Who's Dman - Issue 21: Reflections

One year ago, I was prepared to enter my Site into the Site Fights. This would have been my fifth time entering. Icon City had been in four times and lost in the WarZone each time. Every Time a second Place. I had an idea for a new Site. Bringing artists together to help out people who couldn't make their own graphics. Button Central was quickly born and I was prepared to enter it into the Site Fights.

I had two artists. Bluize and Starr. Both whom have retired as button builders. Seska was the third to join and after that, many button builders came and went. Once I was accepted into the Site Fights for competing, I was getting ready to be a dragon. I'd know Sarina since she first had her Site in competition. She was all ready for me to compete in the DarksBane Dragons. Something happened though.

I was eager to become part of Dfamily. I don't know why but I felt compelled. I knew that not many people had heard about how the Site Fights had gotten started. Let alone it's rough start. Most people had just known about www.thesitefights.com and were glad it was there. I'd asked Dman if I could write an article about the beginings of the Site Fights. I'd gotten a response to sit tight. He was checking into some things. Before I knew it, He asked me if I'd like to include Button Central as part of the Site Fights. To offer people something for their site. He didn't have to ask twice. I was eager for the chance. I hadn't even thought about this.

I let Sarina know that I wasn't going to compete. I was so excited, I'd forgotten to tell her why, when I did, she'd said, that sounds like Dman, welcome aboard. This was my first dealing with Dman. The man who'd brought this dream to everyone. who was getting hundreds of hits a day on his pages. I was going to be part of Dfamily. WOW. I then got to meet Nick. Your login in buttons, and your password is ******. Welcome aboard. Nick was a busy guy, I didn't expect much.

I was loggin into the Site Fights server. This was like opening a gate to my wildest dreams. A place where I could expose my site to more people than I could have imagined. I still remember my first login. login failed, try again. huh?? But Nick said.. hmmm... I e-mailed Nick. Dman e-mailed me and asked if everything was going alright, was I getting everything transfered, he wanted to let everyone know about Button Central. I let him know I was workign with Nick to get me in there. Of course, I stummped Nick right off the bat. I had a configuration problem. I couldn't login. My hopes were quickly washing away. After two days of tring things, Nick sent me to a page similar to what geocities uses, except much more crude. But guess what, it worked. I could now upload my pages. That was all, I couldn't get graphics to load.

This went on for about a week. Then finally, Starr perked up, what's taking so long, I thought button central was part of the site fights? Well, kinda, I explained to her my problem and she said, let me try. Starr got the graphics in there, button central was FINALLY ready to go. Joanie had sent me a denim background to use and it looked pretty good so we went with that. Shorty after we got everything running, we had 7 button builders. but Starr had gotten sick, I needed another back-up for uploading the graphics. Bluize offered to help out this time. Both I'd known for a long time with my competing in the Site Fights. They had both competed many times as well.

Things went along great for a while. Each button builder was getting about 10-15 requests a day for button, a couple left, a couple joined. bluize also got sick and had to step down for a while. I sent out a plea to the few button builder who'd been there since the start. most had other things they were doing. but Seska came through for me. I was editing most of the pages and she was uploading the graphics. Things couldn't have been better.

I finally ask Dman if I could do the article I'd asked about long ago. He'd said, go with it, if it doesn't work, figure out why and try again. Try any idea you've got, just let me know about it first. So in February, Who's Dman posted it's first article. I'd been reading SuspendA Sentences since I'd first come to the Site Fights. He always kept me in stiches. I wanted my article to be a good compliment. My writing was crude but I got the story out. I told the history of the Site Fights and was having a great time with it. I sent out an e-mail to everyone in Dfamily, to tell me about their experiences in the Site Fights. I was like a kid greedy for the stories people had to tell.

Things were great, Seska and I made a great team. Button Central was going along great. Then came an e-mail.

Dman@htesitefights.com

Ya know, all those buttons, the look like a wall.....

a contest.....

Those who've gotten mail from Dman know, he'll spark a fire, he's good at it. Dwall contest was born. This was to be the first of many undertakings of Seska and I. I built the pages and Seska designed the graphics. Each team got a Dwall. Who ever could get the most buttons up on their Dwall, would win. Great concept eh? The Button Builders had more requests than ever now. Starr and Builze were both in and out with health problems. I'd gotten more button builders, and lost many as well. kid, whyknot, alli, just to name a few.

By easter I had an idea, all the adoptions I'd seen around the net, were here's a graphic, link it to me. What if someone could have a graphic that changed over time? Wouldn't this draw in more people for something different? Seska and I set to work. Nick had gotten the banner script from Keep the Change modified to run the eggs. Seska built the Eggs and I got the pages ready to go. the eggs were a hit from the start. The script almost crashed several times from so many people with their eggs. Nick and I got worried that we would have to take them down before they ran their cycle. That would be no good. The script actually locked up several times and had to be reset to keep it going.

We made it through. Dman had then said, no more until we move. He was happy they did such a great job, but until the Site Fights was on it's OWN server, we had to keep things to a minimum. So we did. Then the move came. The dwall contest was on hold, who'd dman was on hold and everything was waiting for this move. It took longer than expected, but we were back up and in action in the first part of that month. The Dwall contest went at it again and boy, were people ready. We got so many buttons, that Seska had to be taken down just to keep up with uploading the buttons. I had all I could to just to maintain the HTML on the pages. I did find time to overwrite an interview that I'd done welcoming Dlight to Dfamily. I still don't know hwo I'd done that. And I'm still sorry about it.

With the move to the new server, I was able to get past my configuration problem. I was now REALLY in the server. after all this time, I could upload at will. Things were going great. only one small problem.

seska: Hey, I'm getting this error that says we're out of space. What should I do....

N I C K !!!!!!!

We'd managed to fill up the Button central directory. Nick had to expand our disk space. We were getting so many buttons. After that months contest, we went on hold again to spend time cleaning out the directories. I met graeme in this time. I'd asked Nick if we could get the eggs up without the banner script. Graeme wrote the script in a few days and it was up and running. Then I got another e-mail from Dman....

have you seen these??

http://www.thesitefights.com/somegrapics/overthataway

put these in eggs......

I went to the page which had all of the mascotts on it. HEY!!!.. Great idea. soon, Seska had all of the mascotts (at that time) put into eggs. Graeme said they could runn off the same script. And presto, Adopt D'egg was born. Yet again, another great site for people to go to. I was so happy. Everything was going great at Button Central. I was finally feeling like people wanted to stop by. I was getting lots of happy people signing the guestbook, lots of e-mails, things were going great.

Then I had another silly idea to throw by Dman, how about a newsletter?? We could mail it out once or twice a month. We could even let poeple vote on the name. After a couple of weeks of voting, D'ring Report was born. Dwall contest started again. After cleaning house, We were ready to go. A couple of the walls in that contest had over 700 buttons on them. it wasn't an easy one to judge. I had to finally decide that this couldn't go on with so many buttons. Dwall contest went on hold for a few months at this point.

I had another idea, I threw it by graeme, a site that would take you to a random page in the Site Fights. Oh, sure, that's easy he'd said. Everyone in Dfamily helped out with this one. I had Seska build a big black spot, and ask Dman if this was ok (and cc'd Nick). Dman said great, Nick said... sounds like a dog.. and Dspot was born. Seska got all the puppy graphics we could need for this one.

Since Dwall contest was on hold, I decided that it was high time for Button Central to have a makeover. I cleaned up EVERYTHING. I had Seska build all new graphics and finlay pulled her from the button builders list for the last time. By now she'd gotten her own team, but still stuck around to help me out. A LOT.We redid the entire Site, Button Central had a whole new Look, then we did Who's Dman, then Dman sent another e-mail

DsuspendA, Duncle..... how about a foresome

Dforesome was born. DsuspendA and I both went bi-weekly. we split the story line. I couldn't believe it. I was working with DsuspendA. I'd only hoped that I could keep up with him, his articles were so great. Dforesome went terriffic, Dspot was doing great, Graeme got him all potty trained for me, all the eggs were doing better than ever, Button Central was doing great as well, and now we had the Spot Dspot contest.

At the end of Dforesome, DsuspendA decided to take his leave. Gone was the person I'd so admired. I was really sad. D'cathalon was just a whisper at that point. Dwall contest was getting re-done as well, it was now a design contest, I also had to find a new writing partner. And I did, Odette, and D'cathalon was born.

So what happens now, who know... I'm just looking forward to another year of great times, great laughs, and great people. The year has had it's ups and downs. Some strees here and some there. I've met many people I consider my friends. Seska, Graeme, Nick, Joanie, Dfairy, Dspirit, Debbie, kel, det, and so many more to name... but so little space. But most of all, I think I can include one man in here. He's let me run with any silly idea I've got. He's been a great sport with my writings, and has been supportive all the way. I'll never forget some of the first words he'd said to me in an e-mail....

Calm down, Things will happen in time. you've just got to slow down a little. Butotn Central will be great, you've just got to give it some time. You're as anxious as I was when i'd gotten the Site Fights started. And i konw you'll do just great with it....

I've calmed down, but am still as eager as ever to jump in with both feet and start up a new project. and there's one man who's let me do them all

Thanks Dman.. it's benna hell of a year.....WOOOOOOOO~~~HOOOOOOOO!!!!!

In the next issue, DUncle rides D'Bronco Bunnies!

Click here for an index of the archive, or go on to issue twenty-two.

Who's Dman is brought to you by DUncle from Button Central And The Site Fights.

(This page written sometime in 1998 by DUncle. Layout updated January 2001, by Duncan. Enjoy!)