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This will allow us to branch out into other games and areas more easily, plus give us a central "network" site that is 100% community-based. These forums will be a place to chat and have fun. We're putting a lot of work into this whole "forum shop" concept, and there are a TON of different things we have yet to even try out with it. This should become a place where you find a group to game with, mess around on the internet, and have fun trying to screw one another over using forum shop items.
One thing to keep in mind is that we have several very large mods installed, but not active currently as there is just SO much stuff we can play with that we wanted to hold off doing a half-assed job on everything before launch. As we go we'll be adding more stuff (like an achievement system, items that tie into a giftable "trophy/badge" system (shows off in your posts and profiles too), an arcade that possibly ties in with the forum shop system, etc), so don't be discouraged if you think this isn't enough stuff to keep eveyone busy.
Before you start yelling or screaming, PLEASE read the following FAQ as I'm sure it will answer many of your questions.
What happened to WoW-V?
WoW-V's primary function has dwindled to being primarily the creators and the forums. The creators are still up and available for use, and the forums have all been transferred over. However, we can't keep paying for a server that can host the rest of the site as we just aren't getting the donations or ad revenue.
So we decided to chop out that part (the item browsing, commenting, etc. that hasn't had much real traffic in quite some time) and focus 100% on the forum aspect. Hell, we may even be able to become MORE successful doing this (we are certainly hoping so).
Are the WoW-V creators gone?
Nope. They're just detached from everything else now and work as their own little app.
Are all the saved WoW-V items gone?
NO. But they won't be accessible right off the bat. I'm working on a solution to still have all shared items available for viewing and download, but they will NOT have commenting, voting, etc. At the very least all "saved" (opposed to "shared") items WILL be available soon for viewing and re-download.
So what is SICKind for?
It will host all kinds of projects, most game-related. Our staff and popular community members are all quite talented and will be using this as the home base for a network of mini-sites and projects. All will use this forum and login system, and we will expand as needed (to prevent not having funds to use the necessary hardware, like now).
SICKind itself will focus almost 100% on the forum and community aspect of things. We want to make this place incredibly fun and busy. We want constant posting, messing around with the forum shop, etc. so that we have an active pool of people to play games with and just generally chat to. Think of us as a community of gamers and developers and even a glorified clan/guild/corp(eve), etc. home base. If you're part of our community, we'll do what we can to support your ideas.
For instance, if you wanted to run a TF2 server community (but run by you, unless you specifically *want* us directly involved), we'd be more than willing to host some sub-forums for you. We may get more advanced stuff setup later, but for now you'd have a place to call home, a large and active community already at your fingertips, and no hassle with having to setup your own site.
In a nutshell, why is this setup better than the old WoW-V?
BEST reason would be the notification system. Likes, auto-subscribing, etc. make interacting with threads much more fluid. You're much more likely to head back to a thread you posted in when you see the little red flag stating that someone else replied (or quoted you, etc).
1. The renaming and branching off of our forum system allows us to become a broader gaming community, essentially becoming the hub of a network of sites.
2. SMF doesn't have the kind of juice to run the forums we really wanted. IPB does.
3. Since we'll be 100% community based here at SICKind.net we'll have all kinds of stuff to do on the forums, making a more robust (and purposeful) points system than WoW-V ever had.
4. Both WoW retail and private servers are dying off. I want to keep this community even if WoW is old news. This rebranding is a MUST if we are going to survive.
5. By axing the old areas, we can run on lower-end software (and be MUCH more secure)
6. This system allows all kinds of awesome donation packages... that automatically reward the user! No more manual adjusting. People pay, the PayPal info gets processed, and they get items in their inbox. Works pretty damn well if you ask me.
Bottom line, I know a lot of you will not be thrilled with this change right off the bat. But I can guarantee that if you ask anyone that messed with it in beta, they'll tell you it makes the forums a helluva lot more ufn.
These notifications to topics I post in are annoying!
You can customize them completely! The defaults just show you the potential of the system if you have pretty much all of them turned on.
What's with this forum shop stuff?
The forum shop (ibEconomy mod, with a lot of modifications as we go) makes it so you earn credits posting, giving and receiving "likes", etc., then spend those points on items that can, for instance, change you or your friend's avatar/signature/title/topic title color/etc. Or maybe you want to gamble in the lottery or play scratch tickets. Or maybe you want to invest in specific members, forums, forum groups, etc..... see my point? LOTS of stuff is in it, so screw around and see what you find.
Please note that the current inventory is only a slight fraction of the potential of the system. We have TONS of ideas, and will be releasing a constant stream of new items and features. Name changes, temporary custom name styling, custom titles, etc. are just a few of the items we'll be adding right away.
How do I change my avatar/signature/title/etc.
These are now all done through the forum shop. This should help prevent spammers wasting bandwidth or space (or advertise through signatures, etc) while also promoting the use of the forum items in general.
We won't screw you though... there are items that ONLY work on you, and those items tend to be very cheap and easy to get. If we're out of stock of an item (they all have their own restock schedules) maybe see if someone will sell/trade you for it.
What do I do with my initial funds?
Well, I'd highly suggest buying at least a few self- avatar and signature change items since if your friends decide to change yours as a joke, you won't be able to change it back if you don't have any of the items to do so.
You may also want to look into the banking and investing areas of the forum shop, as they are a good way to earn passive income. Plus nobody can use "steal" items on cash you have stored in a checking account
What if I think all these changes suck?
Unfortunately, you'll just have to deal with it. I CANNOT afford to run the site as it was before, and ad revenue and donations were so low that I would have gone to collections if I kept it up. I have backups of everything though, so setting up a simplified version is not going to be too far off.
Also, I need a base for all the projects I (and other staff members) work on. Using a WoW-specific domain is kind of silly, so SICKind.net works as a neutral base for any potential projects.
I don't like this forum skin...
If you want, we can get another skin that you can then switch to.. but if it's a paid skin (the good ones are), you'll have to figure out a way to fund it. We would also have to approve it. So if you find a skin you want (it has to work for IPB 3.2.x), make a topic about it and staff will discuss whether it'll be possible to use or not. Then, if it's paid, we'll give you the green light to earn the funds so we can get it.
All that said, I DO plan to have an edited version of the current skin to a point where it is as dark and similarly colored as WoW-V is. I know not everyone is a fan of bright skins.
What happened to my donor/sponsor status?
It's still there. Everything was transferred and you guys will still receive all donor/etc. benefits. To get the new rewards you'll need to supply some info on your past donations, but we'll make an announcement about that later.
My post count is lower!
Well, it really isn't. The transfer did NOT lose any posts, but we DID run re-counts for all posts... meaning any deleted posts weren't counted (duh), whereas normally a post getting deleted doesn't reduce the amount. That means your SMF numbers will almost certainly be higher than your IPB. But your IPB numbers are your "real" ones.
Someone is trolling me with avatar/etc. changes!
That's kind of the point of the system. Or at least part of the point. It's supposed to be fun, so grab some items yourself and get some revenge. And remember: all "self-use-only" items are MUCH cheaper than others, so you can stock up on items to help clear off any changes your friends may have done.
Why can't I post in the shoutbox?
Shoutbox posting is restrictred to donors and higher to prevent spam.
Why does posting auto-"shout" in the shoutbox?
It's a setting with a lot of options and we're tweaking it as we go. If it ends up being constantly flooded and impossible to chat in, we'll limit it more strictly (for instance: only shouting about certain groups' posts). For now, please don't complain too much. We'll be tweaking it as we go.
My name color is different!
SICKind.net has completely revamped the name coloring stuff (including adding items for custom ones). Here are the new name stylings per group:
(pretend the "@."s are actually little logos.. just using them as a color reference cause I'm too lazy to get the real ones right now):
- @. Owner
- @. Admin
- @. Moderator
- $ Benefactor
- $ Contributor
- $ Sponsor
- $ Donor
- Member
# Banned
To get the new rewards you'll need to supply some info on your past donations, but we'll make an announcement about that later. Advertising credit items will only be given to people that have not used theirs on WoW-V yet.
We've added a few more BBCodes as well:
Shop Item
To display an icon (with "show more details" pop-up when clicked) of a shop item you can now use the following. Replace "11 "with the item's ID (you can get it in the URL of the item's individual page, and I will be adding the bbcode to the item pop-ups for easily selection). Note there is NO end tag for this bbcode! Example:
[shop=11]Output:
"Important" Box
To style a block of text the same way we style our "important" announcements, use:
[important]Your text here. Works with bbcode and everything![/important]Output:
"Warning" Box
To style a block of text the same way we style our "warning" announcements, use:
[warning]Your text here. Works with bbcode and everything![/warning]Output:
