Pyro3000 wrote:
I just want to say that the only way I could find to even get to ThePub was through discord. So, maybe it would be good to have something just for the sake of familiarity.
I’m down for removing recent posts from the main page to not add extra stress to the server (although I believe it’s just a simple query that shouldn’t add much).
Hell, we could just make the page redirect to the discord channel for all I care. My main interest is in making it easier for old users to find us if they ever get curious and out the link in.
This is the concerning bit, if one of the purposes of maintaining RV is to ensure people who come back can do so and join in with whatever is happening at the time. It doesn't make sense to keep RV open but to leave the social aspect of the site left for people to work out for themselves. Facebook Chat isn't hidden somewhere in the terms and conditions (their shocking privacy policies are though). You don't go to Google to find the search box is hidden under various menus. Ease of access is a big issue. The forum is still here but that's the only portal to the present for anybody interested in actually visiting RV again and when they arrive they will first see the inactivity and then see the changes like the different domain, the lack of an official site, lack of familiar signposting you get on any active site. On first glance, if you weren't accustomed to this place you'd think it was pretty much dead already. That will push away lots of people who otherwise might have at least 5-10 minutes to click a few links, perhaps setup a Discord account, leave a message or just stick around a little bit longer.
Saten Ruiko wrote:
Thanks for moving the discussion here, Sirangetta. I'll copy over some of my thoughts and replies to your most recent posts on the Discord server. I'd love for this to be possible, but I have a few concerns.
1) There's a
big technical roadblock, the one I mentioned about domain redirects.
http://www.runevillage.com redirects to
http://www.poorshark.com/ThePub/. I just spent about an hour trying to figure out if I can redirect a specific page to a specific page, but Namecheap's UI doesn't seem to allow that. It's the entire domain or nothing. As far as I can tell, what that means is if we changed runevillage.com to redirect to poorshark.com/landingpage.html, it would
break all old forum links, the ones that are currently linked to runevillage.com/ThePub, like this one for example:
http://www.runevillage.com/ThePub/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=439962. That works because we have the domain redirect, but as I understand it, with the landing page in place it would instead go to poorshark.com/landingpage.html instead of the forum topic it's supposed to be pointing at.
I'm not an experienced web developer (I'm not even an amateur web developer lol) but if you can figure out a way around this, it would help. I'm not willing to break all topics older than 2015 when we could potentially put the same landing page content at the top of the forum index to achieve most of the same effect (but without looking nearly as cool, obvs).
I don't think it's that big of a deal. You might be able to contact tech support to ask them that specific question. It seems like the redirection is being applied globally instead of on an individual basis. Couldn't you apply wildcards to redirection in order to make sure particular URLs redirect based on those wildcards?
Saten Ruiko wrote:
2) I'd personally rather avoid anything that would cause extra hits to the database, such as a Recent Posts widget. I just looked at my server resources and it was something like 65% CPU just idling here with people browsing the forums. There was one time my site almost got shut down entirely because there were too many bots browsing the forums. It's fine for the traffic we get, but I don't want to push my luck.
I also have no idea how to code something like that, and again, not a web dev here, but this is a very old version of phpBB so I'm concerned about the security holes this might introduce as well.
The recent posts section could be basic CMS, and have nothing to do with phpBB. Something like couchcms could be useful and run externally but be integrated into the landing page for allowing posts made to the landing page in an uninstrusive and simply way and without needing much knowledge. There are even CMS that do not require databases. Because this project would be small, the smaller implementation possibilities will be feasible. You could also host the CMS external to the server itself seeing as all you would need is the ability to integrate the particular CMS sections themselves and not an entire system.
Saten Ruiko wrote:
3) What are you intending the Contact Users and Archives buttons to do? We shouldn't put anyone's contact information up here, it'll just get scraped by web bots. The forums and Discord suffice for easy ways to contact Villagers.
This was just an idea to get peoples online handles together; gaming accounts, RSN (if they still use Runescape), social media accounts or whatever. I thought it might add a personal touch and allow people to connect with each other beyond RV seeing as realistically theres more chance of people now connecting on other platforms and other stuff they are doing. You could add spam/bot protection with basic JS to redact information.
Saten Ruiko wrote:
4) I brought up on Discord that I was concerned about using the RS map as a background because I thiiiiiink Jagex told us to stop using their stuff (which is why all content was removed from the main site IIRC?) but meh it's probably fine.
I'm not a legal expert and I don't think anybody else is either. What was the extent to which Jagex set out their demands? And what is the likelihood of them taking legal action should in 2021 a fansite that complied with all requests and moreover a fansite that was destroyed by compliance and through the inevitable fallout of the hiker controversy come back and choose to use a public and freely available background on their site? Unless RV was under strict legal requirement and there was official legal proceedings started to prevent RV from impersonating support from Jagex as the creator of the content they built their fansite around, I can't see them today in 2021 deciding to go on an all-out warpath to have a background removed.
It seems to me like at the time of Jagex taking action there was a lot of hysteria and this has been confused for the actual underlying reality of the situation. I guess this is what happens when you leave a community like RV to stay afloat to people who are personally invested but on a professional basis have no idea about the areas and consequential actions they are at the time were forced to accept. You could tell a kid crossing the road is illegal and for a long time throughout their childhood they may genuinely hold a belief that crossing a particular road infers criminal offense. It doesn't mean for all that all the stories they imagined up regarding that one thing they were told is actually the reality.
In all honesty and again, I have no idea beyond what I've been told, Jagex probably wanted to strike fear into the staff here at RV and to scare them into submission for the purpose of preserving their own community, profits and the wider communities surrounding the game. They must have known they weren't dealing with a company offering RV with full-time employees qualified in the areas required to make a business run successfully online. They probably knew it was a case of playing into the severity of the situation and essentially trying their best to crush RV before the situation got bigger than what it could have actually become ie the people responsible for leaking the stories and their evident personalities, attitudes and intentions and their lack of regard for the consequences. The sort of people who would report a headteacher for speeding to dig up dirt and get some satisfaction out of it even if it meant several hundred students couldn't go to school for a while while they got in a new headteacher. I mean, if you're the king of a country you're not going to have an entity like RuneVillage corrupt the way in which things are run and then affect the confidence in them trusting the services you provide. You're going to do whatever you can to silence the issue and make it look like it was dealt with.
In reality, the amount of peados who must use Runescape and the elaborate grooming networks and all that grim stuff will be infinetly worse than one Runescape fansite with one known peado running it, who it seems was not connected to a wider network of sex offenders and it was never proved he ever exploited the community he ran to commit sex acts. The truth is, the entire situation was pretty mild in comparison to what really lurks out there. If you wanted to investigate this kind of stuff, you'll find some pretty dark places that make the community hiker setup look like a joke. You have extremely complex child sex grooming gangs around the world and their modus operandi will be nothing like what RV was like in the times of hiker. Jagex will want to try and create that illusion and then project that onto the community so they themselves feel corrupted and therefore compelled to comply.
So even though the whole situation was painted in a way that made it look like some sick twisted and completely horrifying situation, in reality it actually probably wasn't. All you have to do is say the word peadophile and you've already got a winning ticket to whatever argument it is you're trying to make.
Does that mean you REALLY have a case? No. I could say you're all peadophiles and you should stop using my imagery. If and when it came to court, it would be a done case before it even started and I most definetly would not win based on the spurious allegations alone. You can't tie hiker to RV anymore because he's dead and unless his accomplices are running RV now there is no link and so how Jagex could muster up the audacity to assume they can stick a label on RV that is now 10 years old and completely obsolete and only applies to the admin (who stepped down a long time ago, and now as mentioned above, is dead) would be ridiculous. I mean sure they could try and scare the hell out of you...
but over a background? Based on a story that is now a decade old with the man accused and the main basis of that story long since dead? Don't they think the damage has already been done? Don't they know their is no justification to assume RV back during the 00s is the RV today and that everybody running it are peadophiles? It defies logic, moreover, common sense and anybody with half a brain cell would add it all up together and see that RV is now being run by people who were never directly connected to hiker and who were simply both fans and voluntary staff members of the site who chose to keep it running out of childhood memories they have, and not solely because it's some peadophilic sex dungeon masquerading as a Runescape fansite.
Now for a couple of quick replies to your Discord comments:
Sirangetta (via Discord) wrote:
I'll be honest, from the standpoint of web design/development, the current standing of RV in terms of having a clear established identity is pretty shaky. It's broken. Everything is chaotic. You've got the forums which are dying and serve no clear indication of what the current direction RV is going or whether it actually warrants people being interested.
The current direction of RV is "permanently parked". New user creation is disabled because I kept having to remove dozens and dozens of spambots.
Sirangetta (via Discord) wrote:
It took me a while to find the discord server and partly that was because reading through everything without knowing what is old and what is new, what is relevant and what isn't pushed me away.
100% agree. I realized that when you made your post, which is why I made a
"We have a RuneVillage Discord server!" global to appear at the top of every page. It's not a perfect solution, but it's a big step forward compared to what it was.
Sirangetta (via Discord) wrote:
It's a bit of a mess and there's no clear indication of what actually exists of RV except from little things here and there. It's my opinion you've got to open up the doors and just face the music. When there's foundations there to provide a solid base for the identity of RV you've got very little left to do
The doors have always been open, that's why it's here.
But the solid base of RV, as Jackstick partially noted previously, has really always been the forums. We had a main site with guides and we had a chat room, but this is where people spent most of their time, and IMO it's what people remember.
Saten Ruiko wrote:
I've touched on this a few times but I want to continue to make this clear -- if some wacky server happenstance breaks RV and it goes down tomorrow, and I can't figure out how to fix it (just like that week in July 2020), then that's it and the RV Pub is over. If it lives on for years and years, I would love that, and I really hope it does! (I still need to pass Jackstick in post count!) But I'm not going to imply that the worst can't happen. Phrases like "years of further support" make me feel like I'm misleading those who are still here, and I don't want to set false expectations.
(That being said, if that did happen, I'd just make a page that redirects to the Discord, or use the one you've created here, so people would still have a way to get in contact with each other. It would just be the forum content that's gone.)
What about a backup server? And what about ensuring there are others who you can pass the torch onto? If you stop doing this RV dies in it's original state. It's about how important it is and the risks to rewards I guess. Maybe no-one will want to pick up where you left off or maybe they won't be experienced enough to do so. Isn't that more reason to perhaps have RV hosted on shared hosting and leave all that to a cheap hosting company instead of running everything yourself? Or at least have a mirror service ready? It might take a lot of the stress and pressure off of you so no longer is RV a project of yours just to keep alive. The trouble then is costs and that could be split enabling mutual responsibility among everyone whose stuck around. It doesn't make sense just to keep expecting you to run the site. That's always an issue though because people just expect communities like this to just happen and keep happening and someone somewhere is dealing with everything while you just worry about page loading times and whether you get what you want. It's why platforms now use you as their products because they know users aren't willing to pay for sh*t and want everything given to them for nothing while giving nothing back. You can't blame Zuckerbergs model when it comes to ensuring you DO benefit from the services you provide. Look at him now, hardly a mistake in terms of what he's managed to get for the site he made. RV obviously can't do that unless you start incorporating ads and users explicitly turn off ad blockers or find some incentive for people to contribute without actually handing over money. Again, the dilemma that spans the history of online communities.
I guess it all comes down to how much RV is worth today for people. I really do believe a landing page gives back RV some sense of self worth. It establishes the fact it's still here and then signposts people accordingly based on how things are done right now. And when things change, the landing page can reflect this, ad infinitum.
~~~
Saten Ruiko wrote:
Anyway, all of this is moot unless we can figure out a way past that technical hurdle at the very top. But if all else fails, I'm open to creating a new content box on the forum index page with all of the information you present (ideally without pushing the forum list down very much). Anyone going to
http://www.runevillage.com is going to land on that anyway, and your experiences have made it clear that if there's information we want people to see, they need to be able to see it without having to click into a forum and then into a global announcement.
That's a good idea but wouldn't it take away from the seperation of the forum and the main site?
Applequest wrote:
I think it looks good and is a good idea - presuming it is not too much work for anyone who has to make it happen or maintain it.
HTML, CSS, JS and perhaps if using other features like integrating a feature for sharing updates to the site or whatever, PHP. Also if messing around with the board header becomes a reality, PHP also. All that knowledge is already here in various people and it's not super complex