Updated: April 7, 2021

What are the ground rules for forum posts?
There are very few hard and fast rules. Here they are:

  1. Disagree all you want but refrain from attacks of a personal nature. Criticize the post, not the poster.
  2. No ethnic slurs, sexism, homophobic language, or other forms of intolerance.
  3. When quoting another user in a reply you may trim their text for brevity as long as it does not change the context. You may not edit quotes to make it appear someone said something they did not.
  4. Do not post links to warez sites, or instructions on how to obtain pirated software.
  5. Do not spam.
  6. Abusing the forums in any manner that could be construed as 'griefing' will not be tolerated.

Repeat offenses of any of the above can, and will, get you banned.

Thanks Bronco. [Back]

Are your headlines available for inclusion on other websites?
We are pleased to say the answer is yes, the headlines can be found here in RSS 1.0 format. [Back]

Can I pay you to publish an article or a back-link to my website?
Absolutely not. We get frequent "offers" of content to post that are efforts to generate search engine attention for other sites. We don't post such inorganic content, nor do we reply to such requests. Chances are those who ask aren't reading this, but that's the answer.  [Back]

What do you use to edit your site?
Since February 1999 Blue's News has been database driven. We use a proprietary content management system called Blammo to edit the site. Blammo was originally created by James "furn" Furness and has been greatly improved and modified over the years by Frans P. "Xymph" de Vries. [Back]

What's Blue's News best viewed with?
Eyes and brain are required, but no browser in particular. Blue's News is Lynx & w3m compatible, is viewable with browsers that don't support frames, and works in all desktop resolutions. The site contains no ActiveX, is decaffeinated of Java (although it does use JavaScript for some features). And thanks to the hard work of Kxmode, we now have a responsive design that works on tablets and smartphones.

What did you use to make those cool graphics on your site?
Nothing: I am not the artist. You would have to ask the creators that question (see the credits page). [Back]

Who made those cool logos?
The original versions of all our logos were designed by Walter |2| Costinak. Thanks to Steve, Scott, and Dave for updating most of them to our current format. [Back]

Why don't the themed logos appear in mobile resolutions?
The themed logos take up more vertical space, and we don't want them pushing the content too far down on smaller screens. [Back]

I love that logo, but the old one was cool too. Could you please...?
...yeah sure, here's a link to the old one, a link to the even older one (both by Walter |2| Costinak), and here's a link to the old flaming Q (by Sujoy Roy). You can also check our Old Logos Archive for the full, annotated collection. [Back]

Why didn't you answer my email(s)?
The volume of our mail is really high. All of it is read, but apologies if we don't respond.[Back]

Why didn't you print that thing I sent you?
Most common reasons stories don't get printed:

  • The story was not of the type that usually appears. Clan news, new site opening announcements, requests for links to homepages, reports about mods that haven't yet been released, mod reviews, most editorials and opinion pieces, and other assorted stories that would fill entire news pages of their own, aren't generally posted.
  • The story has already appeared (we receive dozens of emails a day pointing to news we've already posted). Run a search for a word that must've appeared in the story, it may have already appeared.
  • We also refrain from printing stories about cheats, hacks, cracks, and proxy bots that help players cheat in Internet play unless it is already extreme public knowledge, or the post will help combat the cheating. I love gaming, and in my opinion those things are detrimental to everyone's enjoyment. [Back]

How can I get a link or a mention?
Be significant and/or newsworthy in some area. The sites we link to are those that are sources for news stories, or fill unique niches. [Back]

Where does the nickname Blue come from?
In the first two Wing Commander games, the main character didn't have a name (his name was whatever you typed in), and the developers at Origin called him bluehair for his Superman-blue hair. I took the nickname BlueHair as an homage to that, which eventually became blue (lowercase "b"), which became Blue when I became weary of half the people who used it capitalizing the "B." Sorry you asked? [Back]

What do you do for a living? How does that work?
You're looking at it, I'm not sure if that makes me a journalist, or a professional webmaster, but it does make me one of the luckiest guys in the world. I have to thank all of you for the support that's made this possible. How that works is advertising and direct support from our readers. If you are interested in being one of our backers, you can find the details on this page. [Back]

Who's da man?
You da man. [Back]