Outline of the technology behind our sites and our appraoch to the Web

Welcome to our site!!

It seems that some explanations are in order for how and why things work at the various Absolute sites.

1. The sites have been designed to minimise [or rather control] BANDWIDTH usage [the amount of data sent to your browser]. Bandwidth is the nightmare of website directors and internet accountants. It costs a LOT of money to send each and every Gigabyte of data to the clients [you]. In essence: while you surf, we fork out money by the truckload. We at AbsoluteGamerzNetwork like the online gaming community, enjoy participating and supporting it in its existence [as proven by us running the current sites and the sites to come in the near future].
BUT, we don't like it ENOUGH to mortgage our houses and sell our women. Sorry.

2. We are running on a non-Windblows & non-Microshite system. It means that our costs are lower than people's who run their stuff on NT servers [no licenses to BillG]. Otherwise we couldn't run this Network.

3. The sites are made into coherent entities and all pages are interdependent and closely linked.

4. All pages are ACTIVE server pages [in Windblows they are labelled ".asp" while ours are ".php"].

This is IMPORTANT to you as a user/visitor. Why?

Whenever you click on a link, the scripts contained WITHIN the page are executed by the server BEFORE the server sends the information to your browser. You SEE the end result of a lot of calculations made by the server.
What it means is: the pages have NO CONTENT as you understand the term [pages filled with tables containing words, symbols, etc]. The server INSERTS the content into a blank page under the link you requested, and sends the complete thingy to you.

So?? you ask.

If you use your browser's "forward" and "back" buttons you may experience improper display of pages. In the worst case scenario your browser will show you a message saying "Cannot refresh page without resending information."

So?? you cry.

You will have to press the "refresh" button. The page will miraclously reappear [your browser will tell our server which page you want and the info will be resent to you].

Why?? you scream.

The practicalities of running workload-intensive sites are such that without a dedicated core team of programmers [who continously update the pages] alternative solutions must be found. Having to choose between messing with changing each and every page [whenever new content is inserted] we prefer to leave that job to the server [lazy bastards, ain't we?]. Should we try to run the sites in a conventional way, constant exchange of page templates, content and graphics between team members is necessary, PLUS all staffers involved MUST have the necessary web editing/design software.

The Reality:

2002/03 will be a tough time for websites, as costs continue to remain stagnant [if not increase], while the amount of possible generated revenue will fall in tune with the world economic slowdown [if not decline, or maybe even RECESSION, which kills any possibilities of advertising revenue as firms minimise their outlays in trying to weather the bad times ahead].

If you are accustomed to conventional HTML sites, then we at AbsoluteGamerzNetwork cannot provide you with the static page content you are used to.

Why?? we are not prepared to spend thousands of dollars on staff, servers, etc. Ask any web professional, and he'll tell you that the future of the Web is based around a handful of factors. Among them are:
- Unix systems [open source projects]
- database driven sites [management of information, content, etc]

Simply put: we will NOT compete with the established players on THEIR home turf [which is centered around the conventional method of "let's throw money at it and see whether it works..."].

Besides if you follow the online gaming community news, you will know that every month networks and multiple sites are CLOSING DOWN due to lack of inflowing funds and high upkeep costs [servers, staff, bandwidth].

We WILL compete, but on a battleground of OUR choosing. We will aim at NOT charging you for any services--the big boys can try that, we won't. Let's see who's right.

Thankx for visiting, and...have fun across our AbsoluteGamerzNetwork!

The AGN Team