Hi everyone!

Unfortunately the server ran out of memory last night (at least going by CET), and Shadowfang wasn't available until the morning to reset the database. We apologize for the inconvenience!

We're looking into an automatic database reset so the issue isn't dependent on Shadowfang being around, as well upgrading our server with more memory.

And before you're wondering, we're still doing either Pateron or Paypal still to cover donations. Depending on what we decide on, we'd require $20 a month in the worst case scenario so far.

In any case, expect an announcement soon (hopefully in the next few days) when it's sorted out and running!

In other words, the Thunderdome era is over.

Admittedly I should have done this ages ago, but I've been busy and slow, so the late re-implementation of the forum rules are on me.

Everything can be now once again found here: http://188.166.126.212/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=65

Everything more or less stayed the same, with a few smaller additions here and there.

Forum Policies: PM Policy and Lolicon/Shotacon/Child Porn policy stayed the same. Note that you cannot report PMs at the time due to Shadowfang needing to implement said plugin, but that bit of the policy will be live when said plugin is implemented.

Forum Guidelines: Everything stayed roughly the same. Signatures are no longer limited like they were on phpBB, so we'll take our judgment if a signature might be interfering with forum browsing (e.g., tons of animated gifs, huge ass images). We'll contact you first in cases like this, so no one will get warned or nuked for such matters, unless you're actually violating forum rules. Furthermore, copying users' avatars and signatures are discouraged. By this, I mean someone using the exact same avatar picture I presently have, using images of said character would be okay though.

Forum Rules: No new major additions, just added a fancier formatting and a TL;DR below each title to summarize each offense. However, take note of these changes:

Quote:If you have any particular issues with a specific staff member's behavior, either in general or by a particular disciplinary action taken, please report the issue to the other staff via PM or the report function. Please avoid posting within threads about such matters, as it derails threads and invites outside member involvement, which quickly makes the situation messy and difficult to deal with. General concerns with policy, etc may still be addressed in the Feedback forum. 

Quote:[A2] Members may not post on-behalf of a banned member. Unless there has been an explicit request from, or permission granted by, the staff, posting a message from a banned user in the public forum is strongly discouraged. If a banned member wishes to discuss their ban with the staff, they may do so via the forum email.

[FORUM WARNINGS]

These are the specifics behind the rule violations, as well as when bans kick in.

Every user starts at 0 points (0% Warning Level). Here are the points one may receive for a specific offense, as well their expiry duration.



Warning Levels are set accordingly:
30 Points (50%) - 1 Day Ban
40 Points (66%) - 1 Week Ban
50 Points (83%) - 1 Month Ban
60 Points (100%) - Permanent Ban

 

On Rules Updates
The rules may be altered in terms of content or be redefined at any time to keep the forum and a safer and better place for our members. Whenever a change is made, an announcement will be posted for every member to see. If this happens, please take your time to read the revised or additional content.

Last Revised
19th of February, 2017

[FORUM RULES]

Our Code of Conduct and rules are listed here. We give out forum warnings in accordance to these rules. The following applies to the entire forum. Keep in mind that some of the forums may contain additional rules that you are required to follow. They are always sticky threads found in their respective sections. Please read them before you post in such forums.

NACR-000 General Warning
A warning that doesn't warrant a category.

1. This is a general warning which may be used for cases of any rule infringement deemed deserving of a formal warning, but not warranting the full point assignment of a categorized Warning. The Staff Member giving this warning is obliged to specify which rule has been broken when this warning is given out.
   

1. Flaming is defined as bashing, hostile and insulting interaction. Do not flame other users.
   
2. Trolling is defined as posting with the intent to derail a discussion off-topic, disrupt the conversation or to provoke the members into an emotional response. Trolling other users is not allowed.
   
3. Do not cause chaos by baiting the staff with your behavior. (i.e. get the staff's attention and rile them up) Doing so may lead to getting banned.
   
4. Please do not publicly comment when disciplinary action is taken, particularly if it is to take pleasure in the action being taken. For example: comments along the lines of 'good riddance' upon the banning of a member are strictly discouraged, fostering a judgmental atmosphere, and often leading to derailment and disruption of threads. Equally, do not take it upon yourself to defend the actions of staff. The staff can speak for themselves, and will do so.
   
5. Do not harass other members on the forum, Private Messages and reputation comments. If they say no, then back off and leave them alone. If you keep it up even after their declination, first time offenses will warrant a warning, while persistent harassment will result in a ban. Severe harassment may lead to harsher consequences.
   
6. All discussion should be kept civil and polite. Debates may get heated at times, but you may not attack the person making the argument. Attack their argument only. Do not slip in insults or snark directed at other members. Not mentioning an user's name does not make a personal attack okay.
   

1. Blatant advertising and spamming links to other sites or products is not allowed. Posts breaking this rule will be deleted, while spambots will have their accounts removed without question.
   
2. Posting links to official websites and Wikis for educational or informational purposes are okay, so is advertising fan projects.
   
3. Fan projects include group projects, artwork and fanfiction, and any project involving one or more people centered around the franchise not done for commercial purposes. However, please keep personal links in your forum signature or the website link in your profile.
   

1. Links to unapproved torrents or direct downloads are forbidden.
   
2. Download links should be shared only within the download forum, where they are limited only to works relating to Yu-Gi-Oh, Cardfight!! Vanguard, or the works of their authors. Only download links may be shared, no files may be uploaded onto the forum itself.
   
3. When posting content which was not created by you, please credit the original creator and the original source of the work. This includes pictures from Deviantart or Pixiv. 
   
4. Do not pass off others' artwork as your own, if we discover you are passing someone else's work off as your own, severe action will be taken.
   
5. If you wish to make edits to a piece of art, etc, for use in your signature, or elsewhere on the forum, please ask the original creator's permission first. If you are refused, it is advised you do not use that piece on the forum.
   

1. Encouraging and rallying people to commit crimes, promoting piracy, inciting and suggesting violence and/or murder is strictly prohibited.
   

1. Do not use this forum as a springboard for launching a war, a raid or a crusade on another community(ies). Doing so will result in a ban for the member(s) involved.
   
2. In addition, do not import drama from other communities to ours. Doing so will also result in a ban for the member(s) involved. What starts in a community stays in a community.
   

1. We don't mind swearing or the occasional curse word, but that does not excuse excessive profanity in your post.
   
2. Furthermore, racism, bigotry and homophobia are forbidden and committing them will result in a warning and the offending post getting deleted.
   

1. Do not post in the public or in Private Messages:
   

• Pornographic material or images.
  
• Hate Speech
  
• Gross out material or images. (Shock sites, etc.)
  
• Links to sites dealing with information on how to perform or create: Viruses, Cracking or Malware.
  

1. References to some matters of a sexual nature are permitted, provided they are used in a context befitting a casual conversation. However, if a discussion becomes too overtly sexual, or appears predatory towards people, real or fictional, the posts will be deemed inappropriate, and will not be tolerated. This includes:
   

• Pointing out and paying express attention to a person/character's physical features in a sexual context. This is specifically aimed towards mention of a person/character's breasts, legs, and crotch.
  
• Alluding to sexual acts or sexual violence towards a person/character.
  
• Posting pictures of a person/character in a sexual context, or to aim the topic towards sexual discussion. See also, NACR-007.
  

1. If you quote a long message, do not reply to it with a one sentence reply. Doing this needlessly stretches the page. Quote only the relevant parts you are replying to, or just quote the first part of the post to indicate which post you are replying to. 
   
2. Don't post pointless messages. If you cannot contribute something to the discussion, or have a strong opinion to express, it is better not to post. Comments such as 'That's awesome!' or 'I disliked this episode' as stand alone posts are considered spam.
   
3. Try to use a decent standard of punctuation and grammar. We understand that English may not be the first language of all our members, but if we cannot understand your post, it will likely be considered spam. Try to do your best to make yourself understood.
   
4. Refrain from double posting (classified as posting your first reply, then posting another question in a second reply just a few minutes later, directly after your previous post). If there is something you want to add in your post, use the Edit button to add anything you may have wanted to in the last minute but forgot to. 
   
5. Double posting may be permitted if you are posting new information on a topic or keeping people updated regarding a project and nobody else posted in at least a few hours. Furthermore, the staff will remove double posts without question, as soon as they come across them. The content of the second post will usually be edited into the initial post, and the second post deleted.
   
6. If you happen to make duplicates of a post or a thread (due to connection lag, forum glitching, etc.), the duplicate with the least replies/views will be deleted by the staff. Note that this will not affect the post you have made, only to cut down on the duplicate post or thread. 
   

1. Thread derails are allowed to an extent as long as the conversation stays civil and the conversation returns to the main topic after a while. Off-topic discussion which is relevant to the main topic's discussion is allowed, provided the conversation will return to the main topic.
   
2. If the discussion warrants it, the off-topic discussion may be split into a new thread.
   
3. Severe off-topic discussion which does not return to the main topic (read: after a few pages, that's 40-80 posts by default) will result in the thread to be locked. In short, you are allowed to have fun as long as no one is a jerk to each other, and as long as the thread isn't wrecked and the discussion returns to normal eventually.
   

[GUIDELINES]

Guidelines on signature and avatar sizes and formatting, as well as posting go here.

Signature Guidelines
To keep the forum fast and easy to browse for everyone, we feel it's necessary to impose these limits. You can also reduce page loading times by disabling signatures by going to the User CP -> [Your Profile] Edit Options -> Thread View Options.

The maximum characters allowed in a signature is 600. This limit does not include MyCode (BBCode).

The maximum limit for pictures in a signature is 5, this includes smileys. Generally, try to keep it to 1 larger image and a few smaller ones if you must.

Signatures have no picture size limit, but please try to keep your image sizes reasonable, e.g., 500 width x 300 height. Don't put in something that would stretch the page even on larger resolutions.

Animated gifs are allowed in your signature, but please mind that animated gifs can have huge file sizes, which may cause loading issues for others. If possible, optimize your gif beforehand (reduce width/height, reduce colors used, reduce frames used, etc.) to cut down its size.

It is discouraged to copy someone's signature. (Such as using the exact same picture and text.)

Forum rules and policies apply to signatures as well.

If the staff feels your signature does not fit the guidelines, we'll first contact you in private about adjusting your signature. If the problem persists, we may give you an actual forum warning, and if deemed necessary, remove your signature altogether (as in removing your signature code, not your signature privilege).

Avatar Guidelines
Current avatar limits are 150 width x 150 height, up to 100 KiB file size. If you upload a larger avatar, the forum software will automatically resize it.

You may use your Gravatar, as long as its rating is G.

Animated avatars are allowed as long as they fit the file size limit.

It is discouraged to copy someone's avatar. (Such as using the exact same picture.)

Forum rules and policies apply to avatars as well.

If the staff feels your avatar does not fit the guidelines, we'll first contact you in private about adjusting your avatar. If the problem persists, we may give you an actual forum warning, and if deemed necessary, remove your avatar altogether (as in deleting your picture, not your avatar privilege).

Posting Guidelines
See also NACR-009.

The character limit for posts is 65535 characters.

In a similar vein to the above, do not include too many images, especially animated gifs in your post to preserve page loading times and save bandwidth for those on bandwidth caps. If you are trying to post screenshots, scans and/or huge images, post their image URL instead, or post it as a thumbnail. Image hosting services such as Imgur should have such features.

In the event that you post many or large images, the staff may ask you to replace them with a link to the image. If you fail to do this, they are at liberty to delete the offending images from your post.

Try to avoid one word posts or posts lacking substance. Try to write something more, expand on your opinions, rather than just going "Thanks" or "I agree with this".

When quoting someone, try to quote only the relevant parts you plan to respond to, rather than quoting the entire post. This will not only avoid you hitting the character limit, but also makes your post more easily readable. The worst combination you can do is a few word reply to a whole post quote - please, don't do this.

If the staff feels your post does not fit the guidelines, we'll first contact you in private about adjusting your post. If the problem persists, we may give you an actual forum warning.

On Guideline Updates
The rules and the guidelines may be altered in terms of content or be redefined at any time to keep the forum and a safer and better place for our members. Whenever a change is made, an announcement will be posted for every member to see. If this happens, please take your time to read the revised or additional content.

Last Revised
17th of June, 2015

[POLICIES]

Policies regarding forum operation go here.

Private Message Policy
No staff members are capable of accessing your Private Messages, including the Administrators. The forum software by default does not allow for reading Private Messages from the Administration Control Panel. The forum has no plugins installed designed to access the users' Private Messages from the Administration Control Panel or by any other means. Private Messages can only be read from the forum database itself, to which only Shadowfang has access, which he will not read unless necessary. If serious allegations are levied against you, we insist on the ability to check out the offending messages to make a fair judgment. These include any offense listed in the rules that would be punished by a permanent ban, anything that is a violation of actual law (e.g., child pornography), or mass-spamming in Private Messages. Furthermore, Private Messages may be reported by the recipients, in which case the entire staff can view the offending message(s) in the Moderator Control Panel.

Policy On Lolicon, Shotacon, and Child Pornography
Due to our covered anime series featuring underage characters, and the definition of "Child Pornography" varying country by country, any form of Lolicon and Shotacon is absolutely forbidden. This is due to the availability of our forum, the diverse nationality of the memberbase and many diverse and highly severe international laws related to the subject. In some countries even images stored in the Temporary Internet Files folder counts as possession in their books, and that could get people in legal trouble. Furthermore, there may be members on the board or visitors viewing the forum who may find the topic disturbing and make them feel uncomfortable. Therefore, we will keep the public image of the forum into consideration.

Do not post images or written material on the public forum or in Private Messages depicting obviously underage characters in a suggestive or sexual context. Do not try to justify or enable this behavior, we don't allow it, end of story. Do not try or allude to exchanging such content in Private Messages, as we are willing to check your Private Messages as part of the Private Message policy. First time offenders will receive a warning and have the their offending post(s) deleted. Repeated offenses will result in a ban.

On Policy Updates
The rules and the policies may be altered in terms of content or be redefined at any time to keep the forum and a safer and better place for our members. Whenever a change is made, an announcement will be posted for every member to see. If this happens, please take your time to read the revised or additional content.

Last Revised
17th of June, 2015

Good morning,

TLDR: We had a little hiccup at 2:30 CET (3:30AM where I live) and allthough I get alerts to my phone for those kind of things, I didn't wake up to them until 4:30 CET (5:30AM here). Should be fixed now.

Our server ran low on memory. As we are currently running on the cheapest server our hosting provider has to offer, that means 512MB (Yes, I am aware that your phone probably has more than that, but AT&T doesn't allow us to host the forum from your phone. Thanks for offering, though)

It seems that, while our pretty name neorkcradle.net was still in interwebz limbo, a lot of search engines and most likely some less tech-savvy users were not accessing the site that much, so usage was pretty low. Now that it is available, usage has doubled.

The main part of our site using memory is our database; it stores stuff in memory before commiting it to disk for efficiency, in this case being efficient to the point of crashing. I have politely asked it to show some restraint in the future.

It's solved now and we'll be monitoring memory usage of the site to see how we can prevent this.

The good news is that this little downtime provided me with the time needed to do System maintenance for June, so that's done, too.

And now, time for a cup of coffee in the yard. The sun is up (or well, it never went down)

Love,

Shadow

Edit: EET = CET+1

Hi everyone!

I've been getting reports that the site cannot be accessed or that it has been down a lot lately.

The site has been up all along, however, our former URL, http://neoarkcradle.net or http://neoarkcradle.net/forum/ won't work until the DNS transfer finishes.

You could formerly access the current forum from the above URL because the site had a redirect to this location, but now that the DNS transfer is underway, the domain no longer points to said redirect, meaning the site would appear as if it was down.

Short Version: The DNS Transfer will finish in a few days, please access the forum from http://188.166.126.212/forum in the meantime.

Technical explanation on the situation below, if you're interested.

What is a DNS transfer, and why did we need it?

First of all, DNS stands for Domain Name System: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Domain_Name_System

In our case, neoarkcradle.net is our domain to make our site easier to remember and accessible over our IP address, which is http://188.166.126.212/ .

Shadowfang explains:

Shadowfang Wrote:The DNS is a lookup table where your TCP/IP stack goes to ask "soooo... where is this neoarkcradle.net?" and it will answer 188.blabla
And then your IP protocol will try to ask your router to provide a route to that host with the least amount of hops.

Shadowfang Wrote:First we inform our old registrar to unlock. Then we inform the new registrar we want to transfer.
Then the new registrar asks for a code. Then we ask the code from the old registrar. Then we give the code to the new registrar, which starts the transfer.
Then both registrars send an email to the registered domain admin email address, to ask for confirmation of the transfer.
Then the old registrar removes the A-record from their name servers and we add the A-record to the new registrar's DNS.
The A-record is a piece of text that says "neoarkcradle.net = 188.blabla"
The process of DNS update is one of thousands of servers telling eachother there was a change. And that takes a while for all of them to get the message. Think of it as one of those emergency call lists. Person A calls B and C. Person B calls D and E and Person C call F and G... ad infinitum.
If you're lucky, your ISP uses person A and you see the change within nanosecs. If you are not and your ISP uses person ZZZZZ, it might take 24h.

Hi everyone!

Added a few more plugins today. Here's the information on them below. If anyone has any questions or errors to report, please do so in this thread!

(06-09-2015, 12:51 PM)Arynis Wrote: Second part of plugin update shenanigans.

Tapatalk and the Thank You/Like plugin were updated to their most recent versions.

The following plugins have been added:

Style Usernames
Now usernames are formatted accordingly outside the threads and the Who's Online section.

View Unread Posts
Similar to phpBB, you can now see which posts have been unread since your last visit. You can find it at the top like this. Works for both themes.

• View Today's Posts | View Unread Posts
  

MyProfile
This is the visitor message system similar from vBulletin - it was an oft requested feature and now it's back! Friendlist and latest visitors are displayed on your profile, as well as the ability to message people rather than having to go straight to PMs.

A few things to note:
When replying to someone, the reply will appear on their profile, not after the comment you were replying to!
You cannot track messaging between X and Y ala vBulletin. (I think.)

You can set up your comment settings in your User CP: Your Profile -> Edit Options. Looks like this:

My Profile
Allow comments on my profile.
Who can leave comments on my profile?
 Nobody Buddy list Any registered user 
I should approve comments before they are published on my profile.
Receive a notification when someone leaves a comment on my profile.

*crawls out from under the damp sysadmin rock*

First of all, thank you all for your patience and support during this forum move.
Your staff has spent an enormous amount of time and effort getting things up and running again!

As you might know, the phpBB3 forum was using up a lot of resources, requiring us to pay for a really expensive server.
The myBB forum allows for easier upgrades, more stable plugins and a lot more performance.
Now we are running the system in something the equivalent of an eighties calculator and it's still fast.

Briefly scanning through your questions I have compiled this FAQ-type list.
Feel free to ask if something is not on the list, I will edit this post as more stuff gets fixed (or broken, for that matter)

Forum availability
- We have opened up the search, which was completely unusable in phpBB3 (it basically blocked forum access for everyone while a search was done)
- We have enough resources to open the forum read-only for non-members

General
- Your password might not work. Resetting your password should fix this
- Mail from the forum might end up in the spam folder, as we now use a gmail account
- The forum redirects to 188.166.126.212, as we are having some issues getting our domain name pointing to the right place. Within a few weeks this will be back to neoarkcradle.net
- Avatars are a different size, I tried converting them, but they get all skewed
- If you have some heirloom avatar that has been in the family for centuries and can't be found anymore, let me know and I'll try to dig it up from the backups
- I am really disappointed the downtime was not used to sleep or go outside

Posts
- [spoiler] and [url] BBCodes have been fixed
- [strike] is still not fixed everywhere, but is on my TODO-list
- Postlinks and smileys look like poop. This needs to be fixed in the database and requires an extensive amount of testing to make sure none of your prose gets zapped in the process.

Tapatalk
- Tapatalk is upgraded to work with the new forum
- A pretty picture is still missing (as it was with the old forum)
- If tapatalk does not work, log in again, your old credentials are linked to the old forum

  Shadow