Contest XII is over. Team 97 destroyed Team 07. Thanks to everyone who turned out to play. Let me know if you didn't get your badges -- I had to make a ton of them for this contest.

But yeah, turnout was a bit low. We'll be discussing a fun, easy contest shortly.

Also, I'll be out of town for the next week. All issues, talk to coreysprague. I love you all.

Corey and I have spent a fair amount of time digging through the logs and the database. We realize that there has been a small bit of strange activity revolving scores, but it's nothing to be worried about.

It has, however, caused us to investigate some of the core functionality of the site. We have strapped down a couple areas that needed some attention as well as added more verbose logging and tracking in order to sniff out users who are abusing the system.

So, I'll be clear -- we'll let it slide this time, but anyone found trying to game the system, using multiple accounts or automated scripts will be shut down. And publicly humiliated.

With that, I'm going to bed. I love you all. Keep it peaceful, suckers.

There's been some strangeness regarding scores that we've all noticed. The staff (uh, I mean Corey and I) are looking into it. More news as it comes.

TEAM BATTLE! THE SEVEN YEAR MIX!

Links on the side and front page. Get on it.

If any of you aspiring artists out there would like to submit your own mixtapecollective wallpapers, please, send them to feigner@gmail.com.

The only thing that I ask is that you please create them in the four required sizes, specified in WxH measurements on the front-page wallpaper call out. And keep it classy :D

ROCK.

While I wasn't looking, we broke 500 users. Hell yes.

A badge to everyone who yells YAY!

Well, that was a whole lot of fun. Probably my most favourite contest to date, actually. Thanks to everyone who submitted their awesome mixes and a grand, cordial, royal congrats to our top 3 winners. Y'all truly know how to cut a damn fine rug.

Beyond that, if the top 5 winners would like to send me their personal mailing addresses, I'll mail off some of these super-elite, neato buttons (made by riotsheelds).

Again, thanks to everyone. Anyone got any good ideas for the next contest? Another egg hunt, perchance?

ps -- WHY IS EVERYONE TYPING IN CAPS ALL OF A SUDDEN?

Here's the lowdown: we have a new contest. Alongside the standard 400 points and badges for the winners, we also have handfuls of *real-life* badges to award. Many thanks to our very own (awesome) riotsheelds for the buttons. MAD PROPS.

Visit the contest page for pictures and more info.

ROCK.

The first non-denominational egg hung has arrived. I hope you like converting binary to ascii...

0110111001100101011100100110 0100011100110110110101100001011 100110110100001100101011100100 0101110011000110110111101101101

Happy egg hunting.

[1pm EDIT] hint: since the MTC code likes to add spaces to long text, remove all the spaces from the binary number -- there aren't supposed to be any.

The egg hunt will start at Noon tomorrow. Be there or you shall be square.

Congrats to Bootylicious for making the 1000th mixtape.

Think about it -- that's insane. You guys rock. I think I can speak for Corey when I say that it's an absolute pleasure to not only work on the site but be a member of this duderad community.

Keep up the good work, y'alls.

ps -- keep your eyes peeled on sunday, I have a feeling there might be an easter egg hunt in order.

Thank you all for being very patient. The site is now running under the 2.0 framework. It might not look like it, but a lot has changed! Let us know what you think.

Y'all do. I'm pretty sure it's well understood, but I just wanted to take time out of my (lamely) busy schedule to let you all know.

Keep up the good work.

ps -- 2.0 is slowly taking shape. I'm exited.

So, as everyone knows... Eric and I are working on 2.0. Also, as everyone knows, it is taking us WAY longer than we want.

Things are coming along nicely, but we still have significant work ahead of us. We are very confident that you guys will enjoy what we have done.

However, we have reached somewhat of a dilemma.

Because it is a redesign from the ground-up, we have to first redo everything that currently exists in 1.0, and then additionally add all of the new features.

As originally posted (long, long ago)... things like gangs, showdowns, etc are some of these features that have been slated for 2.0.

Our dilemma is this: A) we can continue working, create all of the new features and release 2.0 as an entire package somewhere down the road (at this rate, probably close to the end of the year). Or, option B, is to get all of the 1.0 functionality converted and in place in the new framework and release 2.0 sooner (say, maybe summer?), and then incrementally release the other features as updates.

Keep in mind, many of our UI enhancements/features as well as the season structure are fundamentally a part of the framework, so they would be included in this "initial release". What would be lacking would probably be: gangs, showdowns, the 'objectives system', a flushed-out keyword system, and a flushed out search system (we will put a rudimentary one in place for the initial launch), as well as some other additions we don't want to reveal at this time.

What do you guys think?

We personally are leaning towards option B because the scope of the new features is quite immense and we don't want to end up rushing them in order to get 2.0 out the door. We want to do them right.

Additionally, we also want to get 2.0 out there as soon as possible, because we think its really rad and that you all will enjoy it!

What are your thoughts?

Contest X has been posted. This one is a massive three weeks long with a massive reward. Get to mixin'!

Another guerrilla YAY! badge attack!

Everyone who posts the phrase 'YAY!' before 11:59 (PST) gets a badge.

YAY!

Your dedications were wonderful. What a fun time we had. Now, since you sounded your heartfelt dedications, three people are walking away with some dedication inspiration badges and everyone else gets 100 points (plus first, second and third bonuses for the top thrizzle).

Congrats to chimp_and_zee, claireillinoise and sledgy!

WAX OFF!

Who is your favourite president and why?

Mine is the Georgey Washington, just because he looks kind of like a turtle and he invented freedom.

Yee-haw, ladies. A new contest is here. I'll assume that you know how to get to the contest page by now...

Anyway, 300 big ones for first place, plus bragging rights and a sure-to-be-sexy badge.

Get to mixin'!

Eric and I have been busting our asses on the 2.0 redesign. Sadly though, it's still a long ways out. Who knew programming could be so much work?

We are both really excited about our progress though. We've got a lot of neat ideas that should make the site far more addictive and fun. Additionally, we will be improving the overall experience that exists now, fixing bugs, and much more.

However, since we have already overshot our original estimate by a month, and foresee many more months before it is released... we want to know what you guys might like added to the site in the interim.

We don't want to add anything substantial to the 1.0 code because it will have to rewritten almost immediately in the 2.0 framework; but everyone has been very patient with us and we want to offer some sort of reward for that.

Any ideas anyone? Anything glaring that needs fixing, or maybe some bitching feature we haven't even thought of?