Brother Tyler

I'm a visual learner who needs pictures If you hold the mouse over each icon, a text explanation of its meaning will display (as with Like in the image above).

The artwork is all from the 3rd edition of the game. I don't know if it was official promotional material or if someone created that on their own, however.

@WrathOfTheLion will be able to provide much better answers to these questions. We are working on getting new servers, however, as well as some other technical improvements. Ultimately, I doubt that this member pruning will have a significant impact on our performance. Getting rid of 1/3+ of our accounts is of a little help, especially in cases where the system recalculates members' achievements, but these unused accounts provide almost no other demands on the system. And while my very limited sampling of these accounts showed no images, there's a chance that, hidden in the 650+ pages of these members, some might have had images in the Gallery. I think it's a very slim chance, if any. If any of these accounts did have images in our Gallery, that cleans out a little more of our database. That is probably insufficient to realize any real performance improvements, but it cleans up a little bit of noise. The real benefit that members have is that some display names that were previously used are now available again. The more important things that will improve our performance will be in other areas. This was simply one of those small things that I'm capable of (i.e., knuckle-dragger level work as opposed to work requiring real tech-adepts).

It was somewhere around 8,000 (we went from 22,000+ down to 14,000+ members). We won't know how much of an impact the pruning had until Monday (or @WrathOfTheLion is able to perform some analytics).

No, anyone with achievements other than longevity (e.g., ) has content, so they didn't meet all three criteria. This is the second time that we've done this sort of pruning. In all cases, the members had to meet all three of the criteria I listed. Indeed. Keep in mind, however, that members had to meet all three criteria for their accounts to be pruned. If someone had any existing content and hadn't been active in ten years or more, their account would not have been pruned.

In an effort to keep the database lean, a lot of accounts were pruned (i.e., deleted) over the weekend. Our criteria for these account deletions: Member has zero content* (e.g., no topics, no replies, etc.). Member has not been active (i.e., they haven't logged in) in over 10 years. Member is in the + FRATER NOVUS + or + FRATER DOMUS + group. All three criteria had to be met for the account to be pruned. If any of these were not met, the account was retained. Some members had zero content because they never actually participated, only creating an account and then lurking. Some of these members never participated at all, dropping out of the hobby/community in time; and others created other accounts later which became active. Other members had zero content because of the time the system crashed and our database was wiped out. That was in 2005 and we lost a lot of really great content. Still other members had zero content because of an old practice which has since been abandoned. When the site was first created, we (the staff) would periodically delete old discussion topics. That tapered off, though we occasionally deleted rumors and event topics once the products were released (or disproven) or the events had passed. When we were preparing for the software update in 2022, we deleted a lot of discussion topics in an effort to keep the database lean. However, we discovered that the removal of this content had a negative impact on members' achievements - the system could not count content that no longer existed. So we dropped that practice in 2022, instead creating a location for obsolete content which would remove it from public visibility while ensuring that the system would preserve the contributing members' achievements. So some of these members may have been active one time, but all records of that activity (i.e., the content they submitted) has been lost. Members in other groups that met the other criteria were not deleted for record-keeping purposes. Anyone who served as a staff member has both activity (even if you can't see it) and a unique title. Likewise, it is important to preserve the members who have been permanently banned for misbehavior so that we have a record and can refer to that content if they ever return to the site and we are able to associate the new account(s) with the previous misbehaving accounts, which has happened and will likely happen in the future. The pruning of these accounts is only one part of a larger effort that will include moving to new (and more capable) servers, fixing our database, updating to the new Invision 5.0 software (happening SoonTM, though TBD), and some other technical things that require someone who's not a knuckledragger (i.e., not me) to explain. In truth, this may have little impact on its own. If we repeat this pruning in the future, it will likely only affect members who join and then lurk. The only exceptions might be if we have a repeat of the Great Crash, but our backup process should mitigate that to the greatest extent possible (i.e., we'll only lose a fraction of content between the time of the most recent backup being taken and the crash). * Note that the "zero content" description may be inaccurate. While these members had zero topics, discussion comments/replies, blogs/blog entries, articles, and files, some may have had images/albums in the Gallery. Some definitely had avatars/personal photos and some may have had signatures/About Me pages. Since these members don't have any other content (topics, comments, etc.), however, any images they may have had in the Gallery were either used at external sites or simply resided in our Gallery (i.e., in our database) with no other use. If so, these images were populating our database and putting a pointless load on our server. In the limited sampling we took of the members who met the criteria identified in the bullets above, however, none of the members had such images. If you have any questions/concerns about this (especially if there are things we should incorporate for the future), feel free to post them here.

Note that we have deleted many member accounts over the years in an effort to keep the database lean. Our criteria for these account deletions: Member has zero content* (e.g., no topics, no replies, etc.). Member has not been active (i.e., they haven't logged in) in over 10 years. Member is in the + FRATER NOVUS + or + FRATER DOMUS + group. All three criteria had to be met for the account to be pruned. If any of these were not met, the account was retained. Some members had zero content because they never actually participated, only creating an account and then lurking. Some of these members never participated at all, dropping out of the hobby/community in time; and others created other accounts later which became active. Other members had zero content because of the time the system crashed and our database was wiped out. That was in 2005 and we lost a lot of really great content. Still other members had zero content because of an old practice which has since been abandoned. When the site was first created, we (the staff) would periodically delete old discussion topics. That tapered off, though we occasionally deleted rumors and event topics once the products were released (or disproven) or the events had passed. When we were preparing for the software update in 2022, we deleted a lot of discussion topics in an effort to keep the database lean. However, we discovered that the removal of this content had a negative impact on members' achievements - the system could not count content that no longer existed. So we dropped that practice in 2022, instead creating a location for obsolete content which would remove it from public visibility while ensuring that the system would preserve the contributing members' achievements. So some of these members may have been active one time, but all records of that activity (i.e., the content they submitted) has been lost. Members in other groups that met the other criteria were not deleted for record-keeping purposes. Anyone who served as a staff member has both activity (even if you can't see it) and a unique title. Likewise, it is important to preserve the members who have been permanently banned for misbehavior so that we have a record and can refer to that content if they ever return to the site and we are able to associate the new account(s) with the previous misbehaving accounts, which has happened and will likely happen in the future. * Note that the "zero content" description may be inaccurate. While these members had zero topics, discussion comments/replies, blogs/blog entries, articles, and files, some may have had images/albums in the Gallery. Some definitely had avatars/personal photos and some may have had signatures/About Me pages. Since these members don't have any other content (topics, comments, etc.), however, any images they may have had in the Gallery were either used at external sites or simply resided in our Gallery (i.e., in our database) with no other use. If so, these images were populating our database and putting a pointless load on our server. In the limited sampling we took of the members who met the criteria identified in the bullets above, however, none of the members had such images. So if you are a returning member, it's possible that your old account no longer exists. Before you create a new account, however, please contact the Administrators so we can check to see if the account exists. If your account exists, that means that any content you created probably still exists, too, and the results of that participation (achievements/badges, reputation, rank) still exist and we want everyone to be recognized for their participation in the site/hobby. We can always update email accounts and assign temporary passwords so that you can recover access to your account and content, and we're happy to do that for you.

As this topic's title makes clear, this topic is about the "Intercessor Squad gone from webstore." It's not about other stuff. I've removed all the off topic posts.

My point is that each app could be discussed in the forum for the related game.

What games are supported by the app?

It's always good to see new DIYs, especially from (sub)factions other than the Adeptus/Heretic Astartes. I like the image you used. It's reminiscent of similar images used/created by other B&C members for their Aeldari and Anhrathe. Even though the article says that they use red as more of an accent, it appears to be the dominant color in the scheme. Do you have any completed miniatures for this corsair fleet? It would be great to see them realized on the tabletop, even if it's only for Combat Patrol or Kill Team. Similarly, I'm interested in seeing their rivals.

Let's wargame this out (I'm not saying it will/won't happen, mind you)... Someone has said something that you find interesting. You don't necessarily agree with it (ruling out the AGREE reaction) or disagree with it (ruling out the RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE reaction) and you want to think about it further before you reply in the discussion (if you reply, that is). The fact that you're still thinking about it probably means that you don't quite LOVE it, and you may or may not SUPPORT it (yet). You don't necessarily think it's funny (ruling out the HAHA reaction). Is that correct? This leaves two of the existing reactions that might convey the concept (among other things)... LIKE doesn't necessarily mean that you agree with something (hence the other reaction), so it might be used in the sense that you like that someone has posted interesting content and you're thinking about it further before commenting. THANKS can also be used in a way that is different from agreeing with someone (again, hence the other reaction), so it might be used in the sense that you're thanking the other member for posting content that is thought-provoking. All the reactions aside from RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE confer a reputation point upon the member whose content has received the reaction. Even if one ultimately disagrees with the points made (after further thought), would the thought-provoking nature of the original post merit a reputation point? If one of the point-conferring reactions was used and you later decide that you don't think the member deserves a reputation point (because you eventually disagree either with the arguments made or the method of argumentation), would either the ability to remove a reaction or some neutral (i.e., non-point-conferring) reaction be better? And what if you eventually decide that the points made are worthy of a reputation point? If the original THINKING reaction was neutral, you would likely want to change it to a different reaction that confers a point (likely one of the existing reactions). More likely, however, members wouldn't think to change their reactions later, even if they eventually agree/disagree with the points made in the post. In such cases, points would be retained even if the member assigning the reaction ends up not agreeing with the post (if the original THINKING reaction confers a reputation point) or no points would be gained even if the member assigning the reaction ends up disagreeing with the post (if the original THINKING reaction doesn't confer a reputation point). Perhaps you just want to say that the content is thought-provoking. It might be argued that either LIKE or THANKS work well enough, but there might be sufficient nuance to merit a distinct reaction. What would such a reaction look like? Keep in mind our intent to have each reaction have a unique appearance, including key colors. So unless we were to change the background color of one of the existing reactions, we would have to find a distinct background color for a THINKING or THOUGHT-PROVOKING reaction. At present, orange is the only significant color that isn't represented in the existing reactions (and it might work well in this instance). The first icon that comes to my mind is a light bulb, but we might collectively identify something better (keep in mind, however, that it has to be simple enough that it renders well at very small size- 16 pixels wide and tall, as in the examples above).

People fail to understand two very important things: First, this entire forum serves as a "book club" where members are free to discuss all the fiction, both written and visual, about the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Second, a single freeform topic is terrible for content discovery and findability. That kind of engagement works fine on Discord, Reddit, Quora, and other similar sites, but it fails to make proper use of the discussion forum format and underserves the community. Yes, it's easy to just pop into a single topic, post about whatever crosses your mind, and then move on. And yes, it can be interesting to see how a topic wends and weaves through a variety of subjects. It doesn't allow for people to engage in any depth, however. And people might be interested in specific subjects that crop up in the course of such a discussion, but then they have to work their way through a variety of other subjects in which they might have little/no interest to pick up all the posts about their subjects of interest that appear in pages and pages of a single amorphous discussion. To avoid repeating something I've said before, here's a link to an editorial providing an explanation of the site's content architecture: https://bolterandchainsword.com/blogs/entry/143-content-architecture-at-the-bolter-chainsword-an-editorial-of-sorts/. That explanation is as true for freeform "discussions" as it is for off-topic posts. More importantly, it demonstrates the importance of discussions having an appropriate level of focus. There are a lot of great ideas that come out in discussions, and the replies that have appeared so far in this discussion are a great example of the range of ideas that deserve to be discussed by members of the community. Do everyone a favor, however, and be willing to put in the minimum of effort required to create distinct topics for separate subjects. The depth of engagement enabled by such discussions is far greater than that allowed by random wall post style discussions.

The link has been added to the Miscellaneous Aeldari Links section.