Starting to take shape.
I’ve been wrangling the Muskie site for over 10 years. I’ve done it for several reasons, which are somewhat vague in my own mind, but I’ll try to elaborate them.
I started out doing it because the Web was a much newer space back then. Its technology and its potential fascinated me and seemed worth exploring, not only for the sake of my personal or professional development, but because I’m that kind of person. Sometimes things just pique my curiosity so much that I just get sucked in. I love to learn and I learned a lot by building the site.
I also did it because I love the idea of the Musketeers. To me, the concept of virtual squads, and this squad in particular is fascinating too. For a guy born before the first US manned space shot, it just seems so cool that I have friends that I’ve never met, spread out all across the country. Guys I’ve “known” for years, and yet I don’t have a clue as to what they look like. And I can interact with them practically anytime I want via the Internet. The sheer dichotomy of it boggles my mind, but it’s a good kind of boggle.
I’m sure I also did it because, not being the best pilot in the Muskies, in my heart of hearts, I wanted the acclaim and appreciation of my squadmates for this contribution I was making. I’ve gotten plenty of thanks for this over the years from the guys, and it always makes me feel good, so despite my noble work here, I’ve got to admit that I bask when people say they like the site.
However, over the last few years, real life encroached more and more into whatever spare time I had for games and hobbies, and the site took a back seat. In fact, for the last few years it went in a half-finished state, trapped in the limbo of an incomplete revamp that I started about five years ago and never finished. It got to the point that, every time I visited it, I groaned inwardly in the knowledge that, sooner or later, I was going to have to do something about it. I knew no one else would do it, I knew I had damned little time or motivation, especially over last couple of years now. And I cringed, because of the sheer number of static pages that comprised the site. It took me months to do it the first time and I wasn’t anxious to do it again, no matter how loyal I am to my squad!
So I let the revamp percolate in my brain. What to do? What should it look like? What’s changed since the last time I wrote HTML code (which I hardly remember anymore)? In thinking about all that, I started looking at other sites with a different perspective. I’d heard of this “blogging” thing; what the Hell was all that about? Blogging? What’s this Web 2.0 stuff. Facebook? Youtube? PHP forums? One day, I was thinking about the idea of a forum, and I realized how the Web had changed.
I finally got it–at least more of it, anyway. Forums, blogs, Youtube, Myspace; it’s all about self-expression and creating connections to people whom you will never meet in person. That sounded familiar to me… my squaddies. The Web is still about information exchange, but now that information isn’t necessarily some factoid that saves you a trip to the municipal library anymore. It’s also about (at least to me) sharing a piece of who you are with others. Your opinions, your thoughts, your videotaped antics, whatever. It’s about creating those connections, usually around some common interests. Again, that seemed familiar to me, because that’s how our squad came together and how we relate to each other.
Continue reading ‘Starting to take shape.’
Tags: Muskies, The Musketeers Squadron
