Next steps for VVO

[GoblinCampFollower]

Discord indeed offers transfer of ownership for big enough servers, but only for the other admins of that server:

If the owners account is disabled or if the account has went inactive, you can request ownership transferral from Discord Support. The system is in place exactly for this.

https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000029212

Select "Help & Support", then at "Type of Question" select "Server Ownership Transfer Request".

The transfer has the following requirements:

• The server must have over 100 users.
• The account requesting ownership must be an admin on the server.
• The owners account must have been inactive for at least 30 days.

So all you really need to keep a server safe is an active second admin to request ownership for themselves. They can then pass the ownership to the owners new account, or someone else if they choose.

https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360071817571-Assigning-multiple-server-owners-to-prevent-server-being-deleted

Thanks for the explanation! So in short, we don't meet their normal requirements. I'm certainly not going to hold my breath on the hope we talk them into a special exception, so we likely just have to start a new server.

 

[mixvio]

Discord indeed offers transfer of ownership for big enough servers, but only for the other admins of that server:

If the owners account is disabled or if the account has went inactive, you can request ownership transferral from Discord Support. The system is in place exactly for this.

https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000029212

Select "Help & Support", then at "Type of Question" select "Server Ownership Transfer Request".

The transfer has the following requirements:

• The server must have over 100 users.
• The account requesting ownership must be an admin on the server.
• The owners account must have been inactive for at least 30 days.

So all you really need to keep a server safe is an active second admin to request ownership for themselves. They can then pass the ownership to the owners new account, or someone else if they choose.

https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360071817571-Assigning-multiple-server-owners-to-prevent-server-being-deleted

Cristiano's account is the only admin, Artemis and another person are just moderators. They've said that they don't really think it's a problem if they can't get ownership of the server as long as they can still moderate it, but they can't make new mods themselves so that's obviously not ideal for the long-term health of the community if they ever decide they don't want to be mods anymore. They also can't do anything to the server that only an admin can. It looks like the server has enough members, but Cris' account hasn't been inactive since his family has still been logging in and responding to messages to let people know Cris has passed.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

We've been all busy today sticking our heads together in Discord. And then some.

 

[Free]

Yeah, my head is all sticky. What should I use to clean it?

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Yeah, my head is all sticky. What should I use to clean it?

Nothing plenty of alcohol can't handle.

 

[Sid]

I would be disappointed if it was a regular community member who did that. But I think it's very likely it was just some troll. Tragically, you may have inherited some baggage that just comes with running any community.

Considering the number of mud slingers on other sites when Cris died, I'm not surprised that some will try to ruin as much as possible of his legacy. All I can advise is take the site as soon as possible to a new server with a new provider and form a group who will run this place ASAP.
The Internet can be a weird place.

Added: After I posted this, I saw that people who know technical stuff from this site are at it. Great. Thanks for that.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Let's just say we had a very good kick-off meeting today. And we're all on it now.

 

[mixvio]

After thinking further about everything I have decided to give control of the server login over to Free, Noodles, and Bartholomew, and the three of them are now also super admins on the forum. They were the names that were suggested the most when I asked people who should be running things, and from a technical perspective I can see that the site is in very capable hands with people who know what they're doing so I don't think I need to be the middleman. In the interests of there not being any possible friction with Cris' family when they're grieving the loss of a loved one, and so there doesn't even need to be the glimmer of doubt as to my involvement with anything, I'd rather remove myself from the equation completely as far as that is concerned.

I haven't yet decided whether or not I feel comfortable sticking around here as an additional admin or simple forum participant. With the four of us, there's coverage across a twenty-four hour period so there's benefits to my presence from kangaroo land, but I don't want my participation to drag up old shit from ~13 years ago from people who can't move on in life and if me sticking around creates further animosity then I am not going to force it. My objective was to make sure Cris' site didn't fall apart and I've feel that I have done that.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I don’t think Free sleeps so we’re probably good.

 

[Free]

I cat nap.

 

[Free]

the installation of Xenforo here is 7 years old, and horribly outdated. It has well known security holes. So coming to a decision on how to resolve that is very important. There are different possibilities, but it needs to be fixed quickly IMHO. The team could continue to pay for licenses, or migrate it to something frere. But that's a decision a newly formed admin teams needs to make.

Assuming we decide to stick with Xenforo: If we can move the install that's here to Bart's server, upgrading (software and cost benefit) is not likely without Cris' Xenforo login. So...

The Xenforo Cloud options (they host, you pay) are fairly costly, with the cheapest (Starter) at $60USD a month. But this is obviously off the table for us (*waves at Bart*).

A Xenforo self hosted license is $195 (base install). A bit high, but we should have enough members willing to chip in so the shared burden is small. The purchase includes 12 months of updates, new releases, and ticket support.

Additional 12 month updates/support are sold as extensions ($60 for base). Here are the add-ons offered and their costs:

Enhanced Search
Get faster searching, higher quality search results and similar content matching. Requires ElasticSearch 2.0+. $60 (extension: +$10). I don't think this is set up here (I'm investigating). If not, then I find the default search more than adequate.

Resource Manager
Manage files, downloads and article-like content within your community. $70 (extension: +$15). I personally don't think we need this.

Media Gallery
Allow your users to create galleries of images and videos, organised into categories and albums. $70 (extension: +$15). Again, I don't think we need this.

Installation Service
Have a XenForo representative install the software onto your server for you. $60. Uh, no.

Branding Removal
This allows you to remove the visible XenForo copyright notice from all public-facing pages. $350. I kind of like it there!

 

[Free]

Turns we have the Resource Manager addon here (no Enhanced Search though). It's has a few categories configured: Products - with sub-categories of several different virtual worlds (Second Life, Kitely, Sansar!, IMVU) - and Real Estate. I just can't tell if it was ever provided on the site, or at least what Cris had planned for it.

*grumbles* I'll have to do some research, and digging.

 

[Puretone]

After thinking further about everything I have decided to give control of the server login over to Free, Noodles, and Bartholomew, and the three of them are now also super admins on the forum. They were the names that were suggested the most when I asked people who should be running things, and from a technical perspective I can see that the site is in very capable hands with people who know what they're doing so I don't think I need to be the middleman. In the interests of there not being any possible friction with Cris' family when they're grieving the loss of a loved one, and so there doesn't even need to be the glimmer of doubt as to my involvement with anything, I'd rather remove myself from the equation completely as far as that is concerned.

I haven't yet decided whether or not I feel comfortable sticking around here as an additional admin or simple forum participant. With the four of us, there's coverage across a twenty-four hour period so there's benefits to my presence from kangaroo land, but I don't want my participation to drag up old shit from ~13 years ago from people who can't move on in life and if me sticking around creates further animosity then I am not going to force it. My objective was to make sure Cris' site didn't fall apart and I've feel that I have done that.

If nothing else, I hope you stay around. Whomever contacted Cris' family is a giant douchecanoe. I hope they know what a disgustingly boorish thing that they did.

I'm sure they won't say anything directly to you, that's how shitty little cowards work.

The good thing is they're never as clever as they think they are and we'll know who it is eventually.

 

[mixvio]

Turns we have the Resource Manager addon here (no Enhanced Search though). It's has a few categories configured: Products - with sub-categories of several different virtual worlds (Second Life, Kitely, Sansar!, IMVU) - and Real Estate. I just can't tell if it was ever provided on the site, or at least what Cris had planned for it.

*grumbles* I'll have to do some research, and digging.

Was that part of the marketplace feature or whatever? I saw when I switched off supporter donations that supposedly you were allowed to post there but I didn't research further to see if he'd actually implemented it.

 

[Free]

Was that part of the marketplace feature or whatever? I saw when I switched off supporter donations that supposedly you were allowed to post there but I didn't research further to see if he'd actually implemented it.

That seems to be the case.

 

[Monica Dream]

Obviously the shit bird who did it had some knowledge of Cris and the community. This doesn't prove it was a current, regular member.

I do have some theories about who it could have been but I can't prove anything so certainly will not accuse anyone publicly with no proof.

I have theories too (ironically no clue who individually did it), but hashing it out at this point really doesn't do anything good for the community so I'll keep those (probably incorrect) thoughts to myself.

 

[Monica Dream]

I haven't yet decided whether or not I feel comfortable sticking around here as an additional admin or simple forum participant. With the four of us, there's coverage across a twenty-four hour period so there's benefits to my presence from kangaroo land, but I don't want my participation to drag up old shit from ~13 years ago from people who can't move on in life and if me sticking around creates further animosity then I am not going to force it. My objective was to make sure Cris' site didn't fall apart and I've feel that I have done that.

In the end, you need to do whatever is healthiest for you, personally. We're grateful and happy to have you back -but if it's triggering old feelings and reflexes then it's not worth it.

More people are happy you're here than are upset -but if you get crap, and fucks up your emotional well-being then it's not worth it. Still, you are welcome and you were missed.

 

[Isabeau]

Not sure how I feel about all this yet, but since it has been decided and done, ok.

As for Joshua sticking around, I echo what Monica said.

 

[Sid]

My post a few pages back, was not because I'm upset, but a bit worried. Joshua has a not an exactly average history on SLU after all. He all off a sudden stepped in after all these years and took simply over. I found that at least a bit strange and a bit frightening. But as far as I can see now, he has matured very well. That is a plus.

 

[mixvio]

My post a few pages back, was not because I'm upset, but a bit worried. Joshua has a not an exactly average history on SLU after all. He all off a sudden stepped in after all these years and took simply over. I found that at least a bit strange and a bit frightening. But as far as I can see now, he has matured very well. That is a plus.

I'm very boggled by how you can interpret "hey everyone I was able to reach out to Cris' family because I had RL access to him and with their help I was able to get the site credentials because it was in jeopardy of being shut down in two weeks, who wants to run this, I don't really know if I feel comfortable with this responsibility since I haven't been around in over a decade, any volunteers?" to be "came in and simply took over."

I haven't done a single thing with this site all week other than turning off the donations because nobody can get access to Cris' PayPal account. There's a moderation and approval queue of nearly 250 entries that I haven't touched. I haven't even updated any of the software or plugins. Every step of the way I have been incredibly open about everything and not done anything without asking input or telling people about it.