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Interview with Streth Longstream
By: Kathryn
Fort Riverway is one of the ROC sites that is becoming really popular right now. Lead by their webmaster and leader, Streth Longstream. I have had the privelege to talk with her and ask her a few questions about her club and related issues. Here you go!
Q :What year did you start your club?
A: 1999.
Q:What inspired you to start your club?
A: My brother. Shortly after we found our way on to the Redwall Online Community, he decided he was going to make his own club. I thought that was a pretty cool idea (and plus I don't like getting outdone by my little brother) and so I did my own club as well. I had a lot of help from my Dad.
Q: Is there any specific theme to your Redwall Club?
A:Basically, it's a Redwall fort. I've tried to keep the atmosphere throughout the club, with things like the page titles and introductions. The atmosphere is very important to me as it sets the scene of the club.
Q: What's with all the room names and designated areas (the Hall, Library for example)?
A:They're also part of the atmosphere -- at some future point in time, I want to be able to draw a map of the fort and put in all those places -- and also, I thought that having pages titled 'Riddles', 'Missions', was really boring.
Q: How long has your site been in operation?
A: About one year and 11 months.
Q: What is the participation level of your club, and how many members are there?
A: The participation's level's pretty good. As I'm writing this there are 99 members, though that number fluctuates quite a bit as I have new members joining and 'dead' members getting kicked out. I have several very devoted members (may I mention one Mariel of Mossflower Woods?) that have been with the club quite a while and helped with some of the stuff.
Q: Did you design your site with raw html or did you build it with a site-editor?
A: I used an editor because way back when I started, I had absolutely no clue about HTML. Nowadays I tend to use the HTML function in the editor. Editors DO tend to write messy HTML, though they're a lot easier to use!
Q:How regularly do you update your site?
A:About once a week; more if I can squeeze in the time! > 9) Are there any requirements to be a member? There are two main requirements - to participate and to follow the rules.
Q:Have you read all the Redwall books?
A:Yes. Several times :-).
Q:What are the differences in your club in comparison to other Redwall clubs?
A: Well, I'm pretty sure that we're the only club on the RWOC that names the seasons 'back-to-front'! (We name them according to how I get them, and I live in New Zealand.) There's also quite a bit of interaction between members as they don't have to remain 'in character' all the time. I try and let them have some say in what goes on.
Q:Are there any original activities that you've made up?
A: Not that I've made up personally - but my members have had several good ideas, like the 'Remedies' in the Healer's Hall. It's pretty hard to think up new activities because just about every idea seems to be used already!
Q:What would you say is your most popular activity and why is it in your opinion?
A: Probably the form activities, like the riddles and polls, because they only take a couple of minutes to fill out and press the 'send' button.
Q:Are you conjoined to any other clubs, rings, and alliances?
A: Fort Riverway is allied with six clubs, has two rivals, and is in one webring and one alliance. I'm always happy to ally with new clubs because I know it's not that easy for a new webmaster to advertise their site.
Q:Are vermin allowed to join your site?
A: Yes, they are, as long as they promise to be good : ).
Q:What is the future outlook of your site, are you planning any changes or anything like that?
A:The future outlook is to get a lot better! The end of last year I was working on some changes to get rid of the frames/no frames and instead use a start-menu sort of toolbar at the top of the screen. It didn't work, thanks to the Geocities advertising (which displaced it), but at some time I'm hoping to move Fort Riverway to a different site provider so I can get that working. Also I know that we're not too good on the graphics plane, so I'm hoping to improve that as well.