Its not a sprint it’s a marathon
Ironically, this is the first post I have ever written with Microsoft Word. But since this is a special occasion, it’s time to make a special announcement.
(Incidentally this is a ‘Micon Approved’ thread, so Druff kindly remove your finger from the delete button TIA)
In August of this year I bought sonatine's site.com and hired a development firm out of Los Angeles to design a new website for me.
The development never got off the ground because my idea was to create a staking forum including a database within the forum template, but that is a huge undertaking and very expensive. The page source code is enormous and I made the decision to pull the plug on that particular aspect of the site, at least for the time being.
Honestly, the design firm I hired to do the work didn’t really understand what was involved and were throwing all kinds of additional costs on my bottom line, and I just decided to get rid of them and look for someone else to help with design and form and function.
Building a message forum and being able to support hundreds/thousands of registered members is not the same as just slapping up a webpage obviously. There is constant maintenance involved, as an administrator these are definitely uncharted waters for me.
Very recently I was approached once again with the opportunity to build, design and launch a forum community and new website.
I am pleased to announce the birth of sonatine's site.com on Monday, July 21st 2014.
At this point, the site design is more or less done and the operating system in place, but the site is essentially a blank canvas with very little content. There will in all likelihood be several changes and additions made over the next few weeks. This is an ongoing effort and this entire project will ultimately be a gradual but steady evolution
Obviously there is a main poker discussion forum encompassing not only poker strategy, but industry news updates, gossip, scandal, and other shenanigans within the poker world. But this is only a small part of sonatine's site.com. I have put a lot of time and effort and thought into this website and this was a 3rd attempt in trying to make it materialize. Long overdue IMO
Now In addition to the realm of poker, we are including forums for MMA/Boxing and Sports betting and also a staking forum. The staking forum is subject to change if we can manage to develop a working code for a fully automated database that can be used within the forum.
That is something that we are looking into so please be patient. I also have a ton of ideas/plans for the ‘Player Profile’ section as well. Most forum functions on sonatine's site.com will be fully compatible with Iphones, Blackberrys’ and other mobile devices.
With that said,
I want to name the franchise players and people that will be a big part of sonatine's site.com and have made commitments to help build this brand new community from the ground up.
I have commitments from ‘DumpsterRental’ to assist in the development of the MMA/Sports-betting forums and Dumpster will be assuming a role as a regular featured blogger and franchise player for SP. I am really excited about this aspect of the site because as most of you know, Dumpster is a hardcore action junkie/professional degen, and plans to be a huge regular contributor to sonatine's site.com.
DumpsterRental was respected moderator on Skatzpoker.com for over 5 years and has a background within the MMA and martial arts arena, with plans to bring a lot to the table. We will be doing fighter profiles and posting regular lines on featured match ups from NFL, NBA, MLB and a wide array of other sports including regular articles on all your favorite MMA featured players.
I am also thrilled to have Neverstop on board to be my lead moderator. He will be the eyes and ears of sonatine's site.com and the last word when it comes to taking disciplinary action against a member. I trust his judgment and have no problems giving him the keys to the castle. Neverstop will naturally be featuring his infamous ‘LOCK OF THE WEEK’ and I’m sure plenty of other entertaining material.
I am excited to have ‘408mike’ helping me in the development of the staking forum and making other valued contributions to the site. The key is incorporating and implementing a workable database within the forum template, but for now the standard forum set up will have to suffice. I will leave it up to 408mike to make his introductions and lay out the groundwork for that particular aspect of sonatine's site.com.
Now I will be making announcements on the rest of the moderators and contributors and other planned events and features. It goes without saying that we will be making additions and improvements to the site as more and more content is added and people begin to register for membership. As I said, this is a blank canvas and I am looking forward to growing a good core membership and building a fun and interesting place for people to post and interact.
Make no mistake. This is not NWP or boris. I will not hesitate for a minute to terminate anyone that disrupts this site with the same mindless clutter that ultimately flushed NWP into the abyss. This is going to be marketed and operated as an adult community catering to individuals that actually bring something to the table and don’t behave like complete retards.
There is every intention to offer an ‘uncensored’ environment (to a certain degree), but also enforcing a certain standard of common sense. That translates to a ZERO TOLERANCE policy when it comes to trolls. You know who you are and I urge you strongly not to test my patience or I will just ban your ass and never look back. Anyone can register, this is a clean slate. But consider carefully what you post and don’t push the boundaries of good taste. I think that is a reasonable request.
There will be some special promotions very soon to encourage membership and other ‘incentives’ to help get everything off to a good start including special freerolls and other events which will be announced in a timely manner.
Now I want to make something perfectly clear so there is no misunderstanding. This is a work in progress. I am sure people will have complaints and/or mock the site for whatever reason and it’s also inevitable that certain losers are going to critique every last detail of the site and say how much it sucks, how much I suck, etc.
That’s predictable, so get it all out of your system right now because we are going to be constantly making improvements, listening to suggestions, and improving every facet of the site on a regular basis.
Obviously the poker boom is over and I couldn’t care less. sonatine's site.com is not here to market some cheesy rakeback scheme or try to squeeze a few bucks out of what’s left of the fish pool. I am much more concerned (and dedicated) to offering as much interesting discussion and quality material as possible and building a solid community from the ground up.
What flushed NWP down the virtual toilet was inept, incompetent, profit driven management and a complete disregard for attention to detail and registered members. That will not be happening at sonatine's site.com, you can bet your ass on that.
We still need to create avatar libraries, and offer as many familiar features as possible: set member rankings, adjust certain settings etc. But this is not a sprint it’s a marathon. I think everyone will be really pleased when we start incorporating some of the suggestions and add features over the course of the next few months.
