Discussion The Present and Future of "PiratesAhoy!"?

[Hammie]

In terms of cutting red tape and keeps things transparent, something like Open Collective could be worth considering for collecting donations.

 

[PiratesAhoy! Community]

Normally, it doesn't have to be done through the host interface, depending on the website software, it can also either be done through the software or manually like you mentioned.
However, it's certainly easier to do through your webhost or the website software, if that's an option.

Guess we're going to have to look at that once the ownership transfer is complete...

You would still be in possession of all locally saved files of the website, but getting the site up again would be very tricky and time consuming. Firstly, you would have to buy
a new domain (in the case that somebody with malicious intent hijacked this one) and then you would have to change every link in your backup to the new domain. Especially with
a manually created backup, this would take an insane amount of work.

Don't sites these days use relative links anymore??

I am not sure, how the plugin or addon situation is for XenForo, but the problem of domain hijacking could definitely be
mitigated by having a backup domain.

Hopefully you or @Levis or @Bartolomeu o Portugues can have a look at that when the time comes...?

I believe it would be fairly easy to change the domain holder data and e-mail-address linked to the domain and then transfer the
domain somewhere else with the transfer code that would be sent to the hijacker.

@Keith did indeed mention something about such a code.

Was the forum software not able to tackle so many inquiries, or were the servers of your webhost overstrained?

Honestly not sure...
Our working theory is that the server noticed SUCH a sudden spike that they might've thought it was a DDOS attack and shut down the site.

While that is certainly true, with proper SEO, you can get back in the search results within a couple of months. Furthermore, Google offers a service to delete old and non exisiting links,
for example in the case that you would have to switch the domain.

"Proper" and "PiratesAhoy!"?!?
Hopefully one day those two words will belong in the same sentence...

In my opinion, creating a company just for the website wouldn't be sensible as the costs associated with that are quite high. While its perfectly sensible to try to secure yourself against
law suits, and a private limited company would certainly be the best way to do that (due to its nature that you can only lose your invested capital but nothing more), you would have
to bring some capital in order to even create it (the so-called nominal/share capital). Though, while I believe that in the Netherlands there isn't a fixed sum forced (in Austria its 35000 Euros),
creating a company with under 1000 Euros as nominal capital is from a practical viewpoint very risky, because already the creation has costs associated such as registration fees and the notary
attestation fees. However, these costs are at least one-off costs, the bigger problem are the yearly costs associated with the creation of the annual financial statement. These are recurring
at certainly more than 1000 Euros per year. With the other costs associated to the forum such as the domain fees and forum software costs, you would probably be out quite a hefty sum
of Euros per year. I don't know the exact situation with foundations, but it's certainly not much better. It might be even worse because with a foundation, you aren't a shareholder, rather
just a benefactor with a much weaker legal position compared to a shareholder and at least in Austria you would have to appoint a managing board of three or more persons for the foundation.

Seems in The Netherlands the starting capital per person is one cent.
Yes, ONE CENT!
It's almost just pure comedy value.

The yearly returning fiscal statement costs are indeed more prohibitive.
Those are easily 1000+ year it seems.

Could still be worth it; IF we manage to boost this community up to a more serious level.

And a big question is with that managing board.
It would be an absolute dream to have a few people actually actively dedicated to making this place larger and more successful.
But where to find such reliable people?

And could they be based internationally?
Would be even nicer if we could regularly see each other in person.
But as it is, we're all pretty scattered to the four winds.

If there is something that I can help with, I certainly will. The forum is a great place and such a huge amount of work of many, many years should not be lost.

I think we are in a crucial moment for this community, we can disappear or go ahead opening new paths, which one we will choose ... only time will tell.

Excellent summary right there.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

You are a good man, Pieter Boelen. And your intentions are noble. So don't be afraid of failing when you make the right steps.

Oh, I'm afraid alright.
Very.

In my experience, noble intentions are often frowned upon.
People keep saying "you don't have to save the world".
But someone has to.
Ideally a lot of someones!
And if we have a chance to do so and don't take it, aren't the consequences somehow our (read: my) responsibility?

The people close by me are not ones I'd expect to stand by me if I try.
They'll question. And question. And question again.
Until whatever confidence I had is eroded into oblivion.

They'll tell me I need to downsize my world; downsize my ambitions; downsize my hopes.
And after giving up anything and everything I care about, I'd somehow need to be happy.

If you want to make great things, you need this place to be recognized as the home of the most popular pirate game mod and Moddb for sure prooves that New Horizons holds that title. You need to port it to the newer engine. Windows 11 is on the way, and less and less people use old hardware and software. You cannot wait another 5 years to make something from New Horizons. With popularizing NH, you could attract different enthusiasts and make great things.

Would be great if we could make that a reality.

Thankfully you and @Hammie and @ChezJfrey are paving the way for a potential broader future.
Really hope that will work out in the end!

I know a man from my country who promotes green sailing or however they call it. Check it out

This guy even performed on Eurovision song contest in 2012

Is there supposed to be sound with that video? It looks pretty great; but for a song festival, I wouldn't expect pure quiet...

In any case, bringing such people together seems to me like one of the best things we might be able to aim for.
I'm expecting that to be real difficult though.

I suppose we might have to start talking to such people though.
And see what sort of openness any of them might have...

Well, this site has accompanied me through the world of pirate games since 2014 and I'm also willing to keep it running. As far as I know, this seems to be the largest site in existence that primarily covers pirate games.
During my time here, I have attempted to draw more attention to other, more obscure games by posting them on the forums, and will continue to do so because I wish the genre to be more popular. If the forums would be more populated, the effect would certainly get stronger.

In essence, losing this site would certainly feel like losing a long-time friend.

Unfortunately my means of actively supporting the site are limited, as I lack the programming skills.

But what I'm definitely able to do is to keep my eye open for new, upcoming, hopefully promising games and telling the public about them. Though I would prefer if I could make news postings on the starter page, because simply opening a thread won't do much.
Oh, and monthly donations, of course.

As far as I'm concerned, the #1 thing standing between us and more familiarity with the outside world is promotion.
So for starters, I'd be happy to give you the "Public Relations" title here.
That'll allow you to post news to the front page.

If you're up for it, I can also give you access to post to our Facebook / Twitter / YouTube profiles.

And come to think of it...
Shouldn't we be considering setting up a "newsletter" of sorts?

As our new captain... Pieter Boehlen, or CaptainMurphy.

Pieter Boelen.

Agreed. PA! has not had a leader in the past and @Pieter Boelen is the leader we didn't officially have. I support the idea of making it official.

I always sort of assumed Pieter was already running things here anyway.

Well, I sure got all of you fooled; didn't I?
Nope I've never been in charge here.
I just did stuff; and kept doing stuff here; while other people went on to do stuff elsewhere.

I've never been in any way 'special' here.
No more so than any other one of you.

I think he'd welcome all help offfered....can't expect him to do it all alone.

Yes.
Absolutely.
Very much so.

Doing things alone is seriously doing my head in.

In terms of cutting red tape and keeps things transparent, something like Open Collective could be worth considering for collecting donations.

I definitely like transparency!
And indeed that looks quite interesting.
Probably better than that silly "Paypal pool" I set up for now, which obviously isn't meant for this purpose at all.

Could something like that be kind of compatible with national tax requirements...?

 

[DH27]

Don't sites these days use relative links anymore??

Depends on the software I guess, for example Wordpress doesn't use relative links by default and as far as I am aware, it's the same for Joomla.
With these content management systems you would have to manually configure the site to use relative links. But relative links would certainly
help in case of a hijacking.

"Proper" and "PiratesAhoy!"?!?
Hopefully one day those two words will belong in the same sentence...

I am pretty sure there are SEO addons for XenForo as well, but I guess the bigger problem is updating this site to a XenForo version that allows to
install up-to-date addons? Then again, the questions of which forum software to use in the future is probably the biggest one to take on in the future
development of this site, as it is a matter of needed and available functions, site stability and security as well as the available pool of addons.

Our working theory is that the server noticed SUCH a sudden spike that they might've thought it was a DDOS attack and shut down the site.

I see, maybe the webhost hasn't assigned enough bandwith to this site because the traffic numbers are usually lower. This might be a possiblity, if
they assign bandwith based on past behaviour.

Seems in The Netherlands the starting capital per person is one cent.
Yes, ONE CENT!

That's insane

And a big question is with that managing board.
It would be an absolute dream to have a few people actually actively dedicated to making this place larger and more successful.
And could they be based internationally?

I am not a lawyer, but I believe including people based in the EU wouldn't be a problem due to the four fundamental freedom rights
of the EU. It's certainly going to be way more complicated with people from outside of the EU, as they usually aren't allowed to take on
positions in European legal entities.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I am pretty sure there are SEO addons for XenForo as well, but I guess the bigger problem is updating this site to a XenForo version that allows to
install up-to-date addons? Then again, the questions of which forum software to use in the future is probably the biggest one to take on in the future
development of this site, as it is a matter of needed and available functions, site stability and security as well as the available pool of addons.

I assume @Keith chose XenForo for a reason.
And this big famous place uses it too: Jedi Council Forums

I see, maybe the webhost hasn't assigned enough bandwith to this site because the traffic numbers are usually lower. This might be a possiblity, if
they assign bandwith based on past behaviour.

Sounds plausible enough...

That's insane

Oh wait; that was for the "private limited company".
Look for the 'starting capital' here: Private limited company (bv) in the Netherlands
Foundation would be this page instead: Foundation
Plus also: What is an NGO and how do you start one?

I like the parts where they refer to "signing articles".
Sounds very piratey!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

As I was wasting time researching Jungle Cruise Loot, the unthinkable happened.
The PiratesAhoy! domain name is no longer in @Keith's safe hands.

 

[Hammie]

As I was wasting time researching Jungle Cruise Loot, the unthinkable happened.
The PiratesAhoy! domain name is no longer in @Keith's safe hands.

I can see it got transferred yesterday, but I can't see who now has it.

I also have a hard time reading the tone of the message. But I assume this is a good thing?

 

[Hammie]

Found the answer in an other post: Need Help - Website Hosting: Help For Future?

I just updated all the billing information for our HostGator server to my own details.

So that is good news

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I also have a hard time reading the tone of the message.

Sorry 'bout that.
Certainly MY hands are NOT as safe as @Keith's were.
Because honestly speaking... I have NO CLUE what I am doing here!!
So I'm going to need every help I can get.

But yes...

I can see it got transferred yesterday, but I can't see who now has it.

I have it now.
Though several other people have access to the Name.com login details as well.
They could therefore steal it any time; but I trust them.

For now, nobody else has access to the HostGator details yet.
As soon as we decide who will be the actual executive webmaster (read: definitely NOT me!!!), I'll share those details with whomever it will be.

So that is good news

One can only hope.
But in all truth, whether it'll be good or not lies in the future.
And I can vouch very little for what the future might bring...

 

[The Nameless Pirate]

Sorry 'bout that.
Certainly MY hands are NOT as safe as @Keith's were.
Because honestly speaking... I have NO CLUE what I am doing here!!
So I'm going to need every help I can get.

But yes...

"What could possibly go wrong?"
Honestly I think you will do fine. With the help of the people here things should go well.
Plus you may even end up taking some hints here and there, if this isn't happening already.