http://starwars.yahoo.com

This is not a shameless attempt at advertising, that's what Yahoo is for, I'm here to discuss the question of "Why?". Why, Mister Anderson? Why? Please don't tell me y'all asked for this in the survey. ;-p

Sure, looks nice, but looks aren't everything (took me long enough to figure that out, perhaps there are others who still have trouble with that). For instance, what I always liked about Lucas Online - oh, there are things I like and appreciate and respect, it's just, at the moment, there's no balance to the force - was the simple fact of a one account deal. With one account you could access SW.com, LA.com, Indy.com. What really annoys me to no end is the contstant need to create need accounts. And what's more, the almost impossibility to get rid of accounts you don't need anymore! And what, now I need to create a new account, a Yahoo account? Bah.

Very interesting was a comment I found on the official StarWars.com Blog on StarWarsBlog.WordPress.com (why the official SW.com blog would not be on SW.com is a whole nother discussion):

Plus isn't Yahoo part of the group that looks likely to buy the rights to the TV series?
- Source

Obviously there needs to be financial reasoning behind the move and there you have it.

Two comments later, bonniegrrl talks about craft glitter and while some people are easily amused, Hyperspace Members and the more cynical among us, can't but see this as a further decline of SW.com itself or at the most a continuation of the status quo.

The admins blog at a shiny new off site place. We are stuck with the SW.com blogs, which, apart from one or two tweaks (comments maybe which should've been part of the blogs from the beginning really) and the addition of new images that can be used, have not been updated or improved upon since the launch.

I'm struggling to add my latest collectables to the Cargo bay, which is still in the old style to boot.

The boards... Well, enough said about that. I've been modding over at Forums.LucasArts.com for two years now (did anyone say temporary assignment until LA mods are in place?). Those boards are possibly worse than these, people have been screaming for upgrades. At the beginning of the year it looked promising, new admin, said they were working on it, no date, almost at the end of the year now, nothing.

We saw a great tech guy leave - The Java Master. We saw an admin leave - Ghent. Promises were made and broken. Traditions came to an end with the lamest of excuses. Ads are brought back for Hyperspace members. There is a meltdown of communication.

I just don't get it, if only some of these areas would get some attention. That would generate traffic, bring back old people, lure in new. You gotta spend money to make money.

But we get the shaft. SHAFT! Right on! And LFL sells its soul to Yahoo. Web 2.0? What ever happened to Web 1.0? Seems like we didn't even get there. And what about Web 101? For example, you have the boards - okay not enough then - has been in its current state for years. They launched them, couple of problems, quick and dirty fixes, that's it. No gradual evolution. No 1.1, 1.2, 1.21, etc... More like Beta.

Speaking of which, have you noticed that the term "Beta" is in the process of being grossly misused these days? Just recently I had to check out something in Google Earth, has that ever not been labelled beta? Or what about Window Live (Hot)Mail? That was beta awfully long...

Or the complete farce that is Flight Simulator X, we have SP1, SP2, and the maker knows what next. FSX is not a finished product, it's a beta product released prematurely. Windows Vista, another one of those.

Why? Why do they continue to do that? Do we just not care anymore? I bet that, if enough people made a fuss about it, things would be different. But, we don't do that anymore, not really. Sure, we ##### about everything, but when push comes to shove? Meanwhile, people on the other end of the spectrum bomb the hell out of everything and are obviously willing to die for what they believe. (Kinda off topic, but still... Actually, I can talk about whatever I want here, woohoo! Within reason, of course. But don't ask me what kind of reason. ;-D) Can't say I agree with what they believe in, quite on the contrary, but you've got to admire the passion. I mean, someone draws a cartoon, they fire up an ambassador. Um... embassy. I don't want to encourage anyone to study the art of arson, but I do want to encourage discussion. Not any kind of discussion - no UN type discussion - but discussion that leads somewhere.

Lest we not end up an army of mindless clones.

Thank you for witnessing this rather cathartic blog entry. The Matrix is now rebooting...