This website, FortFantasy, was created as a plugin testing and developmen center to support the now-defunct VidigoSocial website run by NJP. I think we had like 50 active users on VidigoSocial. Then my friends from World of Tanks moved over here and used this on and off for several years, and then I've used it as a catch all for random stuff for the better part of a decade now.
In all that time, anyone and everyone has been free to use it, and I think we peaked at like 40-ish concurrent users. The Fortress was never a big success, but it didn't "have" to be for what it was.
It's cheap to run, and I've been happily throwing away $5 a month for years because it's been convenient at times. honestly, I'd keep doing that indefinitely (I can always find some new use for a versatile platform like this) but something new has come up that blunts the site's ability to continue in a meaningful way.
Firstly, the software is beginning to fall apart. Oxwall, the software that runs the site, is absolutely ancient by modern web standards. It's last meaningful update was in 2020, and that was mostly just security patches and extended service fixes to give it a few more years. We're beyond that now, and the underlying tech that keeps everything working is starting to fall apart.
Namely, the photo handling system is shot now. I don't know what's wrong with it, and there are no further patches to lean on. The developers I would usually call on for work like this are either indisposed with more serious work, or their country is being invaded by a hostile fascist dictatorship. Even if a fix is possible, it's a band aid on a problem that is only going to get worse as browsers cease supporting the underpinnings that make the site function. Eventually, functionality on modern browsers is going to be intolerably bad, and that's assuming nothing else on the site itself fails.
So, in summary, I'm not closing the site down. Nah, I'm no giving up this ship for anything. But I won't lie to you, it's taking on a lot of proverbial water, and if you want to save anything and make for the life boats, I don't blame you.
To those of you here, or were here, thank you for making the Fortress worthwhile. We've had a lo of great times here, and I like to think there still might be some more left in it somehow. Perhaps we'll have the site revived in a new format somewhere else; I don't know. Time will tell the future.
Thank you again, and have a great day!
