news { site }
| affiliates | artwork | clan | comic | fanart | forum | gruntsbane | interview | larrynews | larrythemarine | misc | mrsmiley | pyrosmile | site | vday |
News Comments Work Now... | mrsmiley { September 10, 2008 }
Yeah... so apparently after updating our CMS a couple days ago, the commenting system for the news got disabled somehow. Of course it was RIGHT after I posted about the end of my Xbox Live account fiasco! *sigh* So if you read it, and tried to submit a comment, swing back by and re-submit! It should work right now. Sorry about that!
Personal Art Galleries are Here! | mrsmiley { May 24, 2008 }
That's right, a feature that I've longed for since the original conception of this web site is now fully functional for members of our forum! As of last night, we now feature a fully functional image gallery. Here are some of the features:
- Imagescan be both commented on and rated
- Separate section for most viewed and best rated photos
- Each member has their own personal gallery
- Public galleries for Halo 3 screenshots, and more!
- Create up to 10 sub-albums to keep your work organized.
- Ability to password-protect a forum, or only allow HBN friends to view it.
- No image limit. Upload whatever artwork you want the world to see!
I'm really excited at the possibilities of this feature, especially with the Bungie Favorites event that's coming up. Please leave me any feedback you have on the galleries, as they are currently in the very early stages of development. Check out the forum announcement for more info. :)
Server Issues | mrsmiley { March 26, 2008 }
A few staffers recently asked about some offline issues with the forum and the site over the past week or so, and originally I thought it was maybe on their end. After waiting almost 10 minutes for my last news article to post, and viewing a status on my server, I realized it's more serious. We're not going anywhere, and we're not planning some massively overdone makeover of the site... we're just hopping on and offline, and moving a bit slower than normal (or in some cases, a LOT slower).
UPDATE: It seems like things are back to normal now. I wouldn't be surprised if there were occasional hiccups now and then in the next week or so, so just keep that in mind. Thanks!
Affiliates Clean Up | mrsmiley { March 06, 2008 }
I set my rabid delete key on the poor unsuspecting affiliates section to clear out dead pages... and now it's about half the size it was before this heinous event! This is sad in a way, considering how many Halo project sites have come and gone. But I suppose what kills you makes you... no wait, you're already dead! ;) If you have a Halo comic and would look like to add to our affiliates page, and have us post an occasional update for you, message me through our forum.
Prepping for 2008... | mrsmiley { December 31, 2007 }
There could possibly be some site and forum updates in the next 24 hours. If anything goes offline temporarily, I apologize in advance.
Forum Upgrade Complete | mrsmiley { September 21, 2007 }
I'm currently performing a major forum upgrade. I'm hoping to have things back online in the next 24 hours. Keep in mind that I'm getting married TOMORROW. So I have a slight deadline! ;)
Sorry for the inconvenience!
NOTE TO ALL HBN FORUM STAFF: Check your email. I sent a message to address you used when you registered with the new forum beta.
[this post will be updated as the upgrade progresses]
update 1: i'm currently backing up the entire forum. this includes every image that has been uploaded since the forum began! also includes 250MB of SQL databases.
update 2: i finished backing up the entire forum files and databases (all 2.5GB of them). i'm currently uploading the new forum files. i have the wedding rehearsal in 30 minutes. hopefully i can have the forum installed at at least functional by then.
update 3:new forum is installed! now in the process of converting the old databases (you know, so you won't have to remake your accounts, your posts will still be there, etc). won't be able to finish this till after the rehearsal, so stay tuned!
update 4i'm currently on the final step to switching everything over. the forum is installed, and all (or at least most) of the members and posts have transferred over successfully. at the moment i am indexing every single post for the new forum search feature. remember the search "feature" of the original forum? yeah, it sucked. this one actually works. almost done here folks (if anyone is actually reading this).
THE NEW FORUM IS UP!!! Keep in mind that this is "phase 1", as in, no pretty customer artwork and other cool things. But it's up, and it's very familiar, yet there is much to discover! Please see this thread for more info. Enjoy!
- Smiley
***IF YOU CAN'T LOGIN***
Some of the passwords didn't transfer over properly. If you can't login, use the "I forgot my password" feature to reset it. No worries.
The New Commenting System | mrsmiley { June 25, 2007 }
I recently implemented several upgrades and updates to our back-end system here at HBN, the main one being a new commenting SPAM filter. Read on for important info about commenting.
The comic above perfectly describes my thoughts on the whole "type-the-illegible-characters to-register-process". (and it's a great strip, so give them a look by clicking on the pic!) I also have a pet peeve about requiring someone to register with a site when all they want to do is post a quick comment about someone. So because of this, we're not doing that.
What we DID do, is beef up our CMS (content management system) with a spiffy new SPAM overlord. Here's how it works...
spambob posts the following comment for the first time on our site:
OMG JIM SAID YOU NEED TEH ERECTION WIT VIAGRA GO TO http://www.viagra.com/omglol http://www.viagra.com/omglol http://www.viagra.com/omglol http://www.viagra.com/omglol http://www.viagra.com/omglol http://www.viagra.com/omglol http://www.viagra.com/omglol http://www.viagra.com/omglol http://www.viagra.com/omglol http://www.viagra.com/omglol http://www.viagra.com/omglol
This comment immediately gets moved to a junk box and doesn't get posted. I look up the comment, because I'm really curious why, and I see this:
SpamLookup Link Filter -1.0 Number of links exceed junk limit
SpamLookup Keyword Filter -4.0 Word Filter match on 'viagra': 'viagra'.
This will give the comment a whopping score of -5.0. Too bad you need a score of +1.0 to have your comment actually posted on this site! If you post a comment that gets a 0 or lower score, you will see the following message:
I will be monitoring accidental junked comments as best I can, but sometimes I may miss them. Here are some tips to keep your comments from being junked:
- Don't use spam words like viagra, sex, phentermine, etc...
- Don't post links in your comments.
- Be someone who has commented before. This automatically gives you a +1 and allows you to comment, which is why so many "spam" comments made it through when we did the test. :)
- Use the same email every time you comment.
If you guys have any issues, feel free to contact me on our forum about it. Here's to a hopefully spam-free future!
Note: I'm still working on some things, so if weird stuff happens (like the current comic pages not displaying properly), just give me some time to smooth things out. Thanks!
Spam Be Gone! | mrsmiley { June 20, 2007 }
So as I mentioned I recently upgraded our CMS here at HBN. Since then, almost all the wrinkles have been smoothed out, and I'm prepping for bigger and better things to come. Since I was already doing back-end site maintenance, I decided to tackle our little spam issue. Read one for details...
I'm sure you guys have seen the literally THOUSANDS of spam comments we started receiving once this site got real popular. I've been sick of it for a while, but until upgrading, didn't have an efficient way to deal with them. Well, since upgrading, I have spent hours clearing out all of the spam comments, and here's the result:
Before pruning spam: 50,000+ total comments
After pruning spam: Less than 14,000 total comments
That means there were about 36,000 spam comments! How embarrassing! Because of this issue, I will be integrating a new comment system that requires you to register before you can comment. I would like to connect it with your forum account, but this is most likely too difficult. It would be a quick and painless registration that will keep the spambots out, and also many flamers who don't want to bother with registration. More info will come as I roll this out. Thanks for your patience with any downtimes that come from future site upgrades!
HBN CMS Updates | mrsmiley { June 16, 2007 }
I've started upgrading Moveable Type (our CMS) and have ran into some kinks. One of which I have yet to find an answer to. If you notice various site oddities, please be patient as I do my best to take care of things. Oh yes, and you won't notice any front end changes with the update, at least not anything major, so don't worry! :)
PSP Site Going Off-Line | mrsmiley { September 19, 2006 }
In case you guys haven't noticed, the PSP version of HaloBabies.Net hasn't been getting much lovely latey. Or... ever. I'm gonna go ahead and yank it off the site. It was a cool idea, but I just don't have enough time to maintain it, and I don't think there are enough people out there who browse our site with their PSPs. So long PSP site!
Technical Difficulties... | mrsmiley { March 15, 2006 }
Just wanted to let you all know that due to the extreme popularity and usage of our website (namely the forums), we are currently in the process of finding/transferring to a new webhost. I love Dreamhost, and it's a sad day for me, but they simply can't offer us the dedicated server that we need to host all this traffic/image hosting. Because of this, our forum will be getting downgraded a bit. You can view updates on our moving/searching process here, and forum updates and news here. Sorry for inconvenience everyone, I'm working as hard as I can to get things back to normal!
Offline for a bit | Gruntsbane { January 20, 2006 }
Due to my schedule I've been unable to make a comic this week, so Smiley and I decided it would be a good time to take a bit of a break for a while. For the next month or so there will be no new comics, but the forums will still be up and running as usual. We'll also try to get an art update out during the break if possible. Thanks!
They said this day would never come.... | Gruntsbane { January 13, 2006 }
Sorry, I just wanted to let everyone know that there is no comic this week. Unfortunatley work and a recent cold made it pretty much impossible to get anything done over the week, but hold out hope for next week! See you then.
New Years Sale! | mrsmiley { December 31, 2005 }
For the next week or so, I have dropped the prices on all the Halo Babies wearables in our store! Aside from that, I have added 2 new shirt designs, and a bunch of new buttons (by popular demand)! Read on for more info, and a sweet discount code!
I thought I would start off the New Years holiday right, by making all of the products in our store a bit more affordable for those "money deprived" people like myself! Everything has been significantly reduced, and all the products, save for the UNSC sweatshirt, are under $21!
And speaking of the UNSC Marines Sweatshirt... from now until January 9th, if you purchase this product, and put in the code "BIG5", you'll get $5 off! (ON TOP of the reduced price!) This will cover your shipping, and most of the tax if the sweatshirt is your only item. SWEET!
This week, I finally added a collection of 5 different wearable buttons, using designs from our shirts, and a new "B4NT" design. Each design comes in a large and small size, and are $1.75 and $0.99 respectively. These are a cool way to rep HBN without having to spend a bunch of money on a shirt!
Here are the 2 new shirts that have been added this week:
The pixelated baby chief t! Yes... the image you see on this shirt is in fact the favicon that you can currently see next to halobabies url in your browser! It will look awesome... when someone is standing 100 feet away! Haha
The first comment shirt! Couldn't resist. This is probably one of the nerdiest shirts we sell!
Be sure to check out the rest of the store, and enjoy the reduced princes while they last!
Buttsock shirt is here! | mrsmiley { December 10, 2005 }
This week I added a bunch of new stuff to the official Halo Babies Store! A bunch of new shirts, and new bumper stickers are included. Read on for more info, and a discount code!
The Buttsock shirt is here! Grunstbane and I decided to leave it how it is. I have been testing this design by wearing the shirt around a lot. I love the reactions you get from people. Every time someone asks me, "What the heck is a buttsock!?", I tell them to go to HaloBabies.net and find out for themselves. =) You should do the same! Here's a list of all the new products that were just added!
Another shirt that will leave people goin... "HUH!?" For those that don't know, a "doink" is when we lock a crappy topic in our forum. =)
An absolute classic. Not much to say other than this shirt really stands out. So far, the feedback I have received has all been good! A great to spread the word about HBN!
I redesigned the marines hoodie! The baby marines are now on the back, and UNSC marines is on the front. Pretty sweet if you ask me!
For all those ladies that love their nerds! Features artwork by Turialim on the back!
Where this if ur a guy, and would like to make yourself even nerdier than you are!
Yet another shirt that will draw looks. Artwork done by 2phast. You have to check the back of the shirt out, it explains EVERYTHING. ;P
Aside from those shirts, I have updated the store with 2 new bumper stickers! Check it all out!
DISCOUNT CODE TO SAVE 5$ (on a purchase of $35 or more): SRV06 (expires 12/16/05)
New Store Stuff for the Holidays | mrsmiley { November 27, 2005 }
This site now features a link to our brand new store in our nav menu! (Also, I removed the news 'archive' link and added it to the top of the news page.) We will be releasing at least one new product every week up until Christmas, so be sure to swing by the Halo Babies store often! Today marks our very first "member-made" shirt; custom designed by several members of our forum! Swing by the official HBN Store thread in our forum for all the official product/store updates.
Halo Babies Store! | mrsmiley { November 25, 2005 }
After hundreds - heck, maybe even thousands - of requests for Halo Babies merchandise over the years, we are finally taking our first step towards this! Because we aren't licensed officially by Microsoft, we went the way of RedvsBlue.com by making shirts that don't necessarily have direct Halo images on them. Just in time for the holidays! Please read on for impoortant information...
We have been trying to get licensing from Microsoft for years, with no success. The marketing department for Halo is only slightly busy with both Halo games, toys, books, a movie, and plenty of other licensing nightmares. But we still want to give you guys at least SOMETHING to use to rep HBN!
The current products in the store are not final.
You may notice some of the shirts have images on them. Our hope is that these shirts will make it past the CafePress license evaluation process. However, if they do not, CP may require that they be removed from the store. All of the products that contain images, save for the Cortana shirt, are not direct Halo characters, but rather characters with likenesses to characters based in Halo. I will keep you all up to date with which shirts stay and which shirts go!
We currently have available:
- 2 ladies Ts
- 3 guys (unisex) Ts
- 1 sweat shirt
- 1 long-sleave
- 1 bumper sticker
- 1 artwork framed print
SAVE $5 when you use the discount code "ASTUTEBREATH"! (through Dec 1, 2005)
For now, you can get to our store by visiting halobabies.net/store. I will be adding this item to our site nav very soon for easy navigation.
If you have some cool ideas for Halo Babies products, let us know!
Red vs. Blue Chooses a Winner! | mrsmiley { August 31, 2005 }
That's right, the judges of this contest were none other than the guys from RedvsBlue themselves! We had over 60 people enter this contest. With most of them having 3 comics per entry, that's close to 150 different strips that had to be looked at and judged! It wasn't an easy process, but Burnie sent me their pick for the winner/runner-up a few moments ago, and now I'm gonna share them with you!
The winner of the first ever Halo Babies Goes Red and Blue contest is Spencer Kern, also known as nrek on our forums! Spencer has won himself all 3 seasons of RedvsBlue, along with a framed copy of his strip when it gets featured as comic #102 on this site! Congrats, Spencer, I'm glad a long time member/artist from this site like you won!
There were so many good entries, we chose 2 runner-ups!
The first runner-up position goes to Robert Feil, also known as pbdemon. The second runner-up award goes to Collin Chew, aka Ripper 714. Both of these gentlement will be receiving a copy of the new RedvsBlue Season 3 DVD. They also may just have their strips featured as well, since they are both hilarious! Congrats!
Thanks to all who entered, we got a ton of great ideas! If we decide to use any for future strips, you can be sure your name will appear on them somewhere. Cheers!
Contest Results Delay | mrsmiley { August 27, 2005 }
I want to apologize for the lack of contest results today. I am waiting for the guest judges to e-mail me back their picks for the winner! Please be patient, I will post the winners as soon as they are received!
HaloBabies.net PSP Version 1.0! | mrsmiley { August 25, 2005 }
The Sony PSP is one of the hottest selling tech-gadgets on the market today. On the 23rd, the 2.0 update was released for the PSP, that features a full web browser. This means that a lot of people will now be browsing the internet on their PSP. Here at HBN, we are all about keeping up with technology...
So I decided to build a version of HaloBabies.net specificly to be displayed on your PSP when you browse! BAM! HBabies.net version 1.0 is born! Hence the new 'psp' button that has been added to our menu.
Now you can check for updates, view new strips, and even post on the forum, all while on the go from your PSP! Because HBabies.net was designed to fit your PSP's screen, you don't have to hastle with scrolling around a huge webpage to get where you want to go!
Version 1.0 currently features:
- Main news page
- Comics page (clicking on 'new comment' from your PSP will take you to the unformatted comic page)
- Comic Archive
- Forum (link takes you to the original unformatted forum)
- 'Contact' and 'About' sections
Stay tuned for new versions of Hbabies.net as I provide you with new features and content. All Halo Babies, and all for your PSP!
KNOWN ISSUES I AM WORKING ON:
- Some larger comics do not load, due to a "not enough memory" error.
- There are some CSS display issues.
- Currently, when you click to continue a news story, it opens in the orignal format.
NOTE: This site is still in its early phase. Send any bugs you encounter to mrsmiley(at)halobabies.net with a detailed description of the problem.
Contest Entry Closed | mrsmiley { August 22, 2005 }
Any entries to the Red vs Blue comic contest that were not received before midnight last night will not be accepted. Swing by this Friday when we annonce the winners. Oh yes, and the guys at Red vs Blue will be the final judges for the contest!
Forum Registration Online | mrsmiley { August 21, 2005 }
After installing a new user profile mod to our forum, it appears that all this week our registration has been down. Unfortunately, it took that long for someone to hit me up with an e-mail. I'm sure many of you were wondering how you were supposed to enter the RedvBlue contest if you couldn't register an HBN user name. No more worries, forum registration is back online! Sorry for the inconvenience.
Link Update | mrsmiley { August 13, 2005 }
I have just added 7 new links to our affiliates page. None of the 7 are actual affiliates, but are definitly sites you should check out! Read on for a list and short description of each.
Halo Strips
Land of Bob
This is a hilarious gaming comic strip! Not every strip is Halo-related, but many our. A very unique sense of humor, and an all around great strip. Give it a look.
Halo Machinima
FS Vids
A great Halo machinima site, with several different series to choose from. My favorite vid on the site, was the pilot episode of the now discontinued series. It had a great 1st episode, and it's a shame it didn't go further! It can be found here.
Praetoria Guard
A very unique machinima series. Each episode is bascially a bunch of sketches, and some are hilarious! The Cartel sketch at the beginning of episode 2 had me rolling! Definitly check these guys out!
Other Halo Sites
Halo 2 Cheaters
An active site that lists people who cheat in Halo 2 online. Report hackers here!
Bloodgulch.net
A very active Halo 2/Xbox/Xbox 360 resource site. Check it!
Plixel Designs
A brand new graphic design website, made from a couple members of this very site! They have been busy making sigs/avatars for members here, and our working on graphic tutorials and galleries for their site. Keep an eye on this one.
There you have it, if you have a cool Halo-related site, and would like to see it on our links page, e-mail me.
Update: I was just informed that several older links on our affiliates page no longer work. They have been removed. Thanks, Mike!
HaloBabies Goes Red and Blue! [NEW CONTEST!] | mrsmiley { August 05, 2005 }
I may have been gone for a while, but that didn't stop my scheming! It's been a while since HBN has seen a decent contest. So here we are with a new one! What's up for grabs? A set of all 3 seasons of Red vs. Blue, and more!
Whether you like RedvsBlue or not, you cannot deny the absolutely enormous impact that it has had on today's Halo fan community, and practically the world! Burnie and Gfunk were kind enough to send a few of their brand new Season 3 DVDs to give away to you, our beloved fans here at HBN!
What do I do?
This is probably the easiest contest we have ever had. Practically no skill is needed. All you need to do, is come up with a HaloBabies comic idea that involves Red vs. Blue in some way! That's it! Keep in mind that this will be a HaloBabies comic with a RedvsBlue theme, so the usual HBN standards of decency will apply, as will our commitment to the baby theme of the strip!
An example of a good entry for this contest would take the following format:
Panel 1: Church is standing in giant jar of honey mustard inside red base.
Panel 2: Sarge walks up and asks, "What are you doing!?"
Panel 3: Church answers, "BBQ SUCKS!"
Yeah... but hopefully it will be funnier than that.
----> e-mail entries to: along with both your HBN forum user name and your real name!
What will I win?
There will be a winner, and a runner-up. The winner will receive all 3 seasons of Red vs. Blue on DVD, as well as a framed print of their comic strip idea when it is brought to life by Gruntsbane. Their strip will be featured on here as one of our official weekly strips as well. Talk about bragging rights!
The runner-up will receive a Red vs. Blue Season 3 DVD.
-----RULES/TIPS-----
- You must have a registered account here at HBN to enter. It's quite easy to do so, so if you don't have one, register now!
- Keep it clean. This is Halo Babies after all!
- Your strip idea can span from 1 to 6 panels.
- You may submit 3 strip ideas, so you're in luck if you can't choose just one! SUBMIT ALL 3 IN ONE E-MAIL!
- You don't have to, but a rough sketch of your strip would greatly help in visualizing your idea. If you can't draw anything, be sure to be very discriptive in your entry!
- ALL ENTRIES DATED AFTER 11:59 ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 21, WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. The entries will be judged, and the winner and runner-up will be announced on Friday, August 26.
- Entry MUST be e-mailed to: to be accepted.
If you have any questions concerning the contest, please leave a comment and I will try to answer you in this post.
Good luck, and have fun!
Q&A: Updated 8/05 | 12:24 PST
- donut asks: "can i possibly PM my entry for the competition?"
I'm sorry, e-mails only. I need to have a record of your entries all in one place. It is very easy to set up a free e-mail account with hotmail, yahoo, etc. Since those are web-based, they will not be monitored by work.
- donut asks: "if i was to win would you actually pay for postage to Northern Ireland?"
Of course. I will send the prizes wherever the winner lives.
- donut asks: "will the DVDs work on a DVD player/Xbox/PS2/PC in Northern Ireland?"
viewdrix answers: "The RvB DVD's are region-free. They should be able to work in all DVD players, internationally. They also support NTSC and work in DVD drives of consoles and computers."
- sQuEaK asks: "do the ideas have to have the red vs blue characters and locations or can it be an ordinary halo babies comic with master chief and friends, with refference to redvsblue?"
Either way is fine. As long as something from RvB makes it to the strip, we can all gome home happy.
- donut asks: "Will all of the submissions be made viewable after the competition?"
That's a good question. We might put up a group of the runners up depending on how many entries there are.
- a couple people said: "I would enter but I already have all 3 seasons."
Enter anyways, we'll just give the DVDs to the next best entry, and you'll still get your strip posted! Be sure to let us know in your entry if you don't want the DVDs.
Forums Back Online | mrsmiley { November 10, 2004 }
Our forums are now back online, after a short break for the mods. If you plan on posting/discussing spoiler information about Halo 2, POST IT HERE! If I see any spoiler discussed in a different topic for the next month or so, the topic will be deleted. This is simply to keep the forum from being cluttered with a 100 posts about Halo 2! :)
NOTICE: Forums Will Be Down | mrsmiley { November 09, 2004 }
Due to the fact that Halo 2 is being released on the West coast in less than 7 hours (OMG OMG OMG!) I want to give myself and our mods a short break before diving head-first into a sea of new Halo 2 related material! (That and our bandwidth is getting stretched quite far. ;) ) Sorry for the downtime, but we will be back up in roughly about 24 hours, for you guys to post all your new Halo 2 experiences! w00t!
What's in Store for Halo Babies? | mrsmiley { November 05, 2004 }
As you have probably already noticed, today marks the final scene in our 30-week Halo Babies adventure strip. Joel and I spent a lot of time running through the script for this over 7 months ago; and yes, we wrote the entire series before Joel drew a single comic! We even ran it past Frankie, and got his permission for Mister Chief to make an appearance. Gruntsbane and I have had a lot of fun doing this, but it has been a lot of work for both of us! The next couple months will mark some big changes for Halo Babies!
Smelling the Roses
It is from all this that I am announcing Gruntbane's 2 month vacation from drawing new Halo Babies strips... starting NOW. Joel has informed me that he needs some time to finish up school, and to take care of other things in his life outside of Halo Babies! This does not mean that Halo Babies is over with, not by a long shot! Even with GB out of the picture for now, I will still be posting plenty of fan art, and holding a couple really cool contests in his absence. In fact, Joel will probably still be around, but for this period, he won't have the stress of making a new strip every week! He will still be working on upcoming projects while on his vacation. However, having this time off will allow both him and myself to play Halo 2, and to gather some good ieas for when we return to the usual "random topic" format. (No constant storyline.)
Guest Starring...
So what will we do for our strips? Don't worry, I won't make them! I have sent out a call to several artists in the Bungie community who I believe have the skills to "take over" strip production while Joel is gone. So far, Stunmutt, Jaxx, and Akba are just a few of the awesome Halo artists who will be adding a unique flare to our comic section here at HBN! There are already some really funny ideas that have been used/thrown around from these artists, so stay tuned!
Artist Interviews
I think that it is important to learn from each others' experience. Over the next few weeks, I plan on interviewing many of the very artists that will be creating strips for us. I'll get inside their head, like only logically annoying AI can! (Huh?)
Halo Babies en Franais!
This has been an ongoing project for a while now, but it wasn't until yesterday that it was finally released. Halo.fr, France's largest Halo website, has translated all 64 Halo Babies strips into French for us! Not only that, but they provided their own comment system, and did a great job organizing the strips to cut download times for 56k users. The team over there did a great job, and a HUGE special thanks goes out to the translator himself, Tanuki Kitsune!
The project started out as a fan project at this site, but after careful consideration, the rights were given to the qualified team at Halo.fr, as their translation methods and resources were far greater than we could have imagined! The official and complete translated Halo Babies comic archive can be found here! You can also get to it from our own comics page. If anyone out there has the urge to make a quality translation of Halo Babies in a language aside from French and English, please contact me!
Forum Refinement
Over the next couple weeks, I will be molding our forum to run smoother, and to offer more for our users and administrators! There is a lot of work to be done, and a lot of messes to clean up, so please have mercy if you sometimes have trouble while browsing. I will announce the times that I will be working on the forum, so you will be warned!
New Contest!
I will be announcing this tomorrow. Let's just say that both a 2004 Halo 2 calendar and a limited edition Halo 2 OXM mag from E3 2004 will be on the table this time... and you won't find those on ebay! (At least as of me writing this!) Halo Babies may be one of the last places you can find a free giveaway of these two items, so stay tuned!
Finally, a Halo Babies Store!
I had to save the best for last. Our fans have been asking for this ever since, oh, the day we first opened! Well it will now be a reality. And check this, it will be open to the public by December! That's right, just in time for all your holiday shopping (for yourself, of course)!
This has been a brief outline of things to come here at HaloBabies.net, so be sure to check back in for more specific details on all of these upcoming events!
Fan Art Constipation | mrsmiley { August 10, 2004 }
Just a little personal note from me. Normally I release fan art every Monday for you guys to enjoy. I have a buttload (pun intended) of artwork waiting to be realeased as I write this. Unfortunately, before I release artwork, the artist needs to be registered in our forum so that I can link to his/her profile! I used to get annoyed when people would send me artwork in the wrong format, or without a forum name... then I realized; I don't have any fan art standards posted on this site! So just a heads up, that I will be posting a fan art submission checklist soon, and that I am not just ignoring all our fan artists who have submitted stuff! ;)
HBN: Too Much New Stuff. | mrsmiley { July 19, 2004 }
Due to the fact that we have such a big site update today, I am going to be forced to use the "extended entry" feature of our news system. OOoo... you know there must be something cool going on! ;P
New Fan Content
Before I get to the main announcement, you should know that today we have a total of 6 new pieces of fanart for you to check out! Big thanks to HBN vets akba and Rogue Elite; as well as a beginner artist by the name of No_117. In addition to these pics, akba has graced us with yet another excellent fan desktop! It seems he is mastering his vectorizing technique more and more every day!
New Fan Strip Section!
It is obvious that we get plenty of fan art here at HBN. However, only recently have we started receiving fan-drawn, and fan-edited, comic strips based off of Halo Babies! Both Gruntsbane and I both enjoy these strips quite a bit, and are always open to people who bring fresh ideas, and unique artistic styles to the table when it comes to Halo Babies comics! That is why I decided to open a new Fan Strip section of our site for business! This area can be accessed via the usual "comics" section of the site.
This new feature is a good way for talented artists/Adobe editors (=P) to put their artistic and comedic abilities to work - and get recognized the same way Gruntsbane does for his comics! The format for posting will be the same, with the 5 most recent comics appearing as thumbnails, and the rest being archived for later viewing. There are currently 4 strips for your viewing pleasure in this new area; 3 are re-releases of older fan strips, and one is brand-spankin-new!
Do You Have What It Takes?
I want to make it clear right now, that NOT EVERYONE WHO SUBMITS A FAN STRIP WILL GET THEIRS POSTED! The HBN crew reserves the right to not post submissions if we think they are poorly done, not funny, inappropriate, etc. However, if you do think you have what it takes to create a quality Halo Babies fan strip, have at it!
Gholsbane RoX!
If you don't know already, he's the guy who built this lovely site. He is also the kind gentleman who got the new fan strip system working for us! Gholsbane is one of those unappreciated "behind the scenes" kinda guys who never gets the credit he deserves. (Like mnemesis of HBO...) Anyways, a big thanks to Gholsbane and all his hard work! =D
***Please e-mail all fan strip submissions to ***
Comment Rules [IMPORTANT] | mrsmiley { June 18, 2004 }
Enough is enough. I have passivly observed the abuse of our comment system for long enough. Click below to view our newly made comment rule system. This will apply as soon as Gholsbane puts a link up above our comment pages. After that, you will all be held responsible whether or not you have read this...
Updated January 5, 2008Ever since HaloBabies.net first re-opened, we have always had one key thing in mind: our fans. What will our fans like? How can we give them more content and more participation without over burdening ourselves? Out of these ideas came the HBN comment system. Believe it or not, not many other online comics provide this system (I am starting to realize why...), so I thought this would be a nice unique way for Gruntsbane and I to review feedback of the weekly strips.
I never once even imagined how much this system would be abused in the months after it was released.
As many of you may remember, I posted a stern warning about a month ago. In addition to that, Gholsbane posted a message that hangs above each comment page. All this was done in order to keep HBN the positive and kid-friendly site that it has always been.
Apparently, there are quite a few people who don't take heed of warnings, and who don't care to follow rules. Big shocker there. In response to these people, I have come up with the following rules for posting comments at this site. Please read them carefully, as there will be a zero tolerance policy regarding them.
Spam
For purposes of HBN's comment system, spamming is considered one or more of the following:
- Posting comments for the sake of posting comments. (i.e. Posting the same comment more than once, post.
- Posting a comment that is not related to the current strip. We don't want to check out your website, join your forum, or hear about the latest Halo 2 info. We want to hear what you have to say about our strips!
- Posting comments in RPG form; as in posting as Halo characters who have conversations with themselves in the comments. (Sounds stupid, but it's been done many times.)
Identity Theft
Do not, under any circumstance, post as someone else's user name. I can tell the difference, and I can verify someone who complains to me about it.
Flaming
For purposes of HBN's comments system, flaming is defined as one or more of the follwing:
- Using excessive foul language to describe the strip, or someone else. As stated above, I want this site to be as "kid-friendly" as possible. Unfortunately, for now, the comment system does not have a language filter. It is up to you to watch what you say.
- Any insults directed at anyone on this site. This falls into the 'Spam' category since it isn't related to commenting on a strip, but I wanted to clarify.
What does this mean? If you break any of the above rules while commenting, we reserve the right to ban you without warning. This does not mean you will be banned from the comments permanently, but at least for a time. For those who are wondering, I have the ability to ban not only the IP address of your own computer, but the IP of your region's service provider as well. Don't think you can fake the system, because it won't work. I'm sorry if this all seems a bit harsh, but it is needed.
Halo Babies needs YOU! | mrsmiley { May 04, 2004 }
Mark, from MCandCortana.net, just informed me of a cool 'Top 100' site for online comics! Coincidently, the site called TopWebComics.com. Just for the hell of it, I entered Halo Babies. Why not? There are a lot of other comics out there, but I think we can do pretty well. All you gotta do is vote! Click on the image below to support Halo Babies! (Keep in mind that you can vote once a day... so DO IT!) =)
Update: Woah! From #800 to #14 (when this was written) in less than 24 hours! Thanks for all your votes! =)
Spoiled Sponsor Coming Soon! | mrsmiley { April 23, 2004 }
This means you only have a few days left to donate to Halo Babies and get yourself entered for a chance to have yourself drawn into a Halo Babies comic strip! Check out the Spoiled Sponsor Contest for more info! If you donate to HaloBabies.net, you also get pre-access to all our goodies (comics, desktops, merchandise, etc), as well as an e-mail ! Don't waste any time, as May 1st is approaching fast! =)
No, it's not from bandwidth this time! | mrsmiley { March 30, 2004 }
Many of you may have noticed that HBN was down for a bit the past 24 hours or so. This had nothing to do with bandwidth, or anything that I could control. Our host gave the following explaination:
At this time, all network services have been fully restored to our data center. The cause of the outage was a major distributed denial of service attack (DDOS) aimed at one of our main routers. Once we isolated the problem, we quickly worked with our upstream provider to resolve it.
So there you have it. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Comic Comments | mrsmiley { February 21, 2004 }
Ever since HaloBabies.Net first opened, one thing has remained the source of both extreme praise and crtiticism. That is, of course, our comics. Unfortunately, most of this was done behind our backs, so we never received any of the input. This problem has now been solved with handy dandy HBN 7.0! Anyone is now able to post a public comment to any of our comics - both old and new. Here is an example using our latest comic entry.
You must fill out all 3 blank fields in order for the comment to be posted. Have fun, and remember, only constructive criticism is appreciated. ;)
Halo Babies 7.0 | mrsmiley { February 20, 2004 }
"What happened to the other 5 versions?"
Today marks a huge day for the Halo Babies community. The launch of a brand spankin' new, buttered, bacon-wrapped, and deep-fried web site! (With extra mayonnaise!) In fact, I believe that this site is so much of an improvement over the last one, that I am making it version "7.0"! ;P This site has been in the building process for almost a year now, and we are very proud to finally show off all our hard work! My highest and most heartfelt thanks go to James Wheare (a.k.a. ), who designed and wrote the code for this website - completely from scratch. James, Joel, and I worked very closely together in trying to make this site as user-friendly, and as cool as possible!
So what is new about this site? The following is a list of some of the major site changes/additions, as well as the new content updates.
- 5 new sketches have been added, including three from the new Halo Babies theme that is soon to be released on the Seventh Column!
- 2 new fan art pictures have been posted. If you have any Halo Babies fan art, be sure to it to me pronto!
- There are a bunch of updates to new misc section:
- The first ever Halo Babies animated short, "Tink"!
- A new 120x40 banner for the new site. (Simple and classy!)
- 4 new avatars.
- "Running master chief" AIM icon now works. =)
- Mac icon tutorial is online. The PC tutorial, however, is being made.
- A completely new PHP forum has been built! The new interface is years ahead of the old forum, providing for much more customization, and no more pop-ups!
- The heritage section has been added. This features a full bio on the creator of Halo Babies, Lorraine McLees! Aside from her own personal background story, this section features original artwork, and info from the famed April Fools joke that fooled so many fans!
- Gholsbane has been added to our contact and about sections.
- Our about section has been updated to include information on the background story of this new site!
- Dreamhost (our webhost) has been added to our affiliates.
- Our new news archive makes it easy to browse through old posts if you haven't been here in a while. (Shame on you! =P)
- The donation section has been changed to include the figures for the new site. I am planning on adding something to show our financial status soon. On a side note, sponsors of this site will be rewarded with some need stuff, soon to be offered in our forum! ;)
- Viewers can now leave comments on all of our comics and specific news posts, so speak you mind! Constructive criticism is welcomed.
- Finally, you will notice that there is no longer a "members only" section. All the content we have is now open to the public, aside from what is posted in the "sponsors" section of the forum!
More than ever, your friends on the Halo Babies team will be dedicated to showing our fans a good time. Already, there are several contests in the works, as well as some exciting new developments in the Halo Babies universe. Although new comics will continue to be released on Fridays, I plan on releasing new content on other days as well. I hope this will encourage all our fans to swing by the site often, check for new stuff, and get posting in our forum! We always appreciate your feedback on anything concerning this site or Halo Babies. Our contact information has been provided for this very reason. I think that is all! Enjoy the new site, it is our gift to you.
Sincerely,
P.S. The new comics will start next week! =)
Sorry, the site you requested is temporarily upgrading... | mrsmiley { January 22, 2004 }
First off, I would like to apologize to everyone for the incredibly long downtime we have had for the last week and a half. Basically, we got over 4,000 hits in less than 2 days, and used up all the rest of our monthly bandwidth allotment! I realize that this happened before, and am working hard to ensure it doesn't happen again! If fact, I would like to ask all of you to only visit the site once a month, so we can save bandwidth...
Just kidding! ;)
All I am really asking you to do is be patient with me. Gholsbane and I are working hard to get the necessary files transferred to our new servers ASAP. The new site is running, fully functional, and waiting to be released! With the help of our awesome sponsors, we have been able to purchase twice the amount of bandwidth that we currently have. We will also be able to look into making that merchandise everyone is requesting. I am hoping to have a meeting up at Bungie studios in Washington soon, where I will talk business with the creator of Halo Babies, Lorraine McLees.
Unfortunately, because we are in the middle of moving, loading, adjusting, tweaking, and creating our new servers to custom fit with the new site, there may be patchy and unexpected downtimes. Please bare with us, as the end result will be worth the wait! Please click here if for information on donating to the HBN Donation Fund!
Your Humble HBN Web Guy,
Matt Dunn
The Return of the Halo Babies | mrsmiley { December 22, 2003 }
I am sure that many of you experienced failed attempts to visit this site during the past week. This was due to the fact that HBN used all of it's allotted monthly bandwidth in less that three weeks. Halo Babies is a growing site, both physically and in popularity, and it is time for a change! For the past several months, I have been working with my good friend Gholsbane (B.net) to develop a new Halo Babies web site. This site is almost finished, and I believe is much more user-friendly and professional than this site is.
There is a catch, however. Moving to a new server costs money! This is where you, the die-hard Halo fan, comes in. You will notice on the left side of every page us now a PayPal donate button, along with an aptly named "Fund Meter". The meter shows how close we are to reaching our small financial goal, and ultimately to opening the new site! For more information on how to help us out, please visit the donations page! Thank you for your patience and support, and happy holidays from HaloBabies.net!
Patience is a Virtue | mrsmiley { December 12, 2003 }
Due to a new job and finals week, Halo Babies will not be updated until late tonight/tomorrow. Sorry for the delay!
UPDATE: I apologize for the lack of update last week. Things have been crazy the past week! This Friday we will have a bunch of new stuff, plus a big announcement! So stick around! =)
Hide and Seek | mrsmiley { December 05, 2003 }
It seems that an Elite's active camouflage is good for something more than combat...
AIM Help | mrsmiley { November 22, 2003 }
Have you ever sat there staring at the AIM Icons page, marveling at all the pretty little moving gifs, without a freaking clue how to use them? Just for you, I have made a short, and hopefully comprehensive, tutorial that explains the process! Enjoy!
Googley Eyed | mrsmiley { November 19, 2003 }
Halo Babies has been officially "Googled"! In other words, we have been listed under Google - one of the the web's most popular search engines! This is a proud moment in HBN history! =P I also noticed that we have been listed under , MSN, Dogpile, and a few other search engines!
There is a good and bad side to this. The good side is that we get tons of hits (averaging about 1,000/day) and new members (getting close to 900)! The bad side is that we have limited bandwidth. Right now, HBN has used almost 80% of its available bandwidth, and the reset date is over 2 weeks away. This explains any problems people have had (or willl have) when trying to access this site towards the end of the month. I apologize for the low bandwidth, and will do my best to get some cash together to buy more!
Holler at your Boys | mrsmiley { November 17, 2003 }
Just wanted to give you all a friendly reminder that Gruntsbane and I love to hear from fans of Halo Babies! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the comic, e-mail Gruntsbane at ! If you have a site-related comment, e-mail me at . Don't be a stranger now! ;P
Had Enough Yet? | mrsmiley { November 07, 2003 }
Well too bad! ;P If you haven't noticed yet, I have re-done the menu to make it easier to read. The words before were a bit blurry and smashed together. Also, I will only be thumbnailing 5 comics at a time, and the rest will be text links. I'm sure all of our dial-up fans will appreciate the lesser loading time!
Ads and AIM | mrsmiley { November 07, 2003 }
I have just added a BRAND NEW SECTION to HBN! It is the Miscellaneous section that you see in the nav bar. For the debut of this section I have added 2 banners, as well as 2 buddy icons for your enjoyment! The best thing about this section, is it does not require a membership! I felt I had to share the love even to those who aren't members of HBN. I would appreciate feedback on the Halo Babies forum for this new section; let me know what you think!
Also, keep in mind that if you have any artwork, banners, buddy icons, or anything else that is Halo-related, ! It just might get put on this site for everyone else to enjoy! ;)
Studs | mrsmiley { November 07, 2003 }
The next Halo Babies comic has arrived! I apologize for the late posting, but as you can see, I have been working hard on new content for this site! =)
Domainating Halo Babies | mrsmiley { November 04, 2003 }
As I am sure most of you have have already found, HBN has been a little lacking in the "activity department" lately. Basically, I switched the Halo Babies domain to a new web host. This means that I had to redirect all of the subdomain links on this site, as well as some file paths. If any of you were having problems accessing sites within HBN, this is why! Please if you experience any more site errors.
Also, I was unable to upload new data due to the server switch. Gruntsbane wasn't able to get a comic to me last week, but even if he did, I wouldn't have been able to post it! (I guess things worked out, right?) Anyways, I apologize for the lack of activity, and I promise we will give you at least something every Friday! To make up for our down time, I am not only releasing a new comic this friday, but also a sneak peek at the new Halo Babies chapter theme for the 7th Column! I may also have some other goodies for you all, so swing by Friday! ;-)
HBN Merchandise... A Li'l Help Please! | mrsmiley { September 16, 2003 }
I have heard the many cries for Halo Babies merchandise from the dedicated fans of HBN, and have been looking into it. After several chats with Bungie.net's Sketchfactor, I have found that I can sell as much merch as I want! ...As long as it does not contain anything that is under Microsoft's license. So basically: Bungie, Halo, Covenant, etc... I need help! If you have any ideas for HBN merchandise, PLEASE POST HERE! If you have not yet registered at the Halo Babies forum, click here.Halo Babies in XBN | mrsmiley { September 10, 2003 }
Just recently, Xbox Nation Magazine requested the rights to use the Halo Babies title image (shown above) in an upcoming Halo 2 article! Che Chou (editor in chief), said that he did not want to keep using the same Halo 2 pics over and over, so he decided to use Halo Babies! As far as I know, the article should be out in next month's mag. Stay tuned!
UPDATE: THE MAG IS OUT NOW! CHECK IT OUT!
More Remodelling | mrsmiley { August 29, 2003 }
HBN is going to be undergoing several changes in the next month or so, so don't be surprised if stuff gets a little wierd! I am working with a few people on trying to make this site the best it can be!
Artist Info Open | mrsmiley { August 08, 2003 }
Halo Babies artist Joel Casebeer has written a short background on himself as well as a Halo Babies-styled self portrait! Check it out at Artist Info!
New Comic | mrsmiley { August 01, 2003 }
As promised, a New Comic has been released! There are already more on the way, as well as more extra content! Currently, Gruntsbane is working on a little something for the Artist Info section. (Right now it is blank.) Swing by next Friday for #4!
Contact Us | mrsmiley { July 31, 2003 }
I added e-mail adresses for both myself and Gruntsbane to the Contacts section.
Site Remodeling | mrsmiley { July 28, 2003 }
As some of you may have noticed, I am am in the process of remodeling HB.Net due to our new "official" domain name. So basically, for at least a day or so, there will probably be a few downed links and some screwed up pages. Please don't e-mail me about these things until I am finished. If there is still a problem then, feel free! Comments and suggestions are welcome in the Forum.
Maintenance | mrsmiley { July 26, 2003 }
Whenever I change some about the site that pertains to layout or helping the site run better, I will post it with the little gear symbols next to it. (Aren't they cute?)
Changes:
- Fixed menu links to remain white so they can be seen better.
- Put "click here" links next to the options in the MOXC section to make things more clear.
- Changed the news format (as you probably already know) to include pictures representing different types of news posts.
- Changed the intro paragraph above to give much needed credit to Halo Babies founder, Lorraine Mclees! Thanks Lorraine!
Coming Up Next Week | mrsmiley { July 25, 2003 }
If you have enjoyed Halo Babies so far, just wait till next week! Next friday we will release another comic as well as more MOXC! (Members Only eXlusive Content) Feedback and suggestions are always welcome in the Forum.
Halo Babies Have Arrived! | mrsmiley { July 25, 2003 }
The official launch of the Halo Babies website is now! We currenty have 2 new comics available for viewing with a new one coming next week! Also, in our Members Only eXclusive (MOX) section we have various character sketches, and will be releasing a wallpaper soon! If you haven't already, join the Forum to discuss Halo Babies and other things. Finally, Bungie's Lorraine McLees (the founder of Halo Babies) is currently searching for some original Halo Babies material! We've got a lot going on here, so be sure to drop in now and then!
What Is MOXC? | mrsmiley { July 25, 2003 }
MOXC stands for Members Only eXclusive Content, also referred to as just "MOX". When you see a news post or a link with this symbol next to it, you know it is only for members of MSXL, or for members of our Forum. For slightly more info, go here.
