WolfSol
Brain cashew smooth
TLDR? I'm redoing an entire site for free. I regret it, but I'm halfway to being finished... sort of.
I joined a website when I was around 10 or 11 years old before it shut down for good and underwent an ownership and domain change. The site went downhill from there as supportive staff and users dropped due to the site's silence (we weren't told what was happening). When the site returned with a new name and new management, over a third of the community and fanbase had vanished along with the previous domain name.
This website has crawled along for a few years and has suffered from a rather poor web developer/programmer. I'd asked to help them numerous times, stating how it would be a good learning experience for me, and how a second web developer would be a big help. They ignored me of course and then one day, after they were promised pay... they vanished. The second host they'd used to make a new look for the website was lost and then everything started to glitch and break on the site.
I took over and taught myself how to read and use PHP, looked at other sites that had a strong community and fanbase, and started fixing and working on things in regards to the site. I've finally gotten confident enough to shut the site down and recreate it (got till June 22nd).
I got flustered, I have a full-time job as a Network Admin and IT Supporter (I know, "fancy" o-e), and have this side-job that I do for in-site currency (fuckin' site "points"). I am a computer scientists doing this shit for free... I confronted the owner about it and requested a form of payment, explaining how this is unheard of and rather disrespectful. You know what they said? That they wanted to save up money to pay me and the artists.
Now, let me explain... artists are a necessity for a site such as this one, but they don't make the site run. Also they could make art in as little as five hours if they'd stop procrastinating. I, on the other hand, have to look at countless lines of gibberish and figure out why an artist cannot replace an old image or why a user cannot post on a forum. In addition, the site's code is outdated and a mess (no commentary/explanation of what is happening)... and just... are you serious? Coding takes fucking time. There's HTML and CSS, PHP, SQL, making a page responsive, making the site look up to date with a revised navigation and user interface, and making the site secure. There's a lot that goes into web development (Which is why seeing users complain on here about the new layout/version of rpnation gets on my nerves, you don't realize how stressed RPN's developers must feel at times) and for someone to tell me that they want to pay me along with the artists, so I have to wait until enough money is saved...?
I changed the site appearance in two days, coding almost 20 hours each day. It takes an artist a freakin' year to pop out a revised piece of digital art (when it takes my roommate less than 3 hours to pop out a kick ass art piece). Am I being unfair? From my perspective I find the situation incredibly insulting. It would be different if I wasn't the only developer and if the site was in good condition.
What's also irritating is when people tell me how I should add this feature and that feature when they themselves haven't considered how well it would apply to the site itself. In addition, how outdated that considered feature is.
Also when a web developer fuckin' rants about a coding issue, telling them to Google it is just... you just want me to slap you upside the head don't you, you freakin' idiot? Computer scientists are notorious for using Google, technology changes daily, and with as much programming language as I know and speak, if I don't use it, I will forget it.
Upside, the site is finally getting what it needed since 2000. Downside, it's just me and everything needs redone... every-damn-thing.
I joined a website when I was around 10 or 11 years old before it shut down for good and underwent an ownership and domain change. The site went downhill from there as supportive staff and users dropped due to the site's silence (we weren't told what was happening). When the site returned with a new name and new management, over a third of the community and fanbase had vanished along with the previous domain name.
This website has crawled along for a few years and has suffered from a rather poor web developer/programmer. I'd asked to help them numerous times, stating how it would be a good learning experience for me, and how a second web developer would be a big help. They ignored me of course and then one day, after they were promised pay... they vanished. The second host they'd used to make a new look for the website was lost and then everything started to glitch and break on the site.
I took over and taught myself how to read and use PHP, looked at other sites that had a strong community and fanbase, and started fixing and working on things in regards to the site. I've finally gotten confident enough to shut the site down and recreate it (got till June 22nd).
I got flustered, I have a full-time job as a Network Admin and IT Supporter (I know, "fancy" o-e), and have this side-job that I do for in-site currency (fuckin' site "points"). I am a computer scientists doing this shit for free... I confronted the owner about it and requested a form of payment, explaining how this is unheard of and rather disrespectful. You know what they said? That they wanted to save up money to pay me and the artists.
Now, let me explain... artists are a necessity for a site such as this one, but they don't make the site run. Also they could make art in as little as five hours if they'd stop procrastinating. I, on the other hand, have to look at countless lines of gibberish and figure out why an artist cannot replace an old image or why a user cannot post on a forum. In addition, the site's code is outdated and a mess (no commentary/explanation of what is happening)... and just... are you serious? Coding takes fucking time. There's HTML and CSS, PHP, SQL, making a page responsive, making the site look up to date with a revised navigation and user interface, and making the site secure. There's a lot that goes into web development (Which is why seeing users complain on here about the new layout/version of rpnation gets on my nerves, you don't realize how stressed RPN's developers must feel at times) and for someone to tell me that they want to pay me along with the artists, so I have to wait until enough money is saved...?
I changed the site appearance in two days, coding almost 20 hours each day. It takes an artist a freakin' year to pop out a revised piece of digital art (when it takes my roommate less than 3 hours to pop out a kick ass art piece). Am I being unfair? From my perspective I find the situation incredibly insulting. It would be different if I wasn't the only developer and if the site was in good condition.
What's also irritating is when people tell me how I should add this feature and that feature when they themselves haven't considered how well it would apply to the site itself. In addition, how outdated that considered feature is.
Also when a web developer fuckin' rants about a coding issue, telling them to Google it is just... you just want me to slap you upside the head don't you, you freakin' idiot? Computer scientists are notorious for using Google, technology changes daily, and with as much programming language as I know and speak, if I don't use it, I will forget it.
Upside, the site is finally getting what it needed since 2000. Downside, it's just me and everything needs redone... every-damn-thing.
