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I’ve been thinking about Magic Deck Vortex lately and wondering on a few different topics related to this site. Topics like slogans. The various slogans I’ve used in the past and currently, are they accurate? For instance, is Magic Deck Vortex really “What the casual players use?” Or, as I used in the past, is Magic Deck Vortex really “More than meets the eye?” Of course, there is a lot more than just slogans to think about. There’s MDV Idol #3. There’s the new MDV Super Series. There’s the possibility for me to write more articles for MDV. There’s a new layout to think about for the main site … and more! What kinds of Words from the Streetz are in store for you today? Looks like you’ll just have to keep reading. In today’s Words from the Streetz article I’m going to try something different. There are a whole bunch of different topics I would like to discuss; however, I don’t want to devote a whole article’s worth of space on any one of them. And I don't feel like writing smooth transitions for topics that don't transition well. And thus, I’m going to give you a few headlines and then talk about each headline (topic) for a paragraph or two (or in some cases, several). Let me know in the forum if you like this style, or if it makes it feel too broken and cluttered with information.
Does MDV Need a New Slogan? “I Want My MDV” was the first ever slogan I came up with for Magic Deck Vortex. Magic Deck Vortex shortens to MDV and it only seemed appropriate to change “MTV” in their slogan (I want my MTV) to “MDV.” It puts the catchy little tune into your head and voila! Great slogan.
Currently Magic Deck Vortex uses “What the Casual Players Use!” Do you think this slogan is appropriate? Is MDV really what the casual players use? Is Magic Deck Vortex still at one with its roots in the casual crowd? I know we have been trying to branch out into tournament content and different play styles, but is this really what a casual player wants and cares about? I think it does as I think MDV does accommodate the casual crowd most of all. But really I am opening this up for discussion. Let me know what you think in the forum. And while you are there, suggest a new, catchy slogan. This isn’t a formal contest or anything, but if I like your suggestion, I may just use it on the home page! Some quick ideas I had:
Obviously I’m just making fun of a few existing slogans out there. Can you figure out the originals in each one? Not Scrye Too…
Anyway, as many of you are aware, Inquest bit the dust in 2007. I am still very sad about it as it was my favorite magazine out there … that covered Magic: the Gathering content anyway. But Inquest isn’t the only CCG related Magazine to die at the hands of we the players and collectors. Duelist was a magazine by Wizards of the Coast that was ended only after a year or two. Beckett’s Magic the Gathering magazine died in 2007 too. So back to Scrye, the last of them (in English anyway). I received my copy of Scrye recently and while the issue is bigger than normal, over 90% of the pages are in black and white. Joyce Greenholdt, editor of Scrye, states at the beginning of her “Times are still changing” editorial the following:
While it is a “thicker issue,” I’m very concerned for the well-being of Scrye. I DO NOT want to see another magazine die. Scrye has a lot of great content including Magic decks, metagame content, new set Top 10 lists (which are very unique and cool) and more. Let’s not forget about their CCG price lists – the only printed one left (in English that I’m aware of). If you don’t subscribe to it already, I would highly encourage you to do so. Perhaps if a large surge of people purchase yearly subscriptions to the magazine this will help them out in these difficult times. And maybe one day we will get colored pages again. Subscribing for a year is about $30.00 and you get 12 issues a year (one each month). Here’s a link to the Amazon page for subscribing: CLICK ME AND SUBSCRIBE! Like I said, this is the only CCG magazine left for me to get every month. Without it I won’t get previews for new sets, I won’t get metagame updates and I won’t get combo ideas and information about Magic: the Gathering which does influence this site. Help keep a magazine out of trouble, if this is the case. Purchase a subscription to it. I could be completely wrong; the magazine could be fine and I could just be preparing for the worst. However, let’s not take the risk and assume the worst. Subscribe now! (And no I didn’t get paid to write this bit). Program much? We are thinking about adding some custom features to the Magic Deck Vortex vBulletin forum. I’m not sure what is involved in doing this but I’m sure at least two people that visit Magic Deck Vortex know a bit about it. We are looking to set up a system, kind of like iTrader, but for a point system related to our new MDV Super Series. It would attach to the users' profile (like number of infractions or the number of trades you’ve done). I could go on about this, but why bore everyone when I can just bore a few with the nitty gritty details? PM me or send me an email if you are interested in helping out; or if you know about creating custom vB mods. Forum Conduct, Avatars and Signatures. Speaking of the forums, lately we’ve had a few issues with visitors, their conduct, their avatars and their signatures. I’m not going to reiterate all of the rules of the forum, which mind you are common sense. I will touch upon two of the issues that have come up recently. If you are ever in doubt of something in your signature or avatar as being a little “over the line,” then assume it is and don’t use it. Posting images of naked bodies with parts “exposed” or tortured people in it are not acceptable. Ever. Likewise, posting seizure inducing images that are changing frames at light speed with obnoxious or just disturbing images is also not acceptable. Also, when posting in the forum please be sure to post on topic and make sensible posts. Otherwise you are spamming and are subject to receiving an infraction and/or being banned. Own a website so you can deal with... In the
beginning days of Magic Deck Vortex, no one
knew about it. I had to work Now, after five years of link exchanging and search engines, MDV is set. I have plenty of links pointing to Magic Deck Vortex and all of the search engines catalog MDV’s pages and thus are yielding them in search results. In fact, about 25% of the traffic for Magic Deck Vortex comes from the various search engines. And then in February of 2008 it dropped to less than 1% of traffic from search engines. And MDV's PageRank went from four to zero! !!! I first noticed this change one day when I was searching Google for “magic deck vortex” (with quotations) and noticed my home page wasn’t coming up first. In fact, some other spam site was coming up that, when clicked on, redirected you to another page and tried to upload a virus to your computer! I thought to myself, not again!?! I didn’t want another rehash of the virus drama I had from late 2007. That was a complete nightmare. I’ll cut through the week of going back and forth with my host about the issue and the lack of response I received from Google on the issue. However, that was not Google’s fault – I just wasn’t looking into it in the right places. I signed up for Google Webmaster Tools and then with Google Analytics. From there I found a message board that some of the Google developers see and posted my problem. Within a day I received a reply about checking my .htaccess files and looking for a MOD REWRITE in the code. Wouldn’t you know it, at the bottom of the main directory .htaccess file was a mod rewrite code that was taking all spiders, bot and search engine little soldiers and redirecting them to some other site that was then dispersing them to virus sites and redirects. This is why all of the pages on Magic Deck Vortex disappeared from the search engines. While it was a nightmare, it is now fixed. Magic Deck Vortex is again cataloged in Google and other search engines and the Page Rank has gone from three to zero and back to three again. Why am I telling you this? Because I think you would like to know the drama us webmasters sometimes have to go through. Now real quick, how did it get there? It was leftover from the virus that infected the MDV server in 2007. However, it was not affecting visitors of the site, just search engine bots. Rest assured you will not be infected by a virus when visiting Magic Deck Vortex. Now if I could just punch these virus developers in the face, or worse…. There are a number of things that I still want to talk about, like how we have a Facebook page now; however, I am out of time. I hope you have enjoyed reading and finding out some of the slogans of MDV, some of the drama I have to go through as a webmaster and how you need to order a year subscription to Scrye…. Until the next episode of Words from the Streetz, John Streetz
You can discuss this article in the MDV forums
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I
was going to write a blog about this, but I decided to just include it in
today’s article. I have been collecting Magazines that feature CCG content as
long as I have been collecting Magic: the Gathering. I even have the very first
Issue of Inquest, with the beautifully creepy artwork by Anson Maddocks on the
cover and the slogan “The Ultimate Guide to Collectible Card Games.” This issue
dates back to 1994 when Spellfire was being sold!!!