KoopaTV's May 2016 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It's the fourth May we've had!

Some say June is Alzheimer's Awareness Month. Others say it's a month for LGBT people. We say it's E3 month!

We're very excited this June to bring you awesome E3 coverage, as we usually do every June, but first thing's first: How was May? Well, May was a-may-zing! So many great articles and opportunities for you! The moments we've made together, between the staff and you, the readers, have been unforgettable. (For a while, anyway.)

Top Five Recommended Articles of May 2016

Let's start with those articles. Every one of 'em is worth reading, but here's my top five written in chronological order that you just gotta read if you haven't already:

1. KoopaTV: Three Years of Bringing the Fire!
2. Why Hackers Target Gamers and How to Protect Yourself
3. Happy World Turtle Day!
4. How Team Koopa Escaped Rio: Table of Contents
5. The Black Knight's Memorial

Lemme tell ya: There's some amazing stuff that did not make that cut. But at least those five articles cover the fact that KoopaTV is now over three years old, AND covers that the KoopaTV-exclusive How Team Koopa Escaped Rio series, which is getting searched across the Internet now, is done and collected in a nice anthology.

KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 8 Standings

So... With $20 in Amazon gift cards on the line for first place, and $10 on the line for second, what are the standings for Round 8 of the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program? We're halfway through this round!

Standings as of the end of May 31, 2016:

1. ShinyGirafarig — 51 points 
2. Kody B. — 46 points
3. Samantha Lienhard — 21 points
4. Cassie — 13 points
5. Ringabel Brave — 9 points
6. Kumie — 8 points

What can YOU do to turn things around and be on top by the end of June 30? Check out the specific section on point-getting methods here. A good way to start is making sure to have completed the KoopaTV Feedback Form and Quiz for the round, writing quality comments daily, and also submitting some guest content! With enough dedication, you can get to first place and get free stuff.

Anyone can win and enter. There's no account registration or anything. It's completely skill-based.

Domain Name Renewed

Small maintenance note: I've renewed the koopatv.org domain for another year. Now it expires in 2017. Quick and painless! (Minus the minor inconvenience to my wallet, but I did just spend more on food today than renewing the domain name.)

That plus sign is ADORABLE. Why don't I feel the same way about Google Plus?

Rawk Came Back; We're Still Hiring

At the beginning of May, original KoopaTV staffer RawkHawk2010 returned, promising a lot of cool audiovisual content. He's been delivering.

That said, we want to continue expanding our staffer rolls. Please see this Jobs & Volunteering page for more information. There's a lot that goes into KoopaTV, and it's easier (and less stressful, more fun, etc.) with more people who are specialised and talented in things. So we have need of a lot of different skill sets. Please consider it.

(Temporary) Mobile Format Change

Right now, if you go to KoopaTV on a mobile device (or a 3DS or something), it will give you the desktop layout instead of the dreadful mobile layout. That said, the mobile layout is better for small-screen devices because the desktop layout isn't mobile-responsive.

The reason for this is because there was a certain hyperlink to KoopaTV very recently where someone linked the mobile version of an article (the url will have an “?m=1” at the end) in a forum. A particularly special forum! The particular article they linked looks awful in mobile when looking at it from a desktop (or a Wii U or something).

To be exact, the special forum is Something Awful, and the article is the Black Knight Memorial, already linked above.
They're special because they're OBSESSED with our article comparing Abraham Lincoln and his generals to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance's Daein generals.

So we made the tactical decision to neuter the mobile layout entirely, so those on a desktop who click that link won't be greeted with a disgusting crapshoot.

We'll probably change it back when we stop getting clicks from them. If you would like to help KoopaTV be mobile-responsive, see the Jobs part of this article. 

In the future, please never link the mobile version of articles to places. (Put your mouse cursor over the heading name for this article section to read how I feel.)

Programming Note About June

Thursday we're going to write...something about whatever the Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon version news is.

For Friday, I plan to put together (not as a final document, of course) KoopaTV's E3 2016 schedule based on what we know we'll be covering. It'll have when the events are, and links to our coverage when it happens. We plan to continue the KoopaTV tradition of having live reaction logs throughout E3.

I hope you share your thoughts with us. We love reading them. (Especially when they're coherent.)


KoopaTV loves it when you share our articles! It helps the site grow. Just make sure they're not the mobile version of them. KoopaTV hopes that request won't be a major impediment, however.


April 2016's newsletter is here! 
June 2016's newsletter is right over here.
Last year's May newsletter, 2015, is here.
Next year's May newsletter, 2017, is here.
The programming note said we'd write about news on Thursday, so here it is.