| |
 -CalicoRose March 19th, 2000 The following article reflects my opinions and feelings regarding a site in the R.O.C. You may not agree with my article, but please read it with an open mind. Terrouge Productions (http://redwall.vr9.com) has always been somewhat of an oddity in the Redwall Online Community. It was neither a club nor a link site, fan-fic or art site. It seemed to have an identity all it's own. They claimed to be the first Redwall E-zine (a fact which was later disputed by The Red Badger on The Long Patrol's Editorial Page). When Terrouge first emerged, it was something fresh, something new, not another page that was a direct rip-off of Redwall.org or The Long Patrol. It was a place surfers could find information on their fellow Redwallers. In it's first few months, Terrouge seemed to be plagued by problems. Late updates, missing articles and even a complete shut down. However, after they reopened as The Red Center, Terrouge seemed to have found it's 'niche'. Along with the E-zine, it had several other features. Terrouge soon began receiving praise for it's "innovations". And, as a result of that praise they became overly ambitious and, yes, terribly snotty. Overly ambitious in attempting to make their site into all things to all people. The monthly E-zine not enough for you? Subscribe for the Digest! Got a web site problem? Visit the Redwallers On The Web (ROTW) Project! (they're all experts, didn't you know?) Want to chat? Visit their forum! Got Redwall art or stories? Post it on their site! Need an e-mail address? Get one from them! Snotty for the exact same reasons. Recently, Terrouge Productions announced that they and Camp Willow would be merging. With this merger, Terrouge will lose the last shred of objectivity that they have. Now, instead of reviewing websites in Terrouge, they will be reviewing competitors. Not a sure sign of impartiality. Whether or not this merger will go through remains to be seen. Hopefully, someone on the Terrouge staff will see this editorial and realize that by merging with Camp Willow, Terrouge E-zine will have to work twice as hard to prove to it's readers that it is still a (somewhat) unbiased publication. One can only hope... This friendly opinion was written by CalicoRose (redwallgirl@yahoo.com). -Calico Rose | |