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Jun 7, 2013

Changes on FTR

Everyone, this is going to be the last post on this blog, so please read it, so there is as little confusion with the transition as possible.

First, a little explanation (if TLDR, you can skip), why this is happening. Those of you, who read this blog regularily have noticed that in last weeks and months I have considered various options what to do with this blog, including quitting altogether. The reasons were simply the fact I had less time in general, FTR took more and more time and quite simply, I am just a human being: when I do something as time-consuming, I'd like to have something out of it, preferably while not burdening my readers with any donation stuff or whatever. At one point, I tried to set up an adsense account, but - as some of you know - that doesn't work when you have a blog like this, you have to have your own domain or something. Thus, the application was denied.

At that point Edrard showed up. We've been mailing to each other over some other matters even before, but even so I was surprised when he made me an "offer I can't refuse". Edrard is the administrator and owner of probably the biggest World of Tanks unofficial webpage in the world, wot-news.com. He basically offered me to move the FTR blog over to his website and I accepted. Took kinda long time to tweak, but thanks to his technical skill and awesome attitude (he was and continues being extremely helpful in all the matters), we (well, mostly he) managed to setup a Wordpress-based copy of For The Record. Wordpress interface gets a little time to use to, but we managed, I think. So, I am proud to announce the wot-news/FTR cooperation:


From now on FTR will continue on 



Now, what does it all mean?

There will be some changes, but not that many:

- Interface remains the same as you can see. Even the functionality stayed. It basically works just like the "old" FTR, so you should have no trouble orienting. The only significant change I made is that from now on, the main page will display only first few lines of the article, not the article whole - for the whole article you'll have to click on the article itself.

- Comments - this is one of the (very few) bad sides of this system. I will have to make the comments allowable only for registered users, not anonymous as before. This is not to limit you in commenting, this is to fight spam, a level of which, as I was told by Edrard who has a lot of experience in this, will be considerably higher. Since I don't want to spend half of the day removing spam comments with cheap viagra ads and offers from Nigerian princes to transfer their money, I think this is the best solution for everyone.

- Adsense - as you can probably see, there are two empty adsense banners, one of the top of the article, one at the bottom. They will become active in 1-2 weeks after the website has enough new and original content (this is the reason why I can't simply copy the old FTR content to the new website, Adsense requires original content). What little profit the banners make will be split between me and Edrard (and of course to cover the hosting costs). I am not sure myself how this will go, but I will ask you one thing: please leave the Adblock and other filters off for FTR - it doesn't cost you guys anything and it would help me a lot.


- Content will also remain the same, the authors who write for current FTR will (if they are still interested of course) recieve editor's access, like they had in here.

- Linking to FTR - since wot-news.com are a very clean site, now you'll be able to link to FTR on all the forums, how cool is that? However there is a price...

- Leaks - no original leaks are allowed on wot-news. The biggest reason is that wot-news.com has very friendly relationship to WG RU and Edrard doesn't want it fucked up by massive leaks. Therefore, there is a rule that no original leaks are allowed, only reposts from other sites. However: obviously, you want your info fresh and I can promise you that you will get it. There is always a solution, don't worry about it.

- the E-mail remains the same: fortherecordwot@gmail.com

Well, that's it for now. I do know that some changes are not exactly desirable, but FTR had to move somewhere, because stagnation equals death by decay. There will be a bug here and there and it will take a while before we polish the new FTR, so it works perfectly, but I hope you can forgive us that - in exchange, you will get more content, more articles and more info.

99 comments:

  1. Crap... they block wot-news at my work :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can't you use UltraSurf? Or try some random proxy at worst?

      Delete
    2. Ultrasurf blocked. Everything that has "proxy" in its content - blocked ;)

      Delete
    3. Blocked here as well.
      R.I.P. ftr...
      I might set it up at home. But since there's no RSS Reader I highly doubt it.
      Well the transation had to be done. Maybe you'll get additional readers from that page.
      Cheerio good news men on this page. o/

      Delete
    4. Tried Tor browser?

      Delete
    5. What exactly do you mean by "there's no RSS Reader"?
      I've always used the Atom feed for the old FTR and will keep using it.
      Feed for old: http://ftr-wot.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
      Feed for new: http://ftr.wot-news.com/feed/

      For those who can't read FTR directly can use a service like feedly or something else similar.

      Delete
    6. I'm certainly not going to jeopardize my job by breaking ~3-4 Rules just to read some tank related stuff.

      Delete
    7. @Mikk36:
      No RSS Reader installed on my pc @home. If I find a nice add-on for opera, I might reconsider. Anyway, that's not going to work on my working pc --> no ftr.

      Delete
    8. Workaround found!!!! Google Translator :D

      http://translate.google.com/translate?anno=2&depth=1&hl=pl&rurl=translate.google.pl&sl=en&tl=pl&twu=1&u=http://ftr.wot-news.com/

      Delete
    9. You guys shouldn't be working instead? Or at least do something they pay you for.

      Delete
    10. @You guys shouldn't be working instead? Or at least do something they pay you for.

      BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Delete
  2. AdSense pays for clicks only. At least they did it before. But you can tweak it for wot/army/etc related ads (well, it tweaks itself by default also, but you have to fine tune it a bit), so hopefully you'll get money from it. Anyway, the change is a good idea, I hope you can keep your extremely useful job here on FTR.

    Thanks,
    Iseus

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. guess why he only shows the first lines of each article.

      Delete
  3. Probably a stupid question, but here goes: I follow For The Record on facebook, and check out new articles as they pop up in my news/home feed.

    That'll still continue unchanged, right?

    Oh and as always, I'm grateful you're doing such a great job!

    ReplyDelete
  4. No more FTR @ work :-(

    Anyway, good luck for the change and hope you get some $ from AdSense as the site is awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  5. No more leaks? Awwww at least you can post the leaks here and the allowable news on the wot news.

    If not then, I won't even bothering reading wotnews since it's blocked on my work too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "However: obviously, you want your info fresh and I can promise you that you will get it. There is always a solution, don't worry about it."

      Delete
  6. Definately bad news for me. No FTR @ work anymore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Looking at comments above... Do all readers work in the same German-Polish company? ;)

      Delete
    2. Blocked at my work too, and I don't work at any kind of german-polish company :).

      Use Tor Browser, works perfectly for me. Install it on USB drive and have fun.

      Delete
  7. I'm using Feedly to read ATOM/RSS feeds and with the current FTR it works great.

    I've checked it with the new one and it looks bad - there are no spaces in the RSS feed. Please look into fixing it.

    Also, no leaks :(

    ReplyDelete
  8. Frank never mind the inconveniences that some readers complain about - most of us would read FTR if it came tatooed on the arse of a baboon suffering from cronic flatulance.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I will remember what FTR done to us. Thanks to FTR staff and sayonara FTR we miss you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "no original leaks are allowed, only reposts from other sites"
    Come on, this was one of the main reasons I liked this blog!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I've always been highly appreciative of SS's work, and I support the move to wot-news, but it is very sad that the main attractions (original leaks) is being sacrificed in the process.

    :(

    At least we'll still have translations of SerB and Storm's Q&A sessions.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Good Luck, and thank You very much for your work.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for this awesome page. I have only been reading for a few weeks, but it has been my second stop each day I play. I will definitely fallow you over to your new home

    ReplyDelete
  14. So long, and thanks for the leaks :D

    Gotta go make an account...

    -Platypusbill

    ReplyDelete
  15. No leaks...
    Well, I guess this is adieu FTR.
    Good bye, and thanks for all the tanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Leaks don't mean anything you tomato

      Delete
  16. SS, in WordPress also turn off pingbacks, cause spammers in Wordpress also attack this way :) I have WP based website, so I have some experience in fighting spam :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Good Job Franky,
    I Will Follow you on the new site!
    Will there be a chance to donate you via Paypal?

    ReplyDelete
  18. How do I register on new site to post comments ? :D

    ReplyDelete
  19. Good luck! :)

    Unfortunately the wot-news web site has been banned by my employer... (blogspot not) so I will read it more rarely. :(

    ReplyDelete
  20. *Installs ad blocker*

    ReplyDelete
  21. very bad news imho. the leaks is probably THE most interesting content on this blog besides the dev question/answers.

    i very much hope you get a workaround for that one, as for me, wot news is a horribly messy website compared to ftr.

    ReplyDelete
  22. is a alternative leak-sharing site out there?

    ReplyDelete
  23. Frank, those are good news, i was hoping you could do something like this in time.
    See you on http://ftr.wot-news.com/ ! , and good luck with the new site.

    Steiner011

    ReplyDelete
  24. Removing anonymous comments is good, you had some cockroaches creeping here, now there's a chance they stay behind.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Well, see you over at wot-news.com ;)

    Peo01

    ReplyDelete
  26. i will follow him, follow him wherever he may gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

    greetz cockroach

    ReplyDelete
  27. D: but the only reason i love this website is for da leaks RIP FTR

    ReplyDelete
  28. FINALLY, a wordpress. Good to know. I hope the new blog is web responsive and wont bother us with catpchas.

    THank you ! Keep going !

    ReplyDelete
  29. Hey Frank,
    Glad to see its all worked out.
    You need to be paid for all the work you do and I am glad that its worked the way it has.
    I spend more time updating from your blog than I do WOT when I am at work (like now). The rest of the time (at home) you can guess what I'm doing.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Aw crap Wot-news.com is blocked at work....
    This is a sad day for me...
    I can only follow FTR at home now.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I love you Frank. Maybe you canjoin Serb, Storm, and I eating poo and engaging in unprotected 3 way sex. I make agreat twink. I love cock and will tongue your ass after you defecate.


    Thanks for listening,

    Woras

    ReplyDelete
  32. Very good, but there will be a mobile version like in this site?

    ReplyDelete
  33. Bye FTR y will NOT read you there...no more leaks also... at least hope its worth it for you SS

    ReplyDelete
  34. Guys, just for shure, thats u understanding, FTR will not be a Source of "leacks", but its still continue to post allready "leaked" stuffs.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Those russians cunts finally bought you SS??? problem solved for serb&co

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At least he finally earns something for what he's doing
      And it's just a hosting...

      Delete
  36. Gaah! wot.news.com is blocked at my work, as is the EU forum. Where will I get my tanks fix now? *Boo hoo*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mine too. Very sad, as I tend to play tanks at home and learn about tanks in breaks at work.

      Delete
  37. So many are blocked at work... what do people work on? Sit by computer and just browse stuff? I'd like to have something like that, but bear in mind that SOMEONE is actually doing the job you browse... No wonder people have become lazy... so many does not WORK anymore. I work and still have time to browse on my free time... some seem to have loads of free time while working... you really are paid too much for your jobs. Get real job and then complain about being blocked...

    I have to get registered now too... sad stuff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So everyone that reads a book, for example, during their lunch break is lazy ? I make more than the Prime Minister, and millions of $ for my company. I'm not paid too much for what I do. I'm paid what they think I'm worth to them, or what they can get away with.
      They don't object to me using my spare time at work how I see fit, but there are company-wide rules regarding certain websites. WoT-news is, apparently, one of them.

      Delete
    2. I work at 3D related stuff and, mind you, I do my work pretty well, surpassing what is expected and meeting my deadlines.
      So when its time to render, there's pretty much nothing left to do, so I browse stuff like other people's works on 3D, new techniques, and from time to time check if FTR has updated.

      BTW, this link posted above works pretty well:
      http://translate.google.com/translate?anno=2&depth=1&hl=pl&rurl=translate.google.pl&sl=en&tl=pl&twu=1&u=http://ftr.wot-news.com/

      Delete
    3. Sure by free time it is ok, but presumption is that mostly they merely alt-tab while doing work related stuff on the background instead of concentrating... It's like the comment which describes about 50/60 of the population who are not happy with the change: ' I noted for one day that I have been looking cat related stuff for the last few hours while waiting for paper to print out of the damn machine, after waking up from this slumber I noted I had not pressed the last time 'OK' button, I felt dumb, but then relieved that no one saw it and understood that how little I'm actually obligated to do to seem like working. '

      Some earn stuff from thin air while others barely make it by sacrificing all of their time beside sleeping and eating to just live... I live in the middle, earn enough to have enough free time. But to know some just sit whole days doing nothing and earn the same... If I had time to something like that while working I would be burden to company due to not working enough.

      I don't doupt this has anything to do with allowed breaks... looking at FTR takes less than few minutes to browse and if there is something bigger it's better left to home its never quick when interesting, to get the latest things right at work seems dubious idea... you ain't working on WG where this would actually concern you, right? But some do actually just zig-zag everywhere while working. Can you think of few just by taking a moment? If yes, you know what I talk about, too much free time. ;)

      Delete
    4. I work making 3D stuff for a small company. The results of my work are above what is expected and right on schedule. But when it's time to render, there's simply nothing left to do, so in the meantime I check other people's 3D works, research new techniques, and check FTR from time to time.

      Delete
  38. See you there SS. Glad to see FTR didn't disappear. Bookmarking now!

    wirbelwind42 - NA Server

    ReplyDelete
  39. Maybe Edrard will help you understand you need to change this background witch was used in the ~2006 not 2013.

    Anyways, I hope you`ll cover your cost and make it worthwhile. I`ll click banners from time to time just to help you around.

    ReplyDelete
  40. I'm probably not going to register on wot-news, so I wanted to say thank you for all your past, present and future good and hard work, and good luck in the future. Take care!

    ReplyDelete
  41. So we're gonna need a new blog with leaked stuff because you are bought now, and won't be able to post it anymore. I do really hope someone new will start doing it now :(

    ReplyDelete
  42. "please leave the Adblock and other filters off for FTR"

    nope.

    ReplyDelete
  43. wot-news is a horrible slow loading page.
    this in addition to your new ads and your begging for no adblock (lol as if i would turn it off every time i go to your blog) makes me leave ftr. i can get the translated dev posts on several other fan pages as well

    ReplyDelete
  44. Adsense originality rule is intended for copyright reasons, you own copyright to everything here so you can copy it since there is no adsense here.

    ReplyDelete
  45. This sucks for me as I can't access wot-news from work. :/

    ReplyDelete
  46. Penetration nerf? Buy Viagra!

    ReplyDelete
  47. week later and already first 502 Bad Gateway, yay for wot-news!

    ReplyDelete
  48. if you need someone to host your blog who does not give a fuck about his/her relation to wg just ask -.-

    ReplyDelete
  49. World of Tanks giveaway: http://bit.ly/ZYDEzT

    ReplyDelete
  50. LOOOL, this blog still EXISTS. Sort of :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUAUSUSGUSFGAUSGFAUSGFAUSFGUASFGAUSFGUASGFUASFGUASGFUASGFAUSGFUASGFUASGFUAGSUFAGSFSSSSSSSSSFAUSFGAISGUFANFQABFGAGHGJZSDJHMSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDUJHasfasttyiu

      Delete
  51. strange, somehow you convinced me it will still be awesome

    keep up the good work

    ReplyDelete
  52. Thank you for informing us, I am so excited to see more from you soon. Keep sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  53. Why this is still available?

    ReplyDelete
  54. Mes parents récemment rénové leur robinets vente . Il a été à venir longtemps, le changement est grand! Aussi, je les robinets cascade, je veux une nouvelle cuisine pour de nombreuses installations. L'un d'eux est leur robinetterie baignoire. Vous ne vous sentirez pas comme un robinet qui fera la différence dans une telle grande robinets LED, mais il n'a pas fait.

    ReplyDelete
  55. yo guys check this out working wot hack http://bit.ly/1903ECO

    ReplyDelete

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