Stratics is not the 'official' forum of UO. Mark Jacobs put an end to that when he decided UO didn't need an official fan site. I also vividly remember a post from Draconi just after Mark Jacobs left that implied he pretty much gagged the devs and stopped them posting any fansites, feeding everything through the community team.
We are one of a number of fan sites in the 'fan site program' which was introduced last spring and for which I applied when it was announced.
Airmid, I could have sworn I got you your disco ball!
JHall is, as his title states, the new General Manager for Stratics. I look forward to working with him in my role as Managing Editor of the UO section of the site.
If anyone has an issue with the way I perform as Managing Editor they're welcome to send in their application to replace me.
Petra - no disrespect, but we all know there are two English based *forums* out there with any activity and duration, and a handful of Japanese/Asian sites that see a metric buttload more cooperation/conversation from EA than the English sites get. Or, to be more correct, two English based sites that are not based on the posting of exploits, scripts, free shards, etc.
Of those two English sites, Stratics is the one with the (albeit, currently non-functional) EM forums, as well as the Ask The Devs section, which is the direct replacement for FoF. That pretty much puts the stamp clearly on this site. The fact that the EA/Mythic staff seems to be, for the most part, muzzled, does not make this untrue. They do NOT communicate with the fanbase directly anywhere other than here, or at least nowhere in a language that over 1/2 that fanbase can communicate in.
Regardless, the original issue was about the ads - and there are solutions that can be implemented to help lower bandwidth usage as well as storage used, such as the outright removal of the non-used areas of the Stratics network (Everquest and Warhammer, both with no updates/activity for 2 and 1 year, respectively).
As much as I dislike the idea, I'd be far more comfortable with a beg-a-thon, a la Wiki, once a year or so, than I am with what was a very intrusive ad in the middle of a topic thread, complete with not only ads for a non-related game, but also a block of spam from buy.com, complete with pictures - a company known to be notoriously bad for tracking cookies and other privacy violations.
And yes, as long as this is, despite protests to the contrary, the only site that the EA/Mythic staff will communicate with the sub base (*in English - sorry if I seem to be an anglophile - I *do* read/write several other languages, but neither Japanese nor Korean happen to be on that list), then EA needs to be throwing a bone in the form of either $$ or hosting in this direction.
