The intrigue around the site closures of Bell of Lost Souls and Faeit212 is the biggest buzz in Gaming right now.
The latest update is an email from Larry Vela, the owner of Bell of Lost Souls. It doesn't tell us much, other than the site is still not up.
From Larry:
Thanks for the concern and the kind words,
As you can tell, the BoLS frontpage is down and we are actively working the issue.
We are working this issue up the chain with Google via multiple channels and making plans to migrate the site off of Blogger to avoid any such service interruptions in the future. We have not received any notices, DMCA notices, or violations from anyone, so at this moment we are still treating this as an IT issue on Google's side, but it is looking mighty suspicious by the hour.
There is a possibility that BoLS temporarily got caught in the crossfire between GW and other 3rd party blogger sites - we shall see.
In the meantime, my fellow writers, please submit any posts as new threads on the Lounge and send me a link to them at belloflostsouls@gmail.com. We will manually get the word out via Facebook, etc...
We will be back shortly - My first priority is ensuring that BoLS keeps on delivering the news on all the game systems we cover to the wargaming community and we will do so, come Hell or high water (or any other bad actors)...
For every contributor on BoLS, please stand with us during this time, and make a mental note to prepare for a move to a more robust and secure blogging platform in the weeks ahead. We simply cannot allow this type of potential danger from 3rd parties to endanger us ever again.
For our fans and readers - we love delivering the news and opinion on our beloved hobby to you day in and day out, and have been for over 7 years. Please stand with us during these trying times and tell your friends. Enjoy the BoLS Lounge where your favorite authors will be publishing during this time of need, and we will be back shortly.
Best regards and my deepest thanks,
-Larry Vela
As you can tell, the BoLS frontpage is down and we are actively working the issue.
We are working this issue up the chain with Google via multiple channels and making plans to migrate the site off of Blogger to avoid any such service interruptions in the future. We have not received any notices, DMCA notices, or violations from anyone, so at this moment we are still treating this as an IT issue on Google's side, but it is looking mighty suspicious by the hour.
There is a possibility that BoLS temporarily got caught in the crossfire between GW and other 3rd party blogger sites - we shall see.
In the meantime, my fellow writers, please submit any posts as new threads on the Lounge and send me a link to them at belloflostsouls@gmail.com. We will manually get the word out via Facebook, etc...
We will be back shortly - My first priority is ensuring that BoLS keeps on delivering the news on all the game systems we cover to the wargaming community and we will do so, come Hell or high water (or any other bad actors)...
For every contributor on BoLS, please stand with us during this time, and make a mental note to prepare for a move to a more robust and secure blogging platform in the weeks ahead. We simply cannot allow this type of potential danger from 3rd parties to endanger us ever again.
For our fans and readers - we love delivering the news and opinion on our beloved hobby to you day in and day out, and have been for over 7 years. Please stand with us during these trying times and tell your friends. Enjoy the BoLS Lounge where your favorite authors will be publishing during this time of need, and we will be back shortly.
Best regards and my deepest thanks,
-Larry Vela
It seems pretty clear that there is some connection between the closing of Faeit212 and the fact that BoLS is down. No one else with a Blogger based blog (the software platform most blogs use) is having issues. But BoLS did NOT get a DMCA take down notice, so that is a big mystery.
Stay tuned.
Loken
BTW, I am a big fan of BoLS, heck, it is why I have this blog. Faeit212 I was not a fan of and I will write about that later today. Still, interesting times we live in.
ReplyDeleteAlec
Please don't go too hard on Natfka. He's done a lot to provide us with info, rumors, picture aggregation, and community connection. Not sure why he's all of a sudden a "third party" and expendable... He did provide a lot of content for a few sites...
DeleteIf I had to guess, It's because Natfka is/was a guest author and was added to their permissions list as such. When Natfka got nuked, BoLs was collateral damage.
ReplyDeleteCould be. That is my thought as well. his articles on BoLS may have been what got BoLS in trouble.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts as well, I hardly see BoLS in trouble directly so much as being associated with guest writers who put the site in jeopardy.
ReplyDeleteLoken, you're a guest Writer, does BoLS have an editor to filter some of the articles / suggest changes, or is it an honor system?
They have an editor.
ReplyDeletePeople are arguing it was naftka's post of pages from the High Elf Codex soon to be released. But he got the pictures from the digital codex preview on ITUNES. It is public, so if you have itunes you can preview several pages from the HE codex. So I don't really see any infringement if the content was put out there by GW themselves.
ReplyDeleteAs for a blog, Faeit212 does a great job with getting rule leaks and pictures out. I don't see a single problem with what he does, he contributes to the hobby. Regardless, it's poor timing because he is out at Valhalla so we won't hear from him for a few days probably.
I could really careless as Bell jumped the sahrk for me like three years ago. They went from being pretty cool to just a place where they reposted everyone else's stuff.
ReplyDeleteFaeit 212 is just a rumor site isn't it? That is all I ever saw there and reposted rumors at that.
I'm no fan of the G.W. secret policies like everyone else, but it is their rules so follow them or get the shaft right?
Just in from BoLS Lary Vela.
ReplyDelete"We are back up and running - full steam ahead! We are working with google to determine exactly what occurred over the last 24 hours with the BoLS frontpage, but I would like to clear up a couple of things for the record:
1) BoLS was never targeted by any DMCA, IP, or any other violation notices. While other 3rd party sites on blogger may or may not have been targeted by Games Workshop and/or Google, BoLS never was.
2) We take our security and availability seriously. Steps are being taken to prevent such an occurrence from ever happening again. BoLS job is to provide you with wargaming news, opinion, and entertainment day in and day out - and we will do exactly that.
On a personal note, I would like to thank each and every one of you who showed up during the frontpage outage and got to see and explore the BoLS Lounge. We are very proud of our great wargaming forum community and hope many of you return.
Look for regular posts, columns and commenting as usual on the frontpage as of now.
Best regards and my deepest thanks,
-Larry Vela"
So, as we can see BoLS was safe, probably just some kind of IT issue.
ReplyDeleteThough, many were quick to jump on the "HOW DARE YOU GW" bandwagon but really can't fault anyone for that, i mean... that's just bad timing.
Funny how Faeit's Rumor Tarot article is still there but it is now showing as "Posted as Unknown". Not really funny ha ha. You know I don't really take any of this very seriously. I have been buying GW for almost 20 years. I have seen them grow from a smaller player in the gaming industry to the huge monster they are now and in the end they still produce cool stuff and have one of the best and most iconic backgrounds in SciFi out there. Tomorrow they will produce more cool stuff I want to buy and I might do just that if I don't have to pay too much for my daughter to do cheer leading. In the end it is just a hobby no matter how seriously we take it and how much time and money we spend on it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, everyone is quick to jump on Natfka's case, but I would have to guess that at least 75% of those people were reading his page daily. And while he does post some stuff on his own, most of his stuff is content he grabs from around the internet and reposts in a clear and concise manner. I can understand GW being upset about stuff getting leaked early, but in my opinion that is on them for not having tighter control of their product. I can't remember a time lately where almost the entire WD was all over the internet a week or more before release.
ReplyDeleteI read Natfka's blog everyday and am happy to admit it. I also feel bols jumped th shark a while ago, which is why i started coming here and naftkas blog.
ReplyDeleteI understand why GW did this but personally think it a terrible action that only serves to make me more negativ towards GW, eventhough im a fanboy for 16years now. GW just does so little to invest in their fanbase and now punish their most dedicated customerbase.
While it is true that ive stopped collecting WD because i see the pics online earlier this is a publishing industry wide phenomenon, no just GW. These blogs onl serve to promote and cultivate excitement for GWs products. If WD sales need to increase then they should start writing articles that add value, not just rely on imagery, then i would still buy it regardless of seeing the content early. That way GW wins twice, once with the extra hype geberated and a second time with sales fom the magazine.