A Wonderful Extraordinary Lovely Cool Overwhelming Magical and Excellent Return

[Matthias720]

Okay! Here we are with the merger complete, and we're now back open full-time. It should be as though the forum was never gone. What's changed and what's stayed the same?  Let's break it down!

The Redwall Abbey Community Forum and the Loamhedge Abbey Forum are now joined together. Topics that are the same, or very similar, will be merged together soon, and will be on the appropriate boards. If you have accounts for both sites, those accounts have been merged. Your log-in should be for your original forum account. If you only joined one forum or the other, your log-in should be unchanged. And if you are unsatisfied with the username of your current account, please contact an administrator to update your username.

We are currently working on the forum's theme and graphics databases, so be aware that things may look different here and there, in the near future. And speaking of appearances and graphics, you know what's nice? Having a proper UI with graphics. I am really grateful that we having graphics now. After seeing the forum without any images whatsoever, I appreciate them so much more now. But, there's something even better than graphics. What could possibly be better than that? The wonderful people who helped to bring this place back, of course! So, I'd like to take a moment to bring attention to the hard work that went into our return to these hallowed halls.

First off, a big thanks to Steve (RedwallAbbey) for getting us up and running. Without him, we wouldn't be able to be here right now. With the time and effort he sacrificed for us, simply saying "thank you" seems insufficient, and yet we say regardless! Thank you, Steve! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Secondly, an equally big thanks to TheTaleOfSierra for being the driving force to engage the forum reboot process. Your actions have done more than we can ever thank you for, but we'll certainly try anyway. Thank you! You have more than earned the right to stand here as an administrator. Welcome to the team!

Thirdly, a huge round of applause for James Gryphon! Thanks to you, James, we had a place to convene over the past year, otherwise we would have been scattered in the wind. And without you, these two forums would have never become one. Your hard work and determination are an inspiration to us all! Now that we're back home, please take your rightful place as an administrator and help this forum grow into an even better place! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Fourthly, a big thanks to the Simple Machines Forum community, and specifically Colin, a lead developer, for helping us with pulling off the merger. We wouldn%u2019t have been back up and running at this point without some solid advice and assistance. If Colin or anyone from the SMF community ever gets the chance to see this, please know that we are all grateful for your help and knowhow. Thank you!

Finally, in no particular order, we have to thank the following individuals for their vital contributions to helping the Redwall Abbey Community Forums rise from the ashes:
-Gonff the Mousethief: For aiding in the initial process of contacting those responsible for the redwallabbey.com website, and for standing by the revival efforts with patient diligence, you have our thanks and gratitude!
-DanielofRedwall: For standing by the community during the time away from its true home and for helping to maintain order in a time of uncertainty, you have our thanks and gratitude!
-Cornflower MM: For being a capable helper, and for offering help and information during the revival process, you have our thanks and gratitude!

And a special thanks to two individuals who only recently became a part of our community, coming from Fiver's Honeycomb: Hazel and Darkling. Through their indirect actions and willingness to aid us, they represent the best kind of people in this world. Even from outside of these Walls of ours, past the reaches of Mossflower Woods, there are those who wish for us the very best that we can have. In return, we appreciate you more than mere words can express! Hazel and Darkling, you have our eternal thanks and gratitude!

We also want to take a moment to thank those individuals who made contributions to the return of the forum or provided feedback on critical decisions. These people deserve our appreciation for being helpful and available. We wish to thank:
-MeadowRabbit
-Skyblade
-Sagetip
-Banya
-Kitsune

All of these people mentioned above played a roll, no matter how big or small, in ensuring our ability to be here, together again. For this service to the community, an award will be created to give recognition to those who sacrificed significant time, energy, resources, and gave support to reunite us all! When we have more details, we will give them and the award in a separate announcement.

Now, onto other business! Steve (RedwallAbbey) has turned over server access to the forum staff. He has decided to take a back seat and allow the community to drive itself forward into the future. We will be able to better mold the forum to our needs and grow the community in an even greater capacity than before! James Gryphon and TheTaleOfSierra are joining the highest ranks of the forum staff by becoming administrators, as I mentioned previously. They will be assisting me in not only running the community, but also helping with the server side of the forum. With all the experience James has had running the Loamhedge Abbey Forum, he is promising some really big things to help make the forum the best it can be. So, as we move forward, we the staff hope that we can improve the community and take it to even greater heights. Your feedback is what will help us stride forth into the future. Whatever you can provide us with will help mold this place as it grows.

Next on the list, a huge welcome back to Soma Games! The developers of the Redwall: The Warrior Reborn video game are just as excited as we are to be able to return to these halls of ours. They have graciously agreed to help us celebrate our grand reopening by doing a question and answers thread. Head on over to the Redwall: The Warrior Reborn board with your questions ready and show them some of Redwall%u2019s famous hospitality. The festivities kick off April 18, at 5:00 PM GMT. Google your time zone to figure out what time that is locally for you.

On a more somber note; as time marches on, our future remains obscured to us. It's unknown whether some of our old friends and colleagues will return to us or not. While we hope that many of the old members of the staff return, we are prepared in case they don't. We are ready to welcome a few new additions to the forum Staff. Nothing has been decided yet, but we are confident that our candidates will make an excellent expansion to the moderator ranks. An announcement will be posted once the details have been worked out.

Also, given that our history here was almost lost to us, we will be constructing a "history of the forum" topic to chronicle our past, present, and future happenings. It is our hope that everyone will help come together to record our history for the benefit of us all. I look forward to taking my nostalgia and using it to motivate myself to create something memorable, and I would be grateful for every one of you who does the same. Let's become true Recorders of Redwall. It's time to break out the quills and ink!

And finally, a huge thank you to everyone who has returned here to join us! Yes, that includes you, person who's reading this. Without you being here, whether as an old member returning or as a newly-joined Dibbun, this community wouldn't be the same. Each person leaves their mark here, and I encourage you to make the most of that mark. Let's make this place the living embodiment of Redwall that Brian Jacques would have been proud to see. I know that I have only just begun to adventure and explore the depths of this place. To the future! To our hopes and dreams! To victory and success! Onwards and upwards, for REDWALL!