Author Topic: Carcassonne Central's New Owners  (Read 10870 times)

Offline kettlefish

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #45 on: January 18, 2022, 06:47:40 AM »
Its so nice that with this new ownership some of the former important people coming back!  ;D
Its nice to see you here present at this moment, @kettlefish.
Your name, too, is all over the place here and in CarcF.
Thanks a lot and Cheers!  :(y)
Thank you Challa007. Yes I was very quiet in the last few years.

Offline JT Atomico

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #46 on: January 18, 2022, 09:16:22 AM »
Thanks to Dan, Tom and Hector for taking on the ownership of the website! I'm glad to hear that the future of Carcassonne Central is in safe hands. :green-meeple:

Offline wicke

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #47 on: January 18, 2022, 09:48:44 AM »
Cool to hear that the site is back up.
Although I haven't been active for several years and hardly even get the chance to play nowadays.

I did make quite a few fan-made expansions myself.

This is the first time I have logged in for a couple of years.
My website:
http://www.wikstromtree.org/
although the games page is yet to be started

Offline kettlefish

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #48 on: January 18, 2022, 10:05:59 AM »
Cool to hear that the site is back up.
Although I haven't been active for several years and hardly even get the chance to play nowadays.

I did make quite a few fan-made expansions myself.

This is the first time I have logged in for a couple of years.
Hi wicke,
I am happy to see you here again. I also didn't play Carcassonne for a long time.

Offline Meepledrone

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #49 on: January 18, 2022, 11:52:12 AM »
Ha ha ha!

Thanks @JT Atomico! ;D

@wicke You all are welcome to join the blast-from-the-past party and share you fan expansion... :(y) :(y)

You may find a lot of new stuff to catch up with too.  ;D
« Last Edit: January 18, 2022, 11:54:18 AM by Meepledrone »
Questions about rules? Check WICA: wikicarpedia.com

Offline Whaleyland

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #50 on: January 18, 2022, 04:26:17 PM »
Congratulations Dan, Tom and Hector! You three will handle the forum and website well and a triumvirate should mean that the site management never completely collapse again as it has at least twice before.

As somebody who has been a member of this forum since 2008, when Gantry and Matt Harper were still active daily, I must say that this is a promising new development. I joined this forum about a year after buying my first Carcassonne product: the original Big Box, as well as the Games Quarterly Expansion. I immediately became addicted and this game quickly came to replace my earlier addiction to The Settlers of Catan (which I haven't played in many years). This community has certainly led me to spending hundreds of dollars over the years, but in many ways it saved me money since I also had early or day one knowledge of almost every Carcassonne product released. This meant that I was able to get every C1 expansion shortly after it came out and I have more or less continued to do so with new C2/3 content, after an initial hesitation.

I have seen at least three waves of management come and go, with Gantry and Matt gradually replaced in everyday moderation by Scott, kettlefish, and Novelty Nostalgia. Following the combination of a massive forum crash several years ago, the forum's migration to a new server, and the resignation/departure of many of our Hans im Gluck contacts not long after C2 released, the forum simmered for many years. Danisthirty was instrumental in keeping the group alive at this time, with me providing semi-regular weekly polls to encourage discussion and engagement. However the drift toward online tournaments, which I had no interest in, and my own personal life led me away, although I always checked in regularly (mostly to see if any new product has been announced).

I suspect I am now the seniormost active member of the group, if the fortnightly comment or post can be counted as "active." That's kind of a cool distinction and I truly wish I had more time for the hobby. My original interest in the forum came directly from Matt, who told me about his combined rules soon after they were uploaded onto BoardGameGeek (which I also joined as a result of the CAR). I volunteered to make the covers for them in those early days because his covers were not visually appealing and I had some experience from Catan rules booklets I had done. I stopped making covers after he did a major refresh for, I think, the 7th edition of the CAR. In those years, I also made a few fan expansions (most of which I never actually played myself) and published two Carcassonne campaigns (which I have played, although I've never done all 50 scenarios in the second edition). During the 2020 lockdown, I planned to work on and release a third edition campaign using the C2 expansions as a template, but I quickly ran out of time as my work role was reassigned. I haven't really had any time to work on it since and, as many of you may have noticed, I still don't engage heavily on the site despite checking in daily.

With all that being said, I am unbelievably happy that the torch has finally been passed. Gantry was a very active member for the first few years that the forum operated and then he became more of a behind-the-scenes tech support for when something went wrong, as well as the site's financial backer. It was never fair to him that he was saddled with the site once he lost interest and/or ran out of time to run it. But that is the nature of the internet: so many good websites are gone now because the person who paid the bills no longer wanted to. I am very glad such is now the case here. So I raise a glass of mead to you three to a long reign and an amicable power-sharing agreement. May your meeple towers never fall and may your tile towers runneth over. Salud!

Edit: Just for nostalgia's sake, here is the list of original admins, moderators, and staff from the old forum. Lots of old-timers I haven't heard from in many years...
« Last Edit: January 18, 2022, 04:32:18 PM by Whaleyland, Reason: Added photo »

Offline Challa007

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #51 on: January 18, 2022, 11:32:24 PM »
Congratulations Dan, Tom and Hector! You three will handle the forum and website well and a triumvirate should mean that the site management never completely collapse again as it has at least twice before.

As somebody who has been a member of this forum since 2008, when Gantry and Matt Harper were still active daily, I must say that this is a promising new development. I joined this forum about a year after buying my first Carcassonne product: the original Big Box, as well as the Games Quarterly Expansion. I immediately became addicted and this game quickly came to replace my earlier addiction to The Settlers of Catan (which I haven't played in many years). This community has certainly led me to spending hundreds of dollars over the years, but in many ways it saved me money since I also had early or day one knowledge of almost every Carcassonne product released. This meant that I was able to get every C1 expansion shortly after it came out and I have more or less continued to do so with new C2/3 content, after an initial hesitation.

I have seen at least three waves of management come and go, with Gantry and Matt gradually replaced in everyday moderation by Scott, kettlefish, and Novelty Nostalgia. Following the combination of a massive forum crash several years ago, the forum's migration to a new server, and the resignation/departure of many of our Hans im Gluck contacts not long after C2 released, the forum simmered for many years. Danisthirty was instrumental in keeping the group alive at this time, with me providing semi-regular weekly polls to encourage discussion and engagement. However the drift toward online tournaments, which I had no interest in, and my own personal life led me away, although I always checked in regularly (mostly to see if any new product has been announced).

I suspect I am now the seniormost active member of the group, if the fortnightly comment or post can be counted as "active." That's kind of a cool distinction and I truly wish I had more time for the hobby. My original interest in the forum came directly from Matt, who told me about his combined rules soon after they were uploaded onto BoardGameGeek (which I also joined as a result of the CAR). I volunteered to make the covers for them in those early days because his covers were not visually appealing and I had some experience from Catan rules booklets I had done. I stopped making covers after he did a major refresh for, I think, the 7th edition of the CAR. In those years, I also made a few fan expansions (most of which I never actually played myself) and published two Carcassonne campaigns (which I have played, although I've never done all 50 scenarios in the second edition). During the 2020 lockdown, I planned to work on and release a third edition campaign using the C2 expansions as a template, but I quickly ran out of time as my work role was reassigned. I haven't really had any time to work on it since and, as many of you may have noticed, I still don't engage heavily on the site despite checking in daily.

With all that being said, I am unbelievably happy that the torch has finally been passed. Gantry was a very active member for the first few years that the forum operated and then he became more of a behind-the-scenes tech support for when something went wrong, as well as the site's financial backer. It was never fair to him that he was saddled with the site once he lost interest and/or ran out of time to run it. But that is the nature of the internet: so many good websites are gone now because the person who paid the bills no longer wanted to. I am very glad such is now the case here. So I raise a glass of mead to you three to a long reign and an amicable power-sharing agreement. May your meeple towers never fall and may your tile towers runneth over. Salud!

Edit: Just for nostalgia's sake, here is the list of original admins, moderators, and staff from the old forum. Lots of old-timers I haven't heard from in many years...

Its nice to read all these old stories, thanks for that @Whaleyland. For all those people like me who did not live this history it is surely adding an additional layer of depth to all these names!
It is only by acknowledging the past and the people who have contributed to it, that you have the solid foundation to turn to the future :)
« Last Edit: January 19, 2022, 12:27:22 AM by Challa007 »

Offline kettlefish

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #52 on: January 19, 2022, 06:56:58 AM »
Whaleyland,
thank you for your great review for the past time of our CarcC forum.

I also started to play Carcassonne with the first BigBox in 2006.

Here in Germany we hadn't a forum like this in the early years.
The fan expansions and questions: We have had a side from HiG where we had a direct contact to them.
The answers we've got from Georg Wild and we had some really good members there who answered the most questions. And we had there some fan-expansions.

With the start of CarcC I looked here inside, I was first only interested in the fan-expansions and also the CAR.

At almost of the end of the old forums there was a problem. Someone was sold the fan expansions with a professional layout at ebay. I had not the direct contact and rights here at CarcC at that time. I was only a little member. I know that Matt Harper was a teacher at a university here in Germany. So I called him directly at his job during his office time (not teaching time). When he came home he contacted me by call and we discuss (of course in German) the problem we had.

And Matt contacted then the authors and admins of this forum about the issue and also he contacted HiG. I've also called with HiG about this problem.

Matt Harper was in that time not active. My English was very bat. Before I contacted Matt Harper, I tried to explain the situation to Scott and Gantry - they didn't understand the real problem.

That is one story from me about the old times.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2022, 07:09:40 AM by kettlefish »

Offline DIN0

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #53 on: January 19, 2022, 10:59:43 AM »
Congratulations to the new owners!

I see the news have attracted a lot of old faces back to the forum, which is great ;D! A lot of interesting and new things have occured while you were gone. It would take too long to make an exhaustive list, but I can at least mention my own recent contribution - Carcassonne's own game notation https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=5644.0

Offline JohannesD

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #54 on: January 20, 2022, 12:25:06 PM »
This is wonderful news!
Tom, Hector and Dan, please accept my sincere congratulations on your new role in this community. I wish you all the best and I'm sure that Carcassonne Central and Wikicarpedia will benefit greatly and continue to thrive. Although I am fairly new to the the world of Carcassonne and this forum, I would like to thank all of you (and your predecessors) for your commitment, energy, knowledge, initiatives and willingness to help other members. I can't imagine how much time and energy (and money?) is required to keep this small "universe" up and running smoothly and you are doing an excellent job. This is a wonderful place and an invaluable source of information for everything related to our favourite game and I'm grateful for it all.
J.

Offline Meepledrone

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #55 on: January 20, 2022, 02:04:24 PM »
Thank you guys for your kind words...

We hope you enjoy the forum (and even WICA ;)) as much as we do and meet as many people passionate about Carcassonne as possible and enjoy all sorts of interesting stuff they are happy to share. This is our primary goal. That easy! ;D

Have lots of fun! O0

Offline meepleater

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #56 on: January 20, 2022, 05:28:36 PM »
Congratulations Tom, Hector and Dan! This site and others like it were a big part of my life some years ago, it’s great to see it’s still in such safe hands after all this time!

Offline Decar

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #57 on: January 21, 2022, 02:59:04 PM »
This is wonderful news!
Tom, Hector and Dan, please accept my sincere congratulations on your new role in this community. I wish you all the best and I'm sure that Carcassonne Central and Wikicarpedia will benefit greatly and continue to thrive. Although I am fairly new to the the world of Carcassonne and this forum, I would like to thank all of you (and your predecessors) for your commitment, energy, knowledge, initiatives and willingness to help other members. I can't imagine how much time and energy (and money?) is required to keep this small "universe" up and running smoothly and you are doing an excellent job. This is a wonderful place and an invaluable source of information for everything related to our favourite game and I'm grateful for it all.
J.

Thanks for your kind words JohannesD. It means an awful lot to hear words like these. The most satisfying part is seeing so many people come together to enjoy Carcassonne with one another, and in so many different and unique ways.

Congratulations Tom, Hector and Dan! This site and others like it were a big part of my life some years ago, it’s great to see it’s still in such safe hands after all this time!

Wonderful to hear from you meepleater, I really appreciate you stopping by and saying wish you best.

Cool to hear that the site is back up.
Although I haven't been active for several years and hardly even get the chance to play nowadays.
I did make quite a few fan-made expansions myself.
This is the first time I have logged in for a couple of years.
Thanks for taking the time to pop in and wish us well Wicke!

Thanks to Dan, Tom and Hector for taking on the ownership of the website! I'm glad to hear that the future of Carcassonne Central is in safe hands. :green-meeple:

Great to hear from you too JT Atomico. It's been far too long, hope you're safe and well.

Offline cicerunner

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #58 on: January 23, 2022, 11:59:05 AM »
My sincere thanks to the admin/ownership team stepping down. I had probably not heard about any of you directly until this thread but I really appreciate the site and the legacy you created.

As for the incoming team, I feel like I know you all pretty well notwithstanding my lacklustre commitment to the Church of Carcassonne in comparison with many/most here. ;) Your presence and enthusiasm has really helped me in my relationship with Carcassonne.

I wish CarcassonneCentral, Wikicarpedia and the admin teams, past and present, the very best

Offline cicerunner

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Re: Carcassonne Central's New Owners
« Reply #59 on: January 23, 2022, 12:02:52 PM »
A further thought related to a post somewhere back there. Regarding the financial expense of running the site, might it be possible to setup some kind of Patreon or similar so that users can contribute? So the financial weight can be shared rather than borne by just one which seems to have been the case in the past/currently?


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