You probably never saw this coming

Ricold · **Posted:** Thu Jan 21, 2016 5:47 pm

This was originally going to just be for the Loremasters, but I thought I'd get feedback from everyone.

In an amongst the conversations I'm currently having about the future of Asrai, we're also looking into two crazy propositions for the future of Druchii and Ulthuan as well.

The first of these is, unless anyone has any objections, I'm going to suggest that we transfer the hosting for Ulthuan over to Druchii's server*. There is just no reason for both them and us to be paying for hosting separately when modern hosting can manage all three sites (Asrai too) without any strain. The new millenium was 16 years ago now, we're no longer restricted to that technology. Note that I have no intention of standing down as technical admin, which brings me to point two...

I want to suggest that we merge all three forums into one. It should be technically possible to merge the sites whilst maintaining their domains and themes (yeah, getting one is still on my to do list for us). This gives us a couple of interesting opportunities. It gives us all combines traffic. That should boost activity when we Druchii and Asrai posts to respond to as well as our own. It also gives us combined staff and expertise. I've never worked with any of the other admin, but I can come up with crazy ideas (There has been one recently, and I'm still aware I've not finished the library re-populating), then between us we should be able to get more and more interesting things done with all three sites working together.

Before I actually go forth and suggest these openly with the other administrators, I wanted to get everyone's feedback. Notably the Loremasters and Heralds, but from everyone else as well. We organise this site for YOU to post on, so it is YOUR opinion that really should be heard.

(* I mentioned a variation of this plan on the Asrai thread, and the same applies to us. We'd keep out domain, we'd keep everything that makes us us under just this half of the plan, but we'd share disk space with those foul smelling traitorous Druchii the other elves.)

John Rainbow · **Posted:** Fri Jan 22, 2016 1:18 am

I'm for this. I think it makes sense and the extra traffic and more consistent posting would be a welcome change!

Nicene · **Posted:** Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:26 am

I like it. I also just combined the hosting for two of my businesses and a friend's business into one hosting package (using subdomains). Very easy and economical! You could be saving literally dozens of dollars.

Prince of Spires · **Posted:** Fri Jan 22, 2016 7:25 am

Changing hosting I'm in favor of. It's a technical thing, which has no impact on anything except the monthly bill. It pretty much let's us save asrai for pennies and it will greatly reduce our monthly costs. No reasons not to do it.

As for merging them all into one forum I'm not sure about. There is a reason there are race specific forums. People like being part of a group and are more likely to ask race specific questions (tactics / painting / background advice) on race specific forums.

Greater cooperation between the different (elven) forums and easier moving back and forth I'm for. A complete merge I'm not sure about. There are perhaps ways to do a bit of both of course. In a best of both worlds approach we could for instance combine technical knowledge and staff and share some common ground while also having our own individual corners somehow.

@Ricold: how are the site statistics looking since you last dug them up? That probably also has some influence on the decision here.

Rod

SpellArcher · **Posted:** Fri Jan 22, 2016 10:20 am

I feel that hosting is pretty much a decision for the owners/techs while the possibility of merger should see everyone consulted. So maybe?

1) Owners/tech guys consult and host jointly if agreed.

2) Once that's done the individual sites thrash out where they stand on possible merger and on what terms.

3) Action 2, if agreed.

Aicanor · **Posted:** Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:41 am

Agree with you, SpellArcher. But if we think about the merger, we should probably consider different ways the sites can be merged. I believe some parts of the forum can be left divided even if the parts like Painting and Modelling, Off Topic and General discussion are made "all-elven". :mrgreen:

Gandalf_82 · **Joined:** Mon May 13, 2013 4:20 pm **Posts:** 345

I would support any decision that those running this site make, appreciate the time you put into it! I certainly think moving server to save costs is a no brainer. Regarding the full blown merger option, I'd say its got its pro's and con's. I like the suggestion to merge painting, general topics etc but keeping a HE specific section.

John Rainbow · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2016 12:43 am

I agree that race-specific forums would be a pre-req but other than that I don't see any problems. I can only see positives from joining together to form a larger community. I can't really see anything from Ulthuan that would be lost in the transition unless they other forums are composed of D-bag users (unlikely). The only question I would ask would be how the site would be run from a mod. perspective? i.e. would all our Ulthuan mods who we know and love :mrgreen:

keep their roles?

SpellArcher · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2016 1:19 am

John Rainbow wrote:

The only question I would ask would be how the site would be run from a mod. perspective? i.e. would all our Ulthuan mods who we know and love keep their roles?

This is a good question.

Currently we have seven mods, the other sites combined have at least ten.

John Rainbow · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2016 5:13 pm

Yeah the mod thing is the only thing I could see causing some contention - I think the site will run a lot more smoothly if all these guys are happy!

Aerendar Valandil · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2016 11:30 pm

Great plan

Prince of Spires · **Posted:** Mon Jan 25, 2016 10:16 am

We haven't worked out the details yet (or even had a check to see if there were any details to work on...). But it very much depends on the execution of how this is done what impact it has for the moderator team. A full merger with only combined forums and some graphical differences probably means a smaller mod team will be necessary. A partial merger that is more a cooperation then a merger means that we will need more moderators. I'm not too worried about it and I think that's something that will make itself clear if we ever decide to do this.

Rod

Orchaldor · **Joined:** Fri Mar 28, 2014 12:44 am **Posts:** 27

Sounds sensible to me.

Providing the technical setup is straightforward enough to do, the only note of caution I would sound is to be absolutely sure all the admins and moderators know what their new responsibilities will be - I would hate for there to be any messy arguments after the merge about who should be doing this or that.

As for separate vs merged forums, I would be happy either way. It would be very nice to retain a certain amount of "race specific" content, but I don't see that as crucial - just because I play High Elves, it doesn't mean I'm not interested in reading about other factions (for example, SA's "Segway to Hell" army blog).

At the end of the day, if this saves Asrai and helps secure the immediate futures of Druchii and Ulthuan, it's well worth doing.

SpellArcher · **Posted:** Mon Jan 25, 2016 4:13 pm

Orchaldor wrote:

(for example, SA's "Segway to Hell" army blog)

Thanks Orchaldor.

Peepster1976 · **Posted:** Mon Jan 25, 2016 6:45 pm

YES, merge!!!

Cold Phoenix · **Posted:** Mon Jan 25, 2016 11:21 pm

I'm fine with sharing servers. If it'll work and saves money, it makes sense. I actually think that merging the forums, but keeping a few HE, WE and DE sections is a great idea. With the lack of forum traffic on Ulthuan, I've been paying more attention to the HBE section of the 9th age forum. I'd be quite happy to come back to a combined elf forum, particularly given how toxic some discussion on the 9th age forum have become recently.

SpellArcher · **Posted:** Mon Jan 25, 2016 11:37 pm

Cold Phoenix wrote:

With the lack of forum traffic on Ulthuan, I've been paying more attention to the HBE section of the 9th age forum.

This is the problem, we lost a lot of our posters to the 9th Age forum. Now they won't come back because we don't have many posters. Today has actually been quite busy on Ulthuan (upwards of 30-40 posts at a guess) but of course not on the 9th age forum. A few of us have kept it vaguely ticking over, without which it might be gone already. If anyone is interested in having such a forum here or on a combined elf site to come back to, I'd urge them to post, on whatever they find interesting or relevant in 9th Age.

Ferny · **Joined:** Mon Apr 29, 2013 12:03 pm **Posts:** 1906

Bravo on keeping Asrai alive, good work all involved!

Regarding further mergers of any sort, I'm happy with whatever route the site owners and users collectively consider best.

I'm not using Ulthuan much these days for reasons described above (have mostly migrated over to HBE on 9th Age), but I miss Ulthuan. The tone over there is pretty toxic a lot of the time. There's a lot of folks arguing that nerfs are fundamentally terribad for HE and should never happen over their dead bodies because literally everything we have is weak. There's a lot of folks saying we're just waaaaay to OP. In the same thread. (And, because in and of itself that would be OK, but the language, arguments and tone is all pretty toxic). I don't know because it's a difference in mods/culture, or the fact that it's in the game development phase and people feel it's a 'war' and they need to defend 'their side' against the ravages of the nerfbat, and perhaps also ravage other armies with said bat? But there seems to be very little listbuilding activity, little blog activity, few full bat reps, etc etc. The painting section includes a really nice gallery but I don't see the cool thing happened here. It's kinda like the site has the users but not yet a community if that makes sense?

Whether that means there's still a niche for Ulthuan as the more mature 'gaming club' online forum compared to the 9th Age 'GW store' style environment I'm not sure, or whether 9th Age would benefit from porting not just users but actual content and mods from Ulthuan (as a distinct Ulthuan subforum in HBE probably rather than in the toxic bits?)...but that wouldn't cope well with our nice painting sections, or with other systems like KoW (which I strongly associate with 'our' SM now), or 8th, or :evil:

AoS

...

Regardless, I'm glad Ulthuan still floats and I'm glad we've saved Asrai. FWIW, 9th Age isn't a secure platform yet - as a gaming system it has the support of ETC and looking a the user map is strong in Europe, but the scene in UK is horribly horribly split, US seems to be strongly KoW, Ozzies seem to be doing their own thing and 9th in equal measure so far as I can tell...after a year or two of ETC 9th Age may fall, and then what...???

SpellArcher · **Posted:** Tue Jan 26, 2016 12:59 am

Ferny wrote:

it's in the game development phase

This, I think. It's so much easier to get going properly when the rules are relatively set.

Ferny wrote:

9th Age isn't a secure platform yet

Indeed and I have full respect for you guys (and Giladis for example) in giving it's forum your support. It would be good to have your gaming input here also as much as possible though. All we can do is have a real go at making things work and see what transpires.

Ferny · **Joined:** Mon Apr 29, 2013 12:03 pm **Posts:** 1906

I'm mostly theory hammering at the moment as until recently I didn't have a 9th Age group. Things are likely to change soon though, at which point I'll probably cross post more.

SpellArcher · **Posted:** Tue Jan 26, 2016 12:41 pm

Me too, I've only played one game and there are no tournaments close enough for me yet. Luckily, 9th Age plays a lot like 8th edition, so we're not starting from a position of ignorance. Several of our posters are getting games in though.

amboadine · **Joined:** Mon Nov 24, 2014 8:19 pm **Posts:** 5

I thought it might be of use to post the link to the same discussion we are currently having on Druchii.net for those of you interested in our thoughts on the merger and some of the questions and comments.

Asrai, Ulthuan and Druchii websites

Feel free to add your views there as well. It is nice to see some great positivity on the potential we all have here.

Ricold · **Posted:** Wed Jan 27, 2016 2:21 pm

amboadine wrote:

I thought it might be of use to post the link to the same discussion we are currently having on Druchii.net for those of you interested in our thoughts on the merger and some of the questions and comments.

Asrai, Ulthuan and Druchii websites

Feel free to add your views there as well. It is nice to see some great positivity on the potential we all have here.

Thank you for that.

frogboy · **Posted:** Mon Feb 15, 2016 2:58 am

Hello cousins :mrgreen:

Well I'm all for the merger, I'd like the three groups to still have their differences High/Dark/Wood but whatever can be done to save us should be done, probably for them with more control to thrash out but would like to express my full support.

Also if you ever get lost in the woods http://www.asrai.org/portal.php then tell them I sent you. Of course the Spirits don't always claim to speak the same language and its not so easy getting close to a Waywatcher :lol:

Don't let that put you off though, come and say hi, we are a welcoming bunch really...

SpellArcher · **Posted:** Tue Feb 16, 2016 1:04 am

Welcome frogboy! I've actually posted on Asrai a fair bit.

I feel the first step is joint hosting and then where we all want to go from there.

frogboy · **Posted:** Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:14 am

Thanks, I've not been as active on Asrai lately (not been much to do TBH) but am interested to see if we can save it. I think a lot of members could have potentially given up on the site and looked else where, previously before this news there was an announcement that the site would close in the Summer, but looks like now there is some hope again, in the merger :mrgreen:

Prince of Spires · **Posted:** Tue Feb 16, 2016 8:37 am

Welcome frogboy

Don't worry, we have trees here too. They go in parks...

Once the joint hosting move is complete we can start looking at ways to improve on what we have now I think. While it's not the most active, there is a lot of good content on Asrai. Which at least gives a starting point for building up traffic. As for how we are going to achieve it and in what form, we'll see at a later point. But don't fear. Ulthuan, euhm, Asrai will never fall...

Rod

frogboy · **Posted:** Thu Feb 18, 2016 9:11 pm

Cool parks

Thanks, yes it would be nice to see more traffic over on Asrai.org although today we had 52 guests. I think once members realize its not disappearing then we might see some return, think I'll stick an announcement up thinking about it.

I see you guys have a monthly painting contest, I'll get ours going again soon hopefully, we also have a writing one that is long overdue to return.

Cheers,
frogboy :mrgreen:

SpellArcher · **Posted:** Thu Feb 18, 2016 10:23 pm

frogboy wrote:

an announcement

Sounds like a very good idea frogboy.

frogboy wrote:

I see you guys have a monthly painting contest, I'll get ours going again soon hopefully

As does this. Stimulation is key!

Calisson · **Joined:** Sat Jan 03, 2015 8:49 am **Posts:** 18

Hi, cousins.

An update: see Asrai.org is up and kickin'!
Asrai has achieved its migration and is now hosted on same host as Druchii.net.

I was wondering how Ulthuan was feeling about a similar migration?

Ulthuan

You probably never saw this coming

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