January 2002 - TZ

TZ ran a webring called ACRing which he inherited after offering his services as Updater to the original owner Nick. Once TZ took to the helm of ACRing (after Nick decided to call it a day) he revamped the ring and gave it a new lease of life - by way of professional designs (there had been a design cold-war between TZ and NeoPickaze at the time) and reviews for member sites. TZ kept out of the 'community' forums and chats, which seemed to be the only reason it didn't reach the heights that it had the potential to reach - marketing and PR played a big part in boosting the popularity of Rings / Community websites and TZ did not feel the need to get involved. His only critque could be that he changed the designs far too often and you felt like you were visiting a different website each time (however, with his design skills - who could blame him?) a thoroughly nice chap who liked just getting on with his own project. We had discussed merging ACRing and EchoRing together at one point, but for some reason or another it never went ahead.

The Saint: Hi there TZ, since you have taken over ACRing - you have been steering the website into a great direction. How has it been running ACRing? Did you actually expect this kind of experience from running a webring? Would you say it's been very diffrent from running your old website?

(TZ) Well, running ACRing for the past 4 months has been difficult at times when there are no joins and little updates for large periods of time, but thats what comes with running a small web ring like ACRing. Yeah, i expected it, when Nick handed the site over, he told me it wasn't going too well, only 13 sites at the time with 10 of them dead, so i was expecting alot of trouble at first. It's quite different, mainly because i have to update every single day unlike with my abandonware site where i only had to update whenever i felt like it. I am running ACRing very differently to Abandoned Classics, things like the design have to be much more professional.

The Saint: The scene consists of a lot of webrings, currently there are 10 - including the 3 oldwarez rings. If I were a webmaster and I was seeking to join a ring and I asked you 'Why should I join Acring, whats so unique about this ring compared to all the others?' what would be your reply?

(TZ) Well unlike the 2 biggest rings, ACRing reviews all sites in depth and alot of detail without giving preferential treatment to large popular sites. We also offer the games list for all members which list all games on your site and would easily increase a members hit count. We also sometimes offer services like helping out webmasters with site problems which we have done quite a few times in the past.

The Saint: Is there anything you are unhappy about, with it?

(TZ) Yeah, quite alot of things, i would have really liked to do a Flash version of the site, flash is alot of fun but is very time consuming sometimes and noone but me thought it was a good idea. I would also like to do the site in PHP, it would make things faster, easier to update, the games list would be alot better being searchable and everything. I am unable to do it in PHP just yet because i dont have a reliable host to host it on for a few months.

The Saint: What are your goals for ACRing, what do you hope to accomplish with this webring?

(TZ) To become the biggest and most respected ring, i am almost on my way there, currently there is only 1 critic against ACRing. I'd like to have the most members, the most hits etc...

The Saint: How long are you hoping to be running Acring? Has it ever crossed your mind, that you should recruit a crew to help you out with your projects?

(TZ) I'm hoping to be running it as long as i have the time and as long as i am interested. It has crossed my mind, but the problem is that i'm too bossy, too controlling, and i like things to be done my way, i didn;t like the way nick was running ACRing, thats one of the reasons i took over!

The Saint:​ What are your views on the current state of the scene? Is there anything that's really getting on your nerves?

(TZ) Well there is quite alot of bitchiness in the scene, and quite alot of favouritism given to bigger more popular sites from the big rings which i dont like very much. One thing thats getting on my nerves is webmasters from larger sites and big rings pushing the little lesser known webbies like me around.

The Saint: If you could sum up in just one word to describe ACRing, what would it be?

(TZ) Spanktacular

The Saint: If you could sum up in just one word to describe the state of the Abandonware scene, what would it be?

(TZ) Screwy

The Saint: Would you say that are any webrings which have gave Acring inspiration?

(TZ) TUOL gave me some inspiration, not alot though, very little actually, No others because before acring, no rings had reviews + screenshots at all. I did get some ideas for parts of ACRing from other sites though

The Saint: And finally, will you be sticking with the design you have currently, for a while?

(TZ) hehe yeah, i dont think i'll be changing it, its fine the way it is, it could do with a bit of improving, a bit more customisation for each section. Noone really has complained about this design, and ppl always complain that i change it too much so i'm not changing it.