RFSHQ
| Radio F Software Headquarters (RFSHQ) | |
|---|---|
 A randomly-generated RFSHQ logo circa 2007. | |
| URL | http://www.rfshq.com/ |
| Slogan | "Making your ding ding go toot toot since 2004." (07-08) "Yes, you can touch it." (06-07) "Everything your parents warned you about." (05-06) "Dangerous comedy!" (04-05) |
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Comedy/satire |
| Owner | Andre Bardin, Dan Gusak, & Various |
| Created by | RFS Media Productions |
| Launched | February 12th, 2004 |
| Status | Abandoned |
Radio F Software Headquarters (abbreviated, advertised, and better known as RFSHQ) was a Robot Arena 2 community created and managed by Radio F Software. RFSHQ launched on February 12, 2004 following RFS' departure from staff at AceUplink. It began listing humorous content on May 9, 2004 with the inclusion of the column "The NES Reviews". At its peak, RFSHQ was within the top 100,000 websites online according to Alexa.com.
RFS left the RFSHQ project in July 2008 over personal matters. The website's forums went offline not long thereafter and as of 2014 the website is still online as a broken content archive.
During its lifetime RFSHQ was notable for several small milestones. The website served as the testing ground for the social gaming platform that ultimately became TrackMill Games, it was the first website in the world to feature downloads of full episodes of BattleBots, and a humorous viral graphic created by RFS ultimately led to the Six Flags company temporarily retiring their Mr. Six mascot.
Contrary to popular belief, the website was not named after RFS himself but rather the media group he belonged to at the time, Radio F Software. He eventually adopted the screenname Dracophile in 2008 to differentiate himself from the title of the site. Former site administrator (and international music superstar) Cherry Flavored suggested the name originally.
History
Immediately following RFS' suspension from the AceUplink website he set out to create a counter community with the intent to pull AceUplink's active members away. He co-created the first version of RFSHQ in February 2004 with the help of Cherry Flavored and TheDisturbedOne. With the RA2 community beginning to falter and shrink RFS made the decision to move the focus of the website from being an RA2 community to being a platform to share his comical writings and thoughts. The "NES Reviews" column became the first feature on the RFSHQ website with a satirical review of The Adventures of Bayou Billy posted on May 9, 2004.
Over the course of the months following the website would go under numerous revisions and redesigns until 2005 when goose became a part of the picture. As a long-time friend of RFS', goose set the website up with a formal domain name, a hosting platform, a vBulletin forum license, and a more refined and uniform site design. In 2007 goose also designed a content management system entirely from scratch that became the new backbone and delivery system for the website's content. After the initial offer of help from goose, RFSHQ began dismantling and removing content excessively critical of AceUplink and by the time the new CMS launched the content was gone entirely.
Legacy
Prior to the establishment of GameTechMods, RFSHQ was the largest and longest-running RA2 fansite on the Internet. Despite re-emerging as a comedy website a mere three months after its launch the website failed to reach outside of its original audience and ended up keeping discussion forums for RA2 open in its community. The website was fondly known as "Radio Shack" among the Advanced Robot Combat community. During his tenure as site administrator RFS authored over 100 articles and produced several dozen original videos as site content.