UOGuide Future Plans and Changing Ownership

[JC the Builder]

Hello,

It has been a while.

I recently had COVID again. It was my 3rd time. But unlike the first two times where it was hardly noticeable, this time was so much worse than the others. I was completely bed ridden for several days. It made me think about what was gonna happen to UOGuide if the worst happened. I had scribbled down some instructions in case, but thankfully that has not been needed since I am writing this.

Now that I am well I have been thinking about other things. Such as, what am I doing just holding onto this website? It is not getting the attention it deserves. Especially now with the release of New Legacy. This should be the place to get all that information. But it isn't being added and I can't do it.

In the back of my mind I have dreams about coming back and updating the software, editing articles again, even playing Ultima Online. But the reality is that with way my life that is unlikely to happen. I am physically unable to play video games and have not been able to for years. And I don't have the time to devote like I used to writing articles. I mean I would love to do nothing but craft guides all day but that does not pay bills on the tens of dollars left after advertising costs are paid for.

This is where every other major website in existence is offered up to the highest bidder. But I'm not going to do that. Anyone who has been around (which is most of you) knows the history of how that played out for Stratics and it has been atrocious. The work I and others have done over 18 years is not going to be ruined because some rich idiot has a grand vision of a gaming wiki network.

No, the plan is for someone in the UO community to put together a team (doesn't need to be large, just 3-4 people would suffice) and contact me with their plans on what they will do with the website. The team needs to have someone known on it. I'm not gonna specify how known they have to be but the known-er the better.

The most difficult part is having a person on the team that 1) can program PHP and MySQL 2) can troubleshoot efficiently 3) loves a lack of documentation (because I never made any) and 4) will spend the time needed on this. I think there are going to be some very unique challenges in bringing UOGuide up-to-date which I will go over with the appropriate interested parties.

So if you think you can put together the right team of people the message me on Discord 'jcthebuilder'. I don't have any defined process for this so just contact me with question. If you have any other reason to contact me then feel free to also on my Discord.

If this does not work then have no fear, things will continue on somehow. I have other ideas.

Have a Nice day.

*Added*

Also I notice that Google has been going crazy placing advertisements since they created that auto-placement feature. It should now be back to what was originally intended. Just one on the side, 2 on the bottom, and also one that attaches to the bottom of the page/screen.

[Sibble]

hey jc - glad you're feeling better

i can spot-help here and there with php/mysql as needed sibble@sibble.com or sibble on discord

zend cerfified php engineer with 25+ years experience with php/mysql

my free time has been very limited due to career, but if there are any small things i can help with, i'd be happy to

[JC the Builder]

Thank you for the offer Sibble. The problem is I think it needs a lot more than a little help. I have DM you the details why.

[Tancred RedStar]

JC,

Not sure how I wandered back to this website, I haven't played UO in over a decade, but I'm saddened to hear of some of the hardships you are dealing with. I wish you nothing but the best moving forward and hope you fully regain your health. UO was such a large part of my life for a long time until it was supplanted, perhaps modestly at first, at getting married and then, fully, by having kids. I always thought things would chill a bit and I'd get back into UO but months stretched into years and now here I am over a decade later with only a curious interest to see UO is still online, unlike so, so many the other games EA thoroughly ruined trying to squeeze out a quick buck. I remember all the hours I thoroughly enjoyed writing content copy, making pages, doing research, taking screenshots in-game to edit out new items, etc. and often took a little bit of pride helping out and knowing that this site had the latest, best, most thorough info as soon as a Publish was announced, pushed, etc. It is all a fond memory I will forever cherish and carry with me and thank YOU, sir, for making such an opportunity available to me and a great site for all the UO players. Again, best wishes to you moving forward.

TR