State of Myth-Weavers, Community Supporter Accounts - OG Myth-Weavers

Notices


Site Discussion

Do you have questions, suggestions, feedback, bug reports or other concerns? Post them here!


State of Myth-Weavers, Community Supporter Accounts

 
State of Myth-Weavers, Community Supporter Accounts

It’s been kind of a crazy month...

And I’d like to thank you all for your patience and continued support.

tl;dr We had some problems this past month, but we're out from under them. An early alpha version of the remade sheets system is in open testing! You can contribute to future development of Myth-Weavers by subscribing for a Community Supporter Account!

At the tail end of last month some system crashes accelerated my timetable for making a number of major system changes in the software that underpins the site, as well as moving us onto newer hardware, and each change required the other.

While everything worked fine in testing, and resource usage looked good, when it got into production and under all the use and abuse a full and active site with an enormous database could inflict, some big problems reared their heads, and the site got very unstable.

I spent an inordinate amount of time - about 100hrs in 3 weeks - keeping the server up, analyzing server load and site usage, profiling every operation and pageload, fixing bugs, making optimizations, and making further hardware changes to bring us back into stability.

But, there’s light at the end of the tunnel!

We’ve had a few more hiccups, but nothing structural or chronic. The site runs faster, overall. Page load times are lower across the board, and we have far fewer outliers. Server resource usage hovers at around 15% of capacity. Our monitoring and logging are better - The site will automatically try to right itself if there’s a problem, and I get automated notifications of that and if the site is down.

And there’s cake!

Okay… that’s a lie. But maybe what I do have is better?

At the beginning of June I launched the Sheets Alpha, and, despite all the previously mentioned trials and tribulations, I’ve successfully ported or rewritten all 33 of our sheet templates for use with the new system, plus a few new ones! They’re set up for compatibility with the Games system and Sheet Rolls / Dice, and we have a migration tool in place for many of our more popular sheet templates.

While it’s by no means anywhere near ready for prime time, we’re getting some great feedback from the community about what is and isn’t working with the current set of sheet templates, and how we can continue to improve the new ones.

The new system already has improved data reliability, special character handling, consistent support of integration features, and new features like optional pages, rank-style inputs, data validation. Under the new system I’ve been able to lay out sheets significantly faster than before, and get workable (even if ugly) sheets out the door in record time.

And soon, the improvements list will get even longer! More flexible autocalc, more flexible layouts, attachable pages, rich text editing, popovers and modal windows for workspaces, and a rewritten sheet dice/roll engine for even more game-specific features.

And finally…

A way to directly contribute to the future of Myth-Weavers.

It’s been a long time in coming, but this past month in particular has made me realize how much of a full time job managing this site is. Computers suck. No matter how (un)stable things may appear on the outside, everything is always breaking, and it’s always when you’re at work, school, out with friends, or in the middle of a great REM cycle.

I’ve decided to open financial contribution toward the site through a Community Supporter subscription at just $36 a year - the price of a coffee (~$3) each month. My pie-in-the-sky goal is to work for Myth-Weavers full time. While that may not be possible yet, every contribution helps, and every hour I don’t have to otherwise hustle making a living is an extra hour I can spend adding features, widening support for more game systems, fixing bugs, improving performance and stability, and working to grow the Myth-Weavers community.

By becoming a Community Supporter, you are directly funding further development of the site. For your support, you’ll get a few perks - ads will go away (except in the sheets alpha, for now, removing them is going to take a little more rooting around), and you and your players (if you’re a GM) will get early access to the features you are making possible. GMs who are Community Supporters will not have to wait for changes to their game’s name, system, or setting, they’ll happen immediately. Your sheets will only ever be soft deleted, and you’ll get an interface to retrieve them if there’s an accidental deletion. Even more perks are in the brainstorming stage, but coming up with them is proving a little hard... we already provide for free what other PbP sites charge for!

You can make your contribution using either Stripe or Paypal - cards are accepted. Please contact me immediately if there is any sort of problem with a payment.

Become a Community Supporter

As always, Myth-Weavers is dedicated to providing our services and tools free of charge, and to having an egalitarian player base. We will never be a pay-only site. Community Supporters bear no special markings or icons denoting any sort of special status. We don't want to create an environment where some members would get preferential treatment in game ads, for example, and anything clearly visible would do that.

What sort of features do we have planned?

Here’s a quick list of things I’ve started poking at:

Mapper
Remade style with mobile support
Initiative Tracker
Card Deck Support
New/More Generators
Generator integration with games, sheets
Standalone Dice Roller
Dice Roller integration with sheets (roll dice right from the sheet)
New/Improved Table bbcode
Image/File Uploads, Links, and other additions to Games
Better and more useful friends / gaming partner list, more social features
Better solo game support
Better support for Pathfinder Society, Living Greyhawk, and similar gaming societies
and much, much more!

Thank you all again for your patience and support, and I look forward to another bright year of Myth-Weavers!

Because of course it would never stay free.

Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted.

Quote:
Because of course it would never stay free.

Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted.
Beg your pardon?
Quote:
As always, Myth-Weavers is dedicated to providing our services and tools free of charge... We will never be a pay-only site.

Giggity.

Why is the Canadian denomination for contribution 30 dollars more? I know our dollar isnt as strong as the US one, but give us some credit

I will happily support my biggest non-work timesink!

EDIT: And done!

Thank you for the work you put into the site. I've had better experiences on these boards than I can quantify.

The only note I would suggest is perhaps adding additional payment time categories, Quarterly or monthly. $36 isn't all that much at once, but its easier to not miss $12 every four months or $3 per month for a lot of people.

Quote:
Why is the Canadian denomination for contribution 30 dollars more? I know our dollar isnt as strong as the US one, but give us some credit
I derped when doing the conversion. It's fixed!




 

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
Last Database Backup 2024-03-19 04:25:56am local time
Myth-Weavers Status