So...the Future of OWF

[kjjcarpenter]

of course there's the issue of finance.

Why not just open up a Paypal donation button, and have the forums financed by the community? It seems the most logical solution. What's the price range we're looking at? It seriously can't be too expensive to warrant not upgrading.

Peter absolutely positively wants to keep the blogs.

Also, wouldn't it be easier to send an email to all of our users, asking them to back up their blogs, if they so choose? This also seems like a cheap reason to withhold upgrading. But I suppose the overlord has spoken.

we'd lose the custom themes that we've all grown accustomed to.

And of course we wouldn't have the same themes. They're rubbish. Every time I scroll, the background flickers as if the website is about to collapse. We need a complete, aesthetic overhaul, and we need to add mobile support.

[Varrok]

Also, wouldn't it be easier to send an email to all of our users, asking them to back up their blogs, if they so choose? This also seems like a cheap reason to withhold upgrading. But I suppose the overlord has spoken.

Not all users who made blogs are still active.

And of course we wouldn't have the same themes. They're rubbish. Every time I scroll, the background flickers as if the website is about to collapse. We need a complete, aesthetic overhaul, and we need to add mobile support.

That's because the background consists of small 2 color lines. It's actually not the theme's fault that they blend together while scrolling. Our screen resolutions are just too small

[Manco]

That's because the background consists of small 2 color lines. It's actually not the theme's fault that they blend together while scrolling. Our screen resolutions are just too small

No our screen resolutions are too high. These themes were designed back when 24" 1024x768 was fine. The themes are outdated.

[Crashpunk]

Why not just open up a Paypal donation button, and have the forums financed by the community? It seems the most logical solution. What's the price range we're looking at? It seriously can't be too expensive to warrant not upgrading.

Yup. I'd happily donate something towards it.

add mobile support

This would be amazing.

And as for the themes. I wouldn't miss them. But if people really did miss them, we could make new themes based on the old ones. I know nothing about web design but surely it wouldn't be too difficult.

[Varrok]

No our screen resolutions are too high. These themes were designed back when 24" 1024x768 was fine. The themes are outdated.

That makes even more sense. I love this theme, though

[kjjcarpenter]

Not all users who made blogs are still active.

Well if they're not active, I hardly think they'll care if they lose a ten-year-old blog about what they had for breakfast that morning.

[Varrok]

You don't make blogs simply for yourself

[kjjcarpenter]

So are you going to care if a ten-year-old blog about someone else's breakfast disappears?

I don't mean to be facetious, but I just don't see the issue. Do people actively trawl the backlog of blogs from eons past, reminiscing about days gone by?

[Phylum]

Some blogs contain information about major milestones in people's lives or time here. There are lots of memories there for some people. Plus, there have been some really major blogs over the years.

Anyone else remember that time Strike Witch (when she was maybe still Ghost) posted that really long image to celebrate 100 blog entries?

That said, how many long gone members would even want their blogs transferred across to a new forum?

[Manco]

Well if we can automatically archive them as threads as Havoc said then what’s the issue?

The bigger issue is probably finding a replacement blog plugin for the new forum.

e: and if people are that uptight about the format they read old blogs in, what’s stopping us from just leaving the old forum up as a read-only archive?

[kjjcarpenter]

and if people are that uptight about the format they read old blogs in, what’s stopping us from just leaving the old forum up as a read-only archive?

I was going to suggest something along these lines, but my knowledge of what can and cannot be done with websites is fairly limited compared to you guys.

[Havoc]

Does he really mean keep the blogs as in transferring all existing blog entries over to a new site, or just keeping the blog functionality. Because shit, I wouldn't not care one tiny bit if all of my blogs fell off the face of the earth.

Peter's one big rule with forums he runs is that he never throws anything away. Posts are never deleted unless they are pure and utter spam, and even then it sometimes isn't deleted. That's why we have a subforum called Necrum that has so much junk in it. Simply losing all those old blogs is unthinkable for him and for the sake of historic value I kind of agree. Though I also think it wouldn't be the biggest loss in the world if it somehow couldn't be done.

Why not just open up a Paypal donation button, and have the forums financed by the community? It seems the most logical solution. What's the price range we're looking at? It seriously can't be too expensive to warrant not upgrading.

Crowd funding is certainly one way to go. We're talking roughly 200 - 250 dollars, so depending on how many people are willing to contribute that should be fairly easy to get together.

The bigger issue is probably finding a replacement blog plugin for the new forum.

e: and if people are that uptight about the format they read old blogs in, what’s stopping us from just leaving the old forum up as a read-only archive?

There is a very advanced blogging plugin for Xenforo (many more features than what Vbulletin offers), so that's not really the issue. Leaving the old forum up as an archive is actually a really good idea, regardless of how we handle the migration.

[STM]

A problem with leaving this website up as an archive is the fact that we'd need a new SEO optimised domain name. www.oddworldforums.com is already taken...

Although...oddworldforum.com [singular] isn't.

[Jordan]

What about adding 'the' into the URL so it would be theoddworldforums.net/com? It might help to establish the site as the place to go to talk about Oddworld, but it also might make people believe it's an official site.

EDIT: misread STM's post, my bad

[Manco]

A problem with leaving this website up as an archive is the fact that we'd need a new SEO optimised domain name. www.oddworldforums.com is already taken...

Although...oddworldforum.com [singular] isn't.

What are you talking about? Just move it to a subdomain. archive.oddworldforums.net

[STM]

All right smart arse.

[Havoc]

What are you talking about? Just move it to a subdomain. archive.oddworldforums.net

This.

[FrustratedAssassin]

This.

This post is so good I rate it useful/useful

[Varrok]

What about adding 'the' into the URL so it would be theoddworldforums.net/com? It might help to establish the site as the place to go to talk about Oddworld, but it also might make people believe it's an official site.

EDIT: misread STM's post, my bad

TOWF doesn't have that nice ring to it

[Nate]

For the sake of my two cents, I really don't care about blogs. We can drop them entirely in the new forum for all I care.

e: and if people are that uptight about the format they read old blogs in, what’s stopping us from just leaving the old forum up as a read-only archive?

Yup, this was pretty much my thought. Alcar's cloned the forums more than once in the past, when he wanted to try shit out before implementing it on the main forum.


Also, the main problem with money is that Peter's too prideful to accept offers of help. Also, he probably thinks that accepting money from me would mean he has to make me a co-owner. Which he doesn't want to do, for whatever reason. And so on and so forth. The actual amount of money needed for Xenforo and a theme or two isn't enough to really be concerned.

[STM]

The problem is, I don't think there's a single person on OWF that wants Alcar to stay as the sole owner. I'm pretty sure we all want someone active on the forum to own or co-own it. *cough* you Nate *cough*

[kjjcarpenter]

I'm pretty sure we all want someone active on the forum to own or co-own it.

It would certainly be a huge leap forward.

Alcar just seems far too concerned with nostalgia. He's letting sentimentalism get in the way of turning this decadent stomping ground into something grand. It'd be one thing if he was actually still here, but I can't personally remember ever seeing a single post from him since I've been on this account.

I used to be concerned that one day Alcar would stop paying the bills, or decide to take the forum offline. Although these fears seem to be alleviated due to the revelation of his tinted lenses, he also seems anomalously content to let this place spiral into obscurity—which it has essentially done already—where it will eventually die out of a simple lack of TLC.

I personally would rather a forum without Alcar, which is why I'd be in favour of establishing an entirely new website, while maintaining our current administration team—essentially Nate and Xavier—and recruiting others as the forum requires it. It irks me that for as long as Oddworld Forums will remain, we'll be shackled by the memory of its mislaid owner.

So can I ask a question? What is the exact likelihood of Alcar giving the all clear to archive this website and start again? Because why it seems like a splendid idea, I have a sneaking suspicion that he won't go ahead with it unless the entire forum is transplanted in its entirety.

And is the upgraded website going to make such a huge difference if Alcar still gets the majority vote for anything and everything? It's no good expending all of this effort if, a year down the road, something needs to be fixed or amended and we can't contact the owner.

[FrustratedAssassin]

For the sake of my two cents, I really don't care about blogs. We can drop them entirely in the new forum for all I care.

I like the blogs though. I've never had a blog because nobody would find and read it so why bother. But here people actually see them and read them and comment on them and sometimes diverge into completely different topics making them like some sort of regular threads which is great.

So can I ask a question? What is the exact likelihood of Alcar giving the all clear to archive this website and start again? Because why it seems like a splendid idea, I have a sneaking suspicion that he won't go ahead with it unless the entire forum is transplanted in its entirety.

And is the upgraded website going to make such a huge difference if Alcar still gets the majority vote for anything and everything? It's no good expending all of this effort if, a year down the road, something needs to be fixed or amended and we can't contact the owner.

This is a good point, by the way. If Alcar doesn't want to give anyone else control over the forum, who's to say that we'll be able to actually do something with the new version? I mean yeah, maybe we'll be able to upgrade but how will we ever change anything if he mantains his current status of 100% owner?

[Manco]

Blogs are a feature that get used pretty regularly and generate a decent amount of activity, it’s best to keep them.

The problem is, I don't think there's a single person on OWF that wants Alcar to stay as the sole owner. I'm pretty sure we all want someone active on the forum to own or co-own it. *cough* you Nate *cough*

Exactly. No progress is ever going to be made here without a more active admin, and if that isn’t Alcar then it needs to be someone else.

If Alcar wants to remain owner and keep paying the bills, that’s fine. But he needs to appoint someone else to do the day-to-day running and administration that needs to be done when he’s absent.

[Nate]

So can I ask a question? What is the exact likelihood of Alcar giving the all clear to archive this website and start again?

Difficult to say. He sounds very positive about upgrading and whatnot, but that's happened in the past without anything actually ending up happening.

And is the upgraded website going to make such a huge difference if Alcar still gets the majority vote for anything and everything? It's no good expending all of this effort if, a year down the road, something needs to be fixed or amended and we can't contact the owner.

As long as someone else has a vote, it doesn't matter if Alcar has the majority. Let's put it like this: Early on when I was a mod, I'd check in with Alcar before making any significant decisions (e.g. adding subforums, changing rules). At a certain point he gave me the the go-ahead to just make those decisions on my own. And I figure it'd be the same if I became an owner - I'd have the full ability to do anything and Alcar for the most part wouldn't get involved.

Blogs are a feature that get used pretty regularly and generate a decent amount of activity, it’s best to keep them.

A bunch of that activity might have been threads if blogs weren't available. And I'd prefer more threads to blogs.

[Manco]

A bunch of that activity might have been threads if blogs weren't available. And I'd prefer more threads to blogs.

As long as people are finding and participating in them does it really matter all that much?

[STM]

There's nowhere we can make threads about our day-to-day lives on the forums as it stands, I don't think forum posts are the right format for that.

[FrustratedAssassin]

Yeah, a lot of the subjects of the blog posts would've never been touched by regular threads. Some of thsor discussions, even if they did diverge from the original blog post, were pretty much spontaneous and nobody would've posted them on their own.

#savetheblogs

[MeechMunchie]

I'd say that if OWF 2.0 is gonna avoid being a festering heap of spam a blog function will be required.

"This should be a blog" is a lot more popular than "Don't post this at all".

[Varrok]

But certainly less fun to say.

That said, don't post this at all.