DBF are dead.

[Shockwave]

I am no longer a member of the demo team Dark Bit Factory. In 10 weeks I will be a dad and the forum is taking up most of my time, I can't commit to both being a demo scene coder and message board administrator, this board must take priority.

The post count and new topic count is so low these days that it is causing me concern. The comps don't even seem to be helping. I want this place to be a success so I have to put it before my "scene career".

At the moment I am working on an intro for S!P, after I have finished that intro I intend to leave S!P too so that I can concentrate here.

This forum will continue as normal but you can consider the DBF group, which I founded with Parabellum to be dead.
I want to thank those members of DBF who worked hard on productions with me. I really loved it, it was a blast, thank you!

I hope that you'll understand, and I want to make sure that this place is a success at all costs.

If you lurk and care about the place, you're not helping, please post and make the forum better, it's cost a lot of time and money to put here and it was done for the love of demos.

Thanks.

Shock^S!P

[benny!]

Hi Shocky. Guess sometimes you have to set priorities. Becoming a father soon, it is
definately a reason to change the focus in your life. And I guess running such a board
does take a lot of time indeed.

So, I wish you all the best with your decision and hope that this board will keep on
growing. It already became a part of my regular life to be honest. Visiting it several times
each day ... So I am glad to hear that you want to focus on this board.

Nevertheless, even if you spend more time on this board than on coding doesn't mean
to me that you are not a scene-group member anymore. Remember all the famous bbs
and their sysops back in the 80's / 90's. It is IMHO a respectable fulltime scene-job for
me.

[Shockwave]

Hi Shocky. Guess sometimes you have to set priorities. Becoming a father soon, it is
definately a reason to change the focus in your life. And I guess running such a board
does take a lot of time indeed.

Benny, you don't know the half of it! In the past I have had quite a lot of help..

The problem that I have is that other people have commitments and I've been too ready in the past to take on too much instead of delegating stuff out so I know it is of my own making.  I've taken on more and more work and I have less and less time.

Still, that's not saying that this situation is static because as you said, I had a long think about it and decided that my focus should be here. At least this way, hopefully new talent will be able to learn in the same friendly environment I had always wanted for this place.

Also it's an interesting point you made about there being bbs owners in the scene, I had not thought about it like that but it certainly makes sense and sums up nicely what I wanted to say. Cheers sport! 

[rdc]

I have to agree with Benny. You are making a big impact in the scene. I had no idea there was a demo scene until I visited this board, so I would say you are a definite mover and shaker.

[Shockwave]

Some of you might remember me as Mr.Shockwave from the early days of This Place . Back then all I did was write effects and post them, and write tutorials. I hope to get back to that here. This place needs more good tutorials and posts for sure, it is a big move to make but I just know it is for the overall benefit of this place.

[Hotshot]

We all going to keep this board going no matter whatever happened.
The board of this site is great and keep going whatever may be.

* Raise the Glass of Beer to Shocky *

Cheers

[zawran]

I really wish that I had more time for coding and being more active on this forum. But its hard finding that time with changed priorities in my life. I have recently gotten a little bit of the coding bug back, and I have been thinking about trying to squeeze more coding time in, but I just cannot commit fully at the moment. I have in the past been a lot more active than currently, and I would like to try and contribute a little more than I do now. I don't know how many uses bmax, but its what I have decided to focus on, and I will try to find time to answer any Bmax questions that gets posted.

This place is a small refuge for people who likes coding demo related stuff and its one of the more friendly places around, so it would be sad to see it crumble away. Lately I found great joy in making those scroller effects for the combo, and I think that one of the things that helps keeping a place like this alive is small combos like that. It provides the members with challenges which isn't too daunting and which for most parts can be achieved during an evenings coding session, which for those of us with a lot of other stuff going on, is needed. Its difficult to commit to large complicated projects when you have a bunch of other people screaming for your attension.

I think that SW have done a marvelous job so far, and its much to his credit that this place is still here and that it have become what it have. I would like to wish SW all the best with the forthcomming baby and all the fun and challenges that will bring. Thank you for not quitting completely, and I surely understand and respect your decision.

[Shockwave]

That's kind of you to say those things Hotshot and also Zawran, you've echoed a lot of my own thoughts that I was sure people were feeling on the board. The competitions are so much a part of this place, they must never go and they won't go if I can help it.

It's great that people can get a little motivation out of something they've read on here.

The point is that in a place like this, you will all get more out of it if you put more in. We have a usual healthy core of people who post on the board, what I'd suggest is that if you have a code problem, post it. If you see something that makes you think on your computer, please post it.

Lurking harms the board, there are so many registered accounts on here that have never posted.

Just a little bit of activity will raise this place to the next level and we'll all benefit. Like I said, you have me here lock stock and barrel now as this place is my sole reason to be on the internet from now on, please help me build it up to what we know it could be like. I can't do it on my own.

[ferris]

I'm very sad to hear this.

I don't post often.

I don't make too many productions.

But it's because of DBF that I'm in the scene.

This is terrible news, but I guess you do what you have to do. As much as they should be, most of my time is not devoted to DBF, because as alot of you know I administrate Youth Uprising.

But no matter how much I hate this decision or what I do, you're a stubbourn dude Nick , so there's nothing that'll change this.

I wish you the best dude, really I do.

Maybe I should've had you guys preview my 2 secret DBF projects...I knew Nick that you were having troubles so I was gonna surprise you.

[Shockwave]

For what it's worth Jake, I think that I am to blame for losing you to your new project, at first you were very productive in DBF and made some nice things for the group.. Unfortunately I had gone off my meds at the time and I wasn't around to thank you and appreciate what you did.

Now I look on the things you are achieving with a smile because I know that you are the future of the demo scene, I knew you were an awesome coder when you joined the group and you're ust getting better with time.

And they don't come more stubborn than me, you're right there.

Yup is one of the best concepts in new groups out there at the moment, I love what you're doing with it. Actually what you did was follow your heart when you could see that the group around you had slowed down, I call that using your own initiative and I respect that a lot. Maybe if I hadn't have lost out on you as an active member things would be different.

What it can't change though is that whatever had happened, I'd still have had to make a decision when my son was born and this forum would have had to win. Reason for that is that more people can potentially benefit from this place and maybe it will uncover the next scene star like you.

[rain_storm]

Woah I didnt know what to expect when I read the title of this topic but this was the very last thing that would have popped into my mind. No one likes change and seeing such an influencial scener state that they are preatty much hangin up their production hat! I have only been 'involved' in the scene for a short time but you're demos from the old EZboard had a huge impact on me I would not be coding today if I had not stumbled across that forum. I didnt even know that there was a scene until I hit this place up. I just thought they were cool effects.

Well there is one good thing that can come of this. Somewhere someone is gonna stumble in here just like I did at the EZboard and they are gonna say 'Thats preatty cool, I think I might have a go at that' and the futer of the scene will be secured. Thank you Shocky for chosing us 

[benny!]

One question comes into my mind:

Do you plan to change the name / url of this forum ?

[Shockwave]

Well, as far as I am concerned it is still a demo coding help forum so I don't know. The site has a great google ranking and a following.. It's too soon to say really Benny but it's a good question.

Rain Storm, there is no choice for me to make really, ever since the days when I was involved in the Yabasic community, my kick has always come out of running a board and helping people to learn. The demo scene is very interesting to me and I love it, but I'd get more satisfaction in knowing that I had helped in some way to get 100 people interested in demo coding than being a famous scene coder, and lets face it, there are some seriously good ones on this board, I'm very lucky to share the same place with them.

[mind]

read my post in http://dbfinteractive.com/index.php?topic=1441.0

[Shockwave]

This whole thing actually appears to be a little bit fucked up in places...

I should have managed the DBF group better and there wouldn't have been so much inactivity and it could have gone on releasing stuff while I sorted out the board and carried on getting used to the changes coming in my life.

For me, there was no choice, only 3 members of DBF seemed to release products. If I could have done it again I think I would have insisted on releases off every coder at least once or twice a year. It shouldn't have been allowed to get to this state. Some groups don't release for months at a time, DBF had always been active.

I want to apologise most of all to Wham and Roly.

It feels wrong that you two have lost out and lost your hobbies. We need to talk I think, I will be back in touch with you soon. If a new group was ever launched with me as a part of it, I think I'd insist that the artists and musicians were supported by the coders with new productions.

Anyone thinking of starting a group please take note of my mistakes. It is a rewarding feeling to have a group that works well, we were lucky here, Stonemonkey was really helpful on the board, Wham and Roly did some great media, also Wham helped on the board, even if he thought he didn't, he did!!!! I will miss his gfx and his peresonality if he goes. Unfortunately there were members of the DBF team who I allowed to do nothing and that can destroy a group.

We had a great coder, Stonemonkey joining, he probably wondered what the fuck was going on, he developed so much stuff and hardly anyone in the team was releasing anything. I want to apologise to you too Stonemonkey. My lack of management let you down.

I should have asked those who didn't participate more candidly if they were going to release anything or contribute to this site, I guess I was afraid of upsetting people! What an oxymoron!! Imagine me being afraid of upsetting people, but it is true.

This board no longer seems to be affiliated with any particular group now, however I think that the name should stay the same, after thinking about it, it would be mad to change it now that we have our site ranking in the search engines etc.

I am really encouraged by the posts in this thread, this board will go on, it is fair to say that some inactive members (ie. people who hardly post at all) will be removed from the staff list, I'll need to discuss it with Jim when he gets back so we can find the best way forward for the board.

Who knows, if a committed team can be put together to help Jim and I run this, and a lot of the people who are in the team already are invaluable as far as I am concerned.... We just need perhaps a few motivated people to replace the guys that have drifted off... If it all goes well here, who knows? Perhaps a more focussed demo group might be born in the future.. As long as this place goes well.

[Clyde]

It is a sad shame in away to close the doors on DBF; and seeing people leave - I don't know Wham's reasons; and I respect those too. 

I recon you should say in a couple of months, and after you know how much time you'll have with your newborn, and take it from there with the group. I know you'll miss releasing prods; plus you'll need some means of advertising

And I thought up some names that could stand for DBF ( Demo Bytes Forums / Demo Building Forum ). But I still recon you should keep the name, and re-form it at alatter date when your ready. also you've alot of followers as you produce amazing stuff. A quote from Monty Python ( not the LSD coder ) It's Not Dead yet.

As long as im still alive Gravity will still be around. Despite having alot of ups and downs. If you want to drop the gvy from the name, thats fine mate.

Sorry for poking my nose in,
Cheers and all the very best to you dude.

Clyde.

[Shockwave]

Nice to know that even in the end of this crazy week that at least Gravity will survive:)

I like the idea of "Demo Building Forum" hehe, who knows. Like you say, let's leave it as it is for now and have another look at it all in a couple of months. Anyway, it's like I said, this forum must take first priority over everything else as far as I am concerned.

Feel free to "poke your nose in". There are a lot of things where we agree, similarly we've disagreed over things in the past Clyde, we will in the future too but you help make the place what it is.

[benny!]

"demo building forum" ... hehe ... nice idea. Escpecially when you do not
want to change the url and stuff !