You have heard before what I am about to say. I forgive any doubts you may have about its veracity, and ask you to consider forgiving my past lack of presence and integrity.

Perhaps surprisingly I'm actually quite glad this most recent problem has happened because it has compelled me to return. In spite of the evidence to the contrary, I actually WANT to be here, working on this site, adding new features, rewarding you guys for being so independant and constant in my absence. Returning as your dedicated co-host and webmaster has been on my mind daily since I left. I loved this site back then, spent almost ALL my spare time on it or on things related to it (my collection, most notably), and I know I will love it again if I can just get through the transition of getting back into it. I want TwistyPuzzles.com to become my primary hobby again... my current primary hobby is an addictive computer game and is a total waste of my time and my potential.

One of my dreams is to make a business out of TwistyPuzzles.com by adding in various revenue streams which eventually contribute to allowing me to quit traditional daily employment. Before you allow that to cause you any worry, you have my word that these revenue streams will NEVER interfere with the free nature of this site and all its current content and features. This community will always be my highest priority when it comes to this site. I offer as proof the fact that I have been happily and quietly been paying approximately $600 USD per year for the hosting and bandwidth required to keep this site online even though I haven't been an active participant in years.

I sincerely intend this event to be the catalyst that brings about the start of these changes. I have over 20 thousand unread e-mails in my inbox... which I will be mercilessly deleting today and making a fresh start. Meanwhile, if you are feeling supportive of this initiative, reply here, send a PM or send me an e-mail at my work address if you have it.

See you around... !

Sandy

Thanks Sandy

Tim.

Sandy, Its great to hear you being motivated to improve the site. There are a TON of new puzzles to be added to the database =)

Oh, also, Welcome back!

I am a relatively quiet poster (I think) on this site, but do log on nearly every day, usually multiple times, to keep an eye on many developments, especially in puzzle building.

Probably like most members, after a period of time, I have taken it all a little for granted. This was bought home when the site was down, and while I didn't have access to the community, it almost felt like a part of me was missing.

Pretty much all of my spare time (which is not that much time, as I keep moaning!) is spent on puzzle related efforts, and without this site, that simply wouldn't have happened in the first place, and wouldn't continue to be possible. I know noone in the "real" world who is interested in more than a passing way in my hobby, and it is fantastic to be able to learn, bounce ideas, sometimes make daft mistakes, and know someone will politely keep you right on this track with kind words and encouragement.

None of this would have been possible without your financial input and efforts, and the efforts of many other people and members, not least sausage.

This seems the appropriate place to give a big THANK YOU for your, and others input and allowing this site to happen.

Many, many thanks,

Tim

It is great to see you back.

I don't know what you've considered for revenue streams, but you might want to consider helping connect buyers to sellers with the database. The database, when it's up to date, seems like it would be ideal for that. You could put a "buy this" button on a puzzle's page in the database in exchange for the seller paying you either a flat fee or percentage the sales price for every puzzle sold in this manner.

Sandy, I am glad to see you posting again.

The forum and the entire site needs you, and we would ALL love
to see you around more frequently. Games are nice, but they can
never be a substitute for puzzles.

Afterall, you *do* have one of the most intimidating puzzle collections in the world.




Pantazis

Thanks, good luck with your business!

Welcome back Sandy.
Hopefully you've kicked the habit of the addictive game. I purposely try to avoid such games because I know what would happen.
If you need anything from us, let us know.
-d

Glad to see you back, Sandy, and I'm intrigued by your post. If there's anything we can do to help, please do let us know.

Great to hear from you again Sandy!

Just let us know how we can help. I know there is a certain amount of work that needs to be done just to allow people to assist you, but once that happens I think it will unleash a lot of volunteer effort.

Dave

Sandy, what do you think about having a editable Database? The current one is in need of some TLC

Great to see you back, we certainly need it

I am above the influence of WoW

Glad to have you back

It is soo exiting to hear from you Sandy. You have put a lot of effort into this site and we all should greatly appriciate it.

Glad to see you!

Great to have you back and have this website updated badly. Always ask for help if you seem overwhelm with the task at hand. Sorry I'm not one of them.

Glad to see you're back in the game, Sandy. I'm relatively new to the site, so I haven't seen you around before, but I'm sure with a site this good, you've done some things right. I avoid video games and TV for the very reason you mentioned. Now all my time is being eaten up by making puzzles. Constructive yes, but very time consuming. I'm enjoying it tho.

Good luck with your return!
frank

Like everyone has said, thank you for this community.
I like it even though I slowed down on my posting.

Alright, fess up. What game is it.

Welcome back Sandy! I don't think i was ever here when you were but i just wanted to let you know that you are the reason i got into building because without this forum i wouldn't of had half the help that i needed getting started. Thanks!

-Chris

I am constantly amazed at the genius and ingenuity of the special folks that create some of the wonderful
puzzles I have seen (and the few I have been fortunate enough to obtain) through this site. I am also very
grateful to the special folks that devote their time, energy, financial resources, and love of puzzles in order to share this
wonderful hobby (and possible addiction ) with the rest of us.

Welcome back Sandy, and thanks . .

Chuck

Finally, Sandy is back.



I agree with that. And the collection page don't let me add puzzles to my collection. So, I hope that will be fixed too.

Thanks.

Hi Sandy.

Nice to see you being back again.
I'm glad to read, that you want to extend and improve the site.
In the meantime, some people as e.g. Juanan or also me developed
own private puzzle sites. Maybe you want to set a link to them, too.
I think the main page needs a revision anyway, so that might be a
chance.

Cheers - Frank

Wow, thanks for all the supportive comments everyone.

I'm all geared up to get started on this stuff... but I'm going away for the weekend so it'll have to wait a little more! Any web designers out there? See my new post.

Sandy

Come on you still haven't told us what game and maybe system it was for to begin with. Please spill the news.

I carefully avoided that in my response hoping that it would be forgotten... only to have it show up again seven minutes later. The truth is, I'm too embarassed to tell you. It's a role playing game, browser-based, very rewarding of OCD behaviours, and has a very small but loyal community around it. It seems like it would be way easier to say it was WoW, or some other game that has millions of addicted users. It wasn't. Isn't. WoW gets you with its content, it's graphics, its wide user base. The game I played got me with it's browser-basedness ("I can play at work"), and its rewarding of OCD ("only 50k more mouse clicks to the next meaningless goal"). Ridiculous but true.

Notice how I still didn't answer the question? All righty then!

Sandy

Tower Defense? lol

Or something where you have to defend your castle - I know I've wasted many many hours clicking my mouse on those games hahahaha

Runescape? Achaea?

WoTMUD?