News Edition #87 [01/12/2021]

Oathkeeper: Hello there Nasyr, I appreciate the time you're spending for this interview. Before anything, tell me, how have you been these days? How's life?

Nasyr: Thanks for taking the time to interview me. I've been pretty good recently, I was ill over the Christmas period but made a swift recovery. Did a Covid test and the results were negative so was nice to clear that up. What about yourself?

Oathkeeper: Glad to hear you're back on your feet. Hopefully, you had a blast these holidays regardless. Personally, I was busy stuffing myself with food and holiday sweets, as well as slaving away for University and writing projects. Casual stuff.
I hope the fatigue from tending to all the forum's needs didn't contribute to you falling ill. It must be tiring being short-handed and having to read so many reports.

Nasyr: Yeah I just left everything alone and more or less just slept for about 4 days to try to get through it as fast as possible. Generally speaking the forums and their maintenance can sometimes be a lot to handle between reports, ask staff, and appeals. That said each staff member does their part but most recently as you'll have noticed less activity from other staff but that is due to a number of reasons in their own personal lives and the current situation. I'm glad to hear that you had a lovely holiday period.

Oathkeeper: Completely natural, it can't be helped. I have to admire your perseverance though. Regardless of the mundane repetition, you press on and, what's even more surprising, you recently decided to re-open the Writers. From what I have heard, the other groups you own (meaning all the other groups) are getting some "backstage work" as well. I am happy things are in motion, but what puzzles me more is: Why did you decide to pop off now? Can you share more information about the rest of the groups?

Nasyr: Mid-2020 I purchased most of the groups being Challenge, Vixen, and Pirates along with already owning Nullus the groups were bought for a reason. At the time V4 was well underway and the group scene was more or less non-existing. I made the decision to scoop up all the groups. This allowed for plans within V4. Originally the end goal was to bring the groups under the control of one person who could then more direct and manage the groups as a whole with appointed leaders from within the community. At this present time, I have put additional user groups to the side to focus on bringing Writers back up to date in which when done I can actually focus on a strategy for the remaining groups going forward in V3 and then eventually into V4.

Oathkeeper: So you weren't just a compulsive buyer... The way you were going, you seemed like you were about to buy the whole forum as well. Well, I assume with the delay of V4, the rest of the preparations followed suit. Having one person rule all the groups sounds like a big responsibility... got any people in mind so far that can take such a challenge up, or should I link the recruitment thread in the interview?

Nasyr: Not at all, there is an end goal of acquiring all the forum groups. The way in which I have in mind is a chain of command system where there will be me owning them but then the Main Leader and then the Sub-Leaders and of course then the members. However, that is subject to change depending on how things go in the coming months. At the moment I think that I need to be sure on the user groups (their goals) first and then I'll be able to focus on who would be best for the position. I did make a thread about recruiting leaders but to be honest, I was looking for ideas there too, none seemed to tick all the boxes. It's more a case of waiting and seeing what the future holds at the current time.

Oathkeeper: Can we expect new user groups as replacements, or the old ones will just make a comeback?

Nasyr: It would all depend, I'm going to be monitoring this closely and approach people down the line about becoming leaders. If they have a good idea for a group and can show there are solid grounds on why it would work well then I'll make the changes. Certain groups such as Challenge which is focused on gaming would probably not change, the reason being a massive percentage of the userbase plays games on some level or another.

Oathkeeper: Sounds fair. But I am itching to address the elephant in the room. What can you tell us about V4? How close are we and what information can you leak if you can.

Nasyr: I was waiting on the big question to be asked as I know a lot of people really do want to know. V4 is a massive undertaking, with some fantastic new features being added along with a sleek new design to freshen the website up across all devices. Overall the entire website will be going onto a whole new level. I've seen the work and tested the new version which the difference is night and day. At the moment we do not have an accurate release time frame, we had hoped to have it here before the end of 2020. However due to a change in circumstances, the development cycle has currently halted and at this time I am unsure when it will pick back up, hopefully soon. This is why at the moment I am focusing on the group's aspect whilst also slowly working through sections to clear them up.

Oathkeeper: I see. I hope the new version also addresses a lot of the current issues, like leeching and broken features, whenever it comes. I'm still eagerly waiting.
Anyways, I would hate taking up more of your time and tiring the readers any more. Before we close this lengthy and informative interview, I have one last question: You have been a member here for a while and you're still around. Can you name a person/people that used to be active but no longer are and you wish the V4 would bring back?

Nasyr: Yeah that’s it the main goal is to bring to life new features and design whilst also fixing some minor issues here and there as we go along. To be honest there are loads of people who used to be really active here who’ve since moved on from forums or just disappeared. Would be hard to say who because I’d like to see every one, even people who are active in discord, get on the forums and be posting now and in the future.

Oathkeeper: Truthfully, a really touching wish.
And with that, this wraps up this issue's interview. Let this edition be the beginning of many great things. Thanks again Nasyr for joining this session and I hope you keep up the amazing work.

Nasyr: Thank you for taking the time to interview me.