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Author Topic: Happy SECOND B-Day gang! Post #1  (Read 2985 times)

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Offline Yoc

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Happy SECOND B-Day gang! Post #1
« on: March 28, 2012, 06:32:44 PM »
https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/DCM banner03-Hembeck 2nd ann.gif

A very happy Second Anniversary to DCM and all it's staff, scanners, VIP donors and general members!

It was two years ago today that DCM went live sharing Golden Age Public Domain scans and are proud to continue to provide unlimited downloads for all our members!

As I always stress - the biggest thanks must go to you scanners out there willing to spend your cash on books, risks of damage scanning them, and finally uploading the results to live on hopefully forever as a digital file on the Digital Comic Museum.  Without you generous scanners we'd be nowhere!

DCM also owes a huge thank-you to all you generous financial donors out there that have also kept DCM afloat.  VIP donors have helped us raise our monthly server bill almost every month since we started the Donation Pro add-on this past year.  Between those and the small banner ads we've stayed afloat while still allowing unlimited downloads without requiring any other financial demands.  Many thanks donors, you guys are amazing!  And not to turn this into a PBS pledge drive but if anyone can spare it we are always in need of support with our monthly server bill - here is the Donation Link - http://tinyurl.com/3hwb3zz

So what's happened since our first anniversary?  LOTS!


First off the site has Grown by leaps and bounds!
In the last year we've added 9920 and counting new members or an average of 827 a month or 131 a week!  Not doubling the site but still a huge increase all the same.
Almost as impressive is we've also added 1734 new scans or an average of 145 new comics every month!  That's 33.3 new comics every single week gang!  That's all due to those scanners out there I praised above.

We also went live on Facebook this year with rangerhouse taking the lead for us out of touch staffers.  He's made it a very nice place to stay up to date with happening here and even previews his own work before they go live on the site.  With his new duties as a JVJ Scanner I wonder if he'll be able to keep the candle burning at both ends?
Here's our Facebook link - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Digital-Comic-Museum/106808696057089?v=wall

We'll likely never top the debut of the Preview Feature added during our first year but we did a couple of small ones that still help our members and especially help the staff.
First up was a fun update to the Download page on Feb 11th that will now change each publisher's main cover as your drag your mouse over a title listing.  It's something I'd wished for even before DCM went live to give the site some life while allowing viewers an idea of what each title looked like without having to delve deep into the collection.

A feature suggested by SRCA1941 that has been very helpful for everyone is the JUMP TO drop down menu added by CaptDJ on Oct 28th.  It's a real time saver I'm so glad Eric suggested it many moons ago.

CaptDJ also added an internal tweak which now allows the staff to see each upload as it appears on the server in it's random name format.  This means we can now track down a bad file and correct any misnamed file names without having to rely so much on our Fix-it master members Movielover and Prime User so much.  We still can't fix files with misnamed internal file names, page order problems or remove buggy Mac files without their help but a cbr misnamed as a cbz we can correct.  It's a relief not to have to keep asking for Prime and ML to help quite so much.  They both did a Massive number of Fixed files for us this past year as regular visiters must know.  Thanks guys!

Another small fix that large quantity uploaders might appreciate is if you go to User_CP and check your Approved Files listing you will now see them all in Alphabetical Order!  Members can also edit any upload entry or even delete it if they want to correct or upgrade something.  Thanks to Len for pushing for this fix!

CaptDJ has some other big ideas that we had even hoped would be going live today but it's better to do a thing right for the future than have them rushed out today and possibly be buggy.  But trust me, you'll love them when they finally go live!

The biggest news this year IMO, was the addition of rangerhouse to the JVJ Scanners ranks!  As many of you likely know Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr opened up his huge personal collection to a small group of hand picked scanners trusted to turn his comics into digital format for distribution here and on GAC/CB+.  A search for JVJ will show you just how many books have come to us due to his generosity and hard work of all the JVJ Scanners.  Well they've been going hard at it since Jim first offered up this idea back on GAC, September 18, 2008 and made JonTheScanner, Geo and narfstar his first three scanners.  It's been a bit over three years and more scanners have joined while some had to bow out but none have made such an immediate and huge impact on the project like rangerhouse.  Added just this February he's already scanned 91 comics and counting in a remarkably short time using his fantastic and very expansive professional book scanning station.  And because he can produce a raw comic scan in under 5 minutes he's had to get help with his edits adding a new rank to the JVJ Scanner Project - JVJ Editors.  So welcome to the following new editors to the project - movielover, Carl (Fan777), loftypilot, and humble me - Yoc!

Finally there are a couple new sections on the forum this last year.  I started a Artist Spotting section in hopes that some of the mysteries surrounding some books might be cleared up by respected art spotters out there.  It's not be a resounding success or failure but I hope it will see more action in the future.  And fellow admin Zog started a Games Room with his Five Letters game inside.  Other play along type games are welcome there as well if someone wants to start one.

Thanks to everyone for continuing to support and grow DCM these past two years.  We the staff are immensely proud of the site and plan to keep it growing and going for hopefully many more years to come!

Bless you all gang!
-Yoc
humble DCM admin

Now move on to our special Anniversary Gift Topic here -

Digital Comic Museum

Happy SECOND B-Day gang! Post #1
« on: March 28, 2012, 06:32:44 PM »

Offline Captain DJ

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Re: Happy SECOND B-Day gang! Post #1
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2012, 07:15:52 PM »
Thanks to all members. Without you guys this place wouldn't have lasted this long.

Captain

Offline Yoc

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Re: Happy SECOND B-Day gang! Post #1
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2012, 09:54:24 AM »
Almost forgot one MORE new feature that CaptDJ added -

There is now a CONTACT US link on the Download page that will let new members that have problems with their account contact us and allow the staff a chance to fix whatever is the problem.  In the past it was hard to get hold of us if you didn't come into the forum and find the FAQ.
This is a much needed feature that I'm happy Capt incorporated into the site.

Thanks for ALL the hard work you do for us Capt!