Regarding Future Website Redesign Plans

[GloryQuestor]

Since a lot of you have been asking about it, this announcement is to address the concerns you might have about future site redesign. As you can see in our pages on the previous attempts at site redesign, this has actually been trying to get started since long before I was even here, and many times after. Each attempt continues to fail for many reasons, chief of which is real life getting in the way of things after beginning the stages towards doing it.

Right now, we have not a site redesign but rather a site move to a different server setup in the works, so that we can cut our costs down. As you have seen, we are a not-for-profit driven 100% by the donations we receive. Without the influx of donations to keep our website running, we cannot continue to provide services we are already providing for free to the community at large. Our site recently had a database outage, where the video file downloads and streaming services were completely down due to a server malfunction. We have replaced the server that was faulty, but the costs involved really hit home the need for better, more efficient hardware to run our platform.

Also, we are reevaluating the overall direction in which the website operates, since clearly our current mission of collecting "every AMV ever made" is outmoded, especially in the wake of YouTube and other such video services dominating the video scenes. Therefore, the current vision that we are pursuing for the website is, "To continue to support the fan-creation music video community, with a focus on defined Japanese anime and animated works, and to provide a place where: 1) Creators can review and discuss their fan-created videos; 2) Contest coordinators can have a more centralized service for collecting video submissions; and 3) AMVs can be viewed by individual fans, or provided for conventions to display said works in a licensed public venue."

Unfortunately, achieving this vision is not as easy as it sounds. The website itself is based on code that cannot be revised and has to be rebuilt from the ground up. This is why most of our previous attempts have failed -- not just because of real life concerns, but also because of the work involved and that we are trying to make the new code more open so that our site does not have the overhead of paying a contract programmer licensing fees for their work. We had many people attempt to do it this way, and so far all of them have failed at it.

So, we can confirm that finally there is a direction on the works on getting our system on a new code base and a better hardware platform. This will, of course, still take time to implement while we continue to run the current website, but I am keeping on top of the people currently spending their free time working finally towards a solution to our growing site issues.

Thank you for your interest and support as we work, and keep an eye out on the forums and social media pages for further details when we are at the point things actually get started.

Thanks

[Niotex]

Try including people who've advocated the redesign for almost a decade now and have been stonewalled this entire time. The reason for a lot of the "failures" you speak of can be traced to lack of communication and transparency on the administrations part. Whenever someone puts forward anything it's either shut down, ignored or left to witter without resources. We've been over this a couple of times already but expenses/development of the platform and community should be handed over to people actually involved with the Org. Not hogged by someone whom only has a passing interest and holds the platform in a choke hold because they're entitled to do so.

Provide complete transparency on all fronts with progress reports and a road map.

[Kagacie]

short version
''shut up nothing will happen I am god so fuck you''
Look we have heard this for yeaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssssssss the same thing over and over are you gonna actually fucking do something about it?
the org is dying and you are fully aware of it but you want to be a fucking god and fix shit yourself, BUT YOU FUCKING CAN'T AND PISS EVERYONE OFF
GET THIS SHIT FIXED OR ORG = DEAD

I already made it's tombstone for you



for fucks sake

[Dr. Derpface, J.D.]

A bunch of stuff...

This seems to be a rehash of the same thing that was said four and a half years ago.

In the eleven years I've been on this site, there has been talk after talk about redesigns, updates, overhauls, etc. But generalized vagaries are all that ever come about.

What is the specific direction you're going in?
What are the issues involved?
How can people who are so inclined help out?
What kind of a timetable are you aiming for?

Yes, we know the code is old, broken, and not maintainable. We know the site needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. We've known this for YEARS, yet that seems to be all that's ever said. When it comes time to actually put a plan into action, things seem to fizzle out with no word on how, why, or what can be done to pick up the torch.

And if we're talking about a move to a completely different setup, why is this the first anyone's hearing about it? Everything seems to be done with more secrecy than Kim Jong-Un's bowel movements, so nobody has any clue what's going on due to a lack of transparency. Perhaps if you let people know what's going on, more people would be willing and able to help out where needed.

We're approaching Duke Nukem Forever levels of vaporware here. The difference being, DNF went through MULTIPLE complete rewrites (that actually got done) and the developer actually released a product at some point. So far, we have nothing here.

And at the risk of sounding like "that guy", your post seems to be a bunch of Ali Hassan/Obama/DPRK/Putin "everything is fine, nothing to see here, we're working on it (trust us)" handwaving. So again, the question becomes "what are the specific issues that need to be addressed?" If you tell people what needs to be done, it's more likely to happen. Lording over the site because it's "MY ball! Not YOUR ball! MY ball!" is accomplishing nothing. Perhaps if you were to actually have some transparency and follow it up with not alienating those who DO attempt to help, things would improve, no?

But that's just my $0.02.

[GloryQuestor]

Try including people who've advocated the redesign for almost a decade now and have been stonewalled this entire time. The reason for a lot of the "failures" you speak of can be traced to lack of communication and transparency on the administrations part.

But we've had transparency for the past how many years and how many times it's been started, and where has that gotten us? Back with the same problem. I turned it over to a small team of community members that I'm trusting to take another look at it, some of whom actually have been around a very long time, and still do care about the future of the website.

short version
''shut up nothing will happen I am god so fuck you''

We're approaching Duke Nukem Forever levels of vaporware here. The difference being, DNF went through MULTIPLE complete rewrites (that actually got done) and the developer actually released a product at some point. So far, we have nothing here.

I never claimed to be "God of this website". In fact, this was all started after consultation with the website's owner, Phade, who still works for and maintains this website for all of us to be a part of. This is something that only recently started up also, as of October last year, and again I was hesitant to say anything should this plan not end up working out. But the plan was not without the knowledge of the website's owner, and I am giving this plan some time to see if it will work.

[Dr. Derpface, J.D.]

[GloryQuestor]

Quoted Image converted to link:
http://i.imgur.com/oyRmi9u.png

[Kagacie]

[Dr. Derpface, J.D.]

Quoted Image converted to link:
http://i.imgur.com/oyRmi9u.png

Quoted Image converted to link:
http://i.imgur.com/8aqUGtI.gif

And while we're at it:

[Niotex]

Try including people who've advocated the redesign for almost a decade now and have been stonewalled this entire time. The reason for a lot of the "failures" you speak of can be traced to lack of communication and transparency on the administrations part.

But we've had transparency for the past how many years and how many times it's been started, and where has that gotten us? Back with the same problem. I turned it over to a small team of community members that I'm trusting to take another look at it, some of whom actually have been around a very long time, and still do care about the future of the website.

So keeping key members locked out of discussions regarding financial matters pertaining to server maintenance, operation cost and a actual budget. As well as any conversation regarding the direction and focus of the platform and community. All while trying to move forward plans as directed by people whom never speak or are heard of equals transparency? The fact that people whom were left in charge of the org redesign were excluded from all administrative discussions shows that you've appointed them in bad faith and undermined their ability to work on it.

But please, ignore everything else I've said. Seriously do, it just proofs my point.