Creed

Awesome guy, and I love that he contributes both on the articles and comics side of things. The Raw Reflections when I first read them, totally drew me in because of the uniqueness of the format. It’s not a review so much as… reflections. And when you’ve watched the show, which I normally do, that’s always more interesting.


Yeah i agree thats the kind of thing i read at PW Torch when i was still interested in wrestling, about half a decade ago. Twilight

Twilight?

Dont play coy chief

I know who you mean, but the readers might not.

I dont think the readers will be able to recognise his real name anyway

Anyways, Alan started off huge, in terms of output, enthusiasm, etc. And that was contagious, and added to my own, and Bruce’s enthusiasm about growing the site, and seeking out further staff expansions. He’s been busier at various times, and has reduced his output as a result. But I do wish he’d write/draw more, particularly the Shitty Comic stuff, because I find them really funny, and they’re one of the things that could help “brand” the Nation.

Thats the nations brand?

No, what I’m saying is, the Nation can have multiple things it’s known for. Skeletor, Luigi, Bill Cosby, etc. And Shitty Comic can be one of those… “icons”.

Thats an interesting take. Whats your opinion of posting youtube videos on the main page

Don’t just post one with no explanation. And don’t make it all you do. But if you find one that’s worthwhile, and you write up even a short commentary on it, I have no issue. It’s not something I do often, but I have done it once or twice. And I do think there’s value to it sometimes, especially on low-update days.

Ok – Alex Ryce

He tends to focus on the political commentary, and I tend to often disagree with his take on it. That said, he at least makes his points intelligently, and his writing is solid. In all honesty, I’d like to see him be more part of the community (Phorums, feedback, etc), but from what I understand that really isn’t his thing.

Yeah i know why. Apparently hes old, real old. Like older than trudes old

Haha, wow

Do you get his posts delivered by mail instead of on the internet?

HA! If he’s actually even older than Trudes, I’m surprised I don’t.

The guy probably drips his feather in a pot of ink to write with. You’r taking it a bit far with this hiring the elderly thing – are you getting kickbacks from the pension plan or something?

If only. It’d probably keep the site running for years if we did.

At least as long as they hang on desperately to life anyway., Ok next is Azzy (Alyzzelectric)

Major improvement both in quality and quantity as of late. For awhile I was concerned she’d disappeared, since she went months without writing anything after her first two pieces. But she’s back now, and contributing, which is a good thing.

You mean improvement in the one thing shes written the last few months?

Hang on, let’s take a look. I’m also taking into account a piece that hasn’t gone up yet.

*Edit Note: It has since gone up*
Ah i see

Yeah, she had two in October, and she’ll have two in November as of today or tomorrow. Which works out to every 2 weeks, which isn’t bad.

I suppose ur counting the two parter as 2 there, but ur right thats not too bad. Ok we got a good one now

Yes.

Me

Ah, that cunt. Truth be told, if someone had said to me five years ago, that The Mask would be on staff at the Nation, I’d have them committed.

You mean you wernt a fan of my early work? I thought it was all rather artistic

But as it stands, you’re probably the best writer we have, averaging out quality and quantity. And especially considering the various fights with various people over the years, it’s both surprising and fortunate that you’re still around, and contributing at the level you are. Ha, I hadn’t seen the “work”. Only the rape. Which, I suppose IS hard work.

Exactly thats a level of high art right there. Ok im underlining that best writer bit

It’ll get you a WWE title, that’s for sure. Go for it.

Who did i have fights with? I dont even remember anymore

Myself, Newman, Colin, probably Xavier at one point or another.

Probably everyone, thats why i dont remember specifics. Dzigs – or is he even staff anymore?

He said when I last sent out the “where are you people?” email that I send out on occasion to missing staff, that he’d be back, and he’s shown up on the Phorums a bit. But main page-wise, I’m not sure he plans on doing anything else here. He runs his own site and forums now, so I know he’s busy with that. But the Nation is always here whenever he feels like coming around.

Whats ur review of his posts back when he used to make them

Well, they were primarily Cane/Hat Man, which I’ve always been a fan of. That’s what his own site is now, and I check it out from time to time to catch up on any new episodes.

Ex machina

Brilliant, brilliant writer. Pretty much anything she writes, after reading it, I say to myself that it’s one of the better things posted in awhile. I’d love to see her write more, but I do know her to be very busy off the site, so it’s understandable that she doesn’t.

G

He’s brand new, but he’s already becoming a favorite. He tends to be focused mainly on the wrestling, and given the background of this site and how alot of the original people met up, it’s good to have wrestling represented on the site more. And most importantly, he does it WELL. I’ve also noticed him getting more involved in the Phorums, which is great.

Gunsage

Probably the most prolific writer on the staff as of late, and in the highest echelon in terms of quality as well. When we first brought PW in, he joined to do more of the stuff that he’d been doing on the original PW site, but quickly he branched out into “Nation” content as well. This was appreciated both because it was a step out of the box, and because the additional Nation content that came from it was top-tier stuff.

Honey

Honey preempted you in the comments for the last installment of this, saying she’d get written up for not producing. A bold move, I must say. Honey does ALOT in the community though, as far as both the Phorums and feedback to other people’s posts. It would be awesome if she wrote more, but I do feel like she produces in other ways. I think she has way more Phorum posts than I do, actually.

Yeah shes one of the most prolific commenters we have

Probably. There’s no feature on the site to count it, but I see her name feedbacking other writers’ articles more than most others.

But that said this one links nicely to the question trudes had on the FAQ thread u made in the phorums. Do you think you should have a minimum amount of posts from someone to keep them as staff

Generally when it comes to not keeping people, there are a couple of things I look at before dropping anyone. One is if past contribution. If someone’s given alot to the Nation in the past, I’m more likely to cut them some slack if they get busy and disappear for awhile. Another is if they’re receptive to “pinging”. Basically, if I ask them where they’ve been, and they show intent to write more in the future, I’ll usually take them at their word and hope they actually do it.

Has there been responses to that lately? Theres a few people on staff whos output has been minimal at late

Yeah, the last time I sent something out to all the writers, I did get back a couple of replies from people who haven’t been around in awhile, saying they still planned on doing stuff for the site.

So whats ur threshold before you start booting people

Trying to get in touch with them and getting no response after a couple tries. I’m generally pretty lenient with the “give me more time to get back into things” stuff. But when I don’t even get that, I figure they’ve lost interest.

Ok thats fair – J

He’s been around a long time (since the beginning, actually), and is one of the guys that probably should’ve been brought up to staff well before he was. He writes well, and his ideas for short-form features generally give me the whole “fuck, I wish I’d thought to write about that” reaction.

JCC

I should probably write a bit more, but I’ve tried to at least make it more frequently in recent months. Plus I beat your over-under of 4 for My Million Movies.

U smashed it, but thats not hard because ive been running bad in offering odds

Oh, I’ll smash it even more, going forward.

Whats ur over under?

All of them.

Haha good luck

I know. I’ll need it.

Jim

The founder. He’s the guy that invented the Nation style, and I think we’re all at least partially inspired by him, directly or indirectly. I think at this point we might have seen his last article on the Nation, given how busy he is with Destructoid. But I do hope I’m wrong on that one.

Luke

Other than Jim, he’s one of the guys who’s been writing for the Nation the longest, and was doing so even before the blog switch. He disappeared for awhile and does so at times, but I’m always happy as hell when he comes back, both for his main page and Phorum contributions. He’s also the guy that talked me into doing the blog format switch myself after Jim gave up running the site, so that’s partially owed to him.

Patman

The other guy, in addition to Gun Sage who we brought on to do PW stuff back when we first did the blog switch. His reviews are great, and he’s been extremely supportive of the revamped PW site now that it’s up, both by contributing reviews, and by trying to help bring in new people to join.

yeah he seems a nice bloke i feel sorry for flaming him a short while ago. I just did it to see if he would react – and he didnt

Haha, I’m sure he knew it was all in fun.

Schenckerdoodle

He’s one who seems to have disappeared, but when I check in with him, he tells me he’ll have stuff in the future. I like the stuff he’s produced thusfar, so I hope he finds the time to actually do new stuff. He should also get more into the community, like the Phorums and feedback stuff. My guess is the issue is lack of time with him, but he does seem to want to find it.

What has he produced thus far? I honestly dont know thats why im asking

He started a new series called Too Soon Toons, which he’s done a couple of installments of. I actually love the concept. And then he’s done an article or two as well.

I dont think ive read them. Whatever

Not sure where he’s at anymore. He’s the founder of PW though, so he’s pretty much guaranteed a spot whenever he wants it. He also designed the original Nation layout, and used to contribute the occasional comic/article back in the day.

Zoomiester

Another disappearing act these last few months. He was recommended to me by Jim when we went blog, to bring in some of the short-form stuff that the blog format opened up. I enjoy his stuff, but I need to check with him to see if he’ll be back anytime soon.

Is he jims mate? I think he may have been offended by my constant criticisms of his list formats. Of which i meant every word

I’m not sure if they know each other offline or not. I know they followed each other on Livejournal, but that may’ve been how they met originally. Doubt it, I don’t think he’d get rattled like that by criticism.

Ok that covers everyone on the staff page. Who would you consider most in need of improvement? See i gave u a break i was going to ask who u hated

You’re going to hate the answer to this. I know you are. But the thing is, everyone is at a good place currently, and everyone can always improve. The whole point of writing consistently is to constantly be getting better. Even Jim… his later stuff is better than his old PCC stuff. My first article downright sucked, and the first time I tried to do a Skeletor, it wasn’t quite up to the level I wanted it. But in both regards, I’ve improved. And yet, I want to improve more. Beyond that, as the guy who runs the site, I SHOULD be the best writer on it. And currently I’m behind SEVERAL people. So in that respect, if I had to pick someone, I’d say me.

Well everyone should be improving all the time of course, i agree with that but the readers would be a bit peeved if i didnt push this point

Hey, I named someone!

Who do u think is at the back of the line, not including urself. No one could subjectively rate themselves so that doesnt count

It’s really too subjective to say definitively in this type of format. The things that make it difficult are, of course, subjectivity, the fact that I consider everyone to be in a good place, quality-wise, or they wouldn’t have been hired in the first place, and the fact that I tend to be more appreciative of various styles of output than others. An example of that would be your dislike of Zoomeister’s stuff, which my guess would be is mainly style-based.

i dont dislike his stuff per se, i just dont like the list format. But ok u talked ur way out of answering that question, only because its late here in australia and i cant be bothered following it up

Haha, sweet.

What to you see when you think of the nation in the future?

Well, I’d like to see a bigger site, in terms of writers and output, but mainly in terms of readers. It’s always been a goal of mine to have the Nation end up way bigger than it is currently, and I do think we have the quality to get there. It’s just a matter of people taking notice.

Category: Ano's Public Probe | Tags: History, JCC, Morphine Nation, Public Probe // 18 Comments »