Obsidian Portal Launch Feedback

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  • SkidAce
    SkidAce
    Posts: 830
    Good news killer! Thanks for hanging around.
  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090
    Good to hear. OP just isn't the same without the VP
    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • Unknown
    Indeed, it was a fantastic talk to say the least. I am very glad you will be sticking around KVP, and to all that you consistently do for this community! Now, I need to get my rear back in action on the outstanding Support items and finish up developing our full queue of items to address.
  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    Thanks for the kind words all- still hoping for fixes.
    killervp
    "A God...Rebuilt":https://a-god-rebuilt.obsidianportal.com
    "OP's COTM April 2012":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/a-god-rebuilt-aprils-cotm/
    Over 350 Fans, and Looking for More!

    Just trying to help out.

  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    So, after a flurry of activity to fix one issue (which is not completely fixed, as some still have the same issue with email invites) things have returned to the complete lack of attention.
    Still 100s of tickets open.
    Still there are things broken that have been for years.
    Tomorrow is the 2 year anniversary of the Reforge- we still don't have half of the items promised, and we still have things broken that were never repaired, 2 years later.
    The only reason I have not left is the effort to move my 1000+ page wiki is herculean, but right now I really regret not starting 2 years ago, because it would be moved and I would not have wasted all of this time trying to get both previous owners (16 months) and current owners (8 months) to do the things that were promised.
    killervp
    "A God...Rebuilt":https://a-god-rebuilt.obsidianportal.com

    Just trying to help out.

  • Unknown
    Please see my response in the support item with the same comment.
  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    Today marks 2 years since the Reforge. A very unhappy anniversary to all that still remember that day, and I ask- how much better or worse off is your Obsidian Portal experience, 2 years later?

    Just trying to help out.

  • Abersade
    Abersade
    Posts: 417
    Honestly? I'd say marginally better. Take that with a grain of salt though because I didn't do much with my campaigns prior to the reforge, I had just started customizing things about two months beforehand. The reforge, of course, annihilated everything I had done and for about a month rendered my site useless. It was a rough time. I also sorely missed the dice roller as I used that feature constantly.

    After that things were extremely stagnant, but they were also stable. We didn't have issues all of the time like we do now. This gave me the time I needed to get my game looking decent for my players. Sure there where a few screwy things (like trying to put wiki links in quotes and textile code showing up in quick descriptions) and things that really could have used more information (max image size and how much space you have left to upload to), but here's the kicker for me at least. My free Ascendant time from the reforge didn't end until earlier this month. I've been using what is still a fairly powerful (if bug-ridden) system for essentially free for nearly two years (as some of that Ascendant time was my paid sub). While this doesn't mitigate my right to complain about things it does make me feel like a certain amount of leniency is due in regards to these issues that Kaleidoscope has found themselves buried under.

    Alex, now is the time for Kaleidoscope to get their ducks in a row. That good will that many of us have isn't going to last forever and for some it's already too late. Half the time I expect OP to just vanish in the night with no warning, which is why my Ascendant status renews monthly now instead of yearly.

    Frequent communication without results is nothing more than lip service. Now isn't the time for apologies or promises, we've heard them already. Now is the time for a clear plan of action to be laid out (with realistic deadlines), then followed.

    -Abersade
    DM of "Rise of the Durnskald - Wrath of the Fallen Goddess":https://rise-of-the-durnskald.obsidianportal.com/

    GM of Rise of the Durnskald: Wrath of the Fallen Goddess - February 2016 CotM

    GM of Core: The Ashes of Alcarna - April 2020 CotM

    GM of Stream of Kairos

    Need CSS Help? It may be covered here: Abersade's CSS Hub

  • SkidAce
    SkidAce
    Posts: 830
    Where's the "like" button here....
  • twiggyleaf
    twiggyleaf
    Posts: 2,006
    LOL!

    "I met a traveller from an antique land....."

    CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.

    Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign

    Inner Council Member

  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    So really would like to hear from those few that are still left from the Reforge- how much better or worse off is your Obsidian Portal experience, 2 years later?

    Just trying to help out.

  • NikMak
    NikMak
    Posts: 379 edited October 2015
    My experience of OP is more or less unchanged. I had to have a major rewrite to get back to what I had originally.

    That said, I am very aware that the people now running the site are not the people responsible for the reforge any more. I kind of feel it is time to stop bleating on about the reforge (spilt milk, water under the bridge, etc.). The previous management tried something and failed. The new management have been in place 9 months at the most. If we are lucky the new management will stop the site from dying... If we are very lucky they may even improve the site overall. But it will be at least 24 months from the time of the management change over to see any significant improvement. Just 'IMHO' as always
    Post edited by NikMak on
  • SkidAce
    SkidAce
    Posts: 830
    I guess my experience is about the same, with one exception.

    I mean, the site works (mainly) and the portals I create look nice and there's this community....so the same?

    But I am a LOT more worried about continuity and stability than I was.
  • ketherian
    ketherian
    Posts: 203
    Hi all. Reforge-backer and long-time member here (joined: February 04, 2009).

    I like OP. I like the people and I really like having all my tools on one site.
    The groups that I host (as a GM or a player) aren't as interested in it as I am. So I don't get much "local support" for staying with OP.

    So how much better or worse off is your Obsidian Portal experience, 2 years later? It's par. It's not better (and the kickstarter did promise it would be better), but it's not worse.
    The number of open tickets and the complaints on this forum worry me greatly. I like the way the PR is heading (thank you alex_redeye), but I want to hear about more results in some more detail. Bug fixes aren't sexy; but knowing things are being fixed would help ease my worries.

    I've never noticed problems with embedded videos not playing or email - because I don't use the former and hardly (if ever) use the latter. Am I part of the minority? Or am I just not noticing when a feature I don't rely on doesn't work. I don't know.

    I support KillerVP's belief that things should be much better here at OP than they are, and really appreciate his lobbying for a better site. Dude, I wish I could do more than back your play, but I have no data to add to your arguments.

    -
    ketherian
    "Signs & Portends":swtwc.obsidianportal.com
  • Keryth987
    Keryth987
    Posts: 1,047 edited October 2015
    I backed the reforge, and my gaming group has used OP extensively since. I have several orphaned campaign ideas here that I started on and then stop because I lost interest. My most successful campaign ever for my group is on here and was partially what it was because of OP.

    That being said, the reforge was a terrible nightmare. I spent two full weeks of 8 hrs a day, making my site for the campaign I was running at the time usable again and several more weeks restoring it to the look and feel that won it COTM and COTY. And since then, I've gotten pretty much nothing but failing systems. No email worked at all, the embedding broke, and there was little to no communication from those doing the site

    Yes, Alex has come on board with the new owners, and no offense intended, but very little has changed. I don't blame Alex or even the new team, as an IT Professional myself I can only imagine the nightmare the system was in. However, people now, myself included, are frustrated and anxious Andtired of being told it is being worked on.

    Yes, there has been some progress. The email issue is semi fixed and YouTube embedding is working again (though since we never heard an announcement about it I am skeptical that it is due to anything by the dev team), still we sit here 2 yrs later with unmet goals, unanswered support tickets, and broken capabilities.

    So do I like OP? Yes. Am I happy with it as it stands? No.
    And honestly, if I hadn't invested so much time in the sites I have here I would have moved on by now like so many others from this once vibrant community have done

    Keelah Se'lai,
    Keryth
    "Shadows Over New York":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shadows-over-new-york
    "2013 Campaign of The Year":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/2013-coty-shadows-over-new-york/
    "Campaign of the Month July 2013":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/shadows-over-new-york-julys-campaign-of-the-month/
    Post edited by Keryth987 on

  • Belrathius
    Belrathius
    Posts: 206
    I seem to have a view composed of many other views expressed here. Is my experience better? I would say yes, but only because prior to the reforge I had no real idea what value was held by Ascendancy status. As such, the real benefit came from being able to customize my sites more effectively and comprehensively, which months later became a nightmare with the Reforge changes,

    The Reforge was an absolute unmitigated disaster. Frankly, I see little substantial benefit - and unlike so many others, my years in corporate America makes it clear to me that the blame falls somewhat on the various team members (they always have the opportunity to be more transparent) but 95% is all on Micah, the controlling decision maker behind everything. Yes, he is providing more info now, but frankly that is to be expected as part of the acquisition contract. He was the recipient of the Kickstarter funds, he decided who did what behind the scenes (or was even involved), and he decided the course of action for OP as a whole. While I agree with NikMak that we seem to still be beating a dead horse, frankly I find it ridiculous that people are blaming the new owners and yet no one has sought to put the blame where it really belongs: Micah, who WAS familiar with the complicated system that he built and still achieved nothing substantial for a year and a half. No real bug fixes, no KS milestone promises, no repairs to flawed designs, and no compensation for the avalanche of failures.

    If people really want compensation for these failures, don't ask the new owners to extend the KS rewards (of which they are not legally obliged to do any ways). Instead, someone should start a class-action lawsuit against Micah for failing to meet the legal obligations set within the Kickstarter. At least this way, there is real compensation AND a legal basis since it would fall under a breach of contract issue (and would have the backing of KS because they take their KS agreements very seriously). But I doubt that this will happen because those most affected have fond memories of Micah and how he once treated the community, but a faceless corporation is easier to blame.

    I challenge ANY one of you to inherit such a convoluted, complex monstrosity as OP and gain in-depth familiarity with the code in a matter of a few months. This is one of the biggest reasons that I have tried to promote a modular rewrite. The email issue is just one example. There should not be so many different ways that email does or doesn't get processed on the back end. Instead, there should be a transactional email service that receives requests from other services, such as campaign invites and so on. The actual email service should be completely independent of any process that generates the request. This allows for better load balancing between services as well as makes it easier to identify problems in the chain. Further, it allows for an easier time making improvements to the email services as a whole across OP, much like how CSS allows changes throughout a site while just updating a single location. We're just talking best practices here, both from a dev standpoint and an ops standpoint (which is where my expertise lies). Instead, Kaleidoscope inherited a spaghetti-mess of code that they are now trying to make sense of. Why now? Because evidently they also inherited a dev team that did not perform as expected. Are they to blame? Somewhat, because they should have done a MUCH better job investigating their potential purchase. If they had, they would have discovered a fiasco waiting to happen and would have either a) come at it more aggressively from the beginning to better salvage their investment or b) not bought OP at all. Frankly, we're lucky that they did buy it, because if they hadn't things would be even worse now.

    Should we expect more from the new owners? Yes, mostly in transparency and communication - open, honest, frequent communication. But getting a handle on a horrible coding mess does not happen quickly - even in big companies, it can take a big team many months just to get a handle on the codebase. With a smaller team, even longer. If I were them, I would stop all development once the email issue is resolved and focus on installing better infrastructure than what they inherited. Get a handle on tools (like the help system and bug management), get a smoother test environment out that can easily be separated but migrated to production, and work out the RIGHT processes. These are all blatantly missing, and without these solid foundations everything else is just hit and miss, shooting from the hip. That is no way to run ANY business, and far too often (like now) the customers pay the price.
  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    Thanks very much to those that have participated- keep them coming.

    Just trying to help out.

  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090
    Obviously I haven't been as active in recent months as in the past, but as someone who has been here since before the reforge and who had to do extensive repairs following it - I have to say that my OP experience is more or less unchanged on a practical level. I still have the same basic toolkit and format for my campaigns; still have CSS access to make my pages look as closely to how I want them to as I can; still have players who don't bother contributing to the campaign sites, but like the idea of a page where they can reference things when they want... and thus expect that I'll do all the work.

    Now perhaps I've merely been fortunate, but I don't seem to encounter the errors and bugs that others are dealing with while working on my pages; maybe because of that I am more patient; maybe things don't seem as bad for me personally, who knows. At the end of the day, it's the same old, same old for me - which is the problem IMO. The reforge was supposed to make the site stronger, more streamlined, faster, and bring in new features (granted, I wasn't happy with the idea of all of them, but hey). We knew we were in for a rough ride. We just didn't know how LONG that rough ride would be. We were supposed to weather the storm, and come out better for it on the other side. So far, we're more or less still intact, but now our boat has some holes to plug.

    On that front, I'm with Belrathius all the way. I don't think I could've said it better. I myself look at old stuff I coded back when and sometimes think "what the hell was I doing?!". I can only imagine coming into something like OP and being expected to troubleshoot and pinpoint things causing bugs at break neck speed to appease the clients and try to make good on the promises of my bosses.

    Our boat may still have holes to plug, and the storm may be lasting longer than we thought, but my hatches are still battened, and I could've swore I saw the lighthouse in the distance when I crested that last wave. I remain alert, concerned, and hopeful.
    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • twiggyleaf
    twiggyleaf
    Posts: 2,006 edited November 2015
    Kallak: " I could’ve swore I saw the lighthouse in the distance when I crested that last wave."

    That is a metaphor I can get into....

    My experience is generally better now than it was in the beginning. I actually like the new look of the Reforge and find all the aesthetics a lot cleaner. I do miss a few features - mainly the SEARCHING of OTHER CAMPAIGNS and the transition phase was extremely painful, but eased significantly by the Vanguard Assistance programme. To Wolfhound and the others who helped us all through that phase, I cannot thank you enough!

    More recently the EMAIL NOTIFICATION issue has had the most negative impact of all things, but the "FIX" has at least made things workable again.

    I would still like to see some of the REFORGE promises come to fruition but I am not bitter about it. I find the whole Ascendancy Status such good value for money that I was even happy with the few extra months' time it bought me.

    Alex has been amazing and probably one of the best things to have happened to this site in recent years. There were some horrible periods of long silence before his engagement!

    I am just so happy that the site continues and it is such an important tool to my gaming that I would not want to live without it. Even with the problems at the moment, it is still one of my favourite things in the whole world.

    In the light of Kallak's statement, I think of an old Peter Hammill song:
    "Oh, I'm looking for a white note
    To consolidate the key,
    Like the pilot of a night boat
    In a strange, uncharted sea: ...."

    That was how I used to write music, and it is also how I struggle through the IT nightmare of creating my site, but oh, so fondly how I appreciate the song....

    twigs
    Post edited by twiggyleaf on

    "I met a traveller from an antique land....."

    CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.

    Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign

    Inner Council Member

  • Maesenko
    Maesenko
    Posts: 325
    My turn, I guess.

    I really have stopped uploading things to the site, but that has nothing to do with OP. I find myself in that oh-so-undesirable position of having no gaming group, no time to organize one, and (quite frankly) no inspiration to try. I check in on my pages and campaigns, and every once and again I do something (post an idea, attempt to get into a PbP or roll20 game (which inevitably fails)). I check the forums regularly, if not daily. But for the time being, there is not much reason for me to do anything here, as the main purpose of the site is not aligning with my life right now.

    But enough about that. As for the experience of the actual site, I echo others in stating that it has been mostly break-even when it should be better. I got my lifetime Ascendant status from the KS, and I never had Ascendant before then, so that's certainly an improvement. I haven't done any CSS work (and again have little motivation to do so, seeing as I'm not playing anything), so the Reforge had no effect on me, though I do still kind of miss the old layout. I do really miss the CotM and being able to search the site for other campaigns, as they really showcased to me what I could do and were great sources of inspiration and reference. I miss the people who left or withdrew to their campaigns only; the community used to be so much more vibrant and engaged. We have had some improvements to the site beyond the aesthetic: the file storage has increased, the maps got a bit better zoom, and we have a start on the name generator. We've added more DSTs and gaming systems to the list, and I even like some of the new layout now that I've gotten more used to it (especially the top bar). I'm still not really happy with the decision to not improve the Items tab, especially since it's just a simple reconfig of the Characters. The Dashboard, Settings, and Forum tabs are jarring to the eye when I switch between them and the rest, and I don't like that they can't really be customized (especially since the forums aren't well-built and still give me scrolling issues).

    Regarding the management...well, I assume those who are active here have read my opinion on the Message from the CEO blog post. I hate vagueness and generality from authority figures, it gives off an air of dishonesty to me, and if there's one thing I hate more than anything, it's being lied to (especially when I know they're doing it). I was sad to see Micah and Jerry go, but in all honesty, it was time for the torch to be passed since it was becoming obvious (sometimes painfully so) that the site just wasn't as much of a priority for them as we wanted it to be. I'm still not too fond of Kaleidoscope yet (but we'll see how that goes as time goes on), but I know they're trying. I genuinely love that they promoted some of our own to help improve the site, and I am very grateful that Alex has been as open and helpful as he has been; transparency goes a long way, especially in as relatively small a community as we are.

    And let's face it, the code sucks. Micah built it from the ground up years ago, learning as he went, and it has mutated into a strange entity since then. The Reforge then took that and jumbled it all up, slapped some makeup on it, and mutated it even more. I'm surprised that the site was even functioning after the Reforge, and that it works as much as it does now that parts of it are being altered and reconstructed with what I hope is surgical precision. Hopefully we'll get to a point where everything runs smoothly again, and I know that the day-to-day can be frustrating, mind-numbing, or even outright scream-worthy for some of us. But I've taken the long view on all of this (and again, not being active in any campaigns really makes that easy), and I know that things will get better if they continue on the path they are on now. I'm more than willing to wait, and I'm even willing to do my part to help, though I'm not really of the tech/web/dev mind. Unless things suddenly pull a 180 and start sharply going downhill, I have no reason not to support the site and encourage people to use it. In fact, as an investor and lifetime member, it's in my best interests.

    As Always,
    _~Mae_

    ~Mae

    CotM Selection Committee

  • RaseCidraen
    RaseCidraen
    Posts: 890
    That's a shame that you've fallen into that undesirable position, Mae! If you ever need someone to rope into an online game or other, I'm always game for investigating new possibilities.

    The ride I have taken with Obsidian Portal has been quite the interesting one, and there are certain elements that I sorely miss. I miss the vibrancy of the community the most - the forums used to be a place that was frequented by a number of people, and there are a few of us left, but the forums aren't quite the place I remember them being, sadly. I don't think it's entirely caused by the Reforge, etc, which certainly has caused a lot of disillusionment and some leavers. There's inevitably attrition due to life and circumstance, but there's a part of me that longs for the very friendly past.

    The site itself is not without issue, but I backed the reforge with the knowledge that most of what I had built was going to break. My buddy Gaaran and I have built some truely monstrous clunkers of sites (frequently for campaigns that went nowhere), purely out of the joy of challenging ourselves and developing new and interesting ways to do things on the site. I remember back when we were all posting on the forums being relatively giddy as we all worked together towards innovative new displays of code, and the vast knowledge that was passed from person to person. But Gaaran and I knew, with the Reforge, that all of the neat little things we built, the intricacies of code, would all shatter like a toddler hurling a ball at a castle made of sand. But that was okay, because it was expected. We picked up our things and built something knew on top of the knowledge of the old. It's hard for others to do the same, but if you take the time, you can eventually build something better.

    He and I, for example, went from our COTM, "Dark Queen of the West":https://the-dark-queen-of-the-west.obsidianportal.com/ to our current twin Shadowrun campaigns, "Diamond Pulse":https://shadowrun-diamond-pulse.obsidianportal.com/ and "Emerald Echoes":https://emerald-echoes.obsidianportal.com/ , where we built on the ruins of things that broke (We decided Dark Queen was beyond saving without a massive reinvestment of time).

    I think the best thing for the site would be for us to reinvest in the community, because that's what gaming is all about, isn't it? Our particular brand of storytelling, where there is no "winning" or "losing", but instead triumphs, resounding failures, all working together in symphony to create a story. It doesn't matter if the story has been told before, because it's the nature of the telling that is the truth of the story.

    As for if things are better or worse off? I'd say over the two years, it's given me a big opportunity to learn, so that makes some things better, while the loss of friends here has made it worse. So it's been a bit of a wash. But there's a chance it can be a better place, it just make take a bit of work.

    Best,
    Rase
  • bluesguy
    bluesguy
    Posts: 127
    My turn...

    I backed the KS Reforge project. I don't like how that turned out. I think @Belrathius is 100% on target with where the blame should go concerning the KS Reforge project.

    I have found that my experience with OP as a tool is about the same as it was prior to the KS project as it is now. It meets my needs. Does it meet those needs perfectly? No, it never did.

    I have the skills to set up something else if I wanted to take the time to do it. If I did build something myself it is unlikely that it would provide more functionality that OP currently does and I would have to do additional work. I don't like doing extra work if I don't have to :-)
  • Praesi
    Praesi
    Posts: 31
    I'm completely with Belrathius and bluesguy concerning the reforge mess. But there's always two...!
    My problem with OP and the reforge is that I don't have the skills to set something up for myself. And I never had the skills to shape the OP-tools to my needs. It took me quite some time to figure out how "the old OP" produced what I intended to. I didn't customize, I didn't use CSS or any stuff like that. But my "knowledge" all got washed down the drain by the reforge.
    Sure, it's kind of functional. But only kind of. It seems to me that almost everything works, but nothing is functional without a workaround or special trick you just need to know and keep in mind for future use of OP. On top, everything is to be changed sooner (or more probably:) later... .
    That's not how I want to use OP! The community is great an there are lots of helpful and clever people here - but I don't want to have to ask every single bit. OP is a business, a platform I have paid to use. If anyone should get paid here it's the community people who keep the whole thing alive! I don't have the time and especially I'm simply not in the mood for "hacking around" to find out how to do such horribly complicated things like sending a mail, editing text or inserting a pic... .
    My group (except one guy) has left OP a few weeks after the reforge. So there is no one to look at my pages anyway. We started a new campaign a few weeks ago, so I tried to bring them back here - but it never worked out to invite them. Neither via external nor internal mail. Maybe there is another workaround, but sorry to say: if a "social" portal needs a workaround for sending mails, it's bullshit!
    I have some more ascendant time left. That long I will give it a look from time to time... .

    Disappointed,
    Praesi
  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    Well said Praesi, glad to see you still here.

    Just trying to help out.

  • twiggyleaf
    twiggyleaf
    Posts: 2,006
    I can identify with much of Praesi's post.

    Ultimately, his phrase....." sorry to say: if a "social" portal needs a workaround for sending mails, it's bullshit!" ....should be chiming like Big Ben all across the streets of Kaleidoscope!

    twigs

    "I met a traveller from an antique land....."

    CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.

    Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign

    Inner Council Member

  • BearerOfTidings
    BearerOfTidings
    Posts: 28
    Guess it Is my turn. Overall I am slightly better off than I was before the Reforge. There are a few items that I miss, like having an Items menu option next to the Wiki, Characters, and Adventure Log but I do like the look better and the search tool is very nice once I got used to it.

    Although I create a lot of campaigns here, I don't customize because I don't have the skills or the time. The recent email fiasco was a huge hindrance and I am glad that it got resolved but my campaigns stalled out completely while it was down. My groups had gotten so used to communicating via OP that not everybody had all of the email addresses.

    But I was sorely disappointed with the Reforge and I DIDN'T have years of effort shaping CSS! We should be farther along than we are and I am counting on the new management to get this ship moving in the right direction at a more satisfactory pace than we have experienced since the Reforge.
  • SkidAce
    SkidAce
    Posts: 830
    Bearer, you do know you can have that items menu right?

    Settings > Advance > checkbox for "Show Items Section (Not Recommended)"

    They say they have stopped supporting it, but that hasn't made any difference, all my campaigns use it.
  • twiggyleaf
    twiggyleaf
    Posts: 2,006
    I use it too, SkidAce!

    twigs

    "I met a traveller from an antique land....."

    CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.

    Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign

    Inner Council Member

  • Bookscorpion
    Bookscorpion
    Posts: 58
    We couldn't run "the Rat's Nest":https://ratsnest.obsidianportal.com without Obsidian Portal. After the Reforge, we rebuilt with the help of a lot of people in this forum and by now, things work. But Praesi is right, it works because people have come up with workarounds and not because it was done right. And things are VERY slow to change. The one thing the Reforge really destroyed, in my opinion, was the community of OP. It's still clinging to live in the forums, but with no good way of searching for campaigns and campaigns pretty much hidden away until you actually go and search for them (instead of seeing them in the first page I see when I come to OP), I feel that a really important part of OP is gone.

    So yes, I'll keep using the site for now. But I'm seriously planning on setting up my own wiki for my campaign because at least then I'll be responsible for mistakes myself and they will get fixed. Right now, I feel like we're shouting into the void with our problems.

    Shadowrun: The Rat's Nest - COTM  November 2014

  • UselessTriviaMan
    UselessTriviaMan
    Posts: 546
    I initially joined OP pre-Reforge, but only tinkered with it a bit back then. I had no horse in that race when the Reforge fell apart the way it did.

    However, since becoming Ascendant (June) and gaining access to all the cool features that includes, I have to say I'm actually pretty happy. My players don't use the site nearly as much as I do (yet), but I have the vast majority of my campaign notes here. For the first time ever, I'm using a laptop behind my GM screen and it's been working wonderfully. I have cross-referenced, easily accessible notes for all the pertinent campaign information, and if I need to look something up I'm there in a click or two instead of flipping through the pages of books to find it.

    GM secrets are so damn handy, but where this site has _really_ shone (for me, anyway) is the Player Secrets section. Each PC has their own privately-shared information on NPCs, locations, and organizations that are relevant to them.

    ...So yeah, for myself I'm happy. I read about the ongoing problems that have plagued the site, and I sympathize with the frustrations of both the community and Alex. I agree that Kaleidoscope isn't communicating with the community as much as we'd like. I recognize that they've inherited a Very Big Mess, and that it's going to take a very long time to clean it up. But I'm perfectly content to keep using all the features that are currently available. When (not if) new features are added down the road, I'll incorporate them.

    I genuinely _want_ to see the OP community thrive. This site is - bar none - the best campaign organization tool I've ever found.

    Ptolus, City by the Spire - 2016 Campaign of the Year

    "Please pay attention very carefully, because this is the truest thing a stranger will ever say to you: In the face of such hopelessness as our eventual, unavoidable death, there is little sense in not at least TRYING to accomplish all your wildest dreams in life."  - - Kevin Smith

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March 2024
Wrath of the Highborn

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