Get proper addresses!

StyX/HeadcrasH

Well, as some people might know I've been deeply into parties since 1998. Soon it will be three years ago that I started managing a demopartycalendar, which has grown quite big with the time but could be even bigger (= better for the sceners) if party organizers not only organized their parties well but also their web presentations. Often party websites are located at

http://www.strangeprovider.com/stuff/crap/home/demoparty99

and contact eMail is

person@university-xyz.com

These two lines which I get to see very often while looking for parties always make me very sad because it usually means that:

a) I just found the official site of last year's party (or an even older edition).

b) The URL changed but there's no link to a new one.

c) Most of the university/school/work eMails aren't valid anymore when I try to contact an organizer.

d) Also "normal" eMail addresses are often no longer valid.

e) The party might happen again but the same good it might not. No one knows because there is no information about a new site or new party.

f) Except for the case that I accidentally find the new site there's usually no chance to derive the new location of the site from the old one because the URL was so cryptic.

O.K, not everyone needs to spend a lot of money for his own kewl

http://www.mypartyrulez.org

and

info@mypartyrulez.org

but at least an URL and eMail that stays would be fine. I think everyone has some (maybe even unlimited) webspace somewhere. And if not you, maybe your friend can give you

http://www.mygroup.xx/party

Also if your URL sux like the very first one named - no problem, just take

fly.to/myparty

surf.to/myparty

or whatever you like. But please, NOT

fly.to/myparty99

because then again nobody knows where the site for the 2000 edition is located (if the party happens in 2000, which of course also only very few people, like last year's visitors, know). And all parties with such an URL I found so far didn't have a

fly.to/myparty2k

for the year 2000 because then I wouldn't see a problem with it. Also there's maybe the possibility to get a subdomain somewhere for free or for very little money. It helps people a lot if the URL stays the same for, say, the next 4 years. But then of course don't forget to set at least a link to the new site from the old one!

Now about eMail. Universities provide free addresses, very nice. But what if you are finished? Then no one will be able to contact you. Out there in the wide world are approximately 198746562 free eMail providers, so why not get an eMail address that will always be valid? I've been having my andi.schilling@gmx.de for several years now and unless the servers of GMX crash I will also own it for the next years or for ever. And you usually can forward such addresses to your university mail if you prefer that. But please, do NOT use

myparty99@provider.com

because then we'll have the same problem as with the URL again. And a last statement: why don't you make your party public? There are so many good sites at which you can announce your party without having to be afraid that non-sceners will visit it.

Oh, yeah, some words about the pages: Although you maybe don't expect visitors from other countries/worlds/planets I think at least an additional English section would be quite nice since English is still the scene language No. 1. Also a clear information about the main organizer(s), date, place and competitions is mandatory in my eyes. And I don't know how some people manage that, but I even got error404's from links pointing to internal sites. Shame on you!

Finally some pages where you can/should/must add your party:

- HUGI diskmag (right, you are reading it)

- Orange Juice; http://www.ojuice.net

- .d.p.l.; http://calendar.demoparty.de (posing!, posing!, my own site ;)

- Local demoscene sites, nearly every country has one, e.g. www.scene-hu.com for Hungary

Yours,

StyX/HeadcrasH

- not from Cologne but maintainer of the DemopartyLinkpage