There is an issue that eagle and I have been tackling for a long time which is getting the users on the forum to realize that we are no longer just a forum. A few users such as Archie and even Lecter have helped us with this, by providing excellent suggestions (and I'll be honest and say that not all of them have been implemented as yet). The main website still needs work as anyone can see but it's getting there, slowly. But outside of that, it came to a point where eagle and I just stopped caring. We've tried to drive traffic from the forums to the main site but it doesn't work and that is fine. Our main concentration now has been to promite the main site outside of the forum and with any chance we get, to promote the boards as well.

Over the last few weeks, everyone may have noticed that the forum has been acting buggy, causing the entire server to crash on us. last week, when we already know that the forum itself can handle upto 226 people logged on and working at the same time, it could barely take 80. I was forced to reboot the system 4 times that night. THe main site can accomodate thousands of users accessing it at the same time but if the forum hangs, the entire site does because the server stops responding. The only solution is to wait for hours till till operations on the server are reduced or time out or wait till someone reboots the machine

What happened last night is UNACCEPTABLE! It is unacceptable because the people behind it have clearly stated that their intentions were to momentarily crash the server! Let me tell you guys something. The server does not momentarily CRASH!! Everytime you do that, you run the risk of causing a permament one! And the problem will not rectify until eagle or I wake up. After last week's issue, the information was provided to Loyal as well. But needless to say that at 12 in the morning, the possibility of finding one of us coming online till day light are usually remote!!

Eagle is not here right now! As of Sunday, i am MIA. Loyal has been provided neccessarily information but incase of problems, he CANNOT handle certain things. So when you decide to crash the site momentarily, realize what you're putting US through!!!!!! We've already established the pain this causes the users here, think about the mods who had to clean up that entire thread to make it look more respectable.

The site is growing. Every time it crashes, it looks bad. New users are coming in and even worse, we have studios and publicists keeping an eye on us (which I can tell from the type of emails I receive nowadays). In the last week, I've been approached by 2 studios for promoting something and others are lurking aorund as well! They have little interest in the forum but everytime YOU TRY TO CRASH THE FORUM, YOU CRASH THE CONTENTS ON THE MAIN PAGE AND EVERY SUBSEQUENT PAGE! And when people try to see you and can't, they move on to the next site thats looking for attention!

Xia spent driving to and fro a few weeks ago to cover WonderCon. I will be spending my entire vacation at a convention with little time to breathe next week. Xia will be doing so again next weekend! We are getting information for the site and this type of behavior is not helping at all. Some people put in tonnes of work into this site when they could be doing something else.

As such, this as far as I'm concerned is no longer a forum related issue. Forum rules and procedures do not apply. This type of stuff effects the entire website and puts more burden on our servers. Hence, the usual protocol will not be followed.

Right now, I know the main involvement here was from Da Torri and Lecter. I like both of you and appreciate the amount of work that was put in. But what happened yesterday was no laughing matter. APril Fool's joke ... no harm done .... this would have caused a serious issue! As such, you are both temporarily banned from using the forum for a period of 7 days. This decision will not be over turned and is not open for discussion. We do not want a repeat like this ever again! It is not so much a mistake but the fact that both of you knew exactly what you were doing and seemed to understand the consequences. It is even more disturbing that that itself was your motivational factor!

Other accounts are being investigated by me as well as I've heard a couple of other users were involved too. I don't have all the information on it but do not be surprised if the same ruling is carried out in their matters as well.

List of people with no access to the forum till 17th of March, 2006: 12:00PM
Dr. Lecter
da torri

Added to List

Insomniacdude

Also, we will not allow anymore seperate accounts for award ceremonies ever again!

Thanks for your cooperation.

I guess what bothers me the most outside of the obvious (I've poured literally $10,000 into the site, not to mention time and love) is that the pranksters didnt approach me to discuss it. I'm the wacky creative owner around here and I would think any stunts would automatically be filtered through me.

I would have told them that this just was not a good idea.

I'm more disappointed than angry (though plenty angry).

Dr. Lecter, da torri, and insomniac dude have been unbanned.