energy into without having to worry about user signup, moderation and monetization. A project I could work on for the sole purpose of creating something new and better.

So one day I sat down and wrote up some specs, and started coding some of the bits I thought may be fun. I became consumed. Six to seven day weeks at 18 to 24 hour days of coding, designing, testing and molding my dreams into reality. Ignoring phone calls from friends and family, never leaving the house unless I needed necessities, almost no human contact. I was loving every second of it.

Then one day I woke up and rolled out of bed, went to the bathroom to urinate, shower and admire the beard I had been unintentionally cultivating; I made a bowl of cereal and walked the 15 feet to my work station. Short of bathroom breaks and to get up and make tea, this was the most I moved for six week. This was my daily routine. On this day something was different; when I sat down my left thigh had a soreness to it, like I had run a marathon without stretching.

The pain became increasingly worse over the day to the point where I actually got up and tried stretching. It didn't seem to make a difference, but the pain seemed to slowly go away as long as I wasn't sitting, so I sat back down went to work. Mind you I'm no sadist, but I am apathetic enough that my drive to create is high enough to ignore minor aches and pains or any self inflicted discomfort.

After a few days of this, I decided it was time to Google up some information on muscle pain and see if I couldn't do anything about this pain in my lower east side (sorry Martin Amis). With a lot of finite descriptions of my pain I've self diagnosed myself with Sciatica, more specifically "Piriformis syndrome". Ironically nicknamed "fat wallet syndrome" as it is usually self inflicted by sitting on a thick wallet for a long period of time. I wish that had been true in my case, but alas, I think it was due to me sitting on my feet for long periods of time.

When you think about people who stay in the same position for such an extended period of time that they become injured my thoughts are immediately drawn towards Maury Povich clips of extremely obese individuals. According to my BMI I'm not even obese. I'm just one point into "overweight", just enough to be uncomfortable in weather above 80 degrees fahrenheit. In the famous words of Michael Richards, "That's what's so insane about all this!"

At this point I am unable to sit for a period of longer than 15 minutes without incredible pain. I'm not sure if this is a punishment from god for not working hard enough on YTMND or working too hard on Weblog. Either way, I've spent a good deal of time in bed thinking about the future of YTMND, as well as my own future. Let's face it; this site has been depressing for a while and it needs some serious loving. I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and physical therapy on Thursday. Physical fucking therapy. What a decrepit douche-bag I've become.

Anyway, enough of my pitiful problems. Let's discuss YTMND.

Down to Business


As my first major order of business for this summer, I have decided a new site template is in order. The site template has been pretty much static since 2004. While I've spent considerable time on the moderation side of things, I haven't really worked on compatibility or usability of the actual sites hosted on YTMND. One of the major reasons for doing so now is that with all of the work on the refactor, YTMND isn't getting much public love at the moment and I can work on the template without interfering with the rest of the refactor.

One of the problems that has been around since the beginning of YTMND is that playing sound through different browsers is a pain at best and impossible at worst. Requiring people to install (and understand how and why) Quicktime for Firefox to play YTMNDs is ridiculous. Then you look at looping sound. It doesn't work anymore at all and hoping that Quicktime/Apple will fix their shit after years is pathetic and pointless. So all sound will be played through Flash, this means gapless sound will actually be gapless. Lovely, seamless loops.

Instead of trying to break it down into bits and pieces you will all find boring, let me type up my in-bed-plan for the YTMND template (which you will find boring as well).

YTMND Flash Site Template

Draft version 0.02

  • 1. Overview
  • 2. New Features
  • 3. Possible New Features
  • 4. Dependencies
  • 5. Concerns

1. Overview

-----------------

The goal is to recreate the current HTML site template into a 100% flash template. This will remedy a large number of problems that plague the current site template as well as removing the dependency for Quicktime or alternatives to play sound. Greater than 99% of the users who visit YTMND currently have Flash version 9 or greater, so harnessing the power and flexibility of Actionscript 3.0 seems ideal.


2. New Features

-----------------

    1. Volume Control and Mute

      The ability to raise/lower volume using a control directly on the site, using a flash cookie to save the volume level.

    2. Pause

      The ability to pause and resume a YTMND using a control directly on the site. For animated sites, this will pause both the animation and the sound, for non-animated sites this will merely pause the sound.

    3. Restart

      The ability to restart the YTMND using a control directly on the site without having to reload the page.

    4. Automatic re-synchronization of animation

      An automatic forced re-synchronization of sound and animation every X loops ensures that continual looping won't ruin the site due to lazy synching.

    5. Loader advertisements

      Finally being able to monetize the sites themselves with a 300x250 ad shown during loading. More on this below.

    6. Asynchronous loading of site assets

      Would allow both image and sound to be loaded at the same time, allowing for much quicker loading speed. Additionally, 100% flash would make the current onload issues (sites failing to start, browser compatibility, waiting for slow ad servers, etc) moot.

    7. Better image placement

      Currently you can only tile or center an image. New options would be to position at top left, top center, top right, middle left, middle center etc.

    8. Truly seamless looping

      No more gaps between sound loops. MP3s will still have gaps due to issues with the format that are almost insurmountable, but WAV files uploaded seem to be gapless once imported into Flash from all the testing I've done.

3. Possible New Features

-----------------

    1. Zooming text options

      Multiple options for shaping and positioning the zooming text. Such as text that blooms from the center or bottom of the page, or text that is rotated etc.

    2. Finite image placement

      The ability to set a pixel location of where the image should be positioned for ultimate control.

    3. Background image

      When not using a tiled image, allow users to have a background image with another image on top of it, with the option of tiling the background image or placing it like you would a normal image.

    4. "Oh shit" button

      An option that would allow the user to hit the spacebar which would instantly kill the sound and show a "work safe" image of a web page, such as a Google search.

    5. Non-flash alternative

      Depending on site options, fall back to a plain HTML/Javascript version of the site if possible. Show a warning message explaining the user is not getting the true YTMND experience as well. Alternatively, just prompt the user to install Flash.

    6. Customizable Site Data

      Allow site creators to choose what shows up on the info bar out of all the possible meta data on site profiles.

    7. Downloadable YTMNDs

      If everything is in Flash, it's possible we could package up all of the assets and site data into a single file and let people download YTMNDs.

4. Dependencies

-----------------

    1. Asset conversion

      All WAV files need to be converted to SWF or some other Flash-consumable format that doesn't add padding. All animated GIFs need to be turned into Flash MovieClips.

    2. Ad system

      As far as I know, Flash can not display embedded HTML/Javascript which is what most ads are. This means the ads have to consist of either an image file or a Flash MovieClip. A simple ad system would need to be built to handle tracking views/clicks etc for this. More Below

5. Concerns

-----------------

    1. Moderation panel

      This would invalidate a large amount of work I did creating the site moderation mini-panel. I'd need to figure out some way to reincorporate it into the new site template. Possible solutions are an iframe/normal frame, a popup or some sort of side bar or firefox extension type dealy.

    2. Asset conversion

      Asset to Flash conversion is a pretty big ordeal due to the millions of files that need to be altered.

      Currently using PHPTurbine, I can convert WAVs and GIFs to SWFs fairly well, but it is unclear if the resulting SWF is in a format we really want. I need to learn more Flash before I can figure out if this is a major problem or not.

      Another issue is that the conversion is picky about WAV files that aren't of a standard frequency (11kHz, 22kHz, 44kHz, etc) and this means some sites may need to be disabled or require an extra layer of conversion using sox or some other sound tool.

    3. Animated GIF lag

      Animated GIFs get turned into Flash MovieClips in order to be displayed. There is open source code to deal with this, but I need to test the limits of it. I am worried having 400 MovieClips tiled on a page (to emulate a current page with tiled animated gifs) might shit the bed. I am also somewhat concerned about the translation of frame-timing from GIF to Flash, but it may not be a big issue.

    4. Ad Blocking

      The data package that is sent to the YTMND loader will have ad data in it. It would not be hard to bypass/alter this client side to avoid having to look at ads. I think the best way to do this is include a hash of the data using a secret or changing salt to verify the data has not been altered in any way.

    5. Zooming text

      I'm not sure if I will encounter the same problems we see with lag due to large amounts of transparent background text on top of animations, but if not we can ditch the image text stuff.

    6. Scaling/resizing

      Again due to my lack of Flash experience, I don't know how to handle browser resizes on-the-fly, and I'm not sure how to set it up so stuff scales properly.



This is a sizable list of tasks that need to be completed, but in all honesty I don't think it any of it will be incredibly hard to do. At the same time, I am completely out of my element. I don't know Flash at all, but assuming I take a handful of pain meds every day I think I can learn enough to make something magical happen. I've already started laying the groundwork and despite my crippling pain, I've made some real progress.

Now before I go, let me mention the ads bit of the new template. Most of you know the sub-domains themselves are hosted at a huge loss and the ads on the other parts of the site make up for most of the hosting costs. I want to change this and make the sites actually profitable, but as most you also know (and as shown by the pitiful YTMND coffers) I really dislike ads. The new ads will only be shown during the loading of the assets, for about five to eight seconds, but there's a lot more to it than that.

One of the most ambitious ideas for this new loader is to use remnant advertising like you see around the site normally in the beginning and try to move to a user-funded ad system. I want the ads to be an extension of the creativity of the community and I think I've come up with a plan that is beautiful if executed correctly.

The key here is to allow users who just want to be creative to be able to express themselves at a fairly low cost. I've come up with a pricing plan that will allow users to buy ads for as little as $1 for a month for non-commercial purposes. The more options, targeting and priority you want, the price goes up. Ultimately non-commercial advertising will be cheap, most likely cheaper than the current average site sponsorship is. Ideally YTMND could at some point be run completely with non-commercial ads.

I will write about it a lot more in a later news post, but imagine this; Currently the main way users have to promote other sites is with site sponsorship which can be costly and not always have the desired effect. Imagine if for $5 you could run a month long ad that is shown to anyone who visits a site you like (or dislike), imagine being able to run ads across all sites made by a user you admire or despise, imagine being able to run ads that show up any time someone searches for a keyword. I think this is possible and could add an incredible layer of creativity to the site.


At any rate, I wish you all the best and I hope that soon I am able to participate with more vigor than I am currently capable.

Apr 01, 2008
Apr 03, 2008
May 26, 2008
Jul 17, 2008
Aug 12, 2008

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<< 1 2 >>
May 26th, 2008
1st
(7)
also, I've been working on this post for more than two weeks, when normally a news post takes an afternoon. Apologies for not updating sooner!
May 26th, 2008
2nd
(4)
also also, syncan, let's chat.
April 22nd, 2010
453rd
(0)
lol, reply to max replying to max on old news post.
May 26th, 2008
3rd
(1)
no apologies necessary
May 26th, 2008
8th
(-2)
[ comment is below rating threshold and has been hidden ]
(-2)
Mustard? Don't let's be silly.
May 26th, 2008
9th
(-6)
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(-6)
So you sat on your foot so long your leg started hurting.....damn I wish people would put that much effort into their YTMNDs....*cough* Featured users *cough*
May 26th, 2008
10th
(3)
i didnt read it all I JUST COMMENTED INSTEAD.
May 26th, 2008
11th
(2)
Hey, great post. I think it could be even better if you spent another week on it!
May 26th, 2008
16th
(-4)
[ comment is below rating threshold and has been hidden ]
(-4)
ask keaton for some flash help, he makes really good animations
May 26th, 2008
27th
(-1)
So if you're still looking for a thinner wallet, check out TheJimi.com.
May 26th, 2008
31st
(20)
I don't sit on my wallet because I don't wear pants.
May 26th, 2008
33rd
(1)
because he dosent have legs, hence the "cripple" part of the post
May 26th, 2008
34th
(0)
Physical Therapy sucks, but you're not the only one. I f*cked up something in my neck which causes constant shoulder pain. Sure, it makes you feel like an old man at first, but as PT goes along you feel better for being a bit more athletic.
May 26th, 2008
42nd
(2)
best thing you can do is yoga. works out every part of your body and you're the only guy with about 25 hot women in your class. it's a poonani gold mine. :D
May 26th, 2008
44th
(-18)
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(-18)
make me a f*cking featured user
May 26th, 2008
50th
(1)
this sh*t just got real, maybe you'll luck out and get a fresh out of college hot phystherapy chick...or maybe some creepy man who says "who wants a body massage? im a body massage machine!"
May 26th, 2008
58th
(1)
Additional generic comment.
May 26th, 2008
60th
(-7)
[ comment is below rating threshold and has been hidden ]
(-7)
Max, try sitting on a wallet now. It could maybe reverse the pain. THINK OF GRADE SCHOOL AND WORKING PROBLEMS BACKWARDS
May 26th, 2008
62nd
(6)
He keeps his wallet in his purse. Also,Time to start making Crippled Max YTMNDs.
May 26th, 2008
66th
(0)
They make Max halloween costumes? Isn't that a little too revealing of a costume?
May 26th, 2008
68th
(0)
Merry Super Fun Birthday Max!
May 26th, 2008
75th
(1)
Not nearly as severe, but I'm imagining Max turning into a non-pedo Brian Peppers as a result of his devotion.
May 26th, 2008
82nd
(2)
Take a load off Maxwell, take a load for free.
May 26th, 2008
83rd
(0)
In before Afrotech
May 26th, 2008
112th
(1)
I can feel the pain though, I do sit on a fat wallet. The people on the bus stare at me because they can see that I'm so uncomfortable. I don't know what pants has to do with it though, I don't wear any pants at all.
May 26th, 2008
121st
(2)
ytmnd t-shirts will solve all of the problems
May 26th, 2008
131st
(0)
The Flash developments sound exciting, I'm on the edge of my seat (unlike max lol)
May 26th, 2008
132nd
(0)
I read it all... and you have my sympathies, max. No luck at all. Have you been considering appearing on the Colbert Report or a similar venture? The asset-to-flash idea is interesting, but will we still be able to download the raw image and sound files? This is important to a large part of YTMND, as WHOA THERE'S A RED LINE UNDER YTMND ok back to this... it's important to YTMND as many of us ar e not familiar with flash, and downloading assets is vital to creating fads, parodies, etc. Also SHEIK'S BUTT
May 26th, 2008
138th
(0)
also, c*cks
May 26th, 2008
147th
(-4)
[ comment is below rating threshold and has been hidden ]
(-4)
The Jew gets fat wallet syndrome? That ought to teach you, you should have tipped your waitress and handed out money to the homeless more, like a good Christian would. Enjoy your fat wallet syndrome, as you burn in eternal hellfire.
May 26th, 2008
153rd
(0)
^believes in god
May 26th, 2008
168th
(0)
superbe
May 26th, 2008
169th
(1)
EPIC MAX MANUEBER
May 26th, 2008
172nd
(0)
ahh good, i was begining to think that the april fool's joke wasn't actually a joke. here's hoping ytmnd gets another golden age soon.
May 26th, 2008
173rd
(3)
User Ads = Bad Idea. Increasing the ability of users to interfere with one another will kill ytmnd completely. It'll become almost entirely vendetta specific, divert site-making effort into extremely narrow-audience, revenge oriented bulljive and decrease the accessibility of actual sites. It'll stratify the userbase in unfair ways, giving advantage to those who perhaps DON'T work for their money, and DO harbor internet grudges. F*ck No. Also, Flash format = good. Maintaining .gif restriciton = No Good.
May 26th, 2008
192nd
(3)
grab a snickers
May 26th, 2008
196th
(0)
In lieu of the upcoming "OH SH*T button " contest, I'd like to suggest that the OH SH*T button redirects to a site of the user's choice, not a default site for everyone. Then again, someone could just use a Link button or Home Page...
May 27th, 2008
208th
(0)
the oh sh*t button was the most appealing feature discussed.
May 27th, 2008
228th
(0)
stop begging for more money fatass
May 27th, 2008
231st
(1)
Hope you heal from fat wallet disease.
May 27th, 2008
243rd
(0)
Hi, max.
May 27th, 2008
248th
(-1)
what about interactive clickable ytmnds if it is flash
May 27th, 2008
251st
(1)
^gb2 newgrounds
May 27th, 2008
252nd
(0)
tl;dr: BAWWWW
May 28th, 2008
265th
(-1)
http://lifehacker.com/software/contest/coolest-workspace-contest-the-treadputer-171537.php Treadmill computer solves all. Also, Lifehacker, ftw.
May 28th, 2008
276th
(0)
http://ytmnd.com/
May 28th, 2008
280th
(-1)
^ I think that was already discussed. The Oh sh*t button is without question the most appealing new feature of all. Just don't let users start freely advertising their sites in picture. I see enough pr0n in the sh*thole as it is.
May 28th, 2008
292nd
(-1)
I'm waiting for a little checkbox in "Create a YTMND" that makes the site awesome.
May 29th, 2008
293rd
(-1)
also, oh shi- button! ;D
May 30th, 2008
310th
(0)
You gotta take more care of yourself, Max, that's just what has to be done.
June 3rd, 2008
340th
(0)
april fools!
May 26th, 2008
4th
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(-13)
1st
May 26th, 2008
5th
(-1)
I'm using the chicken to measure it.
May 26th, 2008
6th
(-1)
i make minimum wage with no holiday pay
May 26th, 2008
49th
(-1)
me too, i work for an agency
May 26th, 2008
7th
(-3)
[ comment (and 1 replies) is below rating threshold and has been hidden ]
(-3)
7th
May 26th, 2008
12th
(0)
I really like that advertisement plan- I could target keaton with super smash brothers news or spread poland propaganda to darthwang
May 26th, 2008
21st
(3)
I think some really amazing rivalries or "secret admirer" dramas could be played out with that type of ad system. You can put an ad on one site that links to another site and theoretically the back-end of the new system won't count a view until the load is actually complete. Will be nice to be able to troll people who come to YTMNDs linked to by the wow forums, digg, etc with a completely different YTMND.
May 26th, 2008
69th
(-2)
So, the goal is to make money off the fact that people are posting to your site from sites you're not thrilled with. Brilliant. In all honesty, why not just send referrers from sites you dislike to a Man Not Found page, or something similar? "But then I wouldn't make any money". There's other ways to make money, dude -- you mention them above. Pissing off Digg users et al doesn't make a lot of sense regardless. YTMND is mainstream now. Live with it.
May 26th, 2008
79th
(2)
The "goal" is to make enough money that I can actually pay the bills and with any luck pay some of the more dedicated YTMND users to make this a better site. Ads will be run across all sites, regardless of who their audience is. Despite my dislike of certain traffic sources, had sites like blue ball, telemarketer etc been monetized in this way, it not only would have covered their immense traffic costs but additionally given the community a chance to respond to YTMND "window shoppers" in their own way.
May 26th, 2008
80th
(2)
It's going to be lovely watching the WoW forums coming to a site to find an interesting new ad for "New Pimped-Out Dranei Gear - First Look" that links to Ridin' Spinnaz.
May 26th, 2008
81st
(1)
Good idea, tkx7, lol.
May 26th, 2008
85th
(0)
Even if you do argue that YTMND is mainstream, it isn't nearly as mainstream as it was 2 years ago. Also, our users and the people that come to this site because of a link they saw on digg are two different communities. I don't think making people who go to YTMND once a year to see the funny dramatic gopher gif have priority over registered users will do anything but make everything worse.
May 26th, 2008
93rd
(-1)
"The 'goal' is to make enough money that I can actually pay the bills and with any luck pay some of the more dedicated YTMND users to make this a better site." That's not what you said: "Will be nice to be able to troll people who come to YTMNDs linked to by the wow forums, digg, etc with a completely different YTMND." If the goal is make money, does it make sense to turn outside visitors away? Or, would it make more sense to keep their "eyeballs sticking" to YTMND.com? This is "Making money on the web
May 26th, 2008
94th
(2)
I smell Razor Gator ads...
May 26th, 2008
96th
(0)
101, Max. Either you have a site with original content entertaining the few, or you make money off the masses. You know as well as anyone that you can't trust "dedicated YTMND users" to actually support the site monetarily -- the amount made off site sponsoring is the most obvious evidence.
May 26th, 2008
108th
(1)
What I meant by the "will be nice" comment was that in the future users who don't like the amount of outside attention a site gets will have the ability to make their voice heard. I think the likelihood of being completely supported by user-based ads is slim, but I think a good percentage of site-ads could be user-driven, and it ultimately will be a better site for all in the long run.
May 26th, 2008
122nd
(0)
[ comment is below rating threshold and has been hidden ]
(0)
add more stallone
May 26th, 2008
195th
(1)
"The "goal" is to make enough money that I can actually pay the bills and with any luck pay some of the more dedicated YTMND users to make this a better site." I like how nobody in this comment thread even acknowledged the fact that max said he was thinking of actually paying YTMNDers. You guys really do read max's long comments, right?
May 27th, 2008
220th
(2)
I think there is more than one goal, LikesMuscularGi. Of course Max wants to make money -- almost everybody wants to make money -- especially after spending large amounts of time working on ths site. "Pissing off digg users" doesn't make money, but it sure is funny -- and that's another goal of YTMND: to entertain.
May 27th, 2008
250th
(0)
Ochobobo, I read his comments and figured he was being sarcastic because that suggestion is one of Keaton's site.
May 28th, 2008
287th
(1)
"The 'goal' is to make enough money that I can actually pay the bills and with any luck pay some of the more dedicated YTMND users to make this a better site." Aroo? I guess I better start working on my comeback site.
May 26th, 2008
13th
(0)
looks good max keep it up
May 26th, 2008
17th
(2)
gapless loops FTW
May 26th, 2008
63rd
(1)
gapless loo-loo-loo-loo-loo-loo-loo-loo-
May 26th, 2008
78th
(0)
Scorpkris loves wavs.
May 26th, 2008
139th
(1)
an "oh sh*t" button would just waste space. I don't want every ytmnd to remind me that I don't have a job where I can use a computer that has access to ytmnd.
May 26th, 2008
142nd
(0)
the oh-sh*t button. GENIUS!
May 26th, 2008
151st
(1)
"oh ****" button ftw!
May 27th, 2008
213th
(1)
I came here with the understanding that there would be gapless loops and pie.
(3)
The flag shop is out of stock
May 27th, 2008
245th
(2)
i hang myself at half mast
May 27th, 2008
246th
(1)
i was waiting for someone to quote sage
July 6th, 2008
432nd
(0)
I hang myself via live telecast.
May 26th, 2008
15th
(1)
Doin' it to the max.
May 26th, 2008
18th
(-3)
Good luck, Max. I wish there was a way I could help, but I don't know anything about running a website or programming. So I'm just going to shut up and keep sponsoring sites when I have extra money. How's your finger, btw?
May 26th, 2008
19th
(1)
6. sigh, mod system.
May 26th, 2008
20th
(1)
and by that I mean when will we actually get it
May 26th, 2008
22nd
(0)
^Actually Forget the mod system. I actually have a concern about the background image thing. It allows users to take advantage of a larger image by making the background image something, centering the ytmnd and the background image can be used as a helpful tool to optimize the joke of the ytmnd
May 26th, 2008
24th
(0)
The bright side of things is that with a user-driven ad system, moderation of sites isn't a concern and the primary focus of moderators will be the (in my opinion) much more important moderation of users who are misbehaving. The mod system is an integral part of the refactor but as it's being done on the dev site there isn't much to show for it. It's mainly a series of checks and balances behind the scenes.
May 26th, 2008
26th
(0)
Once I design around the permanent deletion issue of sites and user, I have a feeling moderation will become incredibly simple. Mainly because I can finally let people other than myself delete problematic sites and users.
May 26th, 2008
28th
(2)
The joyeous thing about YTMND is fads and nostalgia. The times where BTape was NSFW everything, fourest being jew fourest, ear raep funny sites etc... are kinda funny and funny to complain on a max news post to attempt to get banned. This site honestly would suck if it was under control like other sites where they happily warn you, then ban you easily for a sware. F*CK THEM
May 26th, 2008
32nd
(4)
and can we FINALLY accept the fact that F*ggot is not a four-letter word??
May 26th, 2008
133rd
(-1)
I agree with Shoover. YTMND is great as a largely unmoderated site... We all love it like this. And WHY IS *SS SOMETIMES AND SOMETIMES NOT CENSORED?
May 26th, 2008
23rd
(-2)
also why wasn't i featured
May 26th, 2008
30th
(-3)
also an explanation as to the happenings with the featured user section would be appreciated. I don't know, it looks like you're doing some sort of one day a week no featured user sites display, at least let us know so we reconsider before debuting something important/hard-worked.
May 26th, 2008
35th
(-3)
I haven't figured out the cause of the issue, but the list of featured users is stored entirely in memory due to its hasty addition to the site. For some reason it's just started clearing out and I'm not sure why, so I'm recompiling with the same algorithms and current score data. All of the manual changes I made to the list were lost and honestly I think my time is better spent working on the refactor and I'll leave it up to the moderators to decide who is on the list that shouldn't be and vice versa.
May 26th, 2008
36th
(3)
Understood, thanks for the info. F*cking thing sucks.
May 26th, 2008
38th
(0)
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(0)
F*CK IT WE'LL DO IT LIVE
May 26th, 2008
71st
(2)
Replace the Featured Users section with the Worthwhile YTMNDs one. A lot better content and you're not just focusing on one-hit wonders.
May 27th, 2008
253rd
(0)
brb responding to 923456354 messages from users who think they should be featured D:
July 15th, 2008
448th
(0)
sup?
May 26th, 2008
25th
(3)
Hey Michael Richards said "That's what's so insane about all this." not "That's what's so crazy about this whole thing!"
May 26th, 2008
29th
(1)
duly noted.
May 26th, 2008
102nd
(0)
lolol
May 26th, 2008
117th
(0)
Wrong again. It was "I'm not a racist- that's what's so insane about this." No "all." If we can't get the fads right THIS SITE WILL FALL.
May 26th, 2008
155th
(-3)
N*gg*r. N*GG*R!
May 27th, 2008
233rd
(0)
yea I noticed the misplaced 'all' as well. Goddamn it. and things.
May 27th, 2008
254th
(0)
On the contrary, a mis-understanding of current fads can only lead to mimetic mutations and mindless melodrama involving meandering masses of mis-meaning ytmnd users that DONT KNOW WHAT THE JAZZ IS ALL ABOUT
June 10th, 2008
369th
(0)
Shhh, they'll start making jokes about Digimon and Fuji film!
July 5th, 2008
430th
(0)
I win
May 26th, 2008
37th
(-1)
Edelweiss, edelweiss...
May 26th, 2008
39th
(0)
april fools...
June 6th, 2008
355th
(0)
I do this here because I can't seem to get a new thread in here...I am having trouble opening all new pages...they seem to load the data and everything, but the window remains blank black with only the (working) ytmnd logo in the corner as usual. I have Flash player and Qtime updated and I am running in Firefox, so what is the dealyo? Did I miss something?
May 26th, 2008
41st
(0)
On this Memorial Day we remember all the internet warriors who have given so much for the cause. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have sacrificed so much whether it be a finger tip or the need to endure hours of physical therapy from Piriformis syndrome.
May 26th, 2008
43rd
(0)
Please change the paramators of the worthwhile section so it goes back to only listing sites rated above 4.0 and randomizes better.
May 26th, 2008
45th
(0)
Max, you should've put your wallet in your front pocket. Would've kept you from getting this in the first place.
May 26th, 2008
48th
(1)
NEW FEATURES
May 26th, 2008
51st
(4)
You are slowly becoming House.
May 26th, 2008
57th
(0)
except he isn't a doctor.
May 26th, 2008
106th
(1)
Yet...
June 4th, 2008
347th
(0)
Maxwell House M.D.
May 26th, 2008
52nd
(1)
Hello Max. How about using keyboard #'s to vote... Press '1' to vote a 1 (like many do to Fourest), '2' to vote 2, etc... and the stars get updated automatically; should be simple with some JavaScript.
May 26th, 2008
55th
(1)
Full support for the "Oh Sh*t" button.
May 26th, 2008
130th
(1)
Yeah I'm on my third job thanks to YTMND.
May 27th, 2008
204th
(0)
How about a nice fat dong for your mouth?
May 26th, 2008
64th
(1)
nice, I like the idea of the "OH SH*T" button.
May 26th, 2008
65th
(0)
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(0)
It's too bad this place is overrun with infants because it used to be the refuge for the most inventive content on the web. The community itself killed the golden ages of ytmnd off (2005 - late 2006). You dont see the same stuff anymore and that's why ytmnd is "depressing" as you noted above. On another note, If you take away the subdomains what will the URLs become? http://ytmnd.com?page=biteme
May 26th, 2008
86th
(0)
Due to the mass amounts of interactive features on the new YTMND, along with flash and the new files, wouldn't this cause a speed decrease in the computers visiting this site, through the possibility of lag?
May 26th, 2008
87th
(0)
YTMND's growing up so fast...
May 26th, 2008
88th
(0)
I always sit on my left foot when at the computer. I should stop doing that.
May 26th, 2008
89th
(1)
I'm Filthyyambag, and i endorse the Oh Sh*t Button
May 26th, 2008
90th
(1)
http://ytmnddisclaimer.ytmnd.com
May 26th, 2008
91st
(-1)
I really like most of the ideas, especially the non commercial ad system. Seems like I better use of money than sponsoring sites. One question though...if everything is converted to flash, will there still be a way to grab the sound file from a site?
May 26th, 2008
95th
(-11)
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(-11)
what are you gonna do for me, max?
May 26th, 2008
97th
(1)
I like the idea of the "Oh sh*t" button and the non-commercial ads. Thanks for everything, Max!
May 26th, 2008
98th
(1)
I don't like the part about messing with the zooming text. That's just not YTMND.
May 26th, 2008
99th
(1)
Oh Sh!t button ftw. Also, Happy B-day young man.
May 26th, 2008
100th
(1)
Feel better max. Even when YTMND sh*tsux, its still a nice place to be.
May 26th, 2008
103rd
(2)
itisNOTinthefile-itisNOT.ytmnd.com should be the new 404 page.
May 26th, 2008
128th
(1)
I second that action.
May 26th, 2008
105th
(4)
If you are having muscle aches and stuff, just get a Wii Fit. That way you can trick your mind into thinking that you are working out and exercising when you really aren't. Mind over matter.
May 26th, 2008
109th
(1)
I've waited all my life for all WoW forum visitors to be redirected to "wow is serious business."
May 26th, 2008
110th
(0)
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(0)
I am an avid fan of YTMND. I come to this site every day and every night before I go to sleep. I think it is one of the best websites on the internet. I come here to laugh and I come here to sometimes be awed by a great piece of work. You could say I am a fan, and you all are the team. I rate sites based on how I truly feel about them. I work a lot, and YTMND is a good place for me. I would be truly saddened if this plan was put into action. It reeks of elitism, I don't understand.
May 26th, 2008
111th
(1)
Any new updates on the new site layout? like, getting rid of the orange?
May 26th, 2008
113th
(1)
Get better soon Max! D: Don't stress yourself out on this project. Just do it at the most comfortable pace you can. Also, you could ask for Flash assistance from YTMND, or the interwebz in general.
May 26th, 2008
114th
(1)
the "oh sh*t button" is 100% Win dipped in Victory sauce with a side of Awesome
May 26th, 2008
115th
(1)
the oh sh*t button should also automatically vote 1
May 26th, 2008
116th
(1)
I like the 1 star idea too, but that might also cause a lot of problems.
May 26th, 2008
118th
(1)
You should injure yourself more often if this is the type of creative thinking it spawns.
May 26th, 2008
119th
(1)
cant you think of a better job?
May 26th, 2008
120th
(2)
I both enjoy and fear the idea of going to Flash. The gapless audio is of course much desired by many around here but since I'm not to familiar with Flash and I'm not sure how GIFs would import into Flash (lose quality of GIF/mess up frame delays) I'm kind of paranoid of the idea. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.
May 26th, 2008
124th
(1)
LOL @ "oh sh*t" button.
May 26th, 2008
125th
(-5)
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(-5)
can you ban users who ear rape?
May 26th, 2008
126th
(1)
max if it hurts to sit but you are ok to lay in bed and think about how ytmnd sucks you should MOVE YOUR BED UNDER YOUR COMPUTER DESK and just lay in bed with pillows propping you up behind your back with your legs in the bed under the table in any position you like not really supporting you at all and you can work away on your dumb nerd stuff pain free thats what I do when I need to jack off and post at the same time
May 26th, 2008
136th
(1)
Max, what you could do is take a projector and project your monitor on the ceiling, either by placing it vertically or using a mirror. Then you could lie down. As for exercise, take up figure skating. And no, I'm not saying that because I think you're gay. I'm saying that because it's an awesome venture.
May 26th, 2008
157th
(0)
I think Ruby SoHomo should be the only one allowed to change font colors and styles in comment threads.
May 26th, 2008
127th
(1)
I'm sorry you're hurting man. I hope you heal up quick and continue to make YTMND rock! And don't forget to take a break once in a while, OK?
May 26th, 2008
134th
(0)
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(0)
I'd suggest using OGGs instead of WAVs or MP3s if you can. OGGs don't have the looping issues that MP3s do, but their compression is comparable to WAVs.
May 26th, 2008
137th
(0)
looooove the ad idea.
May 26th, 2008
141st
(1)
Relax max. You need to take a break.
May 26th, 2008
143rd
(1)
Also, I lol'd at the "oh shi" button.
May 26th, 2008
144th
(1)
As long as you can still save the source files from other sites it all sounds good.
May 26th, 2008
146th
(3)
Club sauce.
May 26th, 2008
148th
(1)
Ohh Sh*t button is actually a clever idea.
May 26th, 2008
149th
(1)
I really like the sound of this, and the OH SH*T button would be awesome.
May 26th, 2008
159th
(1)
Hi
May 26th, 2008
170th
(1)
Hi
May 28th, 2008
271st
(1)
Hi
May 29th, 2008
295th
(1)
Hi
May 29th, 2008
308th
(0)
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(0)
Hello.
May 26th, 2008
150th
(1)
I like the Oh Sh*t button, thanks
May 26th, 2008
154th
(1)
WALL OF TEXT
May 26th, 2008
156th
(0)
oh yeah don't die plz
May 26th, 2008
161st
(1)
Yeah, what if you died? What would happen to YTMND? What if a Scientologist assassinated you?
May 26th, 2008
181st
(1)
You could start a YTMND contest in which the winner would be put into your will as the new Max...
May 26th, 2008
158th
(0)
max, this might help your ass-back problems http://www.truckcushion.com/truck/
May 26th, 2008
160th
(0)
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(0)
"God" is capitalized, jackass.
May 26th, 2008
163rd
(0)
I, for one, welcome our user-generated ad overlords!
May 26th, 2008
164th
(-7)
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(-7)
I don't like the volume control idea - what would it do to our glorious noise sites?
May 26th, 2008
165th
(1)
Max I suggest you go fishing, you can call it a sport and feel like your doing something but you're really just sitting on your *ss outside... good times.
May 26th, 2008
174th
(0)
sounds like swell plan. good work max.
May 26th, 2008
175th
(0)
there are four lights
May 26th, 2008
178th
(3)
So if the sounds are going to be fixed, does that mean DON'T SEND MONEY TO NIGERIA will loop correctly? I hope it won't.
May 26th, 2008
182nd
(2)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE!
May 26th, 2008
185th
(0)
Woo facelift! I've never been partial to this orange tone.
May 26th, 2008
187th
(2)
I WANT MY OH SH*T BUTTON
July 2nd, 2008
426th
(1)
I SECOND THIS IN CAPS.
May 26th, 2008
190th
(1)
Liking the 'oh sh*t button' idea.
May 26th, 2008
191st
(1)
Get well soon Max, we love the work you do!
May 26th, 2008
193rd
(-1)
193rd
May 26th, 2008
197th
(0)
I like the ideas just don't overdo it
May 26th, 2008
199th
(0)
I'm sure a sizable part of the YTMND userbase are advanced (if not professional) Flash developers. Get some of us to help out with coding. I'd like to.
May 26th, 2008
200th
(-1)
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(-1)
tl;dr ban fourest/darth wang/chronster etc...
May 27th, 2008
205th
(1)
It would be nice to have better synchronization. Using Safari, I don't get that very much...
May 27th, 2008
206th
(0)
207th post!
May 27th, 2008
209th
(0)
I'm excited. Best of luck in recovery, sir!
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