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I kid, I kid.

Sigh; hopefully people might have some chance of treading this today. Seems as if the recent problems, which were doing better when I woke up this morning, remain unresolved as I write. To everyone with a wooden desk, please knock upon it for a while as you read this.

It gets a bit harder to write these birthday messages every year. It seems as if I have less to say, because not only have I said it all before, this year has honestly been a bit up and down for me personally in terms of this site.

But, hey, let's start out with the happy stuff, shall we? This is a celebration! Last year, I spoke at length of the massive stats the site put forth for 2003-2004. While we've admittedly been on the slightest downward trend since December of 2004, I'm happy to say that while we're not smashing our own records every couple months, we outstripped last year in pretty much every way possible overall. We served over 3.25 million pages this year, up nearly a whole million from last. We managed 162 GB of traffic last year - this time around, we upped that by over a hundred to a shade under 265 GB. When you consider that the entire site, forums and all, weighs in at only about 400 MB, you could say that the entire site, back to front, was visited at least five hundred times this year, well over once a day.

This year has been huge for us in terms of game coverage, adding not one, but two major game sections in the last twelve months (even though they'd been in progress considerably longer than that). On August 15, 2004 we launched our pretty hot Final Fantasy section, covering the original game both in its NES and Playstation iterations. Have no fear, for those of you who love the GBA cart as well, we're toying with some ideas to add that coverage as well. When or if it will happen, nobody knows, but the thought is definitely there. I have no qualms in saying that this section has proven itself to be the finest coverage of that game on the web, with extensive detailed information and all the high-end functionality you have come to expect from CoN. And, of course, we always have ideas to improve it but would also be willing to hear from you as well.

But that's just the start of it. In a big digital valentine's day card, Tiddles gave you his little squalling (...clouding?) infant of a pet project, the Final Fantasy VII section. Again, though this one took bloody years to get off the ground, I believe we smashed up what other people might call Final Fantasy VII websites. With massive automatic cross-referencing of related info from one page to the next, to an innovative, custom spoiler system, to (mostly, I hope) complete, hand-culled and -verified data, Final Fantasy VII at CoN is the culmination of our collective ability - for now.

It hasn't all been [SQL error: insert fruit of choice here] and cream this year, though. [Connection refused trying to access next comment] We've certainly had some rough spots in the last twelve months. We've had not one, but two web hosts flake out on us just a bit; we're sticking with the current one for now and hoping that the server loads stay as low as they have been most of the morning for me. While we've had a lot of new traffic at the forums, a good portion of it, let's face it, has been from the sort of people some of us worried would follow FF7 here. When half the posts in a forum lead themselves to no discussion whatsoever, I admit it's hard for those who are able to present themselves intelligently to participate. How many times can you answer a question about "lol whut's ur favorite armor plz pick from my pole," anyway? I hope the answer is "one or fewer."

I know the quality of discussion may not be pristine sometimes, these days. But we do have to think about how some of these new members may soon become quality once our collective, wonderful influence sinks into them. Beyond that, if we want to see good discussion around here, we all know how to do it, so let's just get started, eh? But that means something to the members who may be reading this thinking, "I just started a poll like that the other day!" Well, there are two sides to that: we want you as members here and will try hard not to kick you out. But you have to put forward the effort too. We're looking forward to seeing what you have to contribute, and lousy polls about favorite "x" thing may not be all you have to contribute if you take the time to think about it. I've been slowly mulling ways to more easily acclimate the new folks to the way things run around here, and hopefully in the near future we can make things easier on everyone!

That said, it seems a good time to segue into what's coming up. First off, we are considering a restructuring of staff roles. We may well be looking for a few new faces to pitch in at different levels of involvement - Tiddles and I are discussing things in the roughly twenty minutes a day we're both online at the same time. We'll certainly keep everyone apprised of what's going on there. Additionally, we're working on upgrading older game sections to work the way FF1 and FF7 do, with the higher-level functionality that has been met with such enthusiasm from those sections. We're working out some forum enhancements for usability, particularly in the areas of getting help, visiting the main site, and reading the rules. We may even have a global software update in store down the line.

Before I finish, I again need to call out a few people who are helping us now, or have helped us in the last twelve months; these people, you can be sure, are ones who truly care about the community and want to continue to see it thrive. If you're one of those people, but aren't on this list, feel free to contact us and see where you might be able to help out! First, I have to start out with my staff, those who are still with us and those who have departed in the last year - Tiddles, Mr Thou, SSJC, Neal, Tommah, Phoenix et. al. And we have to say thank you to Elena and Hikaroo, both of whom have moved on from staffing positions but remain part of the community. Elsewhere, many thanks to those who helped out this year, like Hanyou, Mimic, Super_Moogle, Kappa, Pink_Nu1, Zero_Hawk, Zephir, Max, and the list can go on and on. Thanks a lot for taking some of the stress off of us and making it easier for us to enjoy working on the site day after day.

So, after eight years, we enter our ninth. We might even make it to a full, ridiculous decade. That is, assuming that the site still offers me what I need to keep caring for it the way I do. So be one of the people who keep me coming back, if you don't mind. It's not that hard. Post intelligently. Come hang out with us in chat, if you're brave enough. Offer us your uniqueness, and we'll keep coming back with the most unique Final Fantasy site there is. And feel free to buy me things or Paypal me money. I like things, and I like money.

Fiveone out. It's time for CoN UT2004.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

*knocks on wood*

Yay CoN!

This is the only forum I frequent, so I'm hoping it stays up for some time to come. That said I'll try to help out when I can. I don't have much in the way of intelligent conversation to offer, but hopefully my art can add some uniqueness to the site.

Give me a few weeks and I'll see about getting you a little moneys.

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-- You're Gonna Carry That Weight --

Wait you mean you didn't get that money I sent over yesterday? Crap...

Well, I had a really nice, long post, but when I went to submit it, it didn't load and then my post was gone. What the heck.

Anyways, like Rujuken, I frequent this site more than any others. I find the environment much more welcoming and more appealing than the other forums I belong to. I haven't been posting as much as I would like, but I find it more and more difficult to find threads that I can contribute to or that I can make an intelligent post. Unfortunately, most of the threads now are simply questions that can be answered in the walkthrough on this very site, and any post after the original one linking to the walthrough is basically spam, and I'm never there in time to be the first.

R51, if you need some help, gimme a call. I might be able to help you out some days (forget about Monday and Thursday though).

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Is PJ

Yeah, I'll try to preserve the place as best I can. Don't want to see this place fall short of a decade's worth of great community interaction and informative posting. So, I'll try to round out some fanfics and such so I don't fall into laziness.

Keep up the CoN truck rollin' steady, folks!



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It's gonna be a glorious day
I feel my luck can change

We certainly have come a long way, haven't we? Of course, by "we" I don't quite include myself, having joined only less than a year ago. But I remember seeing the boards every once in a while while hunting for information on FF-related stuff, and for some reason it always stood out a little from the other generic places that always repeat the same stuff from one site to another.

With a greater amount of user, the amount of immature people can only increase. This is to be expected and, sadly, is unevitable short of a tactless moderation of every stupid/immature/useless post/user. This is, of course, impossible (possibly tempting, at times, though ) But sometimes you can just saw away at the mold growing on your cheese and, hey, what's left is actually quite good. You just have to be able to live with this: seeing the good side of things and letting the bad side just wilt away in the trash (like I'm one to talk )

Besides, everyone loves cheese.

It's a shame about the current hosting situation. After eight years, I really doubt this would be able to affect CoN in a way that would compromise it. But hey, it's always good to have things up and running without a hitch. My desk has a glass surface, but the desk on which my lizard's vivarium rests is wood, so I suppose I could give it a sensual hands-on massage. More practically, though, I intend to donate after seeing how my finances add up. I'm moving out in a matter of weeks (in fact, I'd say matter of days) and once I'll know just how much money paying the bills leaves me, I'll see what I can do. One person may not be much, but I'm sure that if things degraded to a point where the situation were very serious, some of us here would gladly chip in a few bucks.

Perhaps new board rules could be enforced that limit the amount of "what is your favorite x" type polls/threads, or require them to have a little more depth than just one-word answers? There's been the same poll repeated for just about every post-FF6 game last week, and many "My fevorite color in terras palete is teh ligtar shade of green in her hair wuts urs??" posts. It would be a good place to start trying to convince the new blood to put a little effort in their work without preventing them from doing what they want.

In any event, allow me to raise my coffee mug to CoN's 9th year. Cheers!

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Quote (Rangers51 @ 31st July 2005 17:22)

..are considering a restructuring of staff roles. We may well be looking for a few new faces to pitch in at different levels of involvement...

Oh dear. Dangerous phrase there. This time next week, a dozen people will beg to be mods or even worse, beg to submit articles...

Anyway, to confidence from paranoia, eight years. Here's hoping for at least twice as many, for the best FF site on the web, not sullied by the newer users, but potentially strengthened by them... if vetran users are tolerant of all but the most clear acts of silliness.

Still, some of the people here deserve the CoNgressional Medal of Honour for the effort they've put into a site that really, seemingly gives little back.

Oh well, here's to many more years of CoN, and my desk's that chipwoody-pulp stuff with fake wood plastic stuff so may not qualify as wood. Luckily, there's a table over there that I am pretty sure is wood becuase I built it in Craft and Design myself.




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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

}} UT {{

I guess it's nice to know I'll be remembered for something though, minor though it is...

Kinda hard to believe I've been trolling around here for goin' on three years. :/ The time just flies.

This post has been edited by Zephir on 31st July 2005 23:38

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~Status Report~

* Completed... Dragon's Head
* Completed... Soldiers of the Empire: Disciples (release pending)
* In Progress/Undecided... Of Love and Betrayal
* Planning/Assembly... Where it all Began

Happy birthday to the CoN! I wonder, if the narshe makes it to it's teen years after a decade...do you think it'll become all angsty and whatnot? Will it be peer pressured by the other sites to do drugs and all that? Did we raise it properly?
No..wait I'm just nuts.

I wish I had the time to be as active a member as I used to be, my old haunts are getting less and less of the attention they deserve, but I've been here a while and I will probably continue to stay until someone finally kicks me off a cliff or R51 finally gets tired and mailbombs me.

At any rate, this place just keeps on growing and growing and I'm glad it's been around this long and come so far.

Goodjob Staff-guys, you'd each get a cookie if it would only go through my screen.....

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Okay, but there was a goat!

Happy birthday to the best damn Final Fantasy site on the web. Seems like just yesterday that I stumbled upon the CoN site, but in fact it's been over two years. This place truly is my favorite fan run site on the internet. It has one of the best communities around, and I'm glad to say that I have made some very good friends because of it.

This past year has seen some changes to the site, and all were for the better. The FF1 section was very well done, and showcased some of what was coming with the unbelievable FF7 section. You guys really outdid yourselves here, and deserve a round of applause. You've set the bar at an extremely high level that other webmasters can only hope to obtain in the near future. Now do the exact same thing for FF9. Do it now.

Enough of me stroking CoN's...ego, lord knows Climhazzard needs a bigger...head than he's got right now. I'm going to drink some Crown in celebration (actually, it's to get rid of the voices in my head), and finish my latest playthrough of FF7.

CoNgrats!

This post has been edited by Hanyou on 1st August 2005 01:13

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"My impersonation of an ordinary person was flawless." - Neal

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss

Congrats to all the staff here for making this a kick-ass place to be. Man, some people think there's a lot of n00bs here? Don't EVER visit the Adventchildren.net forums. Ever. n00b city. This place is definately the overall best community on the net, in my opinion. And the site's content is no matter of opinion, 'cause there's no doubt that y'all have more information than ANY other sites on the games you cover. I knew about this site for about 2 years before I became a member, and now I'm like "WHYYYYYYYYY? Why didn't I join sooner?"

Cheers!



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The island bathes in the sun's bright rays
Distant hills wear a shroud of grey
A lonely breeze whispers in the trees
Sole witness to history

ICO-You were there-

Happy Birthday, CoN.

I haven't even been here a year, and it's stunning not only how far the site has come, but just how many great people I've met. No FF site competes with CoN in terms of how comprehensive, well-designed and generally friendly it is, and I find myself spending an ever-growing amount of time here, and I'd wager about 6-8 hours of my day are spent browsing the forums and site, as well as in chat. Not only, then, am I saying 'happy birthday,' but also thankyou to a remarkable place. Here's to many more years.

Yes, Happy Birthday to CoN, by far the best Site, gaming and discussion, I've ever been on. I learned more here than I did by playing the games themselves. Like the existance of the Czar Dragon.

May CoN have many, many more birthdays, and continue to expand.

This post has been edited by Green Magi on 1st August 2005 23:12

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Could you repeat that?

Quote (Silverlance)

Perhaps new board rules could be enforced that limit the amount of "what is your favorite x" type polls/threads, or require them to have a little more depth than just one-word answers?

Ah, but that's assuming the people guilty of such even read the rules. Eh, but I shouldn't get into such negativity; you mentioned cheese, after all.

In addition to a big ol' "Happy Birthday!" and a "I'll need my own charity before I can donate" (I kid, for the moment), what can I say that hasn't already been said...that's relevant? Welp, thanks not only to you wonderful and sexy staffers, but to all the tolerable and intelligent members who help make this place so warm and fuzzy.

Here's hoping for a lotta forthcoming years of CoN and the best FF coverage on the 'Net!

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

A few general responses, first.

• Keep knocking on the wood, be it pressboard, plywood, or solid mahogany. Yesterday seemed to be the best day yet in the last two weeks for the webserver.
• I am in talks with as many as two new clients for my own business. If they both come on board I might consider upgrading the server, as all my client sites and CoN live on the same box now, and the hosting income would probably cover the upgrade cost. And I might actually be spinning off a new business in the next couple months if I can just get started on it, etc., etc.
• Don't actually send me money. That was a bit of a joke. I did accept donations several years ago, but I felt so bad about taking money for this site that I think I returned some of it. If you want to give money to CoN, you should get something out of it. So buy from the badly-neglected CoNStore or buy some of my stuff at DeviantArt. Don't just send me money, make me earn it, because let's be honest - aside from evil debt, I'm more affluent than most 25-year-olds probably should be.

More detailed responses:

Quote (Rujuken)

but hopefully my art can add some uniqueness to the site.

It always has before. Mmmmm, Lamia.

Quote (Caesar)

R51, if you need some help, gimme a call. I might be able to help you out some days (forget about Monday and Thursday though).

Help is always appreciated. I know I still haven't done anything with the last help you gave me, but that is not to say that it went unappreciated and will go unused forever. We may have more to do along those lines sometime, too. A lot of times, I randomly grab people from chat whenever something comes up, so this goes to all of you: If you really like the community, chat with us. It's rarely about Final Fantasy and often ends up in argumentative comedy! Plus, I get so bored during work sometimes...

Quote (Silverlance)

With a greater amount of user, the amount of immature people can only increase. This is to be expected and, sadly, is unevitable short of a tactless moderation of every stupid/immature/useless post/user. This is, of course, impossible

I don't think it necessarily has to increase. There's a balance that must be struck, though. We will have new members who will be immature. But, if you can combine a little bit of patience on my part with a little bit of willingness on their part to understand that immaturity is not something to be admired and prolonged, immature folks (either here or in society) can be groomed into something productive. We've all seen it happen, as I mentioned in that odd Age thread a week or two ago. Failing that, I have no problem with being tactless. Ask my co-workers at my office. Enjoy moving, btw, having been out for six years now, I can't fathom what it would be like to not be out on my own again.

Quote (DragonFire)

I wish I had the time to be as active a member as I used to be, my old haunts are getting less and less of the attention they deserve, but I've been here a while and I will probably continue to stay until someone finally kicks me off a cliff or R51 finally gets tired and mailbombs me.

If I wanted you gone, it would have been much closer to that March 2001 start date than now, lol. Besides, how could I remove you? You were an admin at Wolfpac's forum.

Quote (Hanyou)

Happy birthday to the best damn Final Fantasy site on the web. Seems like just yesterday that I stumbled upon the CoN site, but in fact it's been over two years. This place truly is my favorite fan run site on the internet. It has one of the best communities around, and I'm glad to say that I have made some very good friends because of it.

And same goes for me, and you're one of them. Or were you referring to The Incredible Gabe?

Quote (Hanyou)

I'm going to drink some Crown in celebration

Ladies and gentlemen, the amazing predictable man!
(And if you don't get either of the jokes I just made, again, you should be in chat. Hint: Hanyou's a lush)

Quote (Mimic)

I'd wager about 6-8 hours of my day are spent browsing the forums and site, as well as in chat.

See, obsession is what you should all strive for. Be like the squirrel, girl, be like the squirrel (or something like that). Of course, lately, 6-8 hours a day on the forums might get you to read three or four posts. Keep knocking on wood.

In general, let me just say thank you to those who care about this place. It makes it easier for me to keep dealing with it. It pleases me in a way I can't explain - yet is not at all dirty, honest - to see some of the faces who have cropped up in this thread so far.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote ("R51")

I know the quality of discussion may not be pristine sometimes, these days. But we do have to think about how some of these new members may soon become quality once our collective, wonderful influence sinks into them.

I sure hope they will R51, I sure hope...

I only logged in two times in the chat because I was always forgetting about it even if I was bored! But now, since my Computer's back to 98 from XP, all I have to do is download Java again... (I think this is the fourth time) because I never made any backup of it. You can be sure I'll log on often!

I could always give out some help, this isn't really a problem for me as I like to discover new things. Normally, I cannot be refused if it's for a job or for a post. But here, I don't know... It just seems that I wouldn't be able to trick you.

Things have changed a lot since the FFVII section was added, I hope it will change again, because if it continues to grow the way it is right now, I think I will gradually loose faith in CoN.

There is only one thing left to say:

Happy Host Day to CoN!!!

This post has been edited by Zodiac on 3rd August 2005 15:13

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Sayonara

Quote

It hasn't all been [SQL error: insert fruit of choice here] and cream this year, though. [Connection refused trying to access next comment] We've certainly had some rough spots in the last twelve months.

8 year olds are always trouble

Regardless, this year at CoN, Like the last, has been phenominaly impressive in my opinion. True, chatspeak and posts of immense pointlessness are more frequently seen on the boards, but all that put aside, I've never seen a more mature and informative forum. This site has turned me into a game forum conniseur of sorts. No average site will do!

So happy birthday CoN! Congrats for being a reliable source of FF knowledge, and a haven for serious gamers.

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TURKEY! - (The only way not to get blocked for using Fowl Language)

Happy (Late though) Birthday to CoN, Ultros is right about 8 yearolds being trouble as well. Overall, this is great forum.

Quote (Rangers51 @ 3rd August 2005 06:11)

See, obsession is what you should all strive for. Be like the squirrel, girl, be like the squirrel (or something like that).

Obsession is overrated. I only check in here once every few days now. :-/

And I've obviously not been in chat for nine months now.

--------------------

~Status Report~

* Completed... Dragon's Head
* Completed... Soldiers of the Empire: Disciples (release pending)
* In Progress/Undecided... Of Love and Betrayal
* Planning/Assembly... Where it all Began

Happy Eight'th birthday CoN.

I, too, wish I had more time to spend at the CoN. Since the summer started (and my job changed), my activity here has gone from forum stalking to a brief longing glance at the main page before having to visit other places.

What little time I have for internet hobbies, I spend working on version 2 of my game... or else the fans will eat me. They scare me sometimes . Never take up programing, this is my lesson to you.

I miss you guys. As a birthday present to the CoN, I pledge eight (good) posts these next eight days. That's probably more than I've made in the last year... sad.

Keep up the good work, CoN people. Ejoty seems to be slacking in his duty lately, so I'll provide the fresh batch of ninja faces:

Mmmmmm, right from the oven and still warm.

While I may not be very active on the boards (and haven't been online much this summer), I've been in chat for about as long as I've been here. And I've got to say, because of chat, I've had more fun getting to know the people here than I possibly ever could on the message board. I've met people I'll always remember, and the personalities alone have kept me coming to this site longer than any other. I came for the people, and stayed for the chat fights.

Anyways, the progress that CoN has made in the last eight years is impressive, and I'm glad to have been around for a part of it. Here's to eight more, if nothing else, just to see Josh with his cynic wit and biting sarcasm while in his thirties!

Quote (Zephir @ 5th August 2005 11:58)

Quote (Rangers51 @ 3rd August 2005 06:11)

See, obsession is what you should all strive for. Be like the squirrel, girl, be like the squirrel (or something like that).

Obsession is overrated. I only check in here once every few days now. :-/

And I've obviously not been in chat for nine months now.

And you're the alpha and omega, of course.

Who are you again?

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

You say that like I made that assumption.

--------------------

~Status Report~

* Completed... Dragon's Head
* Completed... Soldiers of the Empire: Disciples (release pending)
* In Progress/Undecided... Of Love and Betrayal
* Planning/Assembly... Where it all Began

Hey, around a week late but that was out of my hands. Just wanted to drop a quick but big congrats to CoN and a "keep up the good work" to the hard working staff I have been blessed to meet and befriend.

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...

Shame on me for not getting to this sooner, stuff for the new job's been a chore. Congrats J Man, Tiddles, etc. =)

Only one more year to go for the 10th anniversary hot stripper party!

Happy birthday, CoN.

Again. :-P

(I hate smileys that have to make me type an extra dash in between the colon and the mouth reperesenter.)

And I still love your humour, R51.

Edit: tag fix in my poke at Del_S.

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 20th August 2005 20:13

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

It discomforts me to learn that the world of the CoN didn't stop spinning in my absence. A shame on you all . Better late than never- Happy Birthday Narsheans. 4 more years and we can have a CoN bar-mitzvah. (or "bat" mayhaps?)

Shizam!

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
~Frank Zappa

Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way