Happy birthday!
It’s hard to believe but Modus Operandi celebrated its 20th birthday this week (May 16). I started this website just as the internet was hitting the mainstream. Back then, there were loads of free webhosts and fan websites were popping up everywhere. Mine was just one of them. Before Facebook there were online communities and mailing lists that felt like they were full of kindred spirits. I could post random questions or ideas about Top Secret/S.I. and be sure to have a response quite quickly.
Over the years though, those communities and mailing lists have disappeared. Forums set up to replace them have themselves been replaced – in the main by Facebook Groups. The other fan websites, too, have dropped by the wayside in a number of cases. In some, I’ve been able to preserve their content by adding it to Modus Operandi. Of course, that causes its own problems – I never kept records of who gave me permission to post what (and in one major instance, the permission I received was verbal at a convention so there’s no record possible). That resulted in a hiccup last year that caused the removal of a large amount of information. I’ve since put it back but the ‘site hasn’t really recovered in terms of traffic. Maybe espionage roleplaying just isn’t that popular. Maybe I need new content. If the latter, unfortunately, I don’t have any personally but, as always, will gladly accept submissions.
Modus Operandi has been lucky enough to be nominated for a number of ENnie awards and I’ve also submitted it again this year (hopefully it being its 20th anniversary will help).
The ‘site isn’t going anywhere (despite the constant assaults by bots and hackers) but it will change to a static website to try and remove some of that pressure. Back in 1999, every was coded by hand and I taught myself HTML (and CSS when that became the standard). Even some ASP and PHP coding before moving to a content management system for ease. Funny how things go full circle but, time permitting, I’ll be hand coding again. It’ll be fun to freshen up those skills. The current design is a homage to 1999 but the new, handed coded, one will be as close to the original as I can go without being too old-fashioned.
Thanks for being part of the journey and here’s to the next 20 years.
Dave
Happy Birthday, Modus Operandi!
Dave, thank you for keeping this alive all these years. I know it’s been a good resource for me, and I hope folks have enjoyed the things you have for Millennium’s End, here, as well. Happy Birthday and keep up the awesome.
Hello, I have just discovered your website. Happy Birthyear! I am a longtime fan of the James Bond 007 RPG, which I see has been continued into a title called ‘Classified’. I wish to thank you for the references that you have posted here regarding the JB007RPG. They have helped to stoke my interest in RPGing that franchise again.
Man, I remember when I found M.O. and modeled The Grumbling Dwarf using Integramod, the same format that M.O. used. More importantly was my appreciation for your passion for espionage rpg’s. I’m glad to see it still here after all these years.
Thanks Sean. It doesn’t receive much traffic and it’s a little neglected but the site is still here. I’m going to review it next year but, whatever the outcome, it’ll still be around in one form or another.