Well, looks like we are launching a bit earlier than originally planned. This site is fully functional, just a bit limited on some things as we get all the backend worked out. Our CSS is a work-in-progress due to some major differences from how reddit was set up, so that will be coming, it will just look a bit barebones until then.
For the time being we still consider reddit.com/r/kotakuinaction to be our primary site, but will be building this up as a proper backup over time. We actively encourage anyone who wants to coexist on both sites to do so, and have no issue with folks who have finally had enough of reddit's bullshit that decide to make the move here completely now.
Rules are generally going to be the same here as they were on /r/kotakuinaction, but we are thinning them out a bit as some rules no longer need to apply here due to different sitewide rules/TOS from above lifting some restrictions we had to deal with. We will try to get a more complete listing of the newly modified rules up soon, as well as get them listed/linked on the Sidebar and such. Automod is not completely operational here, but will be in the very near future to make that all a bit easier to deal with.
Please be patient with us as we get things in gear. I'll try to keep everyone updated on the progress of things, though some parts will be mostly self-evident as they happen (like the return of the banner/sidebar).
Congrats on the emancipation! I've been a lurker in KiA for a couple of years now, but I am just now creating an account for the first time because I'm finally not worried about my employer finding out and getting blacklisted in the Games industry.
Questions about the new site:
Just some quick addressing of these questions, as they haven't really been asked of us yet outside of some instances offsite.
More freedom for our users and for us in our moderation. We aren't bound by nearly as restrictive sitewide rules, and - as seen in the major reddit shift yesterday - rules here are far easier to figure out and work within, as opposed to the almost byzantine set of constantly changing "you can't do/say this, but we aren't making the line itself clear" bullshit reddit has become infamous for.
This was one of the things we discussed when we were first approached by the TD admins. They have not provided us with detailed fiscal reports or anything, but have demonstrated in a few other convincing ways that they are committed to keeping this site and its hosting intact for the long haul.
I honestly am not sure. I don't have that info in an easy-to-access form here yet on the mod end of things, but we can always make the request so that info can remain integrated into our CSS and such. We have a long tradition of "Get" threads at major subscriber count landmarks that I'd like to retain.
Thanks for the replies, Bane!
So it seems like .win forums do have their own set of site wide rules (which is probably good so that things aren't absolute anarchy and productive discussion can be maintained) - we're not worried about .win bowing to the whims of the rapidly-sliding Overton window and tightening up those rules?
One other thing that I'm a bit curious about is the relationship between TD and the .win domain. Does TD do their own site hosting or something? Or is the "they" in the "they have not provided us..." you mentioned above the company that owns the domain? Sorry if I'm prying, just trying to understand the structure here!
If the past decade has taught people anything, it's that one should always be prepared for seemingly-obvious things to take a 180.
Always have a backup plan, in other words
.win looks promising, but so did the old site once upon a time.
My understanding of it is that communities.win - the broader hosting here - is run by several people who help run TD itself.
A (probably bad) analogy is to think of TD as the first "default subreddit" equivalent here, with us being among the later additions as the site expands over time to new areas. We just happen to have independent domains as front-end access for users, rather than something like /r/kotakuinaction vs /r/the_donald on reddit (there is a way to access each site here like that, but it's not how things display for most people).
Sweet - with TD being in charge then, I'm not too worried about the rules changing too wildly. Thanks for allaying my fears!