Forum overhaul starts RIGHT NOW! -- will soon have a new location!

bscotchAdam

There is a reasonable likelihood that terrible things are going to happen during this process. Worst case scenario: everything that currently exists ceases to. Really, that would be WAAAAYYYYY easier. But I'm not a barbarian. Except when I play Diablo.

Wait, what's happening?
We have a bunch of games and are going to make MANY MORE, and we know we can create a fun, safe, and jerk-free social environment centered around these creations. Thus, BscotchID. By integrating all of our stuff under this one system we'll be able to connect your games and social lives in all kinds of meaningful ways. And so we are migrating absolutely everything over to BscotchID, including the forums.

BUT. As you might guess, this is a complicated technical process. We're learning how to do this as we go, and our skills and the tech are developing rapidly. Sometimes things need to be completely changed in order to make them work. Such is the case with the forums. This is what we're doing to the forums:

1. Changing to BscotchID-only login. This way we'll know which members are sticking with us, and therefore which content should be kept. Officially complete on February 1st.
2. Purging all non-BscotchID forum accounts. This means purging the associated posts and comments as well, so things are going to get lean. This has already begun, and will be finished right after the official transition to BscotchID.
3. Migrating to a new, affordable forum software and server. We'll probably be running phpBB3 on bscotch.net, but there is still room for things to change. I hope to get this ball rolling early next week.
4. Slowly hacking and modifying the new forums to have more awesomeness than is humanly possible.

But why now?
It's quiet around here right now, save for a small group of active members (and I love each of you!) and a bunch of lurkers (I'd probably love you too if you introduced yourself!). That's because all there is to talk about are our old games, BscotchID, and the future. We (the Bscotch Brothers) are way more excited about that stuff than we expect you to be, because we know what's coming in the next weeks, months, and years  

We expect things to get really busy in these forums. Crashlands is already a big game, and with the awesome changes we're working on it'll be even bigger. There will be plenty to talk about, and we hope to make our forums the center of the action. After that will be our first multiplayer-ish game, followed by true multiplayer games, and things will get louder than ever.

So. It's quiet now and will soon get exciting (and, we hope, stay that way). PERFECT TIME TO SHAKE THINGS UP. And lay the groundwork for the future. You can put that on a poster.

You all are the best!
Making games is hard damn work, and it's easy for us to get lost in the fog of coding, design discussions, and the fending off rabid free-to-players. We're tickled pink that y'all have sought us out already, while we're still establishing a name for ourselves, and have stuck with us through the boring groundwork-laying phase. We hope you've had as much fun and learned as much as we have, and we'll be super sad if we lose you during the upcoming upheavals. So please stick around, help others stick around, keep making new Bscotch friends, and continue helping us make awesome games!

Ulnarevern

@bscotchAdam I love you too! And everyone else around here too!

The groundwork-laying phase is really important for me and absolutely not boring. You (Bscotch Brothers) have the possibility to work on your games and all but we (players/testers/else) can only really help you when you're still working on it. And I LOVE helping people, even more when they do some crazy-awesome stuff I can't even dream of achieving.

I'll stick with you even if you supress all my magnificient posts (joke) by mistake.*

P.S. Speaking of groundwork for the future, have you had any time to consider/conceptualize a translation system?

bscotchAdam

Yep! There is a high likelihood that this will be doable for our upcoming games. We have a super secret plan that would allow for it, but we aren't sure we'll pull it off!

R4V3N

I am looking forward to the forums picking up, because all of you deserve to be shared with the wider world, but at the same time I will miss the communication afforded by a smaller community. 

bscotchAdam

@R4V3N Us too, on both counts. You'll all have a special place in our hearts, though. The first, the proud, the Bscotch early adopters! If you start feeling lost in a sea of others, just shoot us some PMs every once in a while  

ZettianJuggernaut

I'm really existed for what's coming (some of my brothers are going nuts waiting for Crashlands). Even though I don't say much (not much of a forum talker), I follow is closely as I can and plan on following. So I'll stick with and try any game you let me try.

bsb333

Even if the forums are flooded I am postive that this community will still be the most loving one on the internet! And at least it never will be quiet.
Also excited for the new forum page.
 Something that's been a little bit annoying with this site is that when i use it one my phone and I mention someone in a post the site always takes me to the top of the page... hope you will fix that  

Etrusan

@bsb333 that's weird, I don't have that problem.

bscotchAdam

@bsb333 We have very limited control over this software, since we aren't hosting it. But hey, soon we'll be in a different software anyway, so no fix needed! Though certainly that will bring it's own set of issues.

Etrusan

@bscotchAdam don't worry, I'm here to test it! Just don't make same mistake as Promods.net (if you switch to phpBB), mobile version of that site is rubbish.

bscotchAdam

@Etrusan yeah, we may invest in a commercial skin for the thing. That'll still be way cheaper than paying for Vanilla hosting  

bsb333

@bscotchAdam Well probably should have said hope that the new software fixes that because that's what i wanted to say. I am curious though if i am the only one with that problem?...