Google announced, in a post filled with examples of Wave’s innovations and strengths, that the real-time messaging and collaboration tool hasn’t seen “the user adoption we would have liked.” As such, the search giant won’t “plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product,” but will keep the servers on through 2010, and incorporate aspects of Wave into other Google products.

The good news is that all the collaborative features – including live typing and simultaneous editing – have already been incorporated into Google Documents. So we’ll be fine for stuff like character sheets and story pieces. But Wave was beautiful for discussion and (especially) session planning. I’m really going to miss the Yes/No/Maybe thing.

I guess we have a few options now. We can use this page, obviously – that’s what it’s here for. I can even recreate the forums on this site, if it’s wanted. I also think Google Calendar has some scheduling and invitation abilities these days. And of course there’s always email.

Anyway. Just a heads up.

This will not affect anything aboard the new server. If anyone needs stuff currently on ecomm1 (such as DigiMap), either get it soon or get it from me.

You can download it (as always) here, which you can access through www.gilgarn.org without too much trouble.

Note that the new version will not work with older versions: if an older client attempts to create an overlay, the newer client will crash. So, all you Skies players will need to get it.

(Also, Mike, you’ll be happy to know that the circles are now anti-aliased.)

Anyway, this means that you all have full powers to make and edit posts, as well as the main menu at the top of the page. My intention is that we are all coequal owners of this site, and you’re free to use it however you like. I’ll let you know if I have a problem with something, but in general, I trust you.

You’ve also probably seen yourself in the “Authors” menu. Most of those links just go to your page on the wiki, but you’re welcome to change that. (Ask me if you don’t know how.)

<mp3>filename.mp3</mp3>

It looks like this:

I’ve also allowed uploading MP3s to the wiki. It has a 2MB limit, though, so if you want to add something larger, send it to me and I’ll upload it manually. For files on the wiki, you don’t need the whole http://whatever, you can just write the name.

The reason is simple. Ever since we started using Google Wave and FATE – both of which, in my opinion, have been massively successful – the forums have been totally inactive. Not counting campaign stuff, there have been a grand total of eight new threads since 2007. The truth is, the whole forum idea was meant to support a large, active online community – a community which never materialized. While I’m proud of what we did as a web design project, I’d rather have something that actually serves our needs. We should have a website that is useful to us as a small group dedicated to creative projects. And that’s what this is.

This is technically a blog, but don’t worry about that. The system is just a tool. In fact, I chose WordPress precisely because it’s a very flexible system that makes it insanely easy to make pages, add links, upload files and so on. (And not just for me and Josh.)

One feature I’ve already set up is the link bar at the top. Instead of clicking through all the forums and wiki articles, the homepage now gives us quick access to all the stuff we’re working on. For example, you can click “Campaigns” to go to the main FATE page; or, you can mouseover it to get a list of the active campaigns; or, you can mouseover those to see some more individual pages, i.e. White Rose History. Let me know if you’d like anything added to the list.

Also, if you want an account, just let me know, and I’ll make one for you. There’s no open registration, so I won’t bother with a meaningless “rank” system this time. I trust you guys. So you’ll have full powers of posting, uploading and making new pages/links.

The theme is probably temporary. I really like it, actually, but I know it doesn’t fit with the traditional Library style, so I’m willing to investigate making a new one at some point.

Finally, if anyone’s feeling nostalgiac, the old forums are still up and fully functional – just click the “Library” link at the top.