New Amazons
Posted by: Christer on Oct20221010pm22, +02002022-10-10T22:00:51+02:00312022bEurope/StockholmMon, 10 Oct 2022 22:00:51 +0200 %10, %2022 - %22:%Oct

The Amazon roster has been updated to the new version from Spike 15. Actually, that was done a couple days ago, and I finally got around to writing this post after doing a couple of icon updates.

Either way, there are a couple of things that may not be obvious:

- The Hit and Run skill is not yet implemented, and will be added at a later date (no current ETA)
- The new star players are added, but again, the Primal Savagery special skill is not implemented yet. Baleful Hex and Look into my Eyes are there though.

In terms of the new positionals:

- The new Blocker position replaces old catchers
- The new Blitzer position replaces old blitzers

Both of these are new positionals and will not be updated in place of existing positions. Teams will have to hire them onto their teams. Old players count as their new counterparts. For example, a team can have a maximum of two blockers and old catchers combined at once.

Hopefully, there will be no significant bugs or issues with this transition but if you do run into one, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Revival of Blackbox and Blackbox Trophy
Posted by: Christer on CEST09000000Thu, 04 Aug 2022 21:31:34 +02003404pm22, PM00000090000003431 %04, %2022 - %21:%Aug

It has probably not escaped many of you that the Blackbox system has returned for the competitive division and the 2020 ruleset. The new system is slightly different than what it used to be, as it's running in the competitive division alongside the normal gamefinder system.

When selecting teams, you can choose a "mode" for your team, where the choices control which of the systems you want the team to participate in:

- Open: Restricts teams to the regular gamefinder and even if you activate for the blackbox, these teams will not be entered into the random scheduler
- Strict: These teams are only participating in the Blackbox system, and will not be matched against teams on the regular gamefinder.
- Mixed: These teams participate in both systems.

The scheduling method used tries to match by Current Team Value, with a minimum of 1 000 000 CTV.

While this has been available for a few days now, what is new is that the Blackbox Trophy has also been revived under this new environment with season 6 starting today, and running for the rest of the year. For those of you who have not heard about the blackbox trophy, it's a long meta event where coaches designate a squad of new teams and play a number of games over a longer period of times, scoring points as they go along and fighting for a spot in the top 10.

There are a couple of new things with season 6:

- Teams in squads are forced into strict mode, and will remain so until either the team completes the games for the season or the season ends, whichever happens first
- You can have multiple concurrent squads should you want to.

Beyond that, the settings for this season are:
- 4 teams per squad
- 15 games per team
- Running until the end of the year (December 31st)

Scoring and roster composition details can be found on the trophy page:

Blackbox Trophy

The costs for the rosters are very quickly based on the win rates of open play Competitive division, and it's quite possible that there are some rosters that should be costed differently. We'll see how it turns out!

As always, this is a new feature and is likely to have some issues and bugs. Please feel free to get in touch if you encounter problems (preferrably on the Discord server).

Unexpected downtime (hardware failure, Resolved)
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm4005pm22, J000000Tuesday22 %05, %2022 - %12:%Jul

At 09:26 this morning, FUMBBL went down unexpectedly due to a failure of the UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply, a device that conditions power to the servers and allows the servers to run for a while if there is a power loss).

It took until roughly 12:15 for me to identify the problem, see if there was an easy solution and bypass the broken device, and we are up and running again.

However, I will need to replace the UPS with a new one at some point soon. I will need to do some research on what device I'm buying. If anyone in the community has experience with UPS:es, I'd happily take suggestions on which model to buy.

I have a couple of constraints on what I'm after:
- I'm looking at a budget of $500 to $1000 or so.
- Reputable brand (I've used APC for a very long time, and am happy with the ability to buy replacement batteries etc)
- Preferrably rack mounted (up to 4U), but will consider standalone devices too.
- The hardware runs typically at 550W or so total, and my other UPS was 1000VA which has been fine. There's not a lot of headroom here though, so I am looking for something along the lines of 1000-1500 VA.
- "Smart" functionality (ie, computer communication) is preferrable, but not required.
- Global availability (more specifically I need to be able to order it from Sweden without having to pay insane shipping costs), and needs to be in stock.

Again, if you have experience with these types of devices, I'd appreciate suggestions.

Either way, I apologize for the inconvenience for those of you whose matches this affected. I hope to have this UPS replaced within a couple of weeks (which will unfortunately cause another maintenance downtime).

Edit: The UPS has now been replaced and things should be back to normal again. Thank you kindly to those of you who donated to offset the cost of the replacement.

Gamefinder 2.0 beta
Posted by: Christer on JuneFri, 03 Jun 2022 20:19:24 +02001903pm22, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %03, %2022 - %20:%Jun

After a much longer time than expected, and a seemingly endless series of work from HimalayaP1C7 and myself, Gamefinder 2.0 is at a point which we are happy to call beta.

This means that all the core functionality is in place, and should be usable by people to find and launch games through. There may still be issues and/or usability quirks, which is why I am asking for as many of you as possible to start using it to find games. The new system can be found here:

https://fumbbl.com/p/lfg2

In addition to finding issues and bugs, we are also looking for feedback on the user experience as a whole. It's clearly different from the old gamefinder, so try to remain a bit objective when you provide feedback. The intent of the redesign was to give more information to people, to allow for more flexibility in matchmaking but also to correct some problems with the old system.

Either way, please do take a peek and let us know what you think! There's a forum thread for feedback as it's easier to follow the forum than the comments to a news post.

Malware false positive (resolved)
Posted by: Christer on 18Europe/Stockholm045Europe/Stockholm0604pm22, Maypm22 %04, %2022 - %14:%May

It's come to my attention that Windows Defender has started to trigger a warning of a malware on the FFB client. The specific malware in question is called "Trojan:Script/Wacatac.B!ml".

Without going into too much detail about what this malware is, and what it does, the warning is very likely a false positive. Basically, the FFB client is a ZIP archive with java code. The malware isn't Java based, and wouldn't execute in the context of a Java application, but would instead (if executed) start a process on your machine called "biddulphia9" (and it would show up in the task manager).

I will see if I can reproduce this warning when I get home, and will do a new build of the FFB client to see if the false positive is supressed.

Steps you can do if you're uncertain:
Check for the process in taskmanager (as explained above)

Download the FFB Client .jar file(s) from:
https://fumbbl.com/FFBClient/live
Rename each .jar file to .zip, and extract the files (all of this is perfectly safe, even if it had contained said malware). You can then look through all the files to see if there are any windows executables, and if you're being particularly nervous use tools to decompile the .class files to java code to see what they do. Obviously, this last step is complicated and takes a fair amount of development skill to do.

Delete detection history as suggested here:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/all/what-to-do-about-trojanwin32wacatacbml-false/d884df80-2dba-46c9-bd8b-4e2f93c9dd3f
Unsure if this works, but could be worth testing.

Google-search for information on this. There could be a bit of a "wave" of false positives with this one going on. If this is the case, there will eventually be a antivirus definition update from Microsoft that will make this go away. Regardless, it never hurts to keep yourself informed about what malware is out there and how they function.

I will update this post once I'm home again and able to take steps to reproduce the problem and see if a rebuild resolves it.

Update 1:
I've reviewed the binary form of the files that trigger this malware warning. It turns out that javaws does a small modification to the archive (it adjusts a small piece of data in the ZIP header). The pre-javaws file does not trigger this issue, but the extra few bytes of header information does. The actual content of the archive (the java bytecode) is unchanged.

This leads me to the conclusion that the Windows Defender definitions have been changed to produce this false positive (which is frustrating to say the least). As a workaround, you can go to Settings->Virus & Threat protection->Protection history. Here you will see one or more "Threat blocked" which will point to the Java "Deployment Cache", and manually allow these to be processed.

Note that you should typically only do this if you are sure that the file in question is safe. Comparing the files from this cache with the files I linked above will allow you to verify my claims that the differences are absolutely minimal and double-check my conclusions. I will still try to build new versions of these files and hope that this removes the warnings.

Update 2:
I've resigned the library files that were causing the issue, and they appear to no longer be flagged as malware. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Updated Norse Roster
Posted by: Christer on rdpm30000000Sat, 23 Apr 2022 20:24:06 +020023pm22, PM+02:00Sat, 23 Apr 2022 20:24:06 +020024Saturday %23, %2022 - %20:%Apr

With the new Spike Journal being released, we now have a new Norse roster on the site. Apart from a couple of new traits and some minor changes, there are a couple of things existing coaches will need to know about this change:

- Throwers and Catchers are no longer available to purchase. Existing players will remain on the team until retired.
- Valkyries replace Catchers. No in-place changes have been made, and Valkyries need to be hired as any other new player. Catchers will use up the available Valkyrie slots though. The total number of Valkyries + Catchers can't exceed 2.
- There are new special rules that have replaced the previously existing set. Now, teams will need to choose between Old World Classic and Favoured of Khorne/Favoured of Chaos Undivided.

The last point is a bit tricky, and will need some work which I hope to address over the weekend. Without any action, existing teams will have no star player availability. To fix this, coaches need to make a selection. This selection is incomplete, and I will be working over the evening to sort it out. Hopefully, by the time most of you read this, things will be solved appropriately.

At the time of writing, the new star players are not in place (they will be added once I have sorted the special rule selection properly).

Other than that, if you have any issues with Norse (or related things), the best place to get in touch is on Discord.

Podcast/Vodcast: One World, One Blood Bowl #5
Posted by: PurpleChest on Nov20211122pm21, 12021000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmMon, 22 Nov 2021 19:04:53 +0100 %22, %2021 - %19:%Nov

For a couple of months now i have been running a new 'thing' every other Sunday night called 'One World, One Blood Bowl'. And Christer was on the latest one. Episode 5.

He said some interesting things about FUMBBL, you might care to give it a listen, or a watch. Details below the links.....
My Twitch (check highlights to find the OWOBB's)
YouTube of #5 the other episodes are on my channel too.
Podcast Version Spotify and Anchor for now, hoping to expand to other carriers soon.

Blood for the Blood God!
Posted by: Christer on tham30000000Sat, 13 Nov 2021 01:05:57 +010013am21, 62021000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmSat, 13 Nov 2021 01:05:57 +0100 %13, %2021 - %01:%Nov

With the release of Spike! issue 13, we have a new roster in the game: Khorne. You don't have to wait long to try them out on FUMBBL, they're already here!

In detail, they've been added to the Competitive division ruleset, which will take effect in any leagues set up with the BB2020 ruleset, or imported the rosters from it.

In addition to this, Akhorne the Squirrel has been introduced as an available star player (available to all teams), and Grashnak Blackhoof comes back to the pitch with this release.

As always, let me know if you run into trouble with any of these new toys!

FUMBBL Officially goes BB2020!
Posted by: Christer on Sep2021906am21, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmMon, 06 Sep 2021 01:28:24 +0200 %06, %2021 - %01:%Sep

As of today, the new Competitive division is open for new teams. This marks an enormous milestone and signifies the official support for BB2020 rules on FUMBBL.

This process has been very long and required an enormous effort from a number of people whom without we'd never have managed to get here. A huge thank you to Candlejack and Stowelly who've helped out with the FFB code and Java, Neilwat, Stimme, Tussock and a long list of other people who have been instrumental in testing the client, enabling a smooth transition to the new client.

While official support starts today, there's still a lot of work remaining (re-enabling the blackbox in the new environment, seasons, and opening up team migration from the old R and B divisions to the bb2020 environment are a few of the major steps for the near future.

As with any other big step we take, though, there are bound to be bugs and issues. If you run into any please don't hesitate to get in touch on Discord or through the forum. If possible, try to avoid direct messages to me or other staff members about bugs as it's likely going to cause extra work to respond to people individually.

Either way, we hope you'll enjoy the new rules!

FUMBBL Dice 2021
Posted by: Christer on 32Europe/Stockholm118Europe/Stockholm0611pm21, PM00000080000000631 %11, %2021 - %20:%Aug

Edit: The order deadline has passed and additional orders are no longer possible

We're quickly coming up to the deadline for FUMBBL Dice 2021 orders. The interest has been high and I'm looking at ordering and painting over 400 dice.

This post is mostly a reminder that the orders are closing soon and if you're interested in getting a set, you should get in touch soon.

Also, if you have placed an order, you should have heard back from me with confirmation that your dice are "on the list". This is the way I've confirmed the payment for each and every order I'm aware of.

As a little bit of a side-note, I'm considering setting up a "let's paint 400 dice" stream once I have the dice, and answer questions and generally chat with people. Let me know if you'd be interested in something like this.

145 Club New Season about to start
Posted by: PurpleChest on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm4604pm21, Maypm21 %04, %2021 - %20:%May

New to Blood Bowl? New to the site and/or client? Tanking your ranking and seeking to learn in an environment with similar coaches?

Then the 145 Club is for you.

Unexpected downtime
Posted by: Christer on FebruaryFri, 12 Feb 2021 11:07:13 +01000712am21, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbFri, 12 Feb 2021 11:07:13 +0100000000amFri, 12 Feb 2021 11:07:13 +010021 %12, %2021 - %11:%Feb

This morning, at around 06:30 server time, the website stopped responding. The cause of this downtime was a hardware glitch which made the web server machine unresponsive. It's difficult to identify exactly what this glitch was, but logs indicate evidence of memory corruption.

All services are back up and running (obviously, since you are reading this), but the glitch is a pretty strong indication that it's time to sunset the server (fungus). It's a machine purchased May 2012, so it's been doing well up until now.

I will be looking to migrate the web server to new hardware once I have a chunk of time to do it. There will likely be some more extended downtime while this migration is taking place, but there will be a proper heads-up for it before hand.

Either way, I apologize for any inconvenience caused by this downtime.

Blackbox Trophy Season 5
Posted by: Christer on Nov20201130pm20, 12020000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmMon, 30 Nov 2020 23:02:44 +0100 %30, %2020 - %23:%Nov

Far too quickly, Blackbox Trophy season 4 has ended with the top 5 results being claimed by Malmir, Malmir (yes, he did a 1-2 double), fxiii, Dionysian and DrDeath. Very close with the shortened season, and a big congratulations to them all for their great results.

Because the bb2020 changes are not slated to be pushed to the site for a while, we're running Blackbox Trophy Season 5 beginning December 1st through January 31st.

The settings will remain the same as for season 4. Let's see if anyone can beat Malmir's top score of 33 points in season 5!

FUMBBL Podcast #41
Posted by: Throweck on NovemberFri, 27 Nov 2020 10:58:20 +01005827am20, 52020000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmFri, 27 Nov 2020 10:58:20 +0100 %27, %2020 - %10:%Nov

https://anchor.fm/fumbbl-podcast/episodes/41---And-we-are-back-emvfmg

After some time away, we are back.

PC and I get back into the swing of things. There is also an interview with Storr.

Enjoy!

Blackbox Trophy Season 4
Posted by: Christer on Sep2020928pm20, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmMon, 28 Sep 2020 23:12:42 +0200 %28, %2020 - %23:%Sep

Blackbox Trophy season 3 is coming to an end with Storr managing an absolutely crazy run at for the 1st spot. Congratulations!

Normally, Season 4 would start on the 1st of October like previous years. This year, however, we are looking at a big rules update before the year is over. Instead of simply halting the trophy, we're doing a much much shorter variant this time while we wait for the new ruleset. Season 4 will run between October 1st and November 30th.

The following configuration will be in place:

- Total squad budget of 4
- 2 teams per squad
- 15 games per team
- 1.5 points per unused squad budget
- 0.5 points for each completed set of 5 games played for teams
- 0.5 points for racial lead

Snotlings are set to cost 0 and Old World Alliance is set to cost 1; the rest of the races are set to the same costs as season 3.

Good luck!

Scheduled Maintenance Completed
Posted by: Christer on th000000726pm20, J000000Sunday20 %26, %2020 - %17:%Jul

On Thursday July 30th, I am planning to do a maintenance downtime starting at 12pm (noon) server time, where the plan is to upgrade the Database Server drives to new SSDs.

Given that I want to do a full backup before I do this, I am going to somewhat arbitrarily say that the downtime will be 6 hours (12:00 to 18:00).

During this time, the site and the game servers will be shut down and inaccessible. Discord will of course still be up and I will try to give some progress updates there as work progresses.

I apologize for the inconvenience of this downtime and hope that this won't disrupt your tournament games too much.

Old World Alliance
Posted by: Christer on thpm31000000Sat, 11 Jul 2020 22:20:02 +020011pm20, J000000Saturday20 %11, %2020 - %22:%Jul

With Spike issue 9 being released today, Blood Bowl got a new race! As of now, you can create these teams in Ranked, Blackbox and League divisions. If you find any errors in the new roster, please get in touch with me and I will correct them as soon as possible. Enjoy your team full of loners and animosity players!

Trouble connecting to the site and playing games
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm1128pm20, PM+02:00Tue, 28 Apr 2020 21:52:11 +020052Tuesday %28, %2020 - %21:%Apr

So, over the last week or so, a number of people from America (north, central and south) and Australia have been reporting trouble connecting to the site and playing games.

I've looked into this in as much detail as I can, and this is not a problem on the FUMBBL side, but appears to be an issue with an atlantic interconnect. Given the length of this trouble, I am guessing that it's simply something being overloaded by the higher than usual traffic causing problems (I've seen numbers around 30% higher than normal).

Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do from the site end, because the problem isn't on my end. However, there are a few things that can be tested:

1. First ensure that your Java installation is good and correctly configured: https://fumbbl.com/note/christer/JavaConfig

2. Second, try to access the site through an alternative ISP (mobile hotspot for example). See if this helps, in which case you could play through this hotspot instead (be mindful of your data cap though).

3. Set up a VPN and access the site through that. Try various different exit points to see which one works best for you.

VPNs come in various forms ranging from free ones to commercial ones. I will not recommend any particular one, but feel free to look around. On a more abstract level, though, I would recommend looking into VPN services you pay for since then your data isn't being tracked or sold to advertising companies. Generally speaking, if you're not paying anything *you* are the product (and I do realize the irony of saying that as someone who runs a for-free website).

I hope this information will be helpful to some of you, and allow you to play games again.

Site maintenance starting at 10:30 today [Completed]
Posted by: Christer on th000000426am20, AM+02:00Sun, 26 Apr 2020 09:51:20 +020051Sunday %26, %2020 - %09:%Apr

I am going to be performing some site maintenance consisting of updating firewall and switch firmware and restarting the FFB server. This will cause a downtime of around 15 minutes (hopefully), where games are interrupted and the website is inaccesable.

I apologize for the inconvenience of this interruption.

Welcome to FUMBBL
Posted by: Christer on 12Europe/Stockholm183Europe/Stockholm2818am20, MaramWed, 18 Mar 2020 11:03:28 +01002020-03-18T11:03:28+01:0011 %18, %2020 - %11:%Mar

With the COVID-19 pandemic taking hold on the world, we've had a fairly noticeable surge of new and returning coaches to the site. I would like to take the opportunity to welcome you (back) to FUMBBL.

With social distancing being recommended globally, some of you have asked questions on if it's possible to play your tabletop league games on FUMBBL and if so, how.

The short answer is "Yes, it's possible", but there are a few hoops to get through. I would highly recommend that your league appoints one or two coordinators for the league, if possible with a bit of technical experience since it can be a bit complicated.

It is highly recommended to join our Discord server to get assistance in setting everything up, but the short outline is as follows:

1. Create a Ruleset with the settings you wish to use. To make it easier to re-create existing teams, adjust starting gold to something more than 1M.
2. Create a Group, making sure to set the "Group Type" to league and the ID of your ruleset (found in the URL of the ruleset page).
3. Have league members create their teams through the group info page ("Create team for this league", top right on the info page).
4. League staff can then edit the teams and players to match the previously existing teams, by editing team treasury, FF, rerolls, etc, and players with their respective SPPs, skills and injuries.

While it's a terrible thing to have to deal with a pandemic, I hope that FUMBBL can allow you to take a break from the harsh reality of it and that you will enjoy your stay.

Once again: Welcome to FUMBBL, and don't hesitate to join the Discord to talk even if you don't need help with leagues and rulesets.

Double Elimination
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm2929pm19, +01002019-10-29T22:00:29+01:00312019bEurope/StockholmTue, 29 Oct 2019 22:00:29 +0100 %29, %2019 - %22:%Oct

After a couple of days of talking about and doing technical design, FUMBBL now supports double elimination tournaments. As always, league commissioners should use this feature with care as there may be bugs.

Let me know if you find any, or have comments or questions about this!

Piling On returns
Posted by: Christer on OctoberFri, 18 Oct 2019 17:55:05 +02005518pm19, +02002019-10-18T17:55:05+02:00312019bEurope/StockholmFri, 18 Oct 2019 17:55:05 +0200 %18, %2019 - %17:%Oct

With the release of the "Head Coach's Handbook", there were a few small changes to the ruleset of the game:

1. Piling On is back
... but with the modification that it requires a team reroll to use. As of now, this is enabled in R, B and L by default. Player-run leagues still have the option of changing this.

Inevitably, this change will have people asking about their old players who used to have Piling On, which were modified to having Juggernaut instead. These players will remain unchanged without exception. The removal of Piling On back then was explicitly written in the rules (despite people arguing that the intent was to change it to the rule as written in the new handbook), and FUMBBL complied to that rule. Any new skill roll (or skill roll that hasn't been picked yet) that gives access to Strength skills will have access to Piling On, regardless of if they were hired before or after this change.

2. Cards
The rules for special play cards are modified. Cards are no longer purchased as part of the inducements, but three variations are available to choose from which involves the two teams getting cards for free. This means that in addition to FUMBBL not having support for the current cards, the overall system for selecting them is no longer accurate either. My intent is therefore to disable them from the official division rules (again, leagues can configure cards as they see fit). However, because of the significant impact this can have on teams currently participating in the FUMBBL Cup, I will defer this change until after the final match of the tournament has been played.

3. Star Players
I have not yet had the time to review these, but I am being told the Star Players in the handbook are not matching what is published in the Spike Journals. My intention is to keep Star Players as up to date as possible with the handbook set being taking precedence over the ones published in Spike Journals 1 through 7, and later Spike Journals being considered updates.

I hope this information is helpful to you, and the best place to discuss any of these changes is on the forums (although I will read comments to this news posting as well).

Halfling updates
Posted by: Christer on nd000000602pm19, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %02, %2019 - %17:%Jun

As of now, Halfling teams are able to hire the new positionals from Spike issue 5: Catchers and hefties.

As soon as we have art assets for the new star players, we'll add them as well (Big Jobo is already available).

With this update, I'm certain halfling teams are the new meta and will be dominating both Ranked and Blackbox in no time!

Happy hunting!

A new era for tournaments?
Posted by: Christer on Mar2019325pm19, MarpmMon, 25 Mar 2019 22:56:17 +01002019-03-25T22:56:17+01:0010 %25, %2019 - %22:%Mar

After a few years of hard work running official tournaments for FUMBBL, Throweck has chosen to take a step back from the position. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his great work with coordinating the tournament scene all this time.

With that being said, I would also like to announce our new tournament organizer: Bazakastine. I have a lot of faith in his ability to take on this challenge and will be very interested in what a fresh set of eyes will bring to the table.

So what does this mean for you?

Not much at this point. I expect tournaments to run much like they have in the past without interruption. As per normal, there are continuous reviews of our official tournaments and there may be some adjustments over time.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments here, or get in touch directly.

Additional league features
Posted by: Christer on DecemberFri, 28 Dec 2018 17:46:05 +01004628pm18, FriEurope/Stockholm2018-12-28T17:46:05+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmFri, 28 Dec 2018 17:46:05 +0100 %28, %2018 - %17:%Dec

Another day, another feature.

I just pushed an update to the site which allows managers of LEAGUES (groups configured with a custom ruleset) to edit teams in their league. This is currently only on the team level, and does not include editing of players on the teams.

A few examples of what's possible:
- Retiring / unretiring
- Renaming
- Editing treasury
- Readying / unreadying

If you have any kind of feedback to this (bugs, or ideas for improvement), feel free to post them in the forum thread dedicated to this update.

Edit: I've now added the option to edit players as well.

Custom League team importing
Posted by: Christer on DecemberFri, 28 Dec 2018 00:42:04 +01004228am18, FriEurope/Stockholm2018-12-28T00:42:04+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmFri, 28 Dec 2018 00:42:04 +0100 %28, %2018 - %00:%Dec

I just pushed a new feature to make life easier for those of you who run custom ruleset leagues. The short version is that you can now import teams into your custom leagues.

The long version is found in the forums.

I would appreciate feedback in that forum thread if you decide to try it out. Looking for both good and bad kinds of feedback as there may be problems and bugs as with any new feature.

Scheduled Maintenance (Completed)
Posted by: Christer on thpm31000000Sat, 08 Dec 2018 15:01:25 +010008pm18, SatEurope/Stockholm2018-12-08T15:01:25+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmSat, 08 Dec 2018 15:01:25 +0100 %08, %2018 - %15:%Dec

Tomorrow morning, I will be taking the site down for maintenance at some point between 08:00 and noon. I am doing a shutdown cycle to reinstall a UPS to the servers and replacing the primary server switch.

Hopefully, this downtime will be on the order of an hour of work. Messages will be announced on the Discord channel just prior to the downtime.

I apologize for any inconvenience caused by this downtime.

Podcast #8 - Strider and the Undead!
Posted by: Throweck on OctoberFri, 26 Oct 2018 10:53:32 +02005326am18, +02002018-10-26T10:53:32+02:00312018bEurope/StockholmFri, 26 Oct 2018 10:53:32 +0200 %26, %2018 - %10:%Oct

Number 8 is now available.

Click on this Link!

also available on itunes.

We talk to Strider about NAF things and update FUMBBL things like Box trophy and the FC.

We also now have a facebook page!

Podcast FB page
Enjoy.

Box Trophy Season 2
Posted by: Christer on Oct20181001am18, +02002018-10-01T02:19:35+02:00312018bEurope/StockholmMon, 01 Oct 2018 02:19:35 +0200 %01, %2018 - %02:%Oct

After a hugely successful and exciting first season of the Box Trophy where coaches fxiii and happygrue ended up with a tied first place, I am excited to announce the start of season 2.

A few minor changes have been made to the format as follows:
- The number of matches per team has been lowered from 40 to 30.
- Slann now costs 1 point instead of 2.
- Norse now costs 2 points instead of 3.
- Highest score for the race gives 1.5 points instead of 2.5
- An additional bonus of 1 point is given to teams for each 10 matches they play (up to the max 3 points for playing all 30).

While no further changes have been made to this, there has been a fair amount of change in how the system functions. As with any other change of code, this may have introduced some bugs and if you run into any, please feel free to get in touch and let me know.

The final standings from season 1 are somewhat hidden from the site now, but they are not lost. I just have to get around to adding the ability to view old seasons.

For those of you who are interested, the total of games played by teams involved in the first season were 13 300 (although some of these were naturally two trophy teams vs each-other). I encourage everyone to try it out, even if you are not able to complete all the matches.

Let's see if we can get a higher total for season 2!

Throweck has made a quick video summary to get you started. Check it out on YouTube

FUMBBL Podcast #5 - We Turn Pro
Posted by: Throweck on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm2918am18, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmTue, 18 Sep 2018 09:23:29 +0200 %18, %2018 - %09:%Sep

https://soundcloud.com/throweck/5-we-turn-pro

We discuss the pro skill, undead and BAR Brawls! There is also a listener competition at the end :D

Enjoy

FUMBBL Podcast #4
Posted by: Throweck on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm3611pm18, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmTue, 11 Sep 2018 20:02:36 +0200 %11, %2018 - %20:%Sep

Yes we actually are at #4!

https://soundcloud.com/throweck/fumbbl-podcast-4

You can also search for it on iTunes. (FUMBBL/Throweck)

We discuss Lizardmen, Tabletop, SR Rankings and have a bit of fun.

___________________________________


Lots of you will have seen that FUMBBL podcasts are up and running and are quite successful in their own right. Each one averaging over 100 listens. Happy Days.

However, hosting it on Soundcloud comes at a cost as you can only hold 3 hours of media.

I have created a patreon page...

www.patreon.com/throweck

There are 4 different tiers with benefits.

If you have been enjoying the podcasts/youtube tutorials/streaming (when I finally get the settings right!) I'd really appreciate the support. If you can't support financially it would be great if you could share the FUMBBL podcast links around social media. We already have a small base of non-FUMBBLers listening through these means!

Again, thank you. I really enjoy doing them and I'd really like to continue!

Throweck

FUMBBL Tournament Rankings
Posted by: SzieberthAdam on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm3928pm18, PM00000030000003931 %28, %2018 - %15:%Aug

After some hiatus, the ATP based FUMBBL tournament rankings known as SR Rankings is back. Some small changes were applied to the system to make it even more rational, fair, and challenging.

Check out the weekly updated rankings for the top FUMBBL coaches and teams!

Let me also recommend you keep an eye on the new RRR and XFL Masters pages.

FUMMBL Vlog/Podcast #1
Posted by: Throweck on tham31000000Sat, 18 Aug 2018 10:02:02 +020018am18, AM000000100000000231 %18, %2018 - %10:%Aug

The first official FUMBBL Vlog is now available on Youtube!

It covers the 145 Club, Instant Smacks and the FUMBBL Cup.

Please subscribe for regular updates and videos.

Thanks

Throweck and Morehouse

Inducement process reverting (completed)
Posted by: Christer on th000000729pm18, J000000Sunday18 %29, %2018 - %21:%Jul

It has come to my attention that the way petty cash is handled on the site is not working as intended as of the BB2016 rules. While there is no up to date official FAQ about this to my knowledge, the grapevine is pretty clear about this. The linked website states there will be a "published FAQ" with a clarification, this FAQ has not appeared anywhere as of yet.

Either way, given this resource and the posts made on Facebook and on TFF, I think that's about as close to an official ruling as we can expect to see about this.

So, to this end, FUMBBL will be reverting back to the CRP rules for this for the competitive divisions (Ranked and Blackbox). Specifically, there are two options that will change:

- Petty cash affects TV. This will be turned ON.
- Treasury is automatically transferred to petty cash. This will be turned OFF.

This change will be done at some point on Monday morning (2018-07-30).

Edit: This rule change has now been applied.

Game server instability
Posted by: Christer on May2018521pm18, Maypm18 %21, %2018 - %17:%May

As some of you already noticed, the FFB game server has been acting a bit flaky recently. I've been hard at work trying to figure it out, and am still working on it.

I truly apologize for the inconvenience this instability has caused you, and continues to cause.

For those of you who are not interested in technical details, you can stop reading now as I'll simply be explaining the problems and background for the rest of this post.

New Official Tournament Coordinator
Posted by: Christer on CET11000000Thu, 15 Mar 2018 23:04:02 +01000215pm18, MarpmThu, 15 Mar 2018 23:04:02 +01002018-03-15T23:04:02+01:0011 %15, %2018 - %23:%Mar

With Easilyamused having been away from the site for a while now, the FUMBBL tournaments have effectively been without a main coordinator for them. While this role is not necessarily very visible to coaches participating in tournaments, it's important for me to have a single person in charge.

To solve this problem, I am happy to announce that as of today FUMBBL has a new official tournament coordinator - Throweck. He will be taking on the task to make sure that official tournaments run as they are supposed to, and acting as a line of communication between me and the tournament staff / participants when it comes to tournament related things.

I wish to welcome Throweck to this role, and hope that you will all help him out and understand that he is new to this role.

Blackbox Trophy
Posted by: Christer on NovemberFri, 03 Nov 2017 11:41:15 +01004103am17, 52017000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmFri, 03 Nov 2017 11:41:15 +0100 %03, %2017 - %11:%Nov

After a fairly popular forum thread where a concept for a long-term blackbox meta event was brought up, I went ahead and implemented an automated way to track such an event.

Initial interest is fairly high with around 40 coaches signed up at this point, and the teams involved are a fair step away from the typical blackbox choices (23 vampire teams at the time of writing for example).

Now, while the format is fairly game-intensive I think it would be a highly interesting to see more people join in, even if you don't have the time to play all the games that count for score.

While JakeSteel (the original author of the thread linked above) has promised a real life prize, this is of course something that can't be guaranteed, but should interest in the format build up I am sure some sort of prize could be sorted out.

Either way, if you're interested in a high-intensity, highly competitive meta event, feel free to take a look at the details of the format on the Blackbox Trophy page.

Good luck, you'll probably need it!

New SSL certificate
Posted by: Christer on th000000716am17, J000000Sunday17 %16, %2017 - %10:%Jul

For those of you who keep track of these things: The SSL (https) certificate that was securing the site was getting close to expiring and I have just updated to a new one. If you have add-ons in your browser that track these kinds of things, you may have received a message that indicates a change. This news post is mostly here to inform you guys that the change was intended.

If you have no idea what this is about, there is nothing to worry about. :)

Expensive Mistakes and Spiralling Expenses
Posted by: Christer on MarchFri, 24 Mar 2017 22:03:51 +01000324pm17, MarpmFri, 24 Mar 2017 22:03:51 +01002017-03-24T22:03:51+01:0010 %24, %2017 - %22:%Mar

With last night's update, a bug snuck through that erroneously could affect teams with Expensive Mistakes and/or Spiralling Expenses.

To be able to assist people who got affected by this bug, I have set up a forum thread where you can post the info I need to fix the problem.

I apologise for any inconvenience this has caused, and strive to fix these as soon as I can.

Short downtime on Thursday (completed)
Posted by: Christer on 12Europe/Stockholm223Europe/Stockholm4122pm17, MarpmWed, 22 Mar 2017 22:44:41 +01002017-03-22T22:44:41+01:0010 %22, %2017 - %22:%Mar

At some point on Thursday, the site will go offline for a short while. A technician from our ISP is coming by to replace a fiber converter box. Hopefully, this will be quick and not cause too much of a disruption.

Edit
This has now been completed.

Expensive Mistakes (BB2016)
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm1821am17, MaramTue, 21 Mar 2017 02:41:18 +01002017-03-21T02:41:18+01:0002 %21, %2017 - %02:%Mar

After the announcement of expensive mistakes being put into effect in April, I've been monitoring how players have behaved with their huge stacks of gold.

As some of you have experienced, some individuals have been pushing massively amounts of inducements into games, making the matches spectacularly uneven and no fun for the underdog.

In light of this, I have gone ahead and pushed through the expensive mistakes feature for the Ranked and Blackbox divisions. All teams that are not currently scheduled or involved in a match that have treasuries above the expensive mistakes limit (100k) have been placed into the post-match status and will be rolling for expensive mistakes if their treasuries are left as-is.

For those of you who did not abuse this window of time, I apologise for not sticking to the original plan of leaving it as-is until the end of the month.

BB2016 update
Posted by: Christer on th000000319pm17, MarpmSun, 19 Mar 2017 20:47:58 +01002017-03-19T20:47:58+01:0008 %19, %2017 - %20:%Mar

I've pushed through some changes that should fix the issues we had with petty cash and inducements earlier today. With this fix, I've also re-enabled the BB2016 settings for petty cash (meaning all treasury is moved to petty cash automatically, and it doesn't affect your TV). Note that using gold beyond the "underdog" free inducement gold you get will affect your team treasury.

Beyond this, the previous announcement regarding Piling On has been revised. The absolute storm of responses on it made it very clear that a majority of you are unhappy with the decision that was made. I have taken a few of the points brought up to heart and have chosen to change the way it's going to be dealt with:

Players in R and B who have the Piling On skill will have that skill replaced with Juggernaut.

Why the change? The key problem with switching it to Mighty Blow is that it hurts big guys (who inherently have mighty blow). The lookups I did on skill picks did not take these inherent positional skills into account, and taking that into account made it abundantly clear that switching to Mighty Blow would more or less be equivalent to simply leaving it as-is.

With Juggernaut as the skill to replace Piling On, there are far fewer players with duplicates (6% of PI players, who will still be left as-is with a skill that simply bloats the player).

This skill change will take place at some point soon(tm), e.g. within a few hours unless some other more pressing thing crops up (for example more problems with results).

Edit
Players in Ranked and Blackbox now have Juggernaut instead of Piling On.

Glitches in match result processing
Posted by: Christer on th000000319pm17, MarpmSun, 19 Mar 2017 15:35:31 +01002017-03-19T15:35:31+01:0003 %19, %2017 - %15:%Mar

As part of the work Kalimar and I are doing to update FFB to the 2016 ruleset, an error ended up sneaking through. This problem was in place between 12:39:27 and 15:13:00 today, and affected Ranked and Blackbox teams (30 matches total).

Quick description of the problem:
With BB2016, petty cash doesn't affect TV in the inducement phase. The client was changed to support this, and at the same time move all treasury to the petty cash for purchasing inducements.

When a match is uploaded to the site, there was still code that reduced treasury by the amount transferred to petty cash. This caused all teams involved in matches uploaded during this timespan to lose all their treasury.

I have reverted the options back to LRB6 rules, and will be going through the matches affected and returning the gold to each team.

FFB will be updated to include enough information for the site to process this correctly soon, but for now we're back to the old way of doing things.

I apologize for the inconvenience caused by this issue.

Edit
In total, 54 teams were affected by this problem.
All gold lost due to this bug has been returned to the teams involved.

BB2016 Rules
Posted by: Christer on 11Europe/Stockholm153Europe/Stockholm2815pm17, MarpmWed, 15 Mar 2017 22:55:28 +01002017-03-15T22:55:28+01:0010 %15, %2017 - %22:%Mar

With today's update of FFB that added support for a few of the BB2016 rules, I have pushed through some of the changes needed on the site side. To give you all an idea of what has changed, and what still remains to be changed, here's a short summary:

Roster Changes

• A number of position name changes.
  
• A few rosters have changed names.
  
• Human catchers cost 60k, down from 70k.
  
• Halfling treemen gained the Timmm-ber! skill.
  
• Skaven gutter runners gained the Weeping Daggers skill.
  

Rules changes

• Argue the call is implemented.
  
• MVPs are changed. You get to pick three MVP candidates and the MVP is given to one of the three players (picked randomly).
  
• Spiraling Expenses is no longer affecting teams.
  

A number of things still remain to be implemented at the moment:
Piling On
This skill will be disabled on the site. Existing players with Piling On will have that skill directly replaced with Mighty Blow. Players who already have Mighty Blow will end up with two copies of the skill, which will let as-is. This way of dealing with the skill is a compromise between complexity of implementing a migration system and trying to not ruin teams completely. This is similar to the transition from LRB4 to LRB5 (e.g. removal of Razor Sharp Claws, which was transitioned to Claw). This will take effect in the near future; I'm hoping to be able to get this done before this week is over.

Expensive Mistakes
This is not yet implemented. This is potentially a huge change, and will affect certain teams significantly. Due to this, I will leave this feature out for a period of time to give teams at least a hint of a chance to adapt. These will not take effect for the rest of the month. The exact date of it taking effect is something I can't commit to right now, but it will be at some point in early April.

Wizard
Currently still in place, but will be disabled within a few days.

League System / Seasons
This is by far the most complicated change with the BB2016 ruleset. For now, I will leave things as-is, and implementation will happen first as an option in the League division. A decision on how / if it will be implemented in R and B will be made at a later date.

Maintenance complete
Posted by: Christer on thpm31000000Sat, 11 Mar 2017 16:53:42 +010011pm17, MarpmSat, 11 Mar 2017 16:53:42 +01002017-03-11T16:53:42+01:0004 %11, %2017 - %16:%Mar

Maintenance has been completed, and things should be back to normal.

Servies are generally speaking up and running, and I expect games should be able to be played as per normal now.

Note that there was an hour or two where games scheduled through the game finder didn't work fully, and required a game name to start up. This should now be resolved.

The IRC server is not started, and I will not start it up again. We have officially moved over to Discord. Join us there instead.

At some point, I'll be posting a blog post about the new setup, just so you have an idea of how it's set up now :)

Server Maintenance, Saturday at 11:00
Posted by: Christer on MarchFri, 10 Mar 2017 15:44:28 +01004410pm17, MarpmFri, 10 Mar 2017 15:44:28 +01002017-03-10T15:44:28+01:0003 %10, %2017 - %15:%Mar

I will be taking the site down for maintenance tomorrow at 11:00 server time in order to install the new server.

The following is the rough plan:
- Shut down all servers; this will cut off all traffic to the site
- Remove the old deeproot hardware from the 19" case it's housed in
- Move the new deeproot hardware into the case
- Install new deeproot into the server cabin
- Cable management
- Power up
- Finalize firewall configuration

The first few steps are pretty straight-forward and will take an hour or so. The last step, however, has the potential to be tricky. I am pretty sure there will be a bunch of firewall configuration remaining to be done with the new setup, but I will work as quickly as possible to get things up and running again.

I am hoping to be mostly done with the migration after roughly 3 hours.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

New bug reporting page
Posted by: Christer on CET02000000Thu, 09 Mar 2017 02:17:58 +01005809am17, MaramThu, 09 Mar 2017 02:17:58 +01002017-03-09T02:17:58+01:0002 %09, %2017 - %02:%Mar

Those of you who have been using the bug reporting system in the past know how frustrating it has been to deal with it. While the page was created with good intentions, it turned out to become flooded with bug reports to a point where it was unmanageable.

To solve this, I've created a completely new bug reporting page. This is a completely new system, with a clean slate (ie, none of the old bug reports are there). The reason for this is that there were literally hundreds of bug reports and most of them were impossible to reproduce, didn't have enough information, or simply weren't bugs (feature requests and such).

The new system is much much simpler, both for those who submit reports, and those of us who need the information from them (e.g. Kalimar and me). The core changes are as follows:

Tags
Bugs can be tagged with a number of different tags. Currently, there are tags for Skills, Severity and Actions. Over time, I will add more tags in order to be able to keep bugs organized.

Anyone can add/remove tags from bug reports (if you abuse this, you'll lose the ability to interact with bug reports). This is done through the comment system.

Easier search
With the tag system, it's much easier to search for bugs. Simply use the tag search to find a subset of bugs that are relevant for the situation you are looking for.

Easier image uploads
As part of the comment system, you can very easily drag in an image to the comment. This will show up as a thumbnail. Note that images will, as always, have to be approved before they show up for other people on the site.

Voting
Every coach can vote up or down a bug report. This sum will be used to sort the bug reports showing on the page. The primary use for this is for me and Kalimar to get an idea of which bugs are important to look at.

No feature requests
While this isn't an actual feature, the idea with this new page is to keep it strictly for bugs. Feature requests go on the forums, and any bug reports that are feature requests will be closed.

I am very much hoping that this refresh will make things significantly easier for you all, and keep the bugs under control for me and Kalimar.

You'll find the new bug system in the same place as before:

Bug page

Happy bug hunting, and let me know if you find problems with this new system.

Donation drive ended
Posted by: Christer on Mar2017306pm17, MarpmMon, 06 Mar 2017 15:18:47 +01002017-03-06T15:18:47+01:0003 %06, %2017 - %15:%Mar

I'm at a loss for words. This fund raiser has been a huge success and I'm again astounded and amazed at the generosity of the FUMBBL community.

Thank you everyone!

The donations made have covered not only the cost of the new server, but also some small improvements in the infrastructure (networking equipment and cables) for the site.

For those of you who are technically minded, this is a list of the stuff that's now part of the FUMBBL machine park:

- Intel Core i7-6800k
- 64GB Corsair DDR 4 memory (4x16GB)
- 2x 128 GB Samsung 850 Pro (system drives)
- 2x 1 TB Samsung 850 EVO (data drives for virtual machines)
- Corsair RM 750x power supply
- Noctua CPU cooler(NH-D9L)
- 2x Noctua 80mm case fans (NF-A8 FLX)
- 4x Intel Gigabit CT netowrk adapters
- Ubiquiti UniFi US-8-150W managed switch
- Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Key
- A bunch of cabling (network and SATA cables)

I have spent a good part of this weekend installing and configuring this stuff. From a software perspective, it runs:

- Hyper-V Server 2016 as a hypervisor (Virtual Machine Host). This is the newly leveled up "Deeproot".
- pfSense as the first virtual guest. This is the new firewall, and has been named "Icepelt"
- Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS as the second virtual guest. This is meant to be an infrastructure type VM and currently runs Postfix (the mail server). This one is named "Puggy".

My current plan is to continue the configuration process (pfSense has proven to be quite a nut to crack) over the next few evenings and then do a maintenance at some point this weekend to move the new hardware into its rightful place among the servers and do the final firewall configuration needed.

I'll probably make a post about the maintenance at some point later this week.

Again, thank you all again for your generosity and making it possible for me to keep the site up and running.

PS. If you have donated at some point between February 1st and the time of this newspost and haven't received your Save Deeproot icon, get in touch through a private message with some form of reference to a PayPal transaction (email, transaction id or item id) and I'll sort it out for you.

Donation drive to replace Deeproot
Posted by: Christer on th000000219pm17, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbSun, 19 Feb 2017 23:23:21 +0100000000pmSun, 19 Feb 2017 23:23:21 +010017 %19, %2017 - %23:%Feb

Those of you who read my blog posts on the site will know that I've been spending some time planning for a replacement of Deeproot, the firewall machine for FUMBBL. The old hardware is approaching 10 years old which is older than I am comfortable with.

In order for this to happen, I will need some assistance from you to cover the costs of the hardware. While donations generally speaking cover most of the running costs to pay the bills, donation drives such as this one is needed to replace aging hardware.

While I don't want to set up game-breaking incentives, everyone who participates in this donation drive will receive a Deeproot icon on their overview pages (together with the standard gold supporter badge) to indicate their participation in this event.

Those of you who donated around the time of me posting the blog entries will also be considered part of the drive (let's call it february 1st or later) and be given the Deeproot icon as well.

This drive will be active for two weeks, starting today (ending on the 5th of March). At that point, I will make the final decision on the hardware that will replace Deeproot (possible options mentioned in the linked blog post above).



To participate in this donation drive, please click on the "Support FUMBBL" link at the top right of the page. Thank you very much for your support!

FUMBBL Official Discord Server
Posted by: Christer on tham28000000Sat, 18 Feb 2017 02:09:33 +010018am17, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbSat, 18 Feb 2017 02:09:33 +0100000000amSat, 18 Feb 2017 02:09:33 +010017 %18, %2017 - %02:%Feb

A few days ago, someone asked on the forums whether anyone had set up a FUMBBL Discord server. This had already been on my radar for a while, and I already had a server set up, so I figured I would simply link it on the thread and see if anyone was interested. Without any significant announcement, we now have around 50 coaches who joined and I thought it was time to make an official post about it.

What is Discord, you may ask. The people who run it call it an all-in-one voice and text chat that's free, secure and works on both your desktop and phone. It's also a chat tool that is becoming more and more popular in various circles because of its ease-of-use. While there are applications you can download for your computer (and mobile device), it runs perfectly well in a browser window.

To try it out, click on the button below which will take you to the server.

Join our Discord server

When you've joined, there are a few things you may want to know:

• Become a Verified FUMBBL User by sending a private message to BowlBot (on Discord) in the format "auth [site username]" (without quotes or brackets) and following the instructions.

• We expect everyone to use the same nickname on Discord as on the site. Therefore, nickname changing is not enabled on the server. You may contact a staff member to fix problems with nicknames. This should preferably be done at the same time as the user verification process outlined above.

• If you wish to use the voice chat functionality, you are required to use "Push to Talk". At the bottom left of the Discord window, there are three buttons next to your user name. Clicking the Cog shaped one (User Settings) and going to the "Voice" panel will allow you to set a Push to Talk shortcut. We suggest using one of your control keys for this purpose. Once this is done, and you join a voice channel, you will be able to talk to others by holding this shortcut button down while talking.

Email notification for private messages
Posted by: Christer on thpm28000000Sat, 11 Feb 2017 21:10:17 +010011pm17, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbSat, 11 Feb 2017 21:10:17 +0100000000pmSat, 11 Feb 2017 21:10:17 +010017 %11, %2017 - %21:%Feb

Hi all,

I've just pushed an update to the site that allows you to set up email notifications for private messages. In order to make this work, you will need to do two things:

1. Verify your account email address
2. Enable notifications

Both of these are done from the same place:

Go to your home/overview page. From there, select "Settings" under the "More" menu. In there, you will find a messages section where you can initiate the email verification process (an email will be sent out to your registered email) and once you have completed the email loop process, you will be able to enable the email notifications.

If you are unsure of which email address you have set up on your account, you can check (and update if necessary) by clicking the Account link (top right, just under the donation button) and selecting "Change your info".

This code hasn't been extensively tested, so if you run into problems let me know and I'll try to fix it.

Java certificate update
Posted by: Christer on Dec20161212pm16, MonEurope/Stockholm2016-12-12T16:18:51+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmMon, 12 Dec 2016 16:18:51 +0100 %12, %2016 - %16:%Dec

With the new rules update that was recently released, work has slowly begun to implement some of the changes into the FFB client.

While we're not giving any promises for when this update will be released, there is a technical hoop for me to jump through. All java code that is runnable from a web context (ie, a browser) must be signed. To do this, a code signing certificate is used. These work more or less like an SSL certificate, except they are more expensive.

I have already sorted out the certificate on my end, but there is a slight issue with modern certificates. Over the last couple of years, the Internet (and world in general) has switched to a more secure underlying method for these certificates (specifically, the hash algorithm used has gone from SHA1 to SHA2). This in itself is a good thing(tm). As part of this process, what's called the "Root CA certificate" from the provider I use for code signing certificates has been switched to a new one (also signed with SHA2). This is also a good thing.

So you're asking yourself "Ok, so what's the problem?". FUMBBL has a relatively large number of users. Some of you have computers that are getting a bit old. And even more specifically, some of you have machines that can not run Java versions newer than Java 6 (Old mac computers, running MacOS older than Lion). From my quick look at the analytics, this is roughly 0.5% of you.

Now, with Java 6 being quite old, it's no longer being updated. No updates means that the built-in store of Root CA certificates isn't being updated. And that's the problem. Those of you who are running old versions of Java don't have the new Root CA certificate installed, which will cause some problems.

In theory, it would be possible to install this specific root CA into an old version of Java, but I have no reasonable way to verify if this would actually work.

If you have an old machine (in particular a mac running snow leopard or earlier with the last Apple-distributed Java), and a relatively technical mind, it would be great if you could get in touch with me. I have a very simple test application (which effectively does nothing) that I would like to see tested in an environment like that. Initially, it will probably fail, but I am hoping to be able to get it to a functional state by installing the correct root CA. If that doesn't work, things will get complicated..

For most of you, this doesn't really change much. You're already running a recent version of Java (Java 8 update 111 as I write this), which is what I always recommend. If so, consider this more of a public announcement that the certificate will be changing with the next FFB client update and you may get a warning that asks you if you trust me.

Site maintenance (completed)
Posted by: Christer on st000000731am16, J000000Sunday16 %31, %2016 - %11:%Jul

As mentioned in an earlier news post, I need to replace a NIC (Network Interface Card) for one of the servers (Roxanna). This means that the IRC and FFB Servers will be down for the duration of this maintenance (I estimate roughly an hour to do the swap and reconfigure the network traffic to use the new card).

This maintenance will start at noon today (12:00 server time).

I apologize for the inconvenience of this downtime, but hope it won't affect too many of you.

Edit: This has been completed, and we're back online as usual.

IRC chat update
Posted by: Christer on CEST02000000Thu, 28 Jul 2016 14:58:35 +02003528pm16, J000000Thursday16 %28, %2016 - %14:%Jul

A number of people have been notifying me about the inability for them to connect to the IRC chat. Specifically, this has been an error message more or less like "Bad username". After some investigation, I found out why this happens and have deployed a fix.

If you're not interested in details, you can happily try to connect to the IRC again, and hopefully you'll have no trouble. Let me know if you do though.

Game and IRC server hiccup
Posted by: Christer on rdpm31000000Sat, 23 Jul 2016 20:30:57 +020023pm16, J000000Saturday16 %23, %2016 - %20:%Jul

Today, we had a slight hiccup and loss of service for the IRC and FFB Game servers running on the site.

This was caused by a failing NIC (network card). I do not have spare NICs at this point (I probably should though), but I will be buying a replacement within a day or two.

For now, I've routed the IRC and FFB data through another NIC on the machine so things should be back in working order for the time being. When I get my hands on a replacement NIC, I will be announcing a scheduled maintenance downtime to do the replacement.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Custom rosters
Posted by: Christer on th000000619pm16, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %19, %2016 - %15:%Jun

As some of you may have seen, I've been working on a custom roster feature for the site. I've now gotten to a point where I feel it's ready for wide-spread testing so I've pushed the functionality to the live site.

Undoubtedly, you will have a bunch of questions, but to avoid the most obvious ones, here's a few things to keep in mind:

- First of all, this is pretty complicated so be warned.
- The functionality is part of the Ruleset feature. You'll find the roster editor in the "Rosters" tab after switching your available rosters to "Custom".
- To add rosters that others have set up, you use the "Add Existing Roster" link. This allows you to search for rosters by name. Undoubtedly, you'll end up with multiple rosters of the same name. To limit the search results, you can search for rosters maintained by specific coaches. To do this, you search for a part of the coach name, followed by a forward slash and then a part of the roster name. For example "chri/test" will show you rosters in one of my rulesets containing the word "test".
- To create a team with a new roster, you need to make a group that uses the ruleset (must be set to "league" rather than "meta group"), and use the Create Team link on the group page.
- Once a team is created using a race, it will not be possible to remove the roster entirely from the site. You can, however, disassociate the roster from your ruleset (by removing it from the list of available rosters).
- Similarly, if someone has a positional from one of your rosters, you will not be able to remove the positional from the site. The remove link will simply be a shortcut to setting the quantity of the positional to 0.
- Changing skills on a positional will update immediately on all players using it. Stats will not live update immediately (but will update after the next match).

This change is quite large and complex all in all, and I am almost certain there are bugs. When you run into one of those, don't hesitate to let me know and I'll do what I can to fix it.

Enjoy making new rosters! It'll be fun to see what you come up with.

Blackbox - Testing web based chat
Posted by: Christer on 17Europe/Stockholm274Europe/Stockholm2527pm16, PM+02:00Wed, 27 Apr 2016 21:28:25 +020028Wednesday %27, %2016 - %21:%Apr

Over the last week or so, I've been working on some technology that allows a web page to display a real-time chat box. The code is still in an early test phase, but it's at a point where I need to do some stability testing. Therefore, there's now a very simple chat on the Blackbox activation page. The purpose of this test is to see how the server side components function over time, so simply keep on doing what you've been doing, and feel free to say hello in the new little chat box.

For those of you who are interested in the technology behind this feature, I'll give you a quick overview. If you're not interested, you can simply skip the rest of this post :)

On the front end (the browser), there is a socket.io component that connects to a node.js service. This service does very simple message passing between the connected people. In addition to this, messages are sent to another node.js service (using ZeroMQ as a transport) which is acting as an IRC server and connects to the FumbblNet IRC network (ie, the FUMBBL IRC server), and allows people on the web site to chat directly with the people on the IRC server.

There's still a fair amount of work needed to finalise this code but I'm hoping it'll be useful to you all as it stands. I am also planning to get a similar chat box displayed on the Gamefinder, but that requires a fair amount of UI work on that page. Also note that the service may be unstable and may stop working at any time.

Either way, enjoy and let me know what you think.

Server hiccup
Posted by: Christer on CEST09000000Thu, 14 Apr 2016 21:54:52 +02005214pm16, PM+02:00Thu, 14 Apr 2016 21:54:52 +020054Thursday %14, %2016 - %21:%Apr

Fungus, the FUMBBL Web server just had a small hiccup, causing the site to go down for a while. Things are now back up and running and will hopefully remain so.

The problem was caused by the machine kernel throwing some errors, which after a search online may be caused by a failing power supply. The power supply in the machine is from a pretty reputable manufacturer (Seasonic), so for now I will monitor the logs to see if the problem reappears. If it does, I will replace the PSU hoping to fix the issue. Intermittent problems are so much fun, don't you think? :)

Hopefully, this interruption hasn't caused any of you too much trouble.

Updated SSL Certificate
Posted by: Christer on 01Europe/Stockholm061Europe/Stockholm2906pm16, Jpm1000000pmWed, 06 Jan 2016 12:11:29 +010016 %06, %2016 - %12:%Jan

As hinted to in an earlier news post, I have switched the SSL certificate used for the site (effectively changing the signature algorithm from SHA-1 to SHA-256). This should remove warnings from the Chrome browser, but will also break connectivity for some rare configurations (mainly Windows XP prior to SP3, using IE or Chrome). The configurations that will not work anymore are extremely rare, and the workaround is to switch to upgrade your OS, or use Firefox (or another browser that has its own SSL implementation).

I am guessing that very few of you will notice any difference, but feel free to let me know if you have issues with SSL (https) connectivity to the site.

FUMBBL SSL Certificate
Posted by: Christer on Jan2016104pm16, Jpm1000000pmMon, 04 Jan 2016 15:05:21 +010016 %04, %2016 - %15:%Jan

Those of you who are using Chrome to access the site, specifically with SSL enabled (i.e. https), may have noticed that the browser shows a red cross over the padlock symbol.

This is an effect of Google being overly cautious with what's called the signature algorithm used in the security certificate that is installed on the site (specifically SHA-1).

Now, while there has been some research done in the last few years showing that computational power is getting closer to break SHA-1 within a reasonable time-frame, it's not currently insecure. Google has simply chosen to mark certificates with SHA-1 signatures as weak as of the start of this year. At the same time, they are themselves using SHA-1 signed certificates for their own services (and happily marking them as safe).

So, you may wonder, why not just switch to SHA-256 signed certificates?

It turns out that some configurations simply don't support it. Specifically, Windows XP prior to service pack 3. Using a browser without its own SSL implementation (such as IE or Chrome), you'll simply not be able to access the site over https.

Should you worry about this? Not really. It's not unthinkable that a nation-state could eavesdrop on SSL traffic to and from this site if they chose to put their resources into it. Without that level of computing power, it's not realistic to think that someone could listen in on your web traffic (essentially, doing this would allow someone to take over your account).

On my end, I am going to investigate my options for reissuing the SSL certificate used on the site using SHA-256. This will theoretically break things for the few people who use XP prior to SP3 using Chrome or Internet Explorer. It would probably be a good idea for the few people who are on this setup (roughly 2.2% of people accessing FUMBBL use Windows XP) to upgrade to a later OS. If that's not possible, installing Firefox is a reasonable option which will let you continue to use SSL secured connections. Not only to this site (which arguably is less significant), but also to other sites containing actual sensitive data.

TL;DR
Chrome shows the site uses an insecure certificate. This is sort of half-true, but you don't need to worry about it. If you're on Windows XP SP2 or earlier, switch to Firefox or things will start breaking over time.

Custom leagues alpha
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm1501am15, TueEurope/Stockholm2015-12-01T00:37:15+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmTue, 01 Dec 2015 00:37:15 +0100 %01, %2015 - %00:%Dec

I have just gotten the (very) long awaited league changes to a milestone I'm comfortable pushing live for you guys to test out in an alpha state. In this context, alpha means the system is not fully implemented (ie, there are missing features), and there are very likely bugs. The major changes that are now available are:
1. Rulesets have been updated with some further options.
2. Groups can now be set to either a "Meta Group", or a "League". The former is pretty much no change from before. The latter allows group owners to connect the group to a ruleset (using the Ruleset ID for the moment). This means that the group is now a league.
3. Teams can be created in a league, and by doing so will use the ruleset connected to it. This means that all the settings for the ruleset will apply (starting gold, min players, max players, etc). Rulesets will also allow you to change skill progression. To create a team in a "League", there is a link on the overview page for the group specifically for this purpose.
4. Currently, existing teams can not be moved into a league.
5. Client options can be configured for teams in a league, which means you can finally change these things without being forced to start a tournament.
6. Cross-league matches are NOT supported (yet). This will be allowed at a later date, but will most likely have restrictions (for example requiring leagues involved in the match to use the same ruleset).
7. Leagues have the option to customise which rosters are allowed. For the moment, this is only a few specific predetermined sets of teams (LRB6, Stunty, and LRB6+Stunty). As you might notice, this will open up the League division to Stunty teams (albeit in a limited fashion).

Now, given that this is alpha state code, and it's certainly one of the largest changes and additions to the website in a very long time (pretty much since we switched to the FFB client), things may break because of this update. I have no reasonable way to test some of the code I changed to make this possible.

So, please let me know if you find things that have broken because of this update. Also, please give me some feedback with how you feel the system works, and if there are things you'd like to see going forward.

I've started a feedback thread on the forums for this.

Updated FFB Certificates
Posted by: Christer on thpm30000000Sat, 28 Nov 2015 19:59:11 +010028pm15, 62015000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmSat, 28 Nov 2015 19:59:11 +0100 %28, %2015 - %19:%Nov

After a fair bit of work (and money), I have now updated the code signing certificate used for the FFB Client. This means that people with very strict security settings will be able to run the client yet again.

For everyone else, this means that there will be a new download of the FFB Client next time you spectate or start a match. In some circumstances (ie, if this takes too long), you will get a "Wrong Password" dialog. If this happens simply close the client and relaunch and things should be back to normal again.

Thank you for your patience!

FFB launcher issues
Posted by: Christer on NovemberFri, 20 Nov 2015 13:53:22 +01005320pm15, 52015000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmFri, 20 Nov 2015 13:53:22 +0100 %20, %2015 - %13:%Nov

It has come to my attention that some of you are getting errors trying to launch the FFB client. The short version is that this is caused by very restrictive Java settings and the fact that the code signing certificate used to sign the FFB Client expired early this morning.

Unfortunately, the process to get a new code signing certificate will take a while (and roughly $100). I will get it sorted, but it may take a while (roughly a week or so).

Until then, there is a relatively lengthy process to verify settings and set them to reasonable defaults. This process has resolved the issue at least once, so hopefully it's universal:

Maintenance downtime, Sunday 27th. (Complete)
Posted by: Christer on thpm30000000Sat, 26 Sep 2015 12:34:36 +020026pm15, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmSat, 26 Sep 2015 12:34:36 +0200 %26, %2015 - %12:%Sep

Tomorrow at 11:00 (am, server time), FUMBBL will shut down for maintenance. I will be replacing Borak (the database server) with Willow (the new server that the donation drive was made for).

I expect the process will take 2 to 3 hours, during which the website and game server will be down. The IRC chat will still be online, and will try to provide updates during the maintenance (although I will actually be working on the switch so I might be unresponsive at times :) )

Hopefully, this won't cause too much problems for you all.

Edit: Maintenance is now complete, and things are running as per normal. Hopefully.. :)

Email from FUMBBL
Posted by: Christer on thpm30000000Sat, 19 Sep 2015 20:00:45 +020019pm15, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmSat, 19 Sep 2015 20:00:45 +0200 %19, %2015 - %20:%Sep

As some of you may have noticed, there has been a bit of trouble with outgoing emails from the site. I have been monitoring the issue and think I have found a fix that should make email work as expected again.

Mainly this was causing signup emails to not go out, and also password reminders.

In addition to this, I have investigated emails going out from the forum, which seemed to be a bit flaky. I've attempted a fix for this and hope that those of you who "watch" topics will get emails as expected when someone replies to a thread you're interested in.

Let me know if you're still having issues related to emails from the site and I'll take a look and see if I can find a resolution.

Donation drive for server upgrade
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm0108pm15, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmTue, 08 Sep 2015 22:32:01 +0200 %08, %2015 - %22:%Sep

Those of you who frequent the FUMBBL forums noticed that I recently made a callout for suggestions for fun things to do for those who participate in a donation drive to do a server upgrade.

The background to the donation drive is that Borak, the FUMBBL database server is getting quite old (8+ years) and I would very much like to replace the machine with something newer before it breaks down. Doing this proactively reduces downtime significantly, and at the same time reduces my stress levels :)

Plenty of suggestions were made in the forum post, and I am now ready to officially start the donation drive.

For those of you who donate during this donation drive, a new little icon will show up on your overview in order to signify that you participated in the donation drive (and this icon is seen by others viewing your coach page as well). In addition to this, those who donate $25 or more will be given the opportunity to perform a team service from the following list:

* Unretire a team
* Rename a team (swapping with another team of yours, or take another coach's team name if they are retired and have at most 5 games played). Some restrictions may apply here for thematic reasons.
* Unretire a player on a team not currently involved in a tournament. This can't take positionals beyond the normal limits. Unretired players must be alive and will maintain injuries.
* Limited division transfer. This allows a team to transfer from Blackbox to Ranked or League, or a team from Ranked to transfer to League.
* Team publicity stunt. Set a team's fan factor to 7.
* Team reorganization. Lets you do basic reorganization things to a team such as firing your apothecary or reassigning player numbers.

I've retroactively applied the Saved Borak icon to coaches who have donated during this month (september). If you have donated $25 or more and want to utilize one of the team services as listed above, get in touch with me with a reference to the PayPal item # (or anything that lets me identify the transaction) and I'll assist you. For multiple services, or if you have some custom request in the same vein as the ones listed, get in touch with me (Christer) through PM and I'll work with you to find a suitable solution :)

This special donation drive will run until the end of the month, after which the icon will no longer be applied to your coach page, and team services stop being available. Please note that this means that the services can't be saved for the future beyond this month (this is mostly for logistical reasons).

Thank you all for your support!

Edit: To clarify the time-limit for the "Saved Borak" icon: Donating during this month will make it show up on your account permanently. The time-limit simply means that coaches donating after this donation drive won't get the icon applied to their accounts.

Edit 2: This donation drive has now ended. Thank you all for your support!

Great Big Blood Bowl Survey
Posted by: sann0638 on th000000906pm15, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmSun, 06 Sep 2015 20:43:09 +0200 %06, %2015 - %20:%Sep

The NAF are happy to announce the Great Big Blood Bowl Survey, in which we try to get demographic and gaming information about as many Blood Bowl players as possible We want to hear all about your tabletop and online habits (there is an Other box in which you can put any particular sites you like to use...)

So please...
1. Fill in the survey
2. Share it in whichever forums you go to in as many different languages as possible. The questions are hopefully simple enough for Google Translate to cope with.
3. Tell your gaming mates that don't go on forums where to find it (thenaf.net might be easiest?) and that they should fill it in too.
4. Look forward to the results!

Thanks,
Mike (sann0638)
NAF Media Officer

Easilyamused takes over as the official tournament manager.
Posted by: Christer on 36Europe/Stockholm029Europe/Stockholm2302am15, ndEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmWed, 02 Sep 2015 00:03:23 +0200 %02, %2015 - %00:%Sep

After many years of hard work with tournaments, PurpleChest has decided to step down as the main official tournament manager for FUMBBL. In his place, easilyamused is stepping up to take on the burden of keeping our tournaments running as well as they have been.

I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to PurpleChest for what he's done over the years. Without him, our tournaments wouldn't be what they are today.

If you have any questions about this change (which will likely not affect too many of you at all), feel free to get in touch with easilyamused or me (Christer) and we'll do what we can to respond to your queries.

Server issues July 14
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm3614pm15, J000000Tuesday15 %14, %2015 - %19:%Jul

Early this morning (I'm estimating around 3am server time), one of the drives on the web site managed to get filled up (due to massive logfiles not being rotated properly). This caused a large number of matches to fail to upload properly to the site.

The fix for the issue was for me to delete some 70GB of log files, modify a logrotation scheme (from daily to hourly) and a server reboot (due to strange behaviour caused by the full drive).

After this, I spent some time to upload all the pending matches to the site. However, during this process, a number of currently active matches were uploaded by mistake. This means that the matches ended and the result was sent as-is to the site.

This, unfortunately, is a hard issue to fix (ie, it's practically impossible to revert a game back to "unfinished" state), I will have to leave it as-is. This means that the games that were uploaded in their partial state will overall be left uploaded as-is. In order to not mess up any tournaments, please get in touch with me and I'll assist you as best as I can to come up with a solution. Note that I can not revert the match to its previous state.

At this time, there are just under 80 support tickets about games not uploading and I will simply close them all with a template response. If you feel that your issue is not resolved, or I manage to close a ticket that's not related to this issue, simply resubmit your ticket and the staff will assist you as best we can.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Chaos female fantasy football team kickstarter goes live.
Posted by: Beren on thpm31000000Sat, 09 May 2015 12:56:29 +020009pm15, Maypm15 %09, %2015 - %12:%May

Apocalypse Miniature's first ever kickstarter project just went live. We want to release The Boltimore Ravens who are ready and willing to take to your field and kick some butt.



We promise to start producing Stunty leeg teams if our first project becomes reality, we are looking to make a squig herder team first of all and then make available every team possible so that folks can enjoy playing full stunty leeg tournaments for real.

Feedback, queries and relevant questions are welcome so feel free to contact us.

Hope you like them and if possible please spread the word. Many thanks and all the best.

Note: This Kickstarter campaign is not driven by, or in collaboration with, FUMBBL or its staff.

Maintenance - Sunday Mar 1, 13:00 to 13:30 (Completed)
Posted by: Christer on st000000301pm15, MarpmSun, 01 Mar 2015 12:00:32 +01002015-03-01T12:00:32+01:0012 %01, %2015 - %12:%Mar

Related to the recent downtime, I am performing some hardware maintenance today starting at 13:00 server time. I expect this will last for approximately 30 minutes (I'm effectively switching a NIC on one of the servers).

During this time, the game servers and the IRC chat will be down. The website will still be functional through the maintenance.

Edit: The maintenance is complete, and services are back to working order.

Game server issues
Posted by: Christer on CET03000000Thu, 26 Feb 2015 15:34:44 +01004426pm15, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbThu, 26 Feb 2015 15:34:44 +0100000000pmThu, 26 Feb 2015 15:34:44 +010015 %26, %2015 - %15:%Feb

Earlier today, the FFB game server started to act up and you haven't been able to play games properly over the day.

I've identified an issue with a network card and/or cable on the server that runs FFB where it's experiencing massive packet loss over that interface. This is the connection to the main database which as you may imagine is pretty important for functionality.

I have now temporarily moved the DB traffic over to another network and will take a look at the underlying hardware issue when I get the time to do so. At best, I'll be replacing a network cable (meaning no need to shut down the machine), and at worst I'll need to replace the NIC (meaning some shopping and a hardware maintenance window).

I'll keep you all posted about this and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Update: It's not a cable issue and I will be replacing the NIC in question at some point this weekend (most likely on sunday).

FUMBBL Downtime
Posted by: Christer on 47Europe/Stockholm1911Europe/Stockholm0519am14, 32014000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmWed, 19 Nov 2014 09:59:05 +0100 %19, %2014 - %09:%Nov

Last night, at roughly 23:15, FUMBBL lost power and was down for a number of hours. The first estimate of return of power from the power company was at 02:00, which as you may imagine means I'm sleeping.

The hardware is protected with an UPS and I could therefore shut down things in an orderly fashion, and at around 08:30 this morning the servers were powered back up with no issues.

As I always try to do, I sent out tweets about this on the [url=https://twitter.com/FUMBBL]official FUMBBL Twitter[/url], which I recommend you keep an eye on if you are having problems with the site.

I apologize for any inconvenience caused by this lack of access.

FFB update postponed (updated)
Posted by: Christer on thpm31000000Sat, 04 Oct 2014 12:07:15 +020004pm14, +02002014-10-04T12:07:15+02:00312014bEurope/StockholmSat, 04 Oct 2014 12:07:15 +0200 %04, %2014 - %12:%Oct

Me and Kalimar were ramping up to update the FFB client to 1.2.0 this weekend. Unfortunately, this will need to be postponed as Kalimar has run into some real-life issues he needs to deal with (I won't elaborate for privacy reasons).

Instead, barring further real-life intervention, we are hoping to perform the update a week later (Sunday 12th, starting at 20:00 server time).

Hopefully this won't cause too much problem in your scheduling.

Update:
Further complications has caused the update to be postponed yet again (Kalimar's taking his daughter to the hospital again), and therefore the update is once again postponed.

This time, we can't commit to next weekend, and I will therefore refrain from posting a new date for the update. Hopefully, we'll manage to fit it in at some point in the near future.

FUMBBL downtime
Posted by: Christer on st000000921pm14, stEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmSun, 21 Sep 2014 16:01:53 +0200 %21, %2014 - %16:%Sep

Yesterday, FUMBBL went down due to a power failure. Once power was restored and the servers were up and running again, it was fairly late (a bit past 1am or so) and I went to sleep. On waking up, I noticed that the site was being incredibly sluggish.

So, I spent some time trying to localise the issue and found that one of the hard drives that the database is running on was failing (read speeds of 1MB/sec, which is about 1% of what I expect from the drive). Further investigation showed multiple errors being reported by the drive self-test (SMART).

This meant that I rushed off to the local computer hardware store and picked up a replacement drive, which is now installed in the system. At the time of writing, the RAID array is recovering and will likely be doing so for the next few hours (the drive is 2TB running as part of a RAID5 array).

Bottom line is that the site should be functional again and because of the RAID rebuild will be slightly sluggish for a few hours (although not nearly as bad as it was while the failed drive was installed).

I apologise for any inconvenience this downtime has caused you guys.

FUMBBL access issues
Posted by: Christer on th000000907pm14, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmSun, 07 Sep 2014 13:38:54 +0200 %07, %2014 - %13:%Sep

As many of you probably noticed, FUMBBL was inaccessible for a while this morning. All the FUMBBL servers are fine and have been running flawlessly during this, and my investigation seemed to imply an issue with DNS servers.

I've been having some issues with DNS in the past, and have now switched name servers from Zoneedit to Amazon, and am also in the process of transferring the domain registry to Amazon as well (the latter may take a few days).

The reason I'm doing this transfer isn't only because of this incident. We've had some trouble with Zoneedit in the past and my hope is that switching to a reputable host for domain and name servers will improve stability. Amazon certainly has a smoother configuration system for domains and DNS records, so that part will certainly become better.

The domain registrar switch may cause some minor teething issues, but I hope it won't be too bad.

Either way, I apologise for any inconvenience this downtime may have caused you.

Server maintenance, Aug 7 from 18:30 (Completed)
Posted by: Christer on CEST05000000Thu, 07 Aug 2014 17:16:01 +02000107pm14, PM00000050000000131 %07, %2014 - %17:%Aug

At approximately 18:30, one of the FUMBBL servers will be taken down for maintenance (replacement). This will mean that the FFB game server is going to be down and the IRC chat server will also be inaccessible.

I am unable to give a very good estimate of the time it will be down, but am hoping to be able to have the new server in place and running both the IRC chat and the game server within 2-3 hours.

Thank you for your patience and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Update: The migration is mostly complete and both IRC and FFB game servers should be back online. Let me know if you run into issues.

Update 2: The game name requirement should be fixed.

Donation drive for hardware replacement
Posted by: Christer on AugustFri, 01 Aug 2014 12:30:06 +02003001pm14, PM000000120000000631 %01, %2014 - %12:%Aug

Update: The donation drive is now closed, and no further items will be sent out.

Hi everyone!

Closely following the ISP issue, we just ran into another problem. This time, it's out of the ISP's hand and in the realm of ageing hardware.

Zara, the server responsible for IRC and the FFB game server, is showing further signs of deteriorating. It essentially stopped functioning this morning and the motherboard was making clicking noises for a while when I tried to power cycle it.

In the end, I managed to get it back up and running (it effectively needed a short rest), but I feel this is serious enough that I really need to replace the hardware as it could simply die on me at any time.

So, in order to be able to do that, I need you guys to help me out with donations to cover the cost of the replacement. Given that the old hardware is so old, I practically can't reuse anything of it other than the case (Zara is from around 2005 or so).

Doing a quick price check on reasonable new hardware to take Zara's place, I'm looking at a cost of just shy of $1000 for the things I want to buy.

In order to give something back to those of you who donate, I will offer sending one of the FUMBBL poker chips (random colour) to those of you who donate $25 or more during this drive as a token of appreciation. In order to get this poker chip, I will need you to make the donation and then contact me (Christer) with a PM on the site with the name and email of your Paypal account (for verification purposes) and the shipping address you want the poker chip sent to. I really don't expect to run out of these poker chips during this donation drive, but there is a limited supply and I may not be able to send one to all of you who donate. If that happens, I'll get back to you and offer a refund on the donation.

I also have a very limited number of the dice from the Kickstarter campaign that I can send to those of you who are interested in donating a bit more (let's say $50 or more, a bit depending on what dice you are interested in). To take advantage of this, you will need to contact me (again through a PM) *before* you make the donation with information on which dice you are interested in, and the amount you intend to donate. Once I have confirmed that there are items remaining, I will reserve them for you and get back to you with a response so you can go ahead with the donation. This more complex process is needed in order to avoid me running out of dice.

Thank you very much for your interest in supporting FUMBBL!

Update: The donation drive has been a success and I have placed an order for new parts. I will, however, extend the time for it for another day or so in order to give some people a chance to get their hands on the last couple of sets of dice I have available from the Kickstarter project.

Thank you everyone who chipped in. It's truly heart-warming to see that so many people care about the site and what we do here.

Update: The donation drive is now closed, and no further items will be sent out.

ISP issues
Posted by: Christer on 30Europe/Stockholm237Europe/Stockholm0423pm14, J000000Wednesday14 %23, %2014 - %19:%Jul

As you most likely have noticed, FUMBBL is being slow. After having had a chat with a (very helpful) support techie at the ISP they're saying they need to send a technician on the problem, possibly replacing some hardware (fibre converter to be precise).

The bad news here is that they state up to three (3) business days before this happens. Naturally, I'm hoping they find a resolution to this earlier, but you never know...

I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Two Million Matches Celebration!
Posted by: Christer on 12Europe/Stockholm193Europe/Stockholm2819am14, MaramWed, 19 Mar 2014 00:20:28 +01002014-03-19T00:20:28+01:0012 %19, %2014 - %00:%Mar

In roughly 24 hours from now, the 2 millionth match will be registered on FUMBBL. That's an utterly mind-boggling number of games and I wish to thank you all for the time you've spent here, playing games and building the great community we have today. Since the first million matches, we've gone through a fair amount of significant changes, both good and bad. It's very heart-warming to me personally to see so many of you sticking around here year after year.

Anyway, in order to celebrate this milestone, we are doing three things:

1. All coaches who played at least one (1) match between the first and the second million games will receive a healing potion. This was a very popular reward from our last million game celebration and I'm going to revive it for this one as well.

2. On saturday (March 22, 2014), from midnight to midnight server time, we're reviving our most popular birthday event: A random staff member will join your team when your team goes from post-match to ready to play status (assuming you have a spot for one). This will affect League teams, so those of you who run leagues you do not want tainted by this event, please make sure to communicate this to your league members.

3. The first match in each division for each main division (Ranked, Blackbox, Stunty and League) on or after match 2 million will have a player receive the fan favourite skill. The player to receive the skill will be voted on by everyone during the saturday event. I will be posting votes on the forums for each team involved and hope that as many of you as possible will participate in the vote. In order to prevent breaking player run leagues and/or tournaments, I will verify with the commissioner of the League of the affected teams if they wish to not have the skill added to the teams. In this case, the prize moves to the next eligible match.

Again, thank you all for the games you've been playing, and I hope as many of you as possible can participate in the event on saturday!

Edit:
While we advise people to not play official tournament matches during this event, it is not against the rules. If you choose to play official tournament matches during the event, please make sure that both involved coaches are aware of the event prior to readying your teams.

Windows XP
Posted by: Christer on thpm28000000Sat, 15 Feb 2014 22:24:17 +010015pm14, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbSat, 15 Feb 2014 22:24:17 +0100000000pmSat, 15 Feb 2014 22:24:17 +010014 %15, %2014 - %22:%Feb

As many of you probably know already, Microsoft is ending support for Windows XP on April 8th, 2014. Beyond this date, there will be no further security updates for XP and it is very likely that a batch of exploits will surface the day after support has ended. This means that those of you who still run Windows XP on your machines will be vulnerable to exploits. I encourage everyone to start thinking about finding an alternative to Windows XP so that you aren't stuck with it after official support has ended.

Now, the reason I post this message is not only to remind you of the end of support date for Windows XP. At the same date, FUMBBL will officially stop supporting Windows XP as well. At the same time, support for Internet Explorer below version 9 will cease. Again, things are unlikely to break on April 9th, but over time things may start rendering strangely on IE 8 and below. Those of you who are stuck on Windows XP should switch over to an alternative web browser (Firefox, Chrome or Opera) which will continue to have their latest version supported by FUMBBL.

The lack of official support for IE8 is not likely to affect many of you, but I wanted to post this anyway. Feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions about this.

FUMBBL has enabled HSTS
Posted by: Christer on DecemberFri, 20 Dec 2013 14:37:14 +01003720pm13, FriEurope/Stockholm2013-12-20T14:37:14+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmFri, 20 Dec 2013 14:37:14 +0100 %20, %2013 - %14:%Dec

I just enabled [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security]HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)[/url] on the site. This is mainly a way to improve security of the site by effectively ensuring that your browsers only connect to FUMBBL using https (ie., an encrypted connection).

Although I feel it's highly unlikely, feel free to get in touch with me if you run into trouble because of this, or if you have any further questions about it. This post is mainly done to inform you that it's been enabled more than anything. Nothing significant should change for you because of this.

FUMBBL Dice
Posted by: Christer on Sep2013916pm13, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmMon, 16 Sep 2013 14:35:44 +0200 %16, %2013 - %14:%Sep

I recently received the remaining stock of dice and poker chips from the Kickstarter project. This means that Chance's part of the Kickstarter is more or less completed (thank you a million times Chance!) and I will handle the remaining work. This work involves two parts:

1. Those of you who pledged on the Kickstarter but have yet not received the dice. I need you guys to get in touch with me as soon as possible and we'll try to figure out what happened and resend your items. Send me an email (or site PM) with the email you used in your Kickstarter, and which pledge level you signed up for and I'll do what I can to assist you. Please mark your mail/pm with "Missing Dice".

2. Those of you who missed the opportunity to participate, or simply want more dice. Since there's some remaining stock, I will start taking orders for dice yet again. There are limited number of dice remaining, and in particular the non-block dice are very limited. Because of this, the only thing I will be providing is access to the block dice, and a single (randomly coloured) poker chip for each set of block dice.

Given that I don't know how many of you actually want to take advantage of this offer and I don't have an exact count of how many sets of dice (since I don't know how many resends I'll end up doing) are going to be available, the following terms will apply:

To receive a set of three (3) block dice together with a single poker chip, make a site donation through PayPal of $30 or more. Unfortunately, the added $5 is necessary to cover shipping costs (which we significantly underestimated in the Kickstarter project). Make absolutely sure you mark the donation with "Dice" in the message field to allow me to identify these donations.

Since the dice limited, this will not guarantee that you get dice and I will process donations in the order I get them. If you do not want to risk to be without dice through this method, send me a PM on the site with the subject line "Dice Reservation". I will place these PMs in the queue according to time and prioritize dice sets as appropriate together with donations. I will then respond to the PM by either saying that we're out of dice, or that I have a set reserved for you and that you can place the donation.

This reservation process is also the only method that I will support for those of you who are interested in multiple sets of dice (pricing will be the same $30 per set regardless of how many sets you want).

To finish off this post, a little side-note:

For those of you who are interested in the profitability of the Kickstarter project as a whole, it's not entirely finalized due to these additional dice. However, at this point all of the excess (and a pretty hefty sum on top of that) is locked up in tax payments because of the timing of the project (our own fault for not making sure the pledging ended in January rather than December). Our best guess is that once this years taxes have been dealt with, there will be some extra money that FUMBBL will use to cover running costs. This will unfortunately be happen a bit into next year.

As you may remember, the Kickstarter included a reference to a new FUMBBL server (with Morg being the star player voted to be the new server name). The idea for this server was to replace Zara (which is the server that is primarily responsible for the IRC and game servers), a machine that is showing early signs of giving up (taking a few times to boot properly). The funds gathered through this remaining dice offering will hopefully cover some of the costs of a new machine that will take over Zara's role (A reconditioned HP DL380, which will run a few virtual instances to cover Zara's old roles and some other things. I may add details for the setup later when I actually have it set up). The order for the new machine is placed and it may be somewhat of a waiting game for it to be delivered in full from the different suppliers of parts, but I'm hoping it won't take too long.

Thank you all for the patience you've had with the Kickstarter project!

Site maintenance completed
Posted by: Christer on CEST12000000Thu, 15 Aug 2013 00:00:54 +02005415am13, AM000000120000005431 %15, %2013 - %00:%Aug

Earlier today, I noticed that one of the FUMBBL servers was producing harddrive read errors. I took down the servers to do a cable replacement to make sure that it wasn't a cabling problem. After the system came back up again, I am still getting the error messages and that means that I will be replacing the drive.

I've placed an order hoping to reserve the last drive I could find in town from the store I use to buy hardware, and will (hopefully) pick it up tomorrow. This means that there will be another downtime at some point tomorrow once I return from drive hunting.

The failing drive is part of a RAID-array backing the data and log for the primary database for FUMBBL so I want to replace it as soon as possible to avoid data loss or corruption. Hopefully, the downtime will not affect your matches too much.

Edit:
I am taking down the site for the harddrive swap at 15:45 server time today. I estimate the downtime to take roughly 1 hour.

Edit:
The maintenance has now been completed. The drive has been successfully replaced and the server is happily rebuilding the RAID array (which will take several hours).

I apologize for any inconvenience this downtime has caused you.

SSL certificate update
Posted by: Christer on AugustFri, 02 Aug 2013 16:56:35 +02005602pm13, PM00000040000003531 %02, %2013 - %16:%Aug

As of today, FUMBBL has a new SSL certificate. While this isn't something normal people will notice, I figured I'd make a post for those of you who keep track of such things.

The only change is that you can now access both https://fumbbl.com and https://www.fumbbl.com without getting certificate warnings. Or well, the expiration of the certificate has moved from September this year to August 2017 as well.

Planned maintenance (Completed)
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm3507pm13, Maypm13 %07, %2013 - %18:%May

On Wednesday May 8 at around 14:00, I will be taking the site offline for a while in order to update the database server that is backing the site. I am hoping that this update will be less than 2 hours long and that it won't affect your schedule too greatly.

Edit:
The maintenance has been successfully completed and we're back to normal.

The Stunty Leeg Handbook
Posted by: WhatBall on CEST12000000Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:14:10 +02001011am13, AM+02:00Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:14:10 +020014Thursday %11, %2013 - %00:%Apr

I am pleased to announce the release of the first Stunty Leeg Handbook, a compendium of rules, rosters, history, and trivia. Illustrated by the renowned knut_rockie, this 48 page guide contains everything an aspiring coach needs to start up their own squad and dive into the mayhem. It also discusses the origins of the Leeg, backgrounds of the star players and snippets of Leeg lore you may not have known.

STUNTY : Reborn
Posted by: WhatBall on FebruaryFri, 15 Feb 2013 15:08:10 +01000815pm13, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbFri, 15 Feb 2013 15:08:10 +0100000000pmFri, 15 Feb 2013 15:08:10 +010013 %15, %2013 - %15:%Feb

If you hadn’t noticed, the Stunty Leeg has just gone through a facelift to help improve the playability and fun of all the teams. Now is a great time for coaches who haven’t played Stunty to make a few teams and embrace the mayhem. For current or returning coaches, it is a perfect opportunity to try something new.

Just remember, Stunty=absolute mayhem.
If you can’t embrace the sheer lunacy of pixel-carnage it may not be for you.
Go in looking for fun and it will not disappoint.

This was a long process, and I want to thanks everyone who participated on the forums with ideas, opinions, and constructive criticism. It went better than I expected. I’d also like to thanks some of the people who have been helping me behind the scenes. A small crew of coaches have been helping with the final touches. I could have picked so many people, but had to limit it to a few only. I picked them for their experience, ability to not bias decisions based on their own favourite teams, and because all of them are willing to tell me very clearly when they think I am wrong. Thanks to cameronhawkins, Corvidius, Hitonagashi and Synn. Also, thanks to Garion and harvestmouse who have been amazing with fluff support to help iron out team themes, and icons too. I must also thank Knut_Rockie who has been stellar in providing any image I have requested for Stunty. His artwork is amazing. Finally, thanks to Shadow46x2 who has been helping out a lot behind the scenes. There are a few small items to still take care of, but those should be wrapped up soon.

Speaking of Shadow, he is finalizing the contracts and licensing agreements for the next Stunty major in late February. So get your teams out on the pitch and get prepping. Shadow will have more on the tournament closer to the start date.

Get out there and have fun!

Java updated to fix vulnerability (Updated)
Posted by: Christer on Jan2013114pm13, Jpm1000000pmMon, 14 Jan 2013 19:16:26 +010013 %14, %2013 - %19:%Jan

As a response to the serious vulnerability posted about here earlier, Oracle has now released Java 7 update 11 that fixes this issue.

We recommend that all of you update to that version to get the fix.

Note that even older versions of Java were vulnerable to the issue (Java 4, 5 and 6 as well as 7), so if you reverted back to Java 6, it's strongly advisable that you update to the new one.

Update: Oracle has pushed out a new version, Java 7 update 13. You will find it at the link above.

Unplanned downtime
Posted by: Christer on th000000113am13, Jam1000000amSun, 13 Jan 2013 10:23:53 +010013 %13, %2013 - %10:%Jan

At 00:40 last night, power was cut to the FUMBBL servers, to be restored at roughly 04:00.

Unfortunately, I had decided to get some sleep at around 02:00 and wasn't awake to start the servers again so we've been down until roughly now.

I apologise for the inconvenience and hope that this disruption did not cause any major problems for you guys. I can only hope that the power will be stable as of now.

FUMBBL's 10th anniversary event
Posted by: Christer on 01Europe/Stockholm021Europe/Stockholm4002pm13, Jpm1000000pmWed, 02 Jan 2013 13:18:40 +010013 %02, %2013 - %13:%Jan

Tomorrow (January 3rd), FUMBBL is celebrating our 10th anniversary. As this is a somewhat special one (10 years.. who would have guessed?), the FUMBBL staff (and a few VIPs) have decided to get a bit more hands-on and actually help for once!

Every match started in the 24 hour period (CET, or bbtime if you will) will have one random staff member joining in with each team for the match.

A couple of clarifications for this event:

- There won't be any zombies. The staff members scared them off.
- The same staff member can be on both teams in a match. We're all somewhat suffering from multiple personality disorder. :)
- All teams that are "ready to play" in the Ranked, Blackbox, League and Stunty divisions will be moved back to the post match sequence, and the staff member will be added to the team when teams are readied for the next match again.
- The blackbox round that starts at midnight will not have these players added to the teams. We're simply not that quick!
- At the end of the event, all event players will retire, exhausted from all the work.

We hope that you will all have a lot of fun over the day and celebrate the first full decade of FUMBBL with us!

The end is near...
Posted by: SunDevil on CET000000Europe/Stockholm4118pm12, TueEurope/Stockholm2012-12-18T15:24:41+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmTue, 18 Dec 2012 15:24:41 +0100 %18, %2012 - %15:%Dec

...and we couldn't be happier! When Christer, Neil and I first put this project together, we KNEW that the worldwide family of FUMBBL supporters would come out for this and we were NOT disappointed! You guys have exceeded our wildest expectations for this and truly made the project a success! THANK YOU from all of us! Christer and I are anxiously awaiting our hours of packing and mailing FUMBBL goodness all over the world! :)

That said, just a few reminders as we close in on the finale...

- There will be few to no dice left over after the KS for sale and after they are gone, we will not produce them again. So get them while you can and tell any friends you have that are wavering not to miss their chance!

- Don't forget to add the shipping and, again, we apologize for this logistical error on our part!

Again, THANK YOU and LONG LIVE FUMBBL!!!

FUMBBL Dice Kickstarter Update
Posted by: Christer on Dec20121210am12, MonEurope/Stockholm2012-12-10T00:32:52+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmMon, 10 Dec 2012 00:32:52 +0100 %10, %2012 - %00:%Dec

We're coming up on a week remaining on the kickstarter project for the FUMBBL Dice. It's been a great success so far, but we still want to give you guys a last chance to get a set of these spectacular dice.



Although we've reached the 6th stretch goal on the kickstarter, we're adding a 7th especially for you guys here on FUMBBL. The goal is to gather enough funds for the site to replace one of the servers (the one that had trouble during the last downtime). It effectively is having trouble powering up, which is a pretty clear sign that it needs to be taken out.

So: If the kickstarter reaches $13,500 or higher, I will be able to purchase a new server to replace Zara. For this to actually mean anything to the people who pledge, each backer will be given an opportunity to vote on which star player the server will be named after. The name with the highest number of votes will "win", and we'll all have a brand new game server. Voting will be done through the survey sent out to backers after the project is completed.

Thank you again for your support of FUMBBL and this Kickstarter project!

Team/player bios and group page info
Posted by: Christer on th0000001209pm12, SunEurope/Stockholm2012-12-09T14:00:56+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmSun, 09 Dec 2012 14:00:56 +0100 %09, %2012 - %14:%Dec

As of now, HTML in team bios, player bios, and in the group info page is no longer functional. Instead, you can use bbcode to add layout capabilities to your bios.

This means that a lot of the more advanced bios will be needing a rewrite and conversion to the bbcode format.

In order to allow more powerful features, the bbcode system has been extended with some extra features. A quick documentation of these features is available on the Extended BBCode Help Page. I will be updating this page slightly over the next couple of hours to make it more complete.

Back online.. sort of
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm2304pm12, TueEurope/Stockholm2012-12-04T12:22:23+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmTue, 04 Dec 2012 12:22:23 +0100 %04, %2012 - %12:%Dec

I've finally managed to get the game servers and IRC server up and running again. There are a number of things still needing to be sorted out (BowlBot for example), but I have limited time to fix things today.

If you find things that aren't working, feel free to post it in the comments so I don't forget anything.

Thank you for your patience.

Site downtime [updated]
Posted by: Christer on Dec20121203pm12, MonEurope/Stockholm2012-12-03T19:35:27+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmMon, 03 Dec 2012 19:35:27 +0100 %03, %2012 - %19:%Dec

Earlier today, FUMBBL experienced an extended power loss. This power failure has lead to some complications on one of the servers (zara, responsible for game servers and IRC) and I am currently working on reinstalling the system.

This will likely take me a few hours. I'm working as quickly as I can to get things up and running again.

No data loss has occurred, but the server is unable to get the network cards up and running again. Driver issues on a way too old installation and hardware makes it a bit tricky.

This might be a good time to mention that FUMBBL has a twitter account where I try to post things like information on downtimes. Check out (and follow) ;@FUMBBL.

I apologize for the inconvenience.

Update Dec 4, 4am:
I finally have the base system up and running. However, I need to get some sleep and will not set up the remaining things until tomorrow. Hopefully I won't have too much trouble with it.

Help us make the FUMBBL Block dice real!
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm3020pm12, 22012000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmTue, 20 Nov 2012 23:36:30 +0100 %20, %2012 - %23:%Nov

With a great deal of help from Chance from the Three Die Block Podcast and Whatball, we are happy to announce the launch of the official FUMBBL Block Dice kickstarter project. These dice are, to my knowledge, the only block dice that have multiple colour sides.



Kickstarter is a site that helps funding projects by allowing people to do pledges for projects before they are actually started. The idea is that we need $8000 total to be able to get these dice manufactured, and since we don't have this amount of money up front (unfortunately), people like you can support the project through Kickstarter. What happens is that you make a promise to pay a certain amount of money if we reach our $8000 goal. No money is moved until after the kickstarter project ends (in 30 days), and money will be transferred *only* if the goal is reached.

In order to reach this project goal, we are not only giving you a bunch of options for the dice in terms of number of sets, but also adding some absolutely unique opportunities as a thank you to those who choose to assist in funding the project. You don't want to miss this! :)

If you have *any* questions on any aspect of this Kickstarter project, please don't hesitate to get in touch. I will do my absolute best to answer any questions you may have.

You'll find the project page here: http://kck.st/Q8DRwN. Please feel free to forward this to your friends who might be interested in a chance to get these unique dice and help us make these real!

Thank you for your support.

Sep 23: Maintenance from 19:30 to approximately 22:00
Posted by: Christer on rd000000923pm12, rdEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmSun, 23 Sep 2012 15:55:58 +0200 %23, %2012 - %15:%Sep

This is a reminder about the maintenance that will happen tonight, where we update to the 1.0 version of the Fantasy Football client.

At 19:30, the site will shut down temporarily in order for me to put the UPS back into place.
As soon as this is done, the IRC server will come back online, but the game servers will remain unavailable.
The migration work will start at approximately 20:00 and once Kalimar and I are happy with the update, we will enable the game servers to everyone and start monitoring for possible problems.

We are hoping that the migration will be completed at 22:00.

If you have important tournament matches, we recommend that you postpone these until the game servers are confirmed to be stable.

Finally, remember that any currently active games will be cancelled during this changeover. If you have any pending matches that you are unsure if they'll be finished by tonight, please get in touch with the staff in the #FumbblAdmin channel prior to the maintenance and they will help you out.

Unexpected downtime (Sep 12)
Posted by: Christer on 37Europe/Stockholm129Europe/Stockholm3112am12, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmWed, 12 Sep 2012 10:27:31 +0200 %12, %2012 - %10:%Sep

This morning at around 05:00, the FUMBBL site went down due to a malfunctioning UPS. The website came back up at roughly 10:00 and full functionality is restored as of now (10:20). I will be replacing the battery pack in the UPS to avoid this problem, but unfortunately it will take some time to get hold of the batteries. Hopefully, this won't take too much time.

I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Sep 23: Fantasy Football Client 1.0 (updated)
Posted by: Christer on th000000909am12, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmSun, 09 Sep 2012 00:37:36 +0200 %09, %2012 - %00:%Sep

After a long period of hard work by Kalimar and the QA team, we're getting ready to update the Fantasy Football Client to version 1.0. There are a lot of new things in this new version, and I am certain Kalimar will be posting something about this soon (hint: we're getting support for more skills). This news announcement is not about the new features though, but a heads-up of what will happen during the migration:

1. On September 23, at 20:00 server time (CEST), the website and game servers are going down for maintenance.
2. This is important: All games in an unfinished state will be purged at this time. Unfinished state means all games which are not properly uploaded to the FUMBBL website, with results applied to teams as appropriate.
3. Once Kalimar and I are both happy with the upgrade, the site will come back online.
4. To begin with, you may not be able to replay old matches. The reason for this is that all replays need to be migrated to a new format and this is estimated to take roughly 55 hours.

Those of you who are still part of official tournaments will receive a notification from PurpleChest on how this affects your games and the deadlines.

I am hoping that this won't disrupt plans and schedules for leagues and tournaments run by you people, and hope that you will have patience with us during this upgrade. We will do our utmost to be available to solve any problems you may run into as an effect of this process.

This is easily the largest upgrade that the FFB client has gone through since we introduced it on FUMBBL, and I am very very happy to finally see the magic 1.0 version number.

Update: The date has been changed to the 23rd.

Site instability (Updated)
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm3204pm12, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmTue, 04 Sep 2012 23:11:32 +0200 %04, %2012 - %23:%Sep

Over the last two days or so, some parts of the site have been a bit shaky and unstable. Primarily, this affected the gamefinder, the blackbox and the PM system.

The instability was due to me needing to resolve some technical design issues with how the Java back-end was functioning. This underlying problem was causing some random shutdowns for these affected systems and I felt I needed to fix it once and for all.

Unfortunately, the new design caused a whole set of technical problems to overcome and I have been working very very hard to figure out a series of problems. To you, all these different issues looked identical, but behind the scenes it was a long series of different things to figure out and fix.

Anyhow. The site's health signs look good again and things are stable. Hopefully, things will remain stable for you guys so that you can enjoy the site and not have to deal with the technical stuff going on behind the scenes. I will of course continue to monitor the site over the next couple of days and see if further complications show up.

Thank you all for your patience over these unstable days!

Update (2012-09-07):
There's still some kind of issue with the Java application server. It's rare and takes many many hours to go into the broken state, so I have yet to be able to actually investigate what causes it. Early this morning (around 5am), we ran into the problem.. However, at 8am or so, the power was cut to the servers (still need to replace UPS batteries) and I did not have the opportunity to investigate the state of the application server between those times.

Things are back up and running, and I am monitoring the situation. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out this particular problem soon.

PM system change
Posted by: Christer on Sep2012903am12, rdEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmMon, 03 Sep 2012 11:45:32 +0200 %03, %2012 - %11:%Sep

I already posted a note about this in the forums, but since it seems people are being hit by this, I'll publish it on the front page as well.

I've updated the site PM system to avoid the problems with having to submit messages twice. However, this will require you to force your browser to refresh your cached version of an underlying javascript file.

To do this, simply hold your shift key and click the reload button on your browser. You can do this on this page preemptively to avoid running into the problem later.

I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Site maintenance completed
Posted by: Christer on CEST01000000Thu, 19 Apr 2012 01:40:01 +02000119am12, AM+02:00Thu, 19 Apr 2012 01:40:01 +020040Thursday %19, %2012 - %01:%Apr

We had a bit of unexpected site maintenance today, from roughly 14:00 to 01:30. I apologise for any inconvenience that this has caused.

Read on for more details...

ISP glitch
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm1920pm12, MarpmTue, 20 Mar 2012 14:52:19 +01002012-03-20T14:52:19+01:0002 %20, %2012 - %14:%Mar

As you may have noticed, FUMBBL experienced a bit of downtime today. This downtime was caused by our ISP having issues and we're finally back up again.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Stunty FFB goes live
Posted by: shadow46x2 on 03Europe/Stockholm181Europe/Stockholm1718am12, Jam1000000amWed, 18 Jan 2012 05:19:17 +010012 %18, %2012 - %05:%Jan

Christer and I got together this morning and hashed out the migration to FFB for the [S]tunty leeg...and the switch has been flipped...

All [S] teams are now in FFB...

Server replaced, site is on its way up again.
Posted by: Christer on th000000115am12, Jam1000000amSun, 15 Jan 2012 04:07:36 +010012 %15, %2012 - %04:%Jan

After more or less 16 hours of work, the site is now back up again. Web server hardware has been replaced and the OS has been reinstalled.

It's currently 4am and I am going to head off to sleep, even though I am aware of a few problems that are still there.

I would appreciate it if you guys could test things out on the site and report any strange problems to me in the comments to this news posting. I'll take a look at it tomorrow once I manage to get some sleep.

Thank you for your patience, and thank you again for the generous donations that made the hardware replacement possible.

Server instability, donations needed
Posted by: Christer on thpm31000000Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:21:53 +010014pm12, Jpm1000000pmSat, 14 Jan 2012 13:21:53 +010012 %14, %2012 - %13:%Jan

As of this morning, the FUMBBL web server has started to act up in a way that implies that the motherboard is on its death bed. This means that I will have to do a hardware replacement for it. Now, the problem is that the hardware is aging and it's tricky to find a new one so I will need to buy a new motherboard, a new CPU and new memory.

This will add up to roughly US$550, and I am therefore asking for donations to help me cover this cost.

Unfortunately, until this has been resolved, the site will remain unstable and possibly even be inaccessable entirely if the computer starts booting up at all (it's already requiring multiple power cycles to boot up). The IRC server is running along just fine though, and you can get more information in there.

If you wish to help out funding this upgrade, please click the "Support FUMBBL" icon in the top right corner of the site.

I apologize for any inconvenience caused by the instability.

FUMBBL's 9th birthday!
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm0803am12, Jam1000000amTue, 03 Jan 2012 01:07:08 +010012 %03, %2012 - %01:%Jan

Today, we all celebrate the 9th birthday of FUMBBL! To celebrate this, a horde of zombies have appeared, wanting to join the fun. This means that all games started today will have up to three zombies joining the games. These zombies will be somewhat random in nature and hopefully they will bring some fun to your games.

As per normal, people involved in player-run leagues should contact their league admins to see is games are allowed during this event or not.

You will also note that there are a number of new icons for these zombies which we hope will bring a smile to your face. A big thank you to Whatball and harvestmouse for these new icons.

The FUMBBL staff hopes you will enjoy our birthday celebration!

Return of the coach development page
Posted by: Christer on Nov20111107pm11, 12011000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmMon, 07 Nov 2011 13:51:46 +0100 %07, %2011 - %13:%Nov

As of now, an updated coach rank development chart is officially available again. The new version employs a new visual design and requires less resources from the servers.

You'll find it by clicking on the Coach ranking link on any coach page.

Enjoy!

Ranked division 15% rule
Posted by: Christer on th0000001106pm11, 72011000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmSun, 06 Nov 2011 22:34:49 +0100 %06, %2011 - %22:%Nov

FUMBBL has changed policy regarding the TV limit that was in place in the ranked division. The intent of the change is to give coaches greater flexibility as to which opponent they play, and is also intended to give stunty teams some leeway to play games with more inducements from time to time.

Effective immediately, the limit has changed to be based on the number of games a team has played. The limits are as follows:

0-2 games, must play within 10%
3-9 games, must play within 15%
10-29 games, must play within (15+(games-10)*2)%
30 games and onward, teams can play any opponent

The 10-29 game range spans from 15% at 10 games to 53% at 29 games in steps of 2% per game (so 15, 17, 19, etc).

Since these limits are a bit tougher to keep track of, you will see them on your coach page, and the pages of other coaches as a number such as (±100), which would mean that the team can play against teams that are within 100 TV from your team. Teams that no longer have no limit will not display this limit indicator. Note that the limit itself is somewhat rounded to make it prettier to look at (and simplify calculation).

Also note that the limit applies to both teams (so the match will not be allowed if the match is within the limits of only one team).

The team page will be updated to show this limit as well shortly.

As always, let me know if you run into trouble with this change.

FUMBBL maintenance completed
Posted by: Christer on rdam30000000Sat, 03 Sep 2011 08:57:14 +020003am11, rdEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmSat, 03 Sep 2011 08:57:14 +0200 %03, %2011 - %08:%Sep

Today at 10:30, I will be taking down the FUMBBL DB server for a hardware upgrade. This means that the website will be down, and that games will not be able to be played. The chat will remain functional during the maintenance.

I expect the downtime to take around two hours, ending at 12:30 server time.

Thank you for your patience and apologies for any inconvenience caused by this downtime.

Edit: The maintenance has been completed and all is well. The main FUMBBL database is now running on a RAID-5 built from three Western Digital Caviar Black 2.0TB drives. Hopefully, this new space will last for a while :)

All bad things come in threes?
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm3216pm11, PM000000120000003231 %16, %2011 - %12:%Aug

Once again, the site had a bit of an unexpected downtime. This time, however, it wasn't due to sunflares or anything really exotic.

The errors you may have seen today were caused by the database space allocation not being large enough (50G isn't enough for FUMBBL anymore), and I had to expand the space.

Although I've doubled the space available to the DB now, the physical space available on the drives is running low (the drives used are fairly small) which means that administrative things are going to become a bit trickier to do. This means that there is now a more pressing need for me to get a new pair of harddrives to fit the database (I run all drives for FUMBBL in mirrored pairs to reduce the downtime in case of hardware failure).

As usual, I apologise for any inconvenience this has caused, and at the same time ask for you to consider contributing to FUMBBL using the donation link at the top right of the page to help cover the cost of this hardware upgrade.

Solar flares causes site downtime
Posted by: Christer on tham31000000Sat, 13 Aug 2011 11:41:32 +020013am11, AM000000110000003231 %13, %2011 - %11:%Aug

At 5.30 this morning, I once again lost power. I blame the recent solar flares for this instability :) (look it up, there was actually a couple of pretty bad solar flares in the last few days).

This time it took around 2 hours to come back. However, being early saturday morning, I just got the site back online.

It appears as if the power cut triggered a network card failure on Borak (the database server), so I had to do an emergency installation of a new one and set up drivers for it.

Once again, I apologise for the inconvenience caused by this downtime. Hopefully, power will be more reliable as of now.

Unexpected downtime
Posted by: Christer on Aug2011808pm11, PM000000120000003731 %08, %2011 - %12:%Aug

Earlier today, FUMBBL had an unexpected downtime due to a power cut. There doesn't seem to be any ill effects from this power loss, and the site is (obviously) back up now.

I apologize for any inconvenience this disconnection may have caused.

Reintroduction of the personal menu
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm4421am11, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %21, %2011 - %00:%Jun

As of now, the personal menu is back in a new shape, now called "Bookmarks", under the pastel theme.

The old menus are unfortunately not migratable, but I'm sure it'll be easy for you to add them manually.

Three Die Block podcast interview
Posted by: Christer on May2011523pm11, Maypm11 %23, %2011 - %19:%May

Chance and Pauly over at the Three Die Block podcast has posted their latest episode in which they interview me on the history of the FUMBBL site.

No huge revelations, but I had fun and I hope you guys will find it interesting. Be sure to check out their other episodes as well!

New default theme
Posted by: Christer on nd000000522pm11, Maypm11 %22, %2011 - %17:%May

As of now, FUMBBL is using a new default theme. At some point, all old themes will be deprecated (read, not selectable) and therefore I am asking you all to give me feedback on any changes or problems you find with it.

Thank you for your input!

League division goes FFB
Posted by: Christer on CEST10000000Thu, 12 May 2011 22:01:29 +02002912pm11, Maypm11 %12, %2011 - %22:%May

The migration of the League division to the FFB ruleset has begun. Given that this is a fairly complex division to migrate, this will happen in a few steps.

New theme available for testing
Posted by: Christer on 19Europe/Stockholm115Europe/Stockholm4511am11, Mayam11 %11, %2011 - %01:%May

I have just enabled a brand new theme for you all to try out. It is currently in beta stage, and there are known issues with it. However, I feel that it is in a state where I need a larger group of testers and this is where you all come in.

If you go to the theme selection page and pick the new "pastel (BETA)" theme, you can give it a spin.

What I'd like you all to check is if there are obvious rendering problems on your platform, and I would also like to hear your overall thoughts on it.

I would like to thank Whatball for his spectacular work with this theme. Without his effort, this new theme would have been impossible.

Edit: There are two threads for giving feedback on this topic:

Technical issues
Generic feedback

Game server instability
Posted by: Christer on 15Europe/Stockholm134Europe/Stockholm0213pm11, PM+02:00Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:17:02 +020017Wednesday %13, %2011 - %13:%Apr

Over the last couple of days, the game servers have been fairly unstable, causing problems for players. I have been in contact with the FFB developer team regarding this issue and we are trying to figure out what causes the problem.

Hopefully, we will be able to identify and fix the issue shortly. I apologize for the inconvenience this causes to you but I assure you that this is something that we are actively trying to figure out.

FFB spectator sound search
Posted by: Kalimar on 12Europe/Stockholm233Europe/Stockholm3723pm11, MarpmWed, 23 Mar 2011 15:02:37 +01002011-03-23T15:02:37+01:0003 %23, %2011 - %15:%Mar

There has been some discussion on the issue of spectator sounds in FFB. After several complaints we gave it some thought and removed the /hurt, /ref and /boring sounds from the game in the last release.

The main reason for this is, that those haven't been sounds a CROWD would make, but single voices that don't overlap in a good way or create that stadium atmosphere the emotes should add to (the overlapping of sounds is already fixed for the next version).

We DO want more emotes though. Possible sounds would be a crowd clapping (for a particular good play), moaning (for a failed action that nearly succeeded), chanting (motivating their team) etc.

Neither of us has any of those available, so we would like to ask YOU, the community, to hunt for those sounds. Perhaps someone could record the crowd when visiting the next match of his favorite football team? Perhaps another one has some good software to edit and modify sounds and knows how to use it?

Whatever you can come up with that fits the parameters given above: please contact Lakrillo or me about it.

Thanks for helping us improve.

Ranked opens up again!
Posted by: Christer on thpm28000000Sat, 12 Feb 2011 22:11:48 +010012pm11, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbSat, 12 Feb 2011 22:11:48 +0100000000pmSat, 12 Feb 2011 22:11:48 +010011 %12, %2011 - %22:%Feb

The ranked division is open for play again. New teams can be created just like you would expect. Old ranked teams have two choices:

1. Migrate to the FFB ruleset and back to Ranked

or

2. Switch to the new LRB4 division

This decision is final, so please be careful with what you click on. The choice is made for each team separately and you'll find the option on the team page.

Enjoy FFB in open form!

(Edited) Ranked shuts down for play
Posted by: Christer on tham28000000Sat, 12 Feb 2011 11:08:03 +010012am11, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbSat, 12 Feb 2011 11:08:03 +0100000000amSat, 12 Feb 2011 11:08:03 +010011 %12, %2011 - %11:%Feb

As of now, the Ranked division is closed for play during the transition to FFB. Further details on the migration will be posted later.

Edit:
As of now, you can test your former Ranked teams for migration. Simply go to your team page and click the button to do so.

It would be very helpful if as many people as possible tested all their teams to help me identify the tricky teams.

FFB goes live in the Blackbox!
Posted by: Christer on Jan2011117pm11, Jpm1000000pmMon, 17 Jan 2011 12:04:53 +010011 %17, %2011 - %12:%Jan

After a huge effort from everyone involved in the migration to the fantasy football client, we finally have an official division running with it. The Blackbox division is now fully migrated to use the new client, and all teams are using the fantasy football ruleset.

This means the following:

- Blackbox uses LRB6 rules.
- Rounds are drawn every 15 minutes, with activation starting 5 minutes prior to each draw.
- You can only activate when *all* your current blackbox teams are ready to play, so make sure you progress teams past the post-game sequence
- Once a draw has been made, click the play link next to your team and you will get straight into the game. You don't have to agree on a game name anymore.
- The Fantasy Football division no longer accepts games.

As always, keep us posted with any bugs you find. We're monitoring the division closely to keep it running as smoothly as possible.

Thank you to everyone who has been helping out to make this possible!

FFB division restarted
Posted by: Kalimar on JanuaryFri, 14 Jan 2011 21:57:00 +01005714pm11, Jpm1000000pmFri, 14 Jan 2011 21:57:00 +010011 %14, %2011 - %21:%Jan

To catch any major bugs for the upcoming Blackbox transfer I've reopened the FFB division for testing using the game server and game client version that we intend to use for "going live". Give it a spin, guys!

FFB division shutting down tonight
Posted by: Kalimar on CET12000000Thu, 13 Jan 2011 12:52:19 +01001913pm11, Jpm1000000pmThu, 13 Jan 2011 12:52:19 +010011 %13, %2011 - %12:%Jan

In preparation of the upcoming transfer of BlackBox I need to shut down the FFB division tonight, stopping the game server around 21:00 Fumbbl time. As has been announced by Christer the Blackbox division using FFB will go live on the 15th and the FFB division as it is now will be dissolved.

Fantasy Football going live Jan 15
Posted by: Christer on Dec20101220pm10, MonEurope/Stockholm2010-12-20T18:01:00+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmMon, 20 Dec 2010 18:01:00 +0100 %20, %2010 - %18:%Dec

I am pleased to be able to announce that a date has been chosen for when the Fantasy Football client is going to transition out of the beta phase. This will happen on January 15th, with the Blackbox division being migrated over to the new ruleset.

Due to the complexity of this migration, the division will be temporarily closed for some time while this is taking place, and existing teams will be locked during the process.

More details will be released closer to the 15th.

Site move complete #2
Posted by: Christer on DecemberFri, 03 Dec 2010 23:40:59 +01004003pm10, FriEurope/Stockholm2010-12-03T23:40:59+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmFri, 03 Dec 2010 23:40:59 +0100 %03, %2010 - %23:%Dec

Right, as you may have noticed, we had an additional downtime due to some technical issues with my ISP (previous tenant didn't have the courtesy to cancel his subscriptions properly, so my own subscriptions were blocked until that was fixed). Hopefully, things will be stable again as of now.

I apologise for any inconvenience this additional downtime may have caused.

Move complete
Posted by: Christer on 48Europe/Stockholm0112Europe/Stockholm2201pm10, WedEurope/Stockholm2010-12-01T23:42:22+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmWed, 01 Dec 2010 23:42:22 +0100 %01, %2010 - %23:%Dec

After a long long day, the server is back up and running. The delay was due to a number of unforseen problems with the move, but at least we're up.

I cannot be online at the moment due to my own desktop machine not being up and running, and I'm sure there are things that are not working properly just yet. Feel free to respond in the comments if you find issues.

-- Christer

Site downtime, december 1st
Posted by: Christer on Nov20101115pm10, 12010000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmMon, 15 Nov 2010 19:54:26 +0100 %15, %2010 - %19:%Nov

On december 1st, the site is going to be taken down for a few hours, starting early morning. I expect the site to be down for a few hours at least, and will be back up around noon at the earliest. Note that the site may be down longer over the day due to unforseen circumstances, so please try to not schedule anything really important for the day.

The reason for the downtime is that I'm moving.

I'll do my best to ensure as short downtime as possible and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

July 10th site downtime
Posted by: Christer on thpm31000000Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:27:41 +020010pm10, J000000Saturday10 %10, %2010 - %12:%Jul

Late last night, the site experienced a power failure which caused some hours of downtime. The servers were shut down properly and no harm came of the power failues.

I apologise for any inconvenience this disruption of service may have caused.

Site maintenance, today at 12:00 server time
Posted by: Christer on stam31000000Sat, 01 May 2010 10:47:51 +020001am10, Mayam10 %01, %2010 - %10:%May

I'm taking down the site for maintenance starting at 12:00 today. The site, chat and proxies are going to be offline for the duration of the maintenance. I expect it to take less than 30 minutes in total.

Unexpected downtime
Posted by: Christer on 17Europe/Stockholm284Europe/Stockholm0028pm10, PM+02:00Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:17:00 +020017Wednesday %28, %2010 - %22:%Apr

As a lot of you already noticed, FUMBBL is back from a fairly extended downtime. What happened was that the power supply on Borak (the database server) broke down and took out the fuse for the servers.

The fault power supply has been replaced with a brand new one and things are now back up and running.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Fantasy Football Client goes Beta
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm2520pm10, PM+02:00Tue, 20 Apr 2010 22:07:25 +020007Tuesday %20, %2010 - %22:%Apr

Well, since a number of you have already started playing with the new Fantasy Football Client, we're officially moving into Beta stage with it.

What Beta stage means is that result uploading is fully enabled and your teams should progress.

I expect there to be a number of bugs and hope that you guys will help us out with testing things and report any oddities you find with the client. To participate, make a team in [d5] (which will likely be renamed at some point) and start playing!

There's a high probability that teams will be cleared out after the beta stage, but don't count on that.

Thank you for your patience and assistance in making the new client bug-free :)

Academy Needs your help!
Posted by: BiggieB on Mar2010329pm10, MarpmMon, 29 Mar 2010 20:06:05 +02002010-03-29T20:06:05+02:0008 %29, %2010 - %20:%Mar

As part of the neverending improvement of the academy experience we are working on something we call the Academy Playbook. A set of strategical articles designed to take your game to the next level. Now I could use some help with this! Thats where you come in. If interested please pm me (BiggieB) and we will talke about how to make this masterpiece even better :)

In other news I would really appreciate if someone came up with a cool academy logo aswell

Thanks for reading and contributing!

/B

New staff members
Posted by: Christer on st000000321pm10, MarpmSun, 21 Mar 2010 15:50:38 +01002010-03-21T15:50:38+01:0003 %21, %2010 - %15:%Mar

As some of you may have noticed, FUMBBL has gotten a couple new staff members. On behalf of the FUMBBL officers, I would like to welcome DanTitan76, harvestmouse, JanMattys, Kryten and Prinz to the team.

As usual, I ask of you all to be patient with them as they get up to speed with things.

Sweden proxies have been restarted
Posted by: Christer on th000000307pm10, MarpmSun, 07 Mar 2010 19:33:22 +01002010-03-07T19:33:22+01:0007 %07, %2010 - %19:%Mar

The Sweden proxy servers are going to be restarted today to fix a stability issue with them. The restarting will be done over the course of 1 hour to reduce problems with disconnected games.

The schedule for the restarts is as follows:

Sweden 1 restarts at 20:30 server time
Sweden 2 restarts at 20:50 server time
Sweden 3 restarts at 21:10 server time
Sweden 4 restarts at 21:30 server time

Any games in progress at the time of restart will be cut off. If you find that you are going to be playing at the time of the restart, please try to make sure you disconnect in an orderly fashion (for example by waiting until the end of the turn and shutting down on your own).

Between 20:30 and 21:30, it's best to pick a proxy that has been restarted to avoid unecessary problems.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Edit: The restarts have been completed, with minor glitches in the process. Everything should be back to normal again though.

Interview with yours truly
Posted by: Christer on Feb2010215am10, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbMon, 15 Feb 2010 11:59:08 +0100000000amMon, 15 Feb 2010 11:59:08 +010010 %15, %2010 - %11:%Feb

The people over at the Just Press Start show on Firebrand Radio just posted an interview with me, and I figured some of you might be interested in listening to it. My 5 minutes of fame? (or well, more like 40 but still)..

Feel free to check it out at the Just Press Start site. You'll find it in episode 10.

Blackbox scheduler change
Posted by: Christer on FebruaryFri, 05 Feb 2010 14:09:55 +01000905pm10, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbFri, 05 Feb 2010 14:09:55 +0100000000pmFri, 05 Feb 2010 14:09:55 +010010 %05, %2010 - %14:%Feb

The blackbox has undergone a couple of minor modifications:

- The minimum number of coaches have been reduced to 4 from 6.
- A schedule will only be made if at least 2 matches are possbile.
- Schedules are generated 4 times per hours (up from 2), meaning every 15 minutes. Activation is done 5 minutes prior to each round as usual.

Let me know if you find problems.

Faction division closes down
Posted by: Christer on FebruaryFri, 05 Feb 2010 12:32:38 +01003205pm10, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbFri, 05 Feb 2010 12:32:38 +0100000000pmFri, 05 Feb 2010 12:32:38 +010010 %05, %2010 - %12:%Feb

In light of the lack of games, the faction division is closed as of now. No further games are allowed in the division, and teams have the option to transfer to either the Ranked or the League division to keep playing.

Scheduled match.. err, scheduler. (updated)
Posted by: Christer on st000000131pm10, Jpm1000000pmSun, 31 Jan 2010 20:48:16 +010010 %31, %2010 - %20:%Jan

For those of you who are participating in tournaments, there's now a new feature on the site: The ability to suggest and agree on a time and date to play these matches through the overview.

You will see a small clock icon next to the message stating you have a match scheduled. Clicking this icon will take you to a page where you can suggest a schedule to your opponent.

Once a match has been mutually agreed upon, it'll be shown in the group page where the match is scheduled, and hopefully you'll be able to get more spectators!

Enjoy, and as always; report any bugs to me.

Edit: I've just added timezone support to the system. Feel free to let me know if you find problems.

Edit 2: Group staff can now see the status of unscheduled matches in the admin panel of the group.

FUMBBL 7th Birthday Event
Posted by: Christer on ndpm31000000Sat, 02 Jan 2010 12:17:37 +010002pm10, Jpm1000000pmSat, 02 Jan 2010 12:17:37 +010010 %02, %2010 - %12:%Jan

FUMBBL is celebrating our 7th birthday tomorrow (January 3rd). However, our party will have to be delayed since a large number of zombies have been spotted within our lands. To combat this, we're asking everyone to grit their teeth and help us fight this invasion!

Event details:

- Up to 4 zombies will be added to each team in matches on the 3rd. These are not part of the rosters and will be randomised in every match.
- Players on the teams will ignore any injuries recorded, and play regardless of any injuries. Note that dead players will not play.
- Injuries will work just as normal, and will take effect starting on January 4th.

To be blatantly obvious and clear: Players will still get injuries recorded during these games. They will simply be ignored while playing on the 3rd.

This event will take place in ALL divisions, which means:

- Blackbox will be affected.
- Player run tournaments in L have to make a call whether or not to allow play on this day.

Note that the Team Strength formula will work as normal, meaning that teams with injured players will have an artificially low team strength. Keep this in mind when agreeing to games (or activating for the blackbox).

Enjoy the birthday!

Testing out the new private messaging system
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm1901pm09, TueEurope/Stockholm2009-12-01T13:45:19+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmTue, 01 Dec 2009 13:45:19 +0100 %01, %2009 - %13:%Dec

After a slight hiccup, I am now ready to have you guys try out the all new private messaging system I have been working on.

This new system has the following features:

- Threaded conversations
- Multiple participants in conversations
- Ability to see if participants have read the posts
- Folders
- Reminders

The system does not integrate with the message count you see on your page yet, nor does it connect to bowlbot to let you know someone sent you a message. This functionality will be implemented once the system has been tested for a while.

I am looking for feedback for bugs as usual, but also for feature requests or improvements in general.

Go to the new messaging system.

This system should work in the major browsers, but if you run into a problem with yours, feel free to report it as well.

Edit: Added reminders to the list of features.

Games Workshop C&D deadline today
Posted by: Christer on CET02000000Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:37:23 +01002326pm09, 42009000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmThu, 26 Nov 2009 14:37:23 +0100 %26, %2009 - %14:%Nov

Today is the official deadline of the Cease and Desist letter I received regarding infringements on GW's intellectual property rights. In light of this, I have sent the following letter to the contact I have within Games Workshop Legal. This is a copy of the letter I sent (Note that I have removed the name of the person I am in contact with on purpose).

Games Workshop letter
Posted by: Christer on CET11000000Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:27:19 +01001912am09, 42009000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmThu, 12 Nov 2009 11:27:19 +0100 %12, %2009 - %11:%Nov

I just received a letter from Games Workshop Group PLC. I will copy the letter here for you to read (note that there may be spelling errors made by me here as I had to type it in by hand):


29 October 2009

Dear Sirs

Infringement of Games Workshop Limited's Intellectual Property Rights

Games Workshop Limited has for some time been engaged in the business of designing, manufacturing and marketing: hobby board games; war games; models; miniatures; and associated products and in the course of this business has acquired and registered a large number of copyrights and other intellectual property rights.

It has recently come to our attention that much of the information hosted on your website, www.fumbbl.com (the "Website"), provides us with cause for concern as it conflicts with our intellectual property rights. Although we are confident that the Website is a well-intentioned resource, we are acutely aware of the need to assert our intellectual property rights. Specifically, our causes for concern are that:

* the Website contains copies of Blood Bowl statistics and rules;
* tje Java Bowl programme contains various pieces of GW Blood Bowl art including the Blood Bowl pitch and Blood Bowl logo; and
* the Java Bowl programme uses all the Blood Bowl rules and statistics for each model.

As you may appreciate, GW has a strict policy of protecting all of its intellectual property rights. To this end, we must insist that these materials are removed from the Website.

By way of background to our concerns, copyright is a right that vests in the creator as soon as the material in question is created, in this case the Blood Bowl game. Therefore having created the game and accomapnying rules/statistics GW owns the copyright in them making it an offence for others to cause them, or products substantially based on them, to be published.

Similarly it is an offence to trade off registered trademarks belonging to others, in this case `Blood Bowl´. This is of particular concern to GW as fiven the content of your website, and the numerous and explicit references to Blood Bowl, there is a very real possibility that people could assume there to be some connection between your site and GW. Despite the presence of a modest disclaimer that GW is unable to accept as not only does it pose a financial risk, but there is the potential for harm to be caused to the GW brand.

It is the usual policy of GW to always enforce its rights against any party infringing its intellectual property rights by means of appropriate legal proceedings. However in the present circumstances we will be willing to refrain from such action should you agree to remove the aforementioned items from the Website.

Therefore, we would be grateful if within fourteen days of the date of this letter you would procide written undertakings, in a form acceptable to us, that you:

1. have received and understood the contents of this letter:
2. will cease and desist from any activities which infringes GW's intellectual property rights;
3. remove the Java Bowl link, and any materials subject to GW's copyright, from your site; and
4. confirm by return that you will not infringe GW's intellectual property rights at any time in the future.

If you are in any doubt as to the contents of this letter we suggest that you seek independant legal advice, or alternatively should you need clarification as to what you can and cannot do with GW's intellectual policy we refer you to out Intellectual Property Policy (http://legal.games-workshop.com).

We duly look forward to your anticipated compliance without recourse to more formal methods of enforcement.


Yours faithfully

Games Workshop

Vast cheating uncovered
Posted by: Christer on 46Europe/Stockholm1111Europe/Stockholm2711am09, 32009000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmWed, 11 Nov 2009 00:18:27 +0100 %11, %2009 - %00:%Nov

After a number of people bringing our attention to certain coaches cheating prior to the FUMBBL Cup, the staff has been working hard to investigate these allegations. We have concluded that a large number of people have been involved in a circle that cheats their way out of permanent injuries in matches in order to prepare their teams for tournaments or otherwise building their teams.

We (the FUMBBL staff) find this behaviour disrespectful towards everyone - other members of the community, the tournament organisers and the staff. After careful deliberation, the staff has decided to publish the names of these people here in order to stop massive rumour-mongering and witch-hunting.

The coaches we have identified are (in alphabetical order):

Alessandro, Artiach, Arwahne, Grandmaster, Falloubst, Forces, JerryZ, Karnstein, Onedicewonder, Plueschopath, PrinZeSsinpOrnO, Ramm, Scar_sf, Steinmeier, StrawberryKiss, Taempo, Telgos, Thorim, UberSkiller, WG|Dark_angel, Xentar

These people will all have their accounts suspended for up to 12 months, and will be indefinitely banned from official tournaments.

Some of these coaches were still part of the FUMBBL Cup, and they have been replaced with their most recent opponent to take their place.

We are quite frankly shocked over the extent of this cheating and are still investigating the matter. We are posting this beacuse we feel that we have managed to find most of the people involved and because we want to clear these people out from the FUMBBL Cup as swiftly as possible.

Games Workshop legal
Posted by: Christer on NovemberFri, 06 Nov 2009 11:52:04 +01005206am09, 52009000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmFri, 06 Nov 2009 11:52:04 +0100 %06, %2009 - %11:%Nov

As most of you probably know by now, Games Workshop have recently been sending out cease and desist letters to various Blood Bowl related websites.

At the time of writing, I have not received any letter from them but there is of course a chance that this will happen.

The following is information I'm reasonably confident is true:

- Approximately 50 Cease and Desist letters were sent out at the end of October.
- NAF changed their domain name (from www.blood-bowl.net to www.thenaf.net)
- Talk Blood Bowl was asked to:

Immediately cease and desist from any activity which infringes GW's intellectual property.

either remove remove your website or the reference to 'Blood Bowl' in your website name.

Remove the donations button from the page.

Confirm by return that you will not infringe GW's intellectual properly rights at any time in the future.

JohnnyP stated that he was closing down the site, but have since then implied that he will work with others to relaunch the site as soon as possible.

In addition to this, Tom Anders (member of the Blood Bowl Rules Committee, and manager of the MBBL and MBBL2 PBeM leagues) has been sent a letter requesting him to comply to GW's IP policy. He was asked to discontinue the use of the blood-bowl.net and bloodbowlfigs.com domain names, and is currently working on changing his sites to comply with these requests.


In addition to this, there's a bunch of information which is more rumour-like, with me being unable to verify the validity:

- The reason for this is a renewal of GW's trademarks. (GW's trademark for Blood Bowl was registered on 22 December 1998, with normal renewal time being 10 years).
- This is only targeting sites that use the Blood Bowl trademark in their site / domain names (all three confirmed sites have been using blood bowl in their domain names).

I will naturally keep you all updated on the matter when I receive any further information. Meanwhile, please remember to adhere to the rules on offensive language that we have on the site.

I am in contact with Tom Anders regarding this issue, and we're trying to find a way to get through this as well as possible.

Introducing King of the Hill tournament format
Posted by: Christer on CET12000000Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:07:00 +01000005am09, 42009000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmThu, 05 Nov 2009 00:07:00 +0100 %05, %2009 - %00:%Nov

As of now, you are able to choose a new tournament format for your leagues:

King of the Hill

It's a variation of the Knockout (or single elimination) tournament, with the difference that each round is fully seeded exactly like the first one. What this means is that no team can be sure of who their next opponent will be for the next round.

I hope that this will add some fun for you all!

If you find problems with this new format, direct your bug reports to me directly.

Coach Ranking per race
Posted by: Christer on Oct20091012pm09, +02002009-10-12T12:28:29+02:00312009bEurope/StockholmMon, 12 Oct 2009 12:28:29 +0200 %12, %2009 - %12:%Oct

A few of you have already noticed that the site now tracks Coach Ranking (CR) per race, in addition to the overall CR you're all used to.

Effectively, this uses the same ranking system, but is calculated using the CR you have for each race.

Note that this ranking is not going to be the same as your overall CR, even if you have only played a single race. This is because it compares your racial CR against your opponent's racial CR, which most often differs from the overall.

Currently, the only place to see this racial CR is on the coaches page, but I will try to integrate the numbers in a few more places for easy reference.

Enjoy the new hunting for top positions!

Knockout tournament tweak
Posted by: Christer on OctoberFri, 02 Oct 2009 21:18:31 +02001802pm09, +02002009-10-02T21:18:31+02:00312009bEurope/StockholmFri, 02 Oct 2009 21:18:31 +0200 %02, %2009 - %21:%Oct

I've just modified the Knockout tournament format slightly. Essentially, you no longer need to have proper powers of two (ie, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc) for the number of participants.

What happens is that the tournament is automatically filled up with filler teams, and teams that get scheduled against those teams get pushed through to the next round.

As usual, if you run into problems with this feature, let me know.

FUMBBL downtime
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm5125pm09, PM00000070000005131 %25, %2009 - %19:%Aug

As a lot of you noticed, the site was down for an extended period of time up until now. The reason for the downtime was that one of the harddrives connected to Borak (the DB server) became unreliable and semi-crashed (without actually reporting this fact to the OS).

Even though the drive is completely inaccessable, there was no dataloss at all thanks to the RAID-1 mirrors I have been utilising. However, the site is currently running on one drive for data. This will be fixed as soon as I can get hold of a new drive (tomorrow), at which point there will be another maintenance (much shorter) so I can connect the new drive.

Hopefully, this is the last of the crashes we'll see in a while. I apologise for any inconvenience this unfortunate downtime has caused you.

Edit: The new drive is now in place, and the raid mirror is being rebuilt as I type this.

Blackbox officially out of testing
Posted by: Christer on CEST10000000Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:59:51 +02005130am09, J000000Thursday09 %30, %2009 - %10:%Jul

The blackbox division has been running in a test-phase for quite some time now. With tournaments coming up, it's time to kick the "in testing" stamp from the division and make it a fully functional division.

With the transition out of the test phase, I want to take the opportunity to clear out an aspect of the rules and how it applies to the blackbox.

In the Blackbox division a match is considered to have started at the time the coach activates their team. This means that after you click to activate in the blackbox, you are expected to finish the match you are given exactly as if you had started a game in the other divisions. The match you're bound to play is the one the scheduler assigns to your team.

Naturally, this only applies if you actually get scheduled. So if you deactivate before the draw, or if you simply don't get scheduled, you clearly aren't bound to play.

Enjoy blackboxing!

Unranked division closes down
Posted by: Christer on CEST07000000Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:59:23 +02002318pm09, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %18, %2009 - %19:%Jun

As of now, the Unranked division is closed down. All teams that were previously in this division has been moved to the League division.

As part of this, Academy and Ranked teams are now able to transfer to League instead of Unranked.

As always, let me know if you run into any problems related to this change.

LRB 5 client Alphatesting begins
Posted by: Christer on tham31000000Sat, 09 May 2009 11:35:56 +020009am09, Mayam09 %09, %2009 - %11:%May

The alpha testing phase of the new LRB 5 client has begun! We are asking you all to test it out as much as you can and provide us with feedback on what works, and what doesn't.

The most important things you need to know about the alpha testing phase is the following:

* Only [d5] teams can participate
* There is nothing to download and install!
* To play, use the "Alphatest" link from your overview.
* Results are not uploaded to the server.
* Further information and bug reports are found on the LRB5 Client forum.
* The #Fumbbl5 chat channel is where you want to be for talking about the client.

Enjoy!

Introduction of a new client for LRB 5 compliance
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm4931pm09, MarpmTue, 31 Mar 2009 22:41:49 +02002009-03-31T22:41:49+02:0010 %31, %2009 - %22:%Mar

Over the last couple of months, I have been in contact with a person creating a new Blood Bowl client. This client is not any of the clients that have been discussed on the forums lately, but a completely new one built to solve the problems that exist in JavaBBowl.

This new client differs from JavaBBowl and the other projects you've seen in a few key aspects:

* Proper Client/Server architecture.
This solves the issues of savefiles being corrupted as the saves are stored server-side. Of course, the drawback is that games can not be played without FUMBBL being online. However, it's my opinion that this is very rare and the benefits of securing save-files outweighs this drawback by far. Note that having the savefiles on the server means there won't be any sync problems on reloads. You can also change computers without having to worry about how to reload the game.

* Stronger integration between FUMBBL and the client.
This allows some more advanced things to be done with the client. As a very trivial example, the client allows loading of player icons from the web site. The client has ability to do that down to the individual player level, so your favourite blitzer could technically have a specific icon in the game, visible to both players. The stronger integration also means that the client will automatically update from the site when there's a new version.

* Strong security
The client implements a stronger authentication mechanism than its competitors.

* Unified dice rolling
The random number generator exists on the server side. Any issues with the RNG being strange due to strange seeds to the RNG algorithm will be gone. The server could, technically, use a cryptographically strong RNG, ensuring the best RNG numbers possible.


So now that you are all worked up about this, you're probably asking "When?". Well, we are planning to start running preliminary (non-persistent) tests relatively soon. Work is currently being done to make the client ready for public alpha testing. Initially, the test phase will not upload any results to the site, but we will be asking for a lot of feedback in order to iron out the first batch of bugs. Hopefully, this alpha test phase will be starting within a few weeks.

Plea for donations
Posted by: Christer on CET09000000Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:58:36 +01003612pm09, MarpmThu, 12 Mar 2009 21:58:36 +01002009-03-12T21:58:36+01:0009 %12, %2009 - %21:%Mar

So it's the time of the year where the bills for the site comes around, and various service and utility providers feel that they want to get paid for their products (read as power, bandwidth, domain and dns registrations). In addition to this, a number of hardware updates have been put in place lately.. This means that the donation fund for the site is running a bit low on funds.

So I am asking you, the community, to help out to cover these costs with your hard earned money. If you wish to donate, please use the PayPal Donate button at the top of this page. I greatly appreciate all donations, big or small and thank you kindly for your support in keeping this site running.

If you're interested in what the site costs to run each year, it's roughly $1500 in running costs (power, bandwidth, domain related costs, backup media), and roughly the same amount for hardware replacements and upgrades. That's around $3000 per year which is the reason I'm at times asking for kind members of this community to help me out cover these costs.

Thank you again for showing your support!


Edit:
There was a small issue with the connection to PayPal which enabled the donation icons for people. I have updated the donation date of everyone who donated this year to today's date. If you have made a donation and your donate icon is not showing properly, please feel free to get in touch with me and I'll handle it. I apologise for the inconvenience caused by this.

Hardware maintenance (Sat 14:00 to 18:00)
Posted by: Christer on thpm31000000Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:18:21 +010007pm09, MarpmSat, 07 Mar 2009 12:18:21 +01002009-03-07T12:18:21+01:0012 %07, %2009 - %12:%Mar

FUMBBL is going down for maintenance today at 14:00. The expected downtime is 4 hours. I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Strength formula modifications
Posted by: Christer on nd000000222pm09, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbSun, 22 Feb 2009 12:14:49 +0100000000pmSun, 22 Feb 2009 12:14:49 +010009 %22, %2009 - %12:%Feb

The following changes have been made to the team strength formula:

- "Dirty Player" is valued higher (5+cumulative rather than 3+cumulative)
- The low reroll modification is changed. The teams gets a -3 modifier if it has zero rerolls, no player with leader and no cheerleaders or assistant coaches.

All team strengths are being updates as I type this, so those of you who keep track of strength values will see a change in many teams.

If you find any problems, feel free to contact me.

Happy 6th birthday FUMBBL!
Posted by: Christer on rdam31000000Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:23:50 +010003am09, Jam1000000amSat, 03 Jan 2009 00:23:50 +010009 %03, %2009 - %00:%Jan

Another year has come to an end. To celebrate the 6th birthday, teams that play today will have some random skills on their teams. Teams in tournaments are advised to contact their tournament managers to see whether or not you are allowed to play tourney games today. Also, please note that injuries and ageing rolls are handled normally today.

Blackbox is not affected by these random effects.

Enjoy your day!

Monday 24th emergency maintenance
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm5425am08, 22008000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmTue, 25 Nov 2008 00:27:54 +0100 %25, %2008 - %00:%Nov

After some time of recurring DB server crashes, I decided to replace the memory modules of the machine last night. This ended up causing a crash after about 10 minutes of being started again and I had to go back into the machine. I noticed that the memory modules were quite hot, and had to look into the cooling of the memory.

After increasing the airflow over the memory modules and through the server case, the server has been running stable for a few hours and I hope the random database problems we've experienced are a thing of the past now. As a side-note, the database server is now upgraded to 8GB of RAM (from 4GB prior to the change). This may improve performance slightly but mainly it'll ensure that there's space to grow in that respect as well.

Either way, I want to apologise for the inconvenience caused by these random problems the site has been having over the last week or so.

Scheduled downtime, Nov 12, 10:00-14:00
Posted by: Christer on 45Europe/Stockholm0511Europe/Stockholm0205pm08, 32008000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmWed, 05 Nov 2008 19:04:02 +0100 %05, %2008 - %19:%Nov

Due to work being done with the network infrastructure in the area, FUMBBL will be inaccessable on November 12th, between 10:00 and 14:00 server time.

I apologise for any inconvenience caused by this downtime.

Downtime tonight (Sep 23, 18:00-19:00) [Completed]
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm0923pm08, rdEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmTue, 23 Sep 2008 12:09:09 +0200 %23, %2008 - %12:%Sep

At around 18:00 tonight, the servers will be taken down temporarily for hardware maintenance. The expected downtime is around 60 minutes.

Removal of the [L] division
Posted by: Christer on 37Europe/Stockholm109Europe/Stockholm3610pm08, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmWed, 10 Sep 2008 20:47:36 +0200 %10, %2008 - %20:%Sep

After having considered the divisions that are available to coaches for a long while, I have decided to remove the [L] division entirely.

Now, I'm sure you are going to think "What?? Are you crazy?". While this may be true regardless of this decision, please calm down and I'll explain further.

New staff
Posted by: Christer on thpm30000000Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:21:53 +020006pm08, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmSat, 06 Sep 2008 20:21:53 +0200 %06, %2008 - %20:%Sep

As of today, a number of people have joined the ranks of staff members of FUMBBL. I would like to welcome BiggieB, Greedy, Leijonet, Mithrilpoint, TheCount and Woodstock as security officers. As usual, I am hoping that you will give them some time to get used to things.

In addition to the security officers, I would also like to welcome PeteW, Purplegoo, Shadow46x2 and Veron as moderators. They will be keeping track of the chat, forums and keep the front page news in order.

Last but not least, I want to welcome PurpleChest as ranked tournament manager. He will be primarily responsible for keeping the majors and minors running smoothly.

With these changes, I hope that the waiting times in the admin channel will be vastly reduced.

CR formula changes
Posted by: Christer on CEST09000000Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:33:54 +02005414pm08, PM00000090000005431 %14, %2008 - %21:%Aug

Some of you have already noticed that the Coach Ranking (CR) has been changed. The following changes have been implemented:

- The k value has been fixed to 2 for all matches, including tournaments.
- The racial factor has been updated to use team specific TS brackets, rather than the old average TS bracket used.

All CRs have been retroactively recalculated to follow this new system.

Public Galleries
Posted by: peikko on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm1012am08, AM000000110000001031 %12, %2008 - %11:%Aug

Public picture galleries will be cleaned starting in beginning of september.

Pictures clearly copyrighted, wrong sized or bad quality will be deleted. If you use pictures in public gallery you think will fall into these categories and want to keep using them, you need to upload them to your own personal gallery and change player pictures in your team to point there instead.

If you have pictures you would like to have added to public gallery please send to me.

Admin staff changes
Posted by: Christer on th000000810am08, AM000000110000002531 %10, %2008 - %11:%Aug

As of now, Angie is no longer a staff member due to personal disagreements (some of you know why, but please don't bring up the details).

I will effectively be taking over everything that she was responsible for (including majors) and this will unfortunately cause some delays. I am hoping that I will get a list of what she was currently "keeping in the air" so to speak, but if not I hope you will bare with me if something is forgotten. Feel free to remind me if something is left unattended.

Another effect of this is that FUMBBL is now even more understaffed and I will again be accepting applications for security officers. Feel free to PM me if you are interested.

Thank you for understanding, and for your applications!

New Security officer
Posted by: Angie on Jul2008728am08, J000000Monday08 %28, %2008 - %05:%Jul

This evening or well this morning for me as it is currently 4am here... I promoted Plorg to Security Officer on site.

Please, help Plorg to help you by allowing him the time and your patience, to check and read up on situations / issues being presented to him.

Please remember, Plorg is new to the site staff team and will need some time to adjust.

Congratulations Plorg, and welcome aboard.

Site upgrade
Posted by: Christer on tham31000000Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:09:05 +020019am08, J000000Saturday08 %19, %2008 - %01:%Jul

Earlier today, I upgraded the site to use PHP 5 and the xcache PHP accelerator. I have spent a number of hours today fixing minor incompatibility issues that occurred. If you find any issues with the site, please feel free to notify me and I'll take a peek at it.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Meet the new Smack staff!
Posted by: Cloggy on CEST08000000Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:24:18 +02001803am08, J000000Thursday08 %03, %2008 - %08:%Jul

As announced by Chister in an earlier news post I have been busy looking for additions to the Smack staff.

Please join me in welcoming (in random order) to the team:

Zuul
Pigstar-69
Woodstock
Azure
JockMcRowdy
Circularlogic
Plorg
Meech
Rijssiej
Purplechest

They will be added to the Smack staff in the coming days. I trust this will give us better admin coverage for the Smacks.

Please remember to cut the new staff some slack at the start as they may need a little more time to get things sorted than you are used to.

And let me be very clear about this: the rule is still that they will not be able to start a Smack for you if they can't be sure they or another member of the team will be around until the finish of the second round.

Let's get Smacking!

Cloggy takes over SMACK tournaments
Posted by: Christer on CEST07000000Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:15:12 +02001219pm08, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %19, %2008 - %19:%Jun

Effective immediately, Cloggy is taking over the administration of the SMACK tournaments. Initially, he will be working on finding more staff to make the tournaments more easily accessable to coaches.

Cloggy will be spending the next few days trying to collect a team, and you will surely see something happening on this front shortly.

Thank you to Cloggy for wanting to take on this job!

Site downtime today between 20:00 and 22:00 [completed]
Posted by: Christer on JuneFri, 13 Jun 2008 18:10:48 +02001013pm08, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %13, %2008 - %18:%Jun

The site will be closed down for maintenance at 20:00 today. I expect the maintenance to take around 2 hours, so the servers should come back online at around 22:00.

I will be installing new chassis and cooling for two of the servers (webserver and firewall/allround server) which I hope will help increase the site stability somewhat.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Recent instability
Posted by: Christer on Jun2008609am08, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %09, %2008 - %01:%Jun

As some of you may have noticed, the website has been acting up a bit and being a bit unstable.

I am almost certain that this is due to the harddrives on the webserver overheating so I am in the process of ordering a pair of better ventilated chassis for the servers, and some more cooling to keep up with the summer heat.

Unfortunately, it will take some time before the stuff arrive, so the servers might be a bit unstable over the next week or two.

This little package of hardware will run me about US$650 (lovely with the low USD rate), so I would appreciate it if some of you would be so kind to donate some of your hard-earned cash to fill the difference between what's on the account now ($350ish) and what this will cost. As always any donations are greatly appreciated, but this will warm my heart even more since it's actually needed now for server stability.

Thank you, and I apologise for any inconvenience caused by the instability.

Official Tournaments & site downtime
Posted by: Angie on CEST07000000Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:07:32 +02003224pm08, PM+02:00Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:07:32 +020007Thursday %24, %2008 - %19:%Apr

As you are all aware, the site will be closing down for approximately 3 weeks from Saturday 26th April. This obviously has an impact on the official tournaments currently running, and those that are due to start during or directly after the downtime.

Revised schedule is as follows:

UI Rd 2 deadline: Monday 26th May 2008.
UI Rd 3 deadline: Monday 2nd June 2008.
UI Final deadline: Monday 9th June 2008.

XFL Currently running group: Deadline Sunday 25th May 2008. (CD & Elf)
XFL Next group: Tournament starts Wednesday 28th May 2008.

GLT applications start: Monday 2nd June 2008.
GLT tournament start: Wednesday 11th June 2008.

FUMBBL Minors 175TR, Rd 3 deadline: Monday 26th May 2008
FUMBBL Minors 175TR, Rd 4 deadline: Monday 2nd June 2008
FUMBBL Minors 175TR, Final deadline: MOnday 9th June 2008.

FUMBBL SMACK Scheduled, VET VI Final deadline: Monday 26th May 2008.

FUMBBL Tour applications start: Wednesday 21st May 2008.
FUMBBL Tour tournament start: Wednesday 28th May 2008.

FUMBBL Minors 200TR, Set to start Wednesday 23rd April 2008, Cancelled.

FUMBBL Minors 150TR, due to start applications Wednesday 4th June 2008, Cancelled.



I would like to ask everyone taking part in any of these tournaments. to please play your matches as soon as possible. In order to reduce the disruption caused to further tournaments running later in the year.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Site downtime details
Posted by: Christer on CEST12000000Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:56:35 +02003517am08, AM+02:00Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:56:35 +020056Thursday %17, %2008 - %00:%Apr

As posted about in an earlier newspost, the site will be taken offline for some time due to me moving to another apartment.

The site will be taken down at some point on the 26th of April, and will be put back online at some point between the 16th and 18th May.

Again, I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

FUMBBL downtime in May
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm3001am08, AM+02:00Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:49:30 +020049Tuesday %01, %2008 - %10:%Apr

Due to unfortunate circumstances with me moving to a new apartment, FUMBBL will be shut down for two to three weeks in the beginning of May. At this time, I do not know the exact dates, but the site will be taken down at least between April 30th and May 16th. There will most likely be some additional days of downtime before and/or after for logistical reasons. I will provide further information when I have finalised the details myself.

Further details on how this downtime will affect the official tournaments and faction will be posted at a later date.

Those of you who run tournaments should start planning on how to handle this downtime.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

FUMBBL t-shirts batch 2
Posted by: Angie on CET11000000Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:38:11 +01001120am08, MaramThu, 20 Mar 2008 11:38:11 +01002008-03-20T11:38:11+01:0011 %20, %2008 - %11:%Mar

The second batch of FUMBBL t-shirts has now arrived.

Could all of you that ordered and paid for a shirt please confirm your addresses for postage on to you.

Send a PM to Angie

Do NOT post your address in this news thread.

Server downtime Sat 8th, from 10:00am (Completed)
Posted by: Christer on MarchFri, 07 Mar 2008 22:20:58 +01002007pm08, MarpmFri, 07 Mar 2008 22:20:58 +01002008-03-07T22:20:58+01:0010 %07, %2008 - %22:%Mar

The site will be taken down for maintenance starting at 10:00 am server time. The purpose of this maintenance is a number of minor hardware modifications.

I expect this maintenance to take around 2 hours, and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Site compromised by script kiddie
Posted by: Christer on CET01000000Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:42:15 +01001521am08, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbThu, 21 Feb 2008 01:42:15 +0100000000amThu, 21 Feb 2008 01:42:15 +010008 %21, %2008 - %01:%Feb

Tonight at approximately 22:14, someone ran a script that exploited a security vulnerability with one of the modules on the fumbbl.com site. The perpetrator managed to add some malicious javascript to a number of pages on the site.

The javascript connected anyone who accessed the site to an external website, which was reportedly trying to install some nasty application into your browser (seemingly only affecting Internet Explorer).

The malicious javascript has been removed from the site, and the vulnerable code on the site has been plugged. However, I strongly urge all of you to run a virus scanner such as Grisoft's AVG on your system. I also recommend running an adware remover (for example Lavasoft's Ad-Aware). Both of these applications are available as free downloads for personal use.

I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

New Stunty Teams Available
Posted by: HunterX on rd000000203pm08, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbSun, 03 Feb 2008 16:32:21 +0100000000pmSun, 03 Feb 2008 16:32:21 +010008 %03, %2008 - %16:%Feb

The new Stunty teams are now available.

Forest Goblin Roster
Horrors of Tzeentch Roster

Choose the New Stunty Teams!
Posted by: HunterX on thpm31000000Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:59:41 +010026pm08, Jpm1000000pmSat, 26 Jan 2008 15:59:41 +010008 %26, %2008 - %15:%Jan

This poll will help me decide what two teams will be added.

Vote for you favorite team from the list provided. I will take the results into consideration when I make my decision.

Thank you for your contributions.

Best Regards,

HunterX

Spectator chat
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm2722am08, Jam1000000amTue, 22 Jan 2008 00:11:27 +010008 %22, %2008 - %00:%Jan

As of now, you will need to update your spectator name to your account name on the site in order to be able to talk in-game.

In order to set your spectator name, you add (or edit) the following line in the options.nfo file in your JavaBBowl folder:

spectatorname=Christer

Obviously, you'd want to change Christer to your own coach name :)

Please note that certain users will find themselves unable to chat even though this option is set. This is related to the system used to force this, and I can't do anything but apologize for the inconvenience caused by this. This would happen if you are behind a HTTP proxy (such as in a work environment) or if you use web anonymizers.

As you may imagine, this change has been brought on by an increase in childish behaviour by individuals who felt a need to spam and be offensive in spectator chat. With this change, we will be able to connect these individuals to their FUMBBL accounts and take action as appropriate.

Thank you for understanding.

Laviak and Nachtogen appointed security officers
Posted by: Christer on th000000113am08, Jam1000000amSun, 13 Jan 2008 03:42:20 +010008 %13, %2008 - %03:%Jan

Another two staff members have joined the officer team. Welcome to Laviak and Nachtogen!

As always, please be gentle to them as they get used to the system.

Longshanks appointed security officer
Posted by: Christer on th000000113am08, Jam1000000amSun, 13 Jan 2008 01:22:40 +010008 %13, %2008 - %01:%Jan

Today, Longshanks was appointed security officer and will be there help you guys out with the day to day issues. He is the first of a few new officers that will be appointed. More announcements will be made in the time to come.

In the meanwhile, I wish to welcome him to the team!

FUMBBL's million game birthday!
Posted by: Christer on JanuaryFri, 04 Jan 2008 20:48:29 +01004804pm08, Jpm1000000pmFri, 04 Jan 2008 20:48:29 +010008 %04, %2008 - %20:%Jan

What a birthday! A staggering 1118 coaches played the 2688 matches that were reported in the 24 hours of it. One of them was the millionth match!! The two teams involved in this match will be awarded +5 fanfactor for the extra publicity.

Since you managed to break 1000 matches on a single day, all teams that played on the birthday will be given a bonus of 10k gold. Yes, this is 10k regardless of how many games your team played. However, if one coach used multiple teams, all teams that played will get this bonus.

Birthday event reminder and details
Posted by: Christer on 01Europe/Stockholm021Europe/Stockholm0802pm08, Jpm1000000pmWed, 02 Jan 2008 20:56:08 +010008 %02, %2008 - %20:%Jan

A lot of people have been asking questions regarding the details of the birthday event. This is how it will work:

Open round robin changes
Posted by: Christer on 01Europe/Stockholm021Europe/Stockholm4802am08, Jam1000000amWed, 02 Jan 2008 03:42:48 +010008 %02, %2008 - %03:%Jan

As of now, the open round robin tournament format is limited to at most 26 participants.

A few tournaments have been created in the past that far exceed what is practically displayable on the site and using the tournament format in a way that was never intended.

FUMBBL on a new server!
Posted by: Christer on thpm31000000Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:14:10 +010029pm07, SatEurope/Stockholm2007-12-29T19:14:10+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmSat, 29 Dec 2007 19:14:10 +0100 %29, %2007 - %19:%Dec

The FUMBBL server park has expanded with a new machine which is now running the web server.

The new machine is running a quad core CPU and has 4GB of RAM installed. This should improve the page load times a fair bit under the busy times of the day.

As always, there are most likely issues that need to be resolved. Please have patience and I will do as much as I can to solve these problems.

FUMBBL turns 5!
Posted by: Christer on 52Europe/Stockholm2612Europe/Stockholm1026pm07, WedEurope/Stockholm2007-12-26T19:10:10+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmWed, 26 Dec 2007 19:10:10 +0100 %26, %2007 - %19:%Dec

As a lot of you are aware already, FUMBBL's 5th birthday is coming up (January 3rd). We are also hunting for the 1 million game mark.

As stated before, we are looking at a pretty cool prize for you guys if we manage this magic 1 million before the end of the year. While it's next to impossible to get to that point before the end of the calendar year, I am now announcing that the prize will be given out if we manage to hit 1 million at, or before, the birthday is over.

To give you all some incentive to reach this, we will give 10k gold to each [R]anked division (this is because we do not want to interfere with player run leagues) team that has played that day if the total count for the day reaches 1000 or higher. While this is a bit higher than normal, I am certain that we can all help out to reach this 1000 matches per day every day until the birthday. So get playing! We are absolutely in reach of 1 million matches before the birthday is over.

As for the birthday...

Every year, we've had a special surprise for that particular day. This year is no different, and this is what we are planning:

* Random mutations are back. A lot of you know this from previous years. Every player on every team will gain one random mutation for the game. These will randomize between matches.

* No permanent injuries. All SIs and RIPs will be converted to BHs on the site. Even though the teams will be much deadlier due to the mutations, there is no risk of getting your team destroyed!

* No ageing. This is your chance to skill up your players without having to worry about ageing. It will ONLY have effect on the 3rd, so if your match is reported after midnight, you are going to be hit with normal rules.

Those of you who run tournaments may want to avoid playing the matches on this day so that it won't affect your tourneys.

Hopefully, you will have a great time this birthday. You all deserve it!

Stunty Leeg manager appointed
Posted by: Christer on nd0000001202pm07, SunEurope/Stockholm2007-12-02T17:36:12+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmSun, 02 Dec 2007 17:36:12 +0100 %02, %2007 - %17:%Dec

As of now, HunterX is the official manager for Stunty Leeg. He will be in charge of finalising the recent changes, and work on reinitiating the Stunty Leeg tournaments.

Since he was just appointed to this role, I expect you all to be good and give him some time to look into things before starting to hammer him with your ideas.

And before you bring up tournaments, you should know that he does will not reenable them before the rosters have been finalised.

Apart from that, welcome on board HunterX!

FUMBBL looking to expand the staff team
Posted by: Christer on NovemberFri, 23 Nov 2007 22:49:50 +01004923pm07, 52007000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmFri, 23 Nov 2007 22:49:50 +0100 %23, %2007 - %22:%Nov

The current staff team is in the process of expanding, and we are now looking for people who are willing to help us with the day to day administration. This time around, we are trying a public callout to see who would be interested in helping out.

FUMBBL Downtime
Posted by: Christer on CET09000000Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:58:51 +01005108pm07, 42007000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmThu, 08 Nov 2007 21:58:51 +0100 %08, %2007 - %21:%Nov

It appears that my ISP decided it would be fun to drop my line for a number of hours starting at around 3:30 last night. There's nothing wrong with the servers, and people should be able to reconnect to the site soon enough.

However, there is a scheduled downtime coming up on monday the 12th. At some point between 07:30 and 11:30 server time, the site will be shut down for a while due to some work that is being done with the power lines around here. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Tournament coach ranking update
Posted by: Christer on Oct20071022pm07, +02002007-10-22T23:58:05+02:00312007bEurope/StockholmMon, 22 Oct 2007 23:58:05 +0200 %22, %2007 - %23:%Oct

As of now, the k value in the ranking formula for tournaments has been changed to:

k = log(N) / log(2), where N is the number of participants.

For tourneys with 8 participants (SMACKs for example), this means a k value of 3 will be used while a large tournament such as the current FUMBBL Cup will run with a k value of 9.

All coach rankings have been updated retroactively using this new formula.

Open play matches remain with a k value of 2.

Stunty winds of change
Posted by: Christer on CEST09000000Thu, 04 Oct 2007 21:39:24 +02002404pm07, +02002007-10-04T21:39:24+02:00312007bEurope/StockholmThu, 04 Oct 2007 21:39:24 +0200 %04, %2007 - %21:%Oct

And it's done!

Those of you who have been following the stunty winds of change threads on the forums will be happy to hear that the changes are now in place. I am rather happy with the response from the latest, and implemented, version of the rosters and will be listening to the input you have from playtesting the changes.

Chainsaw exploits.
Posted by: Christer on SeptemberFri, 28 Sep 2007 21:44:23 +02004428pm07, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmFri, 28 Sep 2007 21:44:23 +0200 %28, %2007 - %21:%Sep

JavaBBowl 8.9 has a bug where chainsaw players are able to take further actions after trying to start the chainsaw. This is considered a bug by the staff, and people abusing this will be considered exploiting it.

If you have players with a chainsaw, make SURE that you do not move the player after trying to start the chainsaw. As of now, any team caught exploiting this bug will be retired.

Those of you who play against someone who exploits this bug, please contact the admins as soon as possible.

JBBLaunch certificate update
Posted by: Christer on Aug2007806pm07, PM00000090000002231 %06, %2007 - %21:%Aug

I just updated the application that starts JavaBBowl through the web with a new certificate. Because of this, you will likely get a new security warning when you try to start the game or spectate.

Please note that the launcher code is completely unchanged and you will just have to reevaluate if you trust me as an author. For those of you who remember, the old one was an anonymous Thawte free-mail member, whereas this new one has my name on it. The wonders of technology...

Bottom line is, no need to worry about the security warning. It's just as (in)secure as before to run the launcher application.

BowlBot updated
Posted by: Christer on th000000805pm07, PM00000080000002531 %05, %2007 - %20:%Aug

I just installed a new version of BowlBot on the IRC server. There have been a few minor modifications to how things work and I wouldn't be surprised if there are a couple of new bugs. Feel free to get in touch with me if you spot any bugs or problems.

Got something to say?
Posted by: Christer on Jul2007730am07, J000000Monday07 %30, %2007 - %01:%Jul

You think that the new random number generator used in the client is broken?
You got some idea that you just have to share with others, but don't feel that the forum is the right place for it?
You just need to rant?

As of now, FUMBBL has a blog feature, which allows you to rant as much as you like. Every coach will have a blog page, and you'll be able to access it from the coach page. Also, the 5 latest blog entries (site-wide) will be quickly accessible from your coach pages as well, allowing you to keep up with the stream of rants and throughts!

Enjoy.

As always, report any problems you find to me.

Mail problems
Posted by: Christer on tham31000000Sat, 07 Jul 2007 09:22:52 +020007am07, J000000Saturday07 %07, %2007 - %09:%Jul

It seems like the site mail server has been non-functional for a while due to changes in the IP name of my relay host. This has caused a large number of mails from here to be delayed.

I have restored functionality to the mail server now, and all pending emails are on their way now.

I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.

FUMBBL T-shirt update
Posted by: Christer on CEST01000000Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:56:20 +02002014pm07, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %14, %2007 - %13:%Jun

I'm happy to announce that the T-shirts you people ordered are now in our possession.

Angie is currently working on verifying that the shirts are correctly printed, and repackaging them for shipping to you. The shirts should be sent off within a day or two (around 140 shirts takes a bit of time to sort out).

We are expecting shirts to Europe to arrive by the end of next week, and another week or two outside Europe. Please get in touch with me or Angie when you receive your shipment so we can keep track of this.

If you have not received your shirts on Friday evening following the estimated delivery time (June 29th for Europe and July 13th for the rest of the world), please get in touch with Angie or me and we will try to sort things out.

If we get any kind of deviations or problems with the shipment to you guys (such as misprints, shirts that were not delivered to us or shipments that get returned to us), we will get in touch with the affected persons individually.

Tshirt payments continued...
Posted by: Christer on 21Europe/Stockholm235Europe/Stockholm1223pm07, Maypm07 %23, %2007 - %23:%May

There is now a post on the forums which lists confirmed tshirt payments. If you have made a payment that you think should have been registered, please contact Christer or Angie (ie, the person you paid to) as soon as possible so we can look into it.

Also, if you intend to order a shirt, we will be needing your payments as soon as possible. Those of you who do international payments, please get in touch with Christer as soon as you can. It takes a few days to verify these payments so time is running a bit short for this option.

Thank you for your interest in the shirts so far!

T-shirt payment deadline
Posted by: Christer on MayFri, 18 May 2007 16:16:23 +02001618pm07, Maypm07 %18, %2007 - %16:%May

At the moment, there are about 50 people who have expressed interest in shirts but not paid for it. With this notification, I am asking you to get the payment through or contact Angie or me so we know what's going on.

The deadline for payment is on Monday the 28th of May, at which point we need to have the money available to us to place the order and provide you with your shirts. Those of you who do bank transfers, please remember that it may take a few days for the money to be transferred properly so please get that done as soon as possible.

Thank you!

T-shirt payment
Posted by: Christer on CEST12000000Thu, 17 May 2007 00:53:13 +02001317am07, Mayam07 %17, %2007 - %00:%May

Hi again.

Since we've had a pretty large amount of orders already, we are going to start sorting out the payments now.

Please remember to include what you want written on the back (or explicitly state you want the back empty) and size. Also remember to include your coach name so we can get in touch easily.


Payment details are as follows, all amounts are per shirt:


* PayPal
This is directly to Angie who will be placing the order.

To: mikafreak@yahoo.com
Amount: (GBP) £16.50
Remember: Make sure it's (GBP) Pounds Sterling. And remember to include shipping address and your coach name.


* International or Swedish Bank Transfer
Please contact Christer for account details.

To: Christer
Amount: (SEK) 250kr
Remember: Any fees involved in sending internationally has to be covered by you, and remember to include coach name in the message so the payment can be tracked.


* British Bank Transfer or British cheques
Please contact Angie for details.

To: Angie
Amount: (GBP) £16.50
Remember: Please include your coach name in the message so the payment can be tracked.


For any questions you may have, please contact Angie or Christer directly on IRC or via PMs. We're trying to keep the forum thread reasonably clean from unrelated posts for our own sanity's sake. :)

FUMBBL T-shirts
Posted by: Christer on 20Europe/Stockholm165Europe/Stockholm0116pm07, Maypm07 %16, %2007 - %18:%May

For those of you who aren't following the forums, you now have the opportunity to order official FUMBBL T-shirts.

The shirts have a FUMBBL logo on the front and your name on the back, in IRC-style brackets. You can, if you wish, choose to not have your coach name as well.

They are available in sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL, XXXXL, XXXXXL in black or white (Sizes over XXL are only available in black), with the print in white or black respectively. The cost will be GB£16.50 / US$33 / 25 euro, which includes a £1 PayPal fee and shipping to you. Direct bank transfers are also possible (details will be forwarded to those who need it), and we are also open for discussion on other means.

We are currently taking orders in the forums, but please do not send any money at this time. Details on where to send the money will be forwarded to the coaches who place an order.

Note that the money will be asked for up front, since the shirts are personalised. We expect to stop taking orders on sunday and place the order when we've gotten the money for it transferred properly.

Images and more information can be found on the forum thread.


As a special treat, all coaches who order a shirt will get a golden FUMBBL upporter badge for life!

So please take a look in the forums and place your order!

Site downtime on Wed May 9th
Posted by: Christer on th000000506pm07, Maypm07 %06, %2007 - %14:%May

This wednesday, FUMBBL will be taken down for a few hours between 11.00 and 19.00 server time.

This is because the power is being shut down during the day. Enjoy the day!

Faction change
Posted by: Christer on Apr2007430am07, AM+02:00Mon, 30 Apr 2007 01:03:23 +020003Monday %30, %2007 - %01:%Apr

As some of you have noticed already, the faction pages are looking a bit strange. This is beacuse the system is going through a major tweak.

Approval Restructure
Posted by: Angie on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm4724pm07, PM+02:00Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:57:47 +020057Tuesday %24, %2007 - %19:%Apr

Due to the team approval process now being automatic, it has been decided to replace the current approver team with 2 approvers.
We are currently in the process of selecting these 2 approvers. They will ofcourse have the assistance of the Admin team.
In light of this, all current approvers have been removed.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has assisted with approval in the past. And we hope you will all continue to enjoy FUMBBL.

Thank you

Maintenance complete
Posted by: Christer on CEST09000000Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:39:08 +02000805pm07, PM+02:00Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:39:08 +020039Thursday %05, %2007 - %21:%Apr

The server's back up again as you can see. The maintenance took longer than expected but I'm sure most of you survived, so it can't be too bad... Or maybe it is...

Either way, the new drive is in place and is functioning normally.

Maintenance downtime tonight at 20:00
Posted by: Christer on CEST10000000Thu, 05 Apr 2007 10:14:57 +02005705am07, AM+02:00Thu, 05 Apr 2007 10:14:57 +020014Thursday %05, %2007 - %10:%Apr

Tonight at 20:00 (8pm) server time (CEST), FUMBBL will be taken down for maintenance. This will affect the website, proxies, IRC chat and JavaBBowl mirror.

I am replacing a harddrive that has failed, and expect this to take around 30 minutes or so. Please make the necessary arrangements and avoid using the proxies around that time to prevent synchronisation problems when reloading.

The future of divisions
Posted by: Christer on st000000401am07, AM+02:00Sun, 01 Apr 2007 10:31:40 +020031Sunday %01, %2007 - %10:%Apr

Since the divisions were changed last time, I have been receiving a very large amount of complaints, ranging from how the divisional split will destroy the ability to find games to how we're stopping other people from doing fun things (regarding tourneys in Ranked).

Since this seems to be how most people feel, I am going to do the simple thing: Joining all the divisions into one pool and just let you play how you want.

This change will be implemented over the next few days, so stay tuned for more information.

[L]eague turn limit!
Posted by: Christer on CET09000000Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:03:24 +01002422pm07, MarpmThu, 22 Mar 2007 21:03:24 +01002007-03-22T21:03:24+01:0009 %22, %2007 - %21:%Mar

Tournament Organizers in [L] now have the possibility to set turn limit and extension in their tournaments. Feel free to experiment and let me know how it works!

Turn Limit and divisional transfers
Posted by: Christer on CET07000000Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:37:10 +01001022pm07, MarpmThu, 22 Mar 2007 19:37:10 +01002007-03-22T19:37:10+01:0007 %22, %2007 - %19:%Mar

With the release of 8.8b, the following changes are in effect for Ranked and Faction turn limit:

- 4 minutes per turn
- 10 minutes "extra time" per player, which is an extra 10 minutes that each coach can spend in any way they like. Until the 10 minutes are out, the player will still be able to move after the 4 minute turn limit is out. This time is intended for real-life emergencies such as burning cats and pizza delivery.

I have also changed the divisional transfers available to the following:

- Academy teams can transfer to Unranked.
- Ranked teams can transfer to Unranked.
- No other transfers are allowed.

The Ranked to Unranked transfer is temporary, and will be removed in about a week from now. This possibility is made available because of the recent changes in the divisional structure and the idea is for you to be able to move recreational teams to Unranked. Again, this is a time-limited option so please transfer within a week if you intend to transfer at all.

Planned maintenance (completed)
Posted by: Christer on Mar2007312pm07, MarpmMon, 12 Mar 2007 19:58:00 +01002007-03-12T19:58:00+01:0007 %12, %2007 - %19:%Mar

At 22:00 bbtime (CET) tonight, FUMBBL is going down for maintenance. I will be installing the new UPS to the system.

Expected downtime is 15-30 minutes.

Malthor stepping down from the officer staff
Posted by: Christer on th000000311pm07, MarpmSun, 11 Mar 2007 15:51:13 +01002007-03-11T15:51:13+01:0003 %11, %2007 - %15:%Mar

Today, Malthor stepped down from the officer staff for various reasons including real life commitments taking up more time.

He will stay as the main [R]anked tournament organizer and manager of the TNT.

I want to thank Malthor for his time helping out with the admin work.

Unexpected downtime
Posted by: Christer on 10Europe/Stockholm073Europe/Stockholm3607pm07, MarpmWed, 07 Mar 2007 22:04:36 +01002007-03-07T22:04:36+01:0010 %07, %2007 - %22:%Mar

Well, it seems like the site went down shortly after 14.00 today. I was at work when I got word that the site was down, and couldn't do much about it from there.

Got home to a pair of very silent and dark servers and a very insisting beeping sound from the UPS.

No message in any logfiles or anything, so I can't say what exactly happened but my guess is that the power fluctuated and the UPS went berserk, not doing what it's there for.

To prevent this from happening again (hopefully), I am going to look for a better quality UPS.

The harddrives took a wrong turn as well, but thanks to the journalling file system I use and the raid mirror nothing is broken :) Redundancy at its best!

Last one?
Posted by: Christer on Mar2007305pm07, MarpmMon, 05 Mar 2007 13:49:29 +01002007-03-05T13:49:29+01:0001 %05, %2007 - %13:%Mar

Ok, another CR tweak has been made. Again, all CRs have been updated retroactively according to this change.

The k value formula for tournaments has been updated to the following:

k = 2.5 * sqrt(sqrt(N)), rounded to the closest integer

where N is the number of participants in the tournament.

Yet another CR tweak
Posted by: Christer on Mar2007305pm07, MarpmMon, 05 Mar 2007 12:10:31 +01002007-03-05T12:10:31+01:0012 %05, %2007 - %12:%Mar

I just added another feature into the racial factor system. Each match is categorised into a "TS bracket", which is based on the average TS of the teams involved in the match.

CR system changes
Posted by: Christer on th000000304pm07, MarpmSun, 04 Mar 2007 23:58:38 +01002007-03-04T23:58:38+01:0011 %04, %2007 - %23:%Mar

As some of you probably noticed already, your coach rankings (CR) have just changed. This is due to a change in how CRs are calculated. In short, the change involves the addition of race as a parameter to the ranking system.

Together with this change, all CRs have been recalculated from the beginning of the site. This means that matches that predates the ranking reset(s) we've had in the past are now part of your coach ranking.

In addition to the formula change, I have also changed the recently added limit on when CR starts to be a factor. It is now updated if both involved teams have played 4 or more matches. This change was made due to the introduction of the [U]nranked division.

For those of you who are interested in the (mathematical) details, read on for more details.

[L]eague and [U]nranked divisions
Posted by: Christer on 09Europe/Stockholm282Europe/Stockholm0628am07, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbWed, 28 Feb 2007 00:22:06 +0100000000amWed, 28 Feb 2007 00:22:06 +010007 %28, %2007 - %00:%Feb

I'm sure this will confuse people... :)

The [U]nranked division has been renamed to [L]eague.

At the same time, a new division, called [U]nranked has been introduced.

This new division follows the same rules as Academy, but without the TR150 cutoff. Basically, it's intended as a proper recreational division. A place for you coaches who feel that the competetive aspect of [R]anked is not for you, but you don't feel comfortable with the non-LRB rosters in the [L]eague division.

The rules for the [L]eague division has not changed, but the purpose of it has shifted more towards the player-run leagues and tournaments.

As always, I look forward to hearing your comments on this, and what you'll do with the new division.


**Edit:

A new IRC channel has been created as well: #FumbblLeague, and the old #FumbblUnranked will be shifted to the new division.


** Edit #2:

You can now transfer LRB compliant teams from [L] to [U]. (** Edit #3: This will only be available for a limited time)

Turn Limit
Posted by: Christer on th000000225pm07, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbSun, 25 Feb 2007 23:42:49 +0100000000pmSun, 25 Feb 2007 23:42:49 +010007 %25, %2007 - %23:%Feb

As of now, the 4 minute turn limit is enforced in the Ranked and Faction divisions.

Note that this includes the ongoing Warpstone Open and other currently running tournaments.

1 million game bonus
Posted by: Christer on FebruaryFri, 23 Feb 2007 01:45:08 +01004523am07, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbFri, 23 Feb 2007 01:45:08 +0100000000amFri, 23 Feb 2007 01:45:08 +010007 %23, %2007 - %01:%Feb

As you have noticed, we're doing a countdown for the 1 million games before the end of the year. While I won't tell you what I have planned, I will say that I am going to give you guys a very very juicy treat if we hit the milestone before the end of the year.

Naturally, there will be something in case we don't reach it but it won't be nearly as cool as the one I have in mind.

At the time of writing, there are 784577 matches registered which means about 690 matches per day on average until the end of the year to reach the target.

Again, I won't announce anything until we're considerably closer to the 1M mark, but I assure you it will be something spectacular and highly appreciated. Let's make it happen :)

Coach ranking tweak
Posted by: Christer on FebruaryFri, 16 Feb 2007 23:54:47 +01005416pm07, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbFri, 16 Feb 2007 23:54:47 +0100000000pmFri, 16 Feb 2007 23:54:47 +010007 %16, %2007 - %23:%Feb

As of now, the following change is in effect:


Coach ranking is only updated if and only if both teams involved in a match has played at least 7 matches.


This change has been put into effect due to certain behavioural patterns being brought to light which, while not being against the rules, is against the spirit of the coach ranking system. Hopefully, most of you will understand the purpose of this rule and the reasoning behind it.

New servers finally in place!
Posted by: Christer on 06Europe/Stockholm072Europe/Stockholm3907pm07, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbWed, 07 Feb 2007 21:57:39 +0100000000pmWed, 07 Feb 2007 21:57:39 +010007 %07, %2007 - %21:%Feb

After a second maintenance tonight, the servers are finally installed in the proper location. To celebrate this, I made an update to the FUMBBL Hardware page in the user guide. Some server specifications and photos. We all know photos are cool!

Enjoy, and hopefully this downtime is the last one in a while :)

Maintenance over!
Posted by: Christer on th000000204am07, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbSun, 04 Feb 2007 03:31:15 +0100000000amSun, 04 Feb 2007 03:31:15 +010007 %04, %2007 - %03:%Feb

Ah, and we're back!

The database is now located on the new server, and things are more or less back into shape.

However, because of a new database version, and stricter standards compliance checking there might be some problems with the site. Gladly, it's trivial to fix the problems, but I need to find where exactly all these incompatibilities are. So, please be gentle and notify me when you find something that doesn't work as expected.

Thank you!

Server downtime!
Posted by: Christer on rdpm28000000Sat, 03 Feb 2007 19:24:53 +010003pm07, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbSat, 03 Feb 2007 19:24:53 +0100000000pmSat, 03 Feb 2007 19:24:53 +010007 %03, %2007 - %19:%Feb

Tonight at some point after midnight, the FUMBBL server will be taken offline for maintenance.

The plan is to migrate the old database onto the new server hardware, and upgrade the current server with a faster network adapter.

I expect this to take somewhere between 2 and 4 hours, during which time the site will remain offline. I will work on getting the IRC chat up as quickly as possible, but the website will remain down for longer.

More information will be given on the IRC chat when it's back online (Expect around an hour of downtime for the IRC chat).

Thank you for your understanding!

Team approval changes
Posted by: Christer on Jan2007129pm07, Jpm1000000pmMon, 29 Jan 2007 17:47:28 +010007 %29, %2007 - %17:%Jan

As of now, the team approval process has changed.

Because of the increased traffic, the time to get a team approved has been increasing to an unacceptable level. Therefore, we have changed how the team approval process works.

After creating a team, you will now be able to simply activate it and use it immediately. However, the site team naming rules has not changed and to make this work, we are relying on you, the community, to help us filter inappropriate teams.

All teams now have a link at the top where you can report them for not following the standard that we require. All reports are looked into, and our dedicated approver staff will verify the team against the naming rules and make sure the necessary changes are made.

I hope that with your help, we will be able to maintain the naming standard that we have today, while reducing the workload of the staff.

Thank you for your assistance in this!

2007 donation drive!
Posted by: Christer on JanuaryFri, 19 Jan 2007 19:45:03 +01004519pm07, Jpm1000000pmFri, 19 Jan 2007 19:45:03 +010007 %19, %2007 - %19:%Jan

A new year, a new server!

As a lot of you have noticed, the website slows down a bit during the most active periods of the day (between 9pm and midnight server time). Therefore I am currently looking at upgrading the site by adding another server.

My intention is to make the new server dedicated to the database, which should improve speeds by a fair bit. I'm pretty sure a number of you are curious as to what spec I am aiming for, so I'll list the criteria I have:

* CPU: Dual core AMD 64 bit at a reasonable frequency.
* Memory: At least 2GB, possibly more depending on price.
* Storage: 2 S-ATA disks at oh, 150+GB each. Space isn't really a big issue.
* Gigabit networking.

* 19" cabin. This is needed to not clutter up my place with servers.
* Gigabit switch

My current price estimate for this upgrade is around US$3000. Around half of this is already available, and I have set up a counter on your coach page to show how much donations are still required to reach this target. I am hoping for your support to reach this within a reasonable time.

Oh, and as a side-note, the counter on your coach pages will auto-update as soon as the site registers your donations. This will only work if you donate by using the PayPal button at the top of the page, and only if you donate in US$.

Thank you in advance for your fantastic support!

Birthday results!
Posted by: Christer on JanuaryFri, 05 Jan 2007 00:31:59 +01003105am07, Jam1000000amFri, 05 Jan 2007 00:31:59 +010007 %05, %2007 - %00:%Jan

The 4th FUMBBL birthday is over, and what a day! A staggering 1575 matches were played in total, beating the previous record of 923 matches (recorded on the 3rd birthday) by a huge amount. Since this is far above the 1000 matches that was required for the extra bonus, an additional 10k treasury has been added to all teams that played at least one match that day. The coaches of the 1000th match are being contacted for their special extra MVP award. Some random statistics:

• The matches were distributed into divisions as follows:
  
  • Ranked: 1182
  • Stunty: 72
  • Unranked: 252
  • Faction: 33
  • Academy: 36
• The following injuries were prevented:
  
  • 1109 deaths
  • 403 stat-reducing serious injuries
  • 753 niggling injuries
• The oldest team that participated was Midgical Mastery Tour
• The first team that was approved on the birthday was Gloryhunterz
• The most eager team was Konkvaldahaz who entered the pitch 12 seconds after midnight.

Since we managed more than 1000 Ranked matches, extra MVPs will be awarded to the teams involved in the 1000th ranked match as well. I hope you all had a great time playing all these games. Our next goal (thank you Angie for this idea) is to reach a total of 1 million matches played by the end of this year! Rest assured that there will be a prize for that match as well. Maybe even a site-wide celebration day as well...

Approval
Posted by: Angie on CET04000000Thu, 04 Jan 2007 04:14:02 +01000204am07, Jam1000000amThu, 04 Jan 2007 04:14:02 +010007 %04, %2007 - %04:%Jan

All approvers including Head of language approvers please read the latest post in Monkey House.

Zero Tolerance... from now on.

To all coaches that submit offensive teams... Expect to be blocked. No excuses. You know what is acceptable, stick to that and that only...
http://fumbbl.com/help:TeamNames <--- says it all...

Angie

Extra birthday bonus revealed!
Posted by: Christer on 01Europe/Stockholm031Europe/Stockholm4703am07, Jam1000000amWed, 03 Jan 2007 00:26:47 +010007 %03, %2007 - %00:%Jan

As a lot of people already noticed, the random mutation bonus from last year's birthday is in effect this year again in addition to the previously announced bonuses.

Have fun!

Oh, and don't tell anyone that Christer sort of forgot to remove the code for it and it surprised him as well!

Birthday reminder!
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm1002pm07, Jpm1000000pmTue, 02 Jan 2007 15:39:10 +010007 %02, %2007 - %15:%Jan

Just posting to remind you all of the FUMBBL birthday tomorrow (Jan 3rd). In short, the following will happen for the day:

* No injuries caused will have any effect on the team. Every injury reported by the client will be counted as a badly hurt.

* If we all manage to play 1000 matches or more over the day, every team that has played will receive a bonus of 10k gold.

Note that this affects all matches reported from 00:00 to 24:00, server time (use bb time on the chat to see the current time). So if you start a match before midnight and report it after, the match will fall under these changes in the rules.

Changes in team retirement policy
Posted by: Christer on Jan2007101pm07, Jpm1000000pmMon, 01 Jan 2007 18:52:07 +010007 %01, %2007 - %18:%Jan

As of now, teams without matches that are retired will go to the "retired" status rather than "new". Although this feature was convenient for some, it has been abused by too many people.

So those of you who are used to get teams approved and then retire them for changes, be aware of the fact that this is no longer possible.

Faction tweak
Posted by: Christer on DecemberFri, 15 Dec 2006 15:15:20 +01001515pm06, FriEurope/Stockholm2006-12-15T15:15:20+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmFri, 15 Dec 2006 15:15:20 +0100 %15, %2006 - %15:%Dec

As of next round, all scoring games will be scoring for both teams involved. The number of opponents in each faction will remain the same and nothing else will change. Hopefully, this will make it easier for people to find scoring matches. The S* way of designating scoring matches in the faction lists will be removed with this change, and the matches will be shown only with the S icon.

Thank you to Britnoth for suggesting the method for generating these matchups.

4th Birthday coming up!
Posted by: Christer on CET02000000Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:53:02 +01000214pm06, ThuEurope/Stockholm2006-12-14T14:53:02+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmThu, 14 Dec 2006 14:53:02 +0100 %14, %2006 - %14:%Dec

On January 3rd, we are celebrating FUMBBL's 4th birthday!

As always we have a special treat for you for this day:

All injuries made will be counted as Badly Hurt. Even though the client will show them SIed and dead, the injuries will not take effect on the teams. SPPs will be awarded as usual though.

In addition to this treat, there is a special conditional bonus as well:

If one thousand (1000) or more matches are reported over the day, each team that played will receive a 10k gold bonus. This 10k will be given once to each team that played at least one game (so if you play 10 games, the team will still only get 10k). Also, the teams playing in the 1000th game for the day will be awarded an extra MVP to be placed on a player of the coach's choise.

As always, if any running tournaments wants to avoid this inbalance feel free to ask the members to not play tourney games this day.

I hope you all enjoy this little treat, and have lots of fun playing the games!

Ultimate FUMBBL Pack is looking for testers!
Posted by: BloodbasherMasher on DecemberFri, 08 Dec 2006 16:42:42 +01004208pm06, FriEurope/Stockholm2006-12-08T16:42:42+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmFri, 08 Dec 2006 16:42:42 +0100 %08, %2006 - %16:%Dec

I'm updating the UFP with some of the new teams, and adding things like small icons for Elves, Star Players, large icons for Orks, Stunty icons for Eshin and Gnoblar, et cetera, and I need some people to work out the bugs for me! Please sign up.

Awards now include Factions
Posted by: Christer on Dec20061204am06, MonEurope/Stockholm2006-12-04T10:46:21+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmMon, 04 Dec 2006 10:46:21 +0100 %04, %2006 - %10:%Dec

The award system has been changed so that it includes matches played in the Faction division as well.

This change is made retroactively, so all games you have played in F in the past are now accounted for in your awards. So if you've played Factions, you might want to check your awards page again, as you may have more awards now and dates for obtained awards might have changed.

Faction tweak
Posted by: Christer on th0000001126pm06, 72006000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmSun, 26 Nov 2006 19:23:40 +0100 %26, %2006 - %19:%Nov

Starting with this upcoming round, the number of scoring opponents has been modified as follows:

* Teams in F1 will get 10 scoring opponents
* Teams in F2 will get 15 scoring opponents
* Teams in F3 will get 20 scoring opponents

This change has been made after studying the number of scoring matches that have been played and I am hoping that this will reduce the problems of finding suitable opponents.

Faction changes!
Posted by: Christer on th0000001105pm06, 72006000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmSun, 05 Nov 2006 17:16:38 +0100 %05, %2006 - %17:%Nov

The faction division has gone through a number of changes to reduce the possibility of "cartels" dominating the division. Most of you have seen the discussions, or heard of it so I will not go into details in this news posting.

Because of the extensive changes done, all teams have been inactivated from F and coaches who wish to participate will have to reactivate the team they wish to use.

The new rules for the faction division are as follows:

- You may have any number of faction teams.
- You may have one (1) active faction team.
- Faction 2 is reduced to 30 teams, and Faction 3 is reduced to 40 teams.
- Each team may play any number of matches per round, but only once against the same opponent.
- Each round, teams in Faction 1, 2 and 3 will be assigned eight (8) opponents which will give you points. These will be marked with an S icon.
- Faction Q doesn't have any scoring, and the highest rated (team rating) teams with four (4) or more games will be promoted to F3 as listed below.
- The number of promotions for each faction are changed as follows: F2: 6 teams, F3: 9 teams and FQ: 12 teams. Note that this may differ somewhat due to retired teams.

Team Approvals
Posted by: Angie on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm5217pm06, +02002006-10-17T12:15:52+02:00312006bEurope/StockholmTue, 17 Oct 2006 12:15:52 +0200 %17, %2006 - %12:%Oct

Due to the recent changes in divisional allowances, there has been a marked increase in the number of teams submitted for approval.
We would like to extend a big thank you to all approvers that have managed to keep up with that higher than normal demand for teams.
To those of you waiting for team approval, please continue to be patient and understand that approvers are not expected to be online 24hrs a day. (we allow a 10 minute break, broken up over that period of time :) )

Once again, Thank you.

Team limit changes
Posted by: Christer on th0000001015pm06, +02002006-10-15T16:26:49+02:00312006bEurope/StockholmSun, 15 Oct 2006 16:26:49 +0200 %15, %2006 - %16:%Oct

As of now, each coach may have up to 30 teams in total regardless of division...

... almost. The faction division remains unchanged with a cap of two (2) teams per coach.

Enjoy!

TeamSpeak server
Posted by: Christer on CEST11000000Thu, 14 Sep 2006 23:53:57 +02005714pm06, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmThu, 14 Sep 2006 23:53:57 +0200 %14, %2006 - %23:%Sep

As of tonight, fumbbl.com is running a TeamSpeak 2 server on a trial basis. If it turns out well I will let it run permanently.

To connect to the server, use the following address: fumbbl.com:8767

Please give it a go and let me know what you think!

Overview changes
Posted by: Christer on thpm31000000Sat, 12 Aug 2006 15:09:02 +020012pm06, PM00000030000000231 %12, %2006 - %15:%Aug

As you undoubtedly noticed by now, the overview page has changed. As usual, if you find irregularities, please let me know and I'll do what I can to apply a fix.

As a side note, many of you might want to upload a coach image to be shown here. The ideal resolution is 100x100 pixels. Note that we expect the image to be a photo of you, and not anything else. All images not believed to be a photo of you will be denied.

Proxy server
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm2608am06, AM00000030000002631 %08, %2006 - %03:%Aug

A new proxy server version is being tested on fumbbl.com as of now. With this change, the proxy now resides at port 8082 so those of you who type in information by hand needs to change this in the options.

The difference with this new proxy is that it uses a more scalable network layer. Hopefully, it will stand up better to the load during peak hours.

If you have trouble, please make sure you and your opponent are using the correct port (8082) before contacting the admins.

Edit: The old proxy server is up and running on port 8081 again, so now there are two choices. Please try to use the new one to test it and identify problems though, and revert back to 8081 if there are problems.

Thank you.

Rookie Smacks & Approval
Posted by: mikafreak on Aug2006807am06, AM000000120000002231 %07, %2006 - %00:%Aug

Approval
Rookie Smack Contestants, just a quick note, although I understand you want a Rookie team quickly in order to participate in the tourney, I feel I must point out the following:

1) Approvers are not paid, and are not on call 24 hours a day in order to push Rookie Smack teams through at a moments notice. If approvers are online, they will do the best they can as quickly as they can.

2) Approvers are only allowed to approve teams they can fully translate, anything else they must leave for someone else to look at.

3) Getting shirty or abusive when an approver refuses to approve your “Rookie Smack” team that has been submitted in Japanese or Arabic to name a couple of languages instantly, is seriously out of order.

4) In future all Rookie Smack teams must be submitted in English or be pre approved in any other language.

5) Most importantly Approvers are just like you, they are here to play games and have fun too. As well as to help you get your team ready to be able to play.

A little thought and consideration will go a long way.

Official Tournament Reporters Wanted
Posted by: Malthor on ndam31000000Sat, 22 Jul 2006 05:53:39 +020022am06, J000000Saturday06 %22, %2006 - %05:%Jul

I'd like to announce two exciting new developments. Firstly, a new official ranked tournament reporter team, and secondly, a member competition!

Malthor appointed tournament manager
Posted by: Christer on th000000709pm06, J000000Sunday06 %09, %2006 - %14:%Jul

The admin staff would like to welcome Malthor as our latest "recruit". He will take over the responsibility of keeping the official tournaments running smoothly. In addition to this, he has been promoted to security officer to assist the problems that crop up on a daily basis. As always, give him some time to adjust before you assault him too hard. :)

Welcome to the team Malthor!

Some Rules Clarifications
Posted by: Mezir on tham30000000Sat, 24 Jun 2006 00:42:55 +020024am06, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %24, %2006 - %00:%Jun

Currently there are a few client bugs that have caught site attention, and aren't covered by DifferencesFromBoardGameFAQ.txt. These are using Pass Block when affected by Hypnotic Gaze, and what to do when your entire team is missing the game.

Unplanned downtime
Posted by: Christer on Jun2006612am06, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %12, %2006 - %09:%Jun

This morning, FUMBBL was unexpectedly shut down for a short while. This was due to an electrician doing some work here, so I had to shut down the site and cut power in order to ensure this guy's safety.

I apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Small modification to the championship formula
Posted by: Christer on th000000604am06, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %04, %2006 - %00:%Jun

As of next month, the championship formula is changing slightly. The change consists of a stronger focus on the difficulty value of the games you play.

Hopefully this will encourage coaches to play matches that are more difficult to win, and also make it harder to win the championship.

Email problems
Posted by: Christer on CEST12000000Thu, 18 May 2006 00:08:22 +02002218am06, Mayam06 %18, %2006 - %00:%May

After the move, the emails sent out from the site stopped working. I have now located the problem and fixed the issue, but you may have lost some of the mails sent out to you in the process.

I wish to apologize for the inconvenience, and hope that there isn't anything else that is broken.

Downtime start estimated to 15.00
Posted by: Christer on May2006515pm06, Maypm06 %15, %2006 - %12:%May

I am estimating the downtime to start near 15.00 today.

Hopefully, I will be able to get the site back up and running tonight, but if things don't work out it could be down until wednesday around noon.

DivX and Ladder
Posted by: Christer on thpm31000000Sat, 13 May 2006 13:32:06 +020013pm06, Maypm06 %13, %2006 - %13:%May

As of now, the DivX and Ladder divisions are officially closed. The existing teams from both divisions have been transferred to the Unranked division.

Note that this will take some people's number of Unranked teams to higher than normally allowed. If so, you will be unable to create new Unranked teams until you have retired teams to take you below the allowed threshold.

FUMBBL Downtime
Posted by: Christer on MayFri, 12 May 2006 22:33:57 +02003312pm06, Maypm06 %12, %2006 - %22:%May

At some point on Monday (likely after noon), FUMBBL will taken down to be moved into my new apartment.

Barring any problems the site should be back up and running around 24 hours after it has been taken down.

Note that this will affect the website, the IRC chat and the proxy server.

FUMBBL Planned Downtime
Posted by: Christer on CEST01000000Thu, 04 May 2006 01:39:10 +02001004am06, Mayam06 %04, %2006 - %01:%May

At some point in the near future, the FUMBBL server will be taken down and relocated to another city.

I am not entirely sure on what day this will happen, but it may be as early as in next week. How long the servers will be down is also something I can't even begin to guess. It could be everything from 6 hours to a week, depending on when I am able to get connected to the internet again. Rest assured, I will do everything in my power to keep the downtime to a minimum.

When I have more detailed information regarding the downtime, I will let you guys know.

Introducing the [A]cademy division
Posted by: Christer on MarchFri, 24 Mar 2006 13:59:14 +01005924pm06, MarpmFri, 24 Mar 2006 13:59:14 +01002006-03-24T13:59:14+01:0001 %24, %2006 - %13:%Mar

A new division has been introduced: The [A]cademy division.

The rules of this division are easy:

* You may have up to three (3) teams.
* Your wins/ties/losses statistics will not get updated by games in [A]
* Teams are not playable above TR 150, so manage your teams well!

The IRC chatroom for this division is #FumbblAcademy.

I hope you all enjoy this addition to the site, and especially the new coaches, whom this division is the primary target for.

As usual with new features to the site, please report any problems to me.

Ladder and eXperimental divisions closed
Posted by: Christer on th000000319am06, MaramSun, 19 Mar 2006 02:03:38 +01002006-03-19T02:03:38+01:0002 %19, %2006 - %02:%Mar

As of now, it is not possible to create new teams in the Ladder or eXperimental divisions anymore.

You will still be able to play in these divisions for a short while, but be aware that these divisions will be shut down permanently soon.

The reason for this decision is that these two divisions are simply not worth the effort to maintain by the administrators, and it makes no sense to keep them anymore.

Team Approval review
Posted by: Christer on MarchFri, 17 Mar 2006 08:07:34 +01000717am06, MaramFri, 17 Mar 2006 08:07:34 +01002006-03-17T08:07:34+01:0008 %17, %2006 - %08:%Mar

It has come to my attention that team approval is somewhat disorganized and that there's a need to do a review.

The first step of this review is information gathering, so with this post I am asking the national approver organizers to send a PM to mikafreak with information on the volume of teams that are being submitted in their language. Also, an outline of the activity level of the national approvers would be appreciated.

In addition to the above information, I am asking coaches who are having trouble getting their teams approved to also send a PM to mikafreak with the language and the average time for a team to be approved.

For this, we are looking for information as to whether we need to set up an approver team for new languages, or if a certain language needs a fresh set of approvers so please don't send messages for each and every team that takes more than 30 seconds to be approved. We want to know if teams in certain languages take more than 24 hours on average to get through the approval system.

We are hoping that this will allow us to improve quality and speed of team approvals, but please don't expect things too fast since it'll take time for us to get a picture of the state of things at the moment.

Goblin Cheaters changed
Posted by: peikko on CET08000000Thu, 16 Mar 2006 08:05:44 +01004416am06, MaramThu, 16 Mar 2006 08:05:44 +01002006-03-16T08:05:44+01:0008 %16, %2006 - %08:%Mar

Stunty leeg race Goblin Cheaters have been given a bit of boost up.

"Did You Know"s changed.
Posted by: Christer on 11Europe/Stockholm153Europe/Stockholm3615pm06, MarpmWed, 15 Mar 2006 18:11:36 +01002006-03-15T18:11:36+01:0006 %15, %2006 - %18:%Mar

Due to popular demand, the DYK entries shown will now only involve teams and players in the [R]anked division.

Enjoy the fun, and report any bugs to me.

Edit: In addition, the top10 stats are now defaulting to [R] only.

"Mixed" races
Posted by: Christer on thpm31000000Sat, 07 Jan 2006 17:29:16 +010007pm06, Jpm1000000pmSat, 07 Jan 2006 17:29:16 +010006 %07, %2006 - %17:%Jan

As of now, the "mixed" races are no longer available for creation in the unranked division. This means that they are no longer available in any division and will be phased out. The mixed teams are: Lustrian, Old World and Chaos Pact.

Existing, active teams are considered "grandfathered" and will still be allowed to play.

3rd Birthday treat revealed!
Posted by: Christer on Jan2006102pm06, Jpm1000000pmMon, 02 Jan 2006 17:37:13 +010006 %02, %2006 - %17:%Jan

Well, as we're approaching the third birthday, lots of you are curious as to what special treat we have for you this year.

So, without delaying it any further this is what will happen:

The powers of the warp are on us for the day! All players on all teams will gain a random physical trait. The trait will be different for every game you play, so expect some crazy combinations and insane games.

Note that in some cases this will lead to players having duplicates of traits but please don't bugreport this since it's expected to happen. This is meant as a fun thing and is a temporary thing. Please be nice with the admin staff in case weird bugs happen because of this little treat.

Other than that, enjoy the mayhem!

PS. This will be in effect for all games started on January 3rd according to server time (check "bb time" on the IRC chat to see what time it is).

Merry Xmas Christer!
Posted by: uber on DecemberFri, 30 Dec 2005 11:25:33 +01002530am05, FriEurope/Stockholm2005-12-30T11:25:33+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmFri, 30 Dec 2005 11:25:33 +0100 %30, %2005 - %11:%Dec

In the spirit of the holidays, a few FUMBBLers have gone out of their way this season to make sure that our good host Christer got the thank he deserved for all the hard work he has put in this site for the past three years. More than 20 people contributed to send him a gift certificate that was traded in today for a brand spanking new Xbox.

FUMBBL Birthday Event
Posted by: Christer on Dec20051226am05, MonEurope/Stockholm2005-12-26T01:08:16+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmMon, 26 Dec 2005 01:08:16 +0100 %26, %2005 - %01:%Dec

On January 3rd, FUMBBL is celebrating its third birthday. As usual, this day will be a bit special with some kind of extra little bonus.

The specific thing that will happen this day will be announced later, but I am writing this message to make sure that those of you who are playing in tournaments might want to avoid scheduling their games on this day.

In the last two anniversaries, we've had +2 fanfactor for all teams during the day and a "no ageing" day. This year, the effect may have a more profound effect on your games.

Mikafreak appointed security officer
Posted by: Christer on th0000001218am05, SunEurope/Stockholm2005-12-18T03:53:21+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmSun, 18 Dec 2005 03:53:21 +0100 %18, %2005 - %03:%Dec

Congratulations Mikafreak for the position of Security Officer. I am confident that she will do an outstanding job! As with everyone else, please give her some time to adjust.

Two new stunty races.
Posted by: peikko on 50Europe/Stockholm1412Europe/Stockholm3414pm05, WedEurope/Stockholm2005-12-14T12:19:34+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmWed, 14 Dec 2005 12:19:34 +0100 %14, %2005 - %12:%Dec

Eshin Adepts and Gnoblars have been added to Stunty Leeg races.

Half a million matches!
Posted by: Christer on Dec20051212pm05, MonEurope/Stockholm2005-12-12T21:32:30+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmMon, 12 Dec 2005 21:32:30 +0100 %12, %2005 - %21:%Dec

The 500,000th match result was just reported to the site!

Who would ever have guessed that we'd see so many matches three years ago... Congrats to McLucas' Helvetics and QuebraOssos' Gansgsters Incorporated for this noteworthy game.

Because of the publicity of this match, these two teams gained a number of additional fans (2 fanfactor worth of them)!

FUMBBL Supporter
Posted by: Christer on tham31000000Sat, 10 Dec 2005 05:50:42 +010010am05, SatEurope/Stockholm2005-12-10T05:50:42+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmSat, 10 Dec 2005 05:50:42 +0100 %10, %2005 - %05:%Dec

Do you want to be a

Then take a look at the user guide page that the link points to and you are on your way!

IRC Trojan
Posted by: Christer on th0000001120pm05, 72005000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmSun, 20 Nov 2005 16:19:13 +0100 %20, %2005 - %16:%Nov

Well, in about an hour, I've gotten two reports of an IRC trojan on the FUMBBL chat network. The trojan is designed for mIRC (which isn't a big surprise) and works by sending messages to people which try to fool them into installing it.

The message looks something like this:

Wanna be an OPERATOR in #FUMBBL? copy/paste this:
// write . $decode( {Long string of garbage here} ) | .load -rs . | //mode $me +R

This will NOT make you an operator obviously, but will instead install the trojan on your computer. If you get a message like this, I would apreciate it if you notified me of it through an FUMBBL PM. Please include with who sent it to you and what the message was (copy/paste it to the PM).

Thank you.

Ladder improvements
Posted by: Christer on th0000001113am05, 72005000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmSun, 13 Nov 2005 01:42:40 +0100 %13, %2005 - %01:%Nov

In an attempt to make it easier for coaches who enjoy playing in the Ladder division, there is now a new view of ladder teams.

The new page is linked in all the apropriate places and will only show the teams which have played at least one game within the last 14 days. Let's see if this change makes ladder take off again.

FUMBBL network issue fixed?
Posted by: Christer on CET07000000Thu, 10 Nov 2005 19:41:21 +01002110pm05, 42005000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmThu, 10 Nov 2005 19:41:21 +0100 %10, %2005 - %19:%Nov

My ISP is telling me that they've "fixed the problem" which caused the short disconnections we've been plagued with lately. Unfortunately I don't have any more information on what the problem was or what they did to solve it. My best guess is that they increased the signal strength on my line.

Either way, I am once again asking you all to help me verify this and keep track of how stable the server connection is. The easiest way to see if it's the site that lost the connection is to be on the IRC chat.

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Mr_QB appointed security officer
Posted by: Christer on th0000001106pm05, 72005000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmSun, 06 Nov 2005 22:11:32 +0100 %06, %2005 - %22:%Nov

All congratulate Mr_QB for his promotion to security officer (even though condoleances are probably more appropriate).

I am certain that he'll do a fine job helping out dealing with the issues that crop up in FUMBBL. But as usual, he'll likely need a bit of time to grow into the role so don't be too hard on him. :)

Updated gallery feature
Posted by: Christer on th0000001106pm05, 72005000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmSun, 06 Nov 2005 16:50:49 +0100 %06, %2005 - %16:%Nov

For those of you who enjoy uploading images for your teams and players, there is now a new and improved gallery section of the site. You'll find it linked in the team and player pages just as before.

The new system requires Javascript to be enabled but I hope that you won't mind this too much. As usual, let me know if you find bugs.

Another attempt at reducing the network instability
Posted by: Christer on 44Europe/Stockholm0211Europe/Stockholm2702pm05, 32005000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmWed, 02 Nov 2005 13:57:27 +0100 %02, %2005 - %13:%Nov

Well then, another phonecall to the tech support guys and more things to try. I have now removed some unecessary plastic boxes between the DSL modem and the phoneline (who knows why they were there in the first place...) and we'll see if things improve.

Please keep me informed on any site disconnections since I can't really monitor them on my own :)

Player images and team logos
Posted by: Christer on Oct20051031pm05, +01002005-10-31T20:37:26+01:00312005bEurope/StockholmMon, 31 Oct 2005 20:37:26 +0100 %31, %2005 - %20:%Oct

I've made some changes to how team logos and player images are stored. If you find places where these are not functioning as before, please let me know through a PM, with a support ticket or over the IRC chat.

This is simply an optimization of the database and should not have any effect on functionality.

More game stats!
Posted by: Christer on 43Europe/Stockholm2610Europe/Stockholm2126am05, +02002005-10-26T01:11:21+02:00312005bEurope/StockholmWed, 26 Oct 2005 01:11:21 +0200 %26, %2005 - %01:%Oct

At long last, FUMBBL is tracking the passing, rushing, blocks and fouls figures that JavaBBowl is providing.

You will see them in match result pages and totalled up on the player pages. Feel free to suggest more places where it can be shown.

New match stats feature
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm3525am05, +02002005-10-25T01:55:35+02:00312005bEurope/StockholmTue, 25 Oct 2005 01:55:35 +0200 %25, %2005 - %01:%Oct

Blatantly stealing an idea from ChromeX, I have added a new feature to the team page. You will now find a link called "Show Stats" which will give you a summary of how your team has managed to play against different opposing races.

I hope you'll find this view of the match data interesting.

Recent site instability
Posted by: Christer on OctoberFri, 21 Oct 2005 16:49:46 +02004921pm05, +02002005-10-21T16:49:46+02:00312005bEurope/StockholmFri, 21 Oct 2005 16:49:46 +0200 %21, %2005 - %16:%Oct

I just got off the phone with the tech support of my ISP regarding the unusually high instability of the line in the last week or so.

For once, it seemed like I actually got in touch with someone who had a clue and they did some modifications to my line. Hopefully, this will improve the stability.

So, I would like you guys to help me keep track of the disconnections over the next two to three days and see if things improve or if it's still the same. If nothing changes, I will call them back to see what else they can do.

Introducing the Coach Locator
Posted by: Christer on CEST12000000Thu, 20 Oct 2005 00:09:57 +02005720am05, +02002005-10-20T00:09:57+02:00312005bEurope/StockholmThu, 20 Oct 2005 00:09:57 +0200 %20, %2005 - %00:%Oct

Those of you with keen eyes will have noticed the addition of a "Coach Locator" link in the navigation bars. This feature will allow you to find other FUMBBL coaches who live near you.

To show up in the coach locator, go to your coach info page and type in the city you live in. This is naturally an optional feature and you will be left out of the locator if you simply don't supply a city.

Minor change to strength limit
Posted by: Christer on Oct20051017pm05, +02002005-10-17T17:30:23+02:00312005bEurope/StockholmMon, 17 Oct 2005 17:30:23 +0200 %17, %2005 - %17:%Oct

As of now, the maximum strength difference of 40 applies to teams with strength of up to 250. This limit was increased in order to prevent an increasing number of unbalanced games being played.

Topper 28 appointed Security Officer
Posted by: Christer on CEST02000000Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:06:17 +02001713pm05, +02002005-10-13T14:06:17+02:00312005bEurope/StockholmThu, 13 Oct 2005 14:06:17 +0200 %13, %2005 - %14:%Oct

Congratulations to Topper28 who was just appointed to a security officer. Make sure you bug him lots and lots in #FumbblAdmin :)

Seriously though, I am certain he will prove to be a valuable asset in the team, but please give him some time to get adjusted to things.

Igor is here! New strigoyan star player
Posted by: peikko on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm5911am05, +02002005-10-11T11:01:59+02:00312005bEurope/StockholmTue, 11 Oct 2005 11:01:59 +0200 %11, %2005 - %11:%Oct

Igor is here! New star player for strigoyan team.

Igor thinks he is handsome (foul appereance) and likes to smile more than look in to the mirror. He has friendly personality (dirty player) although he prolly aint the smartest one around (thick skull). Just be carefull and watch those huge fists (mighty blow).

Team strength formula changes
Posted by: Christer on th0000001009pm05, +02002005-10-09T16:52:18+02:00312005bEurope/StockholmSun, 09 Oct 2005 16:52:18 +0200 %09, %2005 - %16:%Oct

I just went ahead and did a few modifications to the team strength formula. The following things have changed:

* The additional player value for MA6+ and ST4+ now also requires AG2+.
* The break tackle bonus is now (ST-AG)/2 if ST>AG.
* Claw gives an extra 0.5 points to the player value.
* Fan Factor gives 0.5 strength per point.

Thank you CircularLogic for the analysis and clear suggestions for these changes.

These changes might create some difficulties with reporting games initially. Please contact the admins if you run into the 40ST limit in ranked due to these changes.

Danish translation of FUMBBL rules now available
Posted by: Topper28 on thpm31000000Sat, 06 Aug 2005 16:44:05 +020006pm05, PM00000040000000531 %06, %2005 - %16:%Aug

We´ve made a Danish translation of FUMBBL rules. All you Danes out there; go read it please.

Danish translation

To all others; you can click the "rules" link in your overview to see if there is a translation of the rules in your particular language.

We encourage all you guys to read up on them, even though, no significant changes has been made recently.

Ngsenten reaches Legend in huge display!!
Posted by: Coggins on thpm31000000Sat, 06 Aug 2005 16:43:38 +020006pm05, PM00000040000003831 %06, %2005 - %16:%Aug

Ngsenten reached legendary status in a huge display against Nouvelle Vague. This match saw the Bardic Eggchasers catcher turn in 6 TD's that sees him leap into the active wood elf top 10 stars!! His coach, Coggins was delighted at his first legend player and hopes more are on the way!!

FUMBBL Community Report #1: July 8, 2005.
Posted by: AlcingRagaholic on JulyFri, 08 Jul 2005 18:39:07 +02003908pm05, J000000Friday05 %08, %2005 - %18:%Jul

Hello and welcome to all on Fumbbl.com. I am AlcingRagaholic, your Chief News Editor. I am here to introduce the very first Fumbbl Community Report, which will be a monthly update that talks about some of the goings on of our wonderful site. My team of Reporters has worked really hard on bringing some news directly to you, and so I hope you will read it!

Big Bunny is Watching: Fumbblwatch Web Log Launch
Posted by: BunnyPuncher on th000000612pm05, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %12, %2005 - %22:%Jun

A blog devoted to all the goings on at fumbbl.com

Click here for the site!

The only independent news source for the fumbbl community. About you, for you, and hopefully by you!

Updated with news, discussions, editorials, and analysis several times per week.

Voice Chat Now Available.
Posted by: EvolveToAnarchism on MayFri, 27 May 2005 05:45:59 +02004527am05, Mayam05 %27, %2005 - %05:%May

Would you like to enjoy a good friendly chat while playing Blood Bowl?

Would you like to provide colour commentary for matches?

Would you like to curse Nuffle so loud that your opponent hears it halfway around the globe?

Would you like to know what that guy you've been playing for years sounds like?

Would you like to smack talk with your opponent?

Would you like to really "boo" those chronic foulers?

Would you like to have more fun?

If you answered yes to any of the above, we've got something new for you:
The folks at gaming-frequency.net have kindly donated the use of a teamspeak server for FUMBBL users.

Community Reporters
Posted by: Christer on May2005516am05, Mayam05 %16, %2005 - %07:%May

In an attempt to further improve the "community feeling" of FUMBBL, we are now looking for coaches who have a good grasp of what's going on in one or more of the following:

- Official tournaments
- Player run tournaments
- Factions
- Stunty Leeg
- The forums
- Other aspects of the community (ideas are welcome here)

We are also looking for someone for the position of "Chief News Editor", who will be in charge of the front page news posts.

The idea here is to have the reporters report information to be published on the front page in a bi-weekly "Community News" type post. The Chief News Editor will be responsible for collecting the data from the reporters and, well, edit their reports for this news letter.

So, if you think you are the perfect person for any of the above positions, please post a comment below. Obviously, you are expected to have good insight in the part of the community you want to report for, an intent to keep submitting the reports and obviously a good grasp of the English language.

Faction 3 resized
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm1410am05, Mayam05 %10, %2005 - %09:%May

Starting with the 45th faction round (which begins on May 16th, Faction 3 will have 60 teams. In addition to this resize, the number of relegation slots have been increased to 18, which naturally is mirrored in the qualifying faction, where the top 18 teams are promoted.

New Security Officers/Gorillas appointed.
Posted by: Trog on CEST04000000Thu, 21 Apr 2005 16:15:10 +02001021pm05, PM+02:00Thu, 21 Apr 2005 16:15:10 +020015Thursday %21, %2005 - %16:%Apr

Fumbbl would like to welcome Candlejack and BadMrMojo into the security officer ranks. Both have been with the site for ages and have been very helpful, not only with admin issues, but also with the website(User Guide), team approvals and general help with players.
Please join in welcoming these two.

Downtime
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm0029pm05, MarpmTue, 29 Mar 2005 15:23:00 +02002005-03-29T15:23:00+02:0003 %29, %2005 - %15:%Mar

As you most likely noticed, FUMBBL has been down for a number of days. This downtime was caused by my ISP having hardware problems. I do not have any further information than that, but it's great to be back online!

I hope you haven't suffered too much from the withdrawal :)

Approver managers
Posted by: Christer on th000000306am05, MaramSun, 06 Mar 2005 10:04:11 +01002005-03-06T10:04:11+01:0010 %06, %2005 - %10:%Mar

As some of you have noticed, the team approval process has been slowly been taking more and more time. In an effort to improve approval speeds and to give coaches someone to turn to for language-specific concerns, a new position has been created: Approver Manager.

Site defacement
Posted by: Christer on Feb2005228am05, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbMon, 28 Feb 2005 03:28:58 +0100000000amMon, 28 Feb 2005 03:28:58 +010005 %28, %2005 - %03:%Feb

At 19:09:35 on February 27th, someone claiming to belong to the "Un-Root Crew" defaced the FUMBBL website. The attack originated from a brazilian IP address (which has been logged) and was done by exploiting a vulnerability of the FUMBBL website.

I obviously closed the hole the cracker (well, script kiddie most likely) used and have contacted the ISP from which the attack was performed. I have also contacted the security team of the registrar of one of the domain names that were involved in the attack.

The site should be working as normal now.

Server Hiccup
Posted by: Christer on th000000227am05, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbSun, 27 Feb 2005 03:48:52 +0100000000amSun, 27 Feb 2005 03:48:52 +010005 %27, %2005 - %03:%Feb

At around 16:00 last night, one of the partitions on the server harddrive ran out of space. This is obviously not a good thing and the site quickly became inaccessable and/or failed to work properly.

The problem is now taken care of and I've taken a few precautions to prevent it from happening again any time soon. If you are still experiencing problems with the site, please contact me via a PM.

-- Christer

Server up and running again
Posted by: Christer on 04Europe/Stockholm261Europe/Stockholm3626am05, Jam1000000amWed, 26 Jan 2005 03:23:36 +010005 %26, %2005 - %03:%Jan

Ok, so it didn't take a day... :)

I decided to put off reinstalling the operating system and just moved the drives and various peripherals to the new system. Everything should be back to normal again for the time being.

Now let's see if the extra gigabyte of ram and extra processing power makes any difference.

Server upgrade downtime
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm0525pm05, Jpm1000000pmTue, 25 Jan 2005 19:48:05 +010005 %25, %2005 - %19:%Jan

At some point between 10pm and midnight server time (CET), the site will be taken down for the hardware upgrade mentioned in an earlier news post. I will do what I can to keep the downtime to a minimum, but expect 1 to 2 days.

Minor change in didyouknows
Posted by: Christer on rd000000123pm05, Jpm1000000pmSun, 23 Jan 2005 20:59:35 +010005 %23, %2005 - %20:%Jan

As of now, the didyouknows will be updated once a day, so don't be too surprised if you break a record and it doesn't show up immediately. With this change, you can now see all didyouknows on a single page. It's linked in the didyouknow line as well.

Planned server downtime
Posted by: Christer on rd000000123pm05, Jpm1000000pmSun, 23 Jan 2005 17:57:11 +010005 %23, %2005 - %17:%Jan

At some point during next week, I will be taking down the server, the chat and everything related to it in order to upgrade the server. Due to the extensiveness of the upgrade, I will make a complete reinstall of everything. This, of course, means that the server will be down for quite a while. The server will likely be taken down on tuesday or wednesday and will be down for an estimated 24-48 hours. I will announce a more accurate time on the chatroom a short while before taking the server down.

FUMBBL 2nd birthday gift (ended)
Posted by: Christer on Jan2005103am05, Jam1000000amMon, 03 Jan 2005 10:06:12 +010005 %03, %2005 - %10:%Jan

And here we are.. FUMBBL turned 2 years old today, and what a year it's been. Over 200.000 games have been played over the year which took the total number of games to over 300.000 just a few days ago.

I'm very happy to see how popular FUMBBL is and I hope that 2005 will be at least as fun as 2004. To kick things off, ageing has been disabled today and tomorrow. So now is a perfect time for you to develop your stars without the fear of them ageing!

On behalf of the FUMBBL admin staff, I want to wish you all a happy new year and we hope you stick around and help us make FUMBBL an even better place than it is!

Group and Tournament improvements
Posted by: Christer on DecemberFri, 17 Dec 2004 18:49:55 +01004917pm04, FriEurope/Stockholm2004-12-17T18:49:55+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmFri, 17 Dec 2004 18:49:55 +0100 %17, %2004 - %18:%Dec

As some of you have noticed already, there have been a few changes in the group and tournament parts of the site:

- Added the "last online" marker on group members.
- The Open Round Robin game grid has been improved a bit for tournament managers.
- Open Round Robin tournaments can be ended before completion, marking the team the highest score as the winner.
- Old completed tournaments are hidden from view for groups with lots of tournaments.

I am hoping these changes will make it a bit easier for you all to run your own tournaments.

2004 Rules Review revisited
Posted by: Christer on NovemberFri, 26 Nov 2004 17:29:45 +01002926pm04, 52004000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmFri, 26 Nov 2004 17:29:45 +0100 %26, %2004 - %17:%Nov

It has come to my attention that there's a bit of confusion on how to handle some of the rules changes in the 2004 rules review. The rules in question are the "must set up 11 players if possible" and the changes in the blitz kickoff result.

These differences from the LRB are not considered bugs and as such, the client's way to handle these situations are to be used until SkiJunkie has time to update the client to handle the rules review changes. The key point here is that they're differences and not bugs.

Group changes
Posted by: Christer on NovemberFri, 26 Nov 2004 13:03:39 +01000326pm04, 52004000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmFri, 26 Nov 2004 13:03:39 +0100 %26, %2004 - %13:%Nov

In an effort to make the groups page useable again, I have added some functionality to the groups. Group owners can now mark their team as "Recruiting" and write a short Ad for their group.

Groups which are recruiting will be shown separately on the Groups page, together with the short ad. Hopefully, this will make it easier for coaches to find a suitable group to join.

2004 Rules Review
Posted by: Christer on CET03000000Thu, 18 Nov 2004 03:19:09 +01000918am04, 42004000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmThu, 18 Nov 2004 03:19:09 +0100 %18, %2004 - %03:%Nov

With the 2004 rules review being published, I have made some changes to FUMBBL:

- Big guys don't get General skills anymore. If they roll a skill and have none available, the skill roll is counted as a double roll.
- Pro is now a skill.
- Undead mummys cost 110k.
- Ogres and Vampires are official. Vampires are still using the old OFAB and Hypnotic Gaze characteristics.
- Rat Ogres have all been reduced to a base agility of 2.

Edit: Chaos Dwarfs' Re-Rolls now cost 70000 as appropriate

Faction division redesign
Posted by: Christer on CET10000000Thu, 04 Nov 2004 22:40:21 +01002104pm04, 42004000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmThu, 04 Nov 2004 22:40:21 +0100 %04, %2004 - %22:%Nov

And once again the faction division has undergone some changes in an attempt to solve the trouble of finding games. The factions have gone from the tree structure into a linear system.

IRC channel changes
Posted by: Christer on CET03000000Thu, 04 Nov 2004 03:26:07 +01000704am04, 42004000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmThu, 04 Nov 2004 03:26:07 +0100 %04, %2004 - %03:%Nov

As a part of the "great shakes" that Grumbledook announced recently, we have added a few more channels for you to join:

#FumbblStunty - The channel for Stunty Leeg
#FumbblX - The DivX channel
#FumbblUnranked - The Unranked channel

Great Shakes in Fumbbl
Posted by: Grumbledook on CET000000Europe/Stockholm2002pm04, 22004000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmTue, 02 Nov 2004 22:39:20 +0100 %02, %2004 - %22:%Nov

Right then, some effort is being put into place to get Fumbbl back some of its identity. Instead of being a Blood Bowl league its become somewhat of a free source of coaches just to run their own leagues and tournaments instead.

New stunty race
Posted by: peikko on Oct20041025am04, +02002004-10-25T07:29:01+02:00312004bEurope/StockholmMon, 25 Oct 2004 07:29:01 +0200 %25, %2004 - %07:%Oct

As some of you might have already noticed there is new stunty race available in stunty leeg: Skryre Slaves.
These pesky little rats won the new stunty race poll and you can read more about their fluff from Skryre thread.

Update Bug with warpwheel is now fixed. Fortunate side is that all older warpwheels are updated, downside is that they are named deathrollers positionally.

Scheduled server maintenance
Posted by: Christer on thpm31000000Sat, 09 Oct 2004 18:34:43 +020009pm04, +02002004-10-09T18:34:43+02:00312004bEurope/StockholmSat, 09 Oct 2004 18:34:43 +0200 %09, %2004 - %18:%Oct

Today at 20:00 server time, the site will go down for maintenance. The expected downtime is 1 hour.

New model Pump Wagons
Posted by: peikko on SeptemberFri, 24 Sep 2004 18:13:35 +02001324pm04, thEurope/Stockholm+02:0030Europe/Stockholm09bEurope/StockholmFri, 24 Sep 2004 18:13:35 +0200 %24, %2004 - %18:%Sep

Finally the Snotling Pump Wagon factory has updated line of pump wagons! The new more elegant model does not only look much cooler, but it comes now without general skill access so dont try to return your fresh bought wagon to your dealer claiming they are broken. As a add-on bonus you can still get rid of same amount of gold pieces as you did before, enjoy.

Coach pics
Posted by: peikko on CEST05000000Thu, 19 Aug 2004 17:13:55 +02005519pm04, PM00000050000005531 %19, %2004 - %17:%Aug

When submitting coach pic into your info page there is folowing instructions:

"Please *do not* upload anything except
an image of yourself. It *will not* be approved"

Still 4/5 of pics violate this. Please DO follow these simple instructions better in the future.

Return of Malthor
Posted by: RubenG on CEST03000000Thu, 19 Aug 2004 15:32:22 +02002219pm04, PM00000030000002231 %19, %2004 - %15:%Aug

Athel Loren - Coach Malthor appears ready to end his retirement and get back to the coaching ranks. The legendary coach will play in the Avelorn Ballet Company's 200th game "barring any setbacks or 'last minute change of heart.' "

Malthor was once the best ranked coach but he has not played since the 29th May. He apparently began to consider a return to the league when he heard that close friend and rival RubenG had actually won a game.

Clarification of team approval rules
Posted by: m0nty on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm0517am04, AM00000090000000531 %17, %2004 - %09:%Aug

Since the last rules clarification news story was well received, it's time to do another one: this time, we'll cover the rules for approving teams.

Vault Wild Animal poll (restored!)
Posted by: m0nty on 32Europe/Stockholm048Europe/Stockholm5404pm04, PM00000030000005431 %04, %2004 - %15:%Aug

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: The Vault forums have recovered from their hitch. Keep voting!.

Here's your chance to directly influence the rules in the Playtesters Vault. There is a poll on the Wild Animal skill at the Vault forums!

Clarification of disconnection rules
Posted by: m0nty on Jul2004719pm04, J000000Monday04 %19, %2004 - %12:%Jul

There is now a page in the help files entitled Disconnection Problems which sets out in full the procedure you must follow when a game suffers a disconnection.

Gamefinder
Posted by: Christer on th000000718am04, J000000Sunday04 %18, %2004 - %06:%Jul

A new feature has been added to the site: The Gamefinder. This will allow you to display your teams to other coaches. Naturally, there is no obligation to play just because you added your team though.

The idea with this page is to reduce the "looking for game" spam on the chat channel, so please use it as much as possible :)

Fumbbl chat gets a new name!
Posted by: SunTzu on th000000718am04, J000000Sunday04 %18, %2004 - %06:%Jul

Our beloved talk channel, #fumbbl-chat, has been renamed to #FumbblChat, and has been registered for all you happy chatters out there. Pop in if you want to talk, discuss strategies, whine about bad luck or do a singalong!

Vault 1.5.1 released
Posted by: m0nty on JulyFri, 16 Jul 2004 04:51:12 +02005116am04, J000000Friday04 %16, %2004 - %04:%Jul

Version 1.5.1 of the Playtesters Vault experimental rules for Blood Bowl has been released, and will remain stable until at least the end of September, providing a solid ruleset for possible playtesting.

New IRC.. Again
Posted by: Christer on CEST01000000Thu, 08 Jul 2004 13:49:58 +02005808pm04, J000000Thursday04 %08, %2004 - %13:%Jul

AustNet was causing a huge number of problems for many of our coaches, so we're yet again switching to another IRC server.. This time it's located at irc.fumbbl.com and administrated by myself, so it should result in less problems with nickname collisions and "clone" problems.

To get there, type the following into your chat client:

/server irc.fumbbl.com

FUMBBL IRC Network?
Posted by: Christer on 28Europe/Stockholm077Europe/Stockholm0407pm04, J000000Wednesday04 %07, %2004 - %21:%Jul

Due to the various problems that has appeared with the switch to AustNet, I am considering if it might be worthwhile to set up a dedicated IRC network for FUMBBL. In order to make that happen, I would need to have one or two volunteers who have access to a 24/7 server and ability to set up an IRC server on it.

I have not quite yet decided to do this, but if you think you could set up a server please get in touch with me on the chat or by PM and we'll discuss it.

New IRC location
Posted by: Christer on 28Europe/Stockholm077Europe/Stockholm0107am04, J000000Wednesday04 %07, %2004 - %03:%Jul

For now, FUMBBL chat have moved to AustNet. You will find the details and relevant addresses on the Chat page

AfterNET problems
Posted by: Petter on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm0706pm04, J000000Tuesday04 %06, %2004 - %23:%Jul

AfterNET are having serious problems. From some AfterNET sources it appears the IRC network is having troubles from some DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks from hackers. So far the Dutch server is still working, so if you have problems connecting, you might want to try "/server gamesleague.nl.afternet.org" in your IRC client.

IRC problems
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm1306pm04, J000000Tuesday04 %06, %2004 - %22:%Jul

AfterNET has been experiencing massive DDoS attacks lately and as I'm writing this I am completely unable to connect to the network. Hopefully, the AfterNET staff will get this under control soon.

I just thought I'd write something about this before you all start writing support tickets about it :)

FUMBBL hits the 200K games played mark
Posted by: Trog on CEST01000000Thu, 01 Jul 2004 13:31:28 +02002801pm04, J000000Thursday04 %01, %2004 - %13:%Jul

Today marks another historic day in FUMBBL history, folks. We've played our 200,000th game online since January 3rd of 2003.

Site downtime
Posted by: Christer on thpm30000000Sat, 26 Jun 2004 21:06:29 +020026pm04, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %26, %2004 - %21:%Jun

As you may have noticed, the site was more or less unreachable for a while today. This was due to some sad person launching a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack against the site.

I have managed to get this wave of attacks under control and we can only hope that the attacker goes back hiding under his rock until he grows up.

Ranking reset and change
Posted by: Christer on 23Europe/Stockholm026Europe/Stockholm0702am04, J0000006Europe/Stockholm %02, %2004 - %11:%Jun

Coach rankings have been reset for all coaches. The reason for this is the number of changes that have been made recently together with the following things that have been updated just now:

- Coach ranking is now much more important for ranking purposes: The denominator for the coach rank difference has been changed from 150 to 40. (See the user guide for the full ranking formula).
- Team rankings have been removed entirely

Ladder IRC channel
Posted by: Christer on ndam31000000Sat, 22 May 2004 05:57:16 +020022am04, Mayam04 %22, %2004 - %05:%May

As of now, there is an official ladder IRC channel. You can find it at #FumbblLadder on AfterNET (the same network where #FUMBBL resides).

Ladder challenges
Posted by: Christer on MayFri, 21 May 2004 09:57:03 +02005721am04, Mayam04 %21, %2004 - %09:%May

As an experimental feature, ladder teams can now issue challenges. There are a separate system of "Challenge Points" (CP) running in parallell with the ladder points.

10,000th coach account
Posted by: m0nty on CEST08000000Thu, 20 May 2004 20:11:41 +02004120pm04, Maypm04 %20, %2004 - %20:%May

FUMBBL has clocked up its 10,000th coach registration.

Ladder division reopens
Posted by: Christer on May2004517pm04, Maypm04 %17, %2004 - %22:%May

Ladder division is now open for new teams again. The following changes have been made:

- Teams progress according to the standard rules
- You can play any games. The old "must play down" restriction is gone
- Ladder points are now shown on your overview

My intention is to implement a challenge system into the ladder division at some point in the future. The rules for this challenge system are still somewhat of an open issue. Obviously, I will announce when this challenge system is up and running.

Stunty Review
Posted by: peikko on th000000516am04, Mayam04 %16, %2004 - %02:%May

Stunty leeg has had now its own review.

New Logo!
Posted by: Christer on CEST10000000Thu, 13 May 2004 22:15:27 +02002713pm04, Maypm04 %13, %2004 - %22:%May

At long last, the new FUMBBL Logo is done! A big thank you to Janzki for drawing it.

I will publish the logo in various formats in the user guide soon, so all of you who are working on themes can finally get the real logo into place. All current themes are in need of updating obviously, and this will be done over time.

Peikko appointed admin
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm0511pm04, Maypm04 %11, %2004 - %20:%May

Peikko has been appointed full admin. His main responsibility is to manage Stunty Leeg, so now you know who to bother with new roster suggestions and balance suggestions.

Ladder division closes down
Posted by: Christer on tham31000000Sat, 08 May 2004 07:58:49 +020008am04, Mayam04 %08, %2004 - %07:%May

As of now, the ladder division is closed for new teams. Existing ladder teams will be moved into the Unranked division at some point during next week This delay is there to allow you to finalize the structure of the team, as you will be unable to modify it once it has been moved.

Getting help
Posted by: Christer on MayFri, 07 May 2004 09:26:48 +02002607am04, Mayam04 %07, %2004 - %09:%May

It has come to my attention that a number of people go to the wrong IRC channels and ask for FUMBBL related help. To reduce the stress of the other channels on Afternet (the network we are using) I want to take the opportunity to let you know where to ask various types of questions:

#Fumbbl_admin - Ask here if you have a FUMBBL site rule question or need the help of the FUMBBL admins or security officers.

#Fumbbl - Ask here if it's a question on how the client works, or various details on the Blood Bowl rules. Chances are that someone in there will know the answer. This is also the place to request team approval if you are in a hurry to get started with your team. Essentially, any type of question is OK here. If the people in here can't answer directly, they can tell you where to ask instead.

The forums - Always a safe place to ask questions. Please try to find a relevant forum for your question if you ask there.

Multiple group managers
Posted by: Christer on MayFri, 07 May 2004 07:55:15 +02005507am04, Mayam04 %07, %2004 - %07:%May

I've added support for multiple group managers. The helpers (called group staff) will be able to manage most aspects of the group. However, they will not be able to edit the group info or disband the group. Naturally, they will also be unable to edit the staff list.

Group owners will have a new "Edit Group Staff" link on the group page to edit the list of staff.

No progression tournaments
Posted by: Christer on AprilFri, 30 Apr 2004 03:36:39 +02003630am04, AM+02:00Fri, 30 Apr 2004 03:36:39 +020036Friday %30, %2004 - %03:%Apr

Without having tested it much at all, I just added an option to tournaments that allows you to run them as "No progression" type tourneys. Teams that play in these types of tournaments will not get any new skills, no money, FF will not be updated and no injuries or raised players will be applied. Essentially, you play a TR100 team in all games. This is obviously the same system as you are used to from the ladder division.

Teams that have played games already can not join these types of tournaments, and once you play a non-progression game, your team is stuck with that choice forever.

As I have not tested this, there is a high probability that there are bugs in the code. However, it would be good if some of you could test this new feature so that I can get feedback on how (or if) it works.

LRB 3.0 released
Posted by: m0nty on CEST03000000Thu, 29 Apr 2004 15:52:53 +02005329pm04, PM+02:00Thu, 29 Apr 2004 15:52:53 +020052Thursday %29, %2004 - %15:%Apr

Version 3.0 of the Living Rulebook, the bible of Blood Bowl, has been released as a PDF file on the official site.

Strength formula tweaked
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm2327am04, AM+02:00Tue, 27 Apr 2004 01:55:23 +020055Tuesday %27, %2004 - %01:%Apr

Recent stats have shown that the strength formula were underestimating the strength value of some of the rosters. To improve this situation, the following changes have been made:

- Regenerate is increased by 1 point.
- Break tackle is increased by 2 points if the player has a strength above 3.

DivX strength limit removed
Posted by: Christer on Apr2004426pm04, PM+02:00Mon, 26 Apr 2004 19:15:33 +020015Monday %26, %2004 - %19:%Apr

With the move to make DivX unranked, the limit that you had to play within 40 strength is no longer active in this division. Obviously, this limit is still there in the Ranked division.

Beware of the Chef!
Posted by: Christer on Apr2004426am04, AM+02:00Mon, 26 Apr 2004 07:11:27 +020011Monday %26, %2004 - %07:%Apr

At long last, halflings can boost their reroll stealing brews like the 2003 rules review specifies. This works just like hiring a wizard, and you can "hire" several times to get more rolls.

So watch out, the halflings might take over the league!

Divisional rankings
Posted by: Christer on th000000425pm04, PM+02:00Sun, 25 Apr 2004 18:44:21 +020044Sunday %25, %2004 - %18:%Apr

As of now, the ranked division is the only one that counts for coach ranking. All teams in the ranked division has been marked as ranked and will affect your coach ranking.

Obviously, you can not create new opted out teams either.

Site additions
Posted by: m0nty on CEST06000000Thu, 22 Apr 2004 18:03:19 +02001922pm04, PM+02:00Thu, 22 Apr 2004 18:03:19 +020003Thursday %22, %2004 - %18:%Apr

There have been some changes to the site in recent days:

New forums for each division

Cosmetic update for Faction 1

1212 Reads

Read more... (771 bytes more) 5 Comments

Minor Java Web Start changes
Posted by: Christer on th000000418am04, AM+02:00Sun, 18 Apr 2004 00:36:31 +020036Sunday %18, %2004 - %00:%Apr

I just changed some minor aspects of the Java web start launchers. Hopefully, this means that the recent flood of problems for some Internet Explorer users will be fixed. This might also affect Mac users who I believe had some issues with the automatic launching as well.

Let me know how it runs now if you had trouble before, or if it worked before and not now.

Server back online
Posted by: Christer on AprilFri, 16 Apr 2004 22:02:05 +02000216pm04, PM+02:00Fri, 16 Apr 2004 22:02:05 +020002Friday %16, %2004 - %22:%Apr

Everything went reasonably well and the server looks like it's running just fine again. However, please be gentle and let me know if you run into trouble.

Server downtime
Posted by: Christer on CEST06000000Thu, 15 Apr 2004 18:12:54 +02005415pm04, PM+02:00Thu, 15 Apr 2004 18:12:54 +020012Thursday %15, %2004 - %18:%Apr

At 19:00 (7pm) server time, I will take down the fumbbl.com site and everything that goes with it (javabbowl mirror, proxy server etc) to install a pair of new harddrives.

The site will be down for a day or two as it involves a complete system reinstall.

Divisions change
Posted by: Christer on 16Europe/Stockholm144Europe/Stockholm0314am04, AM+02:00Wed, 14 Apr 2004 01:39:03 +020039Wednesday %14, %2004 - %01:%Apr

A few things are changing with the divisions:

- Open is now called Ranked.
- Tournament is now called Unranked and allows a maximum of 15 teams per coach.

Over the next few days, all teams in the Ranked division will be opted in and you will no longer be able to create unranked teams in there. If you still want to play unranked, you can move the team to the unranked division at any time. Note that this is a one-way street and you will be unable to move back.

The old division names will be seen in various places on the site. We will be working on updating the names everywhere. Please don't spam us with "bug reports" on this for a few days, as we are likely well aware of alot of the things that need to be updated.

Match limits
Posted by: Christer on CEST000000Europe/Stockholm3313am04, AM+02:00Tue, 13 Apr 2004 02:33:33 +020033Tuesday %13, %2004 - %02:%Apr

Very soon, games played in Open and DivX divisions will be slightly restricted. Games where the difference in Strength values is greater than 40 will be considered too one-sided and will not be uploadable. There are three exceptions to this rule:

- If both teams are below Str 100, the game will be allowed.
- If both teams are above Str 199, the game will be allowed.
- If the game is scheduled in a tournament, the game will be allowed.

The reason I'm not applying this rule immediately is to make sure that teams currently involved in games which would not be uplaodable under this restriction will be able to upload properly. However, this change _will_ take place in a few hours from now, so please make sure that you do not start new games that violate this rule.

#Fumbbl_elite
Posted by: Oldworld_beastmen on thpm30000000Sat, 10 Apr 2004 18:43:17 +020010pm04, PM+02:00Sat, 10 Apr 2004 18:43:17 +020043Saturday %10, %2004 - %18:%Apr

From today it's opened a new channel: #Fumbbl_elite.
this channel is for all and only teams over 300TR of any race and division,created just in order to see still epic battles on the field between your Titans.

Come and join it with us....don't left that your team rot to the core waiting a match

Planned downtime
Posted by: Christer on CEST02000000Thu, 08 Apr 2004 02:42:45 +02004508am04, AM+02:00Thu, 08 Apr 2004 02:42:45 +020042Thursday %08, %2004 - %02:%Apr

I just placed an order for a pair of new harddrives for the FUMBBL server. When they get here (at some point next week), I will be taking down the site to install the drives and reinstall the OS (the two drives are going to be set up as a RAID array).

Policy for results during downtime
Posted by: m0nty on th000000404am04, AM+02:00Sun, 04 Apr 2004 07:56:01 +020056Sunday %04, %2004 - %07:%Apr

Some of this goes over what Christer said in his news post, but it's the full version of the admins' policy on results from the downtime.

FUMBBL server crash
Posted by: Christer on th000000404am04, AM+02:00Sun, 04 Apr 2004 02:54:42 +020054Sunday %04, %2004 - %02:%Apr

Well then, The FUMBBL Server ran into some bad blocks on the harddrive today. These bad blocks managed to corrupt the database to a point where I had to revert back to the latest backup, meaning roughly 18 hours of reported games, created teams, forum posts, etc were lost.

For games that were played during this 18 hour period, you may have the result files on your systems already. For these situations, you should contact your opponent and see if you both can upload the file. This is very important as the admin group would get flooded with questions on how to deal with this.

If you upload a game without your opponent being consulted, do NOT ask admins to push it through. We will refuse to do so for at least 24 hours. However, if you upload and _your opponent_ asks the admins to push the game, we will do so.

All in all, please please be gentle with the admins as we've been under enough stress due to this data loss already. Let's just try to get past this smoothly, shall we?

Oh, and your old skill/ageing rolls are lost permanently either way. We can not confirm your old rolls, so don't even bother requesting skill changes or ageing effect removal.

At the moment, I am looking into getting a RAID setup for the FUMBBL server so that this type of thing can be avoided in the future. If you happen to have insight in the matter, please contact me (Christer) on the chat as I'm looking for assistance and advice on what to get. (And no, I don't need 10 20TB Ultra-wide scsi15 with burst mode drives ;) )

PS. This is not a joke. :/

April Fools
Posted by: Christer on CEST09000000Thu, 01 Apr 2004 21:11:21 +02002101pm04, PM+02:00Thu, 01 Apr 2004 21:11:21 +020011Thursday %01, %2004 - %21:%Apr

As some of you suspected, the ISP letter was an april fools joke. Looking at the number of donations that have streamed in makes me feel I have to apologize for it. It was never intended as a way for me to get you to donate more, although it's very heartwarming that there are people who value what FUMBBL does and feels obliged to help out if necessary.

I definately don't want to take advantage of this sort of thing and will offer a refund of the donations made under this pretext. Just contact me and I will have PayPal refund the money ASAP without any hard feelings or grudges :)

#ToiletBowl
Posted by: Topper28 on Mar2004329am04, MaramMon, 29 Mar 2004 06:49:13 +02002004-03-29T06:49:13+02:0006 %29, %2004 - %06:%Mar

#ToiletBowl channel was first created as a tourney channel for the 1st. Annual Toilet Bowl tourney. We´ve expanded the idea a little more, making it an official Fumbbl IRC channel.

Faction division expands!
Posted by: Christer on 13Europe/Stockholm243Europe/Stockholm2624am04, MaramWed, 24 Mar 2004 06:14:26 +01002004-03-24T06:14:26+01:0006 %24, %2004 - %06:%Mar

Due to popular demand (or really to create popular demand) each coach can now have up to TWO teams in the faction division. To keep it simple (alot of you will recognize this as the KISS rule) there are no additional restrictions added. Each team may play up to 8 games per round (biweekly). Obviously, you cannot play against your own team even if they are in the same faction.

We are hoping that this change will increase the popularity of the factions and create a highly competetive environment for everyone to enjoy.

Why are you still reading this? Go make that second team right away :)

Faction IRC channel
Posted by: Christer on 12Europe/Stockholm173Europe/Stockholm4017am04, MaramWed, 17 Mar 2004 00:41:40 +01002004-03-17T00:41:40+01:0012 %17, %2004 - %00:%Mar

A new IRC channel has been set up to promote play in the faction division. You can find it in #FumbblFactions.

ISP problems
Posted by: Christer on Mar2004301pm04, MarpmMon, 01 Mar 2004 19:28:03 +01002004-03-01T19:28:03+01:0007 %01, %2004 - %19:%Mar

It seems my ISP is having problems again. My IP number is changing very frequently which results in inability to access the site until I update the DNS records. Nothing much to do about it other than wait it out.

I figured you would like to know what was going on.

Ever been lost in the gaze of someone's eye?
Posted by: Grumbledook on Mar2004301pm04, MarpmMon, 01 Mar 2004 16:01:48 +01002004-03-01T16:01:48+01:0004 %01, %2004 - %16:%Mar

Have you been say there staring at someone transfixed by their gaze? You lost all sense of awareness and went off into a dreamland? Well now you can again!

Fed Up With Aging? (Active)
Posted by: Grumbledook on Feb2004223pm04, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbMon, 23 Feb 2004 23:06:10 +0100000000pmMon, 23 Feb 2004 23:06:10 +010004 %23, %2004 - %23:%Feb

Now its hard to escape the fact a lot of people don't like aging. I am not one of them but not everyone shares my view point. So there is some good news for you people. Some point later this week aging shall be removed from DivX.

A slight change in #fumbbl_admin
Posted by: Trog on FebruaryFri, 20 Feb 2004 04:46:22 +01004620am04, FebruaryEurope/StockholmbFri, 20 Feb 2004 04:46:22 +0100000000amFri, 20 Feb 2004 04:46:22 +010004 %20, %2004 - %04:%Feb

In the past #fumbbl_admin has been a chat channel where you went to discuss support tickets, issues concerning your account, and other website/chat issues that an admin/security officer could solve. The channel, in the past, was open to all and easily accessable.

To prevent someone from unknowingly entering the channel, when an admin/security officer chat with a coach is going on, we will be blocking anyone from entering the channel except by invitation. This is done to insure privacy concerning these matters. The channel will be reopened once that issue has been resolved.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Proper use of the Proxy Server
Posted by: Mr-Klipp on stam31000000Sat, 31 Jan 2004 08:58:07 +010031am04, Jam1000000amSat, 31 Jan 2004 08:58:07 +010004 %31, %2004 - %08:%Jan

I have noticed that almost everyone is using the proxy server for all their games. In roughly 90% of the games being played, there is no reason to do this. It adds another layer to the network connection, creating more possible problems, forces all the trafic to be routed through Christer's connection in Sweden, and on top of all that, it takes up resources that could be better used in running the site. Read below to find out how to host games without using the proxy server.

ISP problems (Update Jan 21)
Posted by: Christer on CET03000000Thu, 15 Jan 2004 15:42:43 +01004315pm04, Jpm1000000pmThu, 15 Jan 2004 15:42:43 +010004 %15, %2004 - %15:%Jan

My ISP is experiencing problems with their network resulting in me having a lot of traffic loss. This ofcourse explains why you have a hard time accessing the site.

The support guy I talked to on the phone just now did not seem to have any information on the problem, and said they would report this to a technician, saying I should call them back if it has not been fixed in a day(!!).

Bottom line is that I can't do anything but wait, hoping it'll be fixed soon.

Update, Jan 17 Just called the tech support again and they suddenly say that others are having similar problems and that their technicians are working on the problem right now. Naturally, they had no idea when my link would return. Oh well...

Update, Jan 19 Today, tech support was a bit friendlier saying I should obviously not have to pay for these days of downtime. However, they still say that they have sent the matter to their technicians and have no further information on it. I'll keep calling the support daily and will let you know when/if I get further information.

Update, Jan 21 "It looks like our technicians are still working on it" ... "It can take time to solve problems" ... "We just have to wait and hope they fix it soon"... Oh the joy of a support team which doesn't know anything...

Public picture folders cleaned
Posted by: peikko on JanuaryFri, 09 Jan 2004 12:05:50 +01000509pm04, Jpm1000000pmFri, 09 Jan 2004 12:05:50 +010004 %09, %2004 - %12:%Jan

Public picture folders have now all been gone through and lot of pictures are now deleted from it. From now on if you are uploading a picture to public folder it should not be anything other than a picture of a blood bowl player of that position and it should be sized to be used on jbb.

If you want to use some more custom pics for your players upload them into your personal folder.

Peikko,

Mighty Cave Troll, Ruler of Finlandia, Father Christmas at Large

BEST TOP SCORER EVER!!!
Posted by: Gary_Gygax on 02Europe/Stockholm071Europe/Stockholm3407am04, Jam1000000amWed, 07 Jan 2004 09:22:34 +010004 %07, %2004 - %09:%Jan

A very historic moment in the FUMBBL's history. Lupino, the Via Canada's goblin, is now the best top scorer ever (with 115 touchdowns at the moment) surpassing the ultra legendary elf catcher Svante.
Also a crazy coach like Gary_Gygax couldn't believe that a little, fragile goblin could reach that mythical milestone and still alive after 109 games!!!

Logo competition closed
Posted by: Christer on 02Europe/Stockholm071Europe/Stockholm3107am04, Jam1000000amWed, 07 Jan 2004 06:05:31 +010004 %07, %2004 - %06:%Jan

The logo competition vote is now closed. The most popular logo was the "Tripple 1" logo created by peikko. However, he feels that he could do much better and has offered to spend some time attempting to create something better with the assistance of a select few helpers.

This means that the new logo will be delayed for some time.

Battle Bowl kicks off in two days
Posted by: Animal2020 on th000000104am04, Jam1000000amSun, 04 Jan 2004 11:12:37 +010004 %04, %2004 - %11:%Jan

Battlebowl is still looking for coaches to fill up some spots. so come on and join up if you are looking for a good time and some football bashing. everyting you have ever wanted and a bowl of fruit.

Logo competition
Posted by: Christer on th000000104am04, Jam1000000amSun, 04 Jan 2004 03:10:24 +010004 %04, %2004 - %03:%Jan

As you most likely know, we have been running a logo competition through the GLN. More than a dozen entries were submitted and Mr-Klipp and I have narrowed it down to 4 candiates.

Strength formula updated
Posted by: Christer on rdam31000000Sat, 03 Jan 2004 06:16:09 +010003am04, Jam1000000amSat, 03 Jan 2004 06:16:09 +010004 %03, %2004 - %06:%Jan

With the introduction of handicaps, the strength formula has been altered to support the handicaps. I also took the time to do some tweaks based on the statistics that we have gathered.

FUMBBL 1 year anniversary
Posted by: Christer on rdam31000000Sat, 03 Jan 2004 00:21:01 +010003am04, Jam1000000amSat, 03 Jan 2004 00:21:01 +010004 %03, %2004 - %00:%Jan

A whole year has passed!

To celebrate this, all teams playing games today (server time) will get +2 FF to reflect the increased publicity and low ticket prices!

The change will only show up in the roster page and nowhere else.

Y2k4 bug in factions
Posted by: Christer on CET02000000Thu, 01 Jan 2004 02:41:33 +01003301am04, Jam1000000amThu, 01 Jan 2004 02:41:33 +010004 %01, %2004 - %02:%Jan

There was a bit of a mixup with the faction rounds in the new year. The site thought the round ended and therefore, the teams were reordered according to the normal rules.

I've put things back into order, but there might be some messups in the games played grid, so please check them out and let me know if something is wrong there.

Player potraits
Posted by: peikko on Dec20041229am03, MonEurope/Stockholm2003-12-29T02:41:26+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmMon, 29 Dec 2003 02:41:26 +0100 %29, %2003 - %02:%Dec

Public folders for player pics are going through srping cleaning. From now on the pics in public folders should represent current player types. All other images will be deleted and from now on not approved.

Faction changes
Posted by: Christer on Dec20041229am03, MonEurope/Stockholm2003-12-29T01:47:29+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmMon, 29 Dec 2003 01:47:29 +0100 %29, %2003 - %01:%Dec

As of now, faction teams with no games played in the round can move into another faction on the same level. For example, if a team in faction 3a is unable to find opponents in their original faction, they can choose to move to faction 3b, 3c or 3d (assuming they exist).In order to prevent all teams from ending up in a single faction, there is an upper limit of 23 teams in a single faction. Obviously, faction 1 teams do not have anywhere to move, so they simply have to deal with the available opponents.

In addition to this change, the minimum games needed in order to not be automatically relegated has been lowered to 2 per round.

Both these changes are made as an effort to have faction division more active and make it easier for coaches to find games.

Congratulations FUMBBL!
Posted by: cusi on th0000001228pm03, SunEurope/Stockholm2003-12-28T21:20:33+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmSun, 28 Dec 2003 21:20:33 +0100 %28, %2003 - %21:%Dec

Congratulations on reaching Match #100,000 FUMBBL. This game was played by 2 devotees of chaos the Plague Infestation, a group of rotters vs Black Venom. A Good 'ol fashioned chaos brawl marked FUMBBL's 100,000th with five casualties in the game. Congratulations FUMBBL from all the FUMBBLERS!

Help shape the future of the game..
Posted by: Grumbledook on CET05000000Thu, 11 Dec 2003 17:40:44 +01004411pm03, ThuEurope/Stockholm2003-12-11T17:40:44+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmThu, 11 Dec 2003 17:40:44 +0100 %11, %2003 - %17:%Dec

Don't know how many of you are aware of talkbloodbowl but there is a lot of discussion on there to do with the future shape of the game. You have a chance to put your input into this and to do so read on.

FUMBBL Login option
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm2809pm03, TueEurope/Stockholm2003-12-09T14:58:28+01:00Europe/Stockholm12bEurope/StockholmTue, 09 Dec 2003 14:58:28 +0100 %09, %2003 - %14:%Dec

As of now, all coaches should enable the "FUMBBL Login" option in the client. At some point in the near future, games played without this option will not be uploadable and I need to know if it's working properly before we start enforcing it.

Security officers appointed
Posted by: Christer on th0000001130pm03, 72003000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmSun, 30 Nov 2003 22:59:54 +0100 %30, %2003 - %22:%Nov

As you may have noticed if you have been hanging around on the chatroom lately, there has been a few more people with OP status than usual.

These people are entitled "Security officers" and will assist us admins with handling rules violations and the rules related support tickets and also help keeping the chatroom nice and friendly.

The appointed persons are: ChickenBrain, Clementus, m0nty, Mezir, Sceadeau and Trog.

Obviously, they are new to this and there might be a time of adjusting, but please bear with us as we get things in order.

New support system
Posted by: Christer on NovemberFri, 28 Nov 2003 16:41:20 +01004128pm03, 52003000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmFri, 28 Nov 2003 16:41:20 +0100 %28, %2003 - %16:%Nov

The "PM Admin" link has been replaced with a "Support" link. This will take you to a new and improved support system which will make it easier for the admins to resolve the problems you may have with the site.

As usual, let me know if you run into problems with this new feature.

Rules Review Changes
Posted by: Mr-Klipp on CET000000Europe/Stockholm4725pm03, 22003000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmTue, 25 Nov 2003 23:20:47 +0100 %25, %2003 - %23:%Nov

The site is now updated with all of the changes to the rosters from the rules review.

Rules Review is out
Posted by: gorritakid on CET000000Europe/Stockholm3225pm03, 22003000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmTue, 25 Nov 2003 21:05:32 +0100 %25, %2003 - %21:%Nov

That's it, the long awaited annual review is over and published:

Rules Review

Highlights: Piling On changed to armour rerroll, Undead teams remain but lose two wights and wild animal is drastically changed. For a complete list of the changes click the link and see for yourselves, you gits! :p

P.S. : I can see from here Candlejack crying in joy and hugging his beloved undead. Stop it now, it is embarrasing!

Gorritakid

Faction changes
Posted by: Christer on NovemberFri, 14 Nov 2003 06:33:24 +01003314am03, 52003000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmFri, 14 Nov 2003 06:33:24 +0100 %14, %2003 - %06:%Nov

Starting Monday (Nov 17, 2003), the faction division is changing.

All active teams below the level 3 factions will be put into a single large "qualifying" group.

Alternative proxy
Posted by: Christer on stpm30000000Sat, 01 Nov 2003 21:37:32 +010001pm03, 62003000Europe/Stockholm11bEurope/StockholmSat, 01 Nov 2003 21:37:32 +0100 %01, %2003 - %21:%Nov

Due to some of the german coaches having a rather bad link to the fumbbl.com proxy, ChickenBrain has set up one on the "other side" of the problem.

You can access this proxy at:
chickenbrain.dyndns.org port 6661

So if the fumbbl.com proxy is slow, feel free to try this alternate one.

ISP change complete
Posted by: Christer on OctoberFri, 31 Oct 2003 13:58:20 +01005831pm03, +01002003-10-31T13:58:20+01:00312003bEurope/StockholmFri, 31 Oct 2003 13:58:20 +0100 %31, %2003 - %13:%Oct

Well then. The switch was very swift and pain free. The site is now running on a line with 1MBit outbound instead of the 200kBit we had before. This should make the site run smoother at the peak times.

Downtime due to ISP change
Posted by: Christer on CET000000Europe/Stockholm5128pm03, +01002003-10-28T22:28:51+01:00312003bEurope/StockholmTue, 28 Oct 2003 22:28:51 +0100 %28, %2003 - %22:%Oct

The FUMBBL site will go down at some point on friday (Oct 31) due to a switch of ISP. I cannot say how long the downtime period will be but I am hoping it will be short. Naturally the IP address will change during this change and it might take a few hours for your systems to pick up the change.

I will do my best to keep this downtime to a minumum but I obviously can't guarantee anything. I will let you know if I run into any problems that will delay this switch.

There is a possibility that the site will be down for a number of days as my current ISP will terminate my line at the end of the month as well. I will let you know if things change. Who knows, the VDSL modem I need for the new ISP might blow up.. ;)