WHAT is going on with the board?

[JB57]

Things seem to be getting considerably better. To reply to Indris' point, I don't know what is going on, but I hope that the people who run HB will make some kind of announcement explaining the situation. If this is about a funding shortfall, then let us know. If it's a technical problem, then let us know. The lack of communication is a problem. Admittedly, if this problem is being resolved now, HB has not had a chance to inform us yet, but I hope we get something in the near future.

JB57

[XP]

Hi, everyone. First off, I'd like to acknowledge and apologize for all the issues that have been happening with this forum, not just over the past week, but for the past year. It's been bad and I absolutely understand the frustration you're all going through. As JB has noted in an earlier post (THANKS!), I was unable to get onto the forum for about a week. I kept getting a message that the site is down. I contacted DHH and he had the exact same problem. In fact, I received an e-mail from him from just a few hours ago saying he still can't get on. I honestly have no idea why we're having these connection problems. For those of you who don't know, I don't own Hostboard. I just own this forum that is hosted on Hostboard. Hostboard itself is owned by Steven. A year ago, he hired a programmer to start improving the forum because after over a decade, he felt modernizing would be nice. However, what ended up happening was that each time a new feature was implemented, some other features would fail. This then led to the Titfighting and Sexfighting Forum, our forum, getting hit really hard when one of the upgrades caused thousands of our posts to disappear from public access. According to Steven, those posts are STILL on his server and visible to him and the programmer. However, somehow, those posts can't be made publicly visible again. For a year, I've been asking over and over again for updates. I would get them once in a while and they'd always be the same - the programmer hasn't figured it out, but is working on it. Eventually, however, even those updates stopped.

As JB also noted above, now is a good time to consider other hosting options for our forum since Hostboard is clearly having issues that may not be resolved soon, or maybe even ever. I know some of you have expressed that you felt maybe I should have considered leaving sooner. Trust me when I say I've been considering it for a long time. My personal reasoning for not having left yet is because Hostboard has our missing posts on their server. Right now, as a forum owner on Hostboard, I can continue to complain and push for the return of our posts to public visibility. However, I have always been worried and continue to be worried that should we move elsewhere, I will lose weight behind my complaints and we may never get our posts back. Now, I absolutely acknowledge that even if we stay, there is every possibility that we won't get them back. But, please understand that after over a decade on Hostboard, I felt we had some strength behind my repeated requests for post recovery.

Regardless, as of now, those posts are missing. However, I have a small bit of good news. Please find in this link 2 files. One is the backup of this forum I made moments ago. (It took me about 20 minutes to get it done, so right now, I'm extremely thankful it actually worked!!!) The second file is from 2016, which was the last time I backed up this forum before the forum problems started.

WeTransfer

(Files available until July 4)

If you're wondering why I stopped making backups for a while, something happened in my personal life back in 2016 that I really don't want to put into the public realm. But, basically, I stopped coming on here on a regular basis, letting DHH take over moderating duties up until my return. Unfortunately, I didn't realize he couldn't make backups, and by the time I came back, we had already lost the posts. To me, this is not just a bad excuse, this is NO excuse. I really should have given my account access to DHH altogether. But, I didn't think of it then and hindsight is 20/20. All I can offer is my sincere apologies and the files in the link above. The 2016 backup has a lot of stuff that I'm sure you'll all be happy to see again.

So, what are our options moving forward? I've considered many. In terms of free forum hosting services, I've discovered that they either don't allow adult content or are so unreliable and/or sketchy that I really don't want to move us there. In terms of paid options, I've looked into a few, like vBulletin. The cost wouldn't be cheap (in my opinion). Now, I know some of you may be willing to pay or help out, I honestly don't want to make this a paid membership kind of deal and I don't think asking for "donations" is a long term solution. Also, and this is painful to admit - I don't know much about programming. One of the options I considered is getting a cheap plan on Wix and then using forum software to program a forum that I then load on there. Problem is that this will probably take me a LONG time to figure out considering my lack of technical ability, and it's a length of time I don't think we have.

JB did suggest something outside the box, though, and it's intrigued me quite a bit. He suggested that maybe we can move onto DeviantArt, which is a site where artists put their works up, including stories. I have an account there already, though I don't go on much and haven't been there in a while. But, as I understand it, people can make "Communities" on there and then members of the communities can add their art to it. When it comes to adult content, I'm not 100% sure what the limits are, but I've seen some female combat pics and their breasts were visible. So, my guess is maybe no penises and no vaginas? The limits for stories, though, is something I'll have to look into. Regardless, this free option look appealing since DeviantArt is HUGE and has been around for a very long time. My only concern is that we may lose the "conversation" aspect of our forum. I originally created this forum more as a meeting place for people with our interests, not as a story site. Sure, I expected stories to be posted, but those were more like the cherry on top of the ice cream that was our meeting place for discussion. I feel that should we move to DeviantArt and become a "Community" instead of a "Forum", we'll be transforming into being discussion-centric to being story-centric. My question to you all, then, is - Are you okay with that?

And, this is as much as I can offer for now. I'll try to come on again later. For now, once again, I'm very sorry for the mess. I'll continue to do my best to try and get both an answer from Hostboard as to what's going on and to get our missing posts back. I will also continue to look at our options. Please, if you have any suggestions for new host sites, let me know. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you all for your understanding and continued support.

~ XP

[Ragnar0k]

Hey XP, JB et al

Thanks for raising these problems and potential solutions, I share the same concerns as everyone else.

If I can restrict my comments to DeviantArt as a potential solution, I'm afraid I can't see how that could work for the type of material we typically post on Hostboard as they have fairly stringent rules on content. Granted these are not always enforced rigorously, but it your page is reported by any other user who is offended by an item you will a) receive a polite notice to take the work down and b) , worse case scenario, your page could be blocked altogether as a repeat offender.

I've been active on DA for 7 years and for this reason alone I won't post ANY of my more explicit sexfighting stories there : I simply can't afford to run the risk of getting blocked. Apart from that, there's no reason not to set your own page up there if you haven't one so already. Here's mine as an example.
Excalib | DeviantArt

In addition to hosting your own page DA does provide the facility to create user groups to share art and stories. However, I suspect that if one was set up under the heading Titfighting and Sexfighting Group I suspect it might receive some moderator attention before too long. If anyone thinks I'm wide of the mark on this please say so, its just based on my own experience of DA. And I had at least one story taken down which involved explicit sex (ironically they seem less phased by fatality!).

All the best,
Rags

[kamafight]

I can be contacted on [email protected] or [email protected] in case you guys do a mailing list to exchange stories. Do add me to it. I feel bad that the board has been acting strange. I have been working simultaneously on 3 long stories, all of them quite far away from completion. Hope everything works out with regard to the board.

[indris]

I can't speak to XP's or Ragnar0k's concerns for certain - I do know there are several accounts on DA that have explicit photographs of two women together (just search for "lesbian" with Photographs > People and Portraits as the content type). Westcat has published a lot of his catball/catfight photos and renders on there, and even photographers for SuicideGirls.com has posted a handful of portraits and implied-lesbian images to promote their site. I also know a couple of catfighting sites use DA as a hub, though I can't remember who they are. As to whether they would allow a sexfighting community in-name, I've no idea... you might have to name it exceedingly carefully in case it violates their Terms of Service.

[cyberj]

I'm not a frequent contributor, but I do like this site a lot. I have written a very long story that I want to post. Cross your fingers everyone. Hopefully some sort of solution will happen.

[calla242]

please inform me when someone found a new home for us: cristoforo.vico(at)gmail.com

@cyberj can you email me the story?

[Lordofddead]

Hey everyone...

In addition to what has been said earlier, I would just like to add that I have seen some very sketchy stuff on DA. e.g pregnant women fighting, milk being pumped out of women's breasts etc..
Raging Moms and Daughters by CrazyVictor on DeviantArt

Also please have my e-mail address if a list is being compiled for future migration [email protected]

Finally, i tried accessing the backup made by XP and unfortunately it seems that the same has been deleted.

Hoping for a speedy resolution to all of this mess.

[Augur]

Howdy, all

I, too, really hope that XP, Steve and the team can get these issues fixed. Hostboard has served us for many years, and it would be sad to have to let it go. But if these connection issues persist, and if the 'disappearance' of older stories cannot be fixed, there seems to be little choice.

I have finally finished a new episode of BFS Tribute, but can't really publish it here, not with the site in the condition it's currently in...

Hopefully a solution can be found soon,
Augur

[AegonHentaryen]

So i wanted to say that devianArt is not a solution, i used to follow an artist that wrote some kind of sexfight stories, it was ok when he had 2 or 3 but when he reached some views he got shut down without preavis.

As for the forum, the developper should be able to generate a copy of this board since it opened without any problem. You should ask him.
It took me 3min to login, that's awful. You can find free wa6s to create a forum, and way cheaper to keep online that the price i saw on the home page.