Carcassonne Central
Carc Central Community => News and Events => Topic started by: danisthirty on January 17, 2022, 03:58:36 AM
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Yo dudes! I have exciting news to reveal, so please grab some popcorn and a fresh drink before continuing. Got it? Good. You may start eating... now!
If you've been around these forums for more than a couple of years then you might have heard some of us talking about Gantry, but I've quoted part of an eight and a half year old post below for those of you who don't (it's well worth reading even if you do know who Gantry is):
Gantry told me more about the history of Carcassonne Central. He was a regular user of BoardGameGeek, but found the forums difficult to use. (I think many of us can understand that feeling.) He tried to reach out to the guys who ran the site, but never heard anything back. Eventually, his frustration with the BGG forums led to his decision to create Carcassonne Central. He found a fan site about the game by Matt Harper, an Englishman living in Germany, and sent him an e-mail. (Matt's web site is still available here: http://carc.mjharper.de/) They collaborated on building a community around the game; Gantry was the technical "make it happen" guy, and Matt was the rules answer guy. Matt created the Complete Annotated Rules and posted it on BoardGameGeek, with a note that updates would only be available at Carcassonne Central, and only to members. Thousands of Carcassonne fans signed up just for the privilege of getting their hands on the latest version of the Complete Annotated Rules. Most never made a single post, but a core group of people arose. Some of those people moved on, and others took their place. Somewhere along the line, we started churning out fan-made expansions on a weekly basis. I feel like this coincided with a time where official expansions weren't being published by Rio Grande, and the community wanted more.
In short, Gantry has been there since Day 1 of Carcassonne Central. He and Matt Harper started it all back in 2008 and he's been leading the way (and paying the bills) for us ever since. He was prepared to give me the chance to become one of the site admins in 2014 and thankfully things worked out pretty well, but I never really had the chance to get to know him on the forums as life was taking him in a different direction at a time when mine was steering me directly towards Carcassonne. We chatted occasionally via email, especially during those awkward times when the forums were down and nobody quite knew what to do. Those were his moments to shine, and he always shone very brightly when we needed him to!
Last year, at around the time when the forums were down for 6 or 7 weeks, Gantry emailed me to say that he was considering selling Carcassonne Central. Furthermore, he was keen to know whether I might be interested in buying it from him and taking over his ultimate responsibility as Carcassonne Central's owner. You might say I jumped at the chance, but I know my limitations too and I recognise when I need a little help from my friends. So, I asked Tom (Decar) and Hector (Meepledrone) to stand by my side as co-owners. They agreed, and as of Wednesday 5th January when Carcassonne Central's website, database and files were moved from Gantry's host account to my own during this short outage (https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=5647.msg82129#msg82129), I'm proud to announce on behalf of Tom, Hector and myself that Carcassonne Central is under new ownership! 8)
Before I introduce the team, I'd just like to take a moment to recognise the years of hard work that Gantry has put into making Carcassonne Central everything that it is today. It takes great vision and drive to create something like this, and with so many Carcassonne fan communities springing up all around the world in recent years it's easy to forget that Carcassonne Central was the first of its kind. It's only because Gantry and Matt Harper did such a great job that we're still here today with almost ten thousand members, and with large followings on Facebook and Twitter that share our communities news and achievements to an even wider audience. Just saying "thanks" seems a little underwhelming, but I'm sure he'll continue to take great pride from Carcasonne Central in the future, knowing that he was the person who started it all. Let's do him proud... :(y)
So without further ado, here's a quick reminder of who Tom, Hector and I are:
(http://www.dan.tehill.net/TomLookingDelighted.jpg) (https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1369.msg17260#msg17260) (http://www.dan.tehill.net/Hector_v2.jpg) (https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=4450.msg65639#msg65639) (http://tehill.net/carcassonne/essen/spiel16/essen1_5.jpg) (https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=377.msg3493#msg3493)
(left: Tom (https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1369.msg17260#msg17260) looking delighted to have found a Carcassonne Big Box, middle: Hector (https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=4450.msg65639#msg65639): working his way through his latest set of rules books, right: me (https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=377.msg3493#msg3493) rejoicing after a well-deserved victory at the pingy-flicky game)
Tom/ Decar
Hello. I'm not exactly sure when I first started to learn about Carcassonne. I have been interested in board games for many years and sometime around 2006 I started to take an interest in the Japanese game of Go. Predominantly though, I was a computer or console gamer. Somehow, internet rabbit holes seemed to always end up with me looking at Carcassonne. I remember trying an early edition of JCZ with no idea what the rules were, and vaguely figured it out on my own. Adda was a much easier opponent back then.
Back in December 2014, I saw a post here on Carcasonne Central from JungleBoy asking if anyone was free for a game that evening. Back in those days you had to open up ports on your home firewalls to play each other, but I decided to take part. I still remember the game quite well; there was a big fight for a city (which describes about 85% of games of Carcassonne). Anyway after that I was well and truly hooked, and some days later DanIsThirty messaged me and we became friends.
In 2015 we all met up at the UKGE where Udo Schmitz was hosting a Carcassonne on Tour event. I played in the tournament and met someone else with the same name as me... who oddly had a wife with the same name as my wife. Thankfully, I was on a higher table than them, confirming my status as best person with my name. From then to now, I've had many an adventure thanks to Carcassonne, whether I'm crafting another fan expansion, creating my own meeple, organizing forum meetups, or attending events such Essen or the International Carcassonne meetup. I hope to be able to take part in some of these again soon.
Over all these years, the friendships I've found through our shared passions of a topological rendition of the fields and cities of particular area of the South of France have been something I doubt I could have found anywhere else. Possibly, the greatest reward of being a member here is seeing all the people who help each other with their side projects, or collections.
Although the management is changing, I have every faith in Dan, whose character allows him to mediate everyone's interests. I know that whatever changes occur, Dan will make the right decision.
Hector/ Meepledrone
I was introduced into the world of Carcassonne by a friend back in the summer of 2003... When the base game, I&C, T&B, River I and King & Robber were the limit :o... I loved the game at first sight...ehrr... play. I switched jobs shortly after and the game stayed dormant for a years.
But something terrible happened in May 2018... I went on a short vacation with my wife and a couple of friends to the seaside and it rained a lot in the evenings. Don't ask me why but it happened I have my Carcassonne collection with me by chance... We had the most terrific evenings playing Carcassonne. ;D
So, I went back home completely ecstatic and I started to scan the Internet thoroughly to catch up with everything Carcassonne-y, joined Carcassonne Central, and loved the CAR (my summer bedtime reading) and its fan expansions... So I became a Carcassonne fan-expansion completionist and even started to create some fan expansions on my own or in collaboration with friends from the forum and off-line...
In September 2018 I joined the WICA project (https://wikicarpedia.com (https://wikicarpedia.com)) as a co-founder along with Maj.Frost, Wolnic and Sinscerly and added plenty of content and the craziest stuff I could devise: An updated dynamic version of the Reference Chapters of the CAR, covering the Game structure, the Order of Play, the Scoring Summaries, the Figure Reference (along with Murphy013)... So I became a Carcassonne rules completionist and started to run some Advent Calendar Scoring Quizzes starting in 2019. (At last a good use for all that useless information... :o)
What other things has the forum done for me? Well, I also became a C1-C2-C3 Carcassonne completionist due to the worst influences there, but I don't have plans for a museum or the time being. ;)
Away from Carcassonne, I'm happily married to a wonderful and understanding wife who allows me to talk about Carcassonne nuances for hours on end (Carcassonne again, really? ::)) while she rolls her eyes... I also love binge viewing TV shows, Lego, retro games, eating ice cream and doing nothing from time to time.
Dan/ danisthirty
I was given my first Carcassonne game as a birthday present in 2012 and I've barely stopped playing it ever since. Much of the blame for my rapid descent into Carcassonne Completionism Disorder (CCD) lies with Carcassonne Central and the people who frequent it, but I've always felt that the friendly and supportive atmosphere here is something truly special and I wouldn't change it for the world! I've loved serving as an admin here for the last eight years and find great reward in sharing my passion for Carcassonne in a way that encourages others to do the same.
I play Carcassonne regularly at www.boardgamearena.com (find me there: danisthirty (https://boardgamearena.com/player?id=84720054)) and captained the UK Carcassonne Team for the World and European Online Team Championships 2020/21. I co-wrote "The Book of Carcassonne (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Carcassonne-Strategy-Tips-Tactics/dp/B086Y4FV9J)" in 2019/20, have commissioned my own personalised meeples (https://www.meeplesource.com/proddetail.php?prod=Dan-) and have been responsible for numerous CarcC initiatives including tournaments, newsletters, quizzes, competitions, giveaways and this 15th anniversary gift for Klaus-Jürgen Wrede (https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2162.msg30356#msg30356) which Tom and I took all the way to Essen to present to him.
Away from Carcassonne, I've been married to my wife Becky since 2008, and have two energetic but hilarious kids aged 11 and 8 who keep me pretty busy. I like many other boardgames (though none as much as Carcassonne), retro computer games, collecting Lego minifigures (I have around 500 so far), running, Pepsi Max and cheeseburgers. And finally, please note that I'm not thirsty.
Hopefully you'll agree that the site is in safe hands, even if those hands no longer belong to Gantry. There's lots planned already, and lots to look forward to, so please be excited and watch this space! :(y)
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Awesome write up Dan, I knew some things were already moving. Thank you Gantry for keeping the site up for many years and hopefully the site will stay up with the new maintainers forever O0
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I wish the new CarcC leader team a good time with us members.
I hope that the community will be creative and active like all the years. (Sorry, I was not much active in the last few years.)
And also I send many thanks for the work to Gantry, Matt Harper, Scott an all the other members from the first time of CarcC.
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Thanks, Kettlefish!
We'd love to see mor eof you around! ;D
:black1-meeple: :green-meeple: :gray-meeple: :pink-meeple: :white-meeple: :neutral-meeple: :yellow-meeple: :brown-meeple: :orange-meeple: :violet-meeple: :red-meeple: :blue-meeple:
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That's exciting news.
Thanks to Scott, Matt, Gantry and all others for the years of effort from genesis to the community that we enjoy today.
Congratulations Tom, Hector and Dan!
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This is HUGE!! :)
Thank you Dan, Tom and Hector for doing this for the community, its awesome :(y) +1 merit for all of you
I mean, being admin or mod is one thing, but being the owner is a whole different responsibility. Thank you for accepting it.
And I love to finally have a picture of you! Really nice :-*
Unfortunately, I have never been in touch with Gantry, Scott or Matt Harper or other early leaders, but I am sending my "Thank you" also out to all of you. Your names are written all over the place here, nobody will ever forget what you did (or are still doing) for the community!! :(y)
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Thank you, @Challa007. Our pleasure...
Hope my picture solved the issues caused by my automatic translations on CarcF. :o
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Thank you, @Challa007. Our pleasure...
Hope my picture solved the issues caused by my automatic translations on CarcF. :o
Haha, well, we did sort that out earlier ;) ... but wait..... am I seeing a ponytail there or is that just my imagination... :o
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This is HUGE!! :)
Thank you Dan, Tom and Hector for doing this for the community, its awesome :(y) +1 merit for all of you
I mean, being admin or mod is one thing, but being the owner is a whole different responsibility. Thank you for accepting it.
And I love to finally have a picture of you! Really nice :-*
Unfortunately, I have never been in touch with Gantry, Scott or Matt Harper or other early leaders, but I am sending my "Thank you" also out to all of you. Your names are written all over the place here, nobody will ever forget what you did (or are still doing) for the community!! :(y)
Thanks for your kind words Challa007. And thanks for your help translating; especially during the Twitch stream!
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That's great! :(y)
Good luck and success to you all! :)
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Hector/ Meepledrone
but I don't have plans for a museum or the time being. ;)
Why do I feel this is directed at me? ::)
All joking aside, i think this is a great development for the forum.
Many many thanks to Gantry for starting it all and supporting the forum for so long, and it is always good to see it managed by 3 of the most a(ttra)ctive Carcassonne fans, and 3 great guys!
Congratulations guys!
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Thanks @Willem!
Who else could it be? >:D
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Congratulations!
Hope that we will have @mention module! :D
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That seems like such a good idea, until someone uses @here and we notify all 17500 members at once C:-)
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Thanks for your kind comments everyone. It's great to know we have your support! :(y)
...and it is always good to see it managed by 3 of the most a(ttra)ctive Carcassonne fans, and 3 great guys!
Special thanks to you for this lovely and accurate comment too Willem. We certainly are. :-*
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Hector/ Meepledrone
but I don't have plans for a museum or the time being. ;)
Why do I feel this is directed at me? ::)
His loss Willem. No free meeple cookies for them :p
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Thanks for your kind comments everyone. It's great to know we have your support! :(y)
...and it is always good to see it managed by 3 of the most a(ttra)ctive Carcassonne fans, and 3 great guys!
Special thanks to you for this lovely and accurate comment too Willem. We certainly are. :-*
Haha, I didn't notice that small modification to the quote
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Ha ha ha!
Are we now meeple models? :o
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Amazing news!!! Meepledrone my master is the boss >:D >:D >:D >:D
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Ha ha ha!
Are we now meeple models? :o
Dan already is!
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Thanks for your kind comments everyone. It's great to know we have your support! :(y)
...and it is always good to see it managed by 3 of the most a(ttra)ctive Carcassonne fans, and 3 great guys!
Special thanks to you for this lovely and accurate comment too Willem. We certainly are. :-*
Haha, I didn't notice that small modification to the quote
What do you mean, "modification"?
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Ha ha ha!
Are we now meeple models? :o
Dan already is!
We need Meepledrone and Decar meeples now too! #CollectThemAll
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Though I may only lurk on the forum from time to time these days, I am very excited for the three of you! Congratulations to the new owners! I'm excited to see what will be in store for the forum in the future. :black1-meeple:
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Congratulations Dan, Tom & Hector!
Carc-C is certainly in good hands!
This is big enough news to put in a re-appearance! I've been busy myself but miss the friendly interaction around these parts!
I hope everyone is doing well and very glad to see that the community here is thriving!
All the best,
Franks
edited that darn spell check ;D
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Though I may only lurk on the forum from time to time these days, I am very excited for the three of you! Congratulations to the new owners! I'm excited to see what will be in store for the forum in the future. :black1-meeple:
Congratulations Dan, Tom & Hector!
Thanks guys!
Good to see your name here again after so long franks! You should share details of your upcoming project here on the forums sometime. I'm sure there will be others here (myself included) who would be interested in backing it.
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Actually, I made these meeple a few years ago; and there was an accidental but striking resemblance:
(https://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/meetupOxford2016/20160501_173025.jpg)
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Franks - it's wonderful to hear from you. Thanks for taking the time to reply!
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Congratulations guys! From the Ghost of Christmas Past.
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Congratulations guys! From the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Hi Scott,
do you still play or collecting Carcassonne? Or is your life so much busy with other projects?
Nice, to see my old ghostly friend Scott.
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Congratulations guys! From the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Hi Scott,
do you still play or collecting Carcassonne? Or is your life so much busy with other projects?
Nice, to see my old ghostly friend Scott.
I will update in a separate thread. ;)
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Congratulations to all involved in the changeover, and many thanks to those who started things out all those years ago.
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Well! Specially logged in for this after couple of years.
Congratulations and good luck! CC was an amazing place for me for years! So glad to hear this still continues after such a long time!
Cheers
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Hey! So good to see classic and new forum members around! ;D ;D ;D
You are most welcome to stick around! ^-^
Thank you all!
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Thanks a lot Decar, Danisthirty and Meepledrone for taking care of the forum management and keeping it available for us all (as well as for WICA), and thanks to every previous forum owner and manager, you're doing an awesome job! :yellow-meeple:
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Well! Specially logged in for this after couple of years.
Congratulations and good luck! CC was an amazing place for me for years! So glad to hear this still continues after such a long time!
Cheers
There's another name I miss seeing! Hope all's well with you and your brothers SRBO! :) :(y)
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Thanks for continuing this site and thanks to those who started this great forum.
I have only known this forum for 2 years but it feels like I have been coming here for years.
I have met some very nice people here who share the same passion for what this forum was created for. CARCASSONNE.
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Congrats gentlemen! The site is in good hands. I started here when Gantry was still active and still keep coming back despite Carc not hitting the table as much as I’d like.
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Congratulations to all 3 of you ! always a pleasure to roam this forum :)
Hope it wil continue to prosper and attract new fans all around the world, and I can't imagine why not :)
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Thanks for all the kind words of support everyone. I means a lot seeing so many people taking to time to wish us well.
For our first act we'll be changing the background colour and adding 7000 new emojis ;D
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Huge congrats to Dan, Tom and Hector! With such upstanding and dedicated gentlemen in charge, that can only be a good thing! And now Dan won't have to write entire blog posts about how much a one-day forum outage impacted his life; he'll just have to curse repeatedly until he fixes it himself!
Well, I also became a C1-C2-C3 Carcassonne completionist due to the worst influences there, but I don't have plans for a museum or the time being. ;)
OMG, C3? The arrival of C2 was the beginning of the end for me with Carcassonne because I disliked it so much and just couldn't move past it for whatever reason. But having had a quick look around C3 looks pretty similar to C2?
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Thanks JB, it's great to see your name here again!
Hope the last few years have been kind to you and JG?
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Thanks JB, it's great to see your name here again!
Hope the last few years have been kind to you and JG?
As kind as possible given the madness!
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Congratulations Tom, Hector and Dan!
CarcC is in good hands. Let's hope it will keep thriving forever :D
OMG, C3? The arrival of C2 was the beginning of the end for me with Carcassonne because I disliked it so much and just couldn't move past it for whatever reason. But having had a quick look around C3 looks pretty similar to C2?
I also strongly disliked the look of C2, but after many hours spent editing fan expansions in C2 I got used to it, nevertheless C1 will remain much better for me 8)
And yes, C3 is more like C2.2, with cut off houses that make it worse in my opinion.
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Thanks to the previous admins!
Congratulations and thanks to our new overlords 8)
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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)
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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.
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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
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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...
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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 :)
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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!
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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.
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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
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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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…might it be possible to setup some kind of Patreon or similar…
Yes! How can we all help?
Also thanks to Dan, Tom, & Hector. Very grateful.
Your tireless enthusiasm & patience, to say nothing of knowledge, are inspiring.
Great diversity of skill & interest among the 3 of you as well.
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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?
Thanks for your kind and thoughtful words cicerunner. We have considered a few things in this vein, but since it's conception Carcassonne Central has always been free for anyone to be part of, and we've never segregated our community (except those few who know of the secret forums.... ssssh). I think if we were to accept donations, or patronage, we would have to offer something in return, and we're not entirely sure what that would be as of yet. We're very grateful for the consideration though!
Edit:
I should also add, and reiterate what I said above. The enuthisam of this forum is really what drives us. So seeing people's contributions, however small, even the occasional thank you, is often more than enough to keep us happy :D
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Congratulations Dan, Tom, & Hector. Carcassonne Central is in good hands.
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Thanks Kirk!
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Thank you guys!
Never imagined such a positive feedback! ;D
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Don't worry, we'll start annoying you soon enough ;)
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Congratulations Dan, Tom and Hector!
Carcassonne Central has a bright future with such a team.
And of course: lots of thanks to "the old team".
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Well! Specially logged in for this after couple of years.
Congratulations and good luck! CC was an amazing place for me for years! So glad to hear this still continues after such a long time!
Cheers
There's another name I miss seeing! Hope all's well with you and your brothers SRBO! :) :(y)
Yeah amazing Dan,
Got married, a little son is on his way.
Havent played a lot of carcassone since C2.0 but from time to time during holidays we still pick up our huge C1 collection!
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I see the admins and owners have new username colors. Am I right to believe this was made to make the names less eye-searing when looking at the page?
And is there some kind of guide to these username colors? I understandthat dark red are administratorrs, but what exactly does Decar's green represent? Simply an owner?
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I'm just making some tweaks now.
I have lessened the red for administrators - I hope that's more tolerable.
Dark Green - matches the Owner Badge. I'm not entirely sure it's necessary to distinguish any user this way to be honest.
There is somewhere that lists the descriptions of each group, but I'm not entirely sure if you're able to see it without being an admin. I'll have a look and get back to you.
But so you know:
Owners : Dan, Hector, and myself. - Basically Admins
Administrators: Scott - Administrators have more functional control over the forum.
Global Moderators: Kettlefish and Whaley - They can moderate posts, split/merge topics and move posts around.
Authors—Previously given to forum members who make fan expansions, but this may include other such works.
There are some other that are less frequently seen, reserved for significant, and legendary members of the forum.
We're open to suggestions for others, so long as they are easily managed.
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haha, then the website needs catching up with reality, again ;)
(I know I'm a nuisance >:D)
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This is to do with their profile settings and which role someone prioritizes as their primary!
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There are some other that are less frequently seen, reserved for significant, and legendary members of the forum.
I've seen some here and there, some Legends and Founding Members; i think there are some very great Badges around!
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Hello everyone, your rarely-seen original founder here. :yellow-meeple:
In the original opening post of this thread, you see some of the history of CC. It's true, the BGG owners answered none of my inquiries, and because I'm an impulsive, just-do-it-myself kind of guy, I started Carcassonne Central. Matt Harper was indeed instrumental in the beginning, and without him I would have never moved from the idea to the execution. Thank you Matt for that. I had all sorts of ideas, some of which are still seen on the site now, but I'm even more amazed at how the members and volunteers have stepped up to the plate with some incredible activities here. This has truly become more than just a "rules & questions" site. It's the hub and heart of the Carcassonne community and it continues to thrive.
I was and still am not the best technical administrator of this forum software. It requires more expertise to run that I ever had, and our first serious issue that forced us to abandon the original forums was heartbreaking. I worked with the forum software developers and it looked like the issue was unrecoverable due to some Unicode database issue. I didn't know if CC would survive, but it did. I had Scott help in our earlier days, turns out he lived only half an hour from me, we both live in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Canada. We met once for coffee, though unfortunately his life became busier as many of ours do and he spent less time here. A lot of other people stepped up to the plate as admins and moderators, a few no longer regulars but great to see many have posted in this thread. A big shoutout to Scott, Carcking, kettlefish, Tacita, Whaleyland, Joff, Bixby, MrNumbers, Meepledrone... the list goes on and I haven't forgotten any of you but there are a lot to list. A big thank you to all of you for your contributions over the years.
A few technical backstories for you. I created the graphics for the site, and I'm no graphic artist I assure you. But I managed to find a font that looked just like the game's font and used that in our title. As well, you'll notice how you and everyone has a title below your profile name in your posts (ie Labourer, Duke, Vagabond etc), well I thought it would be a fun thing to increase people's contributions by awarding them these titles. There is definitely no order or relation between all of the titles from a historical perspective, I made that up and it's just for fun and I think it adds to the fun of being a member as you reach higher and higher (there are 23 levels in all). I also liked the idea of earning badges for special members that are also shown under your names on posts, so I created these myself (again, I'm no artist and I realize they're very cartoony). Perhaps some day the look and branding of the forums will be updated and improved upon and I look forward to seeing that. Can you guess who the #2 member was? Hint, it wasn't Matt. I'll reveal it a bit later. Finally, at one point back in our history, we were actually the 1 millionth largest website in the world. Pretty amazing considering how the web has grown and now there are over 1.92 billion as of Feb 2022.
We all have lives outside of our numerous internet personas. Sometimes I reveal my real name and contact information, other times I just want to be my persona. In case anyone is wondering where I came up with the name Gantry, I wanted to be an astronaut as a kid and instead of picking some astronaut hero's name, I picked gantry because it is a small but critical piece of a rocket launching tower. Good a name as any. Some of the admins and moderators know my real name, but I'm not going to share that with you just as some of you choose to not share your own, and I hope we can all respect that. One of the things that really amazes me is that, despite the decline of forums and growth of more instant forms of communication, we continue to survive. The reason for this is that we've embraced those other types of social media forms, not avoided them. There is a business marketing lesson in there somewhere.
I also want to address one key difference between Carc Central and BGG: annoying ads. My original goal was to keep the site ad-free, and free for users. Early on we did have a small ad banner across the top, but that did not last long. I never wanted anyone to see ads in between posts. There were a few times throughout the past where, for financial reasons, I felt that the cost of running the site would be helped by a few ads running and although I brought it up, we never implemented them. The benefit to you is a clean experience with no annoying ads. If the new owners decide to monetize the site in any way, I'm hoping they carry on this tradition and look for alternative ways. I think it's one of the advantages to CC.
Oh, and the #2 member? Meeplebot, my test user. Nice little fellow, rarely makes an appearance but if he does make sure to say hello!
I'm very humbled that so many of you not only joined us, but stayed. I am also very humbled at the thank yous I've received, but I feel that I've let so many of you down not only with the outages (some lasting unacceptably long) but also by my lack of participation. Suffice it to say, work and serious family health challenges over the years have taken a lot of my attention away, and for that let me say I'm truly sorry. I had been thinking that you, our members, deserved better, so I told a few of the admins I was going to shut down the site because I couldn't continue to care for it. Actually, I knew it wouldn't come to that :) not because I wanted to give up on it but because I knew so many people cared enough to not give up on it. I am so very happy that the new owners can give it the care and attention that I never could. Carcassonne Central is in good hands now. See you around :)
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Good to hear from you Gantry. I live even closer now!
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Thanks for the long share Gantry!
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Thank you so much Gantry for the great idea to create this CarcC forum.
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Hi Gantry!
Thank you for stopping by. So interesting to know a bit more about the origins of Carcassonne Central. You will always be welcome.
It is so great your brainchild welcomed all of us and allowed us to meet incredible people and to share our passion about this humble game that have grown so much through these years. Satisfying our curiosity for the Carcassonne world, sharing our creativity and our experiences have become part of our daily life due to this forum.
+1 merit from for sharing wihth us and helping us with the transition. ;)
In the same spirit you have kept Carcassonne Central, we have kept Wikicarpedia ad-free so the experience is clean and welcoming, even more if you are staying for a few minutes just to find an answer and get back swiftly to game. ^-^
See you around!
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I believe the website needs an urgent update, the following problem is untolerable for such a high standing community :)
(https://i.ibb.co/j86BPNc/snif-snif.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
let's vote ? :)
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Terribly disheartening! :o