As a couple of you've heard, I've been working on (for personal interest reasons) a new RPG.

Doing so, coupled with the other ideas I've had for ones, coupled with the knowledge we still kinda need a GU version of Divvy (it's not necessary, but, I think it'd be a good idea, especially if we keep them separate and simultaneous...) coupled with my own personal knowledge of boards such as Naruto Senkai Rairin and Pokemon Tohea... Not to mention the large number of RPs linked in various members' signatures...

Maybe it's time to return to an Affiliates program... or even, moving above that, an actual Network, complete with a root site with links to all the boards.

While there's a risk, as has been pointed out to me repeatedly, that having other places to work on might make some members stop posting on Divvy... I'm of the opinion that it would cause others to do so more, because they have more opportunities to write and it would become more natural... and it would also open up more opportunity for new members.

(I also figure that those members who would completely cease being here... would do so anyway, so we're not really doing ourselves much harm....)

Any thoughts?

I guess I can say I agree....and whoa, I RP/RPed at both sites listed. XD

So yeah, I'm up for it...

I have but one real concern.

Janos.

I kid. I agree with you on the "If people were going to stop writing, they would do so anyway." Plus, through this affiliation, they'll have a little reminder of us, even if they do "leave for another board". Sekai, Tak, and are quite familiar with the bigwigs over at SR, and there are some other very strong rp sites out there that we could talk to. I like the idea of affiliation. Hell, even a [mostly] dead site that I helped run still sees the occasional registration due to our affiliations, and nothing's been done there for two years.

Long story short? I'm down with the sickness. [And really lame. xP]

If you think about it, all divvy really is is the members and what they've done. What they've done will always be here and on their HDs (backing up fellahs?). I'm pretty sure the members will stay together, at least the members that are together right now. There are quite a few cliques on this site. I think as long as the collective whole is happy and percolating together, the same goal of LET'S HAVE A TON OF FUN WOOOOOO *clears throat* is achieved. Go for it :P.

EDIT: My point is, even if this backfires and people leave divvy, more members will stay RPing than they would have and therefore, the members that make up divvy will be more healthy for it. So, this seemingly horrible notion of divvy losing members is only an illusion, if you think about it.

Why can't you find a good Bleach RP board I can transfer to D=?

I kid! Not like I'm doing much here anyway...

But my opinion on the matter is that we should get some affiliations up. Honestly, I'm not sure how much they will help, since I've seen affiliations come and go and more often than not, people here go on a different site, get bored, then end up back here. But then again, those are normally .hack boards, so perhaps this'll be different.

Either way, same opinion as those previously expressed.

At the risk of starting wank; Tsukuyomi is more of an "issue" than Janos ever will be. We have nothing to worry about from him.

Affiliations are a good idea though, as I told Lyra this morning when she told me about it. Maybe start scouting out some other sites aside from the two we've got as well.

Giggles & I are up for it.

I'm game, there are other strong sites out there with strong writers and we could all benefit from affiliation. I write at NSR as well and I'm sure that a couple non-divvy people would want to come on over.

I'm inclined to agree with the majority, here. I, too, believe the 'loss of Divvy members' is little more than a trick of the mind. Those who'll stay will stay no matter what. Those who'll leave, well, they're going to do that no matter what we ourselves do.

Plus, I can only see Divergence benefiting from this. Though as the guy previously put in charge of the theoretical Divvy GU - 'Emergence' - I should probably think about taking a crack at that again.

rofl

Yes, he's always a handful of trouble...

*breaks end-of-semester-so-no-posting pact to voice opinion*

My only real concern would be the fact that we don't let new registrants post until they've been verified. I realize that this is a security measure that I actually advocated (and for that purpose, it's functioning perfectly), but the fact remains that it will only hinder memberships in the future, especially if we affiliate.

My suggestion?

Eventually jump Divvy subs over to DivergenceRP.org. This is a ways away, but it would not only give us complete control over the registration process so we could do away with spambots, but also rid us of the mess that is becoming InvisionFree...

...and yes, Tsuky is a pain. I think he may actually somehow be behind the current endless wave of spambots.

Nah, he's not that smart...I knew him personally, so I should know...best...kinda.

And I like Dien's idea on the whole moving the forum...yes, it'd be a whole butt load of work to do it, but we could eliminate a lot of troubles that are interfering with Divvy...

I like the idea of using this place as an archive and just starting new. I was told that kiwi tried to be able to migrate everything and seeing as it hasn't been done, I'm guessing that it can't be done. My vote (if we move) is to be okay with having an empty Delta section (for instance) and filling it up henceforth. We can also have a forum link inside the Delta section to THIS Delta section so that the archives are still linked to and present in some way or another.

I seem to remember having this conversation with Nights before, and we had a good reason for not doing it, though what it actually was eludes me for the moment. Here's to hoping he reads this! *crosses fingers*

If it can be done, that's awesome, but I'd also like us to keep in mind that someone does shell out the money for that site. I know next to nothing about how it works, but I'm fairly certain an increase in cost would be involved. If it's within our power, I'm down. If it comes at an extra cost, I'm more hesitant to ask Nights, though don't think for a second I wouldn't share in the payment to keep this place going.

So, Nights?

Potential issues with moving Subs to Main's servers:

-How would we do it? One board or two boards?

-Possible bandwidth/cost issues. I know a few of you are willing to help with the costs, and really that's not a huge issue. The site MIGHT go down if activity gets too high, but I could also purchase a better account.

-Effort. There's virtually no way to get a clean archive from Invisionfree that I could use to set up Subs on Main. This means either the new Subs would start fresh without any of the data, or it would be some hack together "all the old relevant posts are posted by Morganna" or something.



Aside from the bandwidth and cost issues, I'd be willing to ponder it. That, and the possible "Web Ring" idea. There's already a portal page that could be used. Extra domains or subdomains wouldn't cost too much extra.

My only concern is that I graduate at the end of the next semester. That means I won't have my nice cushy on-campus job.



As for affiliations, I have no problem with it, and think it's probably a good idea. I can make an affiliates page on the Main server and add images/descriptions/whatever. Just let me know and such.

It's also possible to simply assign Divvy's Invisionfree board to a Domain name, somehow in the ACP. So while it wouldn't involve migrating truely, the assignment of a new address for Divergence would likely at least slow the spambots for a few.

There are other "spambot prevention methods" now listed on the Invisionfree board - because by now, it's a major issue for many sites, even ones which actually have no members. Aka, Invisionfree recognizies a problem but has no real suggestions for what to do about it on their end. Or is just too lazy.

One suggestion was to set users to automatically promote to a Members group when they made their first post, and to set the original Registering group to reply-able only. Then you make a thread that asks everyone to reply to it... and boom, they're automatically considered not a bot. This works because apparently ALL the spambots are posting up new threads, not replying, so until they get smarter, it might work. The added benefit of this is, if we made the "please reply to me" thread contain the rules about making a registration and about not being able to post RP until your registration is complete (and mind you, we should probably laxen the standards a little further when we link up... people will learn fast, believe me!) then we could probably escape the need for an Admin to change their member group when their registration completes, and let people join into the GD community a little faster. (And those people who neglect to do things right... Could get stomped on pretty quickly still. I think the risk of a couple idiots is a small price to pay for more instant RP-ableness, especially when you consider that 3/4 of the board right now qualifies to Approve Registrations.)

Thank you, Nighthand, for remembering the term I was trying to grab at: Webring. Joining or starting a Webring of our own was what I was trying to suggest with this Affiliation stuff. From what I've gathered from people on the site, there seems to be a few people who'd be willing to chuck in $5 or $10 here or there to help towards the cost, and we could set that up with Paypal easily. I don't really have much I could be throwing towards it at the moment, but gimme a few months and I could probably take over the brunt of the cost.

The idea of leaving this site as an archive is slightly peeving to me in a purely nostalgic sort of way, but, it's doable, especially if we can migrate the read-only archive onto the same site via the whole Domain thing I mentioned, but, really, it'd become a "why bother" at some point. Currently in-progress threads would probably need all the people to repost their posts, but... yeah, it's doable either way.

The only problem with attaching the IF board to the divergencerp.org URL is the fact that it wouldn't shut down the z1.invisionfree.com/forums/divergence/ directory (meaning we could still be located through it). The reply-to-a-thread idea is good, though, and is consistent with what I've noticed about the bots as well.

But back on topic, the webring idea works, although we'd kinda be undermining ARN, with whom we've been affiliated for years. Granted, I'm not sure how much that matters or what it counts for, but it is still there. Not that they're checking in or anything, though.

Oh, and I'm all for affiliation. ^_^

Out of curiosity, how much traffic has ARN garnered for us? How many of our current users discovered us through them? I actually have no idea.

Interesting side note, I get around 25-50 bots registering for Main per month, but because of the way it's set up, none of the accounts even show up on the memberlist until I approve them. I've gotten a couple e-mails in the past about "why can't i post" and "will u validate my account" to which I usually reply "go to subs" with a link (nicer than that though.)

One did ask where to download The World. That's always fun. =D

Yeah, "where do I download?" is always HILARIOUS.

ARN... I tend to forget that that even exists... geez...

That's just it: I think I'm one of the only ones who found the site through ARN. Hell, I wasn't even the one who found it: a friend found ARN and directed me here (no need to bring up that old story again, though). Considering that fact (and the fact that their "topsites list" only has two pages on it), I think it's safe to say that it's a non-issue.

And on a side-note, we should totally make a TheWorld.exe downloadable file that we can give to people who ask that question that, when it's installed, plays a video explaining Divvy in simple terms. It could be fun. ^_^

oooooh, that sounds awesome :o. Who has animation skills? Damek? *nudge nudge* haha

I assume this works quite a bit differently than using .tk or .co.nr ? In those, you can only link to the main page (the address bar never changes as you navigate around - major fail) if you set it so users get linked to the .co.nr site if they press the invisionfree one.

I actually really like the idea of setting up this site embedded in the pages of the divergencerp one - although that sounds oddly similar to what we already have. Is it possible to set the domain in the "domain manager" (see AdminCP) to a page on a domain? Example: www.divergencerp.org/subplot

Also, for money; I happen to be extremely fortunate for the fact that I only spend money on books and cloths (and I don't buy many cloths these days). So pretty much, the money I make is mine to save. I can't think of a better way to spend it than chipping in whatever's left.

Well yeah. If we did the domain thing, anyone trying to access z1.invisionfree.com/forums/divergence/ would be redirected to the divergencerp.org/subplots/ directory. It doesn't stop them from accessing the site, though, and any bot who tried to get in through the IF address would still land on our front index.php page.

And I have a *cough*perfectlylegalbutnotreally*cough* version of After Effects that I've been meaning to learn - I can't think of a better project for it. =D

Do your homework...

While I still think moving to the divergencerp domain is worth keeping in mind, I for one would much rather set up the post-to-promote idea first. It is simpler, less hassle for the technical minded ones we'd have to consult to get it done, and it lets us stay where we've been for the last five years. Don't get me wrong, IF is farrrrrrrr from perfect, and I do understand that, but when I sit down at a computer, my hands start typing the url for this place without me even thinking it. I was trying to find someone on facebook while I was in Australia, and was shocked when Div loaded instead. [Yes, I'm that lame.]

Call me sentimental [or lazy], but I like the option that keeps us where we've been for as long as we've been around [since the old Main domain is no longer ours, but that's a story for another time xD].

I'm going to have to agree with Centrus here. I'd rather us try to the reply idea before we do something as drastic as an entire site move. Nostalgia and memories abound.

...You still type the URL? I mean... yeah, I have to occasionally if I'm accessing it from another computer... but all I have to do is hit "home" and on IE I'm sent straight here or on FF it's the second of the ten tabs that open... lol.

I think the move might be worth it, if only from a "look, we're proffessional!" sort of POV, plus the redirects would still work, so Centrus can still type in the old addy XD

I'll get right on the User Promotion technique... as in, if I don't get it done before Kiwi gets here on Monday, it ain't getting done before Xmas. Then I'll get back to work on my new sites, on the Webring base page (because yay, Lyra's taught herself some HTML and is making Kiwi teach her some basic Javascript), and also on rewriting some of the FAQ nonsense, including the page for the User Promotion...

(I'd like to note, also, that we definitely need to worry about finding users... because right now, every Validating user that's come in in a month has had a Spambot email according to teh interwebz)

If anyone has anything they'd like said in the User Introduction, reply here or PM it to me. If anyone wants to be put in charge of correcting or condensing any of the FAQs, talk to me and I'll mod you for a bit so you can do such things. If anyone has any suggestions for sites we can WebRing with, PM them to me, and also start talking to whoever's in charge to see if theyr'e willing. (Though maybe don't talk to Senkai till we clean the mentions of Janos and Tsukiyomi out of this thread? lol.)

Zan, whenever you're free, go ahead and start work on Emergence. I can help you out with the math if you want, and have some suggestions for how to give pre-existing Divvy characters a bonus, but as far as I'm concerned, that's your board and you're in charge, you get to pick your own staff and everything.

And no, Dien, you can't do any of this right now. Go do your homework first. Come back after finals are over, then I'll have you help me with graphics and that little video XD Which I'm SO going to go recruit Jeri to be the Pleasant Voice Over for.

Uruvei's not alone in typing out that whole URL?!

BEHOLD....

THE DIVVY BUTTON!

Oh so shiny and clickable.

*scrolls down a bit* they ninja'd me Dx

To stay on topic: I will do my best Kamiya-san!

And what happens when you find yourself on a strange computer and you don't have your precious 'bookmark' and 'home' buttons, eh? THEN WHAT?!

(then you google or type divergencerp.com, I know. Shhhhh)

I really like the TheWorld.exe video idea xD
I don't have any animation skillz yet, but I do have some recently acquired Illustrator skills. So if we do it in Flash, I could, uh, make animatable versions of .hack characters? :P

New Users area has been completed. Yay.

Also, all clan leaders: if you don't like the color your clans' names're showing up in now? Too fucking bad tell me what you'd rather it be.

Still working on the assorted rewrites. Ugh.

I'll help out with that once I'm done school and the like.

I do believe I've been asking to redo the reg FAQ for....a good year? C'mon. I got that shiz down. =D

I like Shenmock's color! ^_^ I...kinda like Teishu's color, but...yeah, hehe...

And I was hoping we'd get one of those sorts of forums... :D I like the idea of welcoming the new members!

-Imightregretthisbut...-

I could... attempt.... animating... things. Maybe. God animating is hard, but like... it'd be good to get some character animation stuff down. It'd be short, under a minute for the whole thing maybe, but like.... it could be cool to have a little intro with like... Natsume fighting or something... Or even a divvy character (that isn't OMG detailed, lol). this would be... traditional animation, put together in After Effects or Premeire Pro (if I can get my hands on either for a mac) and cleaned in Photoshop...

That wouldn't be until summer, however, unless I get really ambitious. Which I doubt I will. but yeah.

I haven't read much else to this thing... lol. So I have no further input. Though affiliations seems solid to me.

PS, I have a divvy button too...

Not on topic but I didn't want to start a new thread over it.

I checked out who'd be on the member pruning if I did it right now, after I had sent out that Email Of Doom.

We've got a lot of Very Famous members who've done... well, jack in 500 days. The list of people who have not posted at all in the last 500 days comes to over 80, and is as follows:

Nikkio2003, Kamina, Malignant, Hero, Xeos, Hayou, Yuna Whitepaws, Elius, Rinoa, Darkstar, Gillion, Beowulf, Blue fox, Haruhara Haruko, Apathic, Ban, Rion Runeosuke, Kaitou Niwa, Jester, NuByteHuntor, Phobia, leo, Maguma, Waveryn_Rider_of_Destruction, Sero, Aenaku-Kaosu, Marth, The Lone Gunman, MÄNNISKOPESTEN, Vahu, Sarah, Morhighan, Meru, Black_Griff, Eddy Red, Ayeka Penor, Emak, Cayr, Keashi, Corbenik, Gray_O_Dark, Haru-kun, Celeste, Susanoh, Kraye, Painless, Hikaru, Onyx Glace, fatal-fate, Theatrephreak, Bishop, Confyzone, Horokeimo, Ahiko, Ayame, Rubie, Ivyn, Yuki_Tatsu_Shizuka, Itske, Blau, zoan_revived, Briar, Manakete, buster, Magus, Gizotso, Rawrness, Kira, Waizu, Martyr617, Seige Arose, Vipora Tri, ViperRaven, zaseniti, Balance, Emicho, Reaver, Lestat Ravenscroft, Lunero, Blue, Souldragoran, rindapinda, Karasu, Lighteria, Kragt, Mikifor, Koran

So if you know any of those people, tell them to get their asses on and post (the only way to save themselves, logging in is NOT ENOUGH) if they plan on not being deleted at years end. D: Cuz seriously, guys, that's half the members.

P.S. There's also a chance the Email DIDN'T reach some members, either because they have the board Emails off, or because their address was old! please, make sure to ask people - especially because when I checked the "haven't posted in over a year" setting, the number went up to 155. That leaves less than 1/2 of our current members who've done jack in the last 6 months. D: C'mon guys, seriously.

o_o; That's a lot.

Sarah and Leo were banned...unless you want to welcome him back (he still RPs, and is loads better, but that's beside the point :P), I doubt he'll be able to come here.

Other than that, I don't...really know many of them at all. @_@; I'll try, though! ;) Maybe a Shenny Shake'll work!

One thing to note is that if we were to move the site to a different URL, then we'd have to get whoever wrote the players' guides for the .hack// games to re-upload his guide with an updated link. That is one of the most common ways that I remember people finding this board, myself included.



Blekh yellow. Oh well, seeing as the Admins already got green.

Lyly? You're deleting two of the Cursed Wave right there. Might want to talk to Kiwi-kins about that. Oh, and you're deleting a Mod.

Also, I know that the email didn't reach Rion, since I've been trying to get a hold of him for the better half of six months. Also, someone could let Lights know, since he's still here on Main.

As for Paws and Dark? Just makes me sad to see their accounts deleted.

The Waves, I have ways to keep them from being deleted. Lights, I already had to temporarily dump into the SB, because when I did the "hasn't posted in two years and has less than ten posts", he came up, and since he was the only remotely significant name, I had to dump him somewhere so he didn't get deleted again. Someone needs to tell that boy to make a habit of posting every three months or so... just coming down and wishing someone happy birthday would be enough to keep him from this stupidity.

Nikko, I can see making an arguement for keeping her account for posterity, but she's never coming back, so I dunno what to do :/ Part of me says, copy her info into her Char Profile and then let her go. Rubie's in there, so we can either save him by leaving ShopKeep out, or just make his owner actually post. But there are a LOT of people in there I'm sad to see go, yeah.

Nikko... Like I said, she ain't comin back. Kamina has a wife and kids now, so while I'm sure he'd love to come back, I can promise he has too much on his plate to really consider it. The fact that Haruko's on there is a shock to me, to be honest. MANNI is on there too... maybe we can get Rayo to punt him? And of course like 1/4 that list is ex-clannies of mine, so it's pretty sad for me overall.

Though I have to admit, there's a couple people on there I'll be glad to see gone... heh... but they're long banned as it is... XD

Still, yeah. :/ when I actually do this, I'm gonna have to be careful. I really really wish the ACP had a "joined more than x days ago" button instead of a "joined within the last x days"

DX Go, go everyone, save your friends from eternal deletion.

Rubie, if I remember correctly, was when Crimson Rose was still around. It was her Pawn Account to pick up Amethyst's slack, but then she up and disappeared. @_@

As for Nikko, that seems fitting, appropriate, and reasonable.

Considering of the rest of the names, I know less than half as having been active since my registration, and of the rest I only know a few from the monuments they left behind.

Perhaps we can create a "Retired" user-group, just so that they don't disappear?

(at the same time, do we know the criteria that Rayo used to use for data drains?)

Rayo's criteria for data drains was much, much stricter than mine, being that he's a less sentimental guy. I'm pretty sure he just sliced off anyone who hadn't posted at all in six months and anyone with less than 5 or 10 posts who hadn't posted in three months.

Me, I tend to purge the Registering of anyone who hasn't posted in three months, Members of less than 5 posts who hasn't posted in 6 months, and everything of anyone who hasn't posted at all in a year. Problem is right now, that it's been long enough since I did the final one (since March or so) that even the 500 day cutoff has that whole long list.

Rose popped back up (and then I accidentally promptly dissed her taste in books, oops, wouldn't a posted there had I realized it was only a revived thread cuz she revived it) within the last hour, so she's safe now.

*redoes the list*
Nikkio2003, Kamina, Malignant, Hero, Xeos, Hayou, Yuna Whitepaws, Elius, Rinoa, Darkstar, Gillion, Beowulf, Blue fox, Haruhara Haruko, Apathic, Rion Runeosuke, Kaitou Niwa, Jester, NuByteHuntor, Phobia, leo, Maguma, Waveryn_Rider_of_Destruction, Sero, Aenaku-Kaosu, Marth, The Lone Gunman, MÄNNISKOPESTEN, Vahu, Sarah, Morhighan, Meru, Black_Griff, Eddy Red, Ayeka Penor, Emak, Cayr, Keashi, Corbenik, Gray_O_Dark, Haru-kun, Celeste, Susanoh, Kraye, Painless, Hikaru, Onyx Glace, fatal-fate, Theatrephreak, Bishop, Confyzone, Horokeimo, Ahiko, Ayame, Rubie, Ivyn, Yuki_Tatsu_Shizuka, Itske, Blau, zoan_revived, Briar, Manakete, buster, Magus, Gizotso, Rawrness, Kira, Waizu, Martyr617, Seige Arose, Vipora Tri, ViperRaven, zaseniti, Balance, Emicho, Reaver, Lestat Ravenscroft, Lunero, Blue, Souldragoran, rindapinda, Karasu, Lighteria, Kragt, Mikifor, Koran

Yeah, still pretty much the same.