Cataclysm's Red Alert Page History

Origin

I was disapointed with all the Red Alert Websites. They all sucked in other words :) None of the websites had what I wanted in a website (well thought out criticisms, GOOD strategies, and other useless cr@p ;)

Creation

Being as poor as I am, I started it on Geocities. I intended to move to another server but I was too lazy to move all the files and such.

When my website was first put up all the pictures and links didn't work. One link worked which went to a measly strategy page. All the content was mispelled and if you think my grammer is bad now you should of seen what it was then :) My  website was a laugh.

Beginnings

I was determined though. I spent a lot of time writing those pages that you can find linked all over this site. Slowly and slowly my website grew. I had like zero hits. :)

Eventually I had a good deal of  content on my site. I then needed to advertise. I tried putting the URL into search engines but I think I screwed up and was never inserted in there. Oops, oh well. :) I couldn't win any awards because I alienated all those 'award givers' with my FAQ. Haha, they hated me because it was true. I didn't go for that link for a link with other websites. So advertising for me was hard because the ratio of creation of website/advertising was leaning in the creation of website alot more. (However, for many websites its the other way around. They advertise more then they work on their website. Results are a very very poor website.)

If it wasn't for kali, no one would ever of known about my website. I noticed on the Red Alert server they had links to other RA websites. But all those websites sucked. So I emailed whomever was in charge of that server (my surprise it was Jay Cotton, the founder of Kali) about putting the link up. Anyway I got an email that looked something like this:

Can you put Cataclysm's Red Alert Page on the links list on the Red Alert server? The URL is:

SURE! We just have to find room for it! :)

-Jay Cotton-

What was funny because Jay was saying, 'We just have to find room for it!'. Well there was only five links up there at the time. One went to Case's Ladder, another went to Netleague, and the other three were el cheapo websites. After a month the link still wasn't there. I figured Jay forgot about it. One day when logging onto the Red Alert server on kali I saw the link to my site. Haha, now I'd get some visitors :) Thanks to that link I was getting a steady amount of hits and I began to receive too much email.

This was probably my favorite time of my website. All the hard work I put in had finally paid off.

The Change of Red Alert Servers

After a while, the Red Alert Server disapeared along with my link. After a couple of days a new Red Alert server was up hosted by some company. What was strange was that all the links remained there except mine. I still don't know why this is. I submitted another letter and asked them to put on my link. They said they would.

The link never appeared.

All of a sudden I was recognized on kali by people I've never talked to. They knew me because they went to my page. :) In some conversations people would quote something out of my site. Sometimes I'd advertise on kali by going by the pathetic message: "Go visit my RA website at blah blah blah..." I was astonished when people would go, "I've already been there. I have it bookmarked."

Cataclysm's Dark Reign Page

I made I page about Dark Reign because I thought it would come out in June. I thought Dark Reign would fill in Red Alert's space (which it did along with other RTS games). The best thing about that website was the links I had on it. I had absolutly nothing on it aside from what I thought would be cool or suck in the game. When Dark Reign came out, I killed the page because I didn't want to be tied up with an RTS game like I was with Red Alert.

Red Alert Gold's Website

This site kicked my Red Alert Page's butt in hits. Everyone just had to find out what was new with RA Gold :) The site was very well done with New Red Alert  but I started it all over with Red Alert Gold. Overall it was a decent site. It did its purpose if nothing else.

Doofus Awards and Cat's other weird stuff

After finding some hilariously stupid people on the Internet along with getting the World's Worst Email I decided to use them. Ok, so I was bored at the time! :) The Lamer   Mailbag had stuff the lamers asked me. I loved John Smith's letters about being from Westwood and for me to stop making those doctored up maps. Haha. I didn't think the Doofus Awards would get that popular. Other webpages weren't linking to me because of strategies, insights, or download. They were linking to me because I had the Doofus Awards. :)

Final Update

I have never done an update this big. But I hope it to herald the end of Cataclysm's Era. From the Obituary to the history pages to the Doofus Award Archive, I hope people now understand why I haven't updated my website in a while. This website will remain here until Geocities feels its time to give it the boot.