This batch breaks the 4,500 threshold, which feels good.

Now, let’s not get overboard with the next milestone at 5,000. It may seem close (500 more entries is about 11% more content), but we write maybe 350 entries on a good year. Furthermore a significant fraction of the entries for the last few years have been v2 rewrites, and there’s the constant rework that has been going on for a while (plus some work on the functionalities of the site) – that’s work that improves the quality but doesn’t advance the headcount. There’s also the Mutants and Mastermind projects ramping up.

So it could easily be two years before we break 5K – especially since we’re small enough to be vulnerable to even a single person having to stop contributing for a while.

Anyway, roll call:

• GREAT TEN. This arc continues to nicely chug along, thanks to Gareth. In this batch, Accomplished Perfect Physician.
• THREE NOBODIES. Some of us need very, very minor and low-powered villains, so here are three schmucks Green Arrow fought that one time back then :
  • Printer’s Devil I and II
  • Bad Penny
  • Pinball Wizard
• Pufnstuff reinforces our coverage of animated DC material with one of the classics – the Phantasm from Batman : Mask of the Phantasm
• LARSENVERSE. Another of Peter’s entries from Erik Larsen’s creations – Mister Glum.
• INVINCIBLEVERSE. Last Invincible entry for now – the Mauler Twins by Bryan.
• RONNIETHUNDERBOLTS ART. Another dash of this very illustrative artwork :
  • Gravity
  • Grand Director
  • Union Jack
  • Fixer
  • Echo
  • Dr. Strange
  • Necromancer
  • Doc Samson
• HARRY POTTER. Kal-El wrote another Potter entry – this one describes Harry by the time of the Chamber of Secrets novel. Admittedly he wrote it in 2007 but heh, backlog.
• EVERQUEST. Another monster, just because they’re useful and weird – Evil Eyes.
• BIL’S CAMPAIGN. More new art for homebrewed characters used super-heroic MMO character generators, though this time the illustrations are crafted by the entries’ author. In this batch :
  • Vampyre
  • Seeker
  • Jackhammer
  • BloodForce armor agent
  • BloodForce agent
  • Atlas
• AUTHORITY. In this batch, Peter writes about the Engineer.
• DR. HORRIBLE. Adam has also written up Captain Hammer, of course.
• FIGHTING GAMES. This is the last entry from the backlog. Tom is writing further entries about video beat ‘em up games, but the bountiful era of one entry per batch (on average) is over. And it closes with Ash Crimson, from King of Fighters.
• REWORK. You know the drill :
  • Lu Shan (she who connects the DC Universe to Fahrd and the Grey Mouser)
  • Traci Thirteen aka Girl 13 (extensive revisions, editing and updates all around, just added a new bit of Cliff Chiang art)
  • Radioactive Man (improvements by the author on the subject of radiation absorption)
  • Sentinel (various improvements by the author, reworked art)

  To be precise, we now have 4,507 entries. It hasn’t been easy !

February might only get one pack of all-new content (not sure yet), but on the other hand said content is :

• Bigfoot. Pufnstuff’s article about this classic cryptozoological enigma covers possible stats, and uses of the concept in fiction and folkore.
• GREAT TEN. The usual Gareth entry for this arc – this time the Celestial Archer and his magic bow.
• CLAN DESTINE. Likewise, the usual Bryan entry for his arc - Dominic.
• DR. HORRIBLE‘S SING-ALONG WORG ENTRY. As brought to us by Adam.
• 1970s Ms. MARVEL. It’s been a while, but this batch includes Sapper and Golden-Blade, whose original Ms. Marvel appearance was somewhat cryptic but was much later explained by Kurt Busiek.
• THE RED STAR. More content from this awesome comic book – starring Sorceress-Major Maya Antares and various considerations about military-industrial magic in the world of The Red Star.
• The Red Hood – this is the best-known version of the character, from the Red Hood Batman animated movie. Profile written by Pur_See_i8.
• The Sidrian Hunters are some of our favourite alien menaces, and are fondly remembered by 1980s Uncanny X-Men readers. They now have a full profile.
• EVERQUEST. Another profile for a classic mob, which can be used pretty much anywhere – spectres (aka Emissaries of Thule, Saryrn’s Companions, Children of Bertoxxulous, etc.)
• REWORKED ENTRIES. Even more of those, since the rework is constant :
  • Gareth’s contribution to the Useless Heroes homebrewed characters arc now is illustrated using Champions Online
  • The Swiss. Some additional material, texts rewritten for style.
  • Shermie. Zee additionahl choice of zee ahr ‘as been hahded.
  • Mongul (pre-Crisis). Additional art, and is now in the random homepage picture slot.

Well, as it turns out we’re at 4,495 entries now. I think it’s safe to assume that the next batch will break the big bad 4,500 threshold.

There should be a full batch later in February with brand new content, but the coding work has eaten into the publication time. However, there has already been many hours of work spent improving existing content and functionalities ; here’s a recap while I start work on a new batch.

• WAYS TO RECOMMEND FAVOURITE ENTRIES TO YOUR FRIENDS. The “recommendation toolbox” at the top of entries (just below the small ads box, on which people should click more) is now in beta on every WORG entry. It allows you to flag pages you like on your favourite social network thingie, and includes Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon and Google Buzz buttons. You should totally not hesitate to use it and provide feedback if necessary.
• REWORKED ENTRIES. Significant improvements in the following entries :
  • Captain Gamma. Another unillustrated homemade character just got a picture courtesy of the Champions Online character editor.
  • Captain Thunder. Ditto, new art using the CO editor.
  • Catwoman (Early 2000s). Completely reworked texts.
  • Anaconda. Texts reworked for clarity and flow, updated biography, improvements in description of power and characterisation, improved existing art.
  • Big Bertha. New art for the Ample Amazon.
  • Deadpool. One bit of new art for the Merc With A Mouth.
  • Dinah Soar. New art.
  • Flatman. New art.
  • Mister Immortal. New art.
  • Damion Hellblaze. Added art using the CO editor.
  • Elektra (homebrewed Amazon version). Added art using the CO editor.
  • Warhawk. Reworked texts for concision and style, added official height and weight, improved art, clarified some bits.
  • Shades. Ditto.
  • Comanche. Ditto ; Comanche now points back at Shades to avoid repeating content.
  • Wonder Woman (mod karate era). Texts vigourously rewritten for confusion and clarity, various small updates and improvements.
  • I-Ching is now specifically the pre-Crisis version, with a bunch of improvements and some updates. No writeup is planned in the short term for the post-Crisis version, though, since his adventures are currently ongoing.
  • Zaran II (Zhou Man She). Everything but the stats completely rewritten, since those texts were just terrible.
  • Psialpha. New art using the CO editor.
  • Rava. New art using the CO editor.

As you may have noticed whilst poring over the site, tests are ongoing to create a small box with recommendation sites (“Like” button from Facebook, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, those things) in entries. The layout will be done once everything works.

If you happen to be familiar with these buttons, feel free to comment and advise.