There are a few changes to FRF coming that I think people should know about.
First off, we are moving servers. We have hit the limit of disk space with current one despite my constant urging of ways we can save space, some continue to ignore it. There are also some other improvements with how site serves content that perhaps there maybe some downtime expected or not depending on how the host deals with it. It’s a big move so maybe downtime for a few minutes.
Take ownership
Next up, this gets asked a lot from staff and so I want to mention it. There are a lot of old tables/topics for games by authors who have been abandoned. The authors have left for years or the topic abandoned. If anyone for some reason wants to take ownership of that topic providing new table, yes it is totally fine. Just ask a staff member.
Please note that this only applies to when the author has clearly left for years or are active but explicitly mentioned they won’t continue with the game anymore. Just to give a perfect example, I have so many outdated tables that I am not going to touch again, I would be happy if someone else actually updated them and kept the topic alive. Having one active topic for a game is better than having several, it reduces clutter and makes the user experience so much better.
I am going to create an archive/snapshot of all the content and post somewhere just for posterity reasons. But it’s low priority because to set it up requires time and FRF changes very little anyway year on year. I also have backups/private mirrors in case something goes wrong with main server. This is mainly for nostalgia purposes to look back and see how FRF old content was.
Encrypted tables/mods/apps/save editors/non-CT content
This has always been allowed but again people get questions if they’re breaking any rules. And I want to put it officially that yes it’s completely allowed. Some games just are easier to mod without cheat engine, for example recently Jagged Alliance 3 has lua modification files posted in tables section and that’s perfectly fine. Forza/Genshin Impact has stand/cottonbud(?) etc apps which according to its devs make things easier for them to do than CE.
CTs are preferred because it’s very hard to moderate and verify non-CT content to be safe and not contain anything unexpected but it’s still OK. We understand there are ways outside CE that makes things easier to do and the goal is to mod our favourite games so it’s OK.
Group X
I have always enforced contributors to post free full table before they can advertise their discords/patreons/paywalls for updates. The benefit was users get to enjoy the table and can update it themselves if they want. By doing this, I have lost so many table makers who wanted to outright post their paywalls. Recifence would still be posting here, even DrummerIX left for a short period of time, I mean there’s so many I am not going to name them all and I alienated them all. They hate me for this.
It just seems this is what everyone is doing these days. Things have changed so much from when I first started FRF. If I hope to have any chance of competing and be a real threat to our competitors eg wem0d I have to change my strategy and get with times. There are so many games they have content for that we don’t have and it used to be the other way around.
I also have to think of ways to fund FRF now that my old methods are effectively burned and useless.
So if you’re one of those contributors that want to bypass this rule, you can make a deal with me (PM me) and effectively be exempt from this. I hope to see a lot of contributors come back who left due to my strict rules and help to add content. For example Recifence paywalled table is still content that FRF needs and clearly there are people who don’t mind supporting him so instead of Patreon, why not FRF?
My vision for FRF has been to be a welcoming place for all contributors to post their cheat engine tables/mods without fear of what’s happened to old forum. Somewhere along the way paywalled contributors were not welcomed but times change and FRF should be a place welcoming everyone.
It should also help fund FRF so it stays alive, healthy and well for everyone without any worries of survival.
Please note that free contributors will always be loved and preferred and they will get priority not the other way around. Free content is the heart and soul of FRF and I actually hope and encourage people to post free content to rival group x content but the reality is everyone just seems to be paywalling and very few post free content. I am not judging, they’re work their choice but it’s just how it is these days.
Help/Support Centre
I started FRF because it used to be my relaxation place after being done with stresses of work. All of us working together being friendly and nice towards modding our favourite games and getting most out of it. I don’t like to see negativity, insults and public drama. Unfortunately it does happen when there’s so many people with so many egos.
So I am thinking of starting some sort of support/help centre where issues can be resolved privately by staff. Nexus has something similar and most communities have this instead of public drama, problematic issues are resolved in private calm manner. People are also nicer when they don’t feel the pressure of being judged publicly and defending in public. Hopefully this is something that is free and doesn’t cost me.
I am also aware of the email issues and I don’t know of any secure solution to this than paying money which I can’t. Running FRF is already costly enough and I can’t afford to pay more just so people can get emails. Perhaps I can solve email issues with support centre as well.
Delegating control
I can’t thank Cas, Rhark, Methos and staff enough for handling things and maintaining sanity on FRF. I have been taking a break most of the year last year and this year only really coming whenever there was ddos attacks/server stuff or something that needed my attention. I like things this way, 7 years back my life was completely different to how it is now, I just don’t have time anymore and FRF is a hobby. So I am giving more control to people I trust to run this place and trust their decisions. Over time I hope to not even be SOSed about any serious issues/dramas handled by staff themselves which is something right now happens. So their decisions and authority becomes final unless I want something different which hasn’t happened at all this year.
On the same note I am looking for helpers. After the betrayal and treachery of Tim last year I have a hard time trusting people but I still need moderators so if you want to help with running FRF and maintaining sanity here then please contact me.
Changes to re-energise FRF
Over time I want to make changes to FRF as I think of them and there’s just too many or too small to list but my goal with these is to
Fund FRF
Increase content/reduce unfulfilled requests/add new types of content
Make FRF a nice, friendly and welcoming place for everyone especially contributors whether they are free or come with a catch.
I think it’s time for FRF to re-energise itself and just be bigger, better and nicer at everything. For so many years there was always worries of survival but now it’s time to look past those worries and actually do things that I’ve always imagined and wanted to do to make FRF experience much nicer and better.