Other [Issue 31] The History of Our Newspaper

[hogree 4,179]

A New Year of life, a New Year of Tanki and a New Year of the Newspaper. As we move into 2015, my longing to write another history piece has stretched to its limit, and as for subject, the newspaper is a more than deserving candidate. With a history going back nearly 3 years, this article covers the Behind the Scenes of the newspaper's history, whilst following the mixed bag of reporters, past and present, the scattered outstanding articles; and the story behind it all.

Let's cut straight to it. The story of the Newspaper all began one spring morning in April 2012, when the first newspaper was published. Led by the eager community manager Bruce Lunga and his Russian accomplice administrator Les_Alterman, the Newspaper had just a handful of writers, all keen to start something that would become something big. Tommy60, one of the main planners behind the Newspaper, as well as skitee, another brain behind the initiation were joined by two more English Community veterans, the mature and experienced conanthedestroyer and the vibrant face of cablaz. A few weeks of planning. a few days of writing and the first Newspaper was written, designed and published.
 
Strangely, if it really came down to it, the actual creation of Newspaper sprouted most probably from envy. Just a couple of glances from the members of the English Community at the Russians would see the activity of the Russian Newspaper and its popularity amongst the community. Of course, if you had asked them six months before when Bruce had barely started his immense work in the community, not many people would have seen a newspaper forthcoming. But, indeed, with the new community manager keen to get as much as he could started, the newspaper was quickly planned, and put into action.
 
The first issue of the Newspaper was a great hit. The avid readers of the community delved into some fantastic pieces of writing, including a couple of interesting interviews with two top English players of the time, Koolwalky and Contaminated. With a top-notch design from Les_Alterman covering the very first MT, the newspaper had well and truly begun.
 
Bruce soon realised the importance of getting a couple more writers involved. Four had too much brunt to carry. After a discussion in their Skype chat, the well-known faces of chriswu and Lhamster were suggested and unanimously voted in to join the team of reporters. Chriswu immediately rose to one of the greatest reporters with some absolutely top-quality writings in his first two issues, including a couple of world-class stories such as his "Secret of the Lost Temple". As for Lhamster, his involvement in the newspaper over the years has been one of the main reasons why the newspaper still exists to this day. The readers of the newspaper were becoming more and more impressed, with fondness in particular growing for Les's fantastic designs.
 
In case the newspaper was turning too much into a "magazine", skitee decided to start up a weekly update on the progress of the Tanki Online World Cup, which was going on at the time. Some other interactive events started up including the Editorials and the well-received Clan Logo Contest, which got almost all of the clans in the English Community involved - obviously bringing up the interest of the paper. Another contest of epic proportions, the "Designer of Tanki Online", posted in Issue 4, brought in a staggering high level of quality entries and was won by dimmmmy who came in to join the Tanki Online Designer's team for a very short time.
 
Soon, a major event in the life of the Newspaper was to take place. Les_Alterman gradually passed the baton over from his early administrative role as he went back to work with the Russians and let Conan take over as boss; and it's stayed that way for the last couple of years. A fine designer, chris took over creating the Main Topic - and he did a mighty fine job of it too.
 
Another addition would be joining to seriously bolster content in a couple of issues, after cablaz had to quit his Reporter when he quit. An avid worker, Ranger7 would sometimes write nearly half of the articles in one issue - that's how much he wrote. In fact, the Reporter team had to limit content publiished by each writer because he sometimes wrote so much that it was a bit of Ranger overkill!
 
A few of the more long-lasting series started off early including the popular "If The English Community was..." as well as the popular contest "What Map?". Two issues later, with the readership growing and the newspaper's quantity of articles with it, Conan employed a couple more reporters. The proficient and detailed ShadowVisions and the... erm... yeah, hogree joined the team. Though I say it myself, it was a good time as a Reporter. The Newspaper was going on well, even with the hectic Rebalance occuring at the time. With skitee's fantastic coverage of the clans continuing, featuring the Clan Championship Final review, as well as the always-entertaining Predictions for 2013, articles were being produced well, and the atmosphere was great.
 
The next couple of months contained a couple of outstanding articles, with ShadowVisions' complete "Shopper's Guide to the Rebalance" giving the full lowdown on the post-rebalance Tanki in style, and skitee's "Maps That Once Were" stealing the plaudits in Issue 9, giving a detailed and thoroughly enjoyable look at the maps of the ancient times! Meanwhile, new additions to the team were popping up. already.dead who reported for a couple of issues, and a new superb designer, FOG-LIGHT stepped in to take over the Main Topic with chriswu's departure from the team. Along with them came another new reporter, suggested by ShadowVisions, the hardworking loktinho.
 
The next month or so was slightly more eventful for the team. Firstly, it was April. And for it, Lham decided to pull of an attempted April Fool's trick for the occasion. Claiming the English and Germany Communities were to close, and the Newspaper with it, it went surprisingly well, mainly because Bruce joined in with a "confirmation" message on the topic. On a less light-hearted note, Visi was taken quite seriously ill, and legendary reporters Skitee and Tommy60 both quit. With a sudden chronic lack of reporters, Conan put out a call for new reporters. He was certainly heard, as 5 New Reporters were accepted into the team the very next month. 
 
These five reporters were the smart jokjinari, the always-entertaining GoldRock, the light-hearted character of SwagBoy11, the consistent Valletta, and the meticulous Selena12121, bringing a new dimension to the writing of the newspaper. They didn't take long to warm up with GoldRock producing one of the most humorous articles of all time in "The 10 Commandments of Tanki" among the entertaining works that the new Reporters would produce over the next few months.
 
Little would change in the next couple of months. Stand-out moments included the beginning of the series of "In the Beginning, Tanki" which would eventually become the longest series to date, the first "Ultimate Guide" - to Isida and the addition of Raphael2 as a writer for the French readers. Soon, he would become a famous English reporter who was known for always providing an entertaining article, no matter what. On top of this, Lhamster was "promoted" to a Designer's Position and took over doing the Main Topics after Fog-Light had to quit.
 
A number of well-known new faces were soon to bumper up the team once again. After a few less welcome events which culminated in GoldRock and Selena12121 being removed from the team - at least, temporarily - the search for new reporters began again and 5 new faces of differing influence were added. The five new ones, this time, were the artistic ArchangeI, the diligent Vikingsrall, the humorous Fjelstad1678, the helpful hithere1, and the receptive aojsd. Each would take on different degrees of roles in the future of the Newspaper, with Vikingsrall's interviews, Fjelstad's stories and ArchangeI's creations catching the eye in particular.
 
It was around this time that the Arabic newspaper started as well, with MisterGeneral and 6B6B (now JL6H) taking main responsibility for the running of Arabic articles for the vast Arabic playerbase. There were more stand-out articles as both sets of new reporters settled in in different degrees. Especially eye-catching were Valletta's last episode of "The Crisis", which got great feedback, hogree's "Mastering the Tanki Keyboard" detailing different set of available keyboard controls for players, and the ending of Jokjinari's long series detailing the life of a young boy who got involved with the Tanki developers in real life!
 
It was now March 2014. The Newspaper was moving along nicely, but a change was set to happen. As a test, Tanki moved the newspaper onto the homepage, and Monthly issues ended. The articles would be published separately at any time, and posted on the front page. It was risky - a risk that didn't pay off. Although some great articles were published on the front page, such as the returned GoldRock's detailed guide on XP Battles and hogree's guide on the same subject. But there was just not enough articles, and to say it didn't succeed is an understatement.
 
Thankfully, the newspaper moved back to the Press Forum to happy faces in June on one of its most well-viewed issues. Soon after came the announcement of four new reporters to help move it back along. After many applications were sent through for the job, the four chosen were the extremely experienced MadDog21, the "turns-out-he-was-a-good-cherry" (inside joke) kirby2008, the parkour-mad williew and the procrastinator Fen-Harel. Nonetheless, he is still a good writer. :P Along with these four came along the face of MrAngel (now Law-Enforcer) to help with the Arabic newspaper.
 
The next few months were golden months for the newspaper. With possibly one of the most successful series of all time in the newspaper, Kirby's Comparison Series beginning, along with GoldRock's "What to Mount on" Series and the always-funny "The Dictator" - it meant that the readers were definitely not going to be let down with the articles!
 
Three more reporters would be added soon to keep the fresh writing coming in - the precise Remaine, the sprightly Kevred and the knowledgeable Thekillerpenguin adding to the bunch of reporters writing. And so, the newspaper continues on. Conan's still here, Lham's still here, we're all still here - and we'll try to be here producing entertaining and useful articles for as long as we can! 
 
Well, that's the history, folks! If you have any more things you want to see articles-wise from the old days, just take a look here at Raph's fantastically-compiled Newspapers' Summary. If you want to read more about all things newspaper, you can read about The Life of a Reporter - and if you want to see a couple of more humorous articles about the newspaper, feel free to read Ranger's "The Beginning of the Newspaper" and "How an Article is Published". Keep reading, readers! You're what we're here for!

Edited July 30, 2017 by Hexed

[MA3CTPO_HA_XAHTEP 832]

Good job! I enjoyed.  :D

[Pathfinder 1,690]

Turns out I was a good cherry? :p

[Bad_Meets_Evil 0]

Nice.

Edited January 30, 2015 by Bad_Meets_Evil

[Scientist 4,224]

Thanks, hog. This was needed ;)

[jazz20 1,181]

I wish old-time reporters like Skitee could come back and write a few articles again..

[Sanitar-13 0]

Hello, friends!

 

Russian version of Newspaper is working again after a long break. We invite everyone who speaks Russian - enjoy reading!

 

"Godmode in the hands of the enemy"  http://ru.tankiforum.com/index.php?showforum=214

[Truthteller 4,204]

Amazing

[phill4177 115]

Fantastic! Really enjoyed it!

[Ranger7 75]

Great job on this article Hog, impressive

 

It was good reading about old times, and then finding out about how you guys have come along.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Ranger7

[Superlative 500]

Great job on this article Hog, impressive

 

It was good reading about old times, and then finding out about how you guys have come along.

Pretty cool, when you come in the team.