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Afterwards, an unpublished article stating the site had been sold to "Magic Find" was discovered by ex-moderators.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
Well Screw Hearthpwn, Out of Cards is my new home.
I'm with you guys!! Letd make this site much better than Hearthpwn ever was!
Will be every day to help rebuild our kingdom.
Keep the awesome work.
All I have to say is... what in the hell is a “HearthPwn”??? Never heard of that (dead to me) site!
Awesome work on the site, much appreciated, man. I wish there was a more direct way of sending you some money though, I'd like to contribute but I don't feel comfortable signing up for some subscription and I don't have twitch prime or whatever.
Also could we get some brighter themes? All this dark grey and black is what keeps me from spending more time here.
Tbh the community seems better here than on Hearthpwn, long may it stay that way!
Is there even an option besides outofcards? x
Oh my...I can't believe this was happened. I can't stand Traitors and Treachery. Although I'm glad that Hearthpwn will remain open with new Staff members, considering the events Flux -and the faithful Staff- has gotten into, I will definitely stay at OutofCards until the flames of tavern here are extinguished.
Also, curse you, Curse, you money grabbing-backstabbing pricks. It's heartbreaking to see that money is favored over dedicated community members, which really pisses me off.
It's bizarre to me how much companies tend to undervalue their volunteer staff and fan communities. Whoever is taking over Hearthpwn is gonna have a hard time finding/retaining competent mods, at least in the short run.
Unfortunate situation.
Bad for Flux and his team because they didn't know Hearthpwn was up for sale at all. The actions taken by the ex-mod are unacceptable though, I hope that twat isn't part of the ooc team.
Bad for the new owner of Hearthpwn that basically don't have anything to do with it and now have to deal with some backlash. New owner seems to be a good guy from what I've read on reddit.
Looks like Curse really f*cked this up and created some unnecessary drama.
Too much confusion on HP to commit myself there anymore soon. You can't have the site on the verge of closing, twice, and then open it again. That's good for Casual users who barely login to post, not for regular ones.
And technically speaking, HP was a bad website, slow and full of trash, invasive ads to the point of continuous redirecting scams on mobile.
OOC just needs some more community, and for that to happen, it needs to become the new Web Nexus for anything HS. Maybe a related wiki page could help?
Hope we can make that happen.
Hello Flux,
As long term user of Hearthpwn site, I can tell that only thing it keeping me using it still, it was for you guys.
You did excelent job there and i wish you keep doing it here, because this site is allredy 100% better than Hearthpwn.
I am speaking in terms of functionality, as I am web/backend programmer and this one is much more smother than Hearthpwn (web and android version). Of course, there is margine to improve but you guys are doing it very well.
So keep it this way!
P.D: Sorry if my english isn't correct, its not my native language.
Edit: Btw, if you can manage to have some sort of library as Hearthpwn has to see our collection sets and that stuff, it would be awesome. Thanks!
I have no plans on going anywhere as well. This is now my Hearthstone site to go. I hope you will keep it updated.
I cannot stress this enough: thanks for great dark theme.
Hope some deck-sync comes soon, alrdy tried hearthstone-deck-Tracker but there are so few different decks over there... didnt like it
Wish you all the luck with the new site!
So... Everything was kinda made behind your back. That's sucks a lot :/
Btw, I must be missing something, but I don't see anything wrong with this:
I mean, if you guys thought the place was shutting down, what's wrong with setting it as a permanent post?
its not even a question if i stick with Out of cards instead of hearthpwn. Only the name changes , but the content will be the same or better. All hail the dedicated members and Flux who made all of this possible!
Good to read this honest letter from you Flux. Props to that :)
Even though I was not a top poster at HPawn I was there daily, and followed over here. Probably not gonna be a topposter either, cause i don't like unnecesarry posting.
Hope it brings you and your crew what you wish for, and to the members as well. But am sure you will be able to bring and give the best!!
Excited for out of cards the link to deck tracker will be amazing
I am here for you guys and the community WE built together, need anything let me know. Are we cool to resurrect games threads and stuff from Hearthpwn?
I loved Hearthpwn from the start. Out of Cards is the new Hearthpwn. The King is dead, long live the King!
It always feels awesome to see the OoC team show great interest and enthusiasm in creating something fresh from scratch with the knowledge and experience from their previous work, the way they and their community envision it! This is really important and I'm sure your efforts will be appreciated and accepted really soon by everyone!
I have one suggestion that might make browsing decks a little easier for some mobile users. As of today, when tapping a card in a certain deck, you are led to the specific card's page. I feel it would be better if by tapping the card, a small pop-up of the card would be shown (it's already implemented on disguised toast's website).
I know that by prolonged tapping the card, it will be shown alongside with the pop-up menu. But if you want to exit it, you will certainly hit another card and be taken to that card's page, which feels clunky.
If someone feels the need to have a discussion about a specific card, they wouldn't do it while browsing a deck. Instead they would use the menu for it. What do you think?