Website planning

Hey everyone.

As I'm sure some of you know, sometime in the next few weeks, we should be switching over to a paid domain, so we will be 81squareuniverse.com rather than a subdomain of Heavenforum. In case you weren't part of the discussion, here are the main reasons we're going to move:

• More customization: Heavenforum has some neat features but despite all of the features it is still quite limited. The customization of the forum ends with how much Heavenforum decided to program. On our own domain, however, we will be able to add whatever we like whenever we like. I am even planning to have the ability to add Kifu for Windows to posts simply by posting the kifu of a game, so look forward to that!
  
• Better maintenance: This is an issue that only came up yesterday, but it's already quite a big issue, in my opinion. Yesterday, Heavenforum went through some maintenance. Since our forum runs on a template supplied by Heavenforum, after something apparently went wrong on Heavenforum's end, we lost several of our forum images that I can't replace due to not having a backup copy. Since everything will be hosted by the 81 Square Universe on a new domain, this won't be an issue.
  
• Actual webspace: In addition to the forum, the 81 Square Universe will have web pages dedicated to shogi when we transfer over to a domain. We will have lots of resources such as an extensive (and hopefully interactive) set of rules, an archive of Hidetchi's videos, and we will also have an area for online tournaments, user-submitted articles, etc.
  

Long-term Goals of the 81 Square Universe

Although these won't be available as soon as the website launches, here is an overview of what we are planning for the website in the future:

• Real time and correspondence play: Everyone has been wanting a dedicated English shogi server to play on and have a standard ranking system. We plan to accomplish this in the future once we have the resources to do so. With everyone's support, the 81 Square Universe could become the Shogi Club 24 of the western world.
  
• Interactive and user-submitted shogi exercises: In addition to being a place to play shogi, the 81 Square Universe will be a place to practice shogi. We will make an effort to have a good list of tsumeshogi right when the website launches, but in addition to that, crazysjd89 is programming a java applet for interactive tsume, which will hopefully in the future allow for user-submitted exercises. Think of this as us striving to also become the Go Problems of shogi.
  

Unfortunately, obtaining and running a website isn't free. The good news is that I won't charge any money for membership. I am completely willing to pay for this website. However, I do often struggle with finances, being an unemployed student. So if you would like to support the 81 Square Universe and make a donation to help us transfer to a domain more quickly, it would greatly be appreciated! Even a donation as low as $1 will be a great help. Of course, your donation won't go unnoticed - we will be sure to let everyone know that you're a sponsor of the website.


Through PayPal, no personal information is needed. I have even turned off the requirement for you to supply your address. Everything is absolutely confidential and safe.

Also remember that you don't need to donate, and we won't think any less of you if you don't donate. The 81 Square Universe is and always will be free to use, and we greatly appreciate that you are a member and have come to discuss shogi with us.

Thank you very much for your consideration of this project.

Another thing we need is good web hosting options. Another website I'm part of, Zelda Infinite, uses Dream Host. Does anyone else know of any good web host options?

wow kl
this will be awesome

Hm, apparently the PayPal donation button keeps breaking.

Whatever the case, here is the donation link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=8469820

Actually, I just remembered about Always Web Hosting. There are probably better hosts, but this is run by a family friend of mine and he gives me discounted rates, so I'll be going with this service. I've used it before, so I know it's quite good.

Very cool. I'm still crap at Shogi, but I've done some coding, including Java applets (for instance, I wrote this chess applet a while ago). I'd be happy to help with programming.

Thanks!

Hirohiigo. Get a button for the donation link please. I'll put it on the side. Possibly make the font gray-blue?

Good news, everyone! I just got paid today, and that means we now officially have a domain! I still have to set up the hosting, but I've just secured the http://www.81squareuniverse.com/ domain for us.

hirohiigo wrote:Good news, everyone! I just got paid today, and that means we now officially have a domain! I still have to set up the hosting, but I've just secured the http://www.81squareuniverse.com/ domain for us.

Have we to register there again???

I've just tried it, but got the error message: "The items marked with * are required profile fields and need to be filled out."

I can't find any item (marked with *) which I've left unfilled.

Yes, you have to reregister.

I don't know what the problem could be. Hidetchi got his account working. I just deactivated something, so maybe you should try again. If it still shows you that problem, could you take a screenshot and show me so that I know what the problem is?

hirohiigo wrote:Yes, you have to reregister.

I don't know what the problem could be. Hidetchi got his account working. I just deactivated something, so maybe you should try again.

Yes, it was working, now.