Hello everyone,

I wanted to take the time to share in a bit of detail where we're at and some of the next steps from here.


Transfer status update

  • The domain registration has been transferred and renewed!
  • After the hard drive was shipped, lost, crushed, found, injected with a note from the postmaster saying "whoops, sorry about that", then delivered a week late while we were on vacation, we were able to start bringing the hardware back online. Thankfully it was very well padded and protected inside the box and there was no damage.
  • Issues with the static IP setup caused the DNS to be reconfigured multiple times - this is still something I'm trying to look into as it may cause problems down the road
  • Lastly, as the key components of the site are now operational with what we have we'll be transferring the last of the licensing required for the site operation
Next points of focus

First off, thank you. Thank you for you patience and being a wonderful group of people. It was great to see the different discussions and even some of the mini scenes that were created as a way to get your NWOD fix during the downtime. I know there are many of you that have offered to help with donations to help with the cost of running the site and up to this point I have declined because I wanted to assume all of the risk myself until I could confirm the site could operate from here. There were a lot of wildcards in this transfer and I didn't want anyone to lose their money in the span of a couple of weeks and not get anything in return.

One of those risks was a software/hardware incompatibility- and it happened. Even though the specs of the CPU/RAM and bus speeds were relatively similar, my motherboard's BIOS was actually just a touch too old to correctly boot up the site's windows installation. I researched the issue with West and after trying everything we could on the original intended machine, I put it in Orianna's gaming PC and updated a few UEFI settings and there was life. The good news is the site is back up (and it can run on relatively modern hardware!), but the bad news is new hardware has to be purchased so Ori can have her PC back.

Next on the issues list is a few people are reporting site latency. Some of this will resolve as the domain services are configured, but this is mostly caused by my internet speeds. Please do let me know if/when you're encountering latency and I'll be able to look into what may be causing it. I plan to increase the bandwidth in the future after some of the more critical and expensive parts of the transition are resolved or if it becomes a severe issue hindering the community.

I'm at the point where if people were still wanting to donate to the costs of the site running I would be comfortable with accepting the help. I'm researching a good channel to take those donations (paypal/patreon, etc.) as well as rewards for donating. As I understand it, West had an "Angels of Darkness" title that was given to contributors and I'm looking to do something similar. We might also add Christmas cards or something personal. Just to be transparent, as an avid gamer it is important to me that those contributions don't provide an in game advantage over a non-contributor.

Housekeeping items:

Let's change all the things!:

I've glossed over some of the discussions during the downtime discussing suggested changes such as using the 2.0 system. I would absolutely love for there to be threads created to discuss in detail the pros and cons so that we fully vet out any proposed changes and what they would do to the player experience. At this time, I want you to know that we'll be maintaining a status quo on the core rules the site is being run on today. Many of the suggestions would require an overhaul of the wiki and site components and there are other things administratively that I'll need to prioritize first. For now, the threads and discussion will help me prioritize what the community would like to see when we're able to consider some of those suggestions.

Banned and returning players:

Some of you may or may not be able to read this, so please feel free to pass this along as necessary. I understand that there is quite a bit of history with the site, much of it good and with a few very frustrating stretches of time caused by a variety of different personalities, ideas or implied incompatibilities with the spirit of the game and it's community. I am new to this community, and I'm going to administer it in a neutral position. I took this on to save the forum in which a small community of gamers had built strong relationships and had a creative outlet for writing and roleplay. I had this happen to me personally over a decade ago, and I would have done anything to save it given the chance, but I wasn't and that place is gone from me now. That being said, I'm not going to blindly unban everyone from the far history of the site. There are often reasons for an administrator to take the heavy hand approach of a full ban, however, I do want to be able to objectively discuss those situations with banned players wishing to make a return.

If you are, or know a returning player that is banned or just want to provide some insight into a history I was not a part of, you can email NWODappeals at gmail dot comNWODappeals@gmail.com NWODappeals@gmail.com so I can get a good vantage point to maintain objectivity. Please include your account name and any related characters you might have. Again, for transparency, if anyone returns or a ban is lifted then you'll be returning as a PC only to interact with the community. I will not be making any of these decisions alone, and will be engaging several of the tenure of the site to determine the final outcome. If I feel on the fence on the decision my default will be to maintain the status quo.

Lastly, as there seems to be a fair amount of people returning, character approvals may take a bit as to not overwhelm the existing community. I and your storytellers appreciate your patience!

Please let me know if you have any questions!