The Future is Now!

[ichigo]

That title sounds SO cool. Had to try it out. Anyways I posted this in the other thread, and decided, it NEEDS it's own space to grow into a monster. Here's the original text :

Anyways, as everyone read in SK's post, and most are wondering why dat even still exists at this point in time, where we go from here, what can we do for this place, everything... I guess this is as good a time and or place for that.

1: Why is dat back now of all times?
Due to a corrupted dns entry, and some really wonky stuff happening behind the scenes, the IP never got updated to the new one. All the time, when you (or anyone) tried going to www.datorrents.com, you got directed to an IP that was NOT dat's. Due to how DNS works, the nameserver that had authority over Dat's DNS entry, always returned the wrong one. After a bunch of kicking, screaming, bullying DNS, and other things. We were able to get control. Thanks to Delta's help, we managed to get it all under wraps, done correctly, and get things back on track.

2: Where do we go from here?
Good Question! I don't have an answer. I have ideas, suggestions, and all the things you folks do, and I'm at a loss at this point in time. I'll cover the suggestions/idea/etc in a later post, but we have two choices at the core of it all; Survive, grow, expand, get back all the things we have lost (glory to DaT!), and more or the flip side of that coin, bury it and we all move on. Those are our options, involved in both of this is going to be pain, misery, bloodshed, tears, and more for all involved. It's work to rebuild it, and it's still work in destroying it.

3: Are we back for good?
I would like to say YES, quite seriously, aside from the DNS nightmares that have plagued us since the move last september, the server actually has been online. I've been working on minor things behind the scenes, and we've been going from there. Once the DNS issue was fixed, it was as simple as creating proper records, and letting them out to the big guys dns servers, and here we are!

4: Who's still here? Why don't i have mod powers? Whats going on with forum mods? Why cant I edit the gallery/etc?
Right now, pretty much all staff, save myself, Prh99, and Polaris/Pruv have been knocked to VIP until everyone involved makes the decision of where we are going. It's not out of malice, it's not out of spite, it's simply. 15 chiefs and 2 indians = trouble, butting heads, alot of angst, and such. Till we get it all worked out, we've all got to live with it.

5: Why did i get fired?
You didn't. Re-read number 4 very carefully.

6: So, who's doing what to help the site right now?
Well, right now, I am in the middle of my regular job, but also working with several staff members, as to decide how we want to proceed. It's a tricky situation, where alot of emotions run high, and everything at this point can easily be taken the wrong way. So it's alot of treading carefully to get everyone on the same page so we can all make a decision.

7: Where's the Loli? Where's the shota.
This part pains me. It's really dreadful for me. They still exist, but no one has permission to view them or access them. Plain and simple, that part's a test run to see how the community as a whole reacts. Sure, folks like our friend Tsorea left when shota became unavailable, but anyone here that knows me, knows what kinda pain losing the loli section is for me personally. Seeing that 60% of that was my uploads, and was responsible for a HUGE chunk of traffic. But alas, that leads into where do we go from here? The site needs to be able to support itself, and unfortunately, no method, shy of begging for donations (which will NEVER happen), will be workable with 2 very dangerous (legally muddy waters) creeping up on us.

The decisions that have been made, were not made lightly, were not made in spite, anger, or anything, but they have been made. I expect that the coming changes will likely drive people away, but it may also attract more people. We don't have alot of resources, but what we do have, we need and can't afford to lose many members at all. But I won't accept angry users "if i cant view loli/shota, im outta here, later" attitudes and stuff. We need to band together as a community now, or face the music (which will be TAPS, played as dat's formatted into oblivion).

*smacks a gavel on the desk*

I now open the floor for comments, gripes, suggestions and more.

[Polaris]

Okay so...it is my opinion that restoring minimal functionality isn't enough to salvage DaT. You sort of have to ask yourself:

1. Why go to DaT for the gallery when there's better/more active galleries like Dan/Gelbooru?
2. Why go to DaT for the forum community when there's much more active communities like Hongfire/etc?
3. Why go to DaTorrents for torrents when.....oh wait, nevermind.

So, in my opinion, if you want to truly revive DaT, we need to:

1. Ensure stability so the site doesn't die on us every two weeks. Ichi seems to be already addressing this one.
2. Find ways to make the gallery relevant again.
3. Put the torrents back in DaTorrents.
4. Find ways to breathe life back into the forum community.

That's a lot of tedious work, and there's really no guarantee that it will pay off. It's like spending all weekend getting a 30 year old car running that has 300k miles on it. It may work for a while, but is it really worth it? The internet has moved on. We're out of date in nearly all aspects of this site.

Personally, I'm in favor of secret option number 3: Tear DaT down and rebuild her from scratch. New name (maybe), new server (if needed/possible), new gallery software, new tracker, new forums. It may not be possible due to potential costs, but I can dream....

[Longbowwing]

I will never leave this site and that's my final answer. It have been 5 years, it will been sad to let everything go now and starting over somewhere ( if that somewhere ever exist).

2. Find ways to make the gallery relevant again.

Can you specific "relevant" in this description please?
_________________________________________
1. Why go to DaT for the gallery when there's better/more active galleries like Dan/Gelbooru?

My answer --> Dan/Gelbooru have many advertisements popping up, sometime the site will tell you to come back later when their server have overwhelming traffic. Also Dan/Gelbooru gallery system is not using categories based. They are rely on "who knows how many different tags" tagging system to identify each pictures. If any members who did not have a specific tag they know about then it is like searching a needle in a ocean. Also each scans at Dan/Gelbooru contains "who knows how many different tags" in one picture and those tags could also related some other totally non-related pictures in your search option. If a user do not like certain type of pictures then they could easily offended.

2. Why go to DaT for the forum community when there's much more active communities like Hongfire/etc?
My answer --> Hongfire forum is an active communities over the years their forums also getting alot more complicate to navigated and take more effort to try to find what you want also their rules are getting alot more strict and long. Dat forums still keep in everything in simple order, of course this advantage may change in the overtime but I remain hopeful that this site will shine one day just like hongfire and other anime community.

PS: Hongfire have place a limit for upload images to the gallery by only 10 per day! So where is the fun for only that amount per day?

Dan/Gelbooru also have forum community but since like I said they are not categories based so every threads will go to the same page. So if anyone looking for spam thread then you maybe out of luck in these two sites.

[Tsorea]

Hey Hey hey, you got it all wrong Ichi, I didn't leave Datorrents due to a lack of shota, I'm still here and I'll never leave.

What I meant was that Shota and Loli aren't everything that makes Datorrents dat and that we can always recur to other sites and forums to fill our loli/shota needs. With that I meant that there's no reason to start bashing the staff members to reinstate these categories if the major plan involves keeping those categories hidden.

I'm not leaving.

As for the forums and all. My opinion is getting the forums back on track, letting people know that Datorrents is back and it's here to stay and has great plans for the future...I mean now. That way, slowly people will start coming back and contributing to the forums, gallery, tracker (if it gets back online), etc.

Thank you that is all.

[Furi-Yuri]

I'm going with the flow. Whatever will be is what will be. I am behind any decision made. The future is progress and change, it is not staying the same.

[mmark]

I'm Still around, But not as active as I use to be.

[Killagame]

I'm still around as well and I'll prolly keep lurking till the site dies if it ever does. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to help it DaT out as well.

lol btw I'm not even vip =P