Once again, it’s time for another site news round-up.

First, I’ve updated the site banner.  That is partly because I finished the version 1.0 BWL Skin Pack.  It is located in the forums.  Future installments will include both charatcers and other forumites.

Unfortunately, because of the file size… I used FileFront and it is buggy as hell.  Follow the link and try to get them.  And if you get some Oblivion mod file… just follow the link again.

Here’s the forum thread… http://www.bwldevelopment.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=726

And if this business continues with FileFront, I’ll try MediaFire.

Second, In addition to our two new stories I wrote about last week… we also have two new wallpapers for BWL.

BWL Development Members

BWL Development 2009

Third, I have created a new forum in the Office Complex section.  The new Studio Offices forum his host to several project oriented sub-forums.  “Job Boards” will be posted there looking for help in specific video projects.

Then, a subforum dedicated to the project but un-readable to the outside world will be created.  I have three such “private” project forums now.  And only members who have agreed to work on the projects will be able to enter and discuss filming dates, scripts, details, etc.

I’m going to end this entry here as I need to get to work on that MediaFire upload.

Well… It’s April 1st… April Fool’s Day.

EVENING UPDATE:

Okay, I’ll admit… when I said I don’t care… I lied.  I do care.  Not because I care what happens to the site or plan to somehow redeem the old BWL, but I care out of shear morbid curiosity.

When I posted this morning, I was a tired and a little irritated.  And I made a number of typos.

Anyway, I feel  like editing the post with a little more effort.

So…

As of this moment, FileFront is still on-line.  In fact, the forums are back up and running.  Many comments on the countless news posts about the FileFront closing are calling shenanigans.  Even on their own forums, there are several new topics asking if the “joke” was funny or if it was all a joke.

As I said a few days ago when we first started worrying about this, a bad April Fool’s joke was a possibility.  But I still don’t believe this to be the case.  I have a hard time believing that FileFront would allow a hoax to go this far.  I mean seriously, there are news articles on actual gaming magazine websites about this.

A joke is a joke.  On April Fool’s Day, everyone expects some form of cheap gag.  For Battlefiled Hero’s, the site became Battlefield Dork.  For Freeman’s Mind, it was the death of Freeman.  On thatguywiththeglasses.com “That Guy” swapped all of his characters for his movie reviews and such.  These jokes are meant to be amusing.

What happened on FileFront is hardly a joke.  If it were an ill-advised April Fool’s Prank, then it would qualify more as a hoax.  The problem with hoaxes would be that they may not be funny and often are hurtful.

I just can’t see FileFront affecting all of its hosted sites, all of it’s sub-sites, all of it’s sub-site’s hosted sites, and the forums and files.  That would be reckless and detrimental.  Not helpful.

Moreover, they HAVE been offering free hosting, free file hosting, etc.  They make any money off advertising.  Shutting down would be more then possible due to cost issues alone… which IS their explanation after all.

Still… it could be an out of control prank.  And at this point, I don’t care.  If it was a hoax, I won’t be going back.  I’ve spent money on our new website.  As have a number of other folks.

According to the forum announcement thread…

I assure you all that the forums being online at this time is not a joke or something that is temporary. What information I have is that there will be more information to be expected sometime tomorrow. I myself am not entirely sure what is going on and why the forums are back online. I’ll know when you know really. I was just instructed to let you know that this is for real and not a joke by any stretch of the imagination. I know many will not believe me because of the terrible timing, but the persons that I had talked to about this would never joke with me about this sort of thing.

More to come as I find it out.

Jeff

There is another possibility.  Someone could have bought FileFront.  There had been some rumors that UGO might be interested… given that they bought the rest of 1up last year.

Or the parent company, Ziff Davis, might have decided to leave the servers on-line for a month or so to allow its hosted sites to move… as opposed to the week they gave us last week.

In the end, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the news is later.  But then again, that is the real problem.  Zero communication.

No one has given us any real information.  They haven’t explained why the site is still on-line.  They haven’t said April Fool’s.  No other company has announced that they have bought the site.  Nothing.

So… I’m curious.   What is happening?

What do you think?  Was it an elaborate and poorly considered April fool’s day hoax that they are now affraid to end for fear of riot?  Has someone rescued filefront from the brink of oblivion?  Did it receive a last minute reprieve from the upper management types?  A stay of execution?  Did Barak Obama personally fly to California to rescue the company with a federal bailout?  Do you even care?

Should any of us?

Sorry for the cheesy title, but I’m tired and in a funny mood.

My conversion of the site is progressing nicely now.  I have finished making the new skin and setting up the old links and affiliates and such.  And now I have finished converting the template for the various forms of the slide-show on the story pages too.

The HL, HL2, Other Stories, and Comic Strips pages are complete and back up.

I hope to get much more done tonight and maybe get into the forum change-over this evening or at least this weekend.  But first, I’m going to finish the content pages (Videos, Images, and Text Fiction… which will include re-creating those pages entirely).

The hosted sites are not going to be upgraded and the mod pages will also remain seperate from this site design.

I’m not going to re-create the featured item box from our old skin.  Instead, I am going to make the featured items a seperate blog entry when I choose a new one.  This will help make being featured a little nicer and also give us more updates.

Well, that’s all for now.  See you soon.