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Past Updates At Blondie's Ratcave Please note that due to a major site overhaul since the time of these updates, some internal links may not work, and some content mentioned here might be in another part of the site or removed altogether. March 10, 2002 General site tweaking. A snippet in News, weeding out bad links in the Links and Banner Exchange, and new Fiction. March 9, 2002 Just a quick update, and unfortunately it's not to add content, but to remove it, at least temporarily. I've had to remove the Spotnitz interview until it gets a print publisher. Find out why here. Sorry, guys. I'll put it up again as soon as I can. I'll admit I'm feeling pretty low about the whole thing. On a brighter note, I have lots of new fic and bits and pieces to add, as well as art and some great new better-quality Marita and Alex grabs from the DVDs. January 26, 2002 Australia Day! Just one addition today, but it's about the coolest addition imaginable. Frank Spotnitz very graciously granted the Ratcave an interview! Read it here. January 14, 2002 I'm horribly, horribly behind in everything at the moment. I've dropped the ball on a lot of things, including the Ratcave, and I'm sorry! Audio has been reinstated, plus we have new content in Video and Music Video. We have News and heaps of new Fiction. A couple of new Links and more links in my Contact section. General tweaking and troubleshooting. The Ratcave is now hosted by the lovely Gertiebeth. Next update: Artwork and Image Galleries will be overhauled. I've re-captured a lot of the Alex and Marita episodes and will be putting up better quality stills, and I have heaps of great new artwork as well. September 24, 2001 Mini-update. One new fic and two new Laurie videos. Nick's site is well under way and will be launched soon. Don't forget to check out our new messageboard - I'd love to get conversation moving. September 21, 2001 Come and chat at our fabulous new messageboard! This service is provided in association with the fabulous Steph at Phildeom2K Pandemonium. September 12, 2001 Our deepest condolences, love, and prayers to everyone affected by the terrorist tragedy which unfolded yesterday in the US. Blondie's Ratcave and all deslea.com sites were closed for the day as a mark of respect, and reopened today at 9am. The memorial screen which loaded in its place can be found here. September 11, 2001 Mini-update. A few new fics, a couple of small items in news, and a couple of links. Next major update: heaps of new art, audio, video from Requiem and of Nick in Earth Angels, and a slideshow by Rhetta. September 6, 2001 Mini-update. Video files are back up, including new ones from Sleepless, Unrequited, Teliko, and Existence. We have also added direct links to two new Laurie ones from The Majestic. A couple of media alerts in news. September 1, 2001 Stage 1 of the new-look Ratcave rollout is in progress. You will notice our new background and splash. Actor-specific content has been removed to actor sites. Laurie Holden's site, Leading Lady is up and running, while Nick Lea's site It's All About Nick will be available at the end of September. Find out more about why the site has been split in this way here. During the ongoing reconstruction, audio and video will not be available, but these will be returning soon. Music videos remain available thanks to the generosity of Steph at Philedom2K. The Ratcave is now proudly hosted by Gertiebeth and Leading Lady by Efanguide.com. Design and structure issues aside, we have a mini-update: a new music video, Gravity Of Love, by Deslea; new fiction; and a few new links. The new Laurie site has lots of great content, so please check it out. August 1, 2001 Sorry for the reduced updating - the Ratcave has run out of webspace and I have been scrambling for a solution. However, thanks to the generosity of Gertiebeth, Efanguide.Com, and Steph at Philedom2K, we have a plan worked out to relocate parts of the site in a nexus of connected pages. This will take shape over the next month or so - in the meantime, please bear with the limited updating. The practical difference to the site won't be significant - essentially, the Nick Lea and Laurie Holden material (bios, non-xf images, etc) will be relocated to actor pages, and the music videos have been relocated to Philedom2K. The core of Krycek/Marita content will remain here for now but may relocate later (don't worry, all URLs will remain in force). In the meantime, a mini-update. New fiction by Maidenjedi, Michelle, Martha, T. Bishop, Shahara Zade, and Deslea. Some multimedia has been moved, and some is temporarily unavailable, but all music videos are available - including a new one by Yvi and Kitsunegari! New Quotable Quotes, with some fascinating words by and about Nick, Laurie, Alex, or Marita, including one critic who notes Season 8 would have been better as The Alex And Marita Show. Online store: The fabulous, exclusive Nick Lea mousemat for the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is still available until the end of August. News And Gossip: Several new entries, including press alerts and merchandising. A few cool new links. Banner Exchange: three new members (sorry for the delay on adding these). Two new webrings and awards. June 1, 2001 Update. Art: Gallery revamp. New art by Lauren in Commissioned Art. New pieces by Lessa, Tre, Tira and Lauren in Guest Art. New pieces by Deslea in Deslea Art and Dustjackets. New wallpaper. Fiction: New fiction by M Sebasky, Darkstar, Shahara Zade, and Deslea. Multimedia: New audio and video, including LH in Unrequited and NL in Sleepless, DeadAlive, and Existence. Novelties: New Skamper Corner, celebrating our new name with promo banners and a tolerance banner (thanks to Jeri for the idea!). Plus - launching a new online store and fundraising project! Get your fabulous, exclusive Nick Lea mousemat. For a limited time only! Links: A couple of cool new additions; all links checked. News: Four new entries. Small change to layout - since most of our visitors are repeat visitors, the splash page will now take you to the What's New page, with a link to the main index page for first-time visitors. Let us know if this works better for you! May 19, 2001 Update. Images: Nearly 200 new images in the Krycek and Lea galleries. Fiction: New stories by Rachel Anton, Kel, Deslea, Darkstar, and Savannah Black. Novelties: Twelve new E-Cards. Links: A couple of cool new additions. News & Gossip: New entries, and a poll: What do you want our official nickname to be? Schippers? KryM'ers? Skampers? Smackers? This is the shortlist after a discussion on alexnmarita. Have your say at our official poll, because we're going to push the winning term into mainstream usage if we have to step over every Shipper, Skipper, Dipper, Slipper and Slasher to do it! Next update: June 1. Includes new fiction, new art, updated profiles, and new banners; plus the announcement of our fandom's new name. May 1, 2001 Update. New images: Krycek: Dead Alive (63), Lea: Once A Thief Jaded Love (32) and Last Temptation Of Vic (90). Art: 14 beautiful new pieces by Laura, Lauren, and Deslea in the Guest, Deslea, Dustjacket, and Wallpaper galleries. Gorgeous new Commissioned Art by Kim J. Fiction: New work by Deslea, Megan Reilly, CBG, Laura Sorensen, Julie Cantrell, and Bugs. Multimedia: Fixed links and a new music video. Links: Great new links, including a new K/Ma page and a great new fiction program. News & Gossip: Three new entries, plus spoilers (on a separate page) for the Season 8 finale. April 1, 2001 Update. New fiction by Vanzetti. New guest art. Our first gorgeous Commissioned Artwork by Jen. Two new News & Gossip entries. Two new links. One new award received. Three new personal banners in Deslea's Contact section. Updated site map and webring pages. There will be another update in a fortnight with new art by Deslea, about 150 new NL Once A Thief and XF8x15 Dead Alive images (I've been putting those off because of the pain of uploading!), hopefully new fiction, new guest artwork, and new wallpaper. March 25, 2001 Mini-update. Confirmation of the Marita characterisation award (see the Spookys section). One new music video, plus four discographies. Modified multimedia links as a result of an idrive ban on direct linking. Minor correction to the Krycek/Marita profile. One new link and one changed URL. We've been given a new award. New entry in News & Gossip. Correction to site map. There will be another update next week with new NL images, new art by Deslea, new guest artwork, new wallpapers, and a gorgeous piece by our first artist in the Commissioned Artist Program. March 18, 2001 Mini-update - a few additions to the banner exchange, one new banner, one new artwork on Deslea's art page, two new wallpapers based on the piece, troubleshooting, half a dozen links, and a new webring page. February-March, 2001 Super-update. After an unfortunate server crash, and more particularly after a lack of co-operation from the server management, we have moved to a new server. We have finally stamped out the Netscape issues, and the revised page works on IE 5, Netscape 6, and Opera 5. (We've had background image problems in Opera 4 and javascript problems in Netscape 4.x). We have a brand new layout - my beta testers all miss the big buttons, as do I; but with the new sections I wanted to incorporate, something more streamlined was needed. We have heaps of new content, including about 500 new images in the galleries; heaps of new art; the announcement of the winners of the Multimedia Contest 2000 and opening for entries for 2001; heaps of new fiction; new audio, video and music videos; and corrections and updates to the profiles. The video arrangements have changed yet again after problems with MySpace, and the episode archives have been removed, and their contents added to the main galleries. We have an all-new novelties section with games and e-cards; new banners, links and awards; new-look Blondie's Choice awards; and a news section. We have an all-new banner exchange which we hope you'll join, and also information on our policies regarding contributions and other content. We have a new splash page, which serves not as an irritating delay, but as a test for javascript. If you can see the image, you can use the frames version. This update has taken much longer than I'd hoped (and much more help and feedback from the XDesigners and betas), but I hope you'll agree it was worth it. According to our statistics, we're now up to about 500 visitors a week. This is amazing for a site with the limited-interest content of this one. Thanks for being part of it! January 15, 2001 Major overhaul of the Ratcave. 195 new images in the Krycek, Marita, Nick Lea and Laurie Holden galleries. Half a dozen new artworks by Deslea. Artwork by other artists for the Multimedia competition posted - please VOTE NOW. Five MP3s of Nick Lea speaking on Krycek in Sleepless, kissing Marita, his fight with Mulder in Anasazi, Vertical Limit and Requiem. Better arrangements for graphics, music videos and zipped images. Great new banners you can use to link with us. Some great new sites in Links. A mirror site is now available for times of net congestion at http://ratcave2.deslea.com. On the awards front, the Ratcave has won a silver award from Emma Scully. We also made the top ten for the X Files Top Fifty sites in 2000, so vote and keep us there for 2001! Finally, a special announcement: In an XF fandom first, Blondie's Ratcave has negotiated to create the inaugural Blondie's Ratcave Award for Krycek/Marita romance, as part of the 2001 Spookys. We will also be offering a prize for the winner, including CD ROMs, promo 8x10s of Ratty and Blondie, and a rare complete Season 1 trading card set. Many thanks to Lauryn at the Spookys for working with us to achieve that outcome. December 23, 2000 Mini-update. We have a new music slideshow in Multimedia and a Christmas card for those of our visitors who celebrate Christmas (accessed from the main page - after Christmas it will continue to be available in Artistic Images). Laurie's birthday card has been moved to artistic images as well. Details of the Ratcave Multimedia Contest have been added. We congratulate Rachel Anton, who took out Outstanding Krycek Characterisation and Outstanding Other Series Character Romance in the 2000 Spookys for the Krycek/Marita story Crashing In The Same Car. December 17, 2000 Mini-update. We have four great new music videos in Multimedia - two by Yvi and one by Kitsunegari, both stored here with kind permission, and one by Deslea. This last one is specifically Laurie Holden, featuring non-XF footage, set to Friday's Child to commemorate her birthday (she was born on a Friday). Also in Multimedia is a fabulous cleaned-up MPEG of The Kiss, at a whopping 560x416 resolution. Slight changes to front page layout. Our new server, chez.com, appears to be a success with most users reporting much faster downloads. There have only been two known instances of problems, and we realise that sometimes even the best of servers will occasionally not "talk" so well to other servers. For that reason, we are planning a mirror site on a different server, and would appreciate feedback about which free servers you get good results from. At this stage we have tentatively ruled out Tripod, NBCI, Yahoo Geocities, Fanpages, Dencity and Fortunecity. December 10, 2000 Blondie's Ratcave wishes Laurie Holden a wonderful birthday. She turns 29 on December 17. We also congratulate Rachel Anton, who along with myself was a Spooky finalist for her Marita/Krycek fan fiction, and Laura, who along with myself was a F.O.X. award finalist for Krycek/Marita fan fiction cover art. This is wonderful exposure for our corner of X Files fandom! After unsuccessful experiments with Fortunecity and Fanpages, this page has been re-launched with a new domain, http://ratcave.deslea.com, and a new server, chez.com. To comply with chez.com guidelines and add to its usability, this page will be gradually made available in French. Storage arrangements for multimedia and music videos have changed, and now both of these categories are together under Multimedia. There have been content additions to Multimedia, Fan Fiction and Artistic Images. There are also two new episode still archives, with 171 captures of Marita in Zero Sum and 110 new captures of Alex in Tunguska. The next update will include new links, new captures from non-XF performances, and new multimedia. November 4, 2000 Page launched at Angelfire after failed attempts in September-October with Dencity and Fortunecity. Ongoing tweaking of links and graphics. Angelfire has proven unsatisfactory among users. |
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