There were quite a few comments on the Wowhead powered ItemStats for WordPress article. Apparently the newer versions of Wordpress (which we are now sporting here at TBK) have broken the outdated ItemStats plugin so I went ahead and updated the original article with instructions to integrate with Wowhead (no plugin needed).

Updating Wordpress was easier than expected. There’s a few minor cosmetic wrinkles that need to be ironed out but other than that everything should be working. This includes the contact form which has been down for who-knows how long. Feel free to try it. It works, I swear.

There are a couple of posts I’m working on at the moment and Shelbi has been spending her free time on a not-so-secret project that will be made public shortly. Just hang in there, the wait will be worth it.

Oh yeah, also signed up for twitter (http://www.twitter.com/TheBronzeJon). Anyone know of a good twitter widget for WordPress?

So here goes the obligatory “Is this thing on?” post. We know it’s been a while and that we’re both a couple of slackers when it comes to updating our blog. We’ve actually been extremely busy over the past few months almost a year, both in and out of Azeroth, but we do plan to make a comeback. To get us started I’ve come up with a list of self-imposed quest objectives:

1. Moderate and respond to the large number of comments that have been collecting dust (I really feel like a jerk for this one).
2. General site cleanup, polish, etc. I know there’s probably some stuff that is out of date or just broken.
3. Update the blogroll and links section. This one would generally fall under number 2 but I consider it a massive undertaking worthy of its own number.
4. Jump on the twitter bandwagon. After much resistance I think I’m going to give it a shot. I’ve got personal twitter (neglected of course) but I think I might keep this one related to the wowverse.
5. Last but not least… write some effing posts. I might even convince Shelbi to do a recipe or two. =)

Oh btw, epic grats to TJ and Phil on their engagery!

The same thing goes for the majority of my posts. You’ve probably noticed that it’s been pretty dead around here and it’s due to a lack of time available (with raiding and guild leading and grinding for repair bills =P) to dedicate to the bigger posts. As a result I’ve decide to attempt to release little morsels during the week and hopefully work on something a little more meaty over the weekends.

The first of these bite-sized offerings will be the Blogroll Spotlight. I know it’s a bit of a cliche but something is better than nothing. I plan on probably offering an Featured Addon post as well. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. So with that out of the way, lets get to it.

In terms of blogger representation, my personal observation is that there is a lack of Shaman-love out there. This could be attributed to the fact that prior to TBC, shamans were horde only and so represented a lower number of overall players. Or maybe it’s a personality issue. Is a shamanesque player less likely to blog versus a druid or a hunter (both very high in terms of blogger representation)? Maybe I’m just talking out of my ass but I think it would be interesting to compile some WoW blogger stats to see where the populace stands.

Well Boylston over at Lightning Overload makes up for any lack of Shamans elsewhere by blogging about his 4-man elemental shaman team. Yes he’s a multi-boxer. And from the looks of it, a damn good one. He just hit 70 with his 4-man orc army (/congrats) and has started to jump into arenas to start shocking faces.

For those of you that are wondering about the legality of multi-boxing, Belfaire posted up a solid explanation of Blizzard’s stance over on the official forums here.

I made a ton of additions and only removed a couple of dead links. After I was done though, our blogroll practically extended past all of our content and pushed our tag cloud and categories into the nether. So I went out and installed Goldfries Random Blogroll Plugin and Website IQ’s Blogroll Page Plugin. These two addons allow me to truncate my blogroll down to a specified number of random links (see sidebar) and then setup a separate page to display the entire collection.

The instructions on each site are pretty straightforward and easy to follow but if you do have any issues I’ll be happy to help out. Just leave a comment on this post or use our contact form.

A raffle is superior to the previous auction format as it allows us to not limit donations or the chance at winning to the person with the deepest pockets (not that we’re opposed to flexing your wallet for a good cause).

The way the raffle will work is simple. For every $1 that you donate, you get 1 chance out of the total number of dollars donated. So if 50 people each donate $2, everyone will have a 2/100 or 2% chance to win a prize. Numbers will be assigned based on the influx of the payments, so if you are 1st person to donate and you donate $5. You will respectively be assigned numbers 1-5. The next person to donate $1 gets number 6 and so on.

Winners will be chosen online and during a scheduled in-game event. We will /random 1-X (where X is the total $ donated) to determine the winners. You won’t have to be present to win but it would be awesome if we could get as many people as possible to show up. (Level 1 alts ftw). We’ll post more details about the event soon.

Each winner gets to choose 1 of the remaining prizes (1st winner gets first choice) until all the prizes have been exhausted. It’s possible to win multiple prizes but not for the same entry. Example: if we roll a 4 and a 5, and the same person is assigned those entries, then they will win two prizes. If we roll 2 4’s in a row, the person only gets one prize.

So as of right now: the prizes include the following (multiples will be offered as separate prizes):

• Transmogrification of your character (the same as our previous auctions) x 2
• Starprints Warcraft Charm x 5
• Starprints Warcraft Sticker (Set of 3) x 5
• Warlock & Voidwalker Vinyl Sticker (for vehicle application)
• Custom Blog Header by Shelbi

We’ve got plans to procure more prizes before the raffle ends. If you have anything you’d like to donate as prize please contact us. It doesn’t have to be artsy or crafty, pre-paid WoW time cards are always a big hit. Just make sure that its appropriate.

The raffle is currently slated to end on Friday the 14th. This will hopefully give us enough time to get prizes out before the holiday.

We’ll setup a separate page for the donation here. Or you can get right down to donating by clicking below.

All that donate will be listed on our site with their donation amount (with permission). Entries are NOT limited to the US, Canada, or anywhere for that matter. Shelbi and I will be paying all Paypal processing fees and standard shipping costs. Express shipping details can be worked out on a per instance basis (overnight to Singapore can be costly).

Do it anyway. It’s a real treat to open up our mailbox and find it filled w/ comments and feedback.