Data Sphere to replace international CB forums

[Antenociti]

.. bewildering tbh... and totally out of the blue afawc...

My understanding is that the decision was made very quickly. Not excusing any lack of communication but I don't think DS had much more notice than anyone

There's a lot I would like to say, but Arachas needs some time to consider what we've now been told and i've passed on to him.

Monumental cluster-frak is a gross understatement....

[Mob of Blondes]

So from SNAFU to SUSFU.

You got a PM, btw.

[Arachas]

So.... for an official partner to get a sub-forum on the "official" forums, paid for by CB, we have to pay Datasphere...?

Part of the complication is that DS already had its own sponsors and sponsorships in place prior to any agreement with CB. So DS either pisses off its existing sponsors or pisses off someone else.

Its not really a great situation to be in for anyone involved

This is exactly the case.

I'm just as shocked to hear CB didn't inform their partners.

Especially as I now get the feeling some of these partners feel they are entitled to forum space on Data Sphere. This was never part of the agreement with CB. I assumed, wrongly as it turns out, that CB would discuss the retiring of the forums and its effect on their partnerships with said partners.

I've asked CB to shed a little more light on the situation.

[Pacific]

So please, someone with contacts, negotiate how to preserve the data stored in the official forums, including attachments, in CB servers or outside. Both forums (see how fast ES got fan one, above), not just English one (IT, FR and PL linked to EN). And I must insist on official way, because I feel people will copy some parts... multiple times, and forget completly about other things. So fucked up copies... but still a serious server load.

Not sure there is that much to save. After all, since we are moving to the 3E very soon a vast majority of the old forum becomes useless / antiquated. With the change in rules the advice on rules and such will become obsolete. Archology (terrain, miniatures, arts and writing) is probably the only section that needs to be saved.

There was a really cool player-made scenarios section on the old forum. Some of my favourite Infinity memories are from playing some of those games, such as 'tech-zombie' outbreaks, 'destroy the tank' and that kind of things. Sadly the links in it had been broken for some time.

There is a nice scenario section over here, but it would be cool to bring some of those older ones over from the old forum and perhaps even create a sticky thread with index at the top of that section of Datasphere?

[Antenociti]

Just to clarify the situation:

DataSphere is not the new official infinity forum.

I've checked with CB about this, and then re-checked it and just had it categorically affirmed: DataSphere is not the official Infinity forum.

It is simply one of a number of forums that CB will recommend and sponsor but that does not make them official forums.

DataSphere have got that wrong and they need to amend their statement on this matter.

[Guarda de Assalto]

I don't know how I feel about all that... I'm not too pleased about being forced to jump ship to here but at the same time I was taking succor in the fact that Datasphere was to be a successor of sorts. I guess CB really has no interest in maintaining any type of official forum.

Hopefully worthier men than I will pick their brains at interplanetary or Gen Con and we will have a better understanding.

[Antenociti]

I don't know how I feel about all that... I guess CB really has no interest in maintaining any type of official forum.

That's pretty much spot-on actually, and I can understand it, forums are a big time-sink.

Obviously there is no way that they can have a 3rd party represent them officially though, so its rather a big case of wishful thinking for DataSphere to claim that they are now the official forum... or that they are solely replacing CBs forums.

That is not the case.

But, yeah, CB dont want the hassle of an official forum, but it isnt something they can farm out, so sponsoring a number of alternative forums is the next best thing. .. it will be horribly confusing and untrue if they all start claiming they are now "the new official infinity forum" though.

[Claudius Sol]

I think I can understand.

CB is small, and sure people say that CB could just hire a team to do the forum stuff for them.

But that wouldn't be CB. It would be people that are just working for CB to do a job. Not the people that care about the community and the game it's all for. It would be a horrible misrepresentation of CB. Koni does a good job interacting with us. Bostria does a good job interacting with us. But these guys have more things to do for CB than parley with us and feed us information and pictures. These guys have other very pressing concerns within CB and are obligated to perform those duties.

At least with the way it's set up now, the people running these forums, official or not, care about the community and the game.

They're not just random interns who are told to upkeep an internet board.

TL;DR - CB is trying to focus on delivering what we asked for and are required to shed some weight in order to do so.

[macfergusson]

At least with the way it's set up now, the people running these forums, official or not, care about the community and the game.

They're not just random interns who are told to upkeep an internet board.

Proper community management comes with being a big-boy company, and it is not handled by random interns. Whether CB runs their own forums or pushes that out to a fan community, it is still being handled in a very poor fashion with their "official partners."

[Antenociti]

At least with the way it's set up now, the people running these forums, official or not, care about the community and the game.

They care about some parts of it... other parts they will only care about if paid.

[Guarda de Assalto]

I don't know how I feel about all that... I guess CB really has no interest in maintaining any type of official forum.

That's pretty much spot-on actually, and I can understand it, forums are a big time-sink.

Obviously there is no way that they can have a 3rd party represent them officially though, so its rather a big case of wishful thinking for DataSphere to claim that they are now the official forum... or that they are solely replacing CBs forums.

That is not the case.

But, yeah, CB dont want the hassle of an official forum, but it isnt something they can farm out, so sponsoring a number of alternative forums is the next best thing. .. it will be horribly confusing and untrue if they all start claiming they are now "the new official infinity forum" though.

Sounds rather like the Sucession Wars from BattleTech lol.

[Darkvortex87]

Perhaps CB could have mantained the official forums,and give the moderation of the various sub boards to trusted forum users for free.
I'm pretty sure they could have found lots of them with a simple "reward" of an hidden forum to discuss CB decisions with CB staff members.

Obviously Koni or someone will still be required some sort of control over those "elected" moderators, but most of the job would be done

[Harlekin]

At least with the way it's set up now, the people running these forums, official or not, care about the community and the game.

They care about some parts of it... other parts they will only care about if paid.

They do care about the community. But for advertising on the forum, they take some money - it's quite natural on the internets, isn't it?

Again, no offense meant, Jed, I can understand how upset you must be by CB's move, and I'll follow your news anyways. Still, I really wish you would just stay with the Infinity community. Watching you leave us behind makes me sad... you'll be missed here

@Darkvortex87: CB could have chosen a dozens better paths to handle the forum thing. But they made their move - and lost quite some reputation (imho).

[Todd]

The following was posted by Arachas on the CB forum (the thread was closed):

"The deal with CB included:

1: DS was to become the new MAIN Infinity forum (again, got this black on white).

Heck, you guys, CB is freaking paying for its upkeep. The fact that you can visit other forums if you prefer, doesn't make that less "officially backed".

Let's consider their own "press release":

"Infinity’s online community evolves

From its beginnings in December 2005, Infinity’s online community has grown an changed constantly. And it still does! August 1st will be the beginning of a new phase in which Corvus Belli hands over the management of the online community to InfinityWarCors.com and Data-Sphere.net. Infinity players will find there new communities, made by fans for fans.

Since August 1st, the current forums won’t allow new posts, but will remain accessible until October 1st.

Wait no longer! Register now at InfinityWarCors.com and Data-Sphere.net and be a part of the new online community of Infinity players."

Is Dakka named? BoLS? No! Why? Because Data Sphere is the new MAIN FORUM. Yes, there are alternatives. But Data Sphere is named, along with IWC for the Spanish guys.

So, can you blame me for announcing it as replacing it? That's simply what I was told. If CB is not agreeing with its own employees... that goes on to show how badly they handled the communication side of things.

2: CB said we were to be completely independent, no obligations towards their partners. I have another email from Koni from yesterday confirming this.

And it sucks for the official partners if they have to "pay" double, but why should DS have to suffer for it? CB made the mistake, CB should fix it. Lower the partner fee or whatever they have in place. Is it really that wrong that we want to generate some additional cash to keep expanding Data Sphere as a platform? "

[ToadChild]

It's worth noting that when Koni closed the thread he requested that all affected parties contact CB directly for resolution. Hopefully they will be able to get everyone working together again and on the same page. This whole thing seems to have been a communications disaster.

[Arachas]

It's time to close this discussion.

Most of what I've said has been taken out of context and used against me. Now it's Data Sphere who wants to make money off of the backs of CB partners.

Guys, trust me... my own business is far too successful to worry about such table scraps. What I want is to build a system in which Data Sphere can support itself: perhaps even without CB in the future.

But judge all you want. I'm going to close the topic and we're going to move on.