Update - Communications from Multiverse RE: Their Status

Great news!

I managed to get through to the people at Multiverse, and they're going to grant me rights to takeover the Old Forum and start purging the spammers!
This is going to be fun.....

Also, they've asked if I would like to turn this forum (as in the new one) into the official forum - what do people think? Use the new one (which does look a bit cleaner in terms of design, if I'm honest!), or go back to the old forums, where spammers will just keep coming back?

Tell me what you think!

I have a feeling that some of the older people will occasionally stop in to the older one rather than check a new one out all the time.
also there is a lot of archived information on the old one....

Very true.
However, I am willing to spend some time moving useful information to the Wiki (which I will shortly be given full administration rights to as well)

Also, Bill (the guy I spoke to) had the idea of actually changing the forum link from the main website to lead to this one instead, which is interesting. So yes, the old developers could check the old one, but any new developers could potentially be sent straight to this one..

I'm not too sure to be honest, but the thing with the archives, I'm going to start moving stuff across to the Wiki anyway. Might start that now actually lol - care to join me?

I spoke to the MV people (Bill?) yesterday about the forum, the Wiki, and the status of Multiverse in general. Below are the communications:

Quote :

Initial Email from myself:
Dear Multiverse,

I recently stumbled across Multiverse, and couldn’t believe my luck – a free MMO platform with lots of flexibility and an easy programming language.
However, I went on to the forums – it’s an absolute disgrace. The complete lack of moderation is appalling, and there are so many adverts for GHD hair straighteners and dildos, that I’m beginning to believe that I need to have a gender-reassignment operation just to get myself heard!
However, I have noticed that there are a few people still using the forums, who are still doing some development with the platform. To this extent, I have decided to set up another forum for the benefit of those who are serious about developing with Multiverse. The forum is located at multiverse.forumotion.co.uk, and although there are only a few members, I hope that it will soon replace the main Multiverse Forum, only so that genuine developers can get real help.

In my opinion, the Multiverse platform has so much potential, but a total lack of maintenance has caused it to be avoided by genuine developers, in favour of expensive platforms like RealmCrafter.
I am personally in the process of trying to stir up interest, and I am also doing some heavy maintenance on the Wiki, with the aim of improving the documentation and creating an area where genuine developers-to-be can actually find what they need. I have added various 3D modelling, and I have just finished pruning the Worlds in Progress section.
However, unless your staff are going to be put back on to the maintenance of both the forums and the Wiki, I would like to formally request full privileges/rights for the full editing of the Wiki, and perhaps even a Moderator account on the Multiverse Forum. I would be more than happy to spend a few days going through your forums and purging them.

This is all assuming that the Multiverse Platform is still being worked on, of course. But then again, even if’s not being worked on, just letting us serious developers maintain the various sections ourselves would allow for better development in general.


Yours Sincerely,

Tristan Bacon
Concerned yet dedicated Multiverse Developer

PS – I’ve been playing your WarBase game on Facebook – love it! Though sometimes it doesn’t load up...
Also, I hope you realise that I was joking about the reassignment: I’m merely trying to make a point.

I was then rather surprised to receive a response the next day:

Quote :

Hi Tristan, Nice to meet you via email. I really appreciate your enthusiasm for Multiverse.

We are happy to transition the forum over to you. We obviously have not had the time or energy to stay ahead of the spammers. Once you have your forum setup, we can change our website to link to yours if you like.

Please let me know your account info on the forums so I can grant you extra priveleges.

What is you wiki account?

Thanks,
Bill

I then sent this as a reply:

Quote :

Dear Bill,

Thank you so much for your quick reply!

I honestly was not expecting a reply - only because there has been a lack of updates and general presence from the Multiverse staff....
Which begs the obvious question - is Multiverse still being worked on? And if not, is there any chance that it could be made open-source?

I'm sorry if I sounded rude in my initial email, it's just that I was frustrated at the wasted potential of the platform. But it's good to know that someone is on the other end of the line!

With regards to the new forum, the address is multiverse.forumotion.co.uk. As I said, there are only a few members, but I hope that it will turn into a burgeoning community of serious developers.
But then there's the issue of losing all the old threads with potentially useful information...
I think the solution for that is to spend a few days adding the useful stuff to the Wiki.

For the moment, could you please leave the forum link as it is, so that I can go over it and merge the content across the forums. I'll then decide which one is better to use (admittedly, the new one seems to be better, as it has a much fresher UI and more flexible posting capabilties, to the extent that I might buy a domain name for it)

My forum username is TristanB - the privileges are very much appreciated. (This is a new account, as I wanted to change my username - my original was
tristanojbacon, but I would like the TristanB account to have the privileges)

My wiki account profile is also TristanB. I have a few ideas for redoing the Wiki, so it would be fantastic if I could get close to maximum privileges! If not, I understand!


So, my main question - is Multiverse still being worked on? Because your last news update on the website was in January 2010, and even that wasn't platform related. The last software update was in 2008 (I think). The bigger question here is whether the Multiverse company still exists? I've assumed it is, because I'm playing your WarBase game on Facebook! (Still don't see the relation between MMOs and Facebook games, but oh well..)

Thank you again for getting back to me,

Tristan

So, some interesting news, I have to admit!

What are people's opinion on this?

If you can have them give me elevated privileges (delurin)
Edit sorry forgot the 'm' on them but it looks like you did it anyways

I don't quite understand your question delurin...

However, I have given you and a number of other people elevated privileges - I.e. Multiverse Moderator. You should now have full privileges.

Tristan

For those who have not yet seen it.

Quote :

Hi Tristan, I just made you a site administrator of the forums and a sysop of the wiki. Please be very careful with your new privileges. I
had to do some SQL to make you a wiki sysop. Please let me know if it didn't work correctly.

To answer your questions... We have been making changes to the platform - but only as necessary to support our own games. So, we haven't released anything new since 2008 (or so). We have considered making the released version open source so people like you and Islands of War can take care of your own needs. If we do that, could you help us organize a community of interested developers? If so, what are your interests and capabilities?

I'm leaving on a 5-day backpacking trip tomorrow. We can discuss this more when I return if you're interested.

Thanks for your support,
Bill

I am interested in helping run an open source version

Good to hear!

I'm sure we could get something organised in the event that Bill wants to make it open-source.
We shall have a team meeting once we know!