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Post by FriedGruntzaholic on Jan 15, 2008 11:27:26 GMT -8
To me, the MPI Gruntz forum resembles an abandoned brick & mortar building. We knew that Monolith was going to withdraw support for Gruntz and the Gruntz forum. We expected it to be a complete site shutdown. Apparently, it was merely a withdrawal of active support in maintainence of the Gruntz forum as well as technical support for the game itself. That occurred around the time Kevin left their employ and, perhaps, because he left. And perhaps part of the reason that MPI all but ignores their Gruntz forum is because most of the fanz of the game are now over here In effect, everyone moved out. And, like the abandoned b & m building, the vandals moved in over there and have done a bang-up job of defacing the site. To complete the analogy, the reason that MPI hasn't shut down the site completely is probably the same as that of the absent owner of the abandoned building who doesn't tear it down: economic. What that entails is anybody's guess, but that's what I see. And its not going to improve any time soon, if ever.
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Jan 15, 2008 12:03:43 GMT -8
At one time, Fried, you were trying to get the rights to the MPI Gruntz Forum domain ... but they either demurred, or simply did not respond to your inquiry. There would be a considerable amount of work required to clean up the mess the SPAMmers have made there, but I would be willing to make the effort, if I had the required authority (and possibly, training). I have not checked to try to determine what scripting language was used in that Forum, but if it is JavaScript (or pure HTML) I would be able to get something accomplished quickly. If it is PHP or some other scripting type, then there would be an educational delay before I could make any progress. There are a lot of worthwhile old posts on that web site that would be valuable to new Gruntzerz (and somehow, there seem to continue to be new Gruntzerz!) that I would like to save. Obviously, removing all of the junk would be necessary before anyone would ever want to take the time to scan that database for any help. If it were possible to retain the authorship of postz, I would consider trying to scan the database and copy and paste into the appropriate threadz here. But I don't see how that could be done ... except by creating member information for those old-timerz that have not become memberz here, and 'forging' their authorship to postz in this Forum. And I neither think that is ethical, nor feasible to do that.
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Post by FriedGruntzaholic on Jan 15, 2008 21:12:40 GMT -8
Our thought at the time was not so much the idea of saving the MPI Gruntz Forum as it was obtaining the rights to the Gruntz domain name. When we found out that Monolith was going to end their support of the Gruntz forum, we thought that they were going to shut down the site as a whole. I made the request on behalf of all of us that Monolith allow us to take over the domain name when the time came for them to abandon it. They told me that they would certainly consider it and that we would be at the top of the list. They also told me that they were going to renew the license for at least one more year. That's pretty much where I left it. For whatever reason, 'lith keeps renewing the license.
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Jan 26, 2008 11:47:42 GMT -8
It is no longer possible to access the Monolith Gruntz Forum. All I get, now, is an error message regarding Bad Request (Invalid Hostname) The SPAMmerz have finally been noticed, and action has been taken ... closing down the web site. So it seemz there is no longer any hope of recovering all of those legitimate messagez concerning the game of Gruntz. Gruntz - The Journey Home effectively shut down several yearz ago, with nothing new added since about 2001, and the only update to the web site is that there is a date saying the web site was last updated on May 31, 2005. Even Paul's Gruntz Page has gone for yearz without any updating, because he now is working for a living, instead of going to school ... and Gruntz hasn't that high place in his schedule any more. So this Forum seemz to be the last hold-out among Gruntz fandom. At least, there are still 60 Gruntzerz who receive new Custom Levelz, and about a dozen of them post about their experience (or problemz) on a regular basis. The loss of the Monolith Productions, Inc. Gruntz Forum (web site) meanz that there are several linkz that no longer work on this Forum. I had screen shotz linked from MPI in the Standard Level threadz that will have to be replaced with linkz to my web host ... which meanz that it will be necessary to do some scrren grabz and upload them. So after I complete linking in the downloadz of Standard Level mapz, I will begin doing screen grabz to put into the Forum's threadz. I will work from "Rocky Roadz" toward "Gruntz In Space" ... if anyone has an interest (and the time) to assist, post in this thread stating where you will begin, and what direction you will be working.
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Post by FriedGruntzaholic on Feb 6, 2008 6:06:42 GMT -8
Has anyone tried to access the Monolith forum in the last couple of days? When I try, I get the following error message: "YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO VIEW THIS PAGE The Web server you are attempting to reach has a list of IP addresses that are not allowed to access the Web site, and the IP address of your browsing computer is on this list" That's the Firefox error message. Don't know what IE's error message would be. Interesting, though, huh?
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Feb 6, 2008 6:23:22 GMT -8
I am also using Firefox, and am 'rewarded' with the same message you quoted. I am 99% certain that Monolith Productions, Inc. has closed down the web site ... in my mind there is only a 1% chance that someone there has actually decided to take an active part in managing the web site, and has blocked all of the IP addresses of anyone who has ever posted there.
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Post by SwordGrunt on Feb 13, 2008 8:20:46 GMT -8
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Feb 13, 2008 11:35:49 GMT -8
I registered there, and posted in the Gruntz thread. Tomorrow I plan to return there and provide a lot more information, such as a link to the thread here "What is Gruntz?". At least MPI has recognized the futility of having an unmoderated Forum, and have a self-moderating one in place ... one that takez more effort than most SPAMmerz will be willing to expend to distribute their garbage.
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Post by FriedGruntzaholic on Feb 13, 2008 12:48:12 GMT -8
Apparently, Lith does have some interest in keeping the Gruntz forum alive along with their other older games, albeit in a different format, a vBulletin board--it seems they went outside the company to do this. Alas, all the good old posts with all the good stuff in them has been lost along with the all the garbage, and the forum does not have the Gruntzy theme, but it's better than nothing. On the bright side, the MPI Gruntz forum link does work and takes you to the new forum. But, you do have to register (FREE!!) in order to post. Which will slow down the trolls and spambots.
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Post by SwordGrunt on Feb 14, 2008 8:49:35 GMT -8
We should provide many linkz to sectionz of this forum (GooRoo's Gruntz Forum) so not all tipz and trickz need to be re-posted, thus making hintz and walkthroughz to be available faster.
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Post by FriedGruntzaholic on Jan 27, 2009 17:39:39 GMT -8
Monolith's "Gruntz Forum" (the vBulletin version), as well as all their other forums, are all shut down again. Trying to go there via my normal bookmarked link yielded a "Page not found" error. Indeed, the entire lith.com website is down. Going there by way of the normal URL just leads to a splash page that says the site has been temporarily shut down and asks surfers to return again shortly for a NEW, IMPROVED lith.com site. However, if you look to the right hand side of the page................
It looks like Monolith has not entirely abandoned game development at all. Rather it appears that the shut down of their website and its subsequent reconstruction is linked to the debut of their newest game, "F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin," set to debut February 10 (NA) or February 13 (elsewhere). I expect their newly redesigned website will also debut then, too. It'll be interesting to see if they give any kind of a nod to any of their previous games (I'm not bettin' the farm on it).
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