User:Nic Hoza/Craterfish Draft Subpage

Craterfish is a free-access social networking website. In addition, the website is an Email Service Provider and a gaming website with several Browser-based games. Craterfish also provides users with a number of JavaScript-based features that range from entertainment items to serious office tools.

History
Craterfish was started by Nicholas Hoza in a web development class that he took his Junior year at Olympia High School in Olympia, WA. In this independent-study course, he taught himself enough PHP and JavaScript to create Nictris - the first feature available to Craterfish users.

The gaming aspect of the site was developed concurrently with the social networking aspect, until both were fairly well established and well-known among Olympia High School students. After about a year of development, the rudimentary messaging system that was built in to the social networking was expanded to provide full-fledged email services.

Later, features were added on to the website using a user-demand driven model. These features include the document editor, the midi editor, etc. In 2009, Nicholas Hoza joked that Craterfish had become the world's single most "generally awesome website" based on the fact that it is the first result on a Google search for that phrase.

Today, Craterfish is the default homepage in the GrumpyLinux operating system.

In the Media
"It's like a better-thought-out and better-executed version of a better idea than this site. Plus it actually has games."

- Attack Bunny Games

"The amount of content on there is astounding and I wholeheartedly recommend it."

- University Way

"Craterfish.org is the best site ever!"

- Lexi's Daily News

Social Networking
Most of the features on Craterfish are available to both registered users, and also to non-registered users, though with certain restrictions.

Craterfish users are given basic social networking tools including:


 * Customizable User Profiles
 * Ability to Upload/Publish Pictures
 * Private Chat Rooms (multi-user Instant Messaging)
 * Ability to create and publish Playlists
 * Ability to publish documents

Craterfish differs from other social networking sites in a couple fundamental ways. Unlike MySpace and Facebook, Craterfish does not have an option to make profiles private. Similarly, Craterfish users have a "Buddy List" where they can add their friends, but it does not require permission from their friends, like the "Friend Requests" of MySpace and Facebook. This is similar to "subscribing to" or "following" a user on Twitter, in that users have an option to show feed updates only from other users on their Buddy List, or to see the high scores of their buddies only.

Email Services
Craterfish provides its users with an email address of [username]@craterfish.org. Most basic email tools are available including:


 * Rich Text Formatting
 * Email "classes" that allow users to create custom Email Filtering and Labels similar to those of Gmail
 * Sending/Receiving of attachments
 * Basic and Advanced Search Options
 * Folders for inbox, sent messages, recorded chats, deleted messages, and a public message board

Games
The majority of the games on Craterfish are Browser-based games that are designed to use only JavaScript, occasionally utilizing Adobe Flash Player for optional sounds. All of the Browser-based games have a high-score list that is visible only to logged-in users, although users are not required to be logged in to play the games. Logged-in users can set their preference as to whether the high scores displays the top-100 scores for all users on Craterfish, or else the top-100 scores out of users on their Buddy List. Several of the games have real-time high scores list that updates as users play.

Documents
Craterfish users are given access to an advanced JavaScript-based WYSIWYG text editor that allows them to create and save documents. Users can publish documents to their profiles, or submit them to any of several writing competitions. Users can add collaborators to their documents, and give them different levels of privileges, similar to Google Docs.

Midi Editor
Craterfish has a free online midi editor available to its users. Unlike most midi editors or sequencers, Craterfish's Midi Editor is written to run directly in the browser. It is based on Apple QuickTime's JavaScript API. The editor saves to a native format, and does not yet allow file importing.

Other Notable Features
Craterfish also has several other miscellaneous features such as an online tool to find the length of a Google Earth path, which is the only such tool available that requires only a JavaScript-enabled web browser. It is also the only such tool that accepts both KML and KMZ files.