New website development and some forum closures

[Mooncow]

Chao Island is currently undergoing some re-development. The website is being upgraded with a new look, updated Chao information and more social features. This is a very big project and I want to let everybody know the plans and what changes you will see while this is worked on.

Here are the key features of the new Chao Island site:

• Updated Chao Information on the website
• A user-editable wiki for advanced information and trivia, including mods and editor information
• A new section on the website for fan-made games, mods and projects
• A news hub with links to all Chao Island social sites, including DeviantArt, Steam and Discord
• A rework of the forum boards, forum rules and staff updates
• A new points system for the forum
• Mobile compatibility

Of course, this will not happen overnight and we already have a development team working on the things listed! While the site is being reworked, it will also involve the closure of some of the non-Chao parts of the Forum. The affected forums will be:

• General Usergroups/Clubs Area
• Other Games
• Pokémon
• Stories and Fan-Fic
• Role-Playing
• Chao Role-Playing
• General Discussion
• Forum Games and Chat

The date for this will be April 2nd 2018. The forums will be locked until the new site launch, and then removed (while new forum features are worked on).
The reason for this decision is to focus fully on the Chao and Chao Information aspect of the website and ensure the site atmosphere is a lot more focused for the new launch. Some or all of these forums (or alternatives) may be added again at a later date.

[ChillyChao]

R.I.P General Discussion Forum, you will be missed.

[Nano]

I'll miss you GD, peace out homie!

[Pufflehugs]

Oh no.
Goodbye everyone, without those forums I am literally nothing.

[YuYuChaosho]

Ripperoni. Those poor Forums. We must set up a funeral.

This is amazing!
......now I can’t wait for April!!

[ShadriaFan]

Farewell Role-Playing, I won't forget you and the sweet memories and friends I got from your threads..
Now where will the Chao Roleplayers go??

[Tsui]

Understandable decision, to make the forums more Chao-focused.

I see Artwork and Movies isn't on that list - does this mean it would still be fully open, or would it also be geared toward Sonic and Chao first and foremost? That is, art of Chao would be the main focus of a topic there.

In any case, I'm looking forward to this.

[Rajikaru]

Wow. Never expected the gd forum and other forums to genuinely get erased.


Bye everyone.

[FrankT]

I'd prefer if these forums were kept as an archive.

[Mooncow]

I see Artwork and Movies isn't on that list - does this mean it would still be fully open, or would it also be geared toward Sonic and Chao first and foremost? That is, art of Chao would be the main focus of a topic there.

The above is correct. Because of the forums it will generally be more Chao/Sonic focused. I won't outright remove anything non-Chao related, but the focus will be to stay in-line with the site content.

I'd prefer if these forums were kept as an archive.

I will keep a hold of the database so this is a realistic option for the future. I will make a decision on if the forums return as they were, brand new, as a locked archive, or not at all.

[Ivogoji]

As long as the Sonic related boards are untouched I'm fine with this.

[CasualCollision]

I would very much appreciate it if you archived those forums in some fashion. A have a lot of fond memories of those places--I literally grew up with them, and I'd hate for them to go away without a trace. Much like the site as a whole, I hold quite a bit of sentimental value to these topics. They were where I had most of my conversations with friends other than the chatbox, especially from 2009-2011. Those posts are essentially a record of how I made friends with the people I know today.

Ideally, I think you should simply lock and unlist the boards, but still have them accessible via links and looking through your own posts. Plus, removing them will probably significantly reduce the post counts of many users here. Knowing me, I've probably made a total of less than 1000 posts in the boards you didn't list.

Either way, I appreciate that you at least gave a date of when this is all going to start happening. I'm going to start archiving all my posts in case you end up deleting everything off the face of the earth. I really hope you don't come to that decision though. I doubt I'll be able to save *everything* in time.

[Jeffery Mewtamer]

I've long thought the forums could use some consolidation to counteract the sense of vast, empty halls that has come with the drop in active users over the years, but to not have a general off topic board of any kind is practically asking anyone not a hardcore Chao fan to leave and for new members to never get to know each other or the oldbies on any deeper level than a shared interest in Chao.

Maybe I'm just becoming the internet equivalent of an old man who's constantly yelling at children to get off his lawn, but despite the mention of new social features, it sounds like you intend to gut the most important of existing social features.

Personally, I'd suggest keeping at least a general Off Topic Discussion board and maybe a combined Role-Playing and Forum Games board

[Linds 269]

Everything's that's been said above concerning general discussion topics unrelated to chao. Also, if I ever visit this website, it's to maybe post something in a general discussion board, but it's mainly to look at what topics I've made or participated in and see what's been made in my absence. I, too, have a lot of fond memories, even if I don't talk to anyone from CI anymore. Just like the chatbox, I would hate for all of that to go away. If it does, I can definitely say with confidence I won't even want to visit every now and then. CI was a huge part of my past. Please consider other options. I especially don't have time to archive anything.

[Chao31]

Wait so role-plays are getting removed :(

EDIT: Plus i think chao roleplay stay since CHAO roleplay plus they have chao as the character plus chao related stuff in it like the characters

[Coty]

Just a thought, what if... you just merged all (Aside from maybe clubs) non-chao related boards into GD? Since, pretty much everything that isn't chao related is technically General Discution... Maybe just amend what counts as spam for it (since forum games and chat is like 99% spam)... It's been a while... But I'm pretty sure PHPbb has bulk forum merge operations baked in.

Like I said, just a thought.

[retrolinkx]

That's pretty sad news that you're going to be removing those forums. Especially when around 95% of my posts have been in those specific forums, along with a lot of history in those forums for everyone.

I'm hoping you archive them and put them somewhere we can all access. Another forum I used to browse created a new forum in 2013 that everyone migrated to, a few months later they brought back the old site as a nice archive. I check up on it from time to time and it's nice to look at, even if it serves no purpose anymore. It's a shame another site I used to use doesn't though, and they just closed down.

I don't really have the time for Chao anymore, hell I've even stopped trying to keep up discussion on these forums once I learnt the Discord existed and was stealing all of the activity. It's odd, while one part of the forum was dying, the other part was thriving. It's hard to think there are members I had never met who JUST used the Chao sections of the forums.

It's also great news to know that you still care about this place, Mooncow. You still pay for it's domain, still post on here, and still actively administrate the place, and you must be in your late 20's now, You've been here since the early 2000's as well (I've seen the old archives on Waybackmachine). It's hard to think we'll be getting a third iteration of this place, after the 15+ odd years it's been around. Thanks for all the work you've put into place man, I truly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.

Personally though, I feel that maybe General Discussion and Other Games should stay, as I understand we're a Chao Based forum I feel those are pretty much staples in any forum regardless of their subject.

I hope the new forum brings in lots of new members, even if it may seem impossible in this day and age.

[quartzlcc]

I sort of have a very looooong Chao RP going on, is there a good way to back it up and relocate it or...

Thanks in advance.

[eblu]

Welp, I guess this is kind of the tipping point for me formally leaving the site for good this time. I love your efforts, CI team, but my interest in the Chao system can only sustain itself for so long.
So long and thanks for all the fish.

[quartzlcc]

OK I guess not. I copied our in-progress role-play into a Google Doc in its entirety. Turns out it's 148 pages long in a document, which is pretty neat.

Welp, I guess this is kind of the tipping point for me formally leaving the site for good this time. I love your efforts, CI team, but my interest in the Chao system can only sustain itself for so long.
So long and thanks for all the fish.

Good knowin' ya :)

[ChillyChao]

Wait but I have a question
Will Chao RPers be able to RP in the Chao forum?
If not, I kinda wanna make a Chao RP website.

[VoltTacklingPikachu]

I'm very sad to hear that the Roleplaying forum is disappearing... I made a lot of friends and have many fond memories of the RPs I joined. I would often come online as a guest and read old RPs again when I was feeling down. The nostalgia of them always made me feel better. Looks like I have a crap ton of screenshotting to do before they're erased as if they never existed...

I guess this is goodbye, Chao Island... I wish you the best of luck as you move into the future. Thanks for the memories.

[Jeffery Mewtamer]

^Wouldn't it be easier and use less disk space to just bump up the posts per page as far as it'll go and save the old threads as html or txt files?

For that matter, does Chao Island have a printer friendly/mobile view or something similar that cuts down on the navigation/profile related bits of a thread page so those wishing to make personal archives of old threads can have files that contain only the important stuff without having to manually do tons of clean-up themselves?

[Mooncow]

For that matter, does Chao Island have a printer friendly/mobile view or something similar that cuts down on the navigation/profile related bits of a thread page so those wishing to make personal archives of old threads can have files that contain only the important stuff without having to manually do tons of clean-up themselves?

There is Print View

[Pat Po]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachment ... nknown.png