Promised web network overhaul begins now!

There were some domains still stuck in HostGator’s clutches, and they’re basically about to be lost completely over the next few months.

So here are the replacement domains:

AstoundingWorlds.com (replacing Panoramic Worlds, rebranding it over the next few days and setting its release as ‘Q1 2023’)

T4Houston.com (replacing the old Scout Troop 4 site)

RedeemerChurch3d.com (new Church of the Redeemer related site, more focused on the virtual-tour project.)

Isola3d.com (replacement site for the old gamedev attempt ‘Isola’ which I might still rework someday as a realtime 3d game in Unity if things go well enough to make that happen.)

Some domains stay the same in domain-name terms. But a lot of them will be transformed and redesigned in surprising and ambitious ways… complete with updated content and design.

Noteworthy changes will begin with TriumphantArtists.com, and HornbostelVideos.com (which is now SSL secured and has an https but same domain otherwise) – both of which have extensively redesigned versions nearly ready to release to the world.

Also: There’s a new ad system built into a lot of these sites. Not all of them – some will remain entirely ad-free for IP/ownership reasons like the Troop 4 site, Redeemer site, & Myst series fansite, but most other sites like CrowdsourcedAdventure.com, VividMinigolf.com, and MiniatureMultiverse.com might have some ad slots in places. Maybe at times that’s just links to stores where a game or product can be bought, but often banners are present randomly mixing links and previews of various sites in the network.

I’ve set up an entire banner rotation system, internally. It’ll randomly display links with images in a way that’s far less code-heavy than the old cumbersome method I sometimes chose.

I’ll also be including some third-party ads on a few sites. These are from ComicAd.net, and mostly are other peoples’ comic/art/gaming related stuff.

Some third-party analysis measures the value of my sites as high as $900-1100 (in certain cases) ie. the market value of a successful and widely viewed domain I acquired for $12-15 originally like, say, TriumphantArtists.com, is likely worth close to a thousand dollars on the online auction market now. (The buyer, presumably, would just fill the domain with ads and run it into the ground and turn a profit even having spent $900+ buying it)… I don’t want to do that. I think – and maybe I’m a total idiot for thinking this – that burning an asset to the ground for one year of cash is idiotic, and I’d rather build a long-term business that generates small amounts of revenue every year for a decade or more. Short-term thinking is dumb. Long-term planning? Better.

The pursuit of immediate quarterly gains is what’s wrong with the world IMO. We are so fixated on ‘making money now’ that we miss the fact that we’re trashing the planet by doing so. Why can’t we accept slower growth that’s sustainable and humane long-term? Why does every business have to be about RIGHT NOW? Why, even, should the purpose of any business be to make money? Why can’t there be other types of business ventures where all the earnings are repurposed for good instead of just… hoarded? I’m the stupid one, maybe, but I just don’t get the logic in the way the world currently works. It seems all so damned inexplicable to me how we allow empathy-less monsters to always rise to the top of everything, and congratulate and reward their narcissism and greed.

But okay… my next big release is Vivid Minigolf. Not because it’s my best maybe or my most promising, but I think I can get it out there in the next three months, and do so fairly well.

I’m tossing this out there: Any purchases [of anything of mine] made during my Labor Day Sale on Etsy, will be at least 15% off usual price… plus for every $10 in sales made, $2 minimum will be donated to the Against Malaria Fund. This is a super effective charity that is well-regarded, efficient, basically saves at least one human life for every $200 allocated to it.

I’d love to see that Labor Day Sale (now set for Sept. 1-10, 2022) go huge… a lot of work for me and I’ll be earning maybe 25-50 cents per hour doing it, between the donations and the discounts, pretty much no net gain at that point but that kind of is the purpose of it. I want my work to matter. I want to make a statement that shops on the web can do more than earn money.

And when I mentioned Vivid Minigolf? Yeah, I’m giving away 25% of every purchase made. I’ll try to be transparent on this: the release plan includes a $100 Steam payment, $300+ in miniature crafting supplies, and at least three months of Construct 3 use at $20/month. Plus over 200 hours of my unpaid work… and $150 of my own earnings put into a launch promotional campaign.

Estimated cost of release, ignoring the work involved, is around $500. While I would love to make most of it back, I don’t expect to. That’s okay – it’s a good experience.

But if I did see it unexpectedly succeed… it could change the world in some modest ways.

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