We will be moving over to the new website on this day!

Hey everyone,

I would like to provide you with another update on how things are going.

The biggest and most pressing change coming up is the new website. This past weekend we held our "Community-Wide" Staff meeting. A number of people attended, and we got the input we needed to move forward with the website. Personally, I am excited about what we are bringing to the table. This meeting has rang the bell for radical change, change that will not be easy to implement. We've entered into a time of change that I believe is required in order to propel this community forward. In an age of dying communities, the aging games we play, and the advances in development, we are at a significant disadvantage. I've promised to myself and this community to maintain a safe space for people to gather, game, talk, and what have you. To keep that promise, this change is necessary. Sly pointed this out in his LOA quite recently. I'm rebuilding this place from the ground up, which sometimes means to shake the very foundation that this house was built upon. It may be the same name, but many of you won't recognize these planks or the roof we will provide. I expect a lot of push-back, especially as this was not a majority decision by the Staff+. But to persevere we have to change.

We've purchased and have been working extensively on the new website. I'm pleased to say we've made significant progress, and near completion. The intent is to switch over the day of the monthly meeting, which is 1 week from today. We'll release whether we finish or not - the intent is to get a viable product up and continue to improve off of community feedback.

Now allow me to discuss the important changes that we will be bringing to the table with the release of this new website.

New Rank Structure
We've radically changed the rank structure. Matter of fact, we've taken it out completely. We are removing all ranks in favor of no ranks. All users who register on the forum will become "Community Members." The only other ranks are all leadership ranks. There will be no more promotions, demotions, LOAs, etc. Allow me to explain our reasoning behind this. We want people in our community who want to be here, and to associate. There are a plethora of rules that keep people away, ties that keep them here, and the inability to do what it is they really want. There's a lot of upkeep for the Staff, to monitor, promote, etc. Removing this system opens the highway for people to come and go as they please, with no rules such as double clanning, or even requirements to wear the tags. In place of the rank structure we will be introducing a new awards/achievement system. Awards will vary from a variety of different functions, such as some just being awarded after a certain number of posts, while others are harder to obtain, such as years of service, admin duties, reputation, likeness, etc. The awards system is currently our highest focus right now, and it's easily become the most difficult thing to create. Soon you'll see a post asking for your help on ideas.

Additional benefits to this system include the ability to create server-specific ranking structures. We are no longer limited by the structure of the community, allowing us to more easily develop gamemodes with their own playstyle. These ranks can be reflected on the forums, not the other way around. This structure also opens the door for expansion when we grow. Many ideas were discussed at the meeting to create a ranking structure of just admins, and while we decided not to go that route currently, the door is open for the future.

A new feature we are happy to release is the usage of "Clubs." Clubs are user-made groups in any field that you want. These will replace all current teams, including the Events team. Groups will now be User-directed instead of Staff-managed, encouraging players to take a more active role in the community and drive it in the direction they see fit. Clubs currently have to be Staff approved, but this is primarily to prevent troll clubs and combat potential "cliques" that may form. Clubs have a variety of features and forms, allowing you to create your own forum for your members, and you decide whether or not people in the club can see it's threads or not.

I am very excited for you to experience all the new ins and outs of the website. It's packed with a bunch of stuff this community has never had before, but it's also given me the opportunity to rebuild this place from the ground up, reviewing the FAQ and forum sections, systems and structures, posts and rules. While the content we have is extensive, I've decided to take out a lot of constraints and information we may not need. I've re-designed the forum structure. I want this to become a place you want to be, with no reasons to push you out. I think you'll be pleased to see what we've done. We'll be the better place to hang-out, not the place to get power over someone else.

I could talk about all the new features, but I think I'll leave that to you to explore.

Other Changes
Here I have good and bad news. The bad news is Nick and Dave have decided to leave the community, and with that, the Only War server project has been abandoned. LOAs increase as people continue to leave. Our undertakings have depleted all of EgNs funds. We have $0 in the bank, and I have spent hundreds of dollars on what we are building, including next month's bill.

Let's talk about the good news

First, LOAs will no longer be a problem because nobody will really be "in" the community with the new structure.

And here's the best news: After a long awaited period of time, I am almost 100% positive I have fixed the server listing issue. While what I've done may not be a permanent fix, it's done the job, and we've gotten random population on literally every server in the past 24 hours since the fix.

I thank you once again for your patience. For those of you who will care to read this post, I thank you. I thank you for your continued support, your ideas, your activity, and your excitement for what's to come. I'm committed to rebuilding this place to the caring, supportive, and the escape I once knew. I know you may not agree with what we're doing. Some of you will leave. But for now we are adapting and changing so that one day we can become.

Cheers to whats to come.
- mattlikespie

There will be a Staff meeting on February 10th at 3:30pm CST, normal meeting time but on a Sunday. The reason I am posting this, however, is because everybody is invited. We'll run it more or less like a normal Staff meeting, and of course the Staff+ will do the majority of the talking. But when we reach ideas and decisions, we will listen and accept suggestions and ideas from the community members who attend. If you'd like a say in the next major decisions of EgN, this is the meeting to be at.

These are some of the things we will be talking about:
- New rank structure
- The Retired rank
- Key elements of the new website
- Conducting a "Purge" with the creation of the new website
- Do we migrate over old content or not
- Restructuring of the dev team
- Restructuring of all the other teams
- Minecraft plans
- Anything else that comes up

I look forward to a constructive meeting, and I am excited to see what we can accomplish.

Hello everyone,

I'd like to give you an official update of what has been going on as of late, especially if you were unable to attend the monthly meeting. At this point in time, instead of now focusing where we are, this post will be reflective of my mindset, in that I am focusing on where we are going. To do that, I will illustrate the three main objectives I have highlighted that we will tackle in the upcoming weeks.

Objective 1 - Staff
The first objective and priority is to build the highest quality and dedicated Staff team possible. This requires the assessment by myself and the Advisors to weigh the quality of our Staff team. We're looking at level of dedication, level of activity, professionalism, community integration, and many other important factors. Doing so will take the form of an upcoming mandatory Staff meeting they are required to attend. I do not want or at this point in time intend to demote any of the current Staff, but rather to ensure this place or this level of leadership is right for them. I will work with the Staff to conquer their individual challenges and grow in the manners that is best for them.

This Staff meeting will be largely public. You'll see a post here soon. Everyone will be invited, and we are going to discuss some upcoming major decisions that we will need to make that will change the course of this clan. That being said, it only makes sense for the community to be there to weigh in their input. There will be an hour reserved prior for the Staff+ to have a private meeting before we go public, and that is when we'll talk about some of the important things I mentioned above. Edit: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=32854

In addition, here shortly I will be promoting a number of new Staff that I personally believe can add a lot of value to this team, and what we need it to be. EDIT: viewtopic.php?f=106&t=32855

Objective 2 - Servers
The second objective is to expand our network of servers and activity. Of course, our latest Minecraft server has been a small success, supporting almost 100% of our population. I personally continue to work with, update, and improve the server on a daily basis if I can. I am considering expanding into this field, by expanding into a highly requested gamemode, that being Factions. This will take me some time to build, and it is not in the immediate list of priorities, but it will be worked on after the other things outlined in this thread are completed. I've already contacted some talented individuals who would be able to aid greatly in the development of this server.

Nick and Dave and their team continue to work on their G-mod Only War server that is coming up. This should add a lot of value to the diversity of our clan and hopefully bring in an influx of new members and potentially revenue. I am excited to be a part of the different gamemode with people who are very passionate about it.

In the next coming days, another team of individuals, who can identify themselves at a later time, will be given a server to work on a new CS:GO Jailbreak server. This is a huge opportunity field for us, and we are contemplating putting full effort into the server to replace CSS entirely, especially considering the game is free for everyone now.

I continue to be open to anyone who is willing to work on the TTT server. Please contact me or any of the Staff if this is something you would like to work on, as this is a much requested and highly regarded server for us.

Objective 3 - Website
The third and last objective of the coming weeks is focus on the new website for EgN. We have reached the point where a new website is the key to re-establish a new face for EgN, bringing with it a number of changes we plan to implement that we will discuss at the Staff meeting I will post here soon. This is our opportunity to repave this clan in our image.

That being said, this does require a significant amount of funds. We currently have just less than $300 in the bank, thanks largely to the donors to the Minecraft server. I would like to have at least $500 in the bank before purchasing the website, which costs in total roughly $400 in licensing, plugins, themes, etc. I intend to purchase the website the day of the Staff meeting regardless of whether or not we have those funds or not, but obviously, while I'm open to doing it, that doesn't mean I want to pay $200 for this out of my own pocket, so I am asking for your help.

A thread will be posted here soon for suggestions, ideas, etc to facilitate discussion of the new website. Edit: Here is the thread: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=32853

Other recent changes

There have been a few other recent changes I have decided to make.

The first is I have decided for the next few months, admin will be free for all CSS server for any Member+ wearing tags. Apply of the forums and we will review your application. Should we accept it, we will not require a donation (for now). This is to encourage players to play JB and other CSS server and be able to administrate it or even use admin for fun if that is what it takes to sustain a population.

The other change I have made is changing slightly how Private Teamspeak channels work. Ex-Staff will no longer receive a free Teamspeak channel, and new channels from here on out will now cost $45 to make and $15 a month to maintain. This is to decrease the incentive to purchase a channel on Teamspeak and encourage players to partake more in public channels, to tackle the "group" problem many of you have identified. We are still selling channels, however, because I still want to open that option to anyone who still does want a Teamspeak channel, and of course, it does generate revenue for us. Any channels that have been pre-paid will not be affected until their time runs out.

I will update this thread with the links to the threads I will create in the next few hours.

Thank you all once again for your faith in us and your patience. I am excited to be moving past the stage of struggle we are stuck in and leveraging this as an opportunity to become a stronger, larger, and more unified clan than ever before.