State of the Server (2016-2017)

[Administrator]

State of the Server
2016-2017

This thread will be updated semi-regularly with administrative news and global announcements.

The parties permitted to post in this thread include: Administrators, Head DMs, Lead Developer, Lead Programmer, Forum Developer, and Sysop. All other posts will be removed.

[Maecius]

30 April 2016

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As of today, it has been six weeks since anyone's had any communication with Luna, BGTSCC's director and administrator.

I will be taking over his roles and responsibilities, temporarily, in the hopes that he will be returning. However, I have also backed up the server locally in the worst-case scenario that the server and the forums go down and we have to move to a new server. Our lead developer is also maintaining a copy of the server.

As I understand it, the monthly bills for the server and the forums are paid automatically through our Paypal account. But I am not 100% certain about this. I do know that the server costs us approximately $125 a month, and the forums (which also host the files for our autodownloader) run about $80 a month. Unfortunately, none of us has any idea how much money is in our Paypal account. There is also no indication that the Paypal account will remain open indefinitely.

For the second reason alone, this is not a fundraising request. If you have been donating, or would like to donate, please do. But do not just throw money at us, because if the server goes down we currently have no way of refunding you.

It is also not my intention to panic anyone:

The primary reason for this notice is to give everyone a heads-up, to exercise transparency, and to encourage you to locally save any forum threads or PMs that are important to you. This last point is worth emphasizing:

If you have any PMs, threads, or posts that are important to you (character bios, journals, guild pages, and so on), please save them to your computer. I have attempted to backup the entire forum, but I am inexpert at it, and I have no idea whether it allowed me to backup all of the threads or if I just backed up the custom styles and formatting.

Thanks, everyone, for all you do to make this place great. We will try to keep you all informed.

[Maecius]

8 May 2016

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In case the forums should ever go down, please bookmark this address:

http://bgtscc1.boards.net/

You do not need to make an account for it or anything just yet. But it will give us all a place to rendezvous if an emergency server and forum migration becomes necessary.

Be sure you bookmark it now, not later, though; if the forum does go down you'll not have access to this post!

[Maecius]

9 May 2016

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Two very different, but stupendously smart, community members gave me an idea that might help with the server's financial uncertainties. I need to look into a few things, but I hope to post news to you all by this weekend.

In the meantime, since I am not a big fan of nonstop doom and gloom, here are some just-for-fun forum stats to enjoy (special thanks to Zanniej for the inspiration):

Overall Visitors

- We average 350 unique daily users with around 10,000 sessions (forum reload addicts, all of us).
- We post 112.53 posts per day.
- We have 8,494 individual user accounts.
- We have 292,501 posts across 23,547 threads.

Staff Specs

- The DMs have 4,176 threads with 54,506 posts across the DM discussion forums and DM campaign forums.
- The biggest proportion of these, by far, are dealing with player requests. There are 1,265 individual player requests logged, with 15,024 posts of discussion.
- 42 requests are currently active. Everything else has been handled or archived by those workaholic DMs.

- The QC forum has 1,303 threads, many of them individual issues or bugs, with 25,781 posts of discussion.

- Staff chatter accounts for 33% of the forum's total posts.

Forum Chatterbugs

- The top 10 most talkative forum users are (with post count): Luna (8,486), Rasael (7,797), DM Golem (6,273), Maecius (5,582), Valefort (4,094), DM Dialectic (3,650), Deathgrowl (3,601), Hoihe (3,560), Duster47 (3,551), and mrm3ntalist (3,519).

- The biggest subforum on the entire board is the Guilds & Factions subforum, with 74,788 posts across 6,915 threads. (So much plotting going on in there!)
- At this moment there are 35 forum users online.

Happy gaming everyone.

[Endelyon]

Here are some server vault statistics. This was a 30 day snapshot from around the end of March. Ignore the percentages as they don't add up to 100 and therefore make no sense!

Statistics:

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[gender]
F - 744 (44.18%)
M - 1848 (109.74%)

[race]
Dwarf - 234 (13.90%)
Elf - 457 (27.14%)
Gnome - 78 (4.63%)
Gray Orc - 79 (4.69%)
Half-Elf - 113 (6.71%)
Half-Orc - 137 (8.14%)
Halfling - 130 (7.72%)
Human - 854 (50.71%)
Planetouched - 510 (30.29%)

[subrace]
Aasimar - 212 (12.59%)
Air Genasi - 21 (1.25%)
Deep Gnome - 20 (1.19%)
Deep Imaskari - 16 (0.95%)
Drow - 155 (9.20%)
Earth Genasi - 86 (5.11%)
Fire Genasi - 49 (2.91%)
Gold Dwarf - 23 (1.37%)
Gray Dwarf - 10 (0.59%)
Gray Orc - 79 (4.69%)
Half-Elf - 91 (5.40%)
Half-Orc - 137 (8.14%)
Half-drow - 22 (1.31%)
Human - 838 (49.76%)
Lightfoot Halfling - 30 (1.78%)
Moon Elf - 103 (6.12%)
Rock Gnome - 58 (3.44%)
Shield Dwarf - 201 (11.94%)
Strongheart Halfling - 100 (5.94%)
Sun Elf - 72 (4.28%)
Tanarukk - 12 (0.71%)
Tiefling - 125 (7.42%)
Water Genasi - 5 (0.30%)
Wild Elf - 14 (0.83%)
Wood Elf - 113 (6.71%)

[background]
Appraiser - 123 (7.30%)
Bully - 137 (8.14%)
Confidant - 18 (1.07%)
Devout - 203 (12.05%)
Farmer - 46 (2.73%)
Flirt - 32 (1.90%)
Foreigner - 351 (20.84%)
Furious Charger - 120 (7.13%)
Ladies' Man - 31 (1.84%)
Militia - 25 (1.48%)
Natural Disguiser - 41 (2.43%)
Natural Leader - 41 (2.43%)
No Background - 494 (29.33%)
Savvy - 3 (0.18%)
Survivor - 1 (0.06%)
Tale Teller - 18 (1.07%)
Talent - 24 (1.43%)
Troublemaker - 22 (1.31%)
Veteran - 439 (26.07%)
Wild Child - 335 (19.89%)
Wizard's Apprentice - 85 (5.05%)

[alignment]
Chaotic Evil - 150 (8.91%)
Chaotic Good - 265 (15.74%)
Chaotic Neutral - 374 (22.21%)
Lawful Evil - 178 (10.57%)
Lawful Good - 312 (18.53%)
Lawful Neutral - 218 (12.95%)
Neutral Evil - 298 (17.70%)
Neutral Good - 368 (21.85%)
True Neutral - 429 (25.48%)

[deity]
Abbathor - 3 (0.18%)
Aerdrie Faenya - 2 (0.12%)
Akadi - 28 (1.66%)
Angharradh - 11 (0.65%)
Ao - 28 (1.66%)
Arvoreen - 11 (0.65%)
Auril - 31 (1.84%)
Azuth - 43 (2.55%)
Baervan Wildwanderer - 1 (0.06%)
Bahgtru - 9 (0.53%)
Bane - 42 (2.49%)
Baravar Cloakshadow - 8 (0.48%)
Berronar Truesilver - 7 (0.42%)
Beshaba - 20 (1.19%)
Bhaal - 30 (1.78%)
Bhaal - 1 (0.06%)
Brandobaris - 25 (1.48%)
Callarduran Smoothhands - 8 (0.48%)
Chauntea - 31 (1.84%)
Clangeddin Silverbeard - 20 (1.19%)
Corellon Larethian - 44 (2.61%)
Cyrrollalee - 1 (0.06%)
Deep Duerra - 2 (0.12%)
Deneir - 10 (0.59%)
Dugmaren Brightmantle - 3 (0.18%)
Dumathoin - 6 (0.36%)
Eilistraee - 27 (1.60%)
Eldath - 14 (0.83%)
Erevan Ilesere - 12 (0.71%)
Fenmarel Mestarine - 13 (0.77%)
Finder Wyvernspur - 14 (0.83%)
Flandal Steelskin - 1 (0.06%)
Gaerdal Ironhand - 4 (0.24%)
Garagos - 20 (1.19%)
Gargauth - 18 (1.07%)
Garl Glittergold - 7 (0.42%)
Ghaunadaur - 6 (0.36%)
Gond - 50 (2.97%)
Gorm Gulthyn - 14 (0.83%)
Grumbar - 30 (1.78%)
Gruumsh - 22 (1.31%)
Gwaeron Windstrom - 13 (0.77%)
Haela Brightaxe - 6 (0.36%)
Hanali Celanil - 7 (0.42%)
Helm - 46 (2.73%)
Hoar - 14 (0.83%)
Ilmater - 23 (1.37%)
Ilneval - 7 (0.42%)
Istishia - 31 (1.84%)
Jergal - 10 (0.59%)
Kiransalee - 9 (0.53%)
Kossuth - 36 (2.14%)
Labelas Enoreth - 1 (0.06%)
Laduguer - 3 (0.18%)
Lathander - 55 (3.27%)
Leira - 42 (2.49%)
Lliira - 7 (0.42%)
Lolth - 53 (3.15%)
Loviatar - 7 (0.42%)
Lurue - 18 (1.07%)
Luthic - 7 (0.42%)
Malar - 34 (2.02%)
Marthammor Duin - 6 (0.36%)
Mask - 46 (2.73%)
Mielikki - 41 (2.43%)
Milil - 11 (0.65%)
Moradin - 23 (1.37%)
Myrkul - 32 (1.90%)
Mystra - 69 (4.10%)
No Deity - 532 (31.59%)
Oghma - 27 (1.60%)
Red Knight - 15 (0.89%)
Rillfane Rallathil - 20 (1.19%)
Savras - 4 (0.24%)
Segojan Earthcaller - 2 (0.12%)
Sehanine Moonbow - 11 (0.65%)
Selune - 22 (1.31%)
Seveltarm - 7 (0.42%)
Shar - 68 (4.04%)
Sharess - 8 (0.48%)
Shargaas - 3 (0.18%)
Sharindlar - 1 (0.06%)
Shaundakul - 38 (2.26%)
Sheela Peryroyl - 12 (0.71%)
Shevarash - 17 (1.01%)
Shiallia - 3 (0.18%)
Siamorphe - 7 (0.42%)
Silvanus - 69 (4.10%)
Solonor Thelandira - 24 (1.43%)
Sune - 20 (1.19%)
Talona - 5 (0.30%)
Talos - 33 (1.96%)
Tempus - 46 (2.73%)
Thard Harr - 3 (0.18%)
Torm - 40 (2.38%)
Tymora - 42 (2.49%)
Tyr - 34 (2.02%)
Ubtao - 10 (0.59%)
Umberlee - 12 (0.71%)
Urdlen - 4 (0.24%)
Urogalan - 3 (0.18%)
Uthgar - 12 (0.71%)
Valkur - 2 (0.12%)
Vergadain - 9 (0.53%)
Vhaeraun - 17 (1.01%)
Waukeen - 70 (4.16%)
Yondalla - 5 (0.30%)
Yurtrus - 1 (0.06%)

[class]
Anointed Knight - 123 (7.30%)
Arcane Archer - 116 (6.89%)
Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep - 802 (47.62%)
Arcane Trickster - 245 (14.55%)
Archmage - 226 (13.42%)
Assassin - 835 (49.58%)
Barbarian - 720 (42.76%)
Bard - 1687 (100.18%)
Battle Rager - 12 (0.71%)
Bear Warrior - 45 (2.67%)
Black Flame Zealot - 7 (0.42%)
Blackguard - 130 (7.72%)
Blood Magus - 233 (13.84%)
Bodyguard - 67 (3.98%)
Breach Gnome - 8 (0.48%)
Cavestalker - 15 (0.89%)
Cleric - 2016 (119.71%)
Daggerspell Mage - 111 (6.59%)
Dervish - 89 (5.29%)
Dissonant Chord - 68 (4.04%)
Divine Champion - 95 (5.64%)
Divine Seeker - 2 (0.12%)
Dragon Warrior - 39 (2.32%)
Dragonslayer - 102 (6.06%)
Dread Pirate - 89 (5.29%)
Druid - 1363 (80.94%)
Duelist - 89 (5.29%)
Dwarven Defender - 199 (11.82%)
Eldritch Knight - 321 (19.06%)
Elemental Archer - 149 (8.85%)
Favored Soul - 1157 (68.71%)
Fighter - 2939 (174.52%)
Fist of the Forest - 29 (1.72%)
Frenzied Berserker - 199 (11.82%)
Frost Mage - 92 (5.46%)
Ghost-Faced Killer - 15 (0.89%)
Guild Thief - 86 (5.11%)
Harper Agent - 19 (1.13%)
Hellfire Warlock - 33 (1.96%)
Hierophant - 126 (7.48%)
Hospitaler - 46 (2.73%)
Invisible Blade - 52 (3.09%)
Man-at-Arms - 202 (12.00%)
Master Alchemist - 76 (4.51%)
Master of Disguises - 10 (0.59%)
Monk - 1202 (71.38%)
Morninglord of Lathander - 97 (5.76%)
Order of the Bow Initiate - 55 (3.27%)
Paladin - 748 (44.42%)
Pale Master - 436 (25.89%)
Ranger - 1052 (62.47%)
Red Wizard ** - 31 (1.84%)
Rogue - 1420 (84.32%)
Sacred Fist - 175 (10.39%)
Shadow Adept - 84 (4.99%)
Shadowdancer - 330 (19.60%)
Silverstar - 4 (0.24%)
Sorcerer - 441 (26.19%)
Spirit Shaman - 238 (14.13%)
Stormlord - 75 (4.45%)
Stormsinger - 170 (10.10%)
Swashbuckler - 230 (13.66%)
Techsmith of Gond - 106 (6.29%)
Tempest - 131 (7.78%)
Thaumaturge - 136 (8.08%)
Thayan Knight - 5 (0.30%)
Warlock - 1117 (66.33%)
Warpriest - 41 (2.43%)
Warrior of Darkness - 54 (3.21%)
Warsling Sniper - 8 (0.48%)
Weapon Master - 473 (28.09%)
Whirling Dervish - 117 (6.95%)
Wilderness Stalker - 26 (1.54%)
Wizard - 2163 (128.44%)

[skill]
Appraise - 3552 (210.93%)
Bluff - 4110 (244.06%)
Concentration - 18003 (1069.06%)
Craft Alchemy - 2698 (160.21%)
Craft Armor - 1238 (73.52%)
Craft Trap - 102 (6.06%)
Craft Weapon - 1453 (86.28%)
Diplomacy - 4971 (295.19%)
Disable Device - 3897 (231.41%)
Discipline - 2 (0.12%)
Disguise - 788 (46.79%)
Escape Artist - 700 (41.57%)
Heal - 6158 (365.68%)
Hide - 9365 (556.12%)
Intimidate - 4665 (277.02%)
Listen - 10445 (620.25%)
Lore: Arcana - 11834 (702.73%)
Lore: Arch-Engineering - 188 (11.16%)
Lore: Dungeoneering - 363 (21.56%)
Lore: Geography - 283 (16.81%)
Lore: History - 494 (29.33%)
Lore: Local - 304 (18.05%)
Lore: Nature - 665 (39.49%)
Lore: Nobility and Royalty - 194 (11.52%)
Lore: Religion - 1079 (64.07%)
Lore: The planes - 872 (51.78%)
Move Silently - 8996 (534.20%)
Open Lock - 4044 (240.14%)
Parry - 2034 (120.78%)
Perform - 3797 (225.48%)
Search - 3744 (222.33%)
Sense Motive - 2737 (162.53%)
Set Trap - 824 (48.93%)
Sleight of Hand - 1451 (86.16%)
Spellcraft - 18365 (1090.56%)
Spot - 9508 (564.61%)
Survival - 5083 (301.84%)
Taunt - 2435 (144.60%)
Tumble - 18062 (1072.57%)
Use Magic Device - 13008 (772.45%)

[Maecius]

14 May 2016

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At the moment I'm trying to set up a Paypal business account to accept donations to the server.

The idea is that people will be able to donate to this secondary Paypal; then, from that account, I can donate to Luna's Paypal to cover the monthly costs on a monthly basis. This way if there's any "overage" in terms of donations, we can bank it and use it to migrate to a new server and a new forum should the existing infrastructure go down over the summer.

In this way there is as little wasted money as we can manage.

Naturally, if Luna does return before things go down, we can always then transfer everything in the secondary account to the primary account with minimal technical difficulty.

Paypal is currently defeating me, however. I think I need to give it a few days to activate or something, as it's giving me an "technical difficulties" error whenever I try to test donate to the server from my personal Paypal account. Expect updates soon. Though if there are any Paypal gurus among the player base, feel free to contact me if you think you know what I am doing wrong!

[Maecius]

15 May 2016

The new Paypal should be good to go: http://bgtscc.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=52152

Special thanks to Steve for all his help with this, and for testing it out.

[Maecius]

28 May 2016

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Captain's Log, Stardate 69872.1.

It has been 70 days since we lost contact with flagship Luna. Repeated efforts to signal the USS Luna have failed.

. . . OK, I will stop. I am sorry.

But as above, it has been more than two months since we lost touch with our admin. Furthermore, since we opened the new Paypal, we've only received $0.67 in donations (which was basically a $1 test donation, sans Paypal's processing fees).

I had sort of been operating on the premise that there might be $300-600 in Luna's account to continue paying for our services, but if the above is any indication of our general donation trends, I feel this may have been an overly optimistic assumption.

For that reason, I am going to go ahead and move forward with plans to transition the server and the website to new hosts. I feel like continuing to wait around until the lights get turned off would be irresponsible at this point. I will be attempting to make the transition happen this June.

If Luna happens to return before the transition's been made, I'll reverse the efforts. But as it stands, further delay feels like it would come at great risk to the server's continued stability.

[Endelyon]

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A General Notice to Players:

We've recently settled on a host for our new forums, and have the new forum up and operationat. The BAD news, on the other hand, is that most (perhaps almost all) users are going to lose every PM in their mailbox when the transition happens.

This is because the SQL table holding the PMs is so large that it can't download through the ACP before hitting the php-timeout. I managed to salvage about 100,000 PMs, but it looks like they're all from like 2009-2011 or something.

We're unable to access bgtscc1.com's forum cPanel to manage the webserver's SQL databaes manually so, we're pretty much SOL. (Get it? SQL? SOL? )

In the coming days, I recommend you all start saving the PMs that are most important to your RP and nostalgia-factors. I realize this is going to cause more than a minor inconvenience for some people, and if there was anything I could do to get to the full database and grab all of them, believe me I would. As a general reminder, you can save an entire page of PMs at once by hitting "Mark all" at the bottom and then changing the drop down box on the left to "Export as XML." This gives you a nice readable format so you can browse through them later.

We'll make another announcement when the new forums officially become "live."
(Maecius may want to set a specific date for this, I cannot speak for him)

Please feel free to shoot me a PM if any of you have any questions or concerns.

[Endelyon]

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Tried a different approach. Got the PMs transferred to the new forums. Rejoice.

Sorry for making everyone scramble to save their inboxes.

[Maecius]

4 June 2016

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It looks like Endelyon did figure out a way to save PMs, per the above -- and I have all of mine after referencing my account on the new host. It's therefore no longer necessary to back everything up.

That being said, it's always wise to back up important PMs though, especially if they're meaningful to you or your characters.

Three cheers for Endelyon for essentially doing a total forum transfer. Most of the time you have to start from scratch when doing a transition like this, but we should be able to just change our bookmarks and notice no major changes except in the URL.

Said URL will probably be announced some time this week for stress testing (to make sure our host can handle our user loads). Zanniej also has some ideas we may want to explore to improve usability, and there are one or two (very minor) items Endelyon is still figuring out.

Long story short, forums are looking good. And will possibly go live next weekend.

Now I'll begin working on acquiring a server host for the server transfer. I've more or less already got one picked out, so I hope to have that accomplished this weekend.

[Maecius]

6 June 2016

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Good news and bad news.

Bad news first.

Sitegrounds, the host for bgtscc1.com, has updated their hosting service. This update has made our version of phpBB incompatible with our host's platform, and only Luna has the privileges required to fix it. As a result, and quite sadly, this means that bgtscc1.com is dead. We will mourn its loss.

But there is good news. And you're looking at it!

We were able to stand up bgtscc.net over the weekend, and, as it turns out, just in the nick of time. Big thanks to Endelyon for putting in tons of man hours to make this happen. We'd be starting from square one if she hadn't done it all this weekend.

Instead of losing everything, though, we have only lost a couple of days of data. I've personally moved all public and private forum posts over to the new forum, by hand, so that most of the data is preserved (I am afraid I cannot do anything about PMs). Guild moderators: You should be able to "change author" inside your own guild's forums if you don't want your words coming out of my ugly mug.

Everyone else, feel welcome to repost the "captured" posts I've posted in your own names if desired -- then ping the DMs or moderators so that they can delete my original post once yours is up. Alternatively, feel free to leave my posts where they're at and just move on from there.

Regarding the new forums, there are a lot of little and big changes. We had hoped to launch this website next week, as there are still a few things we're working on, but for right now here's the changelog for your reading pleasure:

http://www.bgtscc.net

• PMs are fixed. Avatars are working.
• New forums are running an updated version of phpBB.
• Tweaked the settings so that small files (images, text, documents, and archives smaller than 50mb) can be uploaded and attached to PMs and posts on the Administration forums (this includes Staff General Discussion, Dev Forums, DM forums, etc.). I figured this would make it easier for users to send screenshots to DMs, and devs and DMs alike to post screenshots of their work and bugs and that sort of thing.
• Rearranged the groups list when composing a PM. Removed extraneous "BGTSCC" preface on several group titles.
• Added a link to the wiki to the menu bar below the BG:TSCC banner: "Board Index | Wiki | User Control Panel | Logout."
• Updated the Legend to define more of the colored group titles than before.
• Other tweaks and fixes I can't remember. I probably should have documented it better.

Left to do:

• Zanniej's improvements
• Update wiki to reflect server lore and latest content
• Move the files from the developer FTP servers to the new webspace

[Maecius]

10 June 2016

We've now leased a new server from a new host, and will be working on the server transition over the next two weeks. We have a lot of setting up to do, but once we're ready to do the "switch," we hope not to suffer more than a couple of hours of down time.

I've updated the server's treasury to reflect our new costs, and our current funds.

We're paying about $93 less per month than Luna was paying for the old hosts, though it's unclear to any of us why he was paying $80 a month for the website. (It may have been a typo, where he'd meant to put $8 instead of $80, or we may find out the hard way later on that we've overlooked something both costly and important.)

In the more immediate future, Endelyon, Zanniej, and myself will be doing some work on different parts of the forum over the next few days, so expect to see some changes here as well. Thank you all for your continued support and good cheer.

[Endelyon]

Just a heads-up to let everyone know the big move is finally here. We will be shutting down the old server on Monday, June the 20th, to make the final transition to the new IP. The good news is that the transfer should only take a few minutes, maybe up to an hour at most, and we should lose no vault data. The bad news is that you won't be able to play during that hour.

The new IP will be announced here and posted on the player counter after the old server is brought down. I haven't decided exactly what time on Monday I'm going to do it, but I'll try to make sure I don't interrupt any scheduled events.

If you have any questions or concerns please send me a PM.

[Endelyon]

As a general notice the player counter will be down this afternoon until I turn the old server off tomorrow. The IP for the current one is 23.229.0.134:31337, if anyone needs it. Also the game is still listed in the server scry and on www.nwnlist.com.