For those people that are new to this forum, don't know the full story, or want it repeated, I'm going to explain how we've gotten this forum this far and everything that's happened so far since as long as I've been here.It all started with the NHCS. The owner of the forum was Kevin Ar18 (just simply known as Kevin), who founded it as a fan site for Outpost 1 and 2.
Kevin was the first person who proposed creating new maps for Outpost2, and the first to find the map format out.
The site started about 3 or 4 years ago.
You can still see most of the site, and the forum's posts, at http://op.virtualave.net/
One day Kevin came out and told us all that Outpost was taking up too much time in his life, and said he was closing the forum because he didn't have time to moderate it.
So, Dark Templar Kiler (later known as just Killer), came and opened a new forum, located at http://op.virtualave.net/Edit by OP2Patriot: op.suddenlaunch.com
Edit aded by CK9: Kiler wasn't the only one who created new forum. Right before I heard that kiler's forum was created I tried to create one, only to learn that it wasjust a fee trial forum. (It isn't imposrtant, but I just want it known that it wasn't only a power-hungry person trying to keep the fans together.)
Edit by OP2Patriot: I had one too, but that does not matter.
That forum went well for about a year or two, until some problems arose.
The first problem was, Killer promoted and demoted admins and GM's for no good reason. (In other words, he killed off the admins because he wanted, this is known as his "Admin Killing Spree".)Edit by OP2Patriot: There were two Admin Killing Sprees. There were over 7 admins the first time, and around 6 the second time. Also changing the background of the forum was a pastime of the former Chief Administrator.
Later a second problem occured. Killer started deleting posts that he thought spoke out against him.
Betaray made a long post about the problems with the administration, and most of the text was censored.
About a week later, the whole thread was deleted.
Finally, there was so much pressure put on Killer, that he transferred adminship to Xkr25, his supposed "friend" in school, who was the same age as him. (As it turns out now, it appears that he is 18. This has not been fully verified.)
The forum went better for a time, but the people still felt that the noose was still around their neck, because Killer would have an influence on Xkr25.Edit by OP2Patriot: XKR25 is 13.
Until the next cascade of problems.
One day, it was impossible to log on to the board! The members looked at the members list, and lo-and-behold, Xkr25 had deleted all of the forum members.
The members were enraged.
Conspiracy theories were formed about who did it.
But, at the same time, I and others such as Philip and Martyn thought it over. The forum could be closed for TOS violation, since Killer was 12 at the time he started it, and the Sudden Launch TOS read that "you must be at least 13 to use the Service."
Also, I thought of a method that could be used to "hijack" the main admin account, therefore giving us full control of the forum. I told Martyn my plan, and how we could exploit a security hole in the forum to change the main admin account's password.
However, it required that Xkr25 would be logged in currently to the forum under the main admin account; and would have to click a link to execute the "rogue" instructions to change his password.
Martyn ended up getting Xkr25 to click this link, and the forum was successfully hijacked.xfir: Actually, he didn't click a link. I logged him out by a clever little trick of my own: through the counter I hosted.
another edit by CK9: before Xkr25 became an admin, beta attempted to make the forumites aware of Kiler's evils by staging a big leaving. This plan backfired and people said stuff like, "Stop your complaining, get back here and post you wimp."(I'm a bit off, but it was similar) After the problems with Xkr25, Beta and I found an old abandond forum that we could try to conince the forumites to get to. All we needed was somepeople old enough to apply to be the new moderators, people we knew we could trust. Before we begain our search, two things happened. First, we found out that you had to log in every post. Second, the forum was deleted.
But not long after, op.suddenlaunch.com was shut down "due to TOS violations". However, the members managed to stay together long enough to create two forums, this one (forum.outpostuniverse.net), and the OPC (..com)
This is how it currently stands, two separate forums.March of 2004, op2hacker and Leviathan staged a coup and removed xfir from power. They moved the forum and it's member base to
http://www.outpostuniverse.net.
April 1st of 2006, xfir, as a prank, uploaded an old version (from March of 2004) of the OUF.
xfir's copy remains up so that his webspace doesn't go to complete waste. Hacker attempted a truce of sorts, but due to the nature of the takeover, xfir was untrustung of his words.
Both communities stand today in peaceful co-existance. (sound familiar?
)
=== End of Story ===
(CK9, xfir, Phil, others: I give you permission to edit this post to add extra information, or change incorrect information)
Hope this helps explain what actually happened over the past 3 or so years.
[EDIT by Eddy-B] Updated the 2 dead links of virtualave.net
