Information About Our Site

The idea for this site was originally conceived in our 8th grade year in the Spring of 1998, when our TAG instructor made us choose a project. This one seemed to be the easiest, so, Three young corn-fed Iowa computer nerds set out on a mission. And that mission was:

"To make a site that doesn't "

And, in many ways, we accomplished that with our 1998 entry, Sumo: more than just fat guys in diapers.

Our 1998 Entry

But, this attempt only earned us a Honorable Mention. But, after our 6-month period of bitterness and self-loathing, we decided to give it another try.

This time around, we tried to fix some of our mistakes from last year. We tried to make the navigation system more efficient, we abolished the frames that we had previously used, and we tried to cut down on the number of sections.

During the development of the site, my partner, coach and I had a few difficulties along the way. Since one of our team members from the previous year had decided not to work on the site again this year, that meant more work for us. Also, my partner and I debated about which sections each one would do, since we both wanted to avoid some of the sections that involve a lot of repetitive work. That and the fact that we both had to struggle to find time to work on the site, due to our busy schedules, and the need for eating and sleeping.

To solve these problems, we came up with the idea to have work rationed out periodically by our Coach, and then make sure it is done by a certain deadline. If somebody didn't make the deadline, we would hit them with a burlap sack filled with doorknobs. Andy missed the deadline a few times, though. He cries like a little girl.

. Our Coach helped us when we would get mad at each other, due to the fact that we both had the idea that we were doing more work than the other partner. Our Coach would get us communicating again, and then things would run smoothly. The one thing our coach couldn't do was help us with anything that actaully invovled HTML or design, due to the fact that she doesn't know very much about computers (I once had to explain to her the difference between a disk drive and a hard drive), and even less about HTML. So, nobody was there to test or help with any technical problems we had, So, we had to fix them ourselves.

Well, we hope that you are enjoying browsing through the site, and we hope that you find it informative and entertaining at the same time.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Site
What's with the name? Why Sumo?
Well, one of the reasons we chose this name was to draw people into the site, who wouldn't normally look at a site about Sumo. One of the best ways to get someone to look at your site is make your link stick out in some way. Well, we think that Sumo gets trashed around by many people who don't know a whole lot about it, except that they're fat, and they crash into each other. People don't know about how hard they work daily to reach the top of the ranks, they don't know how hard they train, and they don't get any respect from the public. I hope that this site will help people to learn about the grand sport of Sumo.
Why don't you guys add Shockwave/Java, Etc?
We don't put most of those things onto our site because we don't want to exclude people who may have low bandwith, or if they are using a old browser. That, and our thoughts on it is that many people add those things on their sites just for the sake of adding those things. Our main thought is: The content should be the main attraction, not the shiny things on the site. If you can use HTML instead of Java or Shockwave to get the same message across, do it.
Click here to view our Citations and References

 

This site was designed by:
Tyler J. Patocka Andy Inman
And Coached By Beth Langford