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Afterwards, an unpublished article stating the site had been sold to "Magic Find" was discovered by ex-moderators.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
This site looks great! Very nice. Sad to hear about the departure from HearthPwn, Flux! All things considered though, this seems way better than HearthPwn and probably something that will make you grow as a person.
I'm curious if outof.cards will be the home for other cardgames as well? The name it self is so fitting.
That is the plan :) We already have a forum section for MTGA as a starting point, but will focus mainly on HS for now until we flesh out the core features for the site and the content for HS. Once basics are done it will be much easier to add other card games properly.
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.
I wish you knew what promotion I'm doing for this site to all the Greek Hearthstone Facebook groups
Haha, thanks! :)
I would really appreciate a pack opening simulator, cause that was what i most liked about your old site. Keep up the hard work on this site and good luck in future improvements
Definitely gonna happen, sooner or later ;-)
I'm glad your staying here Flux. I wasn't a big poster on hearthpwn but always visited everyday as I do here now instead. It's always great to see someone start there own thing and wish you all the best on your decision.
Let's make the hearthstone community great again 😁
Thanks, Flux. It's good to have a clear understanding of what happened, and I hope those who decide to stay on Hearthpwn have a positive experience with the new owners. I'm probably one of the rare people who used Hearthpwn mainly for news content; I can find decklists on HSReplay and, though I used to be a huge forum user when I was younger, I feel like I don't have enough time nowadays. I'd rather leave a quick comment on an article instead. This means my preference is based on the site that looks and performs better, and that's Out of Cards.
We are here to support you flux 100%
As a member for 4 years, it's sad to send a PM requesting account deletion but everything Curse/Fandom did for the last 6-12 months has been asinine. The new owners immediately removing mods with no notice, msg, or email just made it worse. Ultimately, like I tell my young kids all the time, sometimes in life you just have to let it go.
Time to move forward.
Love the support here. Thanks, all.
as a very old school hearthpwn member ive seen the work and dedication that flux put into the community over the years. flux IS hearthpwn. and due to that i hope all the people that notice this will continue to support him and this website instead of hearthpwn.
I very much like out of cards and see it is a big improvement over that other site with no banners etc.
So I plan to be around here a lot. Thanks for the outstanding job so far!
Flux, with you man - it seems as though they had a business decision and decided to cut you out - but didn't come out and say it right away and created a situation that was comfortable for them - but was a cowardly act regardless. You are in a much better place with a better support system
I love Outofcards since it is blazing fast. Keep it up! You are rocking this.
Not cool at all. But here we are! 👍
Man, they really went far and beyond to show Backstab is free!
Looking forward to the new website. It already looks great! Definitely will stick around.
About a decade ago, in my early teens, I moderated over a portuguese Pokémon forum. There were plenty of brazillian portuguese forums around, but that forum was the biggest from Portugal. That sweet spot in the "pokémon forum market" made the forum very populated for a pokemon forum (not at serebii or smogon levels of usage, but pretty much every single portuguese player was there and even a lot of brazillian users ended up in there).
Eventually, between all the moderator drama or people literally outgrowing from Pokémon, other portuguese forums were created by ex-mods and very old members, branching out the users, and the forum died. But since so many forums were created, no forum rose from the ashes and, as far as I know, there is no portuguese Pokémon forum alive today. My interest in Pokémon eventually died down as well, between the fact that no meta came even close to being as good as the 4th gen meta and me finding other games.
The fact that you picked up all the old HeathPwn staff is great. It means no overbranching issues at the very least. I might still go there from time to time, but I hope I eventually just stay here.
Made the switch and happy about it, I'm 'user-15873365' no longer
I can certainly appreciate for those that worked hard on Hearthpwn sudden changes like this can be emotive. Even those who used it everyday for years are caught up it in to a degree.
But I think a non-affiliated site, built with more freedom both technologically and business politics, much experience and many lessons learnt can be so much better - especially with clear headed persons at the helm and on the crew.
I wish Hearthpwn well as many of us have a soft spot for it but I suspect there will be decline over time whereas this site will go from strength to strength.
I always respected your work, this team is what made Hearthpwn good and the whole thing has been handled very poorly. I think you made the right decision and I wish you best of luck! Long life to Out of Cards!