Topics

46

Site News / Server move happening now!

« on: March 01, 2006, 02:56:14 pm »

Within a half hour of me posting this, United SpongeBob will be down for maintainance (a server move) for approximately an hour.  Don't worry, after that hour is over, the site will be up and back to normal.

Edit:  The server is up and happy.  Enjoy.

Edit by partiallynothing: Remember the terrors of the previous move?  This move involved an equally offensive drive through Boston with winbindd proving to be an ineffective navigator and myself the worst city driver.  With the move complete and the lives of the administrators intact, all the USB visitors can relax and rest assured that the server will stay at the new facility for some time to come without another move.  We can hope, can't we?

47

Site News / SpongeBob nearing its end? Not even close!

« on: February 27, 2006, 10:29:23 am »

The episode Lost in Time, which aired exactly a week ago, was not only the most watched SpongeBob episode in the history of the show, but was also the most watched show in the last 5 years of Nickelodeon, with 8.6 million viewers.  The details are all in a Viacom press release.  Some of the more interesting figures are that SpongeBob gets over 57.8 million viewers per month, and there have been 200+% increases in viewership since last year.

So, no need to fear.  SpongeBob is stronger than ever, though the percent increases over last year are likely due to the fact that the first few months of last year were pretty slow on new releases.

48

Site News / Dunces and Dragons

« on: February 19, 2006, 10:47:58 am »

Finally, a new SpongeBob episode!  Tomorrow, after a 4 hour marathon of older SpongeBob episodes which starts at 4 PM, the half-hour long special, Dunces and Dragons will premiere (8 PM EST).

Also, it looks like Lego and Nickelodeon have teamed up and created a set of SpongeBob Legos which will be released later this year.

49

Debate Den / Cuba

« on: February 08, 2006, 07:02:56 am »

Recent events in Cuba show that the Bush Administration knows less about foreign policy than the average cow.

For example, the "pro-democracy" sign on the embassy

50

Site News / Nick.com Game of the Week Press Release

« on: January 27, 2006, 11:12:37 am »

"Nick.com's New Game of the Week is here! Every week, Nickelodeon will debut a brand-new, never-before-seen game on nick.com! If you're a gamer, it’s the place to be for more games than ever before! This week’s featured game is SpongeBob SquarePants: Dungeons and Dragons. Click here to play."

Nick is putting out a new SpongeBob online game every week, to coincide with the remaining episodes of Season 4, I assume.  Sure it's a marketing ploy, but it's a fun one!

51

Site News / United SpongeBob Chat Sessions

« on: January 17, 2006, 09:13:32 am »

From now on, United SpongeBob chat sessions will be held weekly on Tuesdays at 8:00 PM EST.  To get in, just click on "The Chat" over on the left.  Expect the return of Larry, the friendly neighborhood trivia bot, very soon.

52

Site News / Return of the United SpongeBob chat sessions!

« on: January 01, 2006, 12:01:14 pm »

Since we have the chat back up, might as well bring back the chat sessions in #SpongeBob.  The next one will be on Tuesday at 4:00 PM EST.  It's sort of a random time that I decided to pick.  Eventually, we'll come up with a good time to have a weekly chat session.  Leave suggestions on a good time/day for that.

53

Computers & Video Games / F.E.A.R.

« on: December 30, 2005, 09:32:33 am »

Has anyone out there played it?  Just a word of warning for those who haven't.  Don't play it alone in a dark room at night.  It is quite possibly the scariest game I've ever played.  

Back in the day, with older games like Doom, Half-Life, Silent Hill, the older Resident Evils, and System Shock 2, the games we're certainly scary.  But, because of the graphics, sound, and physics limitations of computers when they were released, you could always just focus out and see that it's just a game.

It's not quite the same with F.E.A.R. though.  With a high-end graphics card, parts of it look more real than real life.  So, if you ever get the chance to play it, keep a nightlight on.

54

Nickelodeon / The Solution to Nick's Problems

« on: December 30, 2005, 09:27:42 am »

It finally occurred to me what went wrong with Nick, and the solution to it.  It's not the lack of quality programming, or cancelling the shows that were actually good...
It's Stick Stickley!
Ever since that Christmas special (his last appearance on Nick, I think), Nick has been going downhill.  With Stick back at the wheel, he could drive Nick back to it's former glory.  It's all so very clear now.

55

Site News / Welcome to United SpongeBob

« on: December 29, 2005, 11:15:05 pm »

United SpongeBob is back and better than ever.  Every time the site goes down and comes back up, I make a news post that says it will never happen again.  And, of course, it always happens again.  So this time, I'm not saying it.  I'm just saying our hosting now is worlds better than what we used to have.

Anywho, since we had to rely on an old backup copy of the site, there are a few things missing.  For one, the advent calendar is gone.  I'll fix that as soon as possible, as well as fixing other minor problems.  We also lost about 4 days of forum posts.  But, we'll live.

It's not all bad news though.  Somehow, in all the shuffling around, the chat works again.  So, head in there and talk it up with SpongeBob fans across the country and world.

Viva la United SpongeBob!

56

Site News / United SpongeBob Holiday Fan Fic Contest Winner:

« on: December 21, 2005, 08:26:36 am »

There were some excellent entries; I really enjoyed the poems that bub1028 and The_Man submitted, but the winner is... Dragon of Grief with his entry, A SpongeBob Christmas Carol.

57

Site News / United SpongeBob Advent Calendar Updates

« on: December 19, 2005, 01:53:00 pm »

I haven't been able to update the calendar or the site for the last few days because I was heading home for winter break, and the airline misplaced my bag (which happened to contain my computer) for a couple of days.  It's all good now, though.

Since the last update, two more excellent backgrounds made by Chongster have gone up.  I'm using the SpongeBob Christmas background on my own computer.  So head over to the advent calendar and check them out.

The SpongeBob holiday-related fan fic contest ended last midnight.  The mods and admins will read through the entries and announce a winner tomorrow.  Good luck to all contestants.

58

Site News / United SpongeBob Holiday Fan Fic Contest!

« on: December 14, 2005, 12:37:39 pm »

If you look at the advent calendar, this contest was technically supposed to start yesterday.  But, due to finals and general tiredness, I delayed it until this very moment.  

So, what is this contest, you ask?  Write a SpongeBob-related, holiday season-related (any upcoming holiday, even Festivus), piece of fan fiction.

The rules are:
1.  It has to be both SpongeBob related and holiday related.
2.  It must be at least 150 words long.
3.  It has to be original work.
4.  Post entries to the contest in the Easter Island Head section of the forums, with "Contest Entry" somewhere in the topic title.
5.  Post the entry by midnight on December 18th.

The prizes are:
1.  For the first person to complete and post a fan fic that meets all of the rules, some random piece of SpongeBob merchandise.  Yes, that's right.  It can be worse than a bad fantasy novel, as long as it doesn't break any of the rules.  First one to post a fan fic wins.
** Part 1 is over:  Spongey34 submitted the first fan fic.  Now the contest moves on to part two.
2.  The next prize is the real prize, the SpongeBob Christmas DVD.  That prize will go to the person who writes the best entry.

So, good luck, and start writing!!!

59

Site News / Random United SpongeBob Related Stuff

« on: December 10, 2005, 12:17:46 pm »

Go check out the advent calendar, yesterday's item is special.

I was looking through the website stats, and found out that nearly 20% of the visitors use a browser that isn't Internet Explorer!  Yay for USBers using Firefox (15%), Opera (1.5%), Safari (1.5%), Netscape (0.8%), Mozilla (0.5%), and the 3 wierdos out there using Konqueror. I think that puts us above the national average for alternative browser usage.  The operating system stats are a little dismal though, with 96.4% on Windows, 3% on Mac, and only 0.25% on Linux.

I've been a bit busy with school, hence the lack of updates, but winter break starts in a week.  Expect great things.

60

Site News / United SpongeBob Christmas Advent Calendar

« on: December 06, 2005, 12:13:35 am »

Thanks to moderator/artist Chongster, we have a United SpongeBob Christmas Advent Calendar.  Each day, a the corresponding number will be replaced with something nifty and SpongeBob-related.  For example, for the 5th, it is an insanely cool looking wallpaper of Squidward dancing iPod-commercial style, drawn by Chongster.  Stay tuned, it only gets better as we get closer to Christmas.  The link is up at the top of the page.

Note:  There is some messed up code going on on that page, and I'm not sure all browsers are compatible with it.  If you have any problems, email me.