The TOL Thread
The Oddworld Library is celebrating its official second birthday, and to celebrate we’ve got some fantastic new content for all. Most spectacular is the relaunch of the Oddworld Scriptures (formerly the Oddworld Archives), missing in action since October 2006. I’ve been lovingly trawling the Internet and repopulating the catalogue of interviews and designer diaries, and we now have more than a hundred interviews listed!
It’s also the second birthday of the Oddworld Encyclopædia, and I’d like to use this date to signal the start of a period of increased attention on adding to TOE by publishing a handful of new articles:
The article on Fleeches has also been updated with a full compliment of references. Oh, and if these references are getting on your nerves, you can now hide them using the new option in the menu. And, of course, there is this new TOL Thread where I can keep everyone up to date on all the latest updates to the Library. |
YAY! Happy Birthday TOL.
It has been worth all your slaving away in front of a computer screen :p |
I love how you've included Employee Lounge references ;)
Alcar... |
I considered linking to them, but then I decided that would be teasing too much.
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Go right ahead :p
It's helpful for those of us who would like to look back at the threads in question. You could even reference single posts, just to tease that little bit more. Alcar... |
I believe I did reference single posts! But I will dutifully add the links to please you, master.
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Sorry, I meant links for single posts :p
Alcar... |
Happy Birthday TOL! You guys do an amazing job running it, and it's awesome that there's still stuff like that going on more than 10 years since we've even heard of Oddworld :D
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I love your work Max!!! I could read the Chroniclers's description in Italian!!! And I read for my first time "Mudmeechee/Mudoncho" and "Mulletokon"... The Oddworld Library is the best thing Oddworld has got... thank you!!!
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Alcar: Done.
Skillya and AIN, thank you so much! And trust me, there is plenty more to come. The Chroniclers article is the very very first article to be published simultaneously in both English and Italian. I believe Stranger is working on the SligStorm article next. Hopefully I’ll soon have some syndication sorted out so that all the latest articles and updates can be delivered direct to your RSS/Atom/feed agglomerators, but for now I’ll have to keep you informed in here. The article on Slogs has just been updated a huge amount. :D |
Finally! Nice work. But didn't you lose many interviews on Xav's pilfered laptop?
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I thought we had, but Xav faxed me a backup of his original interview collection, and what I hadn't already found back online I have dutifully added to TOS, even where he didn’t make it where and when the interview was from.
There are loads of interviews and features still out there that need to be added. Some I know about. Some I’ll doubtlessly find back when I do a deep search for them through fansite news archives and OWF history. I just thought it was important to get up everything I had so far, to curtail the downtime as much as possible. So London, yeah Marc? |
Thank you. I've been waiting to access the Oddworld Archives for a long time. Now I have the opportunity. I also have less free time because of mine and my wife's new hectic schedule.
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Brilliant work! :D
time to finally have a proper scan through now ;) |
Awesome! =)
I love reading the info on the OW creatures and characters. |
Massive Bump, we actually did something that's worth reporting here. And that thing is actually putting up a shop front for our site TOC (that you all worship and love) on the world-famous Youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/TheOddworldCinema Keep in mind however that TOC stays the main site and will continue to provide the best downloadable versions of all the Oddworld videos we can find. So if you have trouble seeing some of our videos from TOC, or simply if you think it would be awesome to have one of our videos on Youtube too, simply send me a PM and you'll be able to watch it on YouTube in only a couple of seconds (or days, depends how busy I am). For obvious reasons we are not posting material created by other sites on youtube, thus no interview or reviews. |
Great job Max and Xav! And Happy birthday TOL. You two have done a great job with all this, Id've gone insane by now with all the work you two have put into all the sites.
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Awesome work and great updates from both of you!
Daft question though re. the Chroniclers article- if they have 2 legs, where is the other leg? |
Probably it’s clearly visible on the final Chronicler design, as opposed to the concept art we’ve seen.
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That's the penalty of losing a dimension from model to representation: loss of data.
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Just when you thought we couldn’t possibly outsource anything else to an external service, I have all-of-a-sudden fallen in love with Twitter and decided to set up a development feed for TOL. It’s informal. It’s cryptic. It’s updated with irritating frequency. But you may find it interesting. Or not. Whatever.
FYI, TOE is currently down because I am doing all sorts of jiggery pokery with the database with the goal of making a feed for all those wanting to receive news of any and all updates made to the articles. As you may have guessed, I love feeds and I think you should love them too. |
I always think about the grain I feed to chickens. It's not really that great, but they seem to love it.
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On top of our recent YouTube channel and Twitter feed, TOL has something new: revision history and feeds for TOE! Just click on that little orange symbol that appears in the address bar in Firefox, and you can subscribe to receive all the latest updates to any article in the Encyclopædia. In fact, if you go to the new updates page, you can subscribe to a feed that lists all updates.
And try the ‘View updates’ links already! You can check out archived revisions of every article, including a version of the FAQ from 2003! Why do I think for an instant you’d care? First of all I’ve been building these since April and I’d like to know it was worth it. Secondly, it means there is now an automatic mechanism for recognizing updates. I don’t have to run here or to the home page to make a big list of all the new articles; in fact I’m not going to any more. I can upload what I like when I like, and you need to keep your eye on the updates to see what’s happening. Consider it an empowerment. Later, my lovelies. |
Awsome Max, great job. And yes twas worth it..twas worth it.
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Well done! I all looks really awesome :D
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It's a very useful new feature. Kintos article is good too.
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The Library needs translators and designers
Hey guys,
I have exciting news for those who would like to contribute to the Oddworld Library. I’d always wanted to make the Library available in more than just English. For the last few months I’ve been working with Stranger90 to translate a number of Encyclopædia articles into Italian, and during that time I’ve been putting together what I hope will turn out to be a fairly robust wiki-like system for editing articles and their translations. Although I’ve not completed it yet, it is about time that I start seeking out new translators. That’s right: if you are interested in translating the Library into another language, your opportunity has finally come. Another thing I’d like to see is a prettier Oddworld Library. Now I worked hard to design a site that was largely image-free, easy on the eyes, and easy to navigate, and I’m very proud of what I managed. I know other people also like the site’s simplicity. But graphic design is not my expertise, and I’d like to invite those with a bit more experience/skill to lend the Library a hand in beautifying itself. Understanding of CSS and web accessibility will be a big bonus for those that are interested. It won’t just be giving existing pages a facelift, either—there are whole new sections I’d like designs for. So then, I’m looking for translators and designers to apply. No matter if you’re busy and can’t contribute something at the snap of a finger. I’ve not much in the way of free time myself, so this will be a very slow-paced collaboration. Somehow I’ll need to pick the best people for the job (designers especially; it would be great to let users select the layout they like best for browsing TOL, but multiple appearances dramatically complicates things, so I don’t see there being more than one final design per section), which means at some point I’ll be asking applicants to submit work. Details of that will follow. For now I’m looking to see who’s interested in either translating or designing. Let me know here, or PM me/email me/use TOL’s contact form if you’d like to apply non-publicly. I have to say I’m really looking forward to this. :D |
If you want images, graphics or what have you, I'm your man. But I can't say that website design is my forté.
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while you are at it, I need a banner for The Oddworld Cinema...
consider the contest open. |