OathbreakerNET Update Diary

Fated has received quite a few updates lately:

• I rewrote the page on Aeris's relationship with Tifa.
• I updated the music page.
• I finally put up the screenshot gallery (yay!). I have more screens from FFVII, the tech demo, etc. sitting on my hard drive waiting to be organised and uploaded.
• versaeris: an Aeris fan comm run by yours truly.

I realise that it seems like Fated and Bewitching are being left to languish. I have not forgotten about them, and I do have several planned content updates (including the reintroduction of all the media which is still sitting on my hard drive, waiting to be reorganised).

oathbreaker.net is online again. What could this mean?

Move aside, Waving Not Drowning has received the first layout that I don't immediately hate in the year and a half since I took down its first layout. The style is a little cliché, and it needs quite a bit of tweaking, but for now it's good to go.

I've been meaning to add some rudimentary information about the games for a while, but getting it fixed up with a decent, webworthy layout has always been my first priority. It might actually happen now (and maybe I'll organise my Kingdom Hearts avatars and throw those up there as well).

"Bewitching" is now affiliated with the awesome Water Nymph/Sharpshooter.

- - -

I have revised the landing page at oathbreaker.net so it has links to all the sites on the network and the message to "hold your breath". Yeah, hold it: I plan to have the site relaunched a.s.a.p. -- maybe after redesigning "Waving Not Drowning" (the Kingdom Hearts series fanlisting), and giving it a layout I actually, you know, like.

I'm thinking of cannibalising the 'fan' subdomain and integrating the fanlistings into the main collective. This is why:

• I don't have a "fanlisting collective", and I only have two fanlistings, so the subdomain seems superfluous.


• Keeping them separate from the main collective makes them seem less important.


• This means that they never get expanded, and I always forget to link them when listing sites hosted at the collective. Integrating them into the main site would counter this, and break down the shrine/fanlisting dichotomy I have in my mind.


• Aesthetically, I don't like how the fan.oathbreaker.net/whatever designation looks: it's unnecessary, and it makes the URL longer than it needs to be.

To keep some idea of proportion inherent in the way sites are linked on the domain, only information-rich sites will get a subdomain of their own (e.g. aeris.oathbreaker.net), versus information-lite sites like fanlistings (e.g. oathbreaker.net/etna). The old URLs will permanently redirect to the new locations.

"Bewitching", my Lulu shrine, is finally back. I took the site offline for revamping almost a year ago now, and have finally got around to doing it — so it's back with heavily revised content and a new layout.

- - -

Fated has gained some new affiliates since my last update: Strife, an old affiliate which I'm sure you're all familiar with, Schism, another Cloud shrine which was affiliated with "Fated" back in the day, Elegy, a fantastic Vincent Valentine shrine, and Circle Game, a beautiful Aeris/Tseng shrine.

I've also added a little more information, under "in depth > water bearer", and a few images under "media > official art". I'm still working on organising the — literally hundreds of — screenshots I have so I can put them online.

I have decided in the interest of rebooting oathbreaker.net to strip the whole site down to its bare bones. What this means is that all projects which I'm not heart-rendingly in love with are going to be abandoned.

I want to take the collective back to its roots.

When oathbreaker.net relaunches (I'm tentatively going to say "in September") you can expect the following things:

- "Fated" (Aeris, Final Fantasy VII) will obviously still be kicking.
- "Bewitching" (Lulu, Final Fantasy X) will have been relaunched.
- "Duskfall" (Midna, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) will still be around, maybe with a redesign.

At least.

Also:

- "Long Live the Queen" (Etna, Disgaea) maybe have been shrine-ified.

The main collective is down. Again.

This is what happened: I got busy, and couldn't spend the time revamping it that I wanted, and things fell into disrepair. I was also reluctant to do too much because it was pending removal to a better host (which has now happened). So I'm on 'hiatus' again for a little while.

However, Fated is back! I also have a couple of other gaming projects up my sleeves, and Long Live the Queen, the Etna fanlisting, has a long-overdue new layout. I think that I'm going to work on getting these projects up behind the scenes before reconstructing the collective itself to bring them all together.

Waving Not Drowning has a new layout.

Duskfall is back online.

OathbreakerNET is back online and she has a new layout, featuring Erica Durance. Waving Not Drowning: Kingdom Hearts (series) also has a new layout.

A few days ago I decided to cancel hosting with my previous webspace provider — FuitadNET, who I wouldn't recommend to anybody — after a string of problems involving my domain. So.

re: oathbreaker.net —

There were a few days downtime while I migrated servers (I didn't think sticking with Fuitad while I organised things would make the move go any smoother; the domain was essentially broken when I cancelled my hosting anyway).

I [still] don't have access to my PC, so I don't have access to all my backups. That means that things will be going up piecemeal: the fanlistings — Waving Not Drowning: Kingdom Hearts (series) & Call Me Queen: Etna — are back up already.

I still need to do some tweaking with my code and the templates in Enth3, but they're pretty much good to go.

The main collective has a new layout which should be up later today, depending on how I feel about doing the boring bits. It's simple, but the code is very clean compared to the last layout (anything is clean compared to the last layout) and I think it works.

But, since it sucks to be me, the best part of the domain — my Midna shrine, Duskfall — is one of the things I don't have access to right now. That'll stay down for at least another few days while I kick myself in the ass.

x-posted to personal journal.

I paid off my hosting provider, and optimistically expect links pointing at the Oathbreaker Network to become valid again soon.

x-posted to personal journal.

Duskfall has been updated with information about in-game pairings and an essay entitled "Mirror Mirror" about the reflective themes in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

OathbreakerNET's collective section has also been updated with more information about each shrine.

The layout for the retooled Oathbreaker Network has been completely designed and coded, and most content for the homepage has been written. The Midna shrine is now known as Duskfall and also has a completed layout and several pages worth of content created. As well, since I started this revamp, Waving Not Drowning, the Kingdom Hearts fanlisting, has also received a new layout.

Although both OathbreakerNET and Duskfall are online now, things are still being retooled at both sites. There's a lot of content for Duskfall which I just haven't got around to organising and uploading, but which will go up eventually, and even more that needs to be put together for OathbreakerNET. However, it's so nice to have something online again! ♥

I've taken down almost all content at Oathbreaker HQ except for the fanlistings, which will stay up over the course of this renovation. Links to any of my sites will redirect to the hiatus page, which is linked to this journal.

Because of the recent server change, the fanlistings were glitching out. This is now fixed, and I'm really sorry for any of the inconvenience it caused people!

The So-Called "F.A.Q."
Why did you take oathbreaker.net down to revamp it?
Because I wanted to - realistically, because I was sick of it being up and being static. I don't exactly like to showcase stuff I'm not proud of.

What happened to earisu.org?
It's gone - probably forever. Long story short: I'm not that big a fan of Aeris anymore, and that site was like a sinkhole for my online presence.

What's going to happen in the revamp?
Sites are getting killed: that's the big change. A couple of others are going to go up, and all content on existing sites is going to be revised.

When will it be finished?
Frankly I have no idea.

Sites Getting the Axe

• Everything under the EARISU umbrella - Aeris shrine, etc.

Sites Going Up

• Unnamed Midna (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) Shrine
• Unnamed Beatrix (Final Fantasy IX) Shrine

What if I Want to Ask Something?
Like you would! But seriously, either comment on this entry or e-mail me.