Fixing the Site

Let's face it, the site in its current state is a lemon. The forums have been down for a year, SQL errors are everywhere, map making is bugged, comments are eaten because they contain apostrophes, and most recently creating custom games sometimes fails for no reason. The only thing that can really be done on the site anymore is actually playing the game, and, briefly, not even that was possible.

The site needs fixing, and it needs it badly. From what I've gathered, amarriner (the site's host and creator from what I understand) doesn't really seem all that interested in maintaining the site anymore (which is fair enough, he's been taking care of it for ten years, and if he wants to move on then that's his choice), but we should atleast try to convince him to fix the problems that are plaguing the site, or if that fails, to hand the controls over to someone who can.

We need to do something, at the very least, but so far the best option that I can see is to contact amarriner and hope for the best. If anyone has any suggestions other than that, feel free to share them.

I agree, but all my efforts to obtain the reigns of AWBW has been in failure. We were lucky enough to get the message that the site was going down in the first place. There are members of my team that know PHP well enough to help out with the errors. We have been periodically trying to contact him with no avail, but if you are willing to try then I'm all for it.

Need to make our own version of this site then. Perhaps that is the only way?

sulla wrote:Need to make our own version of this site then.

Luckily JSRulz is working on that already 

Possibly an organised group of people need to approach marinner ... He may be more likely to pass control to an entity which wont suddenly stop functioning because one person goes awol.
Also a democratic group with some fair representation of all users may appeal to him. AWBW lost so many able bodies because their voices were not listened to. Any organising group needs to be transparent and not keep secrets from users. Direction needs to be by wide consent following debate. And that requires some forum with reasonable rules of conduct.
Already I see this new forum is not really operating with totally best practice, which cost the old place dearly.

We need assurance of reasonable forum rules being imposed on all and for all equally. Its no good when some people can get away with things that others cant.

A forum with rules like how you speak of does not generate out of thin air. The only shot we have at an organized group of individuals is possibly the CWT team. I mean, there is a lot that has to be done as system administrator. Just handing the site over to someone who knows nothing about programming or dealing with people will mean the same situation twice. I also think that there may be personal items on AWBW that amarriner doesn't want people to tamper with.

Fact is we are dealt cards, and we have to make the best play. For me, I'm focusing on the maps of AWBW as I know losing those will be crippling to the community. Getting CWT to a point that it'll be able to pick up AWBWs slack is something my entire team is working on daily. It is a very tall order as both AW and AWBW decided to shut its doors at the same year.

I think all of us need to figure out what roles we play in this community. It is very important we all communicate these roles so we can move forward. The sooner we organize, the better we can take advantage of the little time we have left.