Record Members in February

Last month, February 2010, Richard's Animorphs Forum saw record users registering on the forum. The surge in new members is due partly to the authors of Animorphs, K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant joining the forum and answering our member's questions. Additionally, the mild increase, month over month is a result of beefed up promotions of our community.

As it stands, 190 new users registered in February 2010. This means February 2010 has overtaken April 2009 by exactly 30 members. At the end of February, 2035 members are currently registered on RAF.

New year, new bills

Hello fellow RAFians (and passersby), it's your ever-present, yet never-present administrator, and founder of RAF, Richard.

This blog post is an extension of an earlier plea on my Twitter page where I asked members to donate to RAF.

While the year is new, Christmas gifts have been bought and most importantly, there is a crisis in Haiti; unfortunately RAF has bills to pay.

Please visit RAF Donate to help pay the bills by donating via PayPal. Also on that page you will see the perks you will get; but only if you input your username in the appropriate field.

Thanks guys.

RAF Chat Issues

For the past few days many were not able to access the RAF Chat. This was caused by subdomain issues which did not redirect users to the right host.

This caused the RAF Chat to point to the old host which does not have the updated member database. Because of this all users who tried to log in that registered or changed their password after September 2009 received an error.

This has been resolved and now our proper database is being used to feed the Chat. In other words things should be fine now.

In addition to this fix, I have decided to make the registration process more simple. So if you haven't registered for the RAF Chat has of yet, feel free to do so now.

Happy RAF Chatting.

New Member Position.

Goom has come up with an awesome solution to the "God Rank Problem." Any member who has or obtains the position of "God," and does not like that position (for whatever reason), now has an option to have it changed! An alternate rank, "Elite," has been created for this situation.

If you wish to change your rank to "Elite" once you have reached 5000 posts, please contact any one of our staff members via PM (such as Richard).

Member Ranks:

• Lurker | 0-9 Posts
  

1 Star - Can't applaud or smite. Allowed 10 personal messages.

• Newbie | 1-9 Posts
  

1 Star - Can't applaud or smite. Allowed 10 personal messages.

• Jr. Member | 10-49 Posts
  

2 Stars - Can applaud or smite. Allowed 50 personal messages & Can attach files.

• Full Member | 50-249 Posts
  

3 Stars - Same as Jr. Member. + Allowed 100 personal messages.

• Sr. Member | 250-499 Posts
  

4 Stars - Same as Full Member + Can edit display name.

• Hero Member | 500-999 Posts
  

5 Stars - Same as Sr. Member

• Jr. Xtreme Member | 1000-1999 Posts
  

6 Stars - Same as Sr. Member

• Xtreme Member | 2000-4999 Posts
  

7 Stars - Same as Sr. Member + Can modify custom title

• God | 5000+ Posts (black color)
  

8 Stars - Same as Xtreme Member + 500 personal messages + Can move & lock own posts.

• Elite | 5000+ Posts (black color) -Alternate to God-
  

8 Stars - Same as God Member

• Donators (position lasts for 1 year)
  

9 Stars - Same as Gods + 1000 personal messages + 10 Karma Points + access to D-Lounge

• Gold Member ($50+ in donations - gold color - lasts forever)
  

10 Stars - Same as Donators + unlimited personal messages + 50 Karma Points

Sakki Deleted Upon Request

'Sakki De Roxea''s request for their account to be removed has been granted.

AlothAssassin Banned

Just letting you all know, the member AlothAssassin has been banned from RAF.

AlothAssassin has been banned for constantly disregarding RAF's rules and its staff members, and repetitively making new accounts to bypass bans.

Make sure to follow the rules.

Happy Birthday Goom

It is our friendly staff memeber's birthday today: goom. Not only would I like to wish him a happy birthday, I would like to congratulate him on his promotion to the Sr. Staff.

RAFChat... Again.

I certainly hope that everytime RAF Chat gets unused, that I don't have to make a Blog Post, but today I noticed something pretty annoying. So, I opened up RAF Chat, after noticing that Zero people were online. But i noticed that there were also 17 users online on RAForum. I was like: WTF? Especially since half the people online on RAF, are frequent RAFchat users. Its the WEEKEND people, a time when we should have tons of people on RAFchat. I know that some of you are doing your finals, but some of you are in High School, and i know that in Canada, High School exams aren't until June. I don't know if its the same in the USA. Here, I took a screen shot:

So please people, GO ON RAFCHAT. It's just an extra tab to have on your browser. It's there for a reason, and if people stop using it, it's not going to be useful. I don't want to have to make a post like this, just to remind people that it's there. Ok? Thank you.

-Adam
A.K.A. Ell¡m¡st

RAF Social - Make your thread you.

In case you didn't get that memo, RAF created boards to accommodate what we term RAF Social.

What is RAF Social you ask? Well it's not only the coolest place to catch up on your RAF Crush, or your favourite RAFian, but it's that place you can share your own life's journeys.

Think of it as your personal RAF Blog, or RAF Twitter, or RAF Facebook.

Each member has the ability to create a personal thread in the Member Profiles board, and chat to others about whatever they like. So if you're having a bad day, just post in your thread how crappy it was, and no doubt other RAFians will offer their shoulder. Or did you just go to Disney Land? Post pictures and share the moments.

Just get to know each other & Make your thread you.

http://animorphsforum.com/social

RAF's Perceived Strictness - Explained

A member recently expressed that he thought RAF was strict. This is the first time in recent memory that someone has categorized this awesome Animorphs forum as such.

The reason why one of our members got this impression is the recent feature that prevented guests from viewing the forum. Let me preface by saying that many other communities require one to join before you can partake. I won't justify this move by the notion that others do it: so RAF should.

On the other hand the intent to force guests to register was one of a privacy issue, and one of an administrative one also. The latter reason will not be expounded on further, but the outcome of this essentially boils down to a better RAF.

As for the privacy issue, any active RAFian is able to identify with this.

Those who publish private information about themselves on our community do not expect malicious individuals to mine their information and publish it elsewhere, or use it in whatever fashion. As admin, I believe I have a duty to protect, as best as I can, the users of RAF.

Presently guests do not have to register to view certain parts of the forum, but don't expect this to stay in effect perpetually.

The member who is of the opinion that RAF is one of the stricter communities then goes on to mention those banned. Personally, I am not sure who he is referring to, but the few members that have been banned warranted it. I am notoriously lenient. In fact each year the ban list is cleared. Those who have been banned from the forum had to be; again to maintain a civil community.

If anyone requires more information on a specific banned individual, feel free to send me a personal message, or if you prefer emails: richardatanimorphsforum.com.

The final issue raised pertains to the RAF Chat. You have to register again in order to access the chat-room.

At one point in time, registration was not needed. Those who were active during this period know the story behind the enactment of a registration system. Firstly, people begain abusing the open system and started to impersonate popular RAFians. Not cool.

The second reason for registration/ login on the RAF Chat was the cases if trolls, and lurkers. Persons began flaming the chat room, and posting random nonsense. Also, because of the openness of the community, members willingly discussed intimate aspects of their personal lives in the real-time chat environment. Anyone could view these discussions.

Now people (I know I do) generally feel more secure as a result of the more moderated environment. Persons can be banned from the chat room if they are being disruptive or otherwise.

The other reason for the member's frustration with RAF is that your RAF username cannot automatically be used to login to the chat room. Indeed this is undoubtedly an inconvenience. The reason for this is that the chat room is located on an entirely different server. The result of this, is that your forum credentials are not on the RAF Chat server.

While the chat room can point to the forum's server, I have decided not to because if the main/ forum host goes down, then the chat would also go down.

With the way things are currently set up, the forum can stay alive if the chat goes down, and vice versa. Better for you, really.

Chat registration is done in 2 clicks. If anyone has problems getting the email that should activate your account, I would be happy to activate for you.

I hope this post has cleared up some issues regarding our perceived strictness. I also applaud the member who brought up these issues.

RAF-lationships

Do you have a RAFcrush yet?

Do you know what a RAFcrush is?

Well see, a RAFcrush is a crush on someone who is a member of RAF. Sounds simple, but is actually very complex. This is because if you have a RAFcrush on someone who has a RAFcrush on you, that means that there is some RAFchemistry going on!! My next suggestion would be to start RAFdating.

RAFdating is also very complex, and should be carefully researched by asking current RAFdaters for their advice. Such RAFdaters are, for examples: Claire and Mike, or Estelore and Tyler.

After you and your RAFpartner have been dating for a while, one of you may want to move on to the next step, RAFengagement! One example of a RAFengaged couple, would be Russell and Dameg. They have been trying to move onto their next step for a while, which is to be....

RAFmarried!!! This is the biggest step in RAFcrushing, as this is the ultimate level of RAFcommitment. It's also a very big RAFcelebration that EVERYONE can have a part in (stags, stagettes, etc.). Only two RAFcouples have gotten married in the past. They would be Anna and Ken, or Touquie and Charlie. Only the latter are still together, which brings me to an optional, but sometimes unfortunate RAFcrush stage.

RAFdivorce. Just ask Ken or Anna for the explanation...

RAFchildren are very rare on RAF, seeing as how this is a children's book-forum, and must stay PG-13 or lower in the ratings. But, one RAFchild has been concieved throughout RAF's history. I'm not going to mention it's "dirty"name, but it starts with a P and ends with ootang.

Also, don't stab someone in the back, not very pleasant. Trust me, I've experienced it. And broken hearts are not fun.

So, if you are thinking of starting a RAFcrush, please, reference this topic, and find all the help you need. Just don't start too much RAFdrama.

Also, RAFipedia has a page here, which needs some updating.

Sincerely,

Adam

P.S. I would like to thank Gaz and Faerie in helping me with this post!! Thank you!!

RAFChat

Hey everyone,

I know this has been touched on before in the RAFBlog, but I thought I would bring it up again. Everyone should go on RAFChat when they are on the forum. I mean, it's not that hard to open it up, sign up, and log in. It's just another window (or tab, depending on your browser) that makes a funny sound every once in a while (it might get annoying, but i got used to it!).

What really bugs the heck out of me is when I see that, for example, 24 people are online on the forum, yet only 8 people are online in chat (admit it, it happens). What the heck??

I understand that some people can't be on chat, for reasons such as your country doesn't allow it, or your cell phone doesn't support it, or your Playstation 3 doesn't open it (like me) and I'm not mad at you. Its the people who choose not to go on chat, for whatever reason, that I'm talking to.

Chat is useful because it allows you to talk to your favorite forum members in Real Time. This is neat because you are probably used to only talking to the members in the topics, where you might have to wait a whole day for the response, maybe longer! With RAFChat you ask a question, and you get an answer (if anyone wants to answer it) within seconds! Also, very notable things happen in RAFChat that, if you aren't there, might be missing out from. Examples of things like this that have happened in the past are:

1. Ken and Anna's RAFWedding
2. Pootang's Miraculous Birth
3. Various RAFParties
4. Many of the quotes in the Quotable Quotes thread
5. and many more...

If you don't know what #2 is about, then that's the exact reason why you should be in RAFChat!

And hey! I'm not the only one who thinks so! Here's a quote from a member of RAF, when asked what has happened in RAFChat that they can remember:

"Not much really... RAFchat is dieing kinda... With the more talky people leaving or lurking more, less and less is happening..."

So please people, go on RAFChat!! I'll most likely see you there!

Sincerely,

Adam
AKA Ell¡m¡st

2 Boards Removed

The Life & The General Fan-Fiction & Art Boards have been removed. Posts in these boards have been moved to the newly renamed General Board (was General v2).

Nostalgia

While looking at the Member list in order of Date Registered, I realized that only Mike (Phoenix004) and I were the ones who registered in 2003 (on RAFclassic of course), followed by two people from 2005 (Kelly and Tyler). At first, i was surprised and astounded that we had the rest register in 2008 and onward, most re-registering after the move from RAFClassic, and not asking for their original Registration date back.

This is my friendly reminder that if you registered on RAF Classic and haven't asked for your original registration date yet, please do!! Nostalgia on a forum like RAF is greatly appreciated!! It also sets up a sort-of seniority. That way, if someone has a question and are afraid to go to the Staff (they are pretty scary to newbs!), they can just ask a more senior member.

I was looking on RAFclassic for some of our oldest members, but there was no option to sort by registration date. So i looked up the Top 20 Posters, and found some members that had been very active, but didn't stay with us.

• Sarah Connor
• Xandria Nirvana
• Meanders
• Jordan
• Sarah Naeem

That's just to name a few. Also, I was wondering why so many people are leaving, and I decided to determine which of the more active members of the new RAF have left, or are very inactive.

• Anna
• Leigh
• Skye
• mrlarry
• Venomwiththelongname

If people wouldn't leave, there wouldn't be another reason for other people to leave. So please, people: End the Trend. Stay with RAF, and quit leaving.

Please leave comments.

Sincerely, Adam.

Recent Email Sent + Rank Changes

As I said on Twitter, I sent out an email to every member who has no posts: just to remind them that we exist. Below is the screen-shot of that image for all you guys who are not newbies:


Oh and to facilitate this new email reminders I have changed the member groups/ member ranks a bit. "Newbie" are now members who have only 0 posts. The new group "Non-N00b" are for those who have 1-9 post.
See here for more information.

Daylight Savings Time - Update your RAF Forum Time

See here to learn how to change the forum's time.

Onto the Bandwagon

It seems that RAFian waves is the theme of the week. Time to add my two cents.

I completely agree with what Duff and Estelore have already said. It's a sad but true fact of forums.

Why is this the hot topic of the week? Estelore, Duff and I are of the past generation. We're old school now. We have all been watching while our friends disappear from the RAFmap. We have been feeling the drift away from RAF.

I believe that the constantly changing list of dedicated members is one of the main reasons why RAF projects struggle. There is always a few commited members to a project, but within a few months people's priorities shift and RAF is no longer an important factor to life.

While this is a somewhat sombre topic, it's simply a part of a forum's life. When I joined, I was a part of the new generation wave. I saw members with seniority slowly fade away from existance.

To the new members, this is what I have to share: Take all that you can from RAF. Make friends, party and most of all, have fun. One day, you will likely take your leave, but remember what you've learned at RAF. Keep those memories close, no matter how far you drift away.



Til the day I die, I shall not forget RAF.

Goom - New Jr. Staff Member

That's right.. get used to the purple from relative new-comer goom. He has been promoted to Jr. Staff. We welcome him... right?

Oh and Claire is no longer a Jr. Staff member... she has also been promoted: she now holds the Senior Staff position.

Russell = Admin

In case you were wondering what's with Russell's / Esplin 9466's red text colour... he has been promoted to Administrator. He is RAF's second administrator (excluding myself) in our almost six years of existence.

Put a limit on the Life & General boards?

Go to this thread; vote, and if you wish: give us a reason why you think that there should or should not be a n00b limit on the Life and General boards.

Downsizing Coming March 2009

At this rate of 3 hosts, and 5 domains, there would be no more money left in my bank account. So in an effort to save some mulah, I'm going to discontinue the Blog host (which used to host the RAF Chat also, until I moved it to XEHOST).

This would mean that in March 2009, I will stop paying for that server. Blog will be moved to XEHOST's server the the coming days.

This server drop will leave us with 2 shared hosts.

An Actual Scheduled Downtime

I was just contacted by HostGator; they're willing to look into my problem further.

The forum will be turned off anytime in the very near future, and I hope to have it back up soon. This will facilitate the move back to HostGator.

Update: move complete.

Richard Joins Twitter

That's right. This is for all those who use Twitter. Follow me here.
I will use twitter to update mostly on downtimes, and statuses.

Donator Rewards Updated

In addition to their placement on the Donator Leader Board (which is shown across RAF), the gold username, the lack of advertisements on RAF Forum, the 10 stars, the unlimited PM space, the ability to move and lock their own posts, edit their custom title, and name; Donators now will get +50 karma. This is effective immediately (January 1 2009).

The R is back in RAF

After a bit of deliberation, I've decided to put back the R in RAF. No matter how I try to escape people calling our Animorphs community Richard's Animorphs Forum, it keeps haunting me.

So I've come to the conclusion that RAF is inextricably linked with my name. So I have regressed on my October 2007 decision to rename us The Animorphs Forum.

It's Richard's Animorphs Forum... or RAF for short.

I honestly intended to purchase richardsanimorphs.com & richardsanimorphsforum.com on my birthday; January 1, but I already went ahead and did so, right in time for the name change. I don't want people to get confused, so I won't publicize the new domains; their only purpose is to secure the names.

All pages have been renamed Richard's Animorphs Forum.

Doing a database host switch...

That's why the Forum is down. It should be back up in no time.

Move only took 10 minutes.

The connection problems should be reduced now.

Massive downtime caused by expired domains

CEO of XeSolutions Sean Frank indicated that the reason for RAF being down was nothing more than miscommunication. The name servers, or computers that point you to the respective host that RAF is on, apparently expired. The members of staff at the company were not informed, which led to the extended day downtime, which lasted from Thursday December 18 to Sunday December 21.

So in light of this situation I have vowed to prevent this type of downtime from occurring again; if downtime does occur (which is unavoidable), it happens smoothly. I don't want to bore you with server and domain talk, but let's just say that steps are being taken to prevent a complete loss of RAF for such a long period. Chief among the improvements is the acquiring of another host (bringing our total hosts to 3), this more expensive and expansive host will provide us with redundancy. If our main host (who admittedly was performed well prior to this month) XEhost dies on us again, there will be a full usable backup available for me to use, and point you guys to.

Talking about backups, prior to this event I only backed up the forum's database on my hard-drive; now I will begin backing up the entire website (over 4 gigabytes of data) on external devices each week. This copy of RAF will be uploaded to our newly acquired secondary host.

Let's just hope we don't run into more problems. But if we do, we should be better prepared this time around.

Details of RAF Downtime - will wait

I need to sleep or just back away from the computers. I'll give you all the details of what happened, and what will be done. But right now, I'm going to rest. As I type, the entire website is being backed up independently of our host.

Entire website went offline today

That's right. From about 4:30pm EST, 'till 7:30pm EST RAF in its entirety went offline. This was caused by "temporary routing issues", and according to XEHost's support manager "it happens randomly occasionally and is unpreventable". Yet I have never had the entire website shut down.

So, being the person I am, redundancy is key. Now that I know of this issue which can affect anything under our domain animorphsforum.com (which is what happened today), I am asking everyone to bookmark, or simply remember rafforum.com our quick domain to the RAF Forum.

If this were ever to happen again, just try to access us via rafforum.com, and most likely it will redirect you to the RAF Chat.

New Boards - General RP & Fanfiction

Newly suggested General Role-Playing and General Fan-fiction boards have been added to RAF Forum.

These two boards are where threads pertaining to role-playing and fan-fiction (and are not Animorphs related) are put.

Need Specialized Persons (HTML & CSS)

This time, I am looking for persons to join the staff who are experienced with CSS & HTML. Feel free to contact me on the forum via PM, or email me at richardatanimorphsforum.com.

Spread the word if you know anyone who is knowledgeable in SMF.

Why register on RAF Chat?

The RAF Chat has been a part of the RAF world since February, but with the update to a more secure and powerful application, one issue is brought to the forefront: registration.

While one may think that once you've registered on the Forum you automatically have login credentials on the Chat; this isn't the case. But why?

Simply put, the chat room, and the forum are on separate hosts/ computers. This was done so that if the forum experiences difficulties (as it has been shown in the past) we will still have access to the chat. So they are in essence two different websites.

//So take the time (10 seconds) to register if you haven't:
http://chat.animorphsforum.com

RAF Party - Day 1

Today is the first RAF Party. In addition to the Bored Board counting towards your post count, you will be awarded 2 karma points for each thread you create today (and other RAF Party days).

RAF Chat Back to Old & Seperate Host

I moved the RAF Chat back to our sepeate host, nothing should be changed.

If you experience problems with connection drops, please notify me in this thread.

The RAF Chat URL is, for those who didn't know is:
chat.animorphsforum.com

Emails Not Being Sent

I'm aware of the lack of emails being sent from the Forum. I've submitted a support ticket to our host and am awaiting a response.

11:30PM EST Update: Things are resolved.

Karma Upgraded

Starting now you need to give a reason why you are changing someone's karma; being it smiting or applauding. Adding to the upgrade, you have the option to see who changed your karma and why.

To see who has changed your karma, or whose karma you changed, visit your profile.

Additionally, you can have the option to be notified when someone changes your karma. See screen-shot below:

To do so, go to your profile, click on Look and Layout Preferences.

An addition to this upgrade is that once you have changed someone's karma you can now see how many times you have been applauded or smited.

Tip: to see this, go to your profile, click on any of the karma options, there you will see in brackets the total applauds and smites beside the username.

Temporary Move of RAF Chat

Until the issues with connection to our server are resolved, the RAF Chat will be moved until the issues are resolved. I have submitted a support ticket with our service provider, and am awaiting a response from them.

Go to:
http://animorphsforum.com/chat

7:14PM EST: I received word from our service providers; they say nothing is wrong on their end. Therefore, I'm going to ask that you report kicking / connection problems in this thread:

http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,1359.msg75133.html

You Decide: Limit RAF Chat Users?

At times the RAF Chat can have over 10 users online; causing in my view confusion. So I put it to you guys: should there be a 10 user limit on the RAF Chat rooms?

Tell me here.

The poll runs for three days and:

If yes is the majority, the RAF Chat rooms will be limited to 10 persons.
If no is the majority, the RAF Chat rooms will stay at its current limit of 20 persons.

If yes is the majority another random room will be created.

RAF: Party

Both Richard and I had the idea that it would be fun to let the bored board count toward your post count one day of out the month. This would be a monthly day for everyone to come and post on RAF, go in RAF chat, break RAF records, and become a forum personality. New comers to the forum are encouraged to make themselves known and old personalities are welcome to post in the Animorphs section for a change. The first RAFparty would be on November the 15th and 16th and the following ones would be on the second weekend of every month. I tried to schedule them so that people wouldn’t have to worry about holidays or work (hopefully!)

_The Abomination_

On the lookout...

RAF Hasn't Been Offline in 3 Months

We haven't seen RAF go offline, knock on wood, since we moved to our new host on July 23 of this year. That's a good 3 months of 100% uptime. This means all our previous bouts of downtime, since our move from Conforums, and issues with our previous host was worth it.

Big up to XeHost: our current provider.

"abchakraborty" promoted to eBook group

abchakraborty is the first member on the new RAF Forum to be promoted to the eBook Contributor group. He will enjoy the same privileges like RAF Gods.
Of course, this was done to promote the community involvement in the creation of eBooks.

RAF Forum has its own domain!

Maybe you're like me and when you think about RAF the first thing you do is to input raf into the address bar of your browser, only to remember that our domain is animorphsforum.com. No need to fear though; you can be lazy like me and simply type rafforum.com, then you will be redirected to the most awesome Animorphs forum on the internets.

Access RAF Forum Using WAP on your Mobile

If you didn't already know, you can access the RAF Forum on your mobile device/phone using the WAP URL. This page (RAF Mobile) will take you to a scaled down version of the forum; optimized for mobile phones.

The URL is: http://m.animorphsforum.com

RAF Chat History

The usual RAF Chat history has been removed. While I acknowledge the benefits of looking back to see what you missed; I removed it to prevent stalking activity.

But members are in luck. If you want access to the history, use this tool, and send me the info via PM. I'll be happy to set up login credentials for you; giving you access to the now 2 hour history.

RAF Rules

The RAF rules / guidelines have been revised to suit the new forum.

http://animorphsforum.com/rules

Re: Yorick's Ban

Prior to Yorick's ban I was instrumental in the decision making process of banning members. But for this one I wasn't a part of the decision. I chose to stay out of it. From now on member related issues such as these will not be handled by myself. The other Senior Staff members will have this, in my opinion, daunting task in determining whether a member is being too offensive or not. 

Of course don't hesitate to send me PM on these type matters; for I will relay the messages.
In addition, I urge members to use the report post feature found on each post. It will help us greatly. So instead of smiting, because someone is offensive or breaking any other rule, report the post. 

Thanks guys. 

RAF TV Mirror Links are Down

This is just to say that I know that the mirror links of the Animorphs Episodes on RAF TV have some how expired. Not to fear though, the direct links are still working as those files are hosted directly on RAF Downloads.

How I Keep on Top of Things...

Maintaining RAF (Forum) is, at times a daunting task. But thanks to the new forum software (SMF), email & text notifications are an admins dream come true.

One such notification is when a member registers; effective when trying to prevent duplicate registrations, and when trying to keep banned persons out.

Another handy notification is when someone sends me a personal message, I am also notified via text message. So wherever I am in the world, with or without an Internet connection; I will know I have a message waiting on me.

A great example of this being useful is sometime last week when I was enjoying some TV show, Tyler PMd me regarding some unfolding events in the RAF Chat. Luckily I was home so I promptly banned the offending member, and life went on.

There are varying triggers for the more important text alert, along with Personal Messages, there is that reported post trigger. So whenever someone reports a post, I am immediately prompted.

So what have we learnt today folks? If you want me to respond to an urgent matter, simply send me a PM. And if you are someone who got banned, don't try to re-register, because I check each member who registers.

Difference between Facebook Page & Group

The RAF Facebook Page v The RAF Facebook Group

I noticed two wall questions on the RAF Facebook Page, asking what is the difference between the Group and the Page. Here we go:

1. The Facebook Page is administrated by me (Richard).

2. The Facebook Group is not. Adam created it in January of this year.

3. The Facebook Page allows me to send you updates/ notifications directly unto your Facebook home page.

4. The Facebook Group does not allow that functionality.

5. The Facebook Page is accessable via http://animorphsforum.com/facebook

6. While the Facebook Group is not :) 

Animorphsjake Banned

Just to nofify the RAF Public that the member Animorphsjake has been banned for spamming the forum, and 'plotting' to do more.

RAF Chat - Now Open All Week!

The RAF Chat (where members and non-members alike chat about Animorphs in an IM style) will not be closed throughout the week anymore. I've decided to have the chat room remain open 7 days of the week.

To allow you to gauge when there is activity in the chat room, I've placed an online notification at the bottom of all RAF Forum pages.

Profile Additions

Tired of not being in the loop when it regards a member's real name? Or ever wondered who a user was, according to themselves?

Problem solved with the new profile fields:

Uploading Via Attachments

Want to show off your picture? Share PDFs? Or your own song? It's simple:

First. Go to your Post Reply, or New Topic area:



Then click on Additional Options:

From there you can select whatever* you want to upload.

*Please note the Allowed file types: doc, gif, jpg, mp3, pdf, png, txt, zip.

Maximum attachment size allowed: 5120 Kilobytes or 5 Megabytes.
You also get to attach four per post.

Enjoy!

Uploading of Avatars Temporarily Disabled

Pending move completion, uploading of avatars have been temporarily disabled.

Edit: You are now able to upload/attach files, and avatars.

Bigger Host & Future Downtime

I've found ourselves a new host. Well, incidentally, it was our first paid home (XEHost) back in 2007. They currently host the Blog. So we are simply moving back with a bigger share of their server. Our current host (LiquidNet) while was munificent on the hard-drive space and bandwidth fronts, lacked in what we need the most; MySQL space (or simply Forum space). At our current rate, we would use up all available space by October of this year.

Preempting that inevitable, and rapid use of all available forum resources, I began looking for a new home. XEHost was generous enough to provide us with relatively cheap hosting with enough MySQL disk-space to last us for over 1,000 months. (Of course, their plan expires anually, so keep donating).

The actual move will take place sometime in the near future & will likely result in some downtime. But I'm trying to devise ways to keep downtime at a minimum. I will post again when I have everything in order and am ready to move.

On some other, but related news: Our main domain; animorphsforum.com is now secured until 2011.

Edit: Move Complete with only a few minutes of Forum downtime.

Detailed Member Ranks / Groups Info.

I have never detailed in one place, a comprehensive list, the difference between each member group / member rank. So here they are:

• Lurker | 0 Posts
  

1 Star - Can't applaud or smite. Allowed 10 personal messages.

• Newbie | 1-9 Posts
  

1 Star - Can't applaud or smite. Allowed 10 personal messages.

• Jr. Member | 10-49 Posts
  

2 Stars - Can applaud or smite. Allowed 50 personal messages & Can attach files.

• Full Member | 50-249 Posts
  

3 Stars - Same as Jr. Member. + Allowed 100 personal messages.

• Sr. Member | 250-499 Posts
  

4 Stars - Same as Full Member + Can edit display name.

• Hero Member | 500-999 Posts
  

5 Stars - Same as Sr. Member

• Jr. Xtreme Member | 1000-1999 Posts
  

6 Stars - Same as Sr. Member

• Xtreme Member | 2000-4999 Posts
  

7 Stars - Same as Sr. Member + Can modify custom title

• God | 5000+ Posts (black color)
  

8 Stars - Same as Xtreme Member + 500 personal messages + Can move & lock own posts.

• Elite | 5000+ Posts (black color) -Alternate to God-
  

8 Stars - Same as God Member

• Donators (position lasts for 1 year)
  

9 Stars - Same as Gods + 1000 personal messages + 10 Karma Points + access to D-Lounge

• Gold Member ($50+ in donations - gold color - lasts forever)
  

10 Stars - Same as Donators + unlimited personal messages + 50 Karma Points

2/6 Staff Members Dropped

Adam/TheEllimist left RAF a few weeks ago. Now, personal friend of mine Ricardo decided to step down from his staff position. He will continue to participate in RAF though.

There are now 4 persons in total on staff.

1. Me (Richard)
2. Esplin 9466 (Russell)
3. Phoenix004 (Mike)
4. Druid (Raphael / Isuru)

Staff List ->

Hide Your Online Status

The following groups now have the option to hide their online status:

1. Donators
2. Gods (5000 posts or more)
3. Xtreme Members (2000 posts or more)

To hide your online status, go to your profile, select "Account Related Settings", then untick "Show others your online status?"

Member Groups & Personal Messages

Members who have 5000 posts and more (Gods) now have the capacity to host 5 times more personal messages. They can now hold 500 messages. All other member groups can only hold up to 100 messages, except for Donators who can have unlimited messages in their inbox/outbox.

Member Group & Custom Titles

Members who have over 2000 posts can now edit their own Custom Title. 

RAF TV Problems

I am aware of the invalid download links for the Animorphs TV show (RAF TV). File Crunch must have eaten the files. If you are in desperate need of the Animorphs TV series, feel free to download our torrent containing all episodes. (torrent file)

Insight into RAF's Uptime

This weekend for RAF has not been good as it relates to the website's uptime. According to statistics, RAF: The Animorphs Forum since last year April has been online 99.227% of the time. Sounds like a lot? It is. 

But as of June, and we are two weeks in, our uptime has fallen to 97.305%, while for this month we've been offline 2.695% of the time. That's a statistic I'm not proud of.  Granted, for May 2008 / last month, our downtime percentage was mearly 0.067%. There was only once instance of RAF being down. We have been offline 11 times this month.

You can keep up-to-date with our uptime, and percentages, by following this link.

RAF Blog Moved!

Our host is experiencing problems, and as a result I have decided to move the blog to http://blog.animorphsforum.com. This move will give me the option to inform you guys when RAF is down.

Some Questions Regarding Move

I've been asked a number of questions ever since RAF Classic went offline on May 30. Here are a few common questions regarding the move and the new RAF.

1. Why move?

- We have been with Conforums (the host) for 5 years. Their forum system has not changed much in that time. In addition, being hosted by them, restricts us to abide by their Terms of Service. SMF, the new board system, does not have rules, we abide by the rules we want. Moving from Conforums gives us autonomy, and with that comes full control over matters. Further more, the Conforums board system lacks modern forum features which we now enjoy over at the new RAF.

2. How do we transfer threads/members?

-Because of how Conforums works, there is no easy way of transfer any data from the back-end. You the user have the task of re-registering, and re-creating the threads on the new RAF so as to continue discussing the book we love the most: Animorphs.

3. I don't want to loose my post count, can I get it back?

-Sure. After registering to the new RAF, feel free to post in a thread I've created on that matter.

4. How long will RAF Classic (the old RAF)  be online?

- I have no intentions of removing RAF Classic. It will be online as long as Conforums is, and serve as a reminder of our achievements and discussions for anyone who wishes to view them.

5. Is the Animorphs Audiobook & E-Book Project still active?

- It is. Our Animorphs eBook project has been online for anyone who wishes to read Animorphs online. See RAF eBooks for book downloads. Please see the new RAF for information on the Audiobook project and if you find errors in the ebooks, feel free to post in their respective boards.

RAF is Moving

RAF: The Animorphs Forum has finally moved from Conforums to SMF after 5 years with them. The old RAF has been renamed RAF Classic, and is viewable to anyone who wishes to. Posting though has been restricted to push members to the new forum, simply called RAF.

This board system is fully hosted by RAF, allowing The Animorphs Forum to wholly host the entire website. 

News Relating to RAF being Down

I surmised that RAF / Conforums is hosted on a service provider called The Planet. Here is news regarding their problem:

Faulty transformer blamed

A fire at The Planet's H1 data center in Houston, Texas on Saturday has taken out thousands of websites.

In messages posted on the web hosting firm's forum, the company blamed a faulty transformer for the fire. No servers or networking equipment were damaged, but the data centre remains without power, after The Planet shut down all generators "as instructed by the fire department.

About 9,000 servers and 7,500 customers are affected by the outage. B3ta.com, a popular British comedy site, is a high profile casualty.

The Planet is posting hourly updates on its forum. It has five other data centers, which remain up and running.

Source: The Register

RAF (the forum) is Down. UPDATED!

Conforums is down. 

June 4 Update: the Old RAF is back up.

May 31 Update: I have uncovered some details that most likely is related to RAF's forum being down. There has been a fire on the computers  (severs) that Conforums' files are stored on (and RAF). As a result the severs had to be shut down. More details when I have them.

June 1 Update: There is a possibility that RAF may be back online Sunday evening EST.

No data should be affected.

June 4 Update: It has been 4 days since the old RAF, the forum, has been offline. To get your Animorphs fix, feel free to visit the new RAF, over at animorphsforum.com/forum.

RAF is 5 Years Old!

RAF, the Animorphs forum is officially 5 years old. Read a synopsis of our history here.

2 Members Banned

Two members were banned today. One, you probably are familiar with. The other just came today to troll/spam the forums.

Leigh Leaves

After three years and tens of thousands of posts later, Leigh , our top poster, is deciding to take a brake break from RAF. Here's his post, made today, May 5 2008:

For all those that remember me, lol, pretty much life has changed recently and time for coming here has shortened.

I've got other things to do, things that mean more to me now.

I thought I'd be courtious, who would've thought I'd be that, and let people know I'm leaving.

Nothing against anyone here, except maybe Tyler :P Lol, kidding, life has to come first.

So goodbye! I may pop in occasionally but I won't be around anymore.

I still hold the record for the first person to reach 10k posts AND 20k posts ;) Lol, have fun!

Read ->

Forum Makeover?

Go here to read and discuss a post created by Ricardo which asks whether the forum needs a makeover.

Web Host Issues

Hello,

There appears to be a problem with that server. Our administrators are working on that, but for the moment we have no news what is the cause of the issue. We deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused. You websites and services will be up and running shortly!

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Best Regards,
Victor

That's the word from our web host providers.

The Bored Board

...has been disabled. My entire feeling toward a spam board changed a few minutes ago.

Edit: It's back. Didn't know people liked it that much...

E-Books Under Construcation (Again!)

I'm reworking the pages under RAF eBooks, so please bear with me while I take my time to change the layout on all pages. You can access the pages, but some may look different from the others.

Monday update:
I just finished editing all the pages by hand, hope you enjoy.

RAF's Front Page

Only recently did I decide to create a front page for RAF. Actually, it was a couple of hours ago. I've always thought about it, but never had any reason to. But lately I realised that our newly created pages (TV / Blog / eBooks) because of how Google works, never appeared on the search giant. If they did, they had very low rankings.

So I decided to knock up a basic front page, linking you all to the forum's Conforums sub-domain, among the other important sections of RAF that are newly created or important. The main link, of course RAF: the actual forum

The aim, to ultimately open Googlebot's eyes as to our website. Hopefully the additional click when one visits animorphsforum.com, won't bother anyone.

I'm Back + Chat Open

I'm back from my little trip... and the weekly RAF Chat is now open... enjoy!

E-Books Offline

RAF eBooks will be offline for the next 12 hours... bandwidth issues.

RAF - Still Kicking!

It's exactly one year since I posted about RAF being no more. Well, firstly, I must say that the year has gone quickly, because I remember posting that thread like it was.... a few months ago, but no; it was a year ago.

My outlook was clearly grim, but now, my optimism has risen. Why? Well, have a look at my statistics posts. We are growing.

Here are some highlights which now negate my doomsday prediction one year ago:

1. E-Books. We have the complete Animorphs series available for viewing and downloading.

2. The Animorphs TV Show, which aired between 1998-2000 was uploaded and is also available for anyone to watch.

3. Prosperous RAF Chat, where members and none-members can chat about Animorphs each, and every Sunday.

4. Audiobook Project is still underway.

5. Secured hosting for 1 year, and domain for 2.

6. RAF Podcast began only days ago.

7. Author, K.A. Applegate joined & participated in our forum.

8. Rapid increase in members. Now averaging 7 per day.

9. Since Feb 27 07 to today, February 27, 2008, we've had 617,954 visits, versus the year before, where there were 311,246 hits.

10. The graph below shows RAF's activity from the previous post to today.



We aren't going anywhere just yet. So sit tight, and enjoy RAF: The Animorphs Forum.

Rules Re-cap

Even though these rules are available on the forum (link), this is just providing a friendly reminder to all members of these rules. If you have questions about any of the following rules, please feel free to contact any Staff Member, for they will be happy to help you.

RAF Rules

1. Spamming is prohibited.¹
Penalties: There will be only one official warning with regards to this rule. After which the user will be banned for an indefinite period.

2. Posts that are disparaging toward any religion, race, nation, gender, or sexual orientation are strictly forbidden.
Penalties: Warnings to Ban.

3. No harassment of any type or form towards any member of RAF will be tolerated.²
Penalties: Warnings to Ban.

4. Usernames (and profile information) may not be offensive, vulgar, profane, or abusive.
Penalties: Edit to Warning to Ban.

5. Pointless, excessive, or obscene cursing is prohibited on RAF⁴
Penalties: Edit to Warning to Ban.

6. Graphical sexual posts are prohibited. Threads of a sexual nature are also prohibited.
Penalties: Edit to Warning to Ban.

7. Multiple Usernames are not permitted.
Penalties: Deletion to Warnings to Ban.

8. Signature images are restricted to 550 by 120.
Penalty: Edit.

9. Excessive Web site promotion is not allowed on RAF.
Penalty: Deletion to Ban.

10. To go with accordance with the Conforums Terms of Service, members of RAF must be at, or, over the age of 13.
Penalty: Deletion to Ban.

¹ Spamming being anything one would do to 'up' or increase their post count. Also includes, but is not limited to posting off topic, and double (triple, etc) posting.

² This also includes, but is not limited to 'flaming³.

³ To speak incessantly and/or rabidly on some relatively uninteresting subject or with a patently ridiculous attitude.

⁴Please note that curse words have been censored as a result of the misuse of the language.

VenomSymbiote

Two weeks ago, VenomSymbiote's name was brought to my attention. His posts were, to be put mildly, out there. Some very entertaining. No problem. But then came a post in the Staff Board, notifying me that his posts were directly violating RAF Rules #2 & 3. He was warned prior by the Staff members who encountered his posts. The nature of his posts never changed.

There was a move to ban him, but because I enjoyed reading his opinionated & funny posts, I felt that I needed to notify him that he was pissing off members of RAF, and of course breaking our two rules. Also, there was never a member that was banned without my prior involvement in the matter. So I warned him. Since then, I must say, I personally haven't seen anything too out there.

Then came this morning, when I received a petition; asking for his removal. I already knew the stance of the members of staff, but now I realised that members (+30) thought his posts were discomforting. I then reviewed his posts with a friend of mine, and he came to the conclusion that his recent posts, in fact, broke our rule on tact toward other races, creeds and religions.

Personally, I found his opinion interesting, and at times even thought-provoking. I never liked censoring...

But, the result of this conversation with my friend was that VenomSymbiote be notified of his pending ban. He was banned minutes later.

Hopefully, this will serve as a reminder of the Democratic system that we have on RAF. As Ricardo put it, for the people, by the people.

Record Breaking Attempt!

On Sunday February 24th 2008, we, as the RAF Community will attempt to break the record for most users online. The current record is 56 users (made on October 22 2006).

Please see this and this thread for more information. A mass email will be sent on Sunday.

RAF's Google Ranking

For some reason I noticed that our ranking has been fluctuating for the past few days. As of this posting (11pm) a generic search for "animorphs" puts us as the most popular fan-made Animorphs website out there. But "Animorphs" will drop our ranking to #10... odd

RAF Chat

The idea came from Russell who suggested we create a chat room situation for the Record Breaking day attempt. Ok, fair enough. But then I got the idea that why not open the room on a scheduled basis? I thought about it for a few minutes, and said, ok, sounds good. Today Sunday Feb 17 will be the trial day for the Chat room.

RAF Chat will be open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the following times.

2100 GMT
5 PM EST (East Coast USA)
4 PM EST CDT
3 PM CST MDT
2 PM MST PDT
1 PM PDT (West Coast USA)

... so come in and enjoy the chat!

RAF TV - Too Hot!

Since I uploaded the TV show unto our host, in 10 days we've ate 270GB worth of data... leaving us/me with a problem. We only have < 30GB left for the month... I've put access to easily downloadable and watchable tv show on hold for now, while tomorrow I'll redirect you guys unto a host that won't kill the forum.

---

February 13th Update: We're back up, and I've added a preferred download link option.

February 15th Update: I've had to remove all direct download options because we're down to 4GB left. Hopefully the direct download links can be re-added next month, and be a permanent fixture on RAF TV.

RAF TV (up soon)

The Animorphs Television Series will be back up tomorrow (Feb 3 08).
I added some pages with some information to make the Animorphs TV Show experience better for new Animorphs fans.

Not to be confused with any video sharing service, RAF TV is simply a section of RAF that will allow you to directly download the Animorphs TV show. In the future, one hopes to expand the file formats to be compatible with media players such as iPod and Zune.

Feb 03 Update: RAF Tv is now open.

http://animorphsforum.com/tv

Downtime Expected

Ok guys, RAF is going to be down today February 1, 2008 as I move all files etc over to our new host. The forum itself shouldn't be troubled, but because image, css, and javascript files are located on the animorphsforum.com host, I'm going to put the forum in maintenance mode. Only staff will be able to access the forum.

In addition, we'll begin to host the Animorphs TV show (in addition to the E-Books).

I'm not sure how long it will take, because DNS resolution varies. I will be on MSN / Windows Live Messenger to keep you guys updated.

FEBRUARY 2 UPDATE: Move complete with no interruption.

2 More Years

Hopefully I was not jumping the gun when I ordered 2 more years of the animorphsforum.com domain. The animorphsforum.com domain is the first of 2 paid domains which I currently own/rent in relation to RAF.

This main domain, as you can see from the whois record, was created on a special day (April 14), 2006, two years ago. It was set to expire this year, but I thought hey, what the heck? I think we'll still be talking about Animorphs for two more years.

I am also contemplating upgrading our host for that domain (which paves the way for moving from Conforums, if needs be). Hosting expires in 30 days (not to be confused with Conforums' hosting of the actual forum, and the forum only), so we'll see.

The other domain theanimorphsforum.com, was purchased late last year after I changed the name of the forum to RAF: The Animorphs Forum, is currently active, and will be extended in time.

Author of Animorphs Answers Questions

Since K. A. Applegate registered on RAF a few days ago, Adam decided to create a thread in our Animorphs Discussion board which directly asks Ms. Applegate questions. To my surprise, the author of Animorphs decided she'll spend some time with us and answer quite a number of questions.

Ever wondered where the names of the Animorphs came from?

As far as either of us can recall it was the usual process of going through a baby name book and going, "how about Dirk . . . how about Jason . . . Okay, let's try something in the M's . . ."

How about our E-Book Project?

We're not sure how to feel about that. We've never had a problem with fanfic like some writers do. Rather the contrary. It's flattering and fun and good practice for aspiring writers.

But there is of course a legal problem with distributing copyrighted materials in this way. We obviously aren't going to be suing or threatening or any of that. In fact, we think on balance it's probably a good thing.

But you should understand that Scholastic also has rights here, and they may take a more aggressive position. And you need to understand that we can't "tell" Scholastic to let it go: they have their own ownership rights, and they've invested a lot of money in Animorphs. So we couldn't give you permission if we wanted to, we don't have the legal right to do so.

Read & post questions here!

K.A. Joins RAF

Our 1,196th member is the author of Animorphs, K.A. Applegate.

This comes hours after she posted on Claire's video, and it was confirmed to be her.

Well, no doubt it's an honor to have the author of the series join RAF, we hope to hear from her.

K. A. Applegate on YouTube?

Well, while strolling through a few videos, I realised that someone claiming to be K.A Applegate replied to Claire's video.
Could this be Queen Applegate for real?

The comment that was posted:

"Hi, Claire: Thanks for keeping the flame alive. K.A. Applegate"

Edit: Confirmed as K.A Applegate. 

RAF's Facebook Group

Adam / Mr. Ellimist has created a group for the members of RAF on popular social networking website Facebook. Feel free to join.

http://animorphsforum.com/facebook

RAF on YouTube

Oh yes! It's true. blackpanther / Claire has created a promotional video for Richard's Animorphs Forum / RAF / The Animorphs Forum / I Don't Know, The Name Has Been Changed Couple Times.

Check it out below.



Discuss Claire's video here.

Digg RAF?

Enjoy our forums? How about delighted that we have both all the e-books and television show?
Digg RAF to spread the word... Click the Digg icon above, or here.

RAF Staff Additions

Hey RAFers, Mike, AKA Phoenix004 has been promoted to the RAF Staff after 4 years of being on RAF. He is one of a few more chosen to moderate the forum, expect more members to join the team.

In addition to Mike, Russell AKA Esplin 9466, has also been promoted to the team.

TheEllimist / Adam has been promoted to an administrator.

Welcome, and congratulations to all of the above members.

Some Issues

Ok. The Animorphs Forum Ebook board is now protected. You have to have 10 posts or more, or willing to assist with the editing of the books, in order to have access to the board.

Another thing. I sent out emails to two different groups of members, both instances resulted in the emails being sent, or appeared to be sent to the wrong person. Not to worry (and hopefully your email agent didn't mark it as spam), the email is legitimate.

For further assurance that emails from RAF are received, please add admin@animorphsforum.com to your contact list.

Sunday Edit:
Member Groups have been edited.
They are as follows:


New Member: 0 - 9 Posts
Junior Member: 9 - 99 Posts*
Full Member: 100 - 499 Posts
Sr. Member: 500 - 1999 Posts
Xtreme Member: 2000 - Posts
RAF Elite: Member who in a RAF Elite. #2 top poster.
#1 Poster: Top posting RAF member.


* RAF Junior Member group has been expanded from 100-499, to 9 - 499 to accomadate the new system whereby persons have to post 10 times in order to access the RAF E-Book Board.

Host Switch

The Animorphs Forum's domain (http://theanimorphsforum.com) is host switching from a 100mb / 3gb per month, to a 25gb, 35gb per month host. As a result of the DNS switch, the e-books may not be available for a time. Ripway's links will still be up, but links in the Direct Download thread will be affected.

Wednesday Update: Ripway links are down until 6PMCST

Monday Update

What a busy weekend it was for me. I, for the first time, scanned and uploaded book 34, and it is officially available for download via the Animorphs Forum e-Book Project. I must thank nihtelek for OCRing (is that a word?) the book for the Project.

Since yesterday, my Ripway web-space that has been hosting the e-books for easy download access, has been overwhelmed, and has been repeatedly shut down for excessive bandwidth usage. The image below displays bandwidth usage for the past 24 hours.

As a result, I have moved the Direct Downloads links to another host which allows for 3gb with of transfers per month versus the 150mb per day with Ripway.

----------

The last 24 hours have been a statistically active one on RAF:

Over 70 members logged into RAF.

See the peak that Sunday experienced.

Tuesday, Oct 30 Update: RAF experienced a huge traffic spur on Monday (when this blog was posted) because of the email I sent to all members. RAF saw 3,658 hits, 366 unique visitors (or different persons), 280 first time visitors & 86 returning visitors. The best one day stats since November 4 2005 where 3,911 hits were recorded on that day, 364 unique visitors came on RAF, 346 first time visitors, and 18 persons returned to the forum.

The graph above has been updated to show Monday's totals.

----------

You can now access RAF via http://theanimorphsforum.com/, but that domain will redirect to http://animorphsforum.com/.

----------

Our 700th member was TobyRocksSoHard, registered today.

----------

Awards?

New Staff Member

Adam / TheEllimist, a long time member of RAF has been promoted to the RAF Staff. He joins Druid / Raphael on the team.

Their jobs will be to moderate the forum, and have fun. I'd like to welcome Adam, and please, don't harass him... :) thanks.

What Happened to Richard?

Yes, you may have noticed, but for the 1290239th time I changed the name of the forum. Now, it is no-longer Richard's Animorphs Forum, rather The Animorphs Forum. The dropping of my name from the forum's name was done to de-personalize the forum's name.

I'm still hung up over the RAF, because that is what the forum is known as. So for the time being, You will see RAF: The Animorphs Forum atop all web-pages/ 

As usual, accessing the forum via animorphsforum.com is recommended.

theanimorphsforum.com is on the way...