Maurice

Thanks a lot everyone! I'm really glad you like the changes - anddd the much increased stability! Regarding skins, we can look at options. What was important to me was the seamless transition between main parts of the site (homepage, forum, wiki, etc...). The overall look-and-feel is consistent across the board and makes it very user-friendly to visitors. That was my main goal on the design side of things. But for that upgrade, my main focus was really on performance and stability. I spent most of my time on that and also the entire rewrite of the code (on top of a new backend framework). All done by me btw - no AI coding. The design was tertiary and I mainly looked at harmonizing the look-and-feel like I said. I also stayed true to the original design elements of the site from 2009 (17 years ago!), with background colors changing throughout the hours of the day and Conan overseeing all pages from above. So, over time, I believe we can further customize the wiki skin. But the next focus I believe would be to better organize the landing page (Main_Page) on the wiki. There's something in motion regarding this with a few people working on this already. Last, one important note: Please either be patient or refrain from registering new accounts for now as the mail server network configurations (i.e. addressing) is still being updated and emails from the new server can't yet properly be sent out. It may take another day or two. Thank you for your patience! Thanks again for your cooperation!

Please see the other post about the latest news. The maintenance is almost over. All that remains is DNS propagation for the domain name and other subdomains so that they properly point to the new server. It can take many hours. Thank you for your patience.

Hello all! The planned maintenance is now finished, and the forum and wiki are back online! They will remain in "read-only" temporarily while I complete a few actions after the DNS propagation of the domain (over the next day or so). This update was more than just a quick fix—it was a complete overhaul of our platform to ensure it runs smoothly for years to come. Here is a quick look at what has changed: What’s New Faster performance: We’ve moved to a more powerful server. You should notice that pages load faster and the site feels more responsive, even during busy times. Fresh new look: Both the forum and the wiki have received a little design refresh. It’s cleaner, more modern, and easier to use on mobile and desktop. Total system rewrite: Behind the scenes, I’ve updated the core code and frameworks to the latest versions. This makes the site more secure and more stable. Smoother backups: We’ve improved how the site handles data, meaning less slowdown and better reliability for everyone. A New Way to Support the Site To celebrate this new milestone, I wanted to try something different: I have removed all ads from the site for the time being. As some of you know (and as I indicated in a separated pinned thread from many years back), running a community of this size on high-end hardware costs quite a lot every year. My goal is to keep the experience ad-free, but I can only do that with your help. If you enjoy the new, cleaner experience, please consider making a donation toward our server fees. To do so, please contact me. Thanks a lot! If donations cover a good portion of the yearly costs, I may be able to manage the financial aspect and keep the site ad-free. If we can’t reach that goal, I may eventually have to bring ads back to help reduce costs. Thank you for your patience during the downtime. Enjoy the new and improved site! 🙂 Maurice

Yes! It's long overdue. The current server used to be more than enough for DCW's needs, but the substantial growth of the last 3 years has really started to have its toll on many maintenance routines such as backups. The database is now very heavy and all automated operations now take longer than before and do block normal user interactions, which causes those unfortunate timeout... This update will not only see a server upgrade (the site will be moving over to new hardware), but also new behind-the-scenes mechanics that revamp the way automated routines are performed to minimize database locking and optimize requests serving, notably with greater caching abilities. As for design, I hope you'll like what I prepared. It's very much in line with DCW's original mindset and design in terms of look-and-feel. My overall concern was always to ensure the whole site shares that same seamless look-and-feel, whether on the basic pages, forum or wiki. So I believe you won't feel that destabilized and that you'll (hopefully) appreciate the smooth transition to the updated wiki.

Hello everyone, To make our site faster and more reliable, we’ll be performing a major system upgrade on May 16th, which will involve a migration to a new server with more resources. What to expect: The forum and wiki will be offline for the entire day, and possibly a bit longer, while we move everything over. Big improvements are coming: Once we're back, you’ll notice a refreshed look, faster loading times, and a more modern experience overall. This is going to be a big change -and step up- for DCW, and we appreciate your patience while we get everything ready. I’ll post an update here as soon as we are back online! Thank you for your understanding. Maurice

The topic was deleted by error. I was able to restore a backup. It is one of the oldest and biggest/most famous topic on the forum after all. A trip down memory lane and through DCW's history.

Hello, Just letting you know that the forum may be down a little while today for a maintenance operation. Hopefully, it'll be back soon enough. Thank you, Maurice

I would love to find new moderators. Every now and then we recruit new ones but they always end up getting busy in real life and they stop visiting DCW. Honestly, it's quite hard to keep the pace. It would be great to be able to recruit more frequently but that would require some scouting and effort. :/ The process is more tedious than it seems. If you have suggestions, please feel free to pm me. Thanks.

Hello! Thanks for your support/kind words! The best would be to create lists directly on your user page. A lot of other users do that. The thing is that adding a feature that will allow you to favorite/bookmark an episode (or anything) would probably require to install an exension or create one and that will unfortunately create some overhead whenever we need to update/upgrade the wiki or maintain the system. We used to have many extensions in the past but that made upgrading quite tedious. Now, we only use specific custom-made DCW extensions and simple/basic ones that shouldn't cause problems in the future. I might still look into it though cause the idea is nice. But in the meantime, like I said above, you can simply modify your User page and make lists of your favorite stuffs there. That's the power of the wiki: the ability to edit/create anythng and make it work for the community (or for you)!

Once you're registered on the forum (which si the case here), you can juste click on the "Create" tab on that wiki page to create your User page.

Hello. Welcome to DCW. Actually, once you're logged into the forum, you can edit the wiki. They both share the same login system. That's why you're redirected to the forum to login.

Hello! First, welcome to DCW! Thank you for the suggestion. Indeed, that could be something interesting to implement.

Hello everyone, DCW will be going through a major server maintenance on June 25th, which aims at upgrading the entire server infrastructure. This should help speed up web requests as well as stay updated technology-wise. Since it's a big maintenance it may last the full day, possibly more. The forum and wiki will not be accessible during that time (maybe in read-only format only, not sure). I will post back here as soon as the maintenance is over. Thank you for your patience and cooperation! Maurice

Welcome to DCW!

Hello, welcome to DCW. I'm glad you like the site. Make yourself at home here! Have fun!