Ambrosia Software, Inc. has created the Escape Velocity web board in response to people from the Escape Velocity community asking for a method of interaction -- so for all of you who play Escape Velocity, here's your forum, post away!

Ambrosia is currently working on a web site redesign that involves folding "product" web sites (ie, (url="http://"http://www.Escape-Velocity.com")www.Escape-Velocity.com(/url) ) back into the main Ambrosia web site (with some significant changes, of course). In the past, we've tried to have third parties maintain the Escape Velocity web site, but we've run into difficulties.

The first problem is that in order for someone to be able to maintain a product web site, we have to give them an account on our server. This is problematic because we expose our server to a security risk by giving out accounts on it (both unintentional and, more rarely, not), and we value the security of our customers information. Additionally quite a bit of hand-holding is needed to get people up to speed on where things are on our machines, how to edit things, etc.

Additionally, despite their good intentions, most people lose interest in maintaining the product web site when it becomes like work. After we've spent quite a bit of time to make sure that a person is trustworthy, taught them how to use our web server, helped them along the way with scripts (we can't just give people access to writing scripts themselves, we need to approve them for safety's sake) -- well, it's quite a bit of work to turn around and have to do it all over again, once they've run out of steam.

Finally, there's quite a bit of duplicated information on our product web sites and on the main Ambrosia site. With a bit of a redesign, we believe we can provide something that's better for fans of Escape Velocity than the current scheme. By using our own system for the web board and web pages, we can ensure that everything continues to work well into the future. The plan is fourfold:

1. Roll the product web site back into the main Ambrosia web site, with an up-to-date FAQ, etc. Soon (url="http://"http://www.Escape-Velocity.com")www.Escape-Velocity.com(/url) will point to a very different place than it does currently.

2. Create a web board for Escape Velocity for people to interact on, and appoint someone (or perhaps a few people) from the Escape Velocity community to moderate it.

3. Create a comprehensive Add-Ons section for Escape Velocity, with web-based admin-ing capabilities, allowing someone (or perhaps a few people) from the Escape Velocity community to review and release Add-Ons (plugins, etc.) for Escape Velocity.

4. Create a way for a list of web-based resources for Escape Velocity to be maintained by someone (or perhaps a few people) from the Escape Velocity community.

The net result is that we'll be providing a web-based method for people from the Escape Velocity community to admin a modern web board, web-based resources page, and file downloading system, without having to give out accounts on our machine to do so. We'll also be trimming down duplicated information on the product web site, and providing streamled and up-to-date information on Escape Velocity there.

Certainly some people will complain about the changes, but change is not easy, even if it is for the better. We'll be deploying this plan in various phases over the next few weeks -- stay tuned, I think you'll like what we have in store. Some of these changes are rather ambitious, so please bear with us as we work to roll it all out.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

OK few questions:

Will you still type in (url="http://"http://www.Escape-Velocity.com/")www.Escape-Velocity.com/(/url), or somewhere starting with (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/something")www.AmbrosiaSW.com/something(/url), or both?

Will this be the web-board for the new EV/EV:O sites? 'cause some people (myself included) like the disc board used now on the EV/EV:O sites (I think this type of board is better suited for multiple topics, as in the old games forum).

It wasn't clear, but were you saying the members of the community could help admin, or they'd have a better adminned site? (Indeed as it is now it looks like it needs a lot of help.)

Well as long as it stays like a communitiy (for you really do get a sense of community in there), and is updated when it needs to be I'm happy.

-Shade

Whoah, I didn't know UBB automatically made links.

-Shade

And in case you haven't noticed, there are already very stong oppositions to changing to the board. Looks like there's gonna be some revolts, even from respected members of the board.

-Shade

One question:
Why the <b>heck</b> are we switching forums?
We already have a kriffing forum, and a rather nice one in fact. Karrde likes it, personally, and a number of other people do? So why is Ambrosia wasting their time switching forums and confusing the hades out of those of us who go to the ev.com discboard?

-prefect

Ugh. This is totally crap.

First, as kardde said, we have a damned nice board.

Second, this is a bullitin board, as the name said. We had a 'discussion' board. It often was not totally about EVO. Perhaps you could call it more of a "Community" than what I think this will be, just a Q&A; for the experianced ones.

Third, if Mark does not want to do the EV.com site, or the EVO.com one, or simply cannot, I will GLADLY find you 20 (twenty) EV/O experianced, HTML and other web media smart people who will GLADLY do any grunt work to keep their seperate domain.

Fourth, I'd like to say this is really bloody stupid.

Fifth, this <sarcasm>will REALLY make me love Ambrosia's method of doing things.</sarcasm>

At least tell Mark first. Or freaking ask the people who use the bloody board.

Sixth, for the hell of it, I'll simply compile a list of things that are stupid, and if you had just asked a few respected EV/O people, should not have happened:

Giving Dunham a discboard account. Totally unneeded, and I really never saw much improvement.

Sticking the ad on the EV/O boards.

Taking forever to release the bugless EVO 1.0.2.

Taking away our boards

And our website, I might add.

Seventh, I think I can speak for the people who helped Scurvy with the site when I say that I think it was just plain RUDE. They spent time on those pages, and then you rip them down.

Eighth, what do you want for the Escape-velocity.com domain name?

~S~

Well, normally I wouldn't reply to such unneeded insults and silly accusations, but I do want to clarify a few things:

1. "Your" web site and "Your" web board were provided by Ambrosia, on Ambrosia's servers, on Ambrosia's bandwidth, with the help of Ambrosia's time (assisting the admins, getting the admins set up, etc.).

2. Releasing EV:O 1.0.2 isn't up to Ambrosia, it's up to Matt Burch. If Matt would like to finish EV:O 1.0.2, we'd love to release it.

3. I did speak with Mark (as well as HHunter) before I did anything; please check your facts before you flame.

4. The current web board on escape-velocity.com is bug-ridden, shoddy, full of security holes, and isn't y2k compliant. It needed replacing in any event; I'm not sure what the problem is, you have a brand new web board that is much more robust and feature-ladden than the previous version.

5. We're making this change because we think it's in everyone's best interest; if we didn't care, we'd just leave everyone to fester on a delapadated web board.

I realize there's nothing I can say that will temper your wrath; that's fine, I can understand that you might feel displaced. We're making these changes for extremely valid reasons, and I think you'll be please with the end result -- if not, you are more than welcome to start up a web board of your own.

Sorry if you are upset, but we aren't doing this because we're bored -- it will take an awful lot of work to convert everything over. We feel the end result will benefit everyone, therefore we're undertaking the task. Hopefully one day you'll understand that.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

I should also note that we fully intend to have folks from the EV/EV:O web boards moderate this web board: HHunter and Capt'n Scurvy are already signed up, and we may add a few others.

We intend to give you your own forum, but we intend to provide a better infrastructure for it -- I suggest giving us a chance before you fly off at the handle.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Alright, I say we start a new EV and/or EVO board on something like GX message boards or whatever.

Once again (before the board closed) I was wanting to have some fun and make up a little ev.com site. Its purpose would be for us to try out new ideas and have all in all a better format.
If anyone wants to join in, such as simply giving ideas on a new message board all the way to designing pages or graphics please join in.

If anyone wants to find a message board (Micah?) to discuss a new, probably temporary site, please do and give the address.

Thanks

By temporary, I mean both a bit of realism. -understanding that fact that nothing is forever (ev board case in point)

That and the fact that the board will be moved around likely.
Anyways if anyone has some ideas or something to tell me I am at

gwii@excite.com

Also, to clarify this is the plain

1. Make a board for discussing the 'new' ev.com (whatever its domain name will be)
2. Design a very basic site consisting of links to message boards, plugs pages and such.
3. ??? -Whatever the board decides on, considering it will be treated as kind of a council/democracy. Meaning that all ideas will be considered and discussed, though 4 or 5 people will have the final word. And if to many people are ticked by its operation, no one shows up... therefore it will be like an ev.com that LISTENS to the wishes of the people there.

Well, you could go here: (url="http://"http://www.gx.com/messages/overview.asp?board_id=19767")http://www.gx.com/me...?board_id=19767(/url) for a board that's not a POS.

EXCELLENT!!

Much easier to navigate and quite a bit easier to read through my regular bifocals.

The main purpose of this post is to see if my prior registration is still valid.

Have been playing Empire since before Christmas -- good plug-in.

T.O.P.

Well Hello all,

I'm sure the last person you wanted to see here, but don't worry I'm not the kind of person to say I told ya so (But I really really want to

Andrew - Glad to see that you're finally going to have Ambrosia take a slightly more active role in your sites and there in. I hope it works out for ya, I'm sure it will. Something that I learned the hard way is don't reply to them flames. It will only agravate you more and more. As the great Jay T. once said to me before I took over long long ago, Take it all as a grain of salt.

People of the Board - You mst realize that this is not yours it's Ambrosias'. They need to do what's best for them and you need to realize that you have no say in what that is. I am sure Andrew will get the new site up and running in no time and with the exception of a different look everything will be back to normal.

Simsu - The test is completed

Ok people, here are my comments. Im trying not to make this a flame, and if it comes over that way, Im sorry.

1. You say that our Discboard is shoddy, full of bugs, and has security holes. This is utterly false, thats all I can really say to it. It has very few bugs, and the reason it was not y2k compliant is because we assumed that perl was. It wasnt. The bug was fixed at 3AM, 1/1/00. Thats how bugs in the DB are dealt with. And, consequently, thre are darn few. It is not shoddy in the least. And even if you think it is, we liked it anyways. As for the security holes, there are none. I have looked over the code repeatedly looking for one, and I have found nothing suggesting a security hole of any magnitude. Let us keep our Board Script, please.

2. As for this board being better and more "feature-laden" then DB, I disagree. For one, unregistered users cant post. That is, admitedly, a MINIMAL security problem, but we wanted it that way so that you didnt have to register. You can always ban by IP, anways. DB had everything we ever wanted. Just because it didnt have "UBB Code" or whatever does not make it inferior.

3. Now, I have been in the EV Community since EV 1.0.0 - I was one of the first to get it. Now, in my insegnificant opinion, this is a mistake. True, there were some problems with the EV site and board. The site problem had been fixed by Scurvy, and the DB was well moderated. Now, by switching to this board a few things happen:
   a) It pisses everyone off as we have to re-register
   We are not familiar with it and will resent using it
   c) We now have a bulletin board, not a discusion board, There is a huge difference in format, and we liked it the other way.
   d) People will undoubtedly leave because of the above reasons, so this switch will detract from the EV Community.
   True, it will be more integrated with Ambrosia, but could you at least leave our site up? If not, how much is the escape-velocity.com domain name going for? Im sure we could make our own site.

4. I seem to remember the ev site being unnoficial at first, I dont see what is wrong with going back to that if you insist on forcing us to use a BB (Not DB) we hate, and re-do our site, and most likely get rid of what we like.

5. Could you elaborate on just how this will benefit us?

Well, thanx for reading, and dont take it personally. We just dont like changing what we dont think is wrong or bad.
--QW12

Why do people reject change?
And why do contributors think THEY own the board? Their $20 was for the game, not for lifelong access to a discussion board.
How many shareware games provide this facility?
Ambrosia has done very well to us for years and yet they get all this vituperation.
If people don't like the new board. Stay away! That simple.
It is remarkable that Ambrosia didn't just scrub the boards completely. There is virtually no EV/O content any more, just little boys spamming.

While this board may have more features, there were some features we really liked, such as being able to put a topic to each individual message. What I'm thinking is a new board, that is easier to navigate. I'm not sure about dividing it up, maybe its a good idea, maybe its not. This new board should allow unregistered users to post, other wise some won't post.

Things I do like about this board:
You can read all of one thread in one page.
Veteran/Scrub thing. though change scrub to newbie. And add Scrub as a punishment for irresponsible posters.
Editing posts
Deleting your own posts, and thread, if you started it (don't know if you can do it on this board, but will reduce spam as you can delete your thread when it is done)
New people come here, from Ambrosia's web site, basically just need a link to the board.
I like the fact that threads with new messages move to the top, and after a day, all the messages don't disapear at the bottom.

I don't like the UBB code
you should just allow basic html tags in messages, and a max size for images, if they are too big then then it will just show the link to the picture. And because users can edit their posts they can fix any html mistakes. Also make a page of usable html tags.

Other features that would be neat.
You could have an icon that pops up to a thread if you nick apears in it.

Also Don't get rid of the #ev irc page. Update it: yes. Delete it: no.

Response to Simsu's post:
You are one of the old EV.com Admin's right? I wasn't around then so I've only heard from others.

But for your message for the people: Yes it is Ambrosia's web space and all that, but it is us the people that give it any value. If no one went to yahoo.com, they'd go broke. While Ambrosia won't lose money, theres no point in making something that no one will use and no one will like.

Skunko, calm down a little I agree with you mostly, just not as strongly.

Finally I do like the idea of linking the pages more, but you should keep escape-velocity.com as the main EV page, etc...

I think thats all.

Chamrin

Am I a "Veteran" yet?

Well, I can't say that I share any of the pessimism of the others who have posted on this thread. Ambrosia owns the server ev.com is on, and are now taking a more active role in running things. This means a more proffesional attitude about things getting done, instead of updates being only cosmetic (Which I personally care little about) The biggest part of the ev.com site is the archives section, which is currently a mess. Go through it sometime trying to download a plug in, you'll end up with lots of 404 errors. To me that's not really updating at all, instead it is ignoring the coolest parts of this game, the plug ins.

To me it seems that the only people who whine are those that think the "veterans" are the only ones who matter. They don't seem to want new people around, and don't want to encourage new people to play the game. The old board was 99% spam, rarely could you find anything that had anything to do with the game, and isn't that what an "Escape Velocity Discussion Board" should be used for? To discuss Escape Velocity? Not to trash PC users, show off annoying little sig pics, and generally act like an immature clique.

I apologize if I've offended anybody, but since everybody else is expressing their whiny little opinions I thought I should too.

Well, I can't say that I share any of the pessimism of the others who
have posted on this thread. Ambrosia owns the server ev.com is on, and
are now taking a more active role in running things. This means a more
proffesional attitude about things getting done, instead of updates
being only cosmetic (Which I personally care little about) The biggest
part of the ev.com site is the archives section, which is currently a
mess. Go through it sometime trying to download a plug in, you'll end up
with lots of 404 errors. To me that's not really updating at all,
instead it is ignoring the coolest parts of this game, the plug ins.

I am planning on redoing all of the archives -- this may mean starting from scratch, but this also should be a good thing: only finished plugins will be uploaded, nice file descriptions will be there, and we'll even give people a chance to rate the plugins based on how much they like them.

I am currently reviewing a script to see if it will handle these things the way I want it to; if all goes well, I hope to have something ressembling a beta version of the new web site online soon. In fact, I already have a mockup available, should you like to take a look:
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/games/ev/")http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/games/ev/(/url)

Keep in mind that several things are unfinished here; the links don't work, the area on the left will have more graphics and less text, and there is some buffing and polishing that needs doing.

But this is where (url="http://"http://www.escape-velocity.com")www.escape-velocity.com(/url) will take you soon -- the area under "OPTIONS" is stuff Ambrosia maintains, and it's mostly meant for people who are new to the game. Screenshots of the game that show it in action, excerpts from reviews of the game (with links to the full version, if available), frequently asked questions and answers about the game, and of course being able to download it and pay for it.

The area below "RESOURCES" will all be admined by people from the EV community that we designate, using a web interface to our back-end software. The goal is to provide Yahoo-style news in the Newswire (complete with importance ratings and categories), a category-based Web Links section for web-based resources (the EV Bible as HTML, plugin maker sites, setc.), Add-On Files which will list plugins by category (complete with descriptions and user ratings), and of course a link to the current web board, which is admined by people from the EV community.

Comments are welcome, as long as you realize that the site is not done. Flames to /dev/null

To me it seems that the only people who whine are those that think the
"veterans" are the only ones who matter. They don't seem to want new
people around, and don't want to encourage new people to play the game.
The old board was 99% spam, rarely could you find anything that had
anything to do with the game, and isn't that what an "Escape Velocity
Discussion Board" should be used for? To discuss Escape Velocity? Not to
trash PC users, show off annoying little sig pics, and generally act
like an immature clique.

Wow, very well-said. You summed up my feelings, and the reasons behind my actions exactly. But I've given people the EV banter & brawl forum, where most of the chatter ends up -- I think that there is more substantive discussion going on here on the new web boards than I ever saw on the old EV/EVO boards. And it's easier to find the useful stuff, too, you don't have to plow through a legion of n/t one-liners and flames.

Perhaps the new web boards aren't as "shoot from the hip" fun as the old ones were, but I think they are far more useful.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Yes, the old board was filled with spam, mostly because I am thinking, people didn't have much more to talk about, because everything has been done. (Except a perfect plug in). The smart ones just stopped posting, the not so smart ones just kept spamming the place up.

The good thing about moving the boards here, is we will get a lot of new people, and more interest in the boards again, and the "Veterans" will have something to talk about.

Chamrin

Yes, the old board hed some spam, but it was a more personal board, if you will. Entering it gave you an almost fuzzy feeling inside that you were among people just like you. I have an overwhelming felling that the board is being over commercialized.

Now for another topic. Old plugins. Some Old Plugins should be kept, whether or not they are complete. Some of these unfinished, buggy plugs inspired some of our top plug creators, you should council them on which plugs should be kept.

Topic # 3. The mock up EV/Ambrosia page looks alright. I see that Ambrosia is following Apple's redisign of their tabbed website giving it a distinctive Apple product look, excellent. Though unoriginal ;).

Those are my thought for now.

Barkman