OMAC Buys Jolt

Gadzooks! I, along with everyone else, was very surprised to hear about the sudden takeover of our forum hosts by the people developing NationStates 2. Either OMAC have much more investment than I previously suspected or Jolt was much cheaper.

So what does this mean?

Well, it explains why there was no hurry to go shifting our forums somewhere else because they're exactly where they're supposed to be. It also means we should see the improvements we've long been waiting for - better controls, better interface (i.e. one that works) and at long last we should be able to free up all the old account names so that players can create nations with the names they want instead of being told that they were reserved by someone who maybe played for a few days many years ago.

If we do get this then all nations that died more than a year ago and weren't deleted by moderators (too much potential for confusion) will have their names unreserved. That was the old plan anyway, things may be changed this time around, we'll just have to wait and see.

The second big change we've all seen is the great big advert at the top of the screen, and obviously I'm not talking about the ads for Max's books. Some may see this as a sad departure from the whole ethos NS had as this wee site created by an author wanting to sell his books without the usual corporate influence, but NationStates is expensive to host and it's perhaps surprising that this hasn't happened before now.

Just remember that the ads are about cost limitation, not turning NS1 into some sort of money-making machine. I think if we were given the choice between a pay-to-play NationStates 2 and a free NationStates 2 with some adverts (which will probably/hopefully become a bit more targeted at some point - I think we've all seen 'The Naughty Button' whatever that is) then most would pick the latter.

In other news, my computer has collapsed again and if I can't get it fixed I'm going to have to wait until autumn before I can (possibly) get a new one. All in all this means I will have less time to moderate and edit issues. It also means that I can't come on to IRC. Sorry 'bout that. In the meantime, I've put a further three issues into the game. The whole 'save up a bunch and then release' thing will just have to wait for another time. Enjoy!