Today, I've got an important announcement to share with everyone. I'd also like to take this chance to share the latest and greatest updates from Out of Cards.
This came as a large surprise to myself and the team as I had expressed interest in purchasing the site, but was told that there were no offers allowed (full shutdown). Even though I was willing to do anything to save HearthPwn, I came to terms with it, and started Out of Cards.
I found out during my Nintendo E3 and Hearthstone stream today that I had been removed as an administrator on HearthPwn. I was not expecting this to happen so soon but it was done because I was accused of "excessively promoting [my] new website". It was stated that I added multiple widgets to the homepage and that I stickied the site shutdown notice. This did not happen. The only reference on the HearthPwn homepage to Out of Cards was a (now) removed image advertising a card pack giveaway.
Unfortunately, there is something that I need to be transparent about and apologize for.
- A member of the ex-mod team stickied the shut down post.
- I was not aware that this happened until after I shutdown my stream, and after I had lost staff access.
- This was not cool, and the individual has been spoken to.
Afterwards, an unpublished article stating the site had been sold to "Magic Find" was discovered by ex-moderators. A team member:
- Deleted some of their own, prominent threads.
- Renamed the 80g thread to the 80g Scamming thread.
- Removed bans from some scammers and spammers.
I understand that this is an emotional time, especially for the moderators who have invested months and years of their lives in maintaining a community driven website, but these actions were unacceptable. It never feels good to be stabbed in the back, more so as a volunteer, and I wish I had the opportunity to give the ex-moderators advanced notice to deter any drama.
Generally speaking, it is best practice to communicate with affected individuals ahead of time or ensure that access is pulled before major changes take place; I knew much of the team would not be happy.
Although I would have loved the opportunity to preserve the community under the HearthPwn brand, that time has come and gone.
I was given an offer by the new owners to stay on board and we talked about what they needed to do with the website, but ultimately I declined. Instead, I am willing to make the financial investment into rapidly improve and grow Out of Cards into the best possible resource it can be for Hearthstone and games to come.
I want to make it very clear that myself and all of the old, dedicated HearthPwn staff have moved to Out of Cards.
Many awesome community members have reached out, offering their assistance with writing articles and guides, for this we thank you! We will soon be opening up the doors to allow volunteers to help cover Hearthstone better than ever, we just need to finish up some tools to make this nice and smooth. We also love the dedicated feedback the community has given us so far and look forward to your continued ideas.
Everyone's enthusiasm for Out of Cards so far has shown us we were doing the right thing and if you can't tell yet, we have no plans on going anywhere. We'll always be here to deliver a custom experience for all our community members and hope more people will join us.
Recent Additions to Out of Cards
If you haven't kept up with our developer updates on the Site Update forum, here's all the cool stuff we've done over the past week.
- A Card Back Gallery has arrived! Yes, it gets updated! Thanks for the suggestion.
- Animated card images! We spent a lot of time last week to figure this out and we're happy with it.
- Site Search! Our first iteration of site search has arrived and we're looking forward to improving it.
- By request, deck pages now have mana curves. Great feedback.
- We've fixed multiple issues those on mobile discovered, improving support (and speed!).
We're listening to your feedback to shape Out of Cards into exactly what the community wants. We're working as fast as we can to get updates out and look forward to what the future brings.
Supporting Independence - Out of Cards
Here are the four ways you can help support Out of Cards.
- Support on Patreon with a monthly contribution
- We have supporter tiers up on Patreon. For a small monthly contribution, you give us independence.
- All Patrons will receive benefits on the site. We don't have all those details ironed out but will real soon.
- Patrons receive a special rank on Discord.
- Support on Twitch with Twitch Prime
- You can support with your monthly Twitch Prime subscription via Twitch.tv/Fluxflashor. It is a completely free way to show support for those with Amazon Prime so make use of it!
- All Twitch subscribers receive a special rank on Discord.
- Support by being a member of the community
- So cliche but its true. Just being a part of our community shows we're doing something right. Talk about card games, share your feedback, and just generally be awesome.
- Spread the word
- Tell everyone you know about Out of Cards and how a dedicated, passionate team with over half a decade of Hearthstone is behind it.
Comments
Hey Flux or other modders is there maybe a chance in the future you could add a way to make something like a button, to toggle between a black background and white text, to a white or different lighter color background and black text?
Its not because I don’t like black background theme, I would just prefer a lighter background. But it’s not something that has to happen now of course, I know you have different things to take care of right now. And I hope it will go well
p.s. I didn’t really know where to post this, so I just posted it here.
p.p.s. Have a nice day everyone!
There is a 100% chance! We do want a way to accommodate different visual styles in some way.
Flux, I’ve had a hp-account before the take over by curse and have been a lurker since then, but after I read this I am done with hrtpwn. Keep up the good work! I hope outofcards will turn out to be awesome!
Subscribed on twitch! I was actually the first one who mentioned the card back gallery, and also on hearthpwn many times. I am a bit sad that I was not mentioned :p
Unfortunately, I've come to expect nothing else from Curse.
Since here is easier to acess for my bad pc, we will keep getting hs news in a fast scale, and most of the cool dudes are here, I have all the reasons for staying here. :)
I wish you guys the best on this new start
Don't worry Flux, we'll follow you to ends of Azeroth. The name of the site doesn't matter, people who create the content do.
Keep it going guys! You rock!
The "storic" and most solid part of the community already followed you Flux here on OoC and that shows how much your work is appreciated by us.
Who cares if the old board stays or not: we're here because we love your dedication for make a great place where all players of HS may discuss.
I thought I would stick using hearthpwn. BUT I did not know that all old staff had been removed from hearthpwn.
After seeing how the new staff wrote the new brawl, and after 3.5 years in heartpwn, I'm happy that I just moved here. (Flux's posts/ guides were always well written and kind of funny).
best of luck Flux and co.
There's literally no reason for any community member to get hung up on a url. You follow and support the content creators you like. I'm done with Hearthpwn, and I'm here for Out of Cards. Best of luck to the new owners of Hearthpwn. If they show themselves to be competent content creators I'm sure I'll end up back on the site at some point, but I'm not visiting the url for at least three months while Out of Cards gets up and running. I'll get my updates here.
As someone who has watched this from both a business and an HS fan perspective, I am thoroughly disgusted by how Flux and team were treated. I am here happily, and will spread the word. I will also see if I can scrape together a few bucks to hit Patreon or even do a one time donation on Twitch.
The staff team is a good part of what made HP. And I have no doubt that Out of Cards will be even better than that place, once you guys have found your feet and developed all that you wish to.
Much love and gratitude from Canada!
Btw, this article already has about 3/4 of the number of replies on the dual article of the new admin on HP.
It suggests our activity is already catching up with the old website.
They still have inertia on their side, but the sense of decay is also looming upon them.
It would be really really cool, if you put out content for the wild community. I missed that on HP a lot.
Yeah I don't like how Wild was handled on HearthPwn. I definitely want to see change!
I just want to be able to view my posts and get notifications. After that, this site will be better than Hearthpwn ever was. Speed and design of this site is amazing.
Achievements and pack opener will be great too =D Especially since Flux already spoiled all the secret achievements on Hearthpwn while we thought it was shutting down. LUL.
I'll stay here if I can win a special border for my avatar during a hearthstone card creation competition hehe.
Hello, Flux
Old hearthpwn member here :) I like the new site, I like that, in my honest opinion, the better part of the community is here! I will need time to switch to the black/grey, but it's okay :) Is there something that you was not able to implement or create in the old site, because of restrictions from the owners, which you can finally add here?
Best Regards!
just signed out of Hearthpwn and deleted my shortcut. I'm all in for OutofCards!