Welcome to the new home of Ultimate Collectors’ Forums!

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Welcome to the new home of Ultimate Collectors’ Forums!

Over the weekend, we migrated from our old, vBulletin-based forum that was several versions out of date to our new phpBB site. We did this for several reasons. First, phpBB is free software. Even though we had a license for vBulletin, we were so out of date that we were afraid we might lose everything if we tried to update. We will also be looking into what new features we can add in terms of software bells and whistles, so if you know of something you think we should have, let us know. Second, we are now on a commercially owned and operated server, which hopefully means less downtime.

During the migration, the structure and data of the old UC Forums were imported without incident. You will see all your familiar favorite areas, and in them all our rich history of posts. We did lose a few things, at least temporarily, like the Gallery, the “Collections” field in your user profile, custom user titles, and custom user name colors. We’ll be restoring what we can. In the meantime, post away—your new home is open for business!

That said, the site is going to look a little plain initially. But that is where you, our loyal—and talented—members come in. We are going to solicit, perhaps in the form of a contest, imagery from you to use on the forums. You will retain ownership of your original work, with the understanding that you allow UC Formus to use it, free of charge. You may send us photos of your original swords and other artifacts that you’ve created; sketches, drawings and paintings of your artifacts yet to be created; your artwork inspired by fantasy and science fiction; and so forth. We specify that we are asking for your original artwork because if you simply emailed us a photo of a commercial product manufactured under a license you don’t hold, we could get into trouble for copyright infringement. We will have more details on this in the near future as we work them out, but in the meantime we wanted to let you know. We are excited about this because we hope that seeing your own work here as part of the site will help make it feel even more like home. We recall a thread some time back where members were expressing their fondness and enthusiasm for UC Forums, and we were really touched by it. So this is a way of saying thanks for your support!

We also somewhat streamlined our rules. The old vendor-sponsorship model never really worked for our site, so rules pertaining to that are gone. There was a bit more such housekeeping, too. The revised rules are posted in Rules and Warnings forum, so everyone please have a look.

Lastly, in a very real sense, UC Forums is now sailing into open waters. While your four current administrators bought the site from Justin about a year and a half ago, we continued to be hosted on his server. As we now move into a new chapter, we want to take a moment to look back and acknowledge some very important people in the history of the site: Swordsman, who founded the site many years ago; Thorin and Justin, the second generation of owner/administrators; and many retired moderators, including Skyanide, Boromir of Gondor, Master Dwarf, and others whom we hope do not feel slighted by our failing to remember them at this moment. They kept this site running, and we hope to preserve and build upon their legacy. So, a heartfelt thanks to all of them!

So there you have it. We are back, and we thank everyone for their patience during the migration and through the bumps we may hit as we learn the new software. We'll post a bug fix thread in the Suggestions and Complaints forum, so you can let us know of any problems you encounter. And again,

Welcome home!
"Olorin I was in the West that is forgotten...."

Re: Welcome to the new home of Ultimate Collectors’ Forums!

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WOAH! Hullo there, friends! :coolsmile

This is cool! I can't wait to see what people come up with to decorate the forum, and I'm glad we've got our old smileyes still. :thumbs_up

I always thought that Justin started the forum. It's amazing you know, I've been here six years and there's a big chunk of the history of the group and old moderators that I don't even know about!

At any rate, I'm so glad it's back and I look forward to many more years of enjoying your company. I'd also like to welcome you all to join the new home of the Shadow and Flame community, the Flame of Udun forum. It can be found at flameofudun.net. Thank you to all the mods and admins for your hard work here! :cheers:

Re: Welcome to the new home of Ultimate Collectors’ Forums!

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Thanks everyone for being so patient. I know us admins missed a couple of opening dates, but we wanted to make sure as many bugs were worked out as possible..

There are a few left, but the boards should be mainly functional, we are going to add a lot of bells and whistles that we had, like the chatbox, and new post box at the top, plus more.

Like the announcement said, if you have any suggestions, please don't hesitate to mention or suggest!.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Re: Welcome to the new home of Ultimate Collectors’ Forums!

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We also appreciate everyone's thanks and nice comments about the forums; you're more than welcome! And although all of us put effort into going through things and making sure everything was working, I really want to point out that the person who did the lion's share of the work in getting things migrated and set up was Guardian Wolf, Administrator, IT Guru, and all-around great guy! So let's everyone give him a big hand!

:cheers: :bowing: :thumbs_up
"Olorin I was in the West that is forgotten...."

Re: Welcome to the new home of Ultimate Collectors’ Forums!

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Yes GW, did the vast majority of the work, from getting the database saved, uploading it to the new forums, the conversions, and all of those kinds of things, he was our point man on this project. Lucky for us, he is so good, he took a big risk, he would have taken a lot of :cursing_r if things didnt migrate over as nicely.

I am just glad we didn't have to start from scratch :)
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Re: Welcome to the new home of Ultimate Collectors’ Forums!

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Olorin wrote:Welcome to the new home of Ultimate Collectors’ Forums!

That said, the site is going to look a little plain initially. But that is where you, our loyal—and talented—members come in. We are going to solicit, perhaps in the form of a contest, imagery from you to use on the forums. You will retain ownership of your original work, with the understanding that you allow UC Formus to use it, free of charge. You may send us photos of your original swords and other artifacts that you’ve created; sketches, drawings and paintings of your artifacts yet to be created; your artwork inspired by fantasy and science fiction; and so forth. We specify that we are asking for your original artwork because if you simply emailed us a photo of a commercial product manufactured under a license you don’t hold, we could get into trouble for copyright infringement. We will have more details on this in the near future as we work them out, but in the meantime we wanted to let you know. We are excited about this because we hope that seeing your own work here as part of the site will help make it feel even more like home. We recall a thread some time back where members were expressing their fondness and enthusiasm for UC Forums, and we were really touched by it. So this is a way of saying thanks for your support!

Welcome home!
As I had offered before, you guys are more than welcome to use my painting of the Middle Earth map indefinitely, or until you decide on something better.
It's not the greatest, but it can serve for now.
If you need a high quality scan, I can probably take care of that.
If any of you admins have photoshop, it can be stretched into a banner, if not, I'm sure Lindir can whip that off and forward it back to you.
"and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts- to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut stones, to work in wood, and engage in all kinds of craftsmanship"

Re: Welcome to the new home of Ultimate Collectors’ Forums!

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Having used the new forums for a few days, I want to say how much I like the color scheme you all decided upon.
I have visited 'way too many forums that have a basically white background with [default] black font.
I know the legacy forum had a dark background also, but this one is even better. :thumbs_up
Our colors are so much easier on the eyes --these old(er) eyes, anyway.

"Eternity is an awful long time, especially towards the end."

"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.” -- CSL

Re: Welcome to the new home of Ultimate Collectors’ Forums!

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Deimos wrote:Having used the new forums for a few days, I want to say how much I like the color scheme you all decided upon.
I have visited 'way too many forums that have a basically white background with [default] black font.
I know the legacy forum had a dark background also, but this one is even better. :thumbs_up
Our colors are so much easier on the eyes --these old(er) eyes, anyway.
I'll take that as a personal thank you, because the default install was black text on white background, and I asked if we could change it to something that looked more like the old site. I thought that would be more welcoming and homey, and I absolutely agree, it's easier on the eyes by far. So, you're more than welcome! :thumbs_up
"Olorin I was in the West that is forgotten...."
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