Discussion Welcome to PureDiablo - Returning from Diablo Retirement for Diablo IV (also now D2R)

Elly

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Feb 21, 2011
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www.purediablo.com
As most of you who have been following the Diablo franchise since 1996 know, I have been involved in the Diablo community since opening my own site back in 1997 which eventually became Diabloii.Net. Not that long after Diablo 3 was released most of the original staff moved on to new projects or new lines of work. Flux moved on to the world of wine (making it, not drinking it. Well a bit), Rush(ster) was around for a lot longer keeping the site going and then moved into digital media sales and marketing. Holyknight kept the news page ticking over and continued to create themes to brighten up your desktops with his long-running Diablo wallpaper series. The ever patient forum moderators stayed and diligently managed the forums. Dacar, Dredd, Krischan, Zanth, Thyiad, Mad Mantis, Noodle and Maxicek, every last one of them real troopers.

After running the site for so long I needed a real break from the world of videogames so I embarked on a totally new career and also took up hobbies I never had the free time to pursue before such as learning to play the drums and archery - pew pew. With no ties to the old site any longer and the announcement of Diablo IV at last year's BlizzCon, I began to feel the urge to tinker with a new site. A new project from the ground up, only not so all-consuming this time and with a healthy hobby / life balance.

The Diablo franchise has always had a special place in my gaming life so it's little wonder that when the itch to run another Fansite inevitably returned I would find myself drawn back into Sanctuary. I wanted to create another independent Fansite, driven simply by a passion for the game and a thirst for content and perspective rather than driven by clicks and page loads to keep advertisers happy and hosts promptly paid (not that I shall welch on my bills). I hope that together with Rush and Holyknight and others who will hopefully join us along the way we will be able to create a Fansite chock-full of information and with a welcoming community.

So, with that mind, why not check out the brand new forums and snap up your forum name and add a post or leave a comment below here to introduce yourself. Let us know if you're new to Diablo or one of the old timers and what you're most looking for to in Diablo 4, or just say 'Hi'.

The main website is now live and so take the time to check it out. All content is specifically Diablo IV focused as we continue to cover the next game in the series and it also covers ALL diablo game news whether it's D4. D3, or D2. Again, please do check it out.

Note: Your forum account is shared with the main site so one login works for all.

~Elly

P.S: Also, please check this thread for new/needed forum suggestions.
 
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Awesome! I saw that there's a "premium" version. Have you considered using Patreon instead? Might not be a big deal, but I'd personally be much more willing to support via a service such as Patreon where I already have a card setup, I know that I'll get statements and updates etc, whereas a custom solution feels a lot less secure to me.
 
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Awesome! I saw that there's a "premium" version. Have you considered using Patreon instead? Might not be a big deal, but I'd personally be much more willing to support via a service such as Patreon where I already have a card setup, I know that I'll get statements and updates etc, whereas a custom solution feels a lot less secure to me.

Patron is not something we can integrate easily so those who support can get the perks automatically. The system, the way it's setup now, is all linked to not only the site but also perks here in the forums.

The system is linked through PayPal and the backend handles the duration of support which changes supporters' user accounts based on period of support time.
 
Yea, I figured that would be the case. For me personally, I don't really care much for the perks at all. The fact that the site exists at all and is regularly updated is more important than the perks.
 
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Yea, I figured that would be the case. For me personally, I don't really care much for the perks at all. The fact that the site exists at all and is regularly updated is more important than the perks.

I am looking at a way to allow folk to simply donate to help us out if they are not bothered about perks etc. The problem is we are trying not to have to manage lots of different systems at this early stage.
 
Thanks for the site, hope to see many familiar faces!
 
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Welcome, welcome. Do help spread the word about the new site. It's early days in its life but we're slowly but surely ramping up.
 
Nice, I like the new site. And good to see the old team (some of them) back together again.

But what will happen to diabloii.net? Will it stay up? The forums and the wikis still have a ton of useful information.
 
Nice, I like the new site. And good to see the old team (some of them) back together again.

But what will happen to diabloii.net? Will it stay up? The forums and the wikis still have a ton of useful information.

@mrpinsky It's an unknown but as it's not been maintained or adminned for 5 months it's not looking good. We didn't want to see the community simply vanish which is why we started PureDiablo. We know what you guys want and need after all these years and hopefully, we can continue to support that with this site.
 
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Nice, I like the new site. And good to see the old team (some of them) back together again.

But what will happen to diabloii.net? Will it stay up? The forums and the wikis still have a ton of useful information.
Agreed; there's a lot of unique content there especially from the early days of Diablo II and Diablo III.

I think one can still follow how the game evolved over at the Wiki and articles like these are just gold:
It's not even just Diablo -- the way the information has been recollected from scribbled down details from an office visit and how their office looked like is a historical record of different times. There are several Diablo sites around that popped up over time but diabloii.net has a lot of unique content beyond that of strategy guides or item databases. But I understand if it's hard to migrate it off the site or something even in a frozen archival state due to having to mess with different CMS or whatever. I hope this one will grow into something new and great despite the Diablo community looking quite different today. I at least feel optimistic about Diablo IV itself but I guess that's also just kind of who I am.
 
If it goes belly up, we at least still have some snapshots on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. For example, here is how the frontpage looked on 7. January 2008: https://web.archive.org/web/20080107022356/http://www.diabloii.net/#newsitem1182989170,23701,
And some of the forum content is archived there, too, but not all. https://web.archive.org/web/2008011...loii.net/showthread.php?p=6157346#post6157346

As time moves on I guess it's inevitable things will be lost from time to time. One of the projects we did undertake this time was the restoration of the Strategy Compendium. How much of old content that is actually viewed now is negligible however whether it be site or forum content. Still, the SPF crew is doing an excellent job of making sure they have all their content moved and safe which is a huge plus. Keeping the community alive, looked after and solid is our priority while at the same time opening a new chapter for D4.

As for very personal articles such as Jugulator points out, well, I know I have kept these.
 
could the site be repurchased?
 
could the site be repurchased?
@superdave. No and not something we would be looking to do. Running these sites can cost quite a bit. At its height, I know Elly was shelling out at least 6-10K a month for all the sites to keep them going. The majority was paid for by ads, but on occasion, she had to chip in from savings and wages. Of course, back then everything was more expensive to run but I know neither of us want to end up doing that again. The older content doesn't generate much traffic these days. This is really a new start for us and while the old content has some value we are are looking to the future and are trying to do things a little differently. The most important thing we feel is the historical user content in places like the forums. That's the community's hence why the SPF stuff is important to the community as a whole.

However, in order for us to make a go of this new site, we need the community's support. Not only in the SPF but around the different forums, news comments, tipping us off on news, and even contributing content from time to time. This site we want to be a real community effort as it was in the old days.
 
@superdave. No and not something we would be looking to do. Running these sites can cost quite a bit. At its height, I know Elly was shelling out at least 6-10K a month for all the sites to keep them going. The majority was paid for by ads, but on occasion, she had to chip in from savings and wages. Of course, back then everything was more expensive to run but I know neither of us want to end up doing that again. The older content doesn't generate much traffic these days. This is really a new start for us and while the old content has some value we are are looking to the future and are trying to do things a little differently.
If blizzard ever did release Remastered D2, the site content on the site would be worth a lot more than it is right now. Sounds like Diii.net's value right now is rock bottom.
 
If blizzard ever did release Remastered D2, the site content on the site would be worth a lot more than it is right now. Sounds like Diii.net's value right now is rock bottom.

@superdave I wouldn't say rock bottom. The site has always had busier or quieter periods. That said, it is dead now as there is no staff or admins. I kept it going as long as I could before I moved on but I was not going to spend time on something I cannot control. Elly decided to come back for this site when she knew we had complete control to shape it and look after the community. I would be surprised if a D2 remaster ever appeared, it would probably cost Blizzard too much time and effort to try and piece together any source code they could find and then there's all the issues Brevik has already highlighted previously.
 
Thanks for a new diablo webpage!:) i have followed the diabloii.net for a long time and used to listen to the podcasts.
It was my most important source of diablo news.

keep it up!:)
 
Thanks @Gidbinn . Once we get things sorted out with the technical aspects of the site, things will start ramping up. Same team, renewed vigour. :)
 
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