State of the Site
This site started well over three years ago out of an overabundance of free time, a desire to flex my creative muscles, and of course a love for all things Rock Band. But lately, some things have changed, and if you follow my personal Twitter account (@tommyjwall), I’m sure you’ve been hearing a little about it.
Over the past year, my full-time job has been undergoing some pretty significant overhauls and my workload has increased exponentially. While this is a good thing for my personal job security, it has unfortunately meant a decrease in the quantity and quality of content I publish on the site. (As a few noticed, this was part of the reason for the shuttering of our sister site DanceKinection.) And as of last Tuesday, my wife gave birth to our brand new baby daughter, which has inevitably taken up nearly all of my previously remaining free time. In fact, my wife and I are still dealing with some not insignificant complications from the birth, as it is now eleven days out and I’m writing this from the hospital. Because of all these major life changes, my time running the site will be diminishing greatly.
As I repeat every so often, I always envisioned RockBandAide being a site run for the fans, by the fans. We have been blessed to have had many fans contribute to the site, but most of the daily recurring stories have been written by yours truly, and that’s where you guys come in. Recurring weekly content like the RBN Highlights and Thursday Throwbacks have been written by some excellent and dedicated writers nearly every week, and we recently tapped Rock Band superfan @OsagaTheGreat to take over much of the major recurring duties (DLC announcements, playthroughs/reviews, etc.), but we are always looking for more enthusiastic, talented, and dedicated people to contribute content (ideally, weekly recurring content). Even if its just “Hey, I can write the RBN DLC posts for you each week,” it would help this site and the community out in massive ways.
I will still be involved with the site as the owner and editor, but I have a hard time seeing myself producing weekly recurring content in the foreseeable future. I still hope to write and publish one-off posts like the Setlist Checklists again, and I still come up with some great ideas for interesting posts but rarely have the free time to write and publish them, but there’s no timetable for when these will be written. If you’re willing to help out with the site, let us know via the Contact Us page or hit us up on Twitter. Since we don’t generate any significant revenue for the site, I can’t promise any pay, but I may be able to throw occasional DLC codes or even PAX/PAX East/E3 press passes your way for truly dedicated authors.
So that’s it for now. I want to send a big thank you out to all the Rock Band fans who helped this fanboy do some amazing things with some amazing people over the last few years. You guys rock!
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for all the kind words. I will send out a communication to everyone that has expressed interest in helping out with the site. If there’s something that you think others would find interesting, we’ll try to get it published here on the site!
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I’m OK with this.
Good luck with your work, I’m sure someone will be able to keep up with the announcements and stuff.
Long live RBA
makes me kinda sad, but thank you for all your hard work. good luck finding authors who can do as good a job as you did.
I hope everything works out for you man. Thanks for all you’ve done so far.
Long live RBA!
Congrats on your baby girl! Hope all goes well! Thanks for your dedication to this great site.
This is the best RB site on the net, much better than the official site, and a huge benefit to those of us that love the game. Best of luck with your new addition, hope you are home soon.
Congratulations — you’re a big boy now! Nice job, a family.
You don’t owe any of us anything. I hope everything works out well.
Alexandre Taú Reply:
August 4th, 2012 at 11:25 am
This. Even if sometimes we (and I mean “the public + you”, not just me
) could disagree, I’m pretty sure that everybody appreciates the fantastic work you’ve done here. Thank you, and the best of luck for you, your wife and the little baby girl!
Thanks for everything you’ve done, sir! I hope your daughter makes it out of the hospital healthy and happy.
Hey, congratulations for the baby girl! Thanks for a great site! its been unquestionably the best source for RB related news. The greatest days of rhythm gaming might be over for now, but hey, nothing lasts forever.
Waiting for RB 4: The Comeback!
Thank you for all you’ve done over the last few years. Not only did you provide tremendous news and insight, but you kept interest in a genre that got me back to playing video games.
And congrats on the birth of your daughter!
Much appreciation for your hard work on the site for these many years. Hopefully this site will continue too rock just as hard (if not more!) than it ever has in the near and far future.
Congratulations on your new baby girl! Hopefully all the complications wrap up in the best possible manner and have no long term effects.
I’m always available to help out.
While it’s unfortunate that you won’t be able to work on the site as much, congrats on the new baby.
If you want someone to take over the RBN posts, like you used as an example in your thread, I’d be happy to do that. I already check up on the RBN announcements each week, because I update the database for the PS3 releases on the DLC Quickplay site each week (I’ve been helping with maintaining the database there for a couple of years now), so I’d have no problems doing that (or helping out elsewhere) if you need someone.
RockBandAide Reply:
August 9th, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Helping out with the RBN DLC posts would be tremendous! I’m starting to get back to people now, so I’ll try and send an email your way very soon. Thanks!
Mcmax3000 Reply:
August 9th, 2012 at 6:16 pm
Sounds good. I’m happy to help anyway I can.
Its always great to see someone who has their priorities straight. As was stated, this is by far the best RB site. You’ve a good thing. Don’t harbor any regrets cutting back on the time you spend on this…
Thanks for all the hard work you’ve put into the RBA site, keeping fans up to date with the latest & greatest on all things RB. It’s been a daily read for the past three years. Glad to see others already stepping up to help keep things going. Congrats on your daughter and best wishes going forward. Drop by when you can and keep on rockin
Sounds like you have your hands full. I’ll see if I can fill a vacant spot if no one else can step in.
I’d be interested in writing a column about something like what songs are missing by big artists already in Rock Band. Then also on the flipside, maybe one that shines a spotlight on artists that have no songs yet that maybe we could expose. Maybe the artists see the post and the interest and think about looking into it. Never know. My only problem is I don’t do well with schedules, I would kind of write more on a “as I think of it” basis.
RockBandAide Reply:
August 9th, 2012 at 11:59 am
I love the first idea, and had made a list awhile ago with the intention of doing something like that. I’ll get in touch with you as soon as I can about possibly doing something like that here!
And no worries about having to fit into a schedule. With the exception of DLC announcements, there’s no real “due date” for original content that people are producing for the site. I understand that people have busy lives (now more than ever), so I defer to others’ schedules.
I would love to help, but I don’t know what I could bring to the site.
“Enthusiastic, talented, and dedicated”?
Sounds more like pickiness than productivity.
RockBandAide Reply:
August 9th, 2012 at 11:55 am
I think the biggest “want” for the site are people that are reliable enough that they can contribute one recurring article a week. I usually try to skim over articles first, but normally don’t edit them prior to publishing. I’ll make some formatting changes and add links in to RockBand.com and elsewhere, but that’s usually it.
My test for publishing it on the site is whether it is something that I would want to read about Rock Band, it should go on the site. I’m looking for others that have a similar barometer. If it came across “picky,” that wasn’t our intention.
Congrats on your new family! You’ve put a lot of hard work into, what I would consider to be, the best Rock Band site out there. Thanks for all of that.
I would be happy to write posts for the site. I don’t buy all of the DLC, though I could possibly write a new column for the site; I’m not sure.
Congrats on the kid man! If I wasn’t swamped with work right now, I’d love to help out.
Don’t worry. You’ll make a great editor! It is inevitable that a site reach that state. I know it. You transition to a less-active position where yo oversee the site, but the site grows with more excited publishers who also share your vision of the site. Good luck!
congrats and a big thanks for all youve done with this awesome site
Congrats with your daughter and thanks for all the time you’ve put into this site!
Hello,
Congrats on your baby daughter. If anyone is interested, I could possibly do a column on what it’s like to play Rock Band with absalutely no sight. However, am not too sure how long the column would last, and I’d only do this if enough people were interested. I’ve been a follower of RBA for quite a long time, and whatever happens, thanks for the great work you’ve done.
RockBandAide Reply:
August 9th, 2012 at 11:49 am
That sounds awesome!!! We’ll try to reach out to you very soon on possibly setting something up. Thanks!
Congratulations, and best of luck to you and your family! We had our first child a little over a year ago now, and I know all too well how it can drain any time you have.
I joined the site right around the announcement of Rock Band 3, and it’s been a consistently fantastic source for all my RB needs. Thank you for the time and energy you’ve put into it!
Anyone who has a kid knows that it’s not about you anymore. You did great work and inspired many to do the same I’m sure. Good luck in all you do.
At ease, soldier. You’ve earned it.
I love the site and visit it often, I’ll help in anyway I can. I’m not much of a writer but I know how templates work and am kind of a tech geek. So I could help with DLC announcements in a pinch.
Good luck with that new baby! …and a big THANK YOU! for keeping us well informed on the world of Rockband for so long.
Aww. Maybe u should give access to certain individuals to post news.
RockBandAide Reply:
August 9th, 2012 at 11:47 am
That’s what our plan is. We’re going to try to get back to all the people that contacted us today and let them know more of the details if they want to contribute to the site.
In the meantime, OsagaTheGreat is kicking ass on keeping most of the recurring (and some new) features on the site, and when new stories are published on the site, they are automatically tweeted out and posted on our Facebook page.
With certain exceptions, I’ll remain the main admin and editor for the site, but like I said above, I’m not planning on contribute content on a daily basis like I have historically tried to do.
ziggyxnamvp Reply:
August 9th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
What are your thoughts on the underground rockband movement? (Custom songs and upgrades)
RockBandAide Reply:
August 9th, 2012 at 3:28 pm
Our philosophy on content for the site has been that if it is something that fans would find interesting and talk about, we try to put it on the site, assuming it does not jeopardize or sour our comfortable relationship with Harmonix.
thank you 100 times for the site and the time you’ve put aside for it. Good luck with the career n baby
Good on you buddy, all the best