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#Post#: 935--------------------------------------------------
"Welcome Home."
By: Dot Dreadful Date: October 18, 2013, 2:00 pm
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[font=georgia]After several weeks and a few extra days to make
sure everything is perfect, it’s time we welcome you back home.
We on Staff would like to thank you, copiously, for all of your
patience and support while we worked on the new Archive and
Forum. It is because of all of you that we did this, that we put
in the man hours and why we are so very proud to unveil this to
you today. What you are going to see is hours of work put in by
Staff members, from the hosting aspect, the aesthetic work with
the skins, to the meetings (sometimes not even a full 24 hours
apart) that we all devoted to making sure that our unveiling to
you is a complete success.
However, we are not a completed work. The ink may be dry on the
pages we’re going to open to you, but there are still epics to
be written. Our story is not finished, and so we ask that if you
encounter pages that are crossed out or unfinished, that you
bear with us. Some things were not feasible to complete even
within the timeline, but we on Staff all have the same mindset
that we are all working together to provide you with the best
Archive, the best Community, that we possibly can and we assure
it will be completed as soon as is possible.
That does not mean, however, that there aren’t plenty of things
that are done and ready for you to explore.
I’m sure that you’re anxious, and you want the site links and
you want to dive in headfirst. We are unbelievably happy with
all of the excitement but there are things that we need to go
over before that happens, and some of these issues can result in
disciplinary action if the words are not heeded, so I must ask
that before you scroll through and pluck out the links, you
focus first on what I’m saying to you. Ignorance of rules and
policies does not mean you’ll be excused if you break one
unknowingly. These are important, but I promise there are
rewards for you if you’re all good boys and girls.
The most important thing we have to discuss is the procedures
that will take effect during our re-launch period. What dates
are included in the re-launch period? The 18th through the 28th!
During this next week or so, the usual Rules and Guidelines
(while still in effect) take secondary position to a temporary
set that will keep us all moving forward slow and steady to
minimize the possibility of downtime because of so much traffic.
This week-long period is a testing phase to ensure everything is
operational when we’re at max capacity (we’ve done extensive
testing just with the Staff members and everything checks out,
but that’s much different than having hundreds of people on the
site at any given time) as well as easing the site into a normal
sort of ebb and flow. You’ll need to pay close attention to news
postings during this week, to stay current with policies and
announcements, or you’ll wind up lost in the shuffle and we
don’t want that!
The first of the procedures we need to talk about is the
Validating and Submission procedure for re-launch week. With so
many authors, it would be inconceivable to imagine all of us
uploading our stories at once, and so we on Staff are issuing
what we’re calling a Blanket Weekend.
Absolutely no stories are to be uploaded from the 18th through
the 20th.
I cannot stress that to you enough. There is to absolutely be no
uploading of any stories from today through Sunday. Disciplinary
action against your account will be taken if you break this
rule. We know and understand that all of you are anxious to get
writing and reading, but we just aren’t there yet. We have
implemented a system that will be explained shortly, that will
span re-launch week and will help keep the Submissions queue
from over-flowing. The focus of this weekend is not to be on the
uploading and sharing of your work, but rather getting to know
the new Archive and Forum. Some features you’ll get to
experience once there are stories posted, but there are plenty
new modules and features to keep your little hands busy over the
weekend.
One of the things we on Staff are encouraging you to do is
register on our Forum, to join our FB group, and our social
media sites, and get to know the Community all over again. So
many of us have been present during this transition, yet others
will be finding us as time progresses; trust us, you’ll want to
be on the ground floor for this growing Community. It’s a good
opportunity to pretty up your bio, to come up with new designs
for your Forum avatar and signature, and participate in the
excitement of the re-launch.
Hand in hand with registering on the Forum comes the request
boards, and we on Staff are asking you to make use of them over
the weekend, to request the categories and characters for your
stories to find homes in. You’ll see this for yourself, but
while the main categories have been added, it’s up to you to
make sure the sub-categories are created. This means that if you
have a story to upload, you will want to check and see if there
is a category, a sub-category, and characters for it. If not?
You’ll need to head to the Forum and request them be added. We
cannot simply add categories and characters without provocation
or cause, because it sucks up bandwidth if they’re only going to
sit empty, so we are passing the responsibility on to you.
Personal responsibility for your own writing is taking effect
here, so don’t sit and wait for someone else to request it for
you! Once Submissions open, you’ll want to get your work
validated and posted and the only way that will happen is if
there’s a category for it to call home. Once you learn to
navigate the Forum, locating the boards is exceptionally simple.
If you run into any problems or you have any questions or
concerns, PM a Staff member and we’ll be happy to answer that
for you.
Along with requesting categories this weekend, we want you to
make sure that you familiarize yourself with our Rules and the
Terms of Service that you will agree to uphold upon registering.
Do not assume that the rules are the same from the old site, and
I’ve stated before but ignorance of rules and policies is not an
excuse not to follow them. We are implementing new disciplinary
policies and you don’t want to find yourself on the wrong end of
those, so it will be your responsibility to keep up with rules
and policies.
Submissions will open on Monday, October 21st at 8 a.m. EST.
There will come an announcement on Sunday in regard to the
Submissions, but for now please understand that severe
disciplinary action will be taken if you try to upload anything
this weekend.
You have been warned.
A lot of you expressed concern about the validating procedure if
you were a previously validated author on the old Archive. Don’t
worry, we have an answer for you as well, and that will be
covered in the announcement on Sunday.
To those of you who made suggestions or requests, we went
through every single one and did the best we could to implement
them all. We are arranging a document full of all of your
questions and our responses, which will be posted tomorrow. Stay
tuned if you’re interested to see what happened with your
suggestion!
Our Social Media sites, Tumblr and Twitter, will be undergoing
URL and name changes at some point today, so please be aware of
that and if you have them bookmarked you’ll need to change those
URLs. Don’t worry, we’ll post those when we’re finished
switching them over!
Our original Livejournal, the temporary Index FoS Forum, and the
FoS FB group will all eventually be purged. We have not decided
on a timeframe for that, probably somewhere within a month or
two; they’ll be deleted eventually because we have created or
are in the process of creating replacements and they will become
obsolete. This announcement will be posted on all sites to be
left there so people can find us should they need to, but this
is your warning now. If there is anything you’d like to retrieve
from these places, we suggest you do so as soon as is possible.
Are you chomping at the bit yet? Is the excitement stirring up
those nervous tummy flips and butterflies? Are you ready to see
your new home?
Ghosts of the Vanguard Archive :
HTML http://gotvg.net/index.php
HTML http://gotvg.net/index.php
The Vanguard Vault :
HTML http://www.gotvg.net/forum/index.php
HTML http://www.gotvg.net/forum/index.php
Ghosts of the Vanguard on FB :
HTML http://www.facebook.com/groups/gotvg/
HTML http://www.facebook.com/groups/gotvg/
We are now opening the doors to you, with our gracious welcomes
and in the hopes that your wait time was worth it. If you have
any questions about anything, please feel free to comment or
message a member of Staff in any location and we’ll do our best
to get back with you as quickly as we can.
Please remember that this is still a testing phase, and so if
you encounter any errors do not panic or assume they cannot be
fixed or dealt with. Simply let a Staff member know, and we can
get it resolved. Please, as always, be respectful and gracious,
we have worked exceptionally hard on our re-launch.
Our thanks again for being a part of our Community.
Welcome home.
The Staff[/font]
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