We all knew this day would eventually come.
I've been the webmaster of DROD.net for over a year and a half now, and the time has come for me to go.
Wait, wait, don't run off crying just yet. I'll be around for a month or two still; updating the site, participating in the DROD community, posting on the forum, and providing help to newbies.
"
Why?! Oh WHY?!"
you may ask. Well, I have a couple reasons for resigning as webmaster:
1. Soon enough, I just won't have the time to work on the site.
After school is out this year, I'll be undergoing a lifestyle-altering process. The plan is this: I want to take a year to myself before making a decision about college. I'll use the year to get a decent job, save up my money, and maybe move out of my parents house. After things have settled and the year is up, I will more than likely attend a local college, and major in mathematics, and get some basics in teaching skills. After that, I may go on to a state college, or I may try and land a job teaching grade-school students, or as an Algebra/Geometry/Trigonometry teacher at a high school someplace.
2. It's becoming too difficult to manage the site on my own.
DROD.net has grown! I remember when I first started this place in July of 01, I had maybe 12 pages and a handful of pictures on the FTP. The grand total in filesize of DROD.net now is about 20 Mb, with 320 seperate files. We average around 120,186 hits per month, with the highest month so far (Nov 2002) bringing in 250,808 hits. Some of the pages of the site are very labor-intensive, especially when you consider that I've done ALL of my HTML editing by hand, in notepad. It's a personal preferrence really, and I'd never switch to a WYSIWYG editor. My replacement (more about him later) will probably edit code in the same way that I do, and more power to him if he can get the job done well in a different way... He'll probably have an assistant too, which I probably needed, but never bothered to deal with.
3. It's not as much fun anymore.
By that, I mean working on the site, not DROD itself. DROD is still one of my favorite games of all time, and it would take a lot to change that. The thing is, when it seems more like a chore than anything else, when I need to update, I think its time to leave. That goes for anything, kids. When you're not having fun, pursue something else.
4. I need to remember what fresh air tastes like.
Look, I'm 18 years old, just shy of 300 lbs.(with hardly any muscle), and back and knee problems. I'm considering
surgery for my obesity, but I'd like to take one more summer to try and lose weight on my own. I've got a wonderful and amazing girlfriend who I'm hoping can give me the motivation and inspiration I need to change some of my habits, and make me a better person in general.
So I'll be around for a little while longer, and then my position will be replaced by...
Matt O'Leary - Mafinot Budkin
Introduce yourself, Matt!
Hey there everyone!
My name is
Matt O'Leary (AKA Mafinot Budkin) and I'm going to be the new webmaster. For those of you who use the forum, my alias there is Malarame. For those of you who don't, go register! Clayton (let's all give him a nice big round of applause) has been webmaster here for a long time and he's decided to pass the proverbial torch to me.
I believe a quick biography of me is in order...
I was born on Long Island, New York, but I moved down to Florida when I was four. A number of years later, at the tender age of eleven, I moved back up to Long Island, where I've resided ever since. I'm currently a senior in high school, and in the fall I'll be attending
Webb Institute. I was born on September 26, 1984, which makes me exactly five days older than Clayton.
I've never run a website before, so I'm just starting to learn HTML. As a result, don't expect any sweeping changes to the site just yet. Eventually I'm planning on changing the layout, but for right now you'll have to be content with a few simple changes (note to self: nothing is simple).
Well, that's all I have to say for right now. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to
email me.
Matt O'Leary (I'll make a nice signature eventually)
