Didn't know where to post this, so feel absolutely free to move it if it's necessary. Excuse me in advance, if I cause any inconvenience to the mods and admins.

This - <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16642369">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16642369</a><!-- m -->

In order to make sure by myself, I tried several randomly chosen MU links from the YGO download area and every time I got this notice - <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://usdoj.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/">http://usdoj.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/</a><!-- m -->

I think we might have a problem.

As the title suggests, and as many of you already heard, the US government has officially shut down Megaupload today. This is a direct effect of the SOPA act congress is attempting to pass, and I highly recommend you all look up ways you can put a stop to this atrocious act that violates free speech and creativity.

Regardless, 85% of the links in the Download Forum used Megaupload, so most of our links here and on GX_ST are gone. Just like that. Years of work, eliminated with one little click from the US government. And there is nothing I can do about it, because I fear many other sites will meet the same fate.

This could also affect us being able to see the new ZeXal episodes if torrents are affected as well, so be prepared for many negative consequences if things continue as they are. But be alert that the links are not working right now and I have no idea what I can do about it.

What is the Download Forum?
A section of the Forum for materials uploaded onto a Cyber Locker or similar service. The materials linked here must be Yu-Gi-Oh!, Cardfight!! Vanguard or Future Card Buddyfight related. This could change in the future if a new chief focus for the forum is found (as in another franchise/series), so no Bleach/et al, shenanigans. While materials are accessible here, please do support the creators by buying and legally watching the actual products if you have the time and opportunity!

How do I access the Download Forum?
You must register to the forum as a User.

Rules for the Download Forum
1. This section is only for Yu-Gi-Oh!, Cardfight!! Vanguard and Future Card Buddyfight. Anything else is strictly prohibited.
2. All direct downloads must go here. It's alright to do it once or twice outside here, but after that, warnings and punishments will be applied.
3. Please do not share these links through Private Messages.
4. Please do not post any links outside the Download Forum. It makes things disorganized and makes the section useless.
5. Making requests is fine, but please be patient, and avoid flaming, trolling, or harassing if it isn't fulfilled quickly. Uploaders are humans, not mongrel upload slave gorillas.

How to not get access to this forum
Be a ban evader. Be a Bot selling bad shoes and cheap pr0n.

Failure to follow these two requests is the fastest way to provoke the wrath of Kuriban, the forum's banhammer.

It has been decided by the staff that the current slogan isn't fitting for the forum or our tone at all, not to mention it's horribly inaccurate. It promotes too much hate on Yoshida, who may not be the most stellar amazing writer of eternity, but there's too much misblaming going on, especially in a franchise where it's not possible to pin the blame on one person. It was funny at first, but... just not anymore. (And let's face it, "Yoshida did it" is a lazy argument.)

However, this is not a thread to discuss that issue, this is just our reason for removing the current slogan. So we will be deciding on a new slogan - together.

We came up with three ideas among the staff, and we'd like you guys to pick which slogan you like the best. However, you can also suggest your own if you don't like either. Of course, the new slogan should not promote Yoshida hate (or hating on anyone specifically) due to the above reasons, and it shouldn't be vulgar or tasteless or anything like that.

The voting is open for one month. Go!

Questions or worries go into the thread as usual. However, again, this thread should NOT be used to debate if it is really Yoshida's fault or not. That's for another thread, another time.

UPDATE 2: Alright, so the suggestion phase is over! It's time to vote, guys.

Admittedly I stretched the options a bit compared to the original 10 slogans, but this way I squeezed in every slogan that people liked. You get to pick 3 slogans from the poll to make it easier to vote, but only the best slogan will make it into the header bar and the site's banner!

The poll runs for 3 weeks. Winner becomes our new slogan. If there's a tie, there will be a 1 week deathmatch for the winning one.

For reference, here's every (well, most of it) slogan you guys suggested in the thread. It's a lot of slogans and many of them are awesome. Thanks for participating!

The Future is in Our Hands
The story is being rewritten (AGAIN!)
Where Card Game Legends are Born!
The Fortress of Second Chances and New Beginnings
Rewriting the past for a better Future
Getting Right what Once Went Wrong
It's Neo Arkadia's baby
Negative Against Change
New Ahead Constantly
CARD GAMES ON INTERNETZ!
Dreams of a Brighter Card Game Future
A place to dream of a brighter card game future
Every Moment Counts
Till the Last Card
The only website with the ATLAS PUNCH dent of approval
Card Games never tasted so good
FINAL TURN FOR CARD GAMES!!
Where everyday is Epic Duel Time
Fun in every hand, 3XFriendship in every deck and 2XShapesnatcher in every side-deck
Jack Atlas approves. So should you.
Until the Last Card is Drawn
To a Future That Lights the Way
It's Never Too Late For Now
We know card games... and that's about it.
Where the Barney Dynasty prospers
Keeping Up the Momentum
Shooting for the Stars
Clustering Everyone's Wishes
Betting on the Future
Keeping Up the Momentum
Gearing Towards Tomorrow
Where Bonds Prevail
Card Games Beyond the Limits
Shooting for the Stars
Clustering Everyone's Wishes
Where Card Games live on
Rewriting the future of Yu-Gi-Oh! for the better
Rewriting the future of Card Games for the better

Hey guys!

So a few months have passed since the Neo Ark Cradle's birth, and we figured it would be time to gauge the memberbase's opinion on the direction of things so far! It would help us learn where is the site doing well and where it is lacking, and thus make things better for both the memberbase and the staff.

Here's what you need to do and what happens afterwards. Fill the following survey and PM it to me (Arynis). We will analyse the results in the staff forum and get back to the memberbase with our conclusions and tell you what will be done and what we thought about this or that. We may ask some more questions in the second round, based on and depending on what we got in the first round. For example, we may ask you in what areas you want the site to be improved, and we will ask you about some specific features in the second round. That way, things can be kept realistic and not too open-ended, while knowing in what areas you can expect changes in the future.

I'd prefer people to be honest; we do not forbid criticism, but we require polite and civil answers. We will not punish anyone for their opinion, unless it goes against the spirit of feedback or is actively harassing the staff or anyone else.

Lastly, we are planning to do this survey every year, at the end of each year.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to ask in the thread or PM me about it.

The survey will be open until January 28. After that, we won't be accepting any more feedback and will analyse the results.

And with that, on to the survey!

Note: A main site (and possibly a wiki) is being planned. If you want to make any suggestions or input regarding that, please answer the respective questions.

Quote:1. Do you want more forum sections? If yes, what kind?
2. Do you want any regular features? (e.g., podcasts) If yes, what kind?

3. What feature seems the most attractive to you for the main site?
a. articles, theories and analyses
b. news
c. information
d. other (please elaborate)

4. Would you like if the site had a wiki? What would be the most attractive about it?
a. articles, theories and analyses
b. information
c. interactivity (i.e., being able to edit and add information)
d. other (please elaborate)

5. Which section of the forum do you visit the most?
6. Which section of the forum do you visit the least?
7. Do you use IRC?
8. Do you play on the Duel Network?

9. Do you find the forum easy to use? If not, what difficulties are you experiencing?
10. Are you satisfied with the loading times? Do you get errors frequently? If so, what error(s)?
11. Are you satisfied with the forum design? If not, what do you think should be implemented or improved?

12. What is your opinion of the forum staff? Are you satisfied with their work?
13. Do you feel the staff respond to your issues quickly?
14. Have you had any issues with any staff member(s)? If so, what they were?

15. What do you like the most about the site and the community?
16. What do you dislike the most about the site and the community?

17. Anything else you'd like to add?

New Year's Eve is coming up, and what better way to celebrate it than to party in the IRC channel and start the New Year with a bang?

Therefore, I hereby invite everyone in the Neo Ark Cradle IRC channel to spend the New Year's Eve together! Our first one together, even.

Server: DarkMyst
Channel: #neoarkcradle

If you are new to IRC or don't know how to connect, check out Kitten's excellent guide: <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://neoarkcradle.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=593">viewtopic.php?f=1&t=593</a><!-- l -->

What can you expect:

The event lasts from roughly of the evening of the 31st until everyone passes out from exhaustion the next day. There's no fixed date; just enjoy yourselves.

Program yet to be decided apart from general chatting; check back for updates. If you have ideas or services to provide (e.g., streaming), please let us know in this thread!

Who's invited?

Like I said above, we welcome everyone! While we highly encourage our current members to join in, we don't mind guests or non-members to tag along, as long as you aren't around to cause trouble.

What are the rules?

The gist of the forum rules, basically. While we are more laid back and lenient about the rules in the IRC chat, the basics still apply. No attacking other people, no trolling, no causing trouble. Troublemakers will be booted out.

The channel will be moderated by myself, NeoArkadia and Geno. If you have any questions during the duration of the event, just send us a query on IRC. (Here's how to send a query.)

Anything else?

We can to keep the party fairly simple yet fun. Hope to see you guys around!

After getting some feedback and having discussed a few things over at the Staff Forum, we have made a few clarifications to the current rules. Please take your time to familiarize yourself with the updates. To make things easier, I'm including the relevant parts that have been rewritten and updated, comparing the old rules with the new, rewritten versions, as well as an explanation for said changes.

The updates are highlighted below. If anyone has any feedback or questions to ask, please don't hesitate to do so in this thread or Private Message me or anyone else from the staff. We're here to make things run smoothly and all.

Policies and Guidelines: <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://neoarkcradle.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=869">viewtopic.php?f=75&t=869</a><!-- l -->

Old Wrote:Posting Guidelines
Therefore, do not include more than 2 animated gifs in your post and do not link images directly that exceed either height or width in 1000 pixels and/or are bigger than 1 MiB.

New Wrote:Posting Guidelines
You cannot have more than 4 animated gifs in your post under any conditions. If you want to include more than 4 animated images, you must link to any further gif images rather than post them with IMG tags. Furthermore, if any individual image you post is bigger than 1 MiB AND/OR the image's width OR height exceeds 1000 pixels, you must link to said image rather than post them with the IMG tags.

Old Wrote:Advertisements
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. Posting links to official websites and Wikis for educational or informational purposes are okay, so is advertising fan projects. However, please keep personal links in your forum signature or the website link in your profile.

New Wrote:Advertisements
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. Posting links to official websites and Wikis for educational or informational purposes are okay, so is advertising fan projects. 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.

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

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

After a relatively long wait, the forum finally has official rules! Check them out here in this subforum: <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://neoarkcradle.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=75">viewforum.php?f=75</a><!-- l -->

Please read everything carefully! The staff shall be enforcing these rules, and we would like you to cooperate by following it and not violating any of them (most preferably), so we can keep running everything smoothly!

This is the most essential information for the time being, but we will be adding more threads to close the gap between the memberbase and the staff, as well as make things more easier for both sides. We'll be keeping you guys updated!

So get to readin', and happy posting!

The Neo Ark Cradle Staff

We can't leave the forum looking 'defaulty' can we? 8D
Anyways, the time has come to vote for your favorite forum banner. The winner will be put up on top for the world to see, and all that good stuff. The poll with be opened for 8 days, but if there's no clear winner decided by then, I'll keep it opened for a bit longer.

If anyone has any questions, or if I made a mistake on the thread, let me know. ^^

The entries are as follows:

avsikt:


CyberWeapon:


Detective:


DTheAntihero:


2nd Entry:


FelGrand:


Gabranth:


Geno:


Heather:


Jake:


Kyte:


2nd Entry:


Lung:


ReficulFuri:


thetechkid:


2nd Entry:


Yami no Yami:


2nd Entry:

Ussu!

Tonight at 20:00 CET I will perform some small updates to the forum. For this the forum needs to be taken offline for a few minutes.
The forum should be up and running again at 20:10 CET. My apologies for the inconvenience and late notice <!-- s:oops: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_redface.gif" alt=":oops:" title="Embarassed" /><!-- s:oops: -->

What will happen:

- Upgrade from phpBB3.0.8 to 3.0.9
You can find the release notes here
- Add reputation system
We will try out the Irkoo reputation system
- Add syles:
Black Pearl
Rainbow Pearl

Love,

Shadow