PandoraPress.net: abandoned?


Wootson

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Nov 9, 2008
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Pandora Press was pretty much my favorite Pandora related website, besides all the official stuff.


http://pandorapress.net/


Unfortunately there haven't been any updates since January 24th of this year. Has this website been abandoned by the community? What are the reasons?


I know that in the past there have been difficulties with community members actively updating the site, but it's been almost a half year since the last update... Not even the outcome of the last competition has been listed.


An all-in-one informational blog was so much nicer than digging through the forums all the time.
 
It's not as much fun when things start to go well I assume.

This seems a somewhat strange comment. When what starts to go well - production? This would suggest that the writers get some kind of pleasure at seeing production fail which is completely contradictory to the purpose of the site.


Or pandorapress itself going well? I guess an increased workload/pressure could make things more difficult to keep up with.


But I would think the lack of activity is more likely due to time constraints/other stresses on the writers.
 
So. Foxblock and I have been talking about this via email, and we've been preparing a joint statement. Or more accurately, Foxblock prepared a nice statement and was waiting to hear back from me to fill in some blanks before he started a thread. Our email conversations move at glacier pace, and we probably should have done this a few months back. The time seems to be now so let's give it some closure (apologies foxblock for laying your efforts to waste here).


Just a bit of history and dispensing of due credit: The blog was started way back in 2008 by mazza558. Back then, there were no official news posts, not even an official blog. Just forum posts scattered around GP32X, and one pinned thread where guys like Chip and Squidge maintained a list of tidbits and links. So mazza registered a Wordpress blog, and a few bright eyed Pandorians signed up to post stuff.


Time frames escape me and I don't fancy trawling for them right now, but in what seemed like no time, interest from the blog maintainers (including mazza) began to die off. But I was having a grand old time chasing a Pulitzer, and took over as admin when it looked like mazza was dropping out of the scene. Other writers continued to contribute, some staying longer than others. For a long time it was just me, and it was at a point in my life where I had all the time and energy needed to do it.


Eventually I became short of time (and inclination, to a degree). By then, foxblock was on board. When I dropped off the face of planet Pandora for a while there, foxblock took the reins and kept the blog alive beautifully. We had both spent time trying to recruit more writers, and we did get some help at different stages (thanks to all who got involved!) but it was hard to keep a regular team together.


The official news sources got better. A new site, new official blog, status page, and a dedicated news forum. Copy-pasting ED's official news posts seemed increasingly redundant, when you remember that the reason the community blog started was that there were no official news sources. The ideal path for Pandorapress was to move towards other content; software reviews, interviews, tutorials etc. All the ideas were there, but none of the manpower. Foxblock couldn't sustain it single handedly any more than I could, and based on history it didn't seem like yet another recruiting drive was going to solve the problem.


So we have decided together, that it's pretty much the end for Pandorapress. We provided a service when it was needed the most. Perhaps the official news sources still aren't perfect, but things are much better than they used to be. And I can't speak for foxblock, but if I sit down to write something these days, Pandora production numbers are the last topic I want to write about.


Both of us still enjoy writing, and will continue to write. Now the scene has Inside The Box (in one form or another) which the two of us have written for, and would like to write more for. Topics of our choosing, on our own schedules, much more fun that way. :)


We're both disappointed to be wrapping it up, but we've tried to breathe life into it enough times. Pandorapress has had its run. We will keep control of the domain and hosting, and the blog will stay online as an archive.


So, from your Pandorapress admins, thanks to all the contributors, thanks to all the readers for the flaming (and) support, thanks to the OP team and every dev great and small for all the blog fodder, and thanks for all the fish. :)


[edit] There will be a farewell post on the blog, which foxblock will take care of. Once he gets my glacial email reply...
 
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Sad to see it go, you had a good run. I understand the rationale and hope to enjoy your writings in other forms in the future. Anyway, thanks to the people who contributed to the blog :)
 
As someone who also went to PandoraPress first to get my news for a long time, I'm also sad to see the blog end; but your reasons totally make sense. It's a lot of work to run something like that. Thanks so much for all the work!
 
"All good things.."


Post the aboev to the blog, for anyone who sees it there and not here?


Thanks for all the fish, was definately a good run :)


jeff
 
I used to love going there to get news, I'm sad to see it go; however I'm glad that the community lives on.
 
It's not as much fun when things start to go well I assume.

This seems a somewhat strange comment. When what starts to go well - production? This would suggest that the writers get some kind of pleasure at seeing production fail which is completely contradictory to the purpose of the site.


Or pandorapress itself going well? I guess an increased workload/pressure could make things more difficult to keep up with.


But I would think the lack of activity is more likely due to time constraints/other stresses on the writers.

No, I just meant that the blog isn't as much fun when there is little to report thus few posts, they can't just keep posting that things are going well. I'd also assume fewer visitors for the same reason.

It's a shame to see it go. Personally I think it would be best to keep it going as It's the only real non-biased source of news that has nothing to do with either ED or Craig.


This is probably why Craig doesn't like it ;)

Except I do like it, linked to it from the main site and comment there from time to time?
 
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Pandorapress was an awesome resource in the older days, but I agree with Gruso in that it's main use was largely taken over by ED posting to the news forum and the blog etc. I did like seeing software news for the brief time it was on there though. Granted, we've got the software news forum now but the signal to noise ratio in there is lower than I'd like. These days the stalker is probably my main entry point to these forums (hence why I'm in this thread), but I do feel like I'm missing some of the more interesting releases.
 
Post the aboev to the blog, for anyone who sees it there and not here?
So. Foxblock and I have been talking about this via email, and we've been preparing a joint statement. Or more accurately, Foxblock prepared a nice statement and was waiting to hear back from me to fill in some blanks before he started a thread.


[...]


[edit] There will be a farewell post on the blog, which foxblock will take care of. Once he gets my glacial email reply...
So yeah, a statement from my end is coming...
 
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It's a shame to see it go. Personally I think it would be best to keep it going as It's the only real non-biased source of news that has nothing to do with either ED or Craig.


This is probably why Craig doesn't like it ;)

Except I do like it, linked to it from the main site and comment there from time to time?
It was a joke referencing the time that I got banned for making a simple comment that someone didn't like on this forum :)
 
I always enjoyed reading pandorapress. But as others said, it may not be too relevant anymore. :(


Good job guys!
 
Thanks to Foxblock, Gruso et al. for your past efforts with Pandora Press, it really was a superb resource back in the day.
 
WAIT! What if other people want to contribute?


I wouldn't mind writing a couple of times a week.


I have some ideas for regular columns:


• Game of the week


• Weekly software releases


• Monthly accessory reviews


• Most interesting post (a quote from this forum)


Then some irregular ones


• Blog posts about firmware updates


• Post major news from ED or Craig


I like the blog format, and not having to dig through the forums is convenient sometimes.
 
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