Network54 Board
The Network54 board used by the CW E-Fed was the centerpiece which made the game work. It is here that all of the stories and matches was played on.
Originally, way back in 1998, Darkspade saw the potential that network54 board could do after visiting an undertaker fan site. He registered a network54 board and used it as his undertaker board. After the events which took place on theundertaker.net, Darkspade converted his undertaker board into a network54 board because he recognized how easy it was to post and the outline view gave the illusion to viewers that there was growth. It had an almost addicting quality to it- and at that time- the Network54 board DID NOT restrict coding even Javascript.
As time passed on, the network54 board changed it's setting and even at one time restricted the use of <embed> tag which was critical to players that like to use music and images. Darkspade complained to the owners of the board and they actually allowed the tag that Darkspade suggested to use which was: <embed src="location" loop="true" hidden="true" autostart="true"> if the loop etc was in a different place then the code would not work.
Unfortunately, the board was also easily accessible to be duplicated because anybody with a network54 board could whip up a board like this and run an e-fed. All of the spin off e-feds mimicking the CWE used a network54 board.
The network54's greatest strengths included: the ability to post images even without a tag, ease of integrating font tags and music, the in-your face style was also extremely pleasing to viewers because it was simple and the viewer saw results quickly and you can preview your post before posting.
The drawbacks included the fact that the board restricted many codes which could have made the game more appealing - it sucked away chances to express yourself in other ways, the board also wasn't free- at first there was a simple ad but as time passed on network54 covered the board with so many ads that you had to purchase the monthly fee (the first monthly fee was $18 a month), the board wasn't updated by the coders and you were NOT in charge with backing up the entire database of the e-fed.
The E-fed had to eventually dump the network54 board (which was a great day in this sport) and used the Bspeak Board. However, a decline in roster made the game go back to network54 board because of it's ease of use to restore the roster.
