Sunday, March 1st, 2009
Issue: 115   Editor: DoubleAgentNyxxie


Bootcrews Disabled! BrickTamland
On the morning of the 26th February, a topic appeared in the Game Forum questioning whether bootcrews had gone. It was confirmed by a player which spread confusion around those familar with bootcrews. On hearing the news, one player stated, "that levels the playing field a bit..." as a few others were thinking.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before the owner of bootcrews, fink, opened the thread and was able to explain what has happened. He informed everyone that the company with who he uses for the domain name, GoDaddy, "hijack domain names when they can't automatically renew the domain name". He further mentioned, "Even though the domain expires at midnight tonight, they decided it's be appropriate to hijack it this morning". Not only this, but fink also stated, "I just don't have much time to dedicate to bootcrews anymore. Combined with the fact that I've basically run out of ideas for the site, and you can see why the site has sort of gone to shit".

This begged the question, with bootcrews gone, would it open up a space for a Bootleggers bot for other websites similar to bootcrews? Whilst everyone was still a little alarmed at the seemingly shocking departure of the site, it appeared that fink had renewed the domain and people were able to access it once more. This made people even more confused and Help Desk Operator, DoubleAgentNyxxie questioned, "So if you do not have time to dedicate to bootcrews, and believe your site has gone to shit, why would you renew it instead of letting someone else grab the reigns on this one to make a better site?". A quick response followed, informing everyone that, "I don't have the time I used to have, but I have been slowly working on a completely rewritten version of bootcrews". He went on to say, "Part of the reason I hate working on the site right now is that it's still using almost five year old code. Code from back when bootcrews was first coined. Obviously the site has turned into a big cluster of hacks, workarounds, and nasty little gimmicks to make certain things work" and finished off by saying, "Once I actually finish the rewrite, I'm sure I'll be much more interested in working on the site again. Plus, I consider myself the best at what I do. I'm not trying to sound cocky, but even though the site is in a bit of a shamble right now, it still is pretty cool, in my humble opinion".

With regard to the future of the site, a lot of people had been complaining about the invite-only nature of bootcrews, and fink mentioned, "I'll probably end up opening up a lot more of the site in the future. I'll keep certain parts of the site member-only features, but there will be some things which will get released into the wild. What? I'm not sure yet, but it's been an idea I've been kicking around for a long time". This is surely something everyone can look forward to and be excited about, perhaps unless you were pleased to have hidden access to a very useful tool before.

The invitation system itself was also spoken about and the potential rework of the system, to which fink informed us, "I had every intention to do so, but real life caught up with me. I started a new job right around that time, moved, and have been fairly busy ever since. Things are starting to fall into place now, and I have some free time, just not as much as I'd like to have".

The subject reverted back to the point that the Elite Guard would only allow bootcrews to use a bot while every other site currently running and active would have to wait in the wings, with fink taking that space as "hostage" as one user stated. The creator ended on saying, "I have no control over what the administration does or decides. I applied for a bot spot long before I can remember there ever being some sort of data-collection craze. Early bird gets the worm, correct?" He finally told us, "At any rate, I've talked with Sabin about bootcrews a fair number of times. I don't believe I'm really at liberty to discuss what ideas he has planned regarding the direction of bootcrews, but I trust he knows what he's doing".

So, what is going on behind closed doors with the final situation of the site is not clear and the future seems very undecided, but, in the words of fink himself, "Stay tuned, I suppose?"