KoopaTV's August 2020 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Good-bye, summer. Hello...uh...well...

There is a lot going on in the world... and it's moving faster and faster. August just went POOF, and the rest of the summer with it. That means that whatever transpired on KoopaTV has also passed... in a blink of an eye! I mean, it's hard for me to wrap my own head around it, so it's probably harder on you. (Or maybe you just aren't thinking about these things.)

KoopaTV's Top Five Recommended Experiences of August 2020

Every article on KoopaTV is worth reading (or in one instance on this list, gazing at), even the many not featured in the following list. But if you need focus and an emphasis, here are the top five recommended KoopaTV experiences published on August 2020, presented in chronological order:

1. Small Battlefield Update (8.1.0) Implications for the Smash Bros. Scene — Super Smash Bros. Ultimate got a new update in August 2020, and Ludwig actually put in research that no one else has done. That's respectable.
   
2. Enjoy This Cute Wooloo Drawing by Momo — We love showing off guest art... who is a cute Wooloo...yes you are...♪ Please check the Wooloo out here.
3. Epic Games vs. Apple: Is Apple a Monopoly or Not? — The Epic vs. Apple lawsuit is going to have huge ramifications for the entire gaming industry, and I doubt this'll be the last time we'll write on it. Given that, read up on the background of the case and potential interesting paths it may take.
4. Let's Talk About the Biased Media Smear Tactic: "Without Evidence" — KoopaTV continues to detest biased media outlets trying to present themselves as down-the-middle fact-providers, and provides a bunch of receipts about the insidious “without evidence” phrase you'll find among media outlets.
5. Ludwig Von Koopa Wins "A Most Regal Battle" — Ludwig got REALLY excited about being included in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's A Most Regal Battle event tournament, and he goes on a whole thing about how important being a noble is to his identity, and why Shigeru Miyamoto is trying to take that away. 

You should probably anticipate the ratio of articles containing American political content to all KoopaTV articles to increase in September 2020 and October 2020. There's just so much to say and so very little time to say it. We have a country to influence! Please understand. (And try to enjoy it.)

KoopaTV Comment Moderation Adjustment

In the July 2020 newsletter (hyperlinked at the bottom of this article... get through the rest of the August 2020 newsletter first before clicking away to remind yourself of last month's), I dedicated the first section of it to site layout and comments section changes. The aim was to reduce the influence and annoyance of spambots and artificial fake traffic on your KoopaTV experience.

While it is clear to me that the comment moderation is working as intended (spambots almost exclusively comment on older articles, and those are the ones that require comment approval), mandatory CAPTCHAs/word verification on every comment are a complete failure. KoopaTV has gotten about 150 spam comments throughout August 2020, which, while I wasn't counting in previous months, is probably on-par with them. In other words, CAPTCHAs do nothing to dissuade bots, but probably dissuade actual people. Since I don't support ineffective policy, I'm reversing the CAPTCHA bit. Anonymous commenters may still receive CAPTCHAs regardless, and there's nothing I can do about that one. Blame Google.

Best Three Comments and One Worst Comment of August 2020

Let's suppose your comments did manage to come through during August 2020, amidst the comments policy changes. What were the best? ...Which was...the worst? There were a lot more to choose from in both categories for August 2020 than usual (...particularly the worst comment category), so...

1. “Just saw this commercial on YouTube and did a double take. Can't believe you're the only person on the internet talking about this. Keep on bringing the truth to the people!” — Anonymous
2. “Well I decided to stay up all night to let my husband rest because THE BABY 2 only wants to sleep on the swing so I grinded up until Queen in the same room as she was. Even with sleep deprivation I somehow played well enough with an occasional mistake like rushing on with a Jr. because I got bored of the stalemate in a match.
   
   Also last match got a dumb squidbagger Splatling who decided to squidbag the whole duration of me respawning instead of doing it for like 2 seconds. At the end we won because they missed inking on untouched areas. Hope it was worth it.” — ShinyGirafarig
3. “Someone should invent Math Woman to prevent math errors. Why a gynoid? She might encourage women and girls into STEM.” — ShinyGirafarig 

I didn't know that LEGO was actually going around with commercials for the Boomer Bill. I can't actually find the commercial, but I'll take their word for it. The article is getting a LOT of hits, so I guess I really am the only one talking about it and delivering the truth. That's what KoopaTV is all about.

As for ShinyGirafarig's best comments, it ultimately was worth it. ...And I like the vocab word gynoid. (And Splash Woman needs female friends.) Though I wonder if Math Woman would agree that the chicken came before the egg.

There was a ton of competition for the worst comment, but I picked the one that wasn't actively trying to be the worst comment:

1. Friend me my code friend is 2337 9975-0045 — Unknown

This anonymous commenter not only posted their friend code in two separate comments made one after the other (which makes me wonder about if they got upset by the comment approval process on old articles and thought by posting a second comment, that'd automatically approve the first one?), and not only called their 3DS friend code a “code friend”, but to this day, they never sent me a friend request even though my friend code is in the article. On the Nintendo 3DS, you have to send a friend request to them, AND they have to send a friend request to you, and there is no notification until you've both mutually exchanged friend codes (upon which you're now friends). (This is unlike the Nintendo Switch, where only one person has to exchange a code and then the other person has an accept/reject option.)

Why did they go through all of that effort only to ignore their end of it? Terrible comments.

Corrections Corner; August 2020

There was a very minor correction pointed out by Nandin Lopez on the BideCon Experience article. I miswrote “tal g” instead of “talking”. What happened to the kin? We can only speculate. (As I did in my reply to him.)

KoopaTV regrets the error, but we'll also peddle conspiracy theories to deflect responsibility for it.

KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 33 Results!

Congratulations to the top-scorer of Round 33 of the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program... you will get a $10 Amazon gift card code in your e-mail sometime soon:

1. Lheticus Videre — 74 points
2. Samantha Lienhard — 31 points
3. sam — 28 points
4. Kody B. — 23 points
5. ShinyGirafarig — 18 points

If you followed the leaderboard, you can see that sam pretty much got to 3rd place (and almost 2nd... not that it helps in a first-wins-it-all format) just by participating in the month of August, despite Round 33 beginning in July. That's some grit and determination, and it may mean that Round 34 is totally up in the air...

Announcing the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 34!

The KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program will be continuing for yet another two months. As we've been doing for two years now (and this'll be the third time), the prize for the September–October round will be a (free) one-year membership to the Nintendo Switch Online KoopaTV Family Group, starting November 1, 2020! If you wanted to buy that on your own, that'd cost you $20.

All you need to do is have the highest number of points by October 31, 2020 (and click the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program link for a table on how points work), and the spot will be yours. Currently it's Kody B.'s, who also won it the year before as well. In my expert judgment, he's probably vulnerable this time around.

Reminder you can subscribe to KoopaTV articles

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KoopaTV VS. China; August 2020

After a few months of not working, the comparitech.com China tester finally works for KoopaTV again... and it declares that KoopaTV.org is accessible from mainland China. The GreatFire.org tool also states there is no censorship detected.

This means that China continues not to take KoopaTV as a threat, which means we aren't being as loud about our CORE VALUES as we should be, at least to them. KoopaTV will continue to take this as a challenge, and we'll strive towards being the kind of website that the Chinese Communist Party does not want the Chinese people to read. I definitely have article subject matter in mind to publish in September.

KoopaTV Quiz Part XXVI and KoopaTV Feedback Form Part XXVI Now Available!

After a two-month hiatus, we now have the next versions of the KoopaTV Quiz (Part XXVI, or 26) and the KoopaTV Feedback Form (also Part XXVI...which is still 26). Check out the new the new KoopaTV Quiz and Feedback Form here, as well as the part archive. 

By the way, the Quiz features EIGHT questions instead of the usual six (going back to May), meaning that you can get up to eight points on the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program Round 34 for doing perfectly on it. Plus, the Feedback Form has a buff as well, awarding six points for submission. That's because the brief hiatus gave ideas for me to ask about, so it's...packed!


There's a lot in this newsletter to take in, so take your time and reflect on it. ...And maybe when you're done, check out the quiz (for fun) and feedback form (for site improvement). Also, share KoopaTV to people you know so the site can grow!


Click here for last month's consequential July 2020 newsletter!
Click here for next month's September 2020 newsletter, featuring a whole month of progress.
Click here for last year's August 2019 newsletter. It had a semi-unique format.
For August 2021, KoopaTV has a change in subscribing to articles.