DYK 18: Did You Know?

That there was a Birthday Board on RAF Classic?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

Year 1 With Google Analytics

So our first year with Google Analytics passed on the 14th of July.

Here's the breakdown:



Click to download PDF

Are you an Audiobook actor?

If you have expressed interest in acting in the Animorphs Audiobooks, please check your PM inboxes (click here). Jess, who is helping to restart the project, has sent out an important message!!

If you have any questions regarding the Audiobooks, please talk to Jess, or any of the other project leaders: Mr. Guy 36, Morfowt, and WildWeathel.

I look forward to hearing you all very soon.

-Adam

Sakki Deleted Upon Request

'Sakki De Roxea''s request for their account to be removed has been granted.

Animorphs 2.0? - RUMOR

Very interesting stuff:

Some new info on a rumor we posted a few months back, our source (who still wishes to remain unnamed) says that Scholastic seems to be on board with making an Animorphs 2.0 happen. They supposedly had a recent discussion on how to handle the continuity from 1.0, which is the series we left off at.

Please note that we, at Hirac Delest, don’t post every rumor (or any rumor, for that matter) that is given to us (and there are a LOT), unless we feel that the source is legitimate in some way. Saying that, we’re not posting this as an official announcement either, as no official news has been released by Scholastic to confirm this. More updates from our source on this matter will be posted on Hirac Delest as they come.

Of course none of this has been independently verified.

Source - Hirac Delest

Short and Early this week: RAFmusic exchange

In the time I've been a RAFian, other RAFians have recommended to me much music and many bands for my listening enjoyment.
I feel like paying it forward, so to speak, by making a shortlist of bands that, pre-RAF, I'd not even heard-of. Feel free to do the same in comments, if you like.

Lordi - Awesomesauce on cheese fries in the back of a humvee on the moon. Metal.
Basshunter - this music is HAPPY distilled into longitudinal compressions and rarefactions of air.
Nightwish - I do not have the words for how awesome they are. Symphonic metal.
Ayreon - Coolidge. End of story.
Infected Mushroom - I'm still getting used to the idea... :D
Dredg - twenty-seven kinds of epic, whether it's the album or the live-acoustic version.
Freedom Call - where Triumph and Happy meet and spend the rest of their lives riding off into the sunset. Power metal.

I know many of these may not be to your individual taste, but please don't write off one band just because you disliked another band on this list, because none of these really even fall into the same genres as the others.

Have a happy weekend, dearlings! I'll see you about. :)

-Estelore

DYK 17: Did You Know?

That there was a Harry Potter board on RAF Classic that lasted between 2003 and 2006?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

Know the Secret - Animorphs Game - Full Download

I just realized that the Animorphs Game - Know the Secret that is on RAF Downloads, never got the full direct download treatment in all its 500mb glory.


Here it is - Download Here.

Feel free to visit Hirac Delest.

Just a heads-up to anybody who actually reads me. ;)

Folks, just a little heads-up, school is starting fairly soon for me, and I'm not going to promise that I'll make a blog post every week like I have all summer.
At the very least, I'll keep it up to the end of July, as long as my internet stays functional. :)

*hugs* to all of you lovely RAFians. I hope what's left of the year is seriously great for you.

-Estelore

The Fountain

Digressing from RAF stuff. I just finished watching The Fountain (2006) for the 5th or so time. This time I watched it on HiDef 720p.

For those who like a good visual movie a si-fi movie, a good thought provoking movie, and a love story all bundled into one. I recommend The Fountain.

Here are some more images of the movie below.

DYK 16: Did You Know?

That Richard made 10,000 posts back in 2007?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

RAF Audiobook Project needs you!

The site is pretty much ready for work, but we're missing one piece of the puzzle: everyone who doesn't act!

What we need are:
Timers - These are the people who cut together the multiple parts into one single audio stream.
Directors - You direct. More? Fine. These people will be reviewing the actor's work before sending it to the timers.
Managers - Responsible for directing the "flow of traffic" of various tasks to various roles. I can do some of this to start, but eventually we will need others.

I don't think I missed any jobs, but I might add something if I forget it.

If you can do any of these, post with what job you want, and (if you aren't signed up yet) your username for the site. Weathel will get people signed up when he has the chance, but we can start assigning jobs right away.

Thanks for any help you guys can give.

SEE THREAD - >

Thanks to Russell for his sixth donation!

It's customary to thank those who help out. This is the 6th time we are thanking Russell for his donation.

Twitter in your Profile

That's right folks, the option to put a Twitter username in your profile has been added. Click here and then click on "Forum Profile Information" on the left hand side of the screen. Go halfway down the page and there the box will be.

Remember, you can also put in information for others such as:

• ICQ
• AIM
• MSN
• YIM
• Twitter
• Skype

I look forward to seeing people's tweets! For a list of Twitter usernames, or to post yours, there is this thread.

If you are new to Twitter, here are a few usernames you can follow to get you started.

richardonraf - Richard obviously. He usually uses his tweets to tell us about the forum (problems, etc.)
xeroxedfool - Russell AKA Esplin 9466.
cprailfreak - This is me!

Remember, getting started on Twitter is very easy. But if you have any problems, that thread mentioned above would be the place to ask your questions! So lets get your tweets a-tweetn'!!

-Adam

AlothAssassin Banned

Just letting you all know, the member AlothAssassin has been banned from RAF.

AlothAssassin has been banned for constantly disregarding RAF's rules and its staff members, and repetitively making new accounts to bypass bans.

Make sure to follow the rules.

Harry Potter VI

Hey, RAF!
Well, I'm going to see the new Harry Potter movie tonight with some people, and I'll preface the article by saying that I've only read the third book. Books tend to be better than their movies, so I decided at the beginning of it all to refrain from reading the series until after the movie cycle is complete. This way, I'll be able to appreciate fully the movies as they are, without interference of my opinion of the plot.

For this week's article, I'm going to offer a question for you: If you had never read the books, how do you think you would have received the movies?

Please answer in comments, avoiding spoilers if at all possible. (Yes, I know who dies and who doesn't die in the 6th book. There's no avoiding that knowledge. *chuckle* Just please no intimate gory details, okey?)

All my love to you, dearlings. Have a brilliant weekend!
-Estelore

Thanks to Jess for her 2nd donation!

Noticing a lot of donation blog posts lately? I certainly am, and it's great to see our members contributing.

This time it's Jess (now Kit Cloudkicker) who has given us the single biggest donation yet, who has donated once more.

She will get an additional 50 Karma points.

Thanks Jess!

Thanks to Slushie Man for 3rd donation!

Jeff / Slushie Man has once again donated. This is his third time.

Thanks to Jeff!

Thanks to Adam for his 6th donation!

This is the 6th time you're hearing from me saying thanks to Adam for his donation. Yes, our top donator has yet again ensured that RAF won't shut down any time soon.

Thanks Adam!

Thanks to Kelly for her 5th donation!

With her 5th donation, Kelly has been upgraded to Gold Member, and is now firmly #5 on the donator leader-board.

Thanks Kelly!

DYK 15: Did You Know?

That 453 members from RAF Classic were removed between November 28 2003 and November 7 2007?


Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

Thanks to Claire for her donation!

Thanks to long-time member, and Sr. Staff member Claire for her donation. We know how hard earned it is, and on behalf of everyone on RAF: thank you for contributing!

She will receive an additional 10 karma points and all the other perks donators receive.

Donators & Gold Members

In an overdue move, those who donate have been split into two groups: Donators & Gold Members.

Essentially those who donate:
-less than $50 will fall into the "Donators" category. This position will last for a year.
-more than $49 will fall into the "Gold Member" category. This position lasts forever.

Both groups will also have access to a special board on RAF.

• Donators (position lasts for 1 year)
  

9 Stars - Same as Gods + 1000 personal messages + 10 Karma Points + access to D-Lounge

• Gold Member ($50+ in donations - gold color - lasts forever)
  

10 Stars - Same as Donators + unlimited personal messages + 50 Karma Points

-Member groups / Member positions in detail

REMINDER - RAF Party Tomorrow!

We haven't had a proper RAF Party in months because we keep forgetting. Now we won't!

Come out tomorrow July 11 and party like it's 1999.

Oh, how nice!

I've noticed that lately several of our early-RAFgeneration members have been returning and posting, and that the Animorphs boards are getting a bit more action in recent weeks.
If this is a trend as much as the streak of absences and departures was, then RAF may start seeing more and more old and fairly familiar faces on a regular basis.

Oh, and on another, slightly less pleasant note, a few RAFians who email me regularly are having computer issues (not because of me, ha ha very funny), so if you see somebody pretty much drop off the map, that may be why.

Have a great weekend, everybody! ^_^

-Estelore

DYK 14: Did You Know?

That there was an Animorphs Pictures board on RAF Classic?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

View all your topics - new feature!

SMF doesn't have this option by default, but thanks to Goom, we now have that option. If you want to find all the topics a member created, just visit their profile and click on "Show Topics".

To see yours, click here.

Thanks to Aliciania for her donation!

Again I am here to express thanks to fellow RAFian Aliciania for her donation to RAF.

She will now enjoy the benefits that donators do.

Independence Day approaches!

So... is everybody ready to combat the approaching invasion of 17-mile-long alien spacecraft? I know I am!

I'm curious if anybody remembers the worldwide panic and hype that resulted back when the Will Smith movie "Independence Day" went to theatres. A bunch of people thought that the advertisements were public-service-announcements, and they freaked out severely.
The same thing happened again when "The Day After Tomorrow" (by the same director, just so y'know) came out and everybody saw the Statue of Liberty get taken out by an uber-tsunami.
Now there's this "2012" movie coming out... again, the same director... I'm curious whether or not the same thing is going to happen yet again.

Anyway, I just hope you all are ready with your fighter planes, crazy drunk crop dusters, cigars, and malfunctioning missiles. :)

In the immortal words of Jeff Goldbloom, "Must go faster MUST GO FASTER!!!"

Have a great weekend, folks. To those of you celebrating this American holiday, I hope you stay safe and alien-free. To the rest of you, I hope you find our pyrotechnic antics amusing, at least. ;)

G'day, dearlings!

-Estelore

Thanks to Terenia for her donation!

Here's to Terenia for her donation to RAF. As usual I, and subsequently all members and users of RAF wishes to applaud the efforts of our members in coming forward to contribute (monetarily).

Thanks again!

DYK 13: Did You Know?

That RAF's name changed a number of times; including to Richard's Absolute Forum, RAF: Animorphs Forum, RAF: The Animorphs Forum and Animorphs Forum.com?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

Thanks to Cerulean for his second donation!

Hello again fellow RAFians, I would like to thank Cerulean for his most recent donation. This is actually his second time donating and on behalf of everyone who participates on RAF, I would like to thank him for his contribution.

As usual, he will enjoy an additional +50 karma. It's just a small token of appreciation.

I know it's already been said,

but I think it's worth saying again.

http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,3345.msg221063/topicseen.html#new

Anna is right.

I know, this en't the most fawesome blog post in the history of RAF, but... I think maybe we need to have it on a nice, easy-to-access record the fact that there has been a problem.
This is the sorta' problem that doesn't really get fixed without collective co-operation.

*shrug*
All there is to say has been said.
Have a great weekend, dearlings.

-Estelore

RIP Michael Jackson

My idol just died. RIP.

RAF Spam Police Thread Locked

The RAF Spam Police thread has been officially locked. I'm sure many of you will agree with the decision, but even if you don't I hope you can realise the amount of trouble it was causing on our normally peaceful forum. I assure you the decision was not made lightly.

super_sonic receives temporary ban

The user super_sonic has been given a 3 day ban for inappropriate behaviour (and blatantly sexist comments) shown in the link provided. This isn't something I enjoy doing, as most of our members are very nice people. I truly hope super_sonic learns from his mistake when he returns.

Thanks to Adam for his 5th donation!

Adam has donated again! He will enjoy the additional +50 karma for his donation.

Thanks Adam!

DYK 12: Did You Know?

That the domain animorphsforum.com was registered on April 14 2006, but announced one week later?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

Happy Birthday Goom

It is our friendly staff memeber's birthday today: goom. Not only would I like to wish him a happy birthday, I would like to congratulate him on his promotion to the Sr. Staff.

War! *huh yeah* What is it good for?

...Absolutely nothing!

Folks, if you aren't gonna' start an all-out RAFcivil war over something, then why argue and insult and tick off other people about it? Ice it down. We all love RAF, neh? Let's not start taking sides...

...'cause if we do, I'm gonna' take the winning side, and the losing side is gonna' feel purty foolish and self-righteous about it all, just sayin'. ;)

If you don't know what I'm talking-about, then there's no problem at all, and this isn't even necessary.

I love all you folks; I have zero animosity towards any of you. What I DISLIKE is DISCORD. If everybody is willing to just swallow his/her misplaced pride, kindly shut up, and take a nice healthy chill pill, then there won't BE any problem or discord.

Fair enough, I hope?

Have a great weekend, guys. If I'm not on the forum much, it's probably because my router is being a stinker. :P

-Estelore

DYK 11: Did You Know?

That Richard introduced himself (age included, but later removed) officially on July 24 2003?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

RAF Spamming Protection Police

Made up as a group effort by RAFians, RAF now has an unofficial police force!! Inspired by a comment made by Russell / Esplin 9466, I, Adam have created a task force to help monitor the amount of spam that happens, eliminate it, and help identify spammers. We are currently seeking more members, with positions of high seniority still available. We will hold regular meetings via either Skype or RAFchat. To see our thread, click here.

NOTICE: No staff member or Administrator of RAF has endorsed the use of this police, so our little project may be shut down without notice. Also, the RAFSPP does not have any actual authority or power over any member of RAF. We are merely here to create a sort of "Neighbourhood Watch," as one member has said.

Have you ever noticed...

...the similarity between Animorphs and the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers?

Oh, I'm sure this has been mentioned someplace in the forums, but I think it's worth mentioning again.
Look at all the line-ups:

Billy, the blue techno-dude... Ax, the blue techno-dude.
Kimberly, the spunky blonde with 'fashion sense'... Rachel, the- erm- spunky? *shrug* blonde with fashion sense.
Tommy, the brooding outsider who saves their butts in a nasty fight... Tobias, the brooding outsider who does his own share of butt-saving.
Three other characters (with variable names) who line up nicely with the three remaining Animorphs.
Zordon... Ellimist.
*snicker* Okey, maybe I'm pushing it on that last one, but it's a funny image.

Need I point out the use of the word 'morph'?

Well, there you have some food for thought and vague amusement. Have a lovely weekend, my dearlings!

-Estelore

DYK 10: Did You Know?

That Intrepid is the first, (out of two) fully-fledged female staff of RAF.

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

I was just randomly Googling 'Animorphs', and this is what happened...

http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/28010


O_O;....

I made the thread as a joke, and now this.

I'm sorry, but that's funny. And awesome.

Happy Friday, RAF!

All my love,
Estelore

DYK 9: Did You Know?

That at the time of this post, Google had 335,000 results for Animorphs, and RAF is in the top 10?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

Spoilers = NO, please.

I know Michael Grant's Hunger was just published. I own it. I've read it. Not everyone else has, and I'm going deliberately to keep elements of it out of my fan-fic RAFGone.

Spoilers suck; please let's not ruin the books for everybody else, okey? :D

Sorry for the short blog post. :P Early weekend begins now.


All my love,
Estelore

Thanks to Myitt for her donation!

Longtime member Myitt has joined the growing list of persons contributing to the keep RAF alive fund; also known as donating.

You too can help off-set the cost of running RAF, by clicking here, and paying via PayPal.

Thanks again to Myitt for her donation, she will now enjoy the benefits donators enjoy.

Hunger

The Second book in MG's Gone series: Hunger, is out!! Make sure to pick yourselves up a copy! I'm 3/4 through it, so i'm not done yet! But i'm almost there! haha. It's pretty sweet so far, but i'm not going to ruin it for you guys.

-Adam

DYK 8: Did You Know?

That the advertisements you see on RAF go into paying for RAF's expenses?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

Catching Up

Summer has finally hit, and I think you'll notice more activity on the boards from our recently-busy members. Tyler and I are both posting much more often, for instance, and I've seen a couple other familiar faces pop up in their usual places.

Now that I have time to post, I have some catching up to do on all the conversations I have been missing and all the RPG's and fanfictions in which I'm involved. I also need to get back into RAFchat. I suspect this applies also to the rest of the RAFians who were inactive over the past few months.

It pleases me to see that things are starting to come back to life, showing more names from older generations in the Users Online Now section.
Let's keep up the activity, neh? It's nice. :)

-Estelore

RAFparty Reminder

I'm pretty sure no one forgot this time (seeing as how it's RAF's birthday), but just in case, a little reminder that this weekend is the RAFparty celebrating RAF's sixth (it is sixth, right?) birthday. Hope to see you there.

1 000 Members... all over again.

RAF has yet again reached the 1000 member mark.

Adam, 4th time donating!

Adam has donated again!. He is now firmly #1 on the donator leader-board, and will enjoy the additional +50 karma for his donation.

Thanks Adam!

DYK 7: Did You Know?

That whenever you move a thread you get Karma?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

RAFChat... Again.

I certainly hope that everytime RAF Chat gets unused, that I don't have to make a Blog Post, but today I noticed something pretty annoying. So, I opened up RAF Chat, after noticing that Zero people were online. But i noticed that there were also 17 users online on RAForum. I was like: WTF? Especially since half the people online on RAF, are frequent RAFchat users. Its the WEEKEND people, a time when we should have tons of people on RAFchat. I know that some of you are doing your finals, but some of you are in High School, and i know that in Canada, High School exams aren't until June. I don't know if its the same in the USA. Here, I took a screen shot:

So please people, GO ON RAFCHAT. It's just an extra tab to have on your browser. It's there for a reason, and if people stop using it, it's not going to be useful. I don't want to have to make a post like this, just to remind people that it's there. Ok? Thank you.

-Adam
A.K.A. Ell¡m¡st

Thanks to Jess! for her donation!

It is customary to thank those who contribute by donating, but Jess! deserves a special applaud because she has made the single biggest donation to RAF so far.

As usual, she would enjoy all the privileges given to donators, and that warm feeling inside when you know you've done good.

Again, thanks to Jess! for her contributions to keeping RAF alive and kicking...and rocking!

Take it easy!

Moumentai! Hakuna Matata! No worries, no problem, chillax, peace, take it easy, calm down... there must be a dozen ways of telling people to ice it down, but they never seem to take you seriously when you say it, do they?

Let's all take this opportunity to take it easy. Pause for a few moments of your busy day, and just take a deep breath and enjoy living.

While you're at it, have a gorgeous weekend. :)

-Estelore

Thanks to Slushie Man for his second donation!

Jeff has yet again donated. He now will enjoy an additional +50 karma, and a bump into the top 5 on the donator leaderboard.

Thanks Jeff! 

200000 Posts

Michael Grant in Chicago, and other things he said...

So Michael Grant has stated on his YA Lit blog that he will be in Chicago for a book signing at the end of May. Those of you in the Illinois area should go meet him!! lol. I'm pretty sure he's a nice guy, and maybe K.A. will be there too!! Check out the blog post! (click the name of this post)

DYK 6: Did You Know?

That RAF has a Facebook page?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

RAFMerchadise

Hey Everyone!!

A few member are making merchandise (t-shirts, to be specific) in this thread. We are coming up with some funny quotes to put on the shirts, and i'm coming up with a logo comprised of members names. One problem though, the names are too long! If you have a shorter version of your name that i can put on it, that would be greatly appreciated!! But i'm trying to make it work with the names i got.

So go to that thread and share your funny quotes/slogans for the Forum!!

-Adam
A.k.a. Ell¡m¡st

HUGE Siggys

Ok, ok, I know, we like to show of our gifs and other images we've created/had made for us.

But when is it enough?

With 3 or 4 images in one signature and after adding some text it creates a huge block of space on the screen.

Creating a rule saying that siggys can only be this big is kinda hard. There is a 3 image/text limit but theres no actual size limit.

So people!

Please judge for yourselves, don't make your siggys so big.

-Esplin

It's almost summer!

If you have already started your summer break, then you're awfully lucky. The rest of us, however, fortunately don't have too long to wait. My summer starts for real in about a week and a half.

Comment and tell us: when do your summers start? What are you planning to do during this time? Sorry, Aussies, I know it's going to winter for you. :P

I'm planning to get my garden started, catch up on some karate practises, read as much as possible, clean up fan-fictions and poetry, RAF it up, spend time with IRL dearlings, and play music. :)

RAF Social - Make your thread you.

In case you didn't get that memo, RAF created boards to accommodate what we term RAF Social.

What is RAF Social you ask? Well it's not only the coolest place to catch up on your RAF Crush, or your favourite RAFian, but it's that place you can share your own life's journeys.

Think of it as your personal RAF Blog, or RAF Twitter, or RAF Facebook.

Each member has the ability to create a personal thread in the Member Profiles board, and chat to others about whatever they like. So if you're having a bad day, just post in your thread how crappy it was, and no doubt other RAFians will offer their shoulder. Or did you just go to Disney Land? Post pictures and share the moments.

Just get to know each other & Make your thread you.

http://animorphsforum.com/social

Thanks to Anna for her donation!

Hey guys, me again.
I just want to thank Anna for her donation! She not only enjoys the perks of donating, but she now enjoys that warm feeling inside when you help out.

Thanks Anna!

RAF's Perceived Strictness - Explained

A member recently expressed that he thought RAF was strict. This is the first time in recent memory that someone has categorized this awesome Animorphs forum as such.

The reason why one of our members got this impression is the recent feature that prevented guests from viewing the forum. Let me preface by saying that many other communities require one to join before you can partake. I won't justify this move by the notion that others do it: so RAF should.

On the other hand the intent to force guests to register was one of a privacy issue, and one of an administrative one also. The latter reason will not be expounded on further, but the outcome of this essentially boils down to a better RAF.

As for the privacy issue, any active RAFian is able to identify with this.

Those who publish private information about themselves on our community do not expect malicious individuals to mine their information and publish it elsewhere, or use it in whatever fashion. As admin, I believe I have a duty to protect, as best as I can, the users of RAF.

Presently guests do not have to register to view certain parts of the forum, but don't expect this to stay in effect perpetually.

The member who is of the opinion that RAF is one of the stricter communities then goes on to mention those banned. Personally, I am not sure who he is referring to, but the few members that have been banned warranted it. I am notoriously lenient. In fact each year the ban list is cleared. Those who have been banned from the forum had to be; again to maintain a civil community.

If anyone requires more information on a specific banned individual, feel free to send me a personal message, or if you prefer emails: richardatanimorphsforum.com.

The final issue raised pertains to the RAF Chat. You have to register again in order to access the chat-room.

At one point in time, registration was not needed. Those who were active during this period know the story behind the enactment of a registration system. Firstly, people begain abusing the open system and started to impersonate popular RAFians. Not cool.

The second reason for registration/ login on the RAF Chat was the cases if trolls, and lurkers. Persons began flaming the chat room, and posting random nonsense. Also, because of the openness of the community, members willingly discussed intimate aspects of their personal lives in the real-time chat environment. Anyone could view these discussions.

Now people (I know I do) generally feel more secure as a result of the more moderated environment. Persons can be banned from the chat room if they are being disruptive or otherwise.

The other reason for the member's frustration with RAF is that your RAF username cannot automatically be used to login to the chat room. Indeed this is undoubtedly an inconvenience. The reason for this is that the chat room is located on an entirely different server. The result of this, is that your forum credentials are not on the RAF Chat server.

While the chat room can point to the forum's server, I have decided not to because if the main/ forum host goes down, then the chat would also go down.

With the way things are currently set up, the forum can stay alive if the chat goes down, and vice versa. Better for you, really.

Chat registration is done in 2 clicks. If anyone has problems getting the email that should activate your account, I would be happy to activate for you.

I hope this post has cleared up some issues regarding our perceived strictness. I also applaud the member who brought up these issues.

How I spend my day...

It's Sunday April 19:

7am: Wake up early to watch the Monte Carlo Masters (tennis). At the moment of returning to consciousness I reach for my phone which is alarming. Disable alarm, checks email, Adsense, Analytics and twitter.
During match:

12pm: turn off malfunctioning computer and listens to the audiobook 'The End of Faith'

2pm: finally finished the book. Back to the computer. I then surf the net reading and watching documentations for my own purposes. At the same time I Facebook, RAF and email.

7pm: a friend comes over. We chat we laugh.

9pm: I leave for some Wendy's (only thing I like that's open)

10pm: at that friends; I watch news and eat.

I lose track of time.

There you have it. That's my Sunday. Not really typical, since it is a weekend.

-------

This was supposed to be published on the day after, but forgot to do so.

DYK 5: Did You Know?

That the Animorphs eBooks that now every Animorphs website has, and thousands of persons have read, began when Dace decided to do some scanning?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

Help me out here, please?

Hallo, RAF!
This week's article has to be short; I'm to be away for the remainder of the weekend.

Y'know, I absolutely love this blog, but it's not always easy to come up with ideas for my next article. This is where you dearlings come into play:
Tell me what you want me to write. PM me, email me, post in my blog thread, or comment here with what you'd like me to address in future RAFblog articles. I may not do every topic suggested, necessarily, but I'd really like to know what RAFians like to read/hear when they check the blog.

Please and thank-you, everyone! Well, I've got to be away now. Be safe, well, and blessed, my dears.

All my love to you.
-Estelore

Thanks to Ash for her donation!

Ash, one of RAF's oldest members has donated. Ash will now enjoy all the benefits that donors have; including that additional 50 karma.

As usual, we thank Ash for her donation, and encourage others to.

DYK 4: Did You Know?

That Richard created 'Richard's Harry Potter', and 'Unofficial Evanescence Forum' communities after RAF?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

Thanks to Cody for his donation!

This note is to thank CODY for his donation to RAF. Of course without donations like these RAF's survival would rest solely on advertisement revenue and when that falls short; Richard's pockets.

So again, thanks to Cody. He now enjoys all these things.

RAF: Basically an alien embassy cleverly disguised as a forum...

Today's article is just for fun, folks. We'll call it a thought-prompt. ;)
We tend to joke about the different 'species' on RAF, and if someone says he or she is an alien, a star, a faerie, a seal, an Ellimist, et cetera, we go along with it, neh?
What if at least one of those was true?
Mind you, I'm a star, but I'm not going to press the issue here today. Just think on it, my dears. What if just one of these crazy-fun sci-fi enthusiasts actually is from someplace out-of-this-world? RAF would be the equivalent of a micro-embassy on behalf of open-minded Earthlings everywhere.



I bet you this hypothetical five dollar bill that this article left at least four RAFians seriously paranoid about the aliens in the boards. :)
My job here is done for the day, I think.

All my love to you, dearest RAFians.
-Estelore

Michael Grant's Book Signing tour

Hey all!

I'm not sure if you all follow Michael Grant's YA Literature blog, Stupid Blog Name, shared by many other YA writers, such as Carol Snow and Alistair Spalding, but Michael Grant was on a tour in England signing books and being interviewed. You can read about it here: Crack and Stack This, and here: London. Warning: language is kinda uncensored.

Enjoy!!

Adam

AKA Ell¡m¡st

RAF-lationships

Do you have a RAFcrush yet?

Do you know what a RAFcrush is?

Well see, a RAFcrush is a crush on someone who is a member of RAF. Sounds simple, but is actually very complex. This is because if you have a RAFcrush on someone who has a RAFcrush on you, that means that there is some RAFchemistry going on!! My next suggestion would be to start RAFdating.

RAFdating is also very complex, and should be carefully researched by asking current RAFdaters for their advice. Such RAFdaters are, for examples: Claire and Mike, or Estelore and Tyler.

After you and your RAFpartner have been dating for a while, one of you may want to move on to the next step, RAFengagement! One example of a RAFengaged couple, would be Russell and Dameg. They have been trying to move onto their next step for a while, which is to be....

RAFmarried!!! This is the biggest step in RAFcrushing, as this is the ultimate level of RAFcommitment. It's also a very big RAFcelebration that EVERYONE can have a part in (stags, stagettes, etc.). Only two RAFcouples have gotten married in the past. They would be Anna and Ken, or Touquie and Charlie. Only the latter are still together, which brings me to an optional, but sometimes unfortunate RAFcrush stage.

RAFdivorce. Just ask Ken or Anna for the explanation...

RAFchildren are very rare on RAF, seeing as how this is a children's book-forum, and must stay PG-13 or lower in the ratings. But, one RAFchild has been concieved throughout RAF's history. I'm not going to mention it's "dirty"name, but it starts with a P and ends with ootang.

Also, don't stab someone in the back, not very pleasant. Trust me, I've experienced it. And broken hearts are not fun.

So, if you are thinking of starting a RAFcrush, please, reference this topic, and find all the help you need. Just don't start too much RAFdrama.

Also, RAFipedia has a page here, which needs some updating.

Sincerely,

Adam

P.S. I would like to thank Gaz and Faerie in helping me with this post!! Thank you!!

DYK 3: Did You Know?

That Anna actually won the "Last person to post wins" game in the Bored Board on RAF Classic two years after the thread started?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

May Approaches...

Know what that means, RAF?
Well, I'll tell you, anyway.
It means that all the high school seniors on the boards are going to be graduating, and the majority will be university-bound by autumn, if not sooner. We're looking forward to a wave of new college freshmen in RAF, which forbodes either MUCH more free time for those people... or much LESS free time, depending on their majors. I'm in architecture, so I fall into the latter category.
I really do hope that this doesn't mean a huge drop in forum attendance. :P
Let's be optimistic, though: May also means that next fall there will be grade-schoolers on the boards going to high school....

-Estelore

Russell has made a FOURTH donation!

Not to be out-done, (or maybe he just likes to ensure RAF's survival) our admin Russell (or In the recovery room..) has donated for a fourth time.

He has now got +50; firmly securing his position as #1 on the Karma List with 459 applauds. He has also moved up one spot to #2 on the Donation Leader-Board. 

So I would like to thank him for his continued monetary contributions to RAF.

Help RAF, by donating!

What Generation are YOU?

I'm compiling a list of popular members past, and present on RAF, and placing them in generations.

Currently there are 10 Generations.

See where you fall; if you're not placed: just post in the thread: don't forget to give your RAF Classic user-name (if you were on RAF Classic of course), and give a list of persons who you remember were posting when you came on RAF.

RAF GENERATIONS / READ ->
image source

Thanks to Kelly for her third donation!

Third time's the charm for long-time member Kelly who just donated. This post is to thank her and remind everyone that I alone can't foot the bill; you can help too.

Kelly now enjoys an additional 50 karma points.

To donate, and see the top 5 donors, visit RAF Donate at: http://animorphsforum.com/donate

DYK 2: Did You Know?

That the Totally Random Thoughts thread is not only the 6th thread created on new RAF, but 10% of the posts made on RAF are in that thread?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

RAFparty #7 Day 1

If I had to describe this weekend's first RAFparty in 10 words or less, I'd say, "What RAFparty?"
This is by far, the worst RAFparty day ever. My name is Morfowt and I will be your blogger for this devastating day.

The first sign that says we have a problem this weekend, would be the lack of enthusiasm and reminder of the upcoming RAFparty. Usually, quite a few veteran members would post reminders in the RAFparty thread at least 24 hours before it started. This week there has been no such thing. I've also noticed that the RAFparty thread has been buried deep under many topics, possibly caused by the recent merging of the General Board and Life Board.
The second sign was when the party had already started for an hour, and no increase in post frequency occured in the Bored Board. In fact, about 2 hours in, I had a Skype chat with a few members and found some didn't even know today was the day.

Stats of that day also support this. On the day of the RAFparty:
6 New Topics - That is our second lowest amount this month so far, beating only 5 topics on April 8th. Previous parties made over 20 new topics a day, once reaching over 40.
492 new posts - The third lowest amount this month so far (the other two days, 473 and 413), and last out of all RAFparties by a long shot. Previous parties made well over 1000 new posts, and usually even over 4000 new posts.
48529 hits - while that day did have the most page view this month, it was only by about 4000 hits. We made about 44000 hits on April 2nd.

RAFparties are a day for everyone to come onto the forum, post, break RAF records, and have a blast. As not one of these has been accomplished in any way, I believe it's safe to say this RAFparty day was epic fail in every definition.
But, luckily, RAFparty lasts 2 days. Everyone out there, let's make up for this with the 2nd day.

As this post comes to a close, I can't help but notice the possible connection between this, the slight drop in last month's RAFparty, and the recent rise in leaving veteran RAFians...

Smileys

Hello, RAFians!
I don't know if everyone has been paying attention to the growing list of animated "smileys" that are now at our disposal, so I'm going to point them out here. I tend to use only the emoticons that I can quickly type, so I did not even notice that we had Animorphs-themed animations until I saw somebody post an Hork-Bajir in one of my threads.
Goom and DinoNothlit have been doing a brilliant job designing animated images of the main characters' primary morphs, and it sounds like the next morph on the agenda is Aximili becoming human. (If I'm wrong, please, someone, correct me.)
Anyway, folks, please do just check it out, there is some seriously fawesome stuff happening in the smiley-making thread.
Thanks, Dino and Goom, for doing such a great job on all of these!

-Estelore

TIP: Determine if there are new posts

If you ever wondered what these icons are all about (forgetting that they are the SMF logo [[note to self, change to RAF logo]]) this is the post for you.

The first icon means that there are no new posts in the board. The second icon means that there are. Take for example:

The icons are telling me that in the General Board there are new posts that I haven't read. In the Media Area, I have visited that board, and no one posted after I visited it.

Additionally to telling you if there are new posts in a board, you are able to click on the icon, and you will be shown all the unread posts in that board.

DYK 1: Did You Know?

That the current Animorphs Role-Playing board is bigger and more active than the one on RAF Classic ever was?

Now you do.

Richard's Animorphs Forum - The Ultimate Animorphs Forum

RAFChat

Hey everyone,

I know this has been touched on before in the RAFBlog, but I thought I would bring it up again. Everyone should go on RAFChat when they are on the forum. I mean, it's not that hard to open it up, sign up, and log in. It's just another window (or tab, depending on your browser) that makes a funny sound every once in a while (it might get annoying, but i got used to it!).

What really bugs the heck out of me is when I see that, for example, 24 people are online on the forum, yet only 8 people are online in chat (admit it, it happens). What the heck??

I understand that some people can't be on chat, for reasons such as your country doesn't allow it, or your cell phone doesn't support it, or your Playstation 3 doesn't open it (like me) and I'm not mad at you. Its the people who choose not to go on chat, for whatever reason, that I'm talking to.

Chat is useful because it allows you to talk to your favorite forum members in Real Time. This is neat because you are probably used to only talking to the members in the topics, where you might have to wait a whole day for the response, maybe longer! With RAFChat you ask a question, and you get an answer (if anyone wants to answer it) within seconds! Also, very notable things happen in RAFChat that, if you aren't there, might be missing out from. Examples of things like this that have happened in the past are:

1. Ken and Anna's RAFWedding
2. Pootang's Miraculous Birth
3. Various RAFParties
4. Many of the quotes in the Quotable Quotes thread
5. and many more...

If you don't know what #2 is about, then that's the exact reason why you should be in RAFChat!

And hey! I'm not the only one who thinks so! Here's a quote from a member of RAF, when asked what has happened in RAFChat that they can remember:

"Not much really... RAFchat is dieing kinda... With the more talky people leaving or lurking more, less and less is happening..."

So please people, go on RAFChat!! I'll most likely see you there!

Sincerely,

Adam
AKA Ell¡m¡st

6,000,000 Hits

So, since I normally note when RAF Forum passes a million hits, and today that happened, there is this post. 6 Million now.

Spring Break!

Hello, RAF!
Well, it's spring break over here, over a week without classes. This means more online time, in general, except on specific busy-days. The weather is simply gorgeous, and I'm leaving for awhile to visit family.
Who else here is enjoying a lovely break, and who has interesting plans for their vacation time?

Comment!!

I'll see you all on my return. Much love to all of you.
-Estelore

Today is Ash's Birthday!

LONG-time member... and by that I mean approaching 6 years, Ash is celebrating her () birthday today! To our current longest active member: hope you have a fun and stress free day!

2 Boards Removed

The Life & The General Fan-Fiction & Art Boards have been removed. Posts in these boards have been moved to the newly renamed General Board (was General v2).

Nostalgia

While looking at the Member list in order of Date Registered, I realized that only Mike (Phoenix004) and I were the ones who registered in 2003 (on RAFclassic of course), followed by two people from 2005 (Kelly and Tyler). At first, i was surprised and astounded that we had the rest register in 2008 and onward, most re-registering after the move from RAFClassic, and not asking for their original Registration date back.

This is my friendly reminder that if you registered on RAF Classic and haven't asked for your original registration date yet, please do!! Nostalgia on a forum like RAF is greatly appreciated!! It also sets up a sort-of seniority. That way, if someone has a question and are afraid to go to the Staff (they are pretty scary to newbs!), they can just ask a more senior member.

I was looking on RAFclassic for some of our oldest members, but there was no option to sort by registration date. So i looked up the Top 20 Posters, and found some members that had been very active, but didn't stay with us.

• Sarah Connor
• Xandria Nirvana
• Meanders
• Jordan
• Sarah Naeem

That's just to name a few. Also, I was wondering why so many people are leaving, and I decided to determine which of the more active members of the new RAF have left, or are very inactive.

• Anna
• Leigh
• Skye
• mrlarry
• Venomwiththelongname

If people wouldn't leave, there wouldn't be another reason for other people to leave. So please, people: End the Trend. Stay with RAF, and quit leaving.

Please leave comments.

Sincerely, Adam.

Russell's Animorphs Forum

In case you haven't noticed, RAF is now Russell's Animorphs Forum.
This change was made when Richard decided to retire just short of RAF's 6th birthday.

This will be my final post on the RAF Blog in my current capacity.

April 2 Update: Guys... if you fell for that one.... [shakes head]

Back for some more Blogging Action!!

Hey guys!! It's the manager of your space-time continuum, The Ellimist!!

...But you can call me Adam. Most of you know me already, but in case you don't, here's a quick re-cap of some stuff i've done on RAF:

1. Joined way back when... (a long time ago)
2. Became a staff member on RAF Classic
3. Subsequently became a Co-Admin on RAF Classic (helping Richard out with a few things)
4. Brought Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant to RAF (to answer some of our questions)
5. Donated money to RAF (its a good investment)
6. Posted on RAFBlog! (right now)

But enough about me. More about what my blog posts will include. My blog posts will most likely include updates from Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant, as I am in contact with them regularly via e-mail. Actually, i'm trying figure out a new way of asking them questions, like maybe ask everyone for their questions, RAF's Staff sort them out (get rid of the silly ones), and then I e-mail the completed list to KA & MG. I don't know!! Haha! Just an idea, i've got tons more too!!

If you have any ideas, please either tell me in comments (Estelore would probably like that), or PM me. Either way i'll read it and consider it, and maybe even reply. But Please... Don't give me questions. I'm not ready for them yet.

Thanks for reading!!!

My regards,
Adam, A.K.A. Ell¡m¡st

A Proposal: RAF Silence Day #2

Right, well, folks... I'm still uber-curious about Richard's appearance, in all honesty, and this blog post is already a day late, so let's get to business.

I suggest we re-attempt RAFSilence Day. I suggest that we try to do this next Tuesday, since Tuesdays seem to be our non-busy days.

Commentary, if you please?

Richard, if we can pull it off, even belatedly, will you still agree to post a picture?

*shrug* I think it's worth another shot.

-Estelore

Animorphs Trivia Game

Have you ever wanted to test out your knowledge of the Animorphs book series against your fellow RAFians? If you're interested and wanted to discuss the idea further, click on the title of this blog post and you can post in the thread I made in the Animorphs Board!

Recent Email Sent + Rank Changes

As I said on Twitter, I sent out an email to every member who has no posts: just to remind them that we exist. Below is the screen-shot of that image for all you guys who are not newbies:


Oh and to facilitate this new email reminders I have changed the member groups/ member ranks a bit. "Newbie" are now members who have only 0 posts. The new group "Non-N00b" are for those who have 1-9 post.
See here for more information.

Warm Feeling Inside

First, I want to preface by saying I don't actually use Yahoo! Search. I was just going there to see how we are fearing on their search engine. To be fair though, 12% of those who come to RAF in the last month came from Yahoo! (versus 83% from Google).

Anyhow, when I started to type "animorphs forum", this is what popped up:



And I got a warm feeling inside. So I wondered, would the same thing happen on Google?


Apparently not :(

Get your act together Google! :)

The A is for...umm...something about Animals right?

Hey guys, I’m back with another random post about nothing really all that important. Sorry about this. Don’t worry it will be over soon, you can just leave a reply saying hey good point and pretend like you read it. I would honestly never know.

So anyway; Richards ANIMORPHS Forum. I think most of us notice that the Animorph’s board is one of the least active boards on the forum. The common trend is for new members to start in the Animorph’s board and gradually move over to the general categories. The veteran members are rarely seen actually talking about what brought us all together; Animorphs!

Some people find it hard to believe that an Animorphs forum is active after almost 10 years. You can really only talk about Animorphs for so long right? After a certain point the discussions start to repeat themselves. The newer members will bring up a great point that you talked about seven months ago. After awhile they’ll start to feel the repeat of the discussions and they’ll drift away from the Animorph’s board too.

But just because most of the discussions of the board have been done in one form or another, that doesn’t mean we should give up on them. There will always be fresh perspectives on the books that we all love. For every “Thoughts about book #54” and “What would be your battle morph” threads, there will be a unique idea out there that makes the Animorphs board worth checking out every once in awhile. (I just read “The wall between Jake and Cassie” and thought Hylian Dan made some great perspectives on their relationship.)

So to sum up what I’m trying to say (because my posts are never clear enough to pull the message out without an idiot proof conclusion) we should try to bring back the Animorphs discussion to the forum! Check out a few of the new discussions and try to see if you can get some new perspectives on the series. Reassess the points of the series you love or that you questioned and maybe you’ll find some new discussion topics too. Terenia should be commended for organizing the group reread; a weekly reread of the series in order. Not a bad idea. Revisiting what brought us to the forum in the first place might bring us closer than ever.

But we should be proud that if the Animorphs discussion isn’t what has kept us together for so long, it means that e have survived solely on the community we have created. RAF FTW!