iSoaker.net :: Soaking the world!

by **LIGHT ANNIHILATOR** on Sat Sep 03, 2005 7:00 pm

I know i was not around when aquatica existed but i thought of a idea that would be better. What if isoaker.com sscentral and soakermedia (the three largest water gun sites i know) joined together and became the biggest water gun website ever. The site would have the best of all three sites it would have isoaker's reviews and sscentrals and soaker medias tech section all combined into one with one huge public forum. such a site would have everything you want in a watergun website a one stop shop for soaker information review's and tech it would make aquatica look small. Is it a good idea. :soakon2:

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by DX on Sat Sep 03, 2005 7:47 pm

I don't think a return to a central site would ever work. First of all, these 3 sites are very different and run very differently. Secondly, while I wasn't here during Aquatica, I am well informed of what went on during that time period. There's some things about a central site that I never want to see. In addition, this is one of the most stable times Soakerdom has ever known. Why revert back to the dark old days of "Kill Aquatica" groups, 2nd accounts to hide identity, spying, secret slander clubs, and all that other crap ?

by **LIGHT ANNIHILATOR** on Sat Sep 03, 2005 8:24 pm

Well is there a link i can go to to see aquatica's content. Assuming it has not been deleted.

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by **hunter** on Sat Sep 03, 2005 8:50 pm

Hmm...I don't think that you could see all of it, but if you ask around people like marauder and soakologist will probably tell you more.

by **Doom** on Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:42 pm

Aquatica was a forum, webring and newsletter. It was not an information site to the best of my knowledge. I do remember that it had free pictures though. iSoaker and MaXStaR both ran Aquatica, and I'm quite sure that if there was any considerable content, it would be on their sites now.

There's a bunch of "Aquaticas" all around because it moved so much, but the only three that matter very much were the Yahoo Club, ezBoard and first Ikonboard. None is accessible any longer, though if you were a member of the Yahoo Club you can still get in.

As a few may know, I do have archives of much of these times, but they're not for distribution.

People have proposed this idea several times. Super Soaker Central has articles from many past sites and would probably be the closest thing. However, iSoaker.com has far more content in total, so that makes it similar too. This idea was sort of what I was going for at the beginning, and still am somewhat now. I'll admit my biggest inspiration was ticalc.org, a site started as you described LA.

The main problem with an idea like this is duplicate content. There'd be so much similar articles, reviews, and such. Also, each webmaster has a different direction and experience. iSoaker runs his site off Coldfusion and I use PHP. iSoaker uses Ikonboard and I use vBulletin. iSoaker focuses less on modification and building than I do. Of course, we could compromise and such, but it's really not going to work in the long run.

I'd love to see a site like this, but it's not going to happen with iSoaker.com, Soaker Media, and Super Soaker Central. Plain and simple. You're free to try to make a site like this yourself. :;):

by **isoaker** on Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:53 pm

As Doom noted, apart from the pictures (and, well, the 'last' version), Aquatica was solely a forum with a webring and newsletter.

As for merging sites, after being involved in both Aquatica and seeing how things have gotten after, having a few large sites together with many smaller ones is MUCH more stable and more flexible than trying to cater to everyone under the same roof, so to speak.

Different orientations aside, server stability is one of the biggest reasons to keep things separate, but well networked. During site downsite (most recently, SSCentral's server move), having another known forum for announcements to be made is useful! During downtimes here and at WaterWar.net when it ran, posts were made at SSCentral to let members know what was going on. If there was just one big site, if the server had problems, there'd be no backup.

I'd write more, but have to run for now. Things have more recently developed quite well. The current arrangement is nice... I wouldn't want to change things, rather add to it with more sites!

:cool:

by **hunter** on Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:43 pm

I agree. I've never liked the idea of a central site, and if we had one I would never get used to it and might even leave online soakerdom. (everyone suddenly wants to have a central site so they can get rid of me) lol, jk.

by **LIGHT ANNIHILATOR** on Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:55 pm

Doom wrote:Aquatica was a forum, webring and newsletter. It was not an information site to the best of my knowledge. I do remember that it had free pictures though. iSoaker and MaXStaR both ran Aquatica, and I'm quite sure that if there was any considerable content, it would be on their sites now.

There's a bunch of "Aquaticas" all around because it moved so much, but the only three that matter very much were the Yahoo Club, ezBoard and first Ikonboard. None is accessible any longer, though if you were a member of the Yahoo Club you can still get in.

As a few may know, I do have archives of much of these times, but they're not for distribution.

People have proposed this idea several times. Super Soaker Central has articles from many past sites and would probably be the closest thing. However, iSoaker.com has far more content in total, so that makes it similar too. This idea was sort of what I was going for at the beginning, and still am somewhat now. I'll admit my biggest inspiration was ticalc.org, a site started as you described LA.

The main problem with an idea like this is duplicate content. There'd be so much similar articles, reviews, and such. Also, each webmaster has a different direction and experience. iSoaker runs his site off Coldfusion and I use PHP. iSoaker uses Ikonboard and I use vBulletin. iSoaker focuses less on modification and building than I do. Of course, we could compromise and such, but it's really not going to work in the long run.

I'd love to see a site like this, but it's not going to happen with iSoaker.com, Soaker Media, and Super Soaker Central. Plain and simple. You're free to try to make a site like this yourself.

I thought aquatica had news and stuff but it was just a forum and news letter. I thought it was a large site with reviews not a old outdated forum. And after looking at the site map it look's like soaker media v2 will be the site i described only independent and not made of multiple sites.Unfortunatley i won't have time to make a site like that because i cant balance my time as good as you guy's. And we don't need more sites in general we need more sites like the "big three" i described earlier.

:soakon:

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by DX on Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:38 am

I thought aquatica had news and stuff but it was just a forum and news letter. I thought it was a large site with reviews not a old outdated forum.

Aquatica had news [ANN-Aquatica News Network] and was never one site. The main site changed a few times, and the forums changed location a lot. And of course it seems old and outdated because Aquatica was closed a long time ago!

And in times like these, more sites in general would be good. Really can't be picky in a slow and inactive summer like this one. We had more activity last winter than we do now. :p

by **NiborDude** on Sun Sep 04, 2005 3:46 am

Anyone up to having a large named webring? It would connect all the soaker sites to each other. I figure we agree on some sort of image that you place on your front page that takes you to the links page and allows you to comb through all the sites in soakerdom.

by **isoaker** on Sun Sep 04, 2005 8:35 am

Webrings, to me, feel so... 1990-ish. Some may feel they help bring around traffic, but I have barely been to any sites nowadays that have Webring linking banners on them. I find myself usually going to sites' Recommended Links pages as opposed to using any Webring Code (and, admittedly, while Aquatica was up, I think I only used that linking banner twice, both times to just verify the code worked).

Back when there was the 'Super Soaker Webring', I did use that link a few more times, but that was also when the web was much younger.

Why revert back to the dark old days of "Kill Aquatica" groups, 2nd accounts to hide identity, spying, secret slander clubs, and all that other crap ?

With respect to this statement, it should be noted that the first couple of years of Aquatica's existence were very good and stable. The problems arose due to increased membership/popularity and the fact that the Admin (myself and SSW/MaXStaR) weren't strict enough back then to nip problems in the bud. On top of that, the forced changes to the forums and lack of forum stability further eroded things. Hindsight 20/20, we did our best, but have learned much more since then.

:cool:

by **LIGHT ANNIHILATOR** on Sun Sep 04, 2005 1:00 pm

Duxburian wrote:And in times like these, more sites in general would be good. Really can't be picky in a slow and inactive summer like this one. We had more activity last winter than we do now. :p

activity is down because summer is over

by DX on Sun Sep 04, 2005 1:10 pm

No, actually this whole summer has been dull. Activity trailed off during the spring, and we had the most quiet June-August I've seen so far. You weren't here last year this time when SSCentral was racking up 2000 posts a month from July-maybe September. These forums were also on fire, since WWN had just shut down and this place had just opened. This year had been nothing compared to 2004 in terms of Soakerdom-wide activity.

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