You will have noticed the new look. Out goes a lot of the LH-Art material (don't worry, it's still in the Galleries), in comes Cancuz. Not that I'd say either of them were better, I just felt like a change of look. New wallpaper, sort of.
Hey! Diana the Valkyrie made it into Flex magazine! Look at pages 148 and 152 of the May 1997 issue.
And and and. Go look, that's why I put the dates by the gallery, that's the date that I changed the file that leads to the pictures. There's one problem with that, though. You've probably noticed that a few of the Galleries have extra comments in them; sometimes one of the pictures turns out to be someone else, or some pictures have two people in them. Most of this extra information comes from Jabber, by the way (thanks, Jabber) but other people point out things too (thanks, Richard, Eric). Anyhow, when that happens, I put in a footnote, and that changes the file date, of course, so it looks like there's something new in the Gallery, when there isn't.
One member mentioned this to me, pointing out that he might download several megabytes of pictures only to find out that the only change was some footnote. Hmmm. Not good. So I had a think.
And the result was, you'll see that some of the Gallery accession dates are blue, meaning that they are links. If you click on those, you get a listing of all the picture files in that directory; sizes, dates and filenames. So now you can see how big a file is before you download it, and which files really are new, on a picture by picture basis.
Some of the dates aren't blue; that's because if I did do a link for those, that link would point to the same place. So, for example, there are four Tina Lockwood Galleries (because I only do 60 thumbnails per Gallery) but just one directory to contain all the files (and a big directory it is too, as you can imagine, I had to make it especially wide and deep, because Tina is a big Valkyrie).
And then I thought, in some Galleries it would be nice if I could add an extra picture without having to go to the trouble of remaking the thumbnails so you can see that it's there. So in some Galleries, I've put a directory listing underneath the thumbnails, and if there's more in the listing than in the thumbnails, that means I've copied some extra files into that directory, and haven't had the time to remake the thumbnails (which is quite a fiddly and time-consuming process). So in the Cancuz Gallery, and a few others, there's a directory listing as well as the thumbnails; you can easily see if there's more in the listing than the thumbnails show.
My favourite for May is from a newcomer. It's a hymn of praise to the Morgan motor car, written by someone who not only know what a Morgan is and is like, but also knows the similarity between a Morgan and a Valkyrie. Indeed, there are three from him, and if you like cars and Valkyries, you might love those stories.
There's also a new series from Dreadnaught starring Suzie the Bartender (no longer a bartender, she smashed up the bar once too often).
If you go to the Misc story section, that's where most of the new stuff is appearing. I'm still getting new authors coming on board, and the old hands are still writing. Some new authors have achieved their own section inside the Misc area (I do that when I think they've done lots of stuff, enough to warrant grouping them together).
Scoundrel did an illustrated story, or at least the first part of it (he keeps promising that the next part will be out soon).
I'm getting some help now from KK in the library, for which many thanks. The problem is, people send me stories in all sorts of formats; Word, Works, Word Perfect, RFT and heaven knows what else. All of it has to be converted to plain Ascii, 72 characters per line, so that as many people as possible can read it without difficulty. And then I like to spell check (although sometimmes I just give up, the spellings are just too weird), and make the punctuation at least roughly right. Plus I need to feel that the story is suitable for the site (I don't want stories on completely irrelevant themes, for example).
Of course, all this is a lot of work, so I've got a volunteer helping me. I get a couple of dozen new stories per week now, and most of them are suitable for the site.
Many thanks to Stuart, and to others, for posting from the web site to the Newsgroups. I firmly believe that an archive web site like mine is a complement to the newsgroups, not a substitute.
You'll notice that I changed access to the Newsgroups. Instead of offering picture decoding as an option, it's there all the time. I also did something different on spam.
Spam is all those irritating postings that you don't want to read, that are posted by the spammers to dozens, or hundreds, or even thousands of newsgroups. It's no use replying to them by posting in the newsgroup, they don't actually read it. And there's no point in emailing them, the email address they give is either fake, or someone else's. Especially, don't try mail-bombing them, as it does them no harm at all. So what can be done?
Enter Narella, with her short sharp sword. She reads each posting, and decides on the basis of what's in it, whether it is likely to be spam or a genuine message. For example, any message entitled "Make Money Fast" is highly likely to be spam. On the basis of what she finds there, she greys out the message.
If it's only slightly spammish, she only greys it slightly. If it's quite likely to be spam, she greys it more. If it's extremely likely to be spam, she greys it so much, you can barely read it. You still can read the messages, they are still all there, but you can, if you want, skip over the ones that Narella thinks is likely to be spam.
If you look at alt.sex.fetish.giants the effect is spectacular. In that newsgroup, 99% of the postings are spam, and it's actually hard to find the genuine ones. After Narella has finished with them, you can still see some spam, but not much, and you can find the genuine postings easily.
There will be more and more spammers, since the cost of spamming is so small, and mostly fall on the people reading the newsgroups, not on the spammers. So what Narella does is going to be more and more important as time goes on.
The main Gallery page was getting long and longer (meaning it takes more time to load). When that happens on a web page, you want to break it up into separate pages, so that's what I did. The East Wing of the Gallery is all the named women, mostly FBBs, of course, but also some wrestlers and boxers. The West Wing is for particular interests, like wrestling, boxing, face-sitting, and for the artwork. I'm still getting use to the split, and I keep forgetting which wing is which.
And I've left a kind of "Central Lobby" that leads off to both winds, and also has the route to the Newsgroups and other assorted stuff.
In the May 1997 issue, pages 148 and 152, you'll find us. Words by Diana, pictures of Nicole. They ran a story on Diana the Valkyrie's web site, or at least on the Nicole Bass part. I put that area up last December; it's a dramatised (well, you know what Valkyries are like) advertisement for Nicole's wrestling sessions. Maybe I was a bit flowery in the wording. Plus there's a couple of stories (pure fiction) about a meeting between Nicole and a wrestlee. And Tony wrote a real account of his session. Anyhow Flex seems to have noticed all this, and ran a story about it; pictures of Nicole, words by me (most of what they ran was a direct quote from my web site). And I'm dead chuffed!
Oh. That's British slang meaning very pleased.
Match of the month? Certainly. Match of the year? Possibly. Match of the century? Hey, let's not go overboard here, there's a few years left, and maybe something will come along that will beat this.
But everyone has been asking me about it. Before hand, it was "who do you think will win?" with opinions evenly divided. Afterwards, it was "Who won?"
The Valkyrie ain't saying. Would you want to know the outcome of a football match before you watched it? Or a cricket match? Or whatever your favourite sport is? Of course not. It would detract from the pleasure of watching the video. And I suspect that this video is going to rival "Gone with the Wind" in sales! It should be available soon - watch out for the announcements.
I also did a big expansion of Nicole's Gallery; she sent me a hundred photos that she'd done recently, and she's in non-contest shape (which many people think looks better than the ripped look). Plus, a few of her lifting and carrying some guy who looks small, but that's only in comparison to 6'2" Nicole (plus 5" heels). I did big, high-quality scans for a big, high-quality lady; go look.
Well, it looks like Tina Lockwood would have won again, but because I have a rule that says the same one can't win twice running, it isn't her. If you want to know who won this month, have a look in the Main gallery. And you're welcome to vote in next month's popularity contest while you're there.
This month, we welcome to the website a few video producers. They let me use a buch of their pictures, and people interested in their topics can visit the relevant website to find out more about what hey have to offer.
Impulse Productions are likely to appeal widely. It was Impulse that made "Blonde Rage", a wrestling video of Karla Nelsen vs Dawn Whitham. You can look at a lot of the video captures from that video, and even download a couple of video clips, but obviously nothing is as good as the actual video itself, which you can get from Impulse.
And Impulse do a number of other videos you might like. Check out their brochure (there's a link to it in the Movie Theatre).
I added a new Message Board, on Bear Hugging. I have to say, that's one of my favourites. I love to feel the man struggling feebly in my embrace, as I gradually increase the pressure until he has trouble breathing, although obviously I try to make sure that I don't actually break anything. If you want that, go talk to Sandi Stone in the Library, but don't say you weren't warned. It looks like my liking for bear hugs is shared by others.
Email. Urghhh. Every day, I start the day by doing my email, and I get maybe 500 per week. I'm coping with it, but if you do email me, please bear in mind that I'm having a simultaneous conversation with 500 people, and I won't be able to remember what we were discussing without some clue.
You'll have noticed that I, and many other people, quote extensively from previous emails as an introduction to each new email, and now you know why. When I read the reminder of what we talked about before, I remember what it's all about, so you're reply "Yes please" makes sense, whereas an email with just those words leaves me wondering what on earth he's saying yes to?
Also, do remember that Internet email isn't reliable. If you send me an email that plainly expects an answer, and you don't get one, then there's a chance that I didn't receive it, or you didn't get my reply. Don't assume I'm not talking to you; assume that one of the emails went astray.
I changed the chatroom software. The old software was fine, except it took 10-15 minutes to load, and then it kept crashing. So instead of using something that runs on someone else's server, I now have something that runs on my server. My opinion is that it isn't as good as the old software, but at least it doesn't crash, and it doesn't take 10-15 minutes to load up. So I'm sticking with the new chatroom software for now.
One nice thing about it, is that I can put html codes directly in what I say (and after spending so much time making this web site, I can talk html like a native). So I can embed little graphics from time to time, use bold and italic, and other fancy things.
The regular weekly chat sessions are going well (every Sunday at 8pm BST, 3pm EST). And now they've been joined by another kind of live chat. If what follows is pure gibberish to you, then either ignore it, or get a Valkyrie near you to set it up for you.
On IRC, on the Undernet Network, join a channel called #AWA and you'll find some of the regulars from the AAWA newsgroup (especially from around 8pm EST). I go there some days, but it's very late in the day for me. When I am there, I'm DValkyrie. This isn't on my web site, it's IRC, which is entirely unrelated, but you might be interested in the topic (AWA stands for Amazon Women Admirers), so I thought I'd tell you about it.
You know, before I wrote this newsletter, I didn't realise how much I've done in this last month. It felt like I spent ages messing around with Narella getting her de-spamming just right, and fixing small problems with Greta the Graphics Valkyrie, so that people can enjoy the messages and pictures in the Newsgroups without all that annoying spam.
But when I look at the list of Galleries and stories, I did manage to put up a fair few new Galleries, update some old ones, add some video clips, lots of stories...
Someone asked me, how much have you got there? I told him, about 1500 megabytes, and he replied "Wow, that must be some computer you've got as your server". Well, I've just applied for, and obtained, the domain name "TheValkyrie.com" (someone had already registered "Valkyrie.com" and "Diana.com", but that means that eventually I'll be "diana@thevalkyrie.com" and the web server will be diana.TheValkyrie.com, or something like that, so I think it will sound good), so I'll eventually be moving over to using that (don't worry, I'll leave a trail you can follow). And a new server, with twice the hard disk space, twice the cpu power and four times the memory.
Meanwhile, I get about 500 emails per week, and I try to answer pretty much all of them. And I scan the Message Boards and reply to anything that I feel I ought to. And spend more time than I should on IRC, and on AOL in chatrooms, and generally gossiping.
Because, you see ... I'm having fun. And I hope you are too!