Candidate for the position of Manager of X-Day : Adam Johnsey


1. Name / Alias

  • Adam Johnsey, aka Dayspring ("Daze" for short ;-)
2. Public e-mail address
  • webmaster@comixtreme.com
3. Current occupation
  • Senior Computer Sales Manager, Best Buy - Store #383, Birmingham, AL
  • Vice-President, FanCreations Inc., http://www.fancreations.com
4. Number of years online
  • Seven
5. Number of years creating web pages
  • Five
6. Names of websites & urls 7. Major awards won by your websites for web design / programming
  • comiXtreme
    • Best News/Archive Website, X-Day 2001
  • Mutant Underground
    • Best new X-Men site, X-Day 2000
  • Mutant Underground Revolution 
    • Best FanFic Group, X-Day 2001
  • X-Men Unlimited:
    • Best Legacy Website, X-Day 2000
    • Best X-Men Website, X-Fan's 4th Annual EXY Awards, 2000
    • Best Overall Website, X-Fan's 4th Annual EXY Awards, 2000
    • Best X-Men Website, X-Fan's 5th Annual EXY Awards, 2001
    • Best News/Archive Website (2nd Place to comiXtreme), X-Day 2001
    • Site Of The Year, The Power Of Cyclops, 2001
8. Comics-related mailing lists you are / have been a member of
  • CFAN
  • R.A.C.M.X.
  • N.C.R.L.
  • Marvel.com
  • X-Fan
  • CBR
  • Comics2Film
9. Classes you have taken, languages (spoken and computer programming) you have learned, abilities you have that will help you in your role as x-day manager (spanish, french, perl, java, web design fundamentals, flash etc)
  • COMPUTER SKILLS: Fluent understanding and operation of computers based on the Windows platform, as well as a good understanding of the Macintosh OS. Knowledge includes a large variety of current software applications and a broad familiarity with many different types of printers, scanners, digital cameras, and other peripherals.  
  • INTERNET SKILLS: Skilled webmaster with heavy internet experience spanning 7 years. Knowledge includes a large variety of current internet software applications and graphics programs, as well as various scripting tools, utilities, and communications software.
    • Internet Scripting:  HTML, SHTML, DHTML, CGI, PHP, MySQL, Java, Flash
    • Operating Systems:  Windows NT, 3.1, 95/98/Me/XP, and Macintosh OS 7-9
    • Internet Software: Macromedia Dreamweaver, America Online 3.0-6.0, CuteFTP, Microsoft FrontPage, Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.01-6.0, Microsoft NetMeeting, Netscape Communicator 4.7-6, WS-FTP Pro.
    • Office Software: Corel Office, Lotus SmartSuite, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Word
    • Graphics Software:  Macromedia Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop 4.0-6.0, Micrografx Picture Publisher 6.0-8.06, Micrografx Simply 3D 3.0, PaintShop Pro 4-6, Ulead PhotoImpact 6, asst. other
10. Number of years collecting comics
  • Twenty
11. X-Titles you collect
  • New, Uncanny, Cable, Wolverine, Unlimited, Ultimate, Exiles
12. Favorite X-Title
  • Uncanny
13. Favorite X-Character
  • Cable, Wolverine, and Phoenix
14. Favorite quote / scene
  • CABLE #20, An Hour Of Last Things (condensed quote follows) "It began sometime ago, in an exclusive private school in New York's Westchester County... five youths with colorful names: Cyclops, Angel, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Beast. They heard a telepathic voice and responded without question... 'Attention X-Men, this is Professor Xavier. You are ordered to appear at once.' As time passed, their ranks swelled... some married, some died... but no matter where their lives took them, the badge they wore, a simple 'x', bonded them together as a family"
Short Essay Questions
  1. In the past years, many changes have been made to the category structure for the X-Day competition. What changes and improvements do you have in mind for the way that the contest is run? Are there any categories that you think should be added or removed? Are there additional subcategories that you think should be employed? (An example might be the subcategory  Website : Best use of Flash Animation.)
  • I'd personally like to see a little more attention given to fan-fiction websites by adding a couple of additional categories, as well as some clearer lines defined to separate the professional sites from the amateur sites. Also, I'm very interested in securing a larger panel of judges to monitor the various site genres based on experience, as well as increasing the overall visibility of the competition to increase the voter turnout - thereby ensuring a much fairer (and more exciting) competition.
    2. You have designed or will design a sample X-Day 2002 website...
  • My plans for X-Day, if I get the job, will be to integrate it into my existing website, X-Men Unlimited (http://www.xmenunlimited.com). Making the X-Day annual event an integrated part of XMU will ensure higher promotion of the celebration, greatly increasing exposure of the contests and hopefully ensuring more voter participation and more entries in each category.

What have you done with this site to make it:

  • a. fast to load, even on slower modems
    • used tables extensively in place of graphics to create a clean, fast loading layout,
    • converted all newscodes to MySQL, thereby ensuring faster loading times for each article,
    • decreased the size of the graphics on most pages,
    • used smaller thumbnails in the gallery sections so pages load faster
  • b. easy to use and understand
    • added new improved navigation menus,
    • updated feedback form to make visitor's suggestions easy to submit
    • added comments feature to each article, allowing instant visitor feedback on every posting,
    • improved categorization of content,
    • greatly improved site search capabilities
    • improved color scheme to improve readability
  • c. interesting (graphically, textually or otherwise)
    • changed site layout to a new vibrant color scheme,
    • added all-new graphics throughout the entire site,
    • added additional gallery categories,
    • imported multiple reviewers,
    • improved news reporting from more sources,
  • d. automated and easy to update (scripts etc)
    • added new, fully searchable MySQL/PHP scripts for news, reviews, previews, and editorials,
    • improved search capabilities in multiple areas via integrated CGI and PHP scripts,
    • added improved polling script,
    • added additional staff members to assist with monthly contests,
    • procured more reporters to ensure the most current news