For anyone watching for a Crystal Hall update similar to the past couple weeks... we have good news. And more good news.
The first bit of good news is that there is indeed new content posted. We have two vignette pieces, one from Morpheus and one from Elrod, this week.
From Morpheus: "A Touch of Mischief" ... Imp's young protege celebrates a birthday the only way she seems to know how - by finding trouble and diving in face first.
From Elrod: "The Penance Factor" ... a story from Fey/Nikki's perspective in the aftermath of recent events - the loss of her mentor and spirit, and former Sidhe Queen, and the dark magick used in her revenge against Hekate... the Black Hand.
And if that line up isn't enough good news for one night... let it be known far and wide that the New Crystal Hall is now open for registration, the creation and posting of Whateley Academy stories, and the skirmishing of our online community in its natural habitat... a functioning forums.
Come celebrate our re-opening with as at WhateleyAcademy.net
Comments
I'm glad to see things back
I'm glad to see things back up, but I will point out something for people here.
They require stupid passwords.
No matter how long or complex your password is, they are requiring the 'microsoft standard', which is an upper case, lower case, a number, and a non-alphanumeric character. (Bang, Pound, Splat, And, Bracket)
So, be ready ahead of time with a password that fits those, then write it down somewhere, because you probably won't remember it.
https://xkcd.com/936/
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
all things considered
we just spent a month of down time because of hacking... and have banned two IP's for trying to hack the new site already in the last 48 hours... you'll have to forgive me I don't think the trouble of having a strongish password is too much to ask.
Passwords
Try using a password manager such as RoboForm. It'll generate complex passwords and then store them for your convenience and later retrieval. By the way, passwords AREN'T stupid! Not using a strong one IS stupid and puts many users at risk of hacking.
laurenD
Password managers sound like
Password managers sound like a good idea, but they're actually a crutch, and when (not if!) your PC blows up, you're stuck.
I'm also assuming you didn't really read my post, and certainly didn't click on the link. Passwords, as an idea, aren't bad, or stupid. The "Microsoft Standard" password, however, IS stupid (read that XKCD link). You're forced to create a password using those strict definitions, and in general, it creates bad passwords that are difficult to remember and use.
'Xcucumber1%' is NOT a better password than 'mothersentmetobuylemons'. Tell me which of those is easier to remember. Tell me which has more degrees of entropy. Tell me which would be faster to type for the average user. Now, tell me which one is the one required by Microsoft - and too many banks.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Hm... do we need to make new
Hm... do we need to make new accounts or do the old ones still work?
My guess is that it's
My guess is that it's completely new, and will require all new setup.
Without a copy of the old database, as well as knowing the new forum software, I couldn't say if it's even possible to do a migration. I've migrated data between different forums before, but it's not a straightforward process. Hopefully they get a copy of the old one up and running, even if it's 100% read-only.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
mangled
The old forums isn't recoverable to the point that we could migrate it anywhere even if we had gone with just a forums that was capable of importing FUDforum. We CAN, however, get most of the message data out of there, even if a fair amount of detail is lost. So what we're thinking of doing atm is to recover the data and build it into reference articles and 'history' posts. So, a 15 page thread on the laws of magick might get turned into a pamphlet on Magick in the WU. Or the master character thread on Jade might turn into a character bio sheet. Obviously, it'll take some time to do... but there's some interest in sharing out some projects in the community. So I might be able to gather a thousand posts or so on a topic and ask for a volunteer to turn all that random data into an article of some sort. Not quite the same as having an archived version of all the old forums up for people to read through... but at least the info won't be 'lost' really.
As to content transfer... we currently have the first eight to ten stories (from back in 2004) and everything from the past year (Sept 2014 to present) transferred into the new system. We'll keep plugging away until they're all installed at the new site. Then, yes, we'll probably set up crystalhall.org to point at the new site with the other domain. Then... well, I might put the old stories into some sort of html archive. Not sure yet. Ideally, though, I won't be generating any new html versions of stories from this point forward... as the authors will be able to directly generate/input them on their own using the CMS tools, similar to what is done here at BCTS.
New Site
New site need to set up new account .
Just want to say thank you to the crew working so hard to setup the site and getting a second season of Whateley Academy stories .
For those who have not read the entire story list it is something to put on your to do list .
KUDOS & THANK YOU
Is this new site going to
Is this new site going to include content or links to the old stories?
Cause sometimes I do like to go back and re-read stuff, and having it in one place would be nice. (Specifically my old favorites, Generator, Phase and Pre-kitty Circuit Breaker)
Currently the old Whateley
Currently the old Whateley story page is still there, the stories are being copied over to the new site. I believe the plan is to redirect the old page to the new page, once all of the stories are copied over.
Nuisance Value
"even with the nuisance value of having to post on BCTS instead of locally," Nice to know how we stand with the admins at the CH. Us "nuisances" are happy BC was able to help you and appreciate your grateful thanks.
I can only speak for myself, but I know a smack in the face when I see one. Nice to see one thing hasn't changed, the CH's smug and condescending attitude towards other sites and non-Whateley authors.
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.
Le *sigh*
I doubt it was meant as, and it didn't sound like, a smack in the face to me. When you have a specific theme of story, such as the Whateley Universe, it makes sense to keep the stories together. (Even though 'Whateley' would be a mispelling, in normal circumstances.)
When you've become used to putting your stories all together, it IS a nuisance to have to post them to somewhere else, then point people back and forth.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Oh please.
We have nothing but enormous appreciation and gratitude for what the BCTS admins have done for the Crystal Hall over the years. From taking on the server and hosting us when Bob Arnold passed, to dealing with numerous administrative problems over the years (including keeping our forums working... ANY forums with 10+ years of history is a BEAR to maintain)... all without pay, and often without recognition that THEY were the ones keeping things running because the site was run/skinned independently.
If Erin or any of her team doubt our gratitude, I hope THEY will express it personally so we can clarify. But it is not YOUR place to be outraged or insult us on their behalf or to generate out of context quotes to make us look bad. It was both embarrassing and frustrating for the Crystal Hall staff to have to ask our readers to jump through hoops (the nuisance referred to in the post you quoted) in order to leave a comment on new stories while our site was down for a month due to hacking and problems beyond our ability to resolve. So... what you are reading as 'smug and condescending' was actually elation and relief that we can finally provide the services our readers deserve (things that readers at BCTS might even take for granted because they have such a fantastic site and admins providing it to them but are actually not easy to create or maintain) without reliance on someone else to support us.
It's exciting for us. And we were hoping everyone would celebrate and be happy for us.
I guess that's too much to ask.
Condescending much?
Thanks, Omega girl. Whateley's Admins had two deal with four different forums getting hacked in a single month (the original forum, a secondary temporary forum put up while they tried to recover the original, a third forum they setup as the first attempt to move the site to a new system, the original forum hacked for the second time not long after they got it working again, and finally we are on our fifth forum system, all in a month, all unplanned and mostly the work of the one you just slagged off.
Thanks for this post. Its appreciated how understanding you've been of the stress she's been under and the relief she feels to get out from all that hacking.
How about your own stories?
Are we ever going to see more Fling? :(
Abigail Drew.
Oy... gods
Oh right... I'm an author too. Uh... ya. More stories from Kristin. It'll happen. Soonish, maybe.
I'm actually piecing together a combat final for the Spring 2007 set. It's not from one of my own characters' PoV... but I think it will go over well if I can get the voice down. And as we move into the Fall 2007 school year, I have a new freshman character whose story I'm going to be telling a lot of... it'll be nice to actually have a character on campus finally. The original plans for Fling involved some encounters at the Academy and a brief run as a student... but there were always too many other complex plots for us to work it out right, so the Fling stories have evolved to be a wider universe flavor sort of thing. Though, there ARE more Fling stories planned including (in the long term) the GEO plotline.But a 'lot' of that story happens in the upcoming year... not in the one that is finally finishing. I have one (maybe one multipart) story for Fling that spans Winter and most of Spring 2007... and then that picks up in the late Summer and early Fall 2007, roughly the same time as the new class starts at Whateley.
Of course, that all assumes I ever manage to get to take off my site coder/admin hat for a bit.Eventually I'll have to... or I'll explode into messy little Kristin chunks all over the place... but hopefully, I'll manage it before things get quite that far gone. :)
Oh, okay.
And yeah, I DO know how frustrating website work can be. Hopefully some folks step up to share that burden and let you get back to writing some as well soon.
All the attacks you've been enduring can't be good for your sanity either. Hopefully you've got a robust enough system now to hold up to those better.
Abigail Drew.