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Thread: What if EoFF shut down?

  1. #16
    Witch of Theatergoing Karifean's Avatar
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    Hmm, that feeling of increasing distance and disenfranchisement is not going to lessen. It's only going to grow. If that makes the end result inevitable then this isn't a choice between keeping it up or not, it's just a matter of *when* and *how* you move on.

    EoFF has been really important to me in more than a few ways, and it remains a place I visit daily with interest due to the few who still keep it going (major shoutouts to Wolf Kanno) but it has its ups and downs for sure and is certainly no longer the main place I frequent on the web, so ultimately I'd probably get over it soon enough. But I also wouldn't reject it being handed over or anything either and continue to visit as I have been. Still, even if you'd rather it shut down entirely, I don't feel you owe me or any of us anything, so whatever your choice may be I'd rather you make it for yourself than anyone else. It's not like bonds between users would just break over it, so dw too much on that front.

  2. #17
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    For me, personally I get it. I stopped coming here for most things years ago. Now and then I pop up in threads and have a post. But, if I'm honest I think the last legs status of EOFF has also made the clique mentality ever stronger. What I say may upset some people but look at this from my perspective:

    At one point I was one of the most active members of EOFF and love or hate me, you all spent time interacting with me. I came back most recently because Paul invited me to partake in my first ever D&D session with some of you guys and it was fun so I figured let's post a little see how people are, engage a little. Almost exclusively, I feel like any thread I've posted in (ironically bar the one about anthromorphic sexuality a thread some of us may quite happily have seen die in obscurity following a post by me) has been ignored and died a death of deaths, or my post has been ignored completely by those around it. From my perspective I who used to be a massively integrated part of this community was "out" and by being "out" wasn't welcome here any longer.

    So if EOFF was shut down Daniel, I can say this: I would miss it.

    But I wouldn't miss the EOFF that currently exists, if I'm honest the EOFF that presently exists makes me more than a little sad. Sad because it was such a big part of my life and helped me so many times over when I was at low ebbs in my life and was always somewhere safe online to share the glories of the high points with too. I would miss the EOFF of it's heyday when this community was huge, diverse and genuinely funnier, more entertaining and engaging than today.

    Now don't get me wrong, I don't blame anyone here for the situation with EOFF; the fact is that times have changed, we're all older with real commitments in our lives and that means that most of us don't have the time to be sat around for hours at a time playing video games and gassing about them to random people online (or not so random as so many of EOFF became). Because of this, members have slowly faded away in to the sunset. If this was a camp fire party, the campfire is burning low and more and more have finished their last beer and said "Right, well that's me done for the night guys, it's been fun but I'll see you around" except the seeing us around is no longer at the camp fire and the circle of those around the fire grows ever smaller and pretends not to notice the emptiness around them or the lack of people coming back.

    These days EOFF is roughly a collection of around 40 people, many of whom like Matt (TUH) and myself are barely here, flitting in and out to check in really out of old habits and a vague curiousity as to if it's still here. If EOFF was a person, they'd be a person who is in a Long Term coma who is never expected to recover and we're the medical staff popping our heads in occassionally to check the life support machine is still switched on and detecting a pulse. The "die hard few" as Del refers to them are pretty much the devoted family members of the patient sitting by the bedside wishing for a miracle. But even for them, the attendees have started showing up less and less and no one really talks about anything anymore they just sit in silence with their thoughts not wanting to be the first to voice that they need to step back to run their own life.

    That you've tried to palm EOFF off on to other members of the site/staff and they've turned you down for it says something too. EOFF is simply not a good investment of time or money for them. As much as some may hate to admit I think EOFF is something that has become our collective past and as sad as I would be to see the old girl go with such a whimper instead of a roar of triumph. If you decided to pull the plug on the site because it's simply become nothing but a drain of £480 a year to you and no one else was willing to take it from you I would understand completely. £480 a year is not a lot to some people no. But it's a holiday in parts of Europe for a long weekend, it's a months worth of groceries for a couple. It's the opportunity to build new memories with someone who matters most rather than becomming upset or angry over the failures of the past.

    From the legal standpoint of GDPR well based on my job meaning I have to know what you can and can't do with data under that (as a recruitment consultant, our databases are full of candidates from years and years ago and client info etc we have to be extremely mindful of it) you would need to do the following at a minimum to keep the forums safe from any legal objections:

    - You would need to contact every single member of the forums via email and ask them if the consent to having their data kept (either by logging in and accepting a "terms" document, or by clicking a link in the email) anyone who does not consent or respond to that email would be considered someone who has not given consent. This "Terms" document needs to clearly outly what information you hold on us, what use this information has, what legitimate interest you have for holding said information etc etc as well as who we contact to enact any of our rights etc and any outside sources you grant access to the data (this could be for example the hosting company you use)

    - Every account that does not give consent needs deletion of any and all personal information. Names, email addresses, contact details no matter how out of date. You would also need to run an algorithm on the forum to delete this content in their posts. It would honestly be easier to just delete their posts and if it is automatable, any posts quoting their posts. This would also apply to front site articles and blog posts etc.

    - Any threads I think would have a two year lifespan at best for how long GDPR would allow you to keep that information since it was last posted in. So any of the "Good Old Days" threads would be purged, about the best you could do is keep the thread heading without the content

    - You need to offer access to the 8 rights protected by GDPR on request they are as follows:

    1. The right to be informed <--- meaning the right to know exactly what you hold and why you hold it
    2. The right of access <--- full access to any information including staff discussions and Private Messages about a person held on EOFF servers even if not on their account.
    3. The right to rectification <--- The right to correct any factually wrong information
    4. The right to erasure <--- the right to be forgotten essentially a full wipe of the person from the forum all mentions, posts about, PMs about etc etc and accounts associated with them
    5. The right to restrict processing <--- not so applicable to EOFF so long as you're not selling the data on members
    6. The right to data portability <--- you have to present all data to the person requesting right 2 in any reasonable manner they ask. I.E: If I asked you to print every single thing about me you'd be obligated to do so and provide it to me. Or a USB drive with the files accessible in any format I chose so PDF or screen dumps or text files.
    7. The right to object <--- not so important again because you're not selling the data but if you were to sell the data, and someone objects, you have to pull their data from the rest of the data you are selling.
    8. Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling <--- not so important

    Frankly, I can understand why you would consider the need to close it down based on the GDPR nightmare this place is alone.

  3. #18

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    I've only been here a short while so my opinion might not hold as much weight as someone who's been here since the beginning, but this is definitely the FF forum I've felt most at home at. I've met many interesting people and had many interesting discussions, even if I don't agree with all of them, but that's part of why I was drawn here in the first place. It's a shame to see such a large part of the FF community that's been around for so long be gone, but if it happens it happens. And it sounds like your reasons for closing down the site are a lot more personal than just the money, so there's nothing we really can do about that. I'll definitely miss this place though, it's been a lot of fun.

  4. #19

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    What if we just move EOFF to a free forum place ?



  5. #20

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    Well, I'm pretty new here and I've still got Square Gamer either way. In fact, I only originally came here to start a forum flame war, but you guys were so boring about it and we were tired put from destroying FFWA, so... I guess what I'm saying is don't go disappearing before we get to have our flame war.

  6. #21
    Crazy Scot. Cid's Knight Shauna's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Golbez View Post
    Well, I'm pretty new here and I've still got Square Gamer either way. In fact, I only originally came here to start a forum flame war, but you guys were so boring about it and we were tired put from destroying FFWA, so... I guess what I'm saying is don't go disappearing before we get to have our flame war.
    Not gonna lie I think you'll be disappointed wrt this for eternity don't get your hopes up

  7. #22
    Huh? Flower?! What the hell?! Administrator Psychotic's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Golbez View Post
    Well, I'm pretty new here and I've still got Square Gamer either way. In fact, I only originally came here to start a forum flame war, but you guys were so boring about it and we were tired put from destroying FFWA, so... I guess what I'm saying is don't go disappearing before we get to have our flame war.
    You'd be batting for team EoFF now fella, you're one of our heavy hitters.

  8. #23
    Radical Dreamer Fynn's Avatar
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    If this site does end up shutting down, please let us know ahead of time. I’ve got a couple ideas for some final threads before we say our last goodbyes to this place.


    ...

    But I’m still hoping that’s not going to happen anytime soon! I don’t care what people say, honestly - there’s life in this forum yet! The people who have contributed fairly recently have all expressed the same sentiment and I want to believe it’s not over yet. If only I had the money, I’d buy this site from you in a heartbeat, BoB, but raising a child on just my salary with a little bit of money made by my wife on the side is stressful enough as it is for me. But to any potential investors for the future, I just want to tell you that there’s enough passion left for this site to go on for longer!

    We’ve got new guys! Actual newbies joined for the first time in forever since FFVIIR launched, and they’ve all been awesome! There’s our seasonal writing contests that I’m sure will see even more good stuff in the future. The old guard may be gone, but those of us who are around do spend time together, both on here and on discord. I’m just personally not ready to say goodbye just yet, and I know I’m not the only one!

    If push comes to shove, I’ll say my goobyes, and you can be damn sure I’ll make you guys cry with the power of my pathos. But as things stand now, I’ll remain hopeful. Let’s enjoy this ride while it lasts.

  9. #24

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    Well it would be sad if it disappeared.

    But that hosting cost is insane. You can almost definitely find a better price for that!

  10. #25
    Newbie Administrator Loony BoB's Avatar
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    The price is 80% storage costs, 18% CPU, 2% bandwidth these days. We're currently on a plan that allows for 160GB storage and I think that's because we tipped the 80GB limit on the previous plan. I don't know how much of that is actually used by the forums (I suspect less than 30GB) and how much is random files we host for the frontsite, but yeah. I just don't have the energy to deal with it.
    Bow before the mighty Javoo!

  11. #26

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    30GB of forum text?

    That seems almost impossible.

  12. #27
    cyka blyat escobert's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JJ Strife View Post
    30GB of forum text?

    That seems almost impossible.
    20 years of posts :P

  13. #28
    Newbie Administrator Loony BoB's Avatar
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    Text, attachments, profile pictures, avatars, raw files, etc. It might be much less than 30GB but it's definitely not the majority of disk space used.
    Bow before the mighty Javoo!

  14. #29

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    its all those damn eoff nudes

  15. #30

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    i no longer speak to most of the people i met here, mostly due to my own terrible ways of interacting with people. i look back and see a lot of sadness.

    there was a really good year or two (for me) and it's all the past so its not like im looking at old posts from the good-old-days. its all locked away in my brain.

    if saving £40 a month makes your life easier, then let's have a nice wake, some beers, then throw the server into the sea.

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