So I just got word that Tau Online has gone tits up! The newish owner of Tau Online has kicked all the mods to the curb and as we speak a revolt is in progress! So much for the Greater Good. The reasons for this are simple: money. Well instead of me trying to explain lets just copy and paste an explanation from Thor a mod from Tau Online and regular here on Blood of Kittens taken from this blog post.
If you happen to visit Tau Online you’ll notice that a bomb has landed there. For those who did not know, I’m a moderator (was), at TO. About a year ago the site was sold off to someone called skylight. For the most part things ran smoothly under the new ownership. Recently, skylight implemented running ads on the site. Nobody had a real issue with it but some of the ads became invasive and a real annoyance and thus the community spoke up.
Fast forward a little, we (the moderators and admins), asked skylight to purchase TO from him. We wanted to give the site back to the community where it belonged. Skylight was willing to sell but not at a reasonable price, far from reasonable. More email exchanges took place and I sign on today at TO to find my moderator abilities removed, as well as all moderators. Skylight has decided to remove the moderation team from TO and rebuild it, so be it.
During all this we had been discussing possible outcomes of recent events and we were prepared. The team of Tau Online has packed up and we’ve moved to Second Sphere. Members of TO are spreading the word at the site to let everyone know. Second Sphere is in a holding pattern at the moment but a full backup from TO will be restored there and all the forum posts and content restored with it. This restore process will take a few days but once done it will be just like it used to be, minus the ads and greedy ownership.
So, I’m getting the word out there. Tau Online is now dead. The current owner is not interested in any GW product and purchased the site as a financial investment. His rebuilding of the moderation team will surely prove interesting but it will all be for naught as any active member of the site has, or will have, moved over to Second Sphere with the team that ran TO.
Chalk this up as reason 27 why forums might be a bad investment in time and money. Anyway Tau Online was a great forum and let us hope that Second Sphere does it justice I am sure it will.
Please don’t forget to read Brent’s latest BoLS inspired obsession and comment he needs the moral support.