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Post by zipp on Jan 3, 2020 14:16:51 GMT -5
Hey all! Zipp here (from a long time ago). I forgot that these subboards for Tower of the Sun existed! I'm going to be doing a podcast project on the history of Lone Wolf and I was trying to get some details about Tower of the Sun. It's been so long since the site went down and my memories are fuzzy. Does anyone remember when it started? Who started it? When it collapsed? Why it collapsed? How many members did it have at its highest point? When were its "glory years?" What was the mass appeal of the site?
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Post by Beowuuf on Jan 3, 2020 18:37:12 GMT -5
Hey Zipp!
If you can check out your old posts on the Project Aon forums, you'll probably see posts of you selling the TotS forums and explaining them all way back in the day. Project Aon will also have the posts where everyone went after the fall to give a timeline for that (or some of the earliest posts here, of course).
Archive.org or wayback machine or somewhere like that used to have random front pages - that were reasonable recent before the crash - so you could see a snapshot of the number of members, etc?
I believe it was a database corruption or something like that that took the site out though.
I think the 'roleplay' aspect of the forums was the driver of the site and made it different from Project Aon, and seemed to draw people from the ELWRPG (or whatever the rolplaying site was way before my time)
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Post by zipp on Jan 4, 2020 20:50:10 GMT -5
As best I've been able to tell from my research (and memory), the site was launched by Winterhawk in 2003, originally as an extension of the ERPG Where Eagles Fly (where I also had some work submitted... RIP Robert Ekblad). The site fell apart sometime around 2008 and was indeed database error, though there was some whispering I found by digging through old emails and PMs between staff that Winterhawk had plotted to let the site collapse because he was growing angry with some of the more prominent users. It was picked up by member Fallen Angel but then he and Winterhawk had a falling out and Fallen Angel stopped work on the site.
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Post by Black Cat on Jan 6, 2020 11:53:00 GMT -5
As best I've been able to tell from my research (and memory), the site was launched by Winterhawk in 2003, originally as an extension of the ERPG Where Eagles Fly (where I also had some work submitted... RIP Robert Ekblad). The site fell apart sometime around 2008 and was indeed database error, though there was some whispering I found by digging through old emails and PMs between staff that Winterhawk had plotted to let the site collapse because he was growing angry with some of the more prominent users. It was picked up by member Fallen Angel but then he and Winterhawk had a falling out and Fallen Angel stopped work on the site. Jared "Winterhawk" Ozvath... That's a name I didn't heard of from a long time... I don't know about that conspiracy theory to let the site crash as he could had just close it if he didn't want to let anybody else run it. But at the same time, I remember once when he seemed to spill his hate on me because I've tried (with GhostBear) to keep the place neat (trying to stop members to yell at each other on the forums or something like that) while he was away for a few months and he didn't like it, as if he felt that I was taking his place as the big boss... In the end, I think he just saw that he had created something too big for him to manage alone but didn't want anybody else to help him as he didn't trust people, something strange as he seemed not like that at the beginning of the site. Here's something I've found on this website: link9 years ago, I've also posted a link to the last known screenshot of the TotS main page on the Wayback Machine: daziarn.proboards.com/thread/851/memory-laneAnd 5 years ago, I've found the text document of the Second Night of the CAThy Awards, that Academy Awards-like ceremony that I've created because I had so much gold crowns (g¢) in my virtual pockets! daziarn.proboards.com/thread/955/remembering-cathy-awards?page=1 |
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Post by Fallen Angel on Apr 28, 2020 22:07:03 GMT -5
A few months late to the party, I see. BlackCat, you always are/were on top of things. There and here.
To give a little insight: WinterHawk created the site and I was quick to befriend him and eventually get admin access, so I could upload graphics and such. The site grew and grew, and he did indeed take things rather personally when people would complain. He would have to leave for weeks/months at a time due to family and personal health issues. He told me why, and I won't divulge it. Anyway, when he would come back, he didn't like the complaining about where had he been, etc. Things slowly fell apart while he would be away. I wrote him in 2007, asking if he knew how the site could be fixed. He came back to fix a few things, then would leave for a while. I asked him what the future would be, and he said family and medical issues had kept him away, and that he personally needed to come back, but he was worried about the reception he might get. I have no idea if he planned to sabotage it. He was always open with me in private email, and he was fine with me running it while he fixed code from time to time. And you are right. He didn't trust anyone with the server but me, and I had no clue (or desire) to learn PHP or SQL. He had a lot of customized scripts running on that place.
Eventually, there was an SQL error in the database, and the host didn't have a backup of the file or something like that. He tried, but couldn't fix it. He got really upset. That's the last I heard from him. He once told me that the server cost more to run than donations received, and he couldn't keep it up.
And yes, GhostBear was an issue. I never knew the extent of the falling out, but WH seemed to indicate GB was too critical about the absences and other things.
I think the glory years were around 2005-2006. He had created medals, an economy, items you could buy, there were a couple dozen forums, we tracked the Wandering Book circling to globe a couple of times (it's on the shelf right next to me), the Kai Decathlon, member spotlights, everyone could pick a class, we had banners (I still have some custom ones I did), and it was one of the most customized forums I had ever seen at the time. Still is in a lot of ways. He set up the LWRPOL (Lone Wolf RolePlaying OnLine) with a dice roller script. There were a few successful campaigns there.
I still have a lot of the original images he designed that I pulled from the server FTP backdoor.
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Post by Black Cat on May 3, 2020 11:16:19 GMT -5
Hey FA, good to see you!
Yes, I remember WH disappearances and they were never really explained. That's probably what brought him most of the complaints, the lack of explanations or announcements on why he was away. Of course, as we still don't exactly know what these disappearances were about, it's hard to say if he could had explained them in details. At least, he could had just say that it was for family, job or health reasons but I don't remember if he ever mentionned that. Anyways, that's all in the past and I don't really care now why he disappeared like that.
I don't know if you can put these images available on a server for people to see them? One thing I wish for it that a new website related to LW is created with data on the series and all that and we could use these forums in conjunction with this new website.
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