modeps's sochl blog

Activity Update

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:30:00 -0500

You've probably all been wondering what the heck has been going on around here... and I'll tell you! My personal / professional life has leapfrogged my pet projects and unfortunately time has not really been very available to work on new features and updates of Sochl. Time may be even more sparse within the next couple of months as Mrs Modeps and I are preparing for our second child, due any day now. But don't you worry, I haven't abandoned the site at all, and I hope to return to old form as soon as possible. Also, please note that there seems to be something wrong with posting blog entries, I'll attempt to fix that soon. Best, ~Jim

Syphon Filter: Combat Ops (PSP) Winner!

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:40:10 -0500

NephX Wins!

Win Syphon Filter: Combat Ops (PSP) from Sochl

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 7:52:36 -0500

Artayd2 was kind enough to donate a code for Syphon Filter: Combat Ops to the Sochl cause. Combat Ops is an MP only affair available through the Playstation Store. It can be yours fairly easily, all you've got to do is respond to this post and answer the following question. A winner will be chosen at random from entrants as long as you've answered legitimately (you can be funny, or serious, or whatever). Ready? Here we go! Q: What feature would you like to see a developer implement or improve in a multiplayer game?

Few Updates

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 8:17:33 -0500

Prepping for a few new features, I've updated the game pages again to include a new subnav style. There are now dropdowns breaking the list into different categories. Also, I've updated the top banner section so if users have a customized nav image, it will not only appear on their profile page, but their collection and wishlist pages too.

Game Pages

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 7:52:22 -0500

I've been playing around a little bit with the game pages, trying to condense and reorganize information. They're not final but what I have is now live on the site. Please check it out and let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions.

Referrers, Game Specifics

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 8:11:14 -0500

Few new updates to Sochl hit. When users are not logged in now, they'll have a minimal main navigation so they can at least get "home" when they need. We've also got a referrer badge now. Refer 10 people to Sochl, and you'll get it! All you have to do is login and on the homepage, you'll see your specific referrer URL. Give that to whoever you want to join and when they do, you'll get credit for it. You'll also be automatically added as friends when they sign up. Some games have sites associated with them, giving users information based on a certain credential. Recently, mygamercard.net created a new display where you can give your gamertag and it will show your Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 scores. I've added that to the Game Specific Info area for GW2. I'll be adding more games to take advantage of this new functionality. Let me know if you think of any games that could take advantage of this. Fixed some minor bugs too, as well as move the "templist" tags down below "wishlist" on the blog posts page. The End.

Moar updates!

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 9:50:27 -0500

Along with the Username Colors and Thread Watching abilities added the other day, we've now updated the User Review page to include more information (including the forgotten SCORE /foreheadslap, and game information). Also, on the suggestion of randomfool I've updated the homepage. When you login to the site, the "welcome to sochl" box will be removed. The news post will moved to the top and truncated, and if you're a member of groups and posting to them, you'll be given a recent posts block (you know, so you can remember what you've been writing about). More updates to that coming. I've also squashed a couple of bugs here and there, one in the Private Messages section with an incorrect date display... some username's not being displayed properly, and other things you don't need to worry about. Don't forget to sign up for the contest to win an Xbox360 Gears of War faceplate.

OMG a Prize! OMG an Update! (moar!)

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 8:42:15 -0500

To celebrate our tenth Gamerscore Competition, we'll be giving away a shiny new Gears of War faceplate complete with 2 side skins for your 360, to the person who comes in first place. To take a stab at this, head over to the competition, enter it, then follow the instructions. There are some restrictions, so please be sure to read everything. The contest will begin mid-next week (most likely be kicked off on the 13th of August) and will last 14 days. We've also rolled out a simple little update. If you have earned yourself a badge, you're now able to tag yourself as a fanboy of a certain system in your System Specific profile settings. This will set the color of your username to one that corresponds to that manufacturer. Sony is black, Nintendo is light blue, and Microsoft is green. You can also ignore this completely and leave it as the default blue. Other users with site specific roles will be different colors, Red (Admin) and Orange (Moderator) currently have been defined. Finding that its rather easy to lose track of threads, I've also now added the ability to watch threads within Groups. Just hit the thread you're interested in and "click here to watch this thread". To stop, just click it again next time you visit the thread. You'll receive a PM when users reply to that thread and if your settings allow it, you'll receive an email notification too.

Game Reporting Back In Action, Main Nav Updates

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:04:53 -0500

I've re-added the ability to report games back into the site. Now, instead of just a simple text box to type whats wrong, you can address each individual field as well. We'll review the reports and give credit where credit is due. If you find games that have more than 3 things wrong with them, you'll get full credit for the game entry... otherwise if you're reporting a dupe or a small error, you're just get a thank you point. Perhaps if you're great at filing reports, you'll even get a badge... Secondly, I've updated the main navigation tabs of the site. Gone is the dashboard tab, which was ultimately a pretty useless page. If I figure out something good to go on there later, I'll add it... until then though its gone (comments on its fate are welcome). Secondly, I've added a count of all your friend and rivals that are currently online to the friends/rivals tab. More to come on that later.

E3 2008 is Over

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 9:06:45 -0500

My wrap ups of the big press conferences can be found here: Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo. What did you see come out of E3 that you were interested in? ...now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.