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The Webmaster Effect
Someone proposed to me that I write up a little something about how becoming a webmaster
of such a popular site has affected me. I never really thought much about this before as
I've been trying to keep any of these non-standard things away from me. I try my hardest
just to be like any other person. However, with how time has passed, I have found it is
almost impossible to deny that it has had some affect on me. So, history is where I shall
begin.
HISTORY: How the Site Began & Grew
It started way back in the day. I created a little guild called Soup Faerie Helpers on May
9th, 2001. At that time I attempted to create a little official guild site to benefit only
the guild members. It didn't have an official name yet; and, it was hosted on angefire at
the time. It was a small little thing. It only consisted of the most basic tips, a dollmaker,
and small blinking neopet images. I abandoned the site for some time in later 2001 when I
took leave of Neo for personal reasons... I'll just say that I lived in New York City at
the time: recently was married and then 9/11 happened.
When I returned from my personal leave, I came back to my guild and attempted to create
more fun things for them as the guild had gained many members while I was away. It was
then that the site really started to grow. I hosted the growing site on my own personal
domain for about three weeks. However, the site grew so fast that my host was about to
start charging me $150 a month for bandwidth!
Now, because I couldn't afford $150 a month, I went to one of my web hosting friends to
get a good deal on hosting that gave me what I wanted. That is when SoupFaerie.Com
officially came to be. It grew fast and furiously over the next few months. People
visited it for the neopet tips, blinking neopets, the negg tree, and backgrounds. Each new fun
feature I added helped the site to grow that much faster.
It was then in early July of 2002 that I was first contacted officially by the Neopets Legal
Department about my site. They informed me that many of the things that I was running on my
site broke their terms. So, I had to remove anything that I was 'distributing' that contained
neopet copyrighted images in them. I was very disappointed to have to remove those things;
but, that didn't dampen the popularity of the site.
Well, even with the little setback of not being allowed to provide fun images and backgrounds
containing Neopet things, I continued to put my heart into my site-- along with the help of
personal friends. So, the site was growing again. It became a problem about July of 2002
for me. The site was pulling so much traffic and server resources that my friend webhost
had to start charging me more. I attempted to lessen the load of my host then by outsourcing
backgrounds. Backgrounds were the most popular part of the site.
Yea, many people might remember when I moved all the images to boomspeed. It was a mess. A
lot of my site's history is a mess due to the many times I've had to revamp things due to
host bandwidth and server resource problems. The last I've had of those problems happened
in July of 2003. I finally gave up with my friend webhost and moved over to my current host.
This is when SoupFaerie.Com became Soup-Faerie.com. So far the only problem I had with them
was resource problems. However, my outsourcing more things to boomspeed has helped with that.
NOW: So here I am...
So, here I am today. It has been over two years since my little no name site has flourished
into what most people now know it as. Along with the site's growth in popularity, it brought
about a lot of growth in my personal popularity in the game of Neopets. And honestly, this is
something I still have not grown accustom to. I did something initially for my guild; and,
then I sought out to reach out to as many people as possible with my site's features. I
didn't ask for it to bring any popularity for me. I only attempted to provide people with a
safe haven for information and fun.
I guess the person that suggested this article to me had in mind my thoughts on how the
site's popularity has affected me personally in the game of Neopets.. Or, how if I like
what it has done for me. In a way I personally resent the site. People tend to assume things
about me since I tend to keep closed up most of the time. I'm quite a quiet person at times;
and, I don't react well to hoards of people approaching me. The reactions of people that I
get because I tend to keep to myself is that of them assuming that I think of myself as some
"big shot" and that I purposefully ignore everyone.
So yes, I resent the site in a way. Sometimes I wish that I never did what I did for anyone
out there. But then, there are the few people out there that thank me for my work. They thank
me for my hard efforts in putting what I was given together for them. It's the people that
appreciate this that make it worth my time.
So no. I don't look at this site as some function to gain popularity or influence of people.
I see this site as a way to express my personal nature of wanting to be there for everyone.
I like to help out people. I had the means to create this site and did so. I didn't have the
means to reach out and contact each person directly.
What has the site given me? It has given me influence. It has given me popularity. It has
made me (for the most part) well known in the game of Neopets. It has given me a lot of joy
when I see people using and appreciating what I have done. It has also given me a lot of pain
when people assume things about me.
Stereotyping is what has really had the biggest affect on me. I think the stereotyping that
most people do these days is what is the biggest pain of all. People see me as someone they
are not. They might see me as something they want to be or cannot ever be. So, some people
seem to build up some hatred for me as they know I've done something they don't have the
resources to do. I believe I addressed this reason indirectly in a paragraph above already
though.
One last affect... The fans. Sometimes I attempt to be like anyone else on the boards and/or
just chat with people. Many times I get greeted to the 'cries' of fans out there. It scares
(for lack of a better word) me to be honest. I can't get treated like everyone else anymore.
What fun is it to be treated as a thing instead of a regular person like everyone else?
Hmm... This article is mostly just ramblings that I have typed out while I think them. I hope
that I've stayed on topic for the most part. And, I would like to close with this: I am just
like you.
- Hippie
--- 12.14.03
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