Winter Wrap Up Announcements

[Zoop 8,384]

Announcing... announcements!

 

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We have quite a few things to speak about tonight, some of which you may like, some of which you may dislike, and some of which you may not particularly care about. But there's a decent chance that you might be affected by at least one of the items discussed below, so please read on to the very end. Or, at the least, skim the big red headlines.  

 

To start with...

 

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The Octavia's Hall character minimum has been reduced to 75.

 

Yes, we know everyone hates it. Which leads us to...
 

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Development is starting on an alternative to the character minimum.

 

Key Gear has laid out his plans for a new approach to preventing junk posts - once developed we will begin testing a new system that allows users to make posts of whatever length they wish so long as the average length of said posts do not drop below a certain point.
 
This will allow users to make short posts within reason. Users that abuse this privilege and drop below a certain threshold will lose it automatically for an as of yet to be determined duration.
 

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The TF2 and Minecraft servers are being phased out.

 

Our approach to game servers has been shown to be unworkable and unsustainable. They may return in some form in the future, when we are able to ensure that they can get the focus and attention that they deserve in order to succeed.
 
For now, however, there is little point in allowing them to languish any further. The associated boards will be removed, with any suitable threads contained within them moved to media discussion. The Minecraft server will remain up for one week. Backups of our worlds will be available here for two weeks following the server's closure.
 
  

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A new subforum has been created for Equestria Girls.

 

Having two distinct shows stuffed into the same general discussion area is going to get messy. Having a dedicated Equestria Girls forum will allow us to keep show discussion threads organized, while at the same time giving folks that don't care about Equestria Girls an easy means by which to ignore threads about it.
 

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Sorry, @Mailmare, but we're axing the Pony Bulletin.

 
The what, you ask? My point exactly. Very, very few people actively made use of it considering the amount of space it takes up on our board index. It was a nice experiment, but it ultimately failed to provide much in the way of meaningful value.
 
 

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THE MLP FORUMS CHAT SKYPE GROUP IS HEREBY DEAD AND BURIED.

 
We apologize to those of you that make use of the chat room; however we have come to the ultimate decision that closing it so that we can refocus the collective energy of the MLP Forums staff on both the forum and our other upcoming projects is, ultimately, in our best interest.
 

There is much work - and science - to be done, after all.

[NavelColt 22,880]

http://youtu.be/xNr8-Q1f-xk

Oh, Death, оh Death, oh Death,
Won't you spare me over til another year

But what is this, that I cant see
with ice cold hands taking hold of me

When God is gone and the Devil takes hold,
who will have mercy on your soul

Oh, Death, оh Death, oh Death,

Oh, Death, оh Death,
my name is Death and the end is here...

I know this might seem a tad sudden to some people; numerous of the forums' features being trimmed off at once. That said though, if you look at each of these cases one by one, it isn't hard to see that they're more or less dead branches hanging from the forums' tree, and have been in that state for a while now.

Pony Bulletin got its' own Feldian feedback topic asking for everyone's thoughts on whether or not the news feed board run by Mailmare had much of an impact on them and their user experience. Before-hand, the staff was already leaning towards potentially scrapping the forum for now, due its' lack of usage and underwhelming presence on the forum as a whole. The feedback topic in question then showed that, for the most part, nobody really cared about it and if it went or stayed.

The forum has little to no reply ratio, the views aren't jaw-dropping, and thus, all it's really doing is plugging an entire board feed for advertising EQD. All of the 'popular' events and media produced within the fandom are typically posted in new or old topics by members in Sugarcube anyway, so thus, the staff's logic has been that the Pony Bulletin board isn't worth its' space due to its' under-usage.

The TF2 and Minecraft Servers have been a dead project for months upon months. Almost all of the staff running it have lost the time or interest in maintaining the games, as many no longer play them, themselves. Not a whole lot of members have ever invested much time in making the servers more than worth their while, either. The staff have speculated that a game server project would probably be more successful if it were its' own entity, out on its' own branch of a site, and not tethered to the forum itself as a subforum system.

Much like Pony Bulletin, the subforums and server projects are not worth having at this point; with months of stagnant inactivity and no interest among anyone to revive them, we've decided to remove them.

Last but not least, the MLP Forums Skype Group has been around for a while. Unfortunately, as time has passed, the staff have realized that it's been the on-site chat, all over again, just off-site, with less mods to watch it. The group constantly has issues, reports and other things going on that we've heard about on a regular basis. When we look at things like the GCT, having a crowded, off-site group that shows the same exact issue the original chat did is a losing battle.

All we're attempting to say is that all of these things have been low-tier parts of the site, of which we have no reason to continue maintaining due to factors like inactivity, lack of interest and lack of manageability ease. Does this mean we're going to start going on a rampage and begin blowing things up with metaphorical TNT? Of course not, these have been wilting petals, dead branches on the forums' tree for months, and only now are we doing some Spring time hedge trimming all in one fell swoop.

We've tried our best to think of ways to implement some of these differently so that they can be kept and refreshed, but we've all come to the understanding that these things are dead and need to be buried for the time being. Things such as the game servers and perhaps a new pony news feed similar to that of what Mailmare has done for us for so long being implemented sometime in the future may be a possibility, but at the moment, it's time to sort our factors, remove what isn't working, and focus on what we can add from here.

If anything, with these few projects knocked off, there's that much more for the collective staff to focus on what we have going on elsewhere. Everyone can delight in knowing that you'll definitely be seeing new things being implemented down the line. I know of a few of them off the top of my head. Some of them aren't all too far off.

--

Oh, yeah, and woo for future character minimum system edits and such :3 Only one example of one of the more minor things being worked on in Scoots' crazy back workshop.

[Zygen 6,066]

Woopity woopity zoopity zoop zoop, them announcements.

 

I don't even know where that came from, I think I'm starting to grow tired Xd.

Anyways I think all the changes sound necessary and I understand them, I don't have any problems with them, The lower character limit really isn't going to change the fact I still normally end up with posting 100 characters atleast anyways, since I don't find it that .

 

I'm curious I suppose to see what lies in store with the new system, whenever it comes around, good luck to key gear and the rest of the development team with that .

 

I can understand the severs phasing out, they where quite iffy on the dedication of their running and yeah you explained it well enough. .

 

Equestria girls subforum eh? I have no idea how I think about that, seeing as I know next to nothing about the show really.

 

I knew the Mailmare thing was coming from the other announcement before this, but yeah, it did need to get removed for now, however I wouldn't say that any type of news system should be scratched, I personally think some other form that works better should be experimented with. Regardless I can't say it'll affect me seeing as I hardly check it .

 

And happy Winter Wrap up Zoop and all the rest of y'all!

[Mailmare 979]

 

All... all I ever wanted was to make people happy. To deliver news and good news, good cheer and happiness. I did this all... all of it... for you. I'm sorry... I'm sorry that it wasn't enough. Please forgive me.

 

Just... just give me one more chance. I'll do better this time. I promise!

[Queen Cassie 3,057]

I MUST PROTEST!

Everything here is far too reasonable! Zoop kept me in anxiety for hours expecting something much more dramatic than this.

Zoop owes me something. I don't know what, but he owes me something.

 

(Zoop and I are roommates, for those unaware.)

[Zoop 8,384]

 

Just... just give me one more chance. I'll do better this time. I promise!

 

 

No. Your reign has ended, and it is time for you to get back into your cage room so that you can await your next task. Do not fear, Mailmare - nobody here has seen the last of you.

[moneyshredderofdeath 414]

I'm gonna miss the Skype chat, but I understand it's for the good of the forum. It'll actually give me good incentive to be more active on the forum itself which is definitely a good thing.

[Starshine 16,333]

Mailmare's domain? Bombed? That can only means one thing...

 

There will be no aperture laboratory whatever in the 1st April! No more forum getting tilted so hard my browser freeze like it's the Arctic!

*dances around

 

It's kind of sad to see the forum has to add another subforum just for something that may or may not be as shitty as people thought it would be, but I guess it's for the best.

[---------------------- 1,645]

I could not agree more with the various changes that are being made, the skype group eventually succumbed to the same fate as the old chat, half of the time I forget that pony bulletin existed, and I cant speak for the MC server, but with me no one managing the TF2 server, no point in having one :/ 

[Sky Warden 2,243]

I wonder how will Key Gear handle spams without the character limit. Break the sentence and check every word? Hmm... I think it's not that. That must be a freaking science... or just logic.

Reporting people who abuse the character limit is fun by the way.

 

 

Edited March 16, 2013 by Sky Warden

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

Whoaz.

 

HOW DARE YOU REDUCE THE CHARACTER LIMIT IN OCTAVIA'S HALL RAGE RAGE MEMBER RAGE RARRUGHGGG I HATE YOU MAWDZ DIE

 

...

 

 

Anyways, all kidding aside, I can't really say any of this is unwarranted. Addressing the Skype chat first, I thought that was kind of going to be axed from like... waaay before eventually. Because Skype chats have a maximum member limit, I believe, and as the forums grew bigger... I had no idea how you guys were gonna deal with that. Seriously, I was kind of concerned. But now, I can sleep easy! I don't have to worry.

 

Now that thing about the character limit sounds very interesting. I know how tedious it is to delete those character limit posts, and kind of thought it was a necessary, albeit extremely flawed, way to go about the prevention of the junky posts. I'm glad you guys could devise a better solution to that. The character limit doesn't really affect me as I'm naturally long-winded, but I feel that this way is sounding much more promising and likely to cause less butt-hurtedness.

 

As for the TF2 and Minecraft servers? I never used them. So it's little loss to me. 

 

And I don't really have much of an opinion on the Equestria Girls thing, if I'm honest. I'm not sure how many topics about that get brought up, (like the silly Alicorn Twilight thing that had to have an ENTIRE SUB-BOARD devoted to that. I still find that extremely hilarious. XD) but if there were a lot, I don't see why not.

 

Overall, I feel that culling the features makes for a more compact forum. It can be overwhelming sometimes to have too many things to do, and so many distractions from posting. The most important part is that this is a forum, and its function is to share thoughts via the posting forum. I myself have always been a bit of a... well. I'm kind of a liker of cutting and culling things, to be honest. Kind of psychotic. But it feels like things will feel cleaner.

[Scootalove 10,689]

 

I guess we all have to get used to the new changes, and maybe no pony will try to break down the HQ doors. Now, a winter wrap up is in effect. Change is hard to get used to but, we will try together as a community.

[Display Name 448]

Well, sometimes changes can be good.

And sometimes changes can be bad, like how YouTube keeps changing the channel layouts.

As for the TF2 server, i have never had a chance to join it. And i hope to be able to in the future.

 

I think we all can get used to these changes. 

[Bhending the Rules 697]

Can't say I really mind any of these changes. Pony Fortress 2 is my TF2 destination, and it looked like the Skype group had some uncorrectable issues.

 

I kinda feel sorry for the mailmare, though. Hope he gets to keep his job and such, he seems like a nice guy.

[Nas 2,873]

Hmph. Looks like, once again, things are changing for the better. But nothing is more relieving than things that are merely taking up space when no one uses it. I'm mostly satisfied with the discontinuation of the Mane Skype chat; especially with the direction it was headed. Plus, it did deem pretty out-of-control sometimes; I just wish I saw this coming. Plus, I never really used it much, considering I'm on my iPad 99% of the time, and the Skype on there didn't let me use the Mane chat. Also, the endless notifications were annoying me to no end. Sadly, though, I'll have to find some way of removing the group without making my poor tablet freeze...then the madness will all be over.

 

As for the addition of the EQG section, that was a smart move. I'm sure that'll be put to good use in the coming months.

 

Per the removals of the game servers and Pony Bulletin sections, let us not see this as something to mourn over, but something of an evolution, sacrificing the past to make way for the future. Idunno, maybe I'm having one of those nonsensical 3-in-the-morning philosophies or something.

 

Anywho, I am enticed by the post limit research/development thingy. Looking forward to seeing where it leads.

 

 

 

Yet another announcement, yet more changes, and yet another step forward for MLP Forums. The future looks bright.

 

 

On a small, less-important note, I've been trying numerous times to stop getting detached from the community a la my massive lack of posting recently, and starting today (as in, after I go to bed and wake up again), I am looking to change that.

[ChuniaC 52]

"Skype group is closing."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc

 

I don't really see a reason as to why one would close it. You speak if it needing managing but it really doesn't. 

[Jonke 3,743]

No surprise here... 

 

Anyway, as the previous head of the minecraft server, i apologize and thank everyone who decided to help/contribute/use our service. Even though it wasn't the most successful thing, it was fun while it lasted. And since most people on the MC team were either no longer interested or had no time, it was inevitable that it would fall after my resignation.

Edited March 16, 2013 by Leafeon

[Nas 2,873]

I don't really see a reason as to why one would close it. You speak if it needing managing but it really doesn't. 

Are you sure that having a Skype group of 200+ forum members that isn't watched by at least one moderator 24/7 with the possibility of it going out of control (which it has, on numerous occasions, whether or not watchful eyes were upon it) is a good idea at this point?

 

Skype groups are never not under the risk of getting unstable at some point. Think; a group of 20-ish users can get out of hand within a minute, just imagine what crazy terror has occurred with a group of more than 10 times the number of people. Okay, not always all at once, but you get my point.

 

Big Skype group, bad. Smaller Skype groups, good. If you wanna retain connection with your fellow members via Skype, ask them for their IDs.

[Zoop 8,384]

 

I don't really see a reason as to why one would close it. You speak if it needing managing but it really doesn't. 

 

 

Ever increasing amount of chatter that is beyond what we consider appropriate, difficulty at times in tracing accounts to individual users should warnings need to be issued, etc. We don't have the time to babysit it.

[Akemi Homura 7,680]

Oh, the Skype group! Turned out to be another iteration of IP.Chat without the bugs that came with it. Conversations were so jumbled it was hard to make out anything especially if you happened to sign on at the time.

 

Good thing I forgot about it.

[WhiteLightning 339]

I honestly won't miss any of the things listed above, but I am curious about the new character average system. I will kinda miss Mailmare, even though I didn't make that much use of her in the first place.

Edited March 16, 2013 by WhiteLightning

[Yourmomsponies 444]

Ok I can understand getting rid of the TF2 and Minecraft servers but the Skype group? Come on man. I loved that thing.
Whatever. What has happened has already happened. 

Therefore.

Edited March 16, 2013 by yourmomsponies (#YIFF)

[Betez 1,734]

NOOOO! This means I'll have to go to General Chat Thread!

 

But whatever. I think removing pony bulletin was for the best, and I'm glad I won't have to see any more Equestria Girls threads when I go onto Show Discussion or Sugarcube Corner.

 

I'm still a little pissed about the Skype group, but after last night, I can hardly blame you guys. <_<

[Concord 1,982]

Hello!

 

Well, Reduction of the Character Limit isn't to much of a problem for me, but it might just be one to the Mods. I never was part of the Skype chat, so it's not that much of a loss for me. I was quite eagar to try out the Minecraft server one day, and expected the TF2 server to be back up. Sadly, i never got Minecraft, and the Server was offline all the time, since i i first joined the Forum. I believe these change are for the better, and i'm keen on seeing future updates.

 

By the way, April 1st is just around the corner, i wonder what do the forums have in plan for it.

[Vicke 3,189]

I was going to bitch about the Skype group, but then i remember how crappy it really was.

The only thing that sort of bothers me is the Equestrian Girls subforum.

 

 

Reducing the character limit in Octavia hall is something i've been waiting for. Good job.