Redeemer.Blog

Previously I put all account merges on hold in anticipation of the update ar_cat was working on. This update is now available and is called a "true" Account Merge.

Unlike the previous account merge, MOST of the good stuff from one account can be moved over to the destination account, including, but not limited to:

• the "oldest" join date
• guestbook entries
• actual forum posts
• contributions/NeoPoints
• FAQs
• gallery and fanart submissions
• your collections (own, want, completed).
• Private messages**

You can read the full details, including limitations of this new merge, in the Wiki page I created called "Account Merges".

This type of merge is particularly appealing for users who have very rich past accounts and need to merge with another account. Theoretically there is no limit to the number of accounts we can merge together, nor does it matter when you do it (you can initiate a "true merge" o
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Account Merges are on hold pending a very exciting new and improved Merge that ar_cat is working on. Anyone who is waiting for an account merge should keep tabs on my blog - when we make available the improved merges I will be attending account merge requests. I think the wait will be worth it ;).
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Not everyone is happy with the "personal message" feature on the new member profiles, but I'm quite excited about them.

For a long time I've wanted to have a feature like this, modeled after the MSN messages that people change daily. I've seen funny quotes, deep insights, and everything in between the wild, outlandish, and just plain crazy in those MSN statuses.

Keeping your name off the message

A few days ago I wanted to experiment with taking out your username from the message. Instead of having to show "Redemption is wading through bugs" I want it to show "Wading through bugs.". I came up with an idea inspired by the MediaWiki method of suppressing something - prefix your personal message with a colon like so ":Wading through bugs".

By default if you type something your name shows up before it, but as soon as you prefix the ":" the system will exclude your username.

Try it out, you
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I've decided to post a few anecdotal blogs to capture some of Neoseeker's history before I forget too much of it. This will be one of several posts I will make that I'll tag with neohistory.

I'm no writing guru and I can't promise to entertain or bewitch you with quirky stories and witty remarks - that's why I surround myself with great writers like our news crew (now there's a bunch that can delight with skilled wordsmithing) ;). Hopefully these posts amuse you, or perhaps they might serve as nice Neo Trivia in some distant future, but mostly I want to jot these down so that I can enjoy them for myself. Memories might be cherished for a lifetime, but they don't stay in your head forever you know :P.

Modems, Dial tones, and busy signals, oh my!

My fascination with "online" interactivity and communities really began with the BBS (Bulletin Board Service) movement predating the modern i
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If you haven't noticed, today we launched a new forum update, and the major change is that you can now classify people as friends and contacts. The old system only allowed you to add everyone as a Neofriend (or Ignored user).

So what's the difference between a Friend and Contact?

• Any features that you restrict to "Neofriends only" (such as online privacy) will only show to friends, not contacts
• Your friends list, if it is public, will not list contacts
• in my.neoforum, you won't see contacts in the Neofriends box.
• Pretty much ANYWHERE there is a friend feature, only users in your friends list will be considered friends.

Contacts are accessible in your my.friends page and they also show up under the PM select box when you write a new PM, as well as PM recipient auto fill.

How is this useful?

Right. Well most members have a group of friends and also people they just want to PM every so o
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For the longest time we've given free name changes to FAQ authors.

I'm now going to extend this to three other types of contributors:

• NeoWiki contributors who have submitted a significant amount of text or images to the NeoWikis.
• Members who have a significant amount of fanart in their profiles (15+).
• Members who have an exceptional member gallery (1000 images or more relevant to games, movies, or books, with proper tagging, attaching to games, albums, etc)

Here are the Qualifications, LIMITATIONS, and Caveats!

1. You may only make such a request once per 3 year period. It sounds like a long time but I don't want to be flooded with requests, sorry :(.
2. Wiki contributors must contribute to a game related wiki. We have over 100 of them so its actually quite easy. If none of the existing NeoWikis suits your fancy, check out WikiGuides, where you can start a Wiki on ANY game you like.
3. Your

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I've been tweaking the Xbox Live/Gamercard page of individual profiles to try to get more games linked. So far I've managed to get another 15 or so titles linked to Neoseeker. Check it out here

Daedric Prince
The Blue Flame

I'm hoping we can develop more cool XBL features over the summer but I wanted to start with this because people have been asking me about it.
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Here are some useful free/open source Windows Apps that are a "must" for me. This is mostly for my own records so I don't forget the apps. The below is by no means complete since I just got Windows 7 RC1 installed and can't remember some of the apps I need.

• Xnview - a free graphics viewer/converter/organizer that works similar to ACDSee. ACDSee is my personal favourite viewer/organizer, but it is not free. Windows Preview is so good now this program is not necessary for strictly viewing, but if you are organizing photos then Xnview and ACDSee are a must for easy renaming, resizing, moving of images. This program is also multi language so it is perfect for anyone around the globe.
• Foxit Reader Free alternative to Adobe Acrobat Reader. It is smaller and faster, so it loads up much more quickly. For me the importance is that it feels less bloated. Warning: This is semi-nagware in

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Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, I IMPLORE YOU... Enable your humble fans and customers to take screenshots whilst playing their games. The lack of easy screencapture (and in fact video capture) is a glaring omission in the console world right now.

What do I mean by easy screen captures?

1. Let us join our consoles to the local network and mount a computer drive as the destination for screenshots and video capture.
2. Have a common interface or button sequence for screenshot capture in ALL games. Don't force individual developers to build in their own screencapture utilities
3. Allow us to email the screenshots and videos.
4. Filenames for screenshots should be useable.
   1. eg: gamename-username-level-name-date-imagenumber.jpg.
   2. mirrors_edge-redemption-chapter15-1.jpg

How do screenshots help the game industry?

1. Gamers can capture their gaming experiences and memories more easily, which increases th

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Alot of people use tags in different ways, and normally that's fine, but for images on Neoseeker there's a really powerful way to use tags to bring together images in very useful ways. I thought I'd give you some tips to make tagging more enjoyable for yourself, and more useful for others who are viewing your images.

Tags as Identifiers of Characters/Monsters/Items

This is my personal preference. Use at least 1 tag to catalog EACH character, monster, item, or anything that you can actually SEE inside the image. If there are 6 characters in the image, add 6 tags. Got a picture with some Pokemon in it? Don't tag it with "pokemon", tag it as the ACTUAL names of the pokemon. That's what I did here for the tag "Elika" (a character in Prince of Persia), I found images where Elika was a prominent part of the image, and then tagged it. Also look at the tag of the Rook from DemiGod, wh
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