Stepping down

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Brennor
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Stepping down

Post by Brennor » Thu Mar 19, 2015 6:08 am

Hi everyone,

It has been a great 11+ years with the site so far. However, for me, priorities have taken a significant shift lately and I have not had enough time to support the site as it deserves. Before letting the site die a slow, languishing death, I'd like to hand it over to others who will continue to support the site as it should be supported.

With that in mind, I am stepping down and handing the reigns over to Shurijo, TetNak, Trogdor and Vardaen. They will be taking the site to a new location and support.

This changeover will be as painless as possible for you guys, basically all you'll need to do is hit a new URL and reset your passwords and then pick up right where everything left off here.

This cutover is currently planned for next month and the site will be down for a day or two while that happens. The new URL will be announced soon. Once the cutover happens, a URL redirection will be put in place here so that any stragglers are brought over to the new place.

Shurijo, TetNak, Trogdor and Vardaen will be jumping in shortly with additional information.

Thanks for all the years of great fun,
Brennor
[url=telnet://brennor.dyndns.org:1896]Akarian Dawn MUSH[/url]
SRGC v0.22: SR2+++ SR3++ h+ b+++ UB+ IE+ RN W+ dk+ ri+ ad+ m+ gm+ M- P+

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Hayabusa
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Re: Stepping down

Post by Hayabusa » Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:49 pm

Damn. I am very sorry to hear this Bren. It was a great time here and off-site because this site helped me with my first US trip (no joke!). I thank you whole-heartedly for it. Thank you very much and I am sad to see Brennor's gone.
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"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

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Grimbold
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Re: Stepping down

Post by Grimbold » Thu Mar 19, 2015 3:28 pm

I can just repeat what Haya said. Thanks a lot for all your work and effort and for creating such a great place. I do hope you do pop in once in a while in the future.

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Scout89
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Re: Stepping down

Post by Scout89 » Thu Mar 19, 2015 5:19 pm

Thanks for all the work you did here! I wish you success in your endeavors. You will be missed.
A.K.A. Tvrod.

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Shurijo
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Re: Stepping down

Post by Shurijo » Thu Mar 19, 2015 5:28 pm

Hey guys,

I'm handling the technical/server/database aspects of the cut over. Here's some things you should do to prepare for the move.

First, here's what I have database scripts to move:
1) user info
2) forums
3) topics
4) posts
5) PM Inbox
6) PM Savebox
7) Your favorites/bookmarks topics
8) Your watchlist/subscriptions

Things not being planned for conversion:

1) blog news (home page). Initially, we'll be using a "news & info forum" for updates and announcements.
2) Reviews (home page)
3) Photo Gallery
4) Bitom's dice roller, I predict we'll see a new version of this soon
5) Downloads
6) Encyclopedia
7) Wiki
8) Character Sheets
9) Shoutblock - We beta tested a Shoutblock and it works fine. However, there's current a bug in the beta version. As soon as the Shoutblock addon is fixed/released, we'll load it.

?? Did I miss anything? If you see something on the site that we're not moving and you think we should, then please let us know. Thanks - shurijo



What you should do now to prepare for later

1. Go through your PMs.

* If there's something that's critical in your inbox or save items, then save it Google docs or your local computer. Things will get converted. However, the focus is on the games and users. PMs are the 3rd priority in data migration.

* Note that Sent Items and Outbox will not be migrated to new database, so be sure if you need to send/tell something (or save something) to move it to Savebox or tell them before the migration happens.

2. For GMs

* If you are hosting images on Brennor's RPG, then be aware the that the image links might not work once we move. We'll work to get the images restored, but it might take a few days.

* If you're in a middle of a game/combat, then look for offsite image hosting for the next few weeks (like imgur or imageshack etc) as a temporary measure until we get moved then we'll be okay with loading images back to the new server.

* We'll need to reset forum permissions. If you have a "secret" forum (I know TetNak has a lot for ASOIAF) then be sure to write down the forum name and who has permission to it, so we can re-assign permissions on the new forums. General "game groups" isn't necessary, just the forums that are "private."

3. For Players

* Look at what's not getting loaded. Save anything needed (like photos from the gallery), etc.

* Help with naming our new website (domain name). Vardaen will talk about this in a bit.

* Make sure your email is correct! In case you need to reset your password on the new site.


Technical info

The new forums will be phpBB version 3.1.

We have a test server already set up and have successfully migrated an old database dump into the new database. We wanted to make sure we could do it before we announced anything. So we've been working on technical aspects for a couple of weeks to make sure we had everything ready and we were capable of doing it.

Right now the test server is hosted on a temporary subdomain of my personal website. Once we have a real domain name, Vardaen will talk about this in a bit, then (if time permits) we can let everyone check out the new forums before we move, so we can get feedback on the layout and capabilities.

Note that the database we loaded was from 1/1/2012, so if you weren't a user then you'll have to recreate your user account for "testing". Otherwise, your account will be linked to 1/1/2012 email address). We'll load live/real time data when we do the actual data migration. The 1/1/2012 was just for testing.

The new forums is a few years newer than the current forums. Here's a few capabilities:

* Native responsive design - this means it works with any device (computer, phone, tablet) without extra coding (as long as theme doesn't break it, the underlying forums is already coded this way)

* In addition to topic subscriptions (watchlist with emails), you can subscribe to forums. So you can subscribe to the entire game forum to get emails when any IC or OOC post is made.

* Anti-Spam: the new forums has a lot of new anti-spam measures. For starters, any newly registered account will only be able to post in a couple forums (like Welcome/Intro) and their first post will need to be approved by mod. After their first post is approved, then they become normal member and can post where ever.

* Built-in search: works really nice

* Lots of nice themes and styles. We've already customized one theme which we'll be using as default. In addition, we've made an "at work" theme.

* The new forums also has ability for "extensions" to be installed. We're currently using a few and we're also building a few. These extensions (or addons/plugins) allow us to code new features and the ability to turn on/off and more easily improve the site.

** We've currently coded an extension for the "Master Games List." Which allows admins to add/edit/delete games to the list with the information. The list is then displayed with hyperlinks to GMs and game forums. In future, the GMs will be able to edit/update their own games (to update accepting new players, number of players, desc, etc.).


Finally

If there's anyone with any new ideas or suggestions, please let us know.

Our priorities are: 1) users, 2) games, 3) everything else

If you have any questions, just let us know. We hope to kick off a discussion on domain names and site names in a little bit. Once we have a name and purchase the domain, then we'll start moving forward with the dates/planning.

Right now, we're not in any immediate hurry. So this is more of something that'll happen when we're ready rather than by a specific deadline. However, we do plan on making this happen within the next few months, but we're not going to rush anything.

Thanks and I hope to see everyone on the other side once we've moved.
Last edited by Shurijo on Thu Mar 19, 2015 5:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Vardaen
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Re: Stepping down

Post by Vardaen » Thu Mar 19, 2015 5:43 pm

I want to say first to Brennor -- Thank You! I joined here November 11, 2003, nearly a dozen years ago now and its been a pleasure to RP here. Over the course of the years I've had the joy and frustration at times to RP with just about everyone that's come through these halls. Brennor made this place, but you guys made this place amazing! So I know as we move to the new site that amazing-ness will keep right on going. Worry not, for while we loose our founder Brennor, we will continue on with all the same great games and members.

You may have noticed only four names on the list Brennor mentioned, and moving forward the admin staff will consist of myself, Shuijro, Trogdor and TetNak. Yes, that means Bitom too will be moving on to other things, which I'm sure he will post about soon.

Now on to other matters -- A Name! With the leaving of Brennor and the closing of Brennor's RPG Corner we are going to take this chance to rename ourselves. So we turn to you guys and gals to help us do this. We need site name suggestions, ideas for what to call ourselves after the move. We may find someone has a great idea and use that straight out, or we might find some pieces from several suggestions and combine them together. So help us rename and rebrand ourselves. I will make a new thread for this, found here:

https://brennor.dyndns.org/rpg/Forums/v ... tml#296278

Once again thank you to Brennor for the last decade, and thank you to Shurjo for the coming decade!
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

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Bitom
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Re: Stepping down

Post by Bitom » Thu Mar 19, 2015 5:46 pm

So, some of you may have noticed something missing from Bren's post:
Brennor wrote: handing the reigns over to Shurijo, TetNak, Trogdor and Vardaen.
That's right. I will be stepping down as well. This won't be a really big shock to those who've noticed my almost complete lack of activity over the last year or so.

I"ll be sticking around to do what I can to help with the conversion, but after that I will be fading back into nothingness. I may stop by periodically, but I won't be an admin anymore.

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Vardaen
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Re: Stepping down

Post by Vardaen » Thu Mar 19, 2015 5:49 pm

A big thank you also goes out to Bitom for his work with Brennor, and for putting up with me back in the vWorld days of Mahasarpa and Arrata! Ooot Ooot eeek eeek man, going to be missed.
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

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Brennor
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Re: Stepping down

Post by Brennor » Thu Mar 19, 2015 6:15 pm

Thanks for all the well-wishes everyone. We'll try to make the downtime as small as possible.
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Trogdor
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Re: Stepping down

Post by Trogdor » Thu Mar 19, 2015 7:42 pm

Yes, big thanks to Brennor and Bitom for keeping the site going for all those years. We couldn't have made the site work without you guys.

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