World at War's Donation Drive for Forum Upgrade!

[[WaW]CA|Wir3tap]

We want to thank everyone who is participating in the 32nd campaign of WaW! It looks to be exciting!

In the background we are constantly changing, evolving with time, this includes trying to go to a newer, more modern forum system. We have a 3 Phase approach to this. The first phase in which we are in right now is to raise a total of $295.

This will give us:

Phase 1 - Forum Migration ACHIEVED

- Brand new forum software on Xenforo 2 with patch support
- Brand new front-end theme and experience

A work in progress of what this theme can become:

- Able to login using email instead of username
- Able to login via Steam, Discord, Facebook, Twitter, etc...
- Discord Integration / Teamspeak replacement -- Nicknames automatically updated based on forum usernames, permissions automatically updated based on usergroups.
- Advanced forms - Divisional (and potentially company-level) mustering done through an automated form upon joining Division.
- At this tier, we would lose ribbons in our medal system. Ribbons would get replaced with smaller versions of the main medals.

Thank you to all the donators so far! We now enter phase 2

An integral part of WaW has been the awards and medals. The new Xenforo software has medal support but to transfer our history in a correct way the plugin needs work. For this we have reached out to the developers and bartered for a competitive offer

Phase 2 - Full Medal Support - 300$
- Full support for our current medal system, including ribbons.
- Ongoing support for the medal addon that covers all of our current features by addon developer.


The reasons and goals behind the project have been described very well by Lorden so in his words:

World at War has been around for a long time. So has our forum software. Over the last 15 years and more, WaW has provided a safe, fun community to thousands of players who wanted more out of their team-based FPS games: More coordination and teamwork, a sense of purpose to winning battles, a leadership structure. 32 successful tournaments later, WaW is still alive and kicking strong. We're aiming to seeing it be stronger and more vibrant than ever. Our forums have always been a critical part of our strategy, a place where tactics can be discussed, where players can be rewarded in a lasting manner for their heroics on the battlefield, and a place where our history can be preserved. However we've come at a crossroads: Our technological stack is starting to show it's age, and player expectations have evolved over the years so that new players are less willing to jump through arbitrary interface hoops on the promise of a future payoff. When I began researching this project, I had a few goals in mind:

Backend optimizations:
- Making sure the software would be supported in the long term: Our current software has been end-of-life for quite a few years, and at any time a critical vulnerability could be found and remain unpatched, leaving us vulnerable to data loss and system failure.
- Cleaning up our file structure in order to provided more regular and useful automated backups for disaster recovery.

Frontend requirements:
- Providing a modern, sleek new look to the forums.
- Ensuring that we wouldn't lose any of our current features, thread and post history.
- Providing a supported long-term platform for our custom features, notably the award and ranking system we use.

Usability improvements:
- The forum is a means to an end. The less hassle it is for players to be on-boarded and integrated into the community, the better.
- This means a smoother mustering process with less copy pasting/following of instructions. The automated form system will accomplish that.
- Basic registration and login improvements. Being able to login using your email address, or register through your Facebook, Twitter, Discord, Steam account through federation. No more forgotten passwords!
- Username changes should be automated. This includes Divisional tags when joining a new campaign, and promotions should be handled automatically. The only tags a player should have to set himself are in-game.
- Teamspeak required a lot of micromanagement for both players and divisional staff. Being able to use Discord and have it be integrated in the forums removed the need for extra configuration. Usernames and channel access should be automated based on your forum information.
- Discord also provides a nice half-way point between forums and chatbox -- A place where live text discussions can happen in topic-appropriate channels, which members have (for the most part) always access to.

I believe these changes will allow us to welcome a whole new generation of players to our unique tournament system. This is why we need YOUR help to make this happen. A one-time investment in license costs and custom development work will allow us to accomplish all of these goals and prepare ourselves for the next 15 years of WaW history. Any funding you can provide to help us get there will ensure the long-term health of our technological stack. We've got a new game to run tournaments on and our admins are excited and working hard to get new blood to try us out so now is the best time for this project!

We have only 1 custom coding phase left after this one, to implement custom coding to bring stuff special to our forum.

We ask for everyone's help with this, and when we go over the $300, the remainder will be used towards phase 3.

Please send me a PM with each donation stating you are using this for either A. Just normal server upkeep costs, or B. for the Forum Upgrades.

(https://www.bfewaw.com/vbdonate.php?do=donate).

Phase 3 How much left? $250


Our wonderful supporters!:

Donations So Far:
2WD|jarheadwho - $10
Anonymous - $20
Kildar - $30
Glam - $10
Zulnex - $15
Wilhelm - $200
Wir3tap - $10+EBay transaction fees lol
Taffy - $125
Franny - $25
CB99 - $10
Zulnex - $15
Stubbfan - $40
murKiN - $30
Avrojet - $55

[1AB|LCpl. cb99]

".........- Discord Integration / Teamspeak replacement......more"

---

Does this actually mean TS will be dropped?
And if that is the case when in time would TS be gone and no longer used?
(if I now interpret the statement correctly)

Why I personally prefer TeamSpeak,
(post also contain a useful set-up to TS if you want to have voice activated)
https://www.bfewaw.com/showthread.ph...t=#post3252895


-cb99

[[WaW]CA|Wir3tap]

We haven't ruled out Teamspeak completely as TS5 is more to be like discord, however integration with how your name is in the forums, automatic placements in channels etc. It's a lot easier and the automation leaves a lot less work on our part. But the forums will be a big upgrade for us right now.

[2WD*|Lorden]

World at War has been around for a long time. So has our forum software. Over the last 15 years and more, WaW has provided a safe, fun community to thousands of players who wanted more out of their team-based FPS games: More coordination and teamwork, a sense of purpose to winning battles, a leadership structure. 32 successful tournaments later, WaW is still alive and kicking strong. We're aiming to seeing it be stronger and more vibrant than ever. Our forums have always been a critical part of our strategy, a place where tactics can be discussed, where players can be rewarded in a lasting manner for their heroics on the battlefield, and a place where our history can be preserved. However we've come at a crossroads: Our technological stack is starting to show it's age, and player expectations have evolved over the years so that new players are less willing to jump through arbitrary interface hoops on the promise of a future payoff. When I began researching this project, I had a few goals in mind:

Backend optimizations:
- Making sure the software would be supported in the long term: Our current software has been end-of-life for quite a few years, and at any time a critical vulnerability could be found and remain unpatched, leaving us vulnerable to data loss and system failure.
- Cleaning up our file structure in order to provided more regular and useful automated backups for disaster recovery.

Frontend requirements:
- Providing a modern, sleek new look to the forums.
- Ensuring that we wouldn't lose any of our current features, thread and post history.
- Providing a supported long-term platform for our custom features, notably the award and ranking system we use.

Usability improvements:
- The forum is a means to an end. The less hassle it is for players to be on-boarded and integrated into the community, the better.
- This means a smoother mustering process with less copy pasting/following of instructions. The automated form system will accomplish that.
- Basic registration and login improvements. Being able to login using your email address, or register through your Facebook, Twitter, Discord, Steam account through federation. No more forgotten passwords!
- Username changes should be automated. This includes Divisional tags when joining a new campaign, and promotions should be handled automatically. The only tags a player should have to set himself are in-game.
- Teamspeak required a lot of micromanagement for both players and divisional staff. Being able to use Discord and have it be integrated in the forums removed the need for extra configuration. Usernames and channel access should be automated based on your forum information.
- Discord also provides a nice half-way point between forums and chatbox -- A place where live text discussions can happen in topic-appropriate channels, which members have (for the most part) always access to.

I believe these changes will allow us to welcome a whole new generation of players to our unique tournament system. This is why we need YOUR help to make this happen. A one-time investment in license costs and custom development work will allow us to accomplish all of these goals and prepare ourselves for the next 15 years of WaW history. Any funding you can provide to help us get there will ensure the long-term health of our technological stack. We've got a new game to run tournaments on and our admins are excited and working hard to get new blood to try us out so now is the best time for this project!

[1AB|Pvt. Wilhelm]

Waiting on the contribution to go through, but I would like to dedicate it on behalf of this community and Sionnach who kindly paid for me back when the tournament required a registration fee to join or choose a specific side.

[Sionnach]

Waiting on the contribution to go through, but I would like to dedicate it on behalf of this community and Sionnach who kindly paid for me back when the tournament required a registration fee to join or choose a specific side.

Haha did I? I don't remember that at all.

[[WaW]CA|Wir3tap]

Forum license will be purchased Friday when I get back home. I wanna thank everyone for their massive support! We will be moving into Phase 2 of this donation drive soon!

[[WaW]Fransiscus]

Thank you Wilhelm and all the other donators so far!

[1AB|LCpl. cb99]

I appreciate the work and vision of the persons involved in this upgrade project, and I do see the need with an ageing platform.

-cb99

[[WaW]Fransiscus]

Thank you to all the donators so far! We now enter phase 2

An integral part of WaW has been the awards and medals. The new Xenforo software has medal support but to transfer our history in a correct way the plugin needs work. For this we have reached out to the developers and bartered for a competitive offer

Phase 2 - Full Medal Support - $300
- Full support for our current medal system, including ribbons.
- Ongoing support for the medal addon that covers all of our current features by addon developer.

[1AB|Pvt. Wilhelm]

Haha did I? I don't remember that at all.

Yes, twice I believe (or maybe even 3 times!)
I know you did for WaW 8, my first time here, and then I am sure for WaW 9. I think WaW 10 as well when you were offering to pay for a couple of people...I seem to recall feeling a bit conflicted because I wanted to be Axis that campaign instead of Allied, so you were paying for me to be on the enemy team!

[Sionnach]

Yes, twice I believe (or maybe even 3 times!)
I know you did for WaW 8, my first time here, and then I am sure for WaW 9. I think WaW 10 as well when you were offering to pay for a couple of people...I seem to recall feeling a bit conflicted because I wanted to be Axis that campaign instead of Allied, so you were paying for me to be on the enemy team!

I am clearly an idiot