Sorry to keep folks in the dark on the new ownership, needed to reach out to the moderators first. Below is virtually the same email I sent to each of the moderators yesterday, gives some background on how the sale came about, and plans moving forward. Some of you may know me as "Lasher", the administrator of Aardwolf.

I ran into Adam on a forum called Namepros.com - completely unrelated to MUDs and dropped him a quick PM to say "hi". We got talking and he mentioned that he'd considered selling TMS a couple of times due to lack of time to dedicate to it, but did not want it to go to somebody that does not understand MUDs. I expressed an interest in the site, partly as a business opportunity and partly as a means to ensure that TMS remains what it is today. I also expressed a concern about any MUD owner running the site and how that would be perceived by the rest of the community on TMS. After talking it through some with Adam, we decided to go ahead with it anyway and the transfer actually took place a couple of months ago - the server move was me moving the site to a dedicated host.

I'd like to reassure you that administration of Aardwolf and administration of TMS are two completely separate activities. Aardwolf is a hobby for me, web development/publishing are my living. There will be no special 'favors' for Aardwolf (other than I suppose I won't be charging myself for the couple of banners we have). Hopefully this is evidenced by Achaea winning the voting last period and being embarassingly far ahead of us this week in what is usually a neck-and-neck race. I understand the skepticism some people will have around this and that was my main concern with taking on the site in the first place, but anyone looking on objectively will see no sudden boost in votes for Aardwolf compared with our trend over the last year and that should be that.

Obviously I have some plans for developing the site, but mostly technology updates, upgrading the forums, rewriting the review system, etc - nothing that would change the fundamentals of what TMS is. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have, either here or privately via email at webmaster-at-topmudsites.com. However, if you think I might be able to answer your question by repeating the line "Administration of Aardwolf and administration of TMS are two completely separate activities", I probably will.


Regards,
Derek.

Can you let us know what steps you are going to take to maintain separation between TMS and Aardwolf?

As an advertiser here, this is obviously an issue of great importance to me.

Thanks.

Steps to take to separate Aardwolf and TMS? I don't need to take any, they are separate already. It would take steps to break the separation, none of which I will take.

If you mean are Aardwolf imms suddenly going to become moderators? No. I have contacted all the moderators and with the exception of Kavir they are all remaining. If you mean will Aardwolf suddenly get prominent links? No. The sponsorship spot will go up for auction as always and, frankly, whatever people believe, Aardwolf can't afford it. Will negative Aardwolf reviews get removed? No. We don't actually have reviews on anyway and if we did they'd get no special treatment (as a sidenote, part of the review rewrite will allow administrators of reviewed muds to respond to reviews in much of a 'blog comments' type format). We'll keep the same banners we've pretty much always had, but no new ones will be added - no dilution of banner traffic in favor of Aardwolf over other muds running banners.

The server itself is a dedicated server at LayeredTech which may or may not host some of my other non-Aardwolf related sites. Nobody affiliated with Aardwolf other than myself has access to this server, TMS code or any TMS administration feature. There is no Aardwolf code or data on this server and the only circumstance I could see that changing in is as an emergency backup next time a hurricane comes through this way.

I could go on listing specifics, but not sure what you were looking for? Ironically, one my of my biggest concerns is Aardwolf players reading all this and thinking "Oh, we don't need to vote now then?!".

I can understand a level of concern about a mud owner (especially a mud owner whose mud is always in the first or second place) purchasing TMS, but I think it's worth giving the new owner the benefit of the doubt. Derek is a good guy and in any case, I'm sure many people will be watching him like a hawk for any sign of undue influence over the voting. I'm also sure Derek is aware that a good portion of the site's major supporters (in terms of traffic and advertising dollars) would leave if his actions generated even a small cloud of suspicion of corruption.

I don't know what the sale price was, but I'm sure it was enough that Derek is not in any hurry to ruin TMS (a business) just to boost Aardwolf (a hobby).

--matt

I just wanted to say "Welcome" to you as our new site host/admin. I look forward to hearing your plans for the future of this great site.

I wish you the greatest success.

Welcome Derek, thanks for taking on the responsibility and for stating your positive intentions clearly.

You have my support.

You seemed like a decent guy the one time I ran into you... so welcome, and good luck.

I'd also like to clarify (as I've already been asked about this) that I'd made my even before I found out who had bought the site.

Good luck, Lasher - I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the place.

I have a question. Will the way the forums are moderated be changed? Will you make new flame stomping rules?

Overall cool though, great to have a more active owner. I am looking forward to updates.


Also if this guy planned on boosting his own muds ranking or popularity it probably would have been wiser of him to NOT say he is an admin on a mud. The fact that he said it alone gives me confidence that he will not.

As the new admin I wish you the best of luck, and I agree with Kavir and a few others, you wouldn't compromise a business's credibility for a hobby, wouldn't have said you were the MUD Admin of Aardwolf if you were planning on doing anything underhanded, and you're name doesn't make me instantly close my account here, whereas if it had been Matt, Calvin, or Vryce I most likely would have.

He could have easily run the site through a proxy (RL friend, less-known Aardwolf person, etc.). Wouldn't exactly require a master criminal mind. If it was easy to figure out who was doing what on the Intarwebs, a lot of scammers would be out of business.

Putting everything in his more easily recognized name and posting about it strikes me as what you would do if you had nothing up your sleeve. If anything, people will likely be hyper-sensitive to any decision that seems to favor Aardwolf.

Bloody hell, how did I miss this? I never got the email described, but then, the only two sections I help moderate are among the quietest and they're the only two I really check. I did wonder why Adam had changed his name from Synozeer to TMSOne, now I know! Still, as long as the site remains impartial and fair I see no reason why the sale to a MUD admin would be a point of contention. At the end of the day a lot of MUD admins are decent people (and I've known a few over the years) who could easily be trusted not to abuse something like this and while I do not know Derek, I do know Adam, and I'm sure if he'd felt any doubt he wouldn't have gone through with it.

Sorry to drag an old topic back up to the front by the way!

No problem. Hopefully, 4 months later, it has proven itself to be a non-issue as nothing has changed. Unfortunately, none of the GOOD changes have made it in either ... yet.

I missed this too. Holy ####.