Post by Declan Tribal on Jul 25, 2023 12:36:08 GMT
"When are you going to work on RoER again?" "Are you ever going to finish fixing up/updating the site?"
I've had these questions floating around in my head dozens of times for the past five years and I feel like I owe it to everyone here to give a proper explanation.
Several factors have played into stepping away from the shrine in the first place:
- Issues with the recent version. Since updating to version 9, the shrine has been subject to several hacks and cyber attacks, which I have now attributed to a test version of the shrine that's still up and running. Or more accurately, google searches for Freya Crescent or the FCS were pointing towards the test version of the shrine which was allowing anyone to access any admin content and upload/change anything whoever found it. I've started taking steps into fixing this, but having to deal with this type of issue has made me question my ability to develp websites, which resulted in me retiring from the profession.
- While the above was happening, I decided to get back into doing artwork again, which took off way quicker than I had expected to. Since then I've been focusing more on being an artist and began developing a small business out of it. So far things have been going great, and I've had periods where I've been getting slammed with work ever since. But I have been meaning to take a break from commission work just to focus on webdev again. One of those plans is to create a more centralised website for my business (more on that further down) but also to fix and address some of the problems that have been plaguing the FCS since the last update.
- Relations with the community here. I'll admit I've not been pleasant to be around, and I have said and done some things on both this forum and the old EZboards that I'm not super proud of. Being away from here has given me time to reflect and I've started working on myself both physically and mentally. I know saying all this means nothing without any formulative action involved, but Hopefully I'll be able to bring a bit more positive energy to this place and make a more active attempt at getting along with some of the users here. That's a promise <3
So between all the above, plus my tight schedule, moving houses (twice!), maintaining RL relationships, etc. plus burnout from webdev has made it difficult to continue working on the site. I have tried making an attempt to fix version 9 since the last posted update, but never really could figure out what the fix was or had the drive to do so... not until fairly recently, which I'll explain now.
So as some of you are aware, Elon Musk has taken over Twitter and has turned it into his own playground of horrors for himself and for the far-right. Since then my activity has dwindled and mostly used it as an announcements platform for art and Twitch streams, but a recent slew of updates has made me reconsider the site's usage and have started making plans to migrate to other social media platforms instead. I may still use Twitter (if it's still even called that) for occasional announcements, but I'm keeping my options open in case any alternative takes off. It's exhausting and I wish I didn't have to do this, but I'd rather have backups in place incase the poo does really hit the fan, which, at the rate things are going, might be coming sooner than later.
So even with the idea of expaning to other sites in mind, it got me thinking, "Y'know, I could make a new website for myself if I could put my mind to it." So, that's definitely on the cards now, given everything that's happened. Currently there's no ETA or timeframe, but I'll need to relearn everything I know about web development (seriously, it's been that long - I've had to pick up some up-to-date textbooks on the subject matter) and start with fixing up the shrine here before making a new version (without the fancy socials or the glaring backdoor problem) and then get to work on my personal website.
So there you have it. That's why I've been away for so long, why it's taken so long to update the FCS, and why I finally got a fire under my butt to start making things happen.
I've had these questions floating around in my head dozens of times for the past five years and I feel like I owe it to everyone here to give a proper explanation.
Several factors have played into stepping away from the shrine in the first place:
- Issues with the recent version. Since updating to version 9, the shrine has been subject to several hacks and cyber attacks, which I have now attributed to a test version of the shrine that's still up and running. Or more accurately, google searches for Freya Crescent or the FCS were pointing towards the test version of the shrine which was allowing anyone to access any admin content and upload/change anything whoever found it. I've started taking steps into fixing this, but having to deal with this type of issue has made me question my ability to develp websites, which resulted in me retiring from the profession.
- While the above was happening, I decided to get back into doing artwork again, which took off way quicker than I had expected to. Since then I've been focusing more on being an artist and began developing a small business out of it. So far things have been going great, and I've had periods where I've been getting slammed with work ever since. But I have been meaning to take a break from commission work just to focus on webdev again. One of those plans is to create a more centralised website for my business (more on that further down) but also to fix and address some of the problems that have been plaguing the FCS since the last update.
- Relations with the community here. I'll admit I've not been pleasant to be around, and I have said and done some things on both this forum and the old EZboards that I'm not super proud of. Being away from here has given me time to reflect and I've started working on myself both physically and mentally. I know saying all this means nothing without any formulative action involved, but Hopefully I'll be able to bring a bit more positive energy to this place and make a more active attempt at getting along with some of the users here. That's a promise <3
So between all the above, plus my tight schedule, moving houses (twice!), maintaining RL relationships, etc. plus burnout from webdev has made it difficult to continue working on the site. I have tried making an attempt to fix version 9 since the last posted update, but never really could figure out what the fix was or had the drive to do so... not until fairly recently, which I'll explain now.
So as some of you are aware, Elon Musk has taken over Twitter and has turned it into his own playground of horrors for himself and for the far-right. Since then my activity has dwindled and mostly used it as an announcements platform for art and Twitch streams, but a recent slew of updates has made me reconsider the site's usage and have started making plans to migrate to other social media platforms instead. I may still use Twitter (if it's still even called that) for occasional announcements, but I'm keeping my options open in case any alternative takes off. It's exhausting and I wish I didn't have to do this, but I'd rather have backups in place incase the poo does really hit the fan, which, at the rate things are going, might be coming sooner than later.
So even with the idea of expaning to other sites in mind, it got me thinking, "Y'know, I could make a new website for myself if I could put my mind to it." So, that's definitely on the cards now, given everything that's happened. Currently there's no ETA or timeframe, but I'll need to relearn everything I know about web development (seriously, it's been that long - I've had to pick up some up-to-date textbooks on the subject matter) and start with fixing up the shrine here before making a new version (without the fancy socials or the glaring backdoor problem) and then get to work on my personal website.
So there you have it. That's why I've been away for so long, why it's taken so long to update the FCS, and why I finally got a fire under my butt to start making things happen.