The other day I was thinking about the internet wrestling scene and how it has changed and progressed over the last few years. I’ve had the rare opportunity to be here for the beginning of this internet wrestling revolution and I’ve also had the good fortune to be able to watch most of it change and evolve into what we have today. Surprisingly, there are a few precepts that I’ve found to be as true today as they were so many years ago when everyone first started coming online to see what was new in the wrestling world.
To me, the most relevant of these precepts is that this whole endeavour into webmastering and wrestling website building should remain as a hobby first and foremost. The years have proven that those who take their online publishing experience as a hobby rather than a job are the ones who are the happiest at what they do and who stick around the longest. I’ve always told the talented men and women who work at TBL that they are here to have fun because this is just a hobby. I’ve never been out to get the most hits or have the flashiest site, but I certainly did want to have fun while creating a site that I thought served a decent purpose. That purpose turned out to be a place where people can come and get some news and some opinions about what is going on in the wrestling world.
I believe that most of the people who’ve come through TBL Central have agreed with me on that point. I don’t want to speak for our two latest Web Managers/Webmasters (Eddie T. and Martin Hawrysko), but I would wager that they would agree that part of the aura that makes this site fun to work on is that we’re not looking for profit off of TBL (though the ads have been added to offset hosting fees), we’re not looking to create disharmony in the internet community, and we’re not looking to spend 24/7 working on the site itself. For us, this is fun to do because it’s a hobby – it’s something to do to pass that hour or so in your day when you don’t have much else going on and you want to be productive. Sure, at some point your enjoyment of a hobby may drive you to partake in it more than usual, but that’s not a bad thing so long as your motives are still those that I’ve listed above.
At the risk of sounding too naive about webmastering and owning a web site, rare occasions do occur when the requirements of being a webmaster or a Web Manager (as we used to call it) seem comparable to having a full-time job. From our own online history, I can tell you that when we were having the server outages last summer with our old hosting company it certainly felt like a full-time job to get the site back up and running again! Also, whenever there are site redesigns or complete graphic overhauls, there is always the necessity to work a little longer and put a little more effort into what is going on.
Another great part about keeping your online wrestling experience as a hobby rather than a job is that you find you want to branch out more and be more creative. At TBL alone we’ve branched out in so many different ways that I couldn’t even list all of them here! Our current, new, creative extensions include the revampment of The TBL Newsletter into the Inside the Ring Newsletter and the creation and successful debut of Eddie’s TBL Soundoff area.
Folks, these new veins of creativity weren’t opened because I, as the Owner of the site, demanded that Eddie, as the Webmaster of the site, create new and exciting areas for our guests! They were created because by keeping this a hobby for all involved, we’ve grown to the point where we WANT to make bigger and better presentations! That’s what’s great about a hooby – just as when a young baseball card collector goes to his first major card show and sees the possibilities for his collection, so to are we at TBL having these creative thoughts flowing through us at all times. And again, if you don’t believe it – just take a look at those two new areas in particular (well, you can’t actually look at the newsletter unless you sign up for it and get it delivered to your Inbox).
By avoiding profit-mongering and not having the desire to excel further than is needed (do you really need a wrestling website that gets 100,000 hits per day unless you’re WWE or running a site for profit reasons?), I believe that this site has become much more fun than any other wrestling website out there. Sure, we don’t have the “newsboard” type of areas that other sites have, but how many times can you hear common sense and obvious conclusions repeated to you as “Late Breaking News” before you get sick? Oooo! “Reporter So and So” says that Matt Hardy is going to end-up in a gimmick match with Kane at SummerSlam. Well bit my nipple and smack my ass! Who would have thunk that?
To bring this column full circle I just want to reiterate that ALL of you reading this who either own a wrestling website or who are thinking of opening one up – do it for the fun of it. Hey, if you don’t want a full site devoted to wrestling, then don’t do it that way. Make a site about your music interests if that’s what you like better; just so long as it’s done for the fun of it.
You know it’s funny…whenever you remove the dressings of avarice and power-mongering from the pursuits of a common man – they usually turn out to be pretty noble pursuits afterall. Just as the executive who would be such a nice guy if he didn’t think about his own self-advancement and wallet and just as the ballplayer wouldn’t enrage the fans by only going to the team that offers him the most money, so to do webmasters usually aggravate the hell out of their visitors by creating a site solely for the profit that can be made. I’m glad that we do this for fun…it makes the whole experience, well, fun!
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