The State of Things

[Kalamere]

I guess this has been a little bit different from our average week around here...

As many know, RoH is now undergoing a change in management. I don't know how many of you saw this coming. I know I did not. If I'm honest, I'm still digesting the shock.

Shocked or not though, Amaltea yesterday named me as the new owner of the site. There are many people who play here and have a stake in our future, so you deserve to hear from me on the topic and get an idea of where we go now.

First of all, I want to let you know that the existing model of ownership isn't the plan. We have the current senior staff and a couple other folks who have been heavily involved over the last year or so. This group will be the core of support as we transition and from them we plan to establish a sort of board of overseers. I will not be the owner of RoH. I'll be one of a group that has equal say. Ultimately I've always seen staff positions as stewards. The site is truly the property of the community who plays here and we need to be as transparent and open as we can manage. Of course, it also tends to be true that you need a small group to actually make decisions and implement change -- so it'll be our challenge to find that middle ground.

The details of the board are still being worked out, but we'll get you more information once it is further solidified.

As for the website, that's going to take a little bit of time to re-home. While we're doing it, it seems like probably the best time to make some technology tweaks. I won't lie, there is going to be some turbulence here and some features of the site will stop working, at least for a little while. What is in place is a 13 year old behemoth of a site and there are going to be some landmines we trip over while porting it to a new home. Please be patient with us and we'll do our best to limit the turbulence as best we can. Notifications of planned work will be posted in Discord. Possibly on the forums as well, but since that's the piece most likely to experience issues, you might not want to rely on that!

The last thing I want to address today is our association with the RDI on Dragon's Mark. Amaltea has declared that connection dead. We know that many of you, hell almost all of you, play and post on RDI as much or more than you do on RoH. I would like to encourage you to continue doing so. Out of respect for her wishes and rules, I'd ask you not to post any live playables on RDI for events that will be held on the Discord server or board events that will take place only here on RoH. With that said, please feel free to continue cross posting your RDI based stories and playables here on RoH if you like. Board events on the RDI forums or chat events in their BlaB system are perfectly welcome. From the RoH standpoint we would like to keep that door open, even if it now only swings one way.

A lot of people have reached out to me to offer words of support and offers to help. This has meant a ton to me in a time where, I have to admit, I've had a couple panic stricken moments over all this. I have no idea how I could incorporate everyone who has offered a hand. I've got a little bit of tunnel vision right now in looking at how we port the site. If we come up with something though, be assured we will ask.

In the meantime though, the best way to truly help is to come out and play. Keep the site alive by staying engaged and telling the stories we all come here for.

Thanks for reading and, trust me, there will be much more to come.

~Kal