Welcome to The Sonic Stadium. Place looks a bit different doesn’t it? Yes, this is what we’ve been up to for the last couple of weeks – updating your favourite Sonic site to be a bit more ‘hip’ and ‘happening’. Whatever that means these days. Kids, tsch.
So why the change? Put simply, for the last two years, TSS has been a floundering Sonic ship – while we certainly worked hard to become one of the most popular fansites online, my university and other commitments over the years had put something of a hold on adding updates of any real worth to the site (having said that, we have been lucky in getting stuff like interviews with Yojiro Ogawa, Simon Jeffery and Lee Brotherton so we haven’t been sitting on our thumbs the whole time). There have also been many things I’ve wanted to post about Sonic but pretty much couldn’t due to the way the site was designed and how the front page was dealt and all that jazz.
We did have a new TSS code base in the making – you’ll probably have heard me going on about it for the last two years. That was a system B’man and I started working on from the ground up, but again, other commitments meant the thing was going nowhere, and as a result TSS suffered. A few months back I thought it was time to can the bespoke script we were making and just make do with a pre-packaged one and add our own bells and whistles to them.
Which brings us here – The Sonic Stadium, with a new pair of pants on. Yes, it’s a blog-esque system. Neat huh? This way, we can get you all the latest information and media as soon as it happens – Sonic News has been the biggest asset to TSS, and we’re embracing that as the new face of our design. Don’t worry though, the Games Archive and other sections will be back soon – I just need to figure out how best to redesign them in this kind of environment. It shouldn’t take nearly as long as two years though, trust me.
In the meantime, we have a lovely thing called ‘tags’ that you’ll be aware of if you visit other blogs. You can see a list of popular tags in the sidebar there. Click (or search for, using the bar to the right there) a tag to see all the relevant news, articles and other bits. We will tag all our Game related stuff so just hit up the tag ‘sonic-unleashed‘ for all the Unleashed stuff for example.
You can also log in and comment on news posts again!… is what I’d REALLY like to say today as well, but unfortunately we’ve hit a snag regarding integrating Invision Board and WordPress together (that is to say, such an integration bridge doesn’t exist – and no, InvisionBridge doesn’t count because it’s a joke). As soon as I can find something that does the trick — or take measures to ensure a workaround is possible — you’ll be able to get your post-commenting glory days back.
Expect the usual suspects – Sonic_Freak, bolt7, nuckles87 – to pop on here soon and start continuing their awesome Sonic posts, as well as NEW CHALLENGER Slingerland, who’s a slag for attention but he loves it. For now though, have a snoop around the new site and let us know what you think – either on the forums or via our new contact form!