When I said I wanted to stick around forever, I meant it. And when I said I wanted to do great things for
ZU, well, I meant that, too. In that spirit, I am incredibly proud to announce that I am
ZU’s new owner.
No, this is not a joke, a hoax, or a scam. It’s not April, so it can’t be April Fool’s either – and if you’re surprised, I’ll have you know that I’m just as surprised as you are. If you’re not surprised, that’s fine, too. But above that, I’m excited; not just bouncing up and down excited, but spring-out-of-your-seat excited.
ZU has been a part of my life for nearly four years (will be four this coming February), and for about two of those years I became accustomed to seeing
ZU owned by so-called “silent owners,” who in and of themselves are absolutely wonderful people (Yusuf,
ZU’s previous owner, was and is a joy to work with), as well as mad geniuses. However, over that time I also came to wish for something, as I think other people did: An owner that not only kept the site together and kept it clean and nice, as Lee and Yusuf did, but that was active in the community. A person who had been around a long time, who a lot of people knew, who could be there and really do his part in the site.
And so, after much thought, and I mean quite a lot of thought, I went ahead and bought the site from Yusuf. It wasn’t a small sum by any means, and certainly not less than what Yusuf bought it for, but I won’t mention the actual price. All that matters to me, right now, is how I can make
ZU better. And you'll see, in the future, some of the things I have in mind for
ZU. A lot of it deals with getting a bit closer to Nintendo (
ZU seems to have little relationship with Nintendo nowadays, whereas it was quite strong in Lars's days), and making the site far more community friendly, speedy, and efficient. I've got things planned beyond that, oh yes, but you won't hear of them for a little while!
A lot of sites are trying to mimic “web 2.0”, but I think
ZU needs to go beyond that.
ZU needs to overshoot everything, and go straight to web 5.0. Because we’re the best Zelda community on the web – probably one of the best communities period, and I’ll be damned if I’m not the proudest person in the world to own
ZU after these nearly four years of being a newbie on the place, growing up, learning to write, becoming staff, becoming webmaster.
It’s almost like this is a new hello altogether for me... I’m in for a totally new experience, and I can’t wait (well, technically I don’t need to wait, since I’ve got the site already, but you get the idea). So please, wish me luck! I hope, however, that I won’t need it! And know that
ZU isn't going anywhere - it is no longer for sale; not now, not ever!
