If you'd like to listen to this announcement instead of reading, you can find an audio/video version of it here.
Hey everyone!
This May, OpenCommunity turned 5 years old! Yay, what an achievement! And sure, over a year of that has mostly been hibernation, BUT a 5th anniversary is still a good time to get together, have some fun and reminisce! That's why I'd like to invite everyone to the OpenCommunity 5th Birthday / Retirement Party!
So What / When Is It?
The party will
Hello everyone!
After over a year of working, blowing up Teamspeak server after Teamspeak server, and waiting on Teamspeak Systems GmbH to get off their butts, we've finally set up the GW2League teamspeak!
Community Assembly - Saturday, February 29th, 16:00 CET!
Before we get started with this announcement, - reminder that this announcement, and some other stuff will be discussed on the Community Assembly, happening on Saturday, February 29th, at 16:00 CET!
We'll be di
Hey everyone!
We've finally done it! Through massive help on @Leaky's side, we managed to successfully create the secondary TS, and it is currently an almost exact replica of our current teamspeak - with everyone's groups and permissions successfully replicated on the second TS (mostly). Let's talk about what's different and what all this means!
What we didn't manage to transfer over:
Overall, the new Teamspeak looks exactly the same as the OC one. The only things we weren'
The OpenCommunity 2020 calendars are finished and are now available to those supporting OpenCommunity during the holidays & in January!
About the Calendar
Containing memories from the last 5 years of OpenCommunity, the calendar is a great way to support OpenCommunity and get something that is both useful and can be kept as a keepsake. Each month is represented by a GW2 screenshot from a memorable event in OpenCommunity's past, from charity fundraisers to community
Hey everyone!
It's been a while, but we've finally made a breakthrough on the new Teamspeak, which should allow us to have it up by the end of the year! And we've also got some exciting news about the OC calendar!
Teamspeak Database Shenanigans
We've extracted the database from the OC teamspeak a while back, but we've had no luck transferring it over to the new teamspeak for a seamless transition, until recently! By carefully editing the conflicts out of the file, we succes
Together with @Slaywright and @Leaky, we've been working a while to get the new GW2League teamspeak up, so here's a little update on how that's going!
Setting Up the New TS!
A lot of the work on the true backend of TS is basically us learning as we go, but thankfully, we're quick studies. We've created the second Teamspeak and it's basically ready to use, however, while I can create a clean copy of the server by hand and rebuild every channel identically, and I can get the list
Hey everyone!
On the last Community Assembly, we brought up the idea of creating a physical OC / GW2League calendar for 2020, that members could get by donating to the community, in order to shore up some funds for OC & GW2League, and a lot of people seemed to really like the idea!
As we were discussing how we'd like to put the design of the calendar together, we knew that we wanted to involved everyone in the community somehow, so we wanted to open up the whole thing to everyone i
Hey everyone!
A while back we asked people what kind of stuff they'd like to see as supporter shinies, and by far the most requested thing was mouse mats! Well, after some iteration, they're finally here, and with them, the new supporter tier!
We also updated our donate page with new goals to make it easier for members to direct their donations and see their impact!
Glorious Supporter
Adding to the progression from Heroic, you can now become a Glorious Supporter! The n
Hello everyone!
Most of you have been around for a long time and know, that OpenCommunity has always supported charity – and we have always organized events to support charity fundraisers, like Community Weekends or even entire Community Weeks. We love fighting for a good cause and we are in fact quite experienced ourselves when it comes to organizing such events. Still, joining with Gamers Giving Back and participating in their charity events as one of the European hosts, seemed like a ste
Hi everyone!
@Viridian and I have been thinking about our announcement blog, and we've decided on some changes to the way we'd like to make announcements.
In the past, we've always put a lot of effort into wording our announcements in just the right way to both interest as many people as possible, as well as create a narrative of hype and excitement. We've always felt our members were a bit apathetic and constantly being on the receiving end of abuse or criticism from people who misund
September & October is Pink Day Season as Pink Day in LA preparation, pre-events and main event are happening, with several weeks of events, tons of prizes and opportunities to win shiny stuff and / or get involved and help out! ?
Pink Day in LA is the annual cancer research fundraiser that we've participated in every year since OpenCommunity's inception, actively organising one megaserver and pre-events since 2015! This year, we are also getting involved, with the first pre-event
OK so this is just a short little post, but I wanted to tease something that I'll be writing about in an upcoming announcement on the website ?
So, ages ago we were talking about what we might want to do for the next supporter tier, and we had a couple ideas flying around. Scarves, pillowcases, OC-themed dice, even some other more mad ideas, but also mouse mats! I went to explore and look for a good place to find decent mouse mats, and I found a great place.
When we were talking about t
Hey everyone!
Now that everything's been successfully overhauled and rejigged, we're ready to get back into the saddle of actually actively existing, and just in time too, because it's almost time for OpenCommunity's birthday and the MS Toga Party!
Let's see what May has in store for us!
May 1st | OpenCommunity's Birthday!
On Wednesday, May 1st, at 20:00 CEST, we're hosting a little get-together to celebrate four years of OpenCommunity!
We'll get together on Teams
Hey everyone!
We've kept busy since our last update, with both a website and teamspeak overhaul, so let's dive right in and see what's new!
Community Assembly - Sunday, 21st of April, 18:00 CEST
First, we'd like to remind everyone that this Sunday, at 18:00 CEST, we'll be having our next Community Assembly! We'll be discussing the website & Teamspeak changes announced here, as well as some future ideas such as potential donation prizes, OC birthday plans, and other
Hail, comrades!
As promised, we are continuing our steps to further align OpenCommunity with its core ideals. We've updated not only the channels on our Teamspeak, but also the website, with a brand new logo!
We're also happy to report that in the spirit of equality, all our members on Teamspeak have been awarded a Golden Cookie!
In the coming days, we will continue to improve the website to truly flesh it out in the spirit of OpenCommunity. Please stay tuned for further anno
Hello everyone!
As the reshaping of OC continues, the biggest, and so far most untouched, area that will need to be affected is Guild Wars 2. Let's talk about the future of Guild Wars 2 and OpenCommunity!
Guild Wars 2 Club
As part of the modernisation of our website, the Guild Wars 2 section has been moved into a club of its own, becoming our third specialized area of the website! This includes all the general Guild Wars 2 forums, but does not include the GW2 guild subforum
I am often amazed at how easily @Lelling gets hyped when he discovers a new and so far unused cool feature of our community software, immediately being enthusiastic about the many things we could do with it to improve our website's usability. It's a character trait I myself don't share, as I don't get easily excited as it is, but particularly definitely not where it concerns our community software (IPS). However, I think very few people can be completely immune to being affected by those sparkly
The other day, I got all our pins & magnets required to fill the supporter packages still waiting to be shipped out, so over the last few days I've been packing the next batch of supporter prizes. I figured it would be fun to share the process, drama and conflama of preparing the packages for mailing ?
When I decided to make this blog post, I unfortunately already packed all the currently pending packages - you can see them in the pic above, waiting patiently in their box corner
Hey everyone!
Things are picking up and our plans for the new and improved future of OpenCommunity are crystallising ? We've got a lot to share and we're hoping to share it all before the end of March, so let's get right to it!
Community Assembly
Before we get right to it, here's a quick reminder that the next Community Assembly will be taking place on Saturday, March 23rd, at 18:00 CET!
During the Assembly, we'll be making new announcements, revealing a new proj
Hello everyone!
We've had a productive few days working hard on some upcoming changes, and in the next two weeks, we've got a lot of pretty big upcoming changes!
In order to open up a little bit of discussion, and to better be able to present and explore the upcoming changes, we figured it was about time for another Community Assembly!
The 3rd Community Assembly will be taking place on Saturday, March 23rd, at 18:00 CET!
The assembly will, as always, be taking place on Teamsp
Hey everyone! It's been a month since the last update, so it's about time for another one!
Let's get right to it!
Part 1 - Early Spring Cleaning
We've taken the old broom out of the cupboard for a bit, cleaning house a little bit, scrubbing some of the various old features on the website which are no longer in use out of the old shower curtain, polishing the silverware with some overall performance improvements, and afterwards we brought in some shiny new furniture to liven
Hi everyone!
We've been in downtime for quite a while now, and it's time for us to post an update regarding the state and future of OpenCommunity! But before we move forward, let's take a look at how we got here.
Let's Start at the Very Beginning
I hear it's a very good place to start.
When OpenCommunity was founded, its goal was to create an inclusive space and community which is based on communication, collaboration, and solidarity, particularly as an answer to toxic