And we are back for now.

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Surprised they didn't nuke the forums.

To be fair the forums are the only reason the site continued to exist. If they nuked the forums and started with the new site from scratch, they'd be gone in a year. Traffic would fall to next to nothing. Especially considering most people watch ZP on YouTube, not the site...

 

[Asita]

Hey y'all. It's been a struggle to keep the site up AT ALL for the past week or so. But we think we've solved most of the problems we were having with the old tech.

The forums will live here for now. We are working on a plan to bring them over to the new site. It's complicated. But we're committed to not leaving this community behind.

Stay tuned for more details as I have them.

Would our accounts transfer over too or would we have to make new ones?

YES!!!

This is a very important question.

Is it really though?

If people'd have to make new ones then you'd just create a new account and be on your merry way, posting again, wouldn't you?

No[footnote]General comment, not personal[/footnote]? In fact, I'd venture to guess that requiring the creation of a new account might actually decrease the number of people who transition to the new site. Not because it's "just that important" or anything like that, mind you. It's just an added inconvenience. You can draw comparison to grabbing a soda/beer/whatever. You're much more likely to do so if you've got a fridge in the room than you are if you have to go downstairs for it. Additionally, it's an inconvenience that - by necessity - carries the consequence of making people actively evaluate the value of rejoining the community. Transferring the accounts bypasses that evaluation because the account is already there.

Let's not kid ourselves here, the Escapist has been limping along for some time now, and while it's great that the new management is invested in its rehabilitation, at this point in time its userbase is probably better characterized as somewhere between "ambivalent" and "cautiously optimistic" rather than enthusiastic. And while you could reliably count on enthusiastic users to jump to the new forums, those in the former range doing the same is practically a coin toss. And with the Escapist only just starting to recover, I doubt that management is eager to flip that coin if they can avoid it.

To put it a bit more concisely, there's a simple concept in marketing that has application here: never give your consumers the excuse to try your competitors (or stop using your service, as the case may be).

 

[Drathnoxis]

Is it really though?

If people'd have to make new ones then you'd just create a new account and be on your merry way, posting again, wouldn't you?

I dunno, that'd be a lot of work. Also it's important that everybody knows how many posts I've made and that I've been here longer than you!

I don't want to lose all the existing threads either :/

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Missed you people. Glad to see you all again.

 

[Souplex]

And we're back, but the site is crazy slow on both sides.

 

[tippy2k2]

Fear not, the important one is here!

I do really hope we get to keep our whistles and dohickeys in the Forums 2.0

At the very least, my join date. It's the only thing I have!!!!

 

[IceForce]

I hate Disqus, so this is good news.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

The forums make me feel old. I forgot I had the original domain blown up by about 20% and when I came back I felt a cold shiver of dread flow through me that can be best describe as 'old person muttering about BBS script while crossing the street with their walker' ...

 

[Marik2]

Hire bluegate.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Fear not, the important one is here!

I do really hope we get to keep our whistles and dohickeys in the Forums 2.0

At the very least, my join date. It's the only thing I have!!!!

I agree with this beautiful bastard.

Everyone needs to know how long I've been here and that my e-peen has more girth than theirs'.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Best of luck to the tech guys behind the scenes!

 

[bluegate]

Is it really though?

If people'd have to make new ones then you'd just create a new account and be on your merry way, posting again, wouldn't you?

I dunno, that'd be a lot of work. Also it's important that everybody knows how many posts I've made and that I've been here longer than you!

I don't want to lose all the existing threads either :/

Damn it, you've caught on to my diabolical plan to remove everybody's sign up dates and make everyone equal! Curse our three months difference, they've been haunting me for 8 years now!👺

You've already lost the Wild West and everything that was in there, I would have thought that you'd have already back-upped everything you'd like to keep by now 😮

Hire bluegate.

Haha 😂

After that little stunt as a moderator, I doubt that that'd ever come to pass 🤣 ( I'm not against it though 😘😜 )

Although it should be a relatively easy job to migrate user-, topic-, category- and post tables from one forum to another. Creating a badge system for a new forum, now that a more interesting challenge, looking forward to seeing how they solve that one.

Also looking forward to seeing how the Forums and Disqus are doing to coexist together, I suppose that both will be used to comment on articles, creating a nice rift in the user base.


- And I've run out of time to write a longer post and reply to that Mass Effect avatar, whoops.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Preserving y'all's existing accounts and as much of the badges and other bells & whistles as possible is precisely what makes this complicated. It would be WAYYYY easier to simply install; a new forum system, but I don't want to do that if we can avoid it. I love these forums as much as you do. I've been a member since ... before they existed!

Messing with people's badges would be a really bad idea. There would be riots, man. Riots!

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

Yeah, these forums are going to wither on the vine if they don't get ported over to the new site. That's just how it is.

The new site does look good, though.

 

[Jamcie Kerbizz]

Kill disqus. Spank whoever thought taking down site without proper (tested!) redirection to page with explanation and scope (updates)of downtime was a 'good' (it'll be fine...) idea. Probably still focus on your v2 performance (why is it sooo slow) + layout is wonky (navigation tab is a UI crime right now; scale it down asap and add an option to toggle it away from taking over 20% of readable view (sticky navbar is hot in design but they are razor you will slash your own audience throat with if you make them an annoyance, instead of readily available tool), background colour (while thematic to original design) is way too aggressive (maybe switch to horizontal slide of content so both nav and flashy background on sides wouldn't be an issue), you have problems with jQuery calls it seems (duplication in layout).
Also welcome back, good you survived.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I'm glad we're back, I was afraid the site was gone for good. I'd seen too many sites I like just suddenly disappear for my liking...

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Yeah, these forums are going to wither on the vine if they don't get ported over to the new site. That's just how it is.

The new site does look good, though.

Eh, the new site is covered to the brim with ads. Hell there are ads in the middle of the articles! Just reading reading reading AD FOR SHOES reading reading reading
Its not a good look.

 

[Saelune]

Yeah, these forums are going to wither on the vine if they don't get ported over to the new site. That's just how it is.

The new site does look good, though.

We lasted this long with a 'dead' site though.


And I don't like the new site at all, it looks like one of those Buzzfeed spreads full of click-bait, and it is hard to tell article from ad. Plus I am not digging the look, it already looks outdated.


I get the desire and need to accommodate mobile users, but ideally it should accommodate everyone. I do not go on this site on my phone and probably never will.

 

[cathou]

it is hard to tell article from ad.

you saw grey carter twitter today ?

https://twitter.com/GreyTheTick/status/1047409306348531712

 

[Saelune]

it is hard to tell article from ad.

you saw grey carter twitter today ?

https://twitter.com/GreyTheTick/status/1047409306348531712

No, but glad I am not the only one.


I am fine with ads, as long as they don't give me viruses and are distinct from the actual content.