DCemu News: State of the Site

***Kaiser*** · January 27th, 2011, 23:46

So as some of you may know, our forums were recently 'hacked' by a group of hackers apparently from Iran. I guess the Ayatollah saw us as a threat to the Islamic Republic or something. Bad jokes aside, it did highlight an ongoing problem with the current state of the forums. They're outdated, clunky and generally in need of a large amount of work by both the staff and larger community to continue to be a valuable resource.

DarkSaviour69, myself and numerous others in the staff and community have been busy working on a pet project over at DCemu.com. It's acted as a testing ground of sorts for the larger network. While there is still a lot of work to do it's been a promising project so far. It has gotten to it's current state due in large to volunteer work, just like the rest of the DCemu Network. The DCemu staff is not paid and we all help out because of our love of homebrew, emulation, gaming and the general community built around said topics.

In recent months we've spent a serious amount of time collecting feedback from people all over the forums and have started putting some of these recommendations into practice. Just a quick browse around DCemu.com shows that the staff have been playing with many new systems and layouts for our broader community network. DCemu exists because of the contributions made by many people around the world including homebrew coders, established scenesters, and even the casual visitor. These same people continue to influence the site's direction and all in all I think DCemu is on the verge of another golden age if the plans we have in store for the site come to fruition.

So what is the next phase?

Going back to my original point, one of our biggest draws on DCemu is the community built around the forums. To further serve the community and improve the site we're going to need to shake things up on the forum front. Before any major forum restructuring takes place, we're trying to upgrade our vBulletin license to version 4. The problem is, version 4 runs about $250 USD.

DCemu is built on it's community support as previously stated, and if any community members have some spare money for a donation and value the resource DCemu has been and continues to be, please visit THIS donation page. Any contribution is appreciated, as we understand that money is tight these days everywhere around the globe. If you donate please make sure to include your forum username so you can receive proper recognition.

I'm also going to take this time to ask the general community some other things. What do you want to see happen with DCemu? What do you think will broaden the community, strengthen the scene and give the site a prominent role in the next great era of homebrew and gaming? Please try to be constructive with your recommendation and criticisms. Don't merely lash out at the staff by posting "Just get rid of that asshat staff member" or something along those lines. We may disagree with each other in this community at times, but we all want a better DCemu when all is said and done.

**Wolfdawg** · January 28th, 2011, 00:21

can you at least sticky this post?

***Kaiser*** · January 28th, 2011, 00:28

I might make a forum announcement of it later. We don't sticky news posts generally.

***Martin*** · January 28th, 2011, 00:40

Nice one Kaiser. Now lets raise some money!

**NeoXCS** · January 28th, 2011, 08:18

Just donated, hope it helps! I don't talk much on the forums but I love the homebrew and gaming news here at DCEmu. I hope the site continues to be a great source of game news.