Community:The Bombers

The Bombers are a group of writers who release regular articles about The Legend of Zelda series at ZeldaInformer. The name of the group comes from The Bombers Secret Society of Justice, a group of children from. The Bombers are considered to be site staff, with a number of them also being active ZeldaInformer webmasters, administrators, content writers, content coders and forum moderators. The Bombers are currently on a break from writing at ZeldaInformer, and their absence has been filled with the 'casual article' concept.

History
Originally the group's activities revolved tightly around Zelda theorizing. A theory writing contest was announced on Zelda Universe in early 2007, the winners would become the founding members of The Bombers. The judges, all ZU members, selected ten winners from a massive number of submitted articles. A long series of articles was intended to be released on the ZU main page, but due to the "ZeldaInformer revolution", only four of them ever saw the light of day on Zelda Universe. All of the Bombers articles have been archived on ZeldaInformer and can be found in the List of Bombers Articles.

The Original Concept and The Move to ZeldaInformer
The Bombers were originally formed as a response to the growing number of unofficial theory groups in the Theory section of the Zelda Universe forums. The original groups were accused of dominating all discussion and causing unnecessary internet drama. In order to avoid the mistakes of the past, all Bombers members were encouraged to break all connections to previous groups they may have been a part of. All Bombers articles aim to be as unbiased and objective as possible, still maintaining the spirit of theory discussion, which is based heavily on debate.

The original lineup consisted chiefly of members from the United Wise Men group. Shortly after The Bombers were formed, all the original groups began to wither away. Though this was mainly due to the "Blue Swamp" incident which, after a brief exchange of furious internet drama, brought ZU's theory discussion to a standstill. While most theorists were glad to uncover the final answer to one of the most controversial questions, people soon realized that the never ending debate had been one of the things that had been keeping the theorizing community alive for so long.

The Bombers were soon faced with a problem. Interest in Zelda theorizing was declining rapidly, which was also felt within the group. Many writers felt that there was no point in going on after "the big question" was answered. Many in the group were dissatisfied with the general atmosphere of ZU's theory board, which had become infested with newbies after the veteran theorists had lost interest. This was when Leminnes and Captain Cornflake approached the group with a proposition. The plan was to create a brand new site that focused heavily on theorizing, providing resources and most importantly, publishing articles. And so ZeldaInformer was born.

"Originally The Bombers were just going to write articles for Zelda Universe. That's it. Once we got the ball rolling, Phil who had organized everything called a meeting and proposed that we build our own site, instead of just producing material for ZU. The idea had come from Phil and Dennis and the Bombers unanimously agreed to go along with it. We felt that ZU was a far too restrictive environment for us."

- Uncle Meat

The New Home
Before the dust had settled after the move to ZeldaInformer, the writers immediately began to produce articles and material for the site with a pace not seen since those days. Memorable features from the early days such as The Majora's Mask Month saw as many as five articles about a single game released in one month resulting in seven articles altogether for the month alone. This was the most productive the team has ever been.

It soon became apparent that the writers simply couldn't keep this kind of pace up. Many writers felt overworked, which together with Leminnes' departure from the ZI project drove the team to a standstill in a couple of months. This was when Uncle Meat, then a member of the team, began to take an active role in coordinating the project together with Mess, who worked as a webmaster of the site as well as its host VGRC.

Some of the original Bombers felt that they couldn't commit themselves to such a time consuming project and left the group. Once the word about ZI began to spread new writers soon emerged and began producing material. Under Uncle Meat's leadership the group briefly shifted focus away from article writing and concentrated on creating guides and other content for the site in order to fill the empty sections.

Articles
Originally the writers were intended to produce two types of features: Bombers Articles and Discussions, later retitled Debates. The articles were soon to become ZeldaInformer's main attraction and most prominent feature. At the height of their creativity the team published seven articles in one month. Over the months the activity began to drop and halted completely at times until August 2008, when the group went through something of a renaissance with the help of several new writers and started to publish articles regularly again.

While the group was able to produce a high number of articles, all attempts at creating publishable discussions failed for one reason or another. The concept was dropped when the group migrated to ZeldaInformer. It took over a year for the first official Bombers Debate to surface. The debate was met with great enthusiasm which mounted into colossal responses in the comments section. By this time it had become clear that a debate was a much more interesting concept for readers than a discussion, which is why the original title was not used.

Types
Editorials  Opinion pieces that tackle past and present matters in the world of Zelda. Roundup Articles  Informative pieces, usually dealing with the big questions surrounding the many Zelda theories and hotly debated subjects. Essential reading for theorists. Theory Articles  Original theories about the world of Zelda. Community Articles  Pieces dealing with the Zelda community and the gaming community. Debates  Occasionally some of our finest theorists pick a subject and debate it from all aspects imaginable to give the reader a balanced look at the more controversial matters in the world of theorizing.

Process
Before every article is published it goes through a strict process to ensure that it meets the quality standards of The Bombers. Once the author has written their article they post it within the ZeldaInformer staff board, where other Bombers and staff members review the article and give suggestions for improvement. Once it has been thoroughly revised a release date is booked in and the article is released. Debates go through a similar process. They begin as a threaded forum discussion, and once completed they are edited, reviewed and formatted for release.

Joining the Group
Since its creation, the group has always been open to new writers. The founders of the group are constantly looking for new talented writers amongst the community. The requirements are simple, in order to be accepted into The Bombers you must submit a sample of your work via Private Message to a Bombers Editor, at least one page long. The topic can be anything Zelda related.