iSoaker.net :: Soaking the world!

Seems like WaterWarfare.com is presently suspended and cannot be accessed due to an overdue account balance on hosting. Who pays for WWc's hosting, anyhow? I've forgotten the set-up.

DX does; WaterWarfare.com is down along with Soaker Media. It probably doesn't make sense for him to renew the hosting (yet?), of course.

Does anyone have a database dump from the WWc forums? I'm sure Ben has the HTML pages archived, but the database files could be more useful down the road.

Hosting has been renewed. I couldn't figure out why autorenew failed...then realized that the card on file no longer exists Everything is back up now. This does bring up an issue though: what to do with waterwarfare.com?

DX wrote:Hosting has been renewed. I couldn't figure out why autorenew failed...then realized that the card on file no longer exists Everything is back up now. This does bring up an issue though: what to do with waterwarfare.com?

I'd still like to see it developed further and am willing to scale back iSoaker.net to push activity/traffic to WWc.

I think a transition to WWc as the community hub would be ideal. We obviously shouldn't do that transition soon as we're too busy right now and that I don't think WWc is quiet ready yet, but I'd definitely be interested in something along those lines.

Ben, "community hub" implies that it wouldn't be the only major, public forum, which spells trouble in my mind. As we've seen, we need to commit to a single forum in order for anything to happen. Maybe that's what you meant...just checking.

DX, thanks for renewing the web hosting. B)

I think a single major forum would be a good thing at this juncture, but it's not something we should rush in to as not everyone might agree and there are issues with logistics.

I was once dead-set against it, but now I wouldn't mind one community forum. Power has not been an issue for several years and character disputes/conflicts of interest have essentially petered out over the last half decade. I think we're all more mature now and just want to see water warfare assume its full potential by promoting it in the best ways we can. There's simply not enough activity anymore to support multiple big forums. A focus on one place may help streamline discussion a bit and pull in+retain new members more efficiently.

Perhaps this should be the next offseason project? Even if there weren't things going on now, attempting something major shouldn't be done at the height of the season.

I'm open to merging communities and would be more than happy to scale back iSn to push activity towards WWc with the eventual goal of having iSn simply as a iSoaker.com development board while the bulk of general water warfare topics would occur and be discussed at WWc. What I like about WWc is that it has a good blend of personalities who set-up and oversee the place, but sadly its activity initially peaked, then dropped, being launched at a less favorable time during the start of an "off-season" when all sites saw a general drop in activity.

Though I'm not sure how busy the admins of WWc, IMO, now would be the perfect time to start the ball re-rolling there since it is "on-season", even if only to start calling more attention back to the board and begin posting new topics there to start.

I don't know, it feels rushed. Would you really make an announcement tomorrow saying, "All right, everyone go to WWc now" ?

I would prefer a central site, and I do hate committee delays, but still...this seems fairly abrupt. It's understandable though, because it's something most of us want, so we jump on the idea whenever it comes up...but herding people is neither easy nor fun.

For now, there are some things that need to get done.

• Update phpBB, if that's the reason the forums kept getting hacked.
• Promote iSoaker so that this are represented, if necessary.
• Stop pretending WaterWarfare.com is some insular website (although I feel the same way about iSoaker.net ). Every page should have obvious links to a Soakerdom webring*, and hopefully not just SSC and iSoaker.com.

I don't mind DX's skin...too bad it wasn't there while things were active.

* Another good thing about a central forum is that, hopefully, new websites will be less obligated to start their own forums, since new forums tend to simply die off these days. But still we have a Nuclear NPT-style problem: the active forums are controlled by all the major players.

@Silence: I agree I wouldn't just wish to rush into things and say, "Ok, we're closing up shop here; please go to WWc or no more posting for you!"

I also definitely agree that herding people is neither fun nor always effective; forum migrations tend to lose people along the way for a variety of reasons.

That said, assuming the Admins are willing to support its redevelopment, I'd still rather start getting more interested and promoting WWc as soon as possible rather than waiting for another specific re-launch date. Early joiners/members at WWc would be able to help really shape the foundation of the board while later members would then see a more polished place when they join. I would do my best to coax more posting there through gradually slimming down these forums and posting more at WWc as well as providing more links from iSoaker.com/.net to WWc-based threads.

I wouldn't want to shock any members' system, but if it is to be done, IMO, there be no time like the present to begin!

As for being an insular website, iSoaker.net sort-of is and, to me, that's how SSC feels as well. (Well, more so in the past; I feel quite comfortable at SSC in this day and age, though I don't post there so often.) That's why I'm pushing for development at WWc, but admittedly, if WWc doesn't pan out, there's always the option of making SSC the main hub.

Edit: just logged onto WWc and noticed that the board is presently not accepting new posts. Presuming WWc is to be truly revived, could posting be re-allowed?

I have just tested posting and it appears to work perfectly. Remember that the forum set that works is http://www.waterwarfare.com/forum, NOT http://www.waterwarfare.com/forums as is directed in all existing links. "forums" is the address of the old IPB board, "forum" is of the converted phpBB version. I'll take down the old board - it was still up for archival purposes. The database was ported successfully to the newer location, so nothing will be lost when the links are updated.

I'm getting a renewal notice from IPOWER about waterwarfare.com. Does it look like we're gonna try and make a go of this again? If so, I'll renew.

Adrian

DX wrote:I have just tested posting and it appears to work perfectly.

Well, glad it's working for you, but I'm not seeing any "New Post" or "Reply" buttons on the phpBB board when I log in. Methinks if you're Admin, you still have full access, but if you're only a member, things look a little differently... either that or my account has been suspended from posting; maybe I spammed that board too much.

Yeah, this is all I'm seeing:

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

iSoaker, I will happily post at WaterWarfare.com if we're making an attempt to get things going there.

I would like to join also. The first step would be opening up the boards again.

Working on it right now. Thought I'd restored the old access permissions, but after a test drive in iSoaker's, it appears to still be locked. That's actually a really cool feature btw, the ability to test the permission set of any user, I've never seen it on other forum types.

EDIT: Took another spin in iSoaker's permission set and it should work now:

You can post new topics in this forum
You can reply to topics in this forum
You can edit your posts in this forum
You can delete your posts in this forum
You can post attachments in this forum

Yep, the new permissions work.

teamfear, I think DX has opened up registration, too. The link's at the very top right of the page. (Took a while for me to find it.)

I am all for one waterwar forum. I never ventured to WW.com 'cuz I didn't understand the point of it. Is it a link hub? Is it another message board? If we can combine both and make that the central focus of discussion then I am all for it.
Also, can someone update the information about Hydrowar. It's no longer inactive.

Oh, and don't forget to add HydroBrawl WW to the main page. =)

Everything seems to be working now. I brought my sig and avatar more up to date as well and they're working.