Thardferr Site boards

[Vitriol Blue]

Surly teardrop realize that we truly value your input reguarding this situation, its just everyone gets a little touchy with any mention of ST these days.

My appologies if I seemed harsh.


and wow Endel...flattery can get you everywhere

[Endel]

Now don't tell me that!  :twisted: Because I will use it to its fullest advantage.  :twisted:

[Anonymous]

Wow so much to respond to.  lol  I guess Endel has a bunch of questions...probably will answer most others questions as well.

(as for coming under a fascade, it's sometimes needed as people who 1. think thardferr staff is st, and 2 hate st don't act to kindly.  Making it somewhat impossible to get through to people using a regular name)

Ok...try and go right down the line here Endel.

!. Shadow Tech hosts www.thardferr.com.  Outside of that it gets harder to understand who what and where things are handled as some filter back to ST while most are dealt with by thardferr staff.  Shadow Tech staff that currently has any job function to the site is Gen.Shadow.  His function is to work on the strategy game and keep it running properly, game changes, bug fixes.  He makes any changes to the sites themselves or any fixes to site problems.

2. Thardferr Staff is the following:
     Dalamar the Dark - Senior admin. (dalamar is in charge of both the admins, and with pretty much anything to do with the forums and policies outside of the game) *Also able to answer questions on AD&D*
     LdyDarkness (myself) - Member Services. (I am in charge of dealing with any and all PR that needs, answering email pertaining to most things however bugs do not reach me as I have no ability to take care of that, I also run most of the game itself as in deleting kingdoms, and investigations on cheats and multi's) *Also able to answer questions on AD&D*
    Sage - Forum Administrator. (Sage is in charge of the strategy forum and all the mods she has placed to take care of those forums.  She also has a say in forum policies)
    Ophelia - IRC Administrator. (Ophelia is in charge of the #thardferr IRC room and any other official thardferr rooms such as #trading and #thardferrhelp.  She administrates all the mods on IRC and helps to make any policies on that.)
 
Then of course you have the moderators....they keep the thardferr related IRC channels clean and running, same as with the forums.  There are usually 8-12 moderators at any given time.

3. Thardferr Staff has no affiliation to ST.  They are chosen to do a specific thing on Thardferr.  Just as the DMC or SysOp is not affiliated with ST yet they run the site.  It's pretty much the same things on the Strat side.  Thardferr is it's own identity.

4. Two parts.  
   a. You already have a copywrite statement, the one given by Abakar giving you a public license on everything and an agreement that none of your information can be used for profit.
   b. The copywright ST cannot give is simply because they do not know what the site is completely entailing.  They do plan on redoing the site (hopefully with help and advice from the members).  Their plans are to make the site easier to use, more helpful to the councils and easier to manage everything....making it unecisary to go offsite for much if not everything.  They may not even plan to keep everything that is there....I don't think they even know what exactly the redoing of the site is going to be which is why they can't give a specific copywright...but you do have the other one which will be in place until the redo of the site happens.  (as stated the redo will not just take place, it will take time and everyone will know about it)  As you pointed out also, ST is a company not an individual...and they will not make an official copywright on things they do not know because if they did so choose to go a different route they would have made an error with the copywright and are at that point in legal standings.

5. I don't think there is a specific timeline for the site overhaul.  ST did not decide to host thardferr for the AD&D side, they wanted the strat.  AD&D ended up coming with the territory, so hence why they don't seem too terribly concerned to you.  They just simply aren't familiar with the site and have the site they wanted as first priority. (as much priority as it can be as even the strategy side is only a side project)  So a timeline can be a year from now or more.  It really is unknown.

6. New features would be (forgive me as i'm not 100% familiar with the site either).  Any new features that you all feel there needs.  Possibly a new look or color scheme.  Easablility to find things and organize.  A backend for the higher up people to manage the site content and manage any other information whether it be on characters or whatnot.  If at all possible (this will probably be the last change if it ever is made at all) a place to actually do the campaigns instead of going offsite to OpenRPG.

7. I for some reason think that Sage did play on the site a while back.  Unless some of the moderators did I don't think any other admins or staff did though.  

8. I believe was answered above...but will put them again.
Gen.Shadow - runs thardferr, runs ST.
LdyDarkness - Thardferr
Dalamar the Dark - Thardferr
Sage - Thardferr
Ophelia - Thardferr

9.  The contacts for AD&D is Dalamar the Dark and LdyDarkness.  If there are site problems and Dalamar or myself cannot be contacted emailing memberservices@thardferr.com should do the trick at getting to gen or myself to get to gen to get things fixed.  Unless you are able to talk with GenShadow himself that would also work.

10.  Depending on the technical problem...but a site problem I do not see a reason to last more then a week.  With the new system for emails being implemented I think the rule is going to be to have responses out within 2 days max.

11.  I don't know any other things ST will be adding to the site.  I have heard ideas of private messaging systems and those types of things.  I would think that any Staff on AD&D would get email accounts like the strategy side admins do but I don't know that for sure.


---

As to why come back?  I am not here to try and get you to come back, just wanting to know if that in fact is the case.  I for one was not aware that the site was down. If you choose to not return thats definately up to you, and definately understandable...but on the other side it should be known if that is your intentions so that the site can be brought back to life with new blood.

 I remember 2 emails back in October I belive saying the site was down (nothing of the boards) and after going to the site saw it was up.  One other email from a player did say the forum was down, again in October.  I assumed after the servers were stable the problem was fixed seeing that there was never another email saying it was not working.  

Wow that also was horribly long.    Hope you can all read through it.

[teardrop]

bah that was me....

[Endel]

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions Teardrop/LdyDarkness. I believe that there was a person named "Sage" in the past but I believe this person was a "he" and not a "she". Im pretty sure his RL first name was "Kenny" or something. Perhaps Dalan or one of the older DMs can pop on and say yeah or nay to my gender thought.

I must say it is as refreshing as the sea breeze, or at least I think it might be as I have never felt a sea breeze, to read answer 4a. Now if we could just get it posted up on the mainsite, something along the lines of: "Everything that is submitted, posted, and displayed on this site is for public use and should not be used for profit." Or something like that. I am really not a legalrati so maybe someone else could come up with a better statement.

I'll comment more when I am not at my paying job. I have some more questions and perhaps some suggestions when I get home.

[DM Rithas]

As nice it is to see someone actually responding about our concerns, there are still several things that bug me.

#1: You say that for now the copyright is in place that "Everything that is submitted, posted, and displayed on this site is for public use and should not be used for profit." but you also say that this could very well likely change when/if the new site is made. Isn't that basically just saying that our right to the material can be taken away when whoever makes the copyright (whether that's ST or TS) feels like it, by changing the copyright to the new "appropriate" one, or will everything be grandfathered under the old copyright?

#2: You list several points that are rather irksome to us (well me at least). D&D is low priority, and new site is not planned and could be a year or more away. What part about this gives us any incentive to WANT to be a part of the ST owned Thardferr? We already have a DM owned and operated replacement site in the works, WITH a working DM and PC registration form being made which is already more then can be said for the "real" site. If you truely want to keep this community, then admin priv's should be given back to Gralbor so at least HE can update the real site.

ST doesn't want to bother with the D&D side, fine but at least let us continue to improve upon it. Otherwise we will continue to use outside forums and sites.

Note this is not intended as offensive or flaming, merely the view of one DM.

[teardrop]

Endel...the Sage you are talking to infact was a male.  The Sage I am reffering to is a female and I do not believe would be known as Sage on this site, will have to ask her if she did in fact play here.

Rithas.

#1. No they are not the same thing.  As stated, when the redo is done to the site if whatever is decided for copywright is not approved for the information then either the copywright will be reworked until it is agreed, or the information in question will simply not be used.  However I am almost certain that their will not be a profit made off of other peoples work.  And yes everything will be grandfathered by the old copywright....is that what is making it hard?  I thought that was clear.  Obviously ST can't just take what you have already done and say it's theirs.

#2. AD&D is same priority pretty much as Strat.  However improving the site comes after improving strat.  ST doesn't run AD&D, the DMC and such does.  ST is not involved in the innerworkings of the site nothing really has changed in that aspect.  As I said already I am not here to make you come back, I do however need to know if in fact you are or not so that the site can either be reconstructed and new blood brought in or so that the site can be fixed and you returning.  Gralbor had his priviladges taken away for reasons, and he also stated to me (email was sent to AngelDM so he can verify) that he will not deal with me or Dalamar.  Therefore there is no way to get his priviladges back at this time.  If however someone else had the ability or knowhow to do whatever he did maybe they could step up, or just email in any requests that are needed. (as said a new email function is being implemented and will hopefully make things run smoother with no more then 2 day replies)

[DM Rithas]

I never suggested that ST would be "running" the D&D side. I'm not concerned with the inner workings of the site, just the functionality. The player registration has been broken for a long time. That is perhaps the biggest problem.

Another thing is, we the people who DO run Thardferr have no way of updating any of the info on the main site. That itself makes satellite sites a necessity.

What I would like, and I think many would agree with me, is that someone from "us" (doesn't have to be Gralbor, he was just an example as he was the person who did it in the past) is given complete admin powers over the site. That way we can fix what needs fixing, we can update what needs updating, and ST can make us as low a priority as they want.

Otherwise, the inability to update the site ourselves, and the low priority of ST doing so for us makes "coming back" a rather poor choice.

[Endel]

Hmmm. I have a follow-up question. If it is irrelavent whether or not we come back then why even use Thardferr? What I am saying why even ask? Just start over and sever all ties with the old establishment. I mean there is really very little current and up to date information on the mainsite. Everything is on sateilite sites because we could never update/fix the old site. So does that mean if TS was to redo the site it would harvest data from the sateilite sites and try to fit it together?

*shrugs* I am running off at the mouth.

1. If TS is not affliated with ST then why does the owner/man-in-charge of ST is also connected to TS?

2. If it is not too intrusive, how will TS/ST make money through Thardferr? Advertising? Selling e-mail lists? Subscription fee? I mean this can't be like the underwear gnomes where we have 1. Gather people to our site. 2. ??? 3. Profit. (Sorry I try to use that as an example anytime I can because it makes me giggle like a little school girl.)

3. Will DMs have the ability to moderate?

Blah I can't think at all right now. I'll go ahead and post this and then head off.

[teardrop]

It isn't irrelevant if you come back or not, it just needs to be known as if you are coming back there is no need to appoint new DM's and such as it would be if you were not.

#1. TS is only affiliated with Thardferr.  ST is affiliated with anything they see fit to be affiliated.  The owner is mainly involved in the backend of the game and policies.  He is also involved as the site is his and I guess thats just how he chooses to be involved.  However it could also be concluded that he is also considered TS when working on Thardferr and not ST staff.  All for sures are that TS is in face in no way shape or form ST staff.  ST really doesn't do much more then host the sites.

#2. I believe the only money to be made off of thardferr is going to be advertisers.  Pop up adds will never be brought back, but there will be banner adds and adds to that liking.  Seeing as a lot of people on the strategy side seem to want Thardferr merchandise I belive that is another thing that might be introduced, although there isn't much profit to be found there.  The goal is not to make money....although i'm sure at some point ST would like the game to at least cover the server costs the strat game brings on.  The game was aquired because Gen wanted to keep the game going when Abakar couldn't afford to do so.

#3. If that is how it works now I don't think it will be changed.  If that is not how it works now then that would be up to whoever is in charge probably being DMC or however your system works.

[DM Rithas]

It would be much appreciated if a response to my last post/request, directly above Endel's list of questions, could be addressed when you are able to LdyShadow.

[teardrop]

Not sure what question you have asked that has not already been answered, maybe if you put it like Endel has been putting his it might not get lost in the paragraphs.

[Rhade]

I think Rithas is asking that, since ST puts its main priority on the strategy side, whether the DM's, or one of the DM's, will be given complete admin powers over the site?  This way, the DM's can fix and update things that need attention instead of depending on ST, who views the AD&D side as a lower priority, to update/fix them.

[DM Rithas]

What I would like, and I think many would agree with me, is that someone from "us" (doesn't have to be Gralbor, he was just an example as he was the person who did it in the past) is given complete admin powers over the site. That way we can fix what needs fixing, we can update what needs updating, and ST can make us as low a priority as they want.

That sums it up quite nicely. Will this happen?

[teardrop]

"Gralbor had his priviladges taken away for reasons, and he also stated to me (email was sent to AngelDM so he can verify) that he will not deal with me or Dalamar. Therefore there is no way to get his priviladges back at this time. If however someone else had the ability or knowhow to do whatever he did maybe they could step up, or just email in any requests that are needed. (as said a new email function is being implemented and will hopefully make things run smoother with no more then 2 day replies)"