MTG Salvation
MTGSalvation is a Magic: The Gathering website which focuses on Rumors and News. MTGS is most known for its spoilers which generally come weeks in advance of the pre-release of any given set. These spoilers are generated in the Rumor Mill and generally come from the sources of Rancored_Elf and to a lesser extent urzasseditives. The site also features daily articles, a Wiki, a Radar of magic websites as well as one of the more active magic forums online.
Founding
MTGSalvation was founded on July 11, 2004 by Xenphire. The site was orginially a IPB board hosted on Xenphire's personal server. The site was founded after the banning of Xenphire on MTGNews with him stating MTGSalvation to be free of bad administration and poor choices that ruled 'News. The purpose of MTGSalvation was to create an open enviroment and community based off of that of MTGNews. 'Salvation also aimed to put away "Forum Drama" for the betterment of the community. The achievment of this goal is still debated today.
The two days after its founding, MTGSalvation gained several members although most of them personal friends of the Founder. Then on September 3, 2004 when rumors of administrator Rancored_Elf leaving the site due to enteral problems began circulating within the public the member base once more grew, this time causing more mainstream users of MTGNews to join. At this time Sakabatou was named the second administator.
MTGNews Split
While MTGSalvation had been a smaller community it grew into one of the larger ones on the internet on New Years Eve 2004. At midnight eastern standard time Rancored_Elf as well as other administrators and moderators annouced their leaving of the site as a result of abuse and mistreatment by the current administration. Much of the community considered this the end of MTGNews, or at least MTGNews as they knew it. Due to this many were grappling for a new community to frequent and within minutes of the resignation links to MTGS began circulating the boards.
Many decided to join and leave MTGN while others decided to stay at MTGN and see what happened. The growth of 'Salvation in the coming days was more than MTGN had ever seen; however, rivalry bewteen the two sites and their members was great with MTGN Head Administrator Raa banning those with links to MTGS in their sigs while MTGS was warning those flaming MTGN. Rivalary bewteen the two heated even more on the second when Rancored_Elf decided to give the rumor of the card Frostling to MTGSalvation and soon after join it.
Early Changes
While the battle raged on MTGSalvation was going through drastic changes. Quickly going from a private site to a mainstream one many precidents had to be set, many of which still exist today. To handle such a large population a staff of moderators was quickly selected to handle these members, with Xenphire appointing them based on prior relationships and suspected moderational capabilities over the next few days.
With the new staff in place the first order of business was to set-up a forum which could handle to new population. Hannes quickly purchased and supplied the vB license as well as server space and became owner of the site. The site also began perperations for a new frontpage that would include articles and at the time defunct Magic Radar of MTGNews. To acommadate the new frontpage a logo contest was created. The frontpage was to be modeled after whomever won with many submitting but the poll of the final five consisted of Ertai's, Yawgatog's, requinox's, Tawnos', and extremestan's. It was a close race bewteen the two but in the end extremestan won by a two votes, edging Tawnos 97-95. The logo then went to the staff to design the rest of the frontpage around.
In the coming weeks many more additions were made. These included the introduction of a tourament series, the creation of a Salvation IRC Channel, the addition of many new vB tags, and a new Features Forum that included Artist Q&A and was run by M_Shumate. It was also at this time that the MTGSalvation Mission Statement was created. It reads as follows:
- MTG Salvation is a nonprofit community-based Magic: the Gathering site and forum, which upholds tolerance, entertainment, and fellowship as its core values. MTG Salvation is committed to providing a free and exciting place to discuss Magic news, rumors, strategy, rulings, trading, and more, in a progressive environment that changes to meet the needs of all members.
As all of these changes were occuring 'Salvation also solidified its status as the premier MTG rumor site on the internet by completing the Betrayers of Kamigawa spoiler far before anyone esle. However just as the site was settling in and the rivalary with MTGNews ending MTGSalvation began having problems of its own.
The Collaspe of Xenphire
Although the lead administator and the founder of MTGSalvation some users struggled with him over various issues. Overall these events can be labelled as mistreatments of users and include the changing of usernames and custom tags as well as the addition of undesirable tags to users profile's based on prior relations with these users. Although this took place to serveral members the site was still growing and much of it went unnoticed but on Janurary 19 it came to a head when the "Room with the Moose" was created. As explained by its creator, Xenphire:
- You're entered into when you get four warnings and would be suspended. It doesn't deny you access to the forums, all that appears is a forum for The Room With a Moose. They can't see the rest of the forum. They can post there (and yes there is a moose, a Moose room logo, and it's brown and white), but the posts don't count and smilies are turned off for Greater Justice(TM).
This and other statements caused outrage amoung some, many of those included being staff. Due to his lack of support Xenphire felt that he had chose the wrong moderator team. As a result he decided to de-mod the entire staff with the exception of Sakabotu who he expected to support his descion. However he was mistaken and upon Sakabotu's seeing of the site Xenphire was de-modded and the rest of the staff re-modded by Sakabotu. This caused much discussion within the staff and on Janurary 21 it was annouced by Xenphire that he was going on vaction. This vaction began a phasing out complete within a few weeks that left Xenphire powerless as just another member.
The Three Admin Era
This caused a pause in developments for almost three weeks in which much was planned within the Mod Lounge and the future was paved. During this time few public statements were made by the staff as to the future with the forums just continuing on. But then on Feburary 14 the future was made very clear. The new frontpage was launced to much avail although not featuring extremestan's orginial logo but instead a new commissioned piece of Tawnos'. This caused some controversy but some died with much more to celebrate at the time than to critize for at the same time Articles and the new staff were annouced. On Feburary 14 the new article page hit kicking off a run of daily weekday articles that continues to this day. The new staff was also made official. It is as follows:
- Owner
- Hannes
- Administrators
- Belgareth
- Sakabatou
- Wolfwood
- Technicians
- Darth Cow
- Feyd_Ruin
- Global Moderators
- ButteBlues18
- Lance
- rancored_elf
- Moderators
- Alex
- Craven
- Fadeblue
- Goblinboy
- IxidorVersionTwo
- Laika
- Lance
- Onikani
- PlanesJaywalker
- Qwerty
- Senori
- sneakyhomunculus
- Stax
- stu55
- urzassedatives
The new staff's first move was to firm up the biggest question left by the first. On March 3 the new Warning System was annnouced, one still in use today. The new staff also added many tags still in use today, most notiably the /me tag. It was also annouced that Salvation would begin running an Article of the Month contes to promote and reward their writers. This was followed up by the annoucment that users could now submit news for the frontpage as well, a feature still in use today although only taken advantage by a few members. It was now the 'Salvation also began running a monthly artwork contest in the artwork forum as well as a weekly avatar and signature contest within the Avatar&Signature forum.
The One Admin Era
Near the end of June it was annouced that the following were leaving the staff:
- Laika
- Sneakyhomunculus
- Stu_55
- Wolfwood
Although two have now returned and another has carried on in a advistorial role replacements were at the time nessasary. There were as follows:
- Magic Software - JDSki
- Clans - Votan
- Type 2 - Onikani, Crazed Mike, HKKID
- Type 1.x - IxidorVersionTwo, HKKID
- Block Constructed - Raia
- Limited - Raia
- Storyline - The Squirle master
- Artwork - PlanesJaywalker
- Fanfics - PlanesJaywaker
- Humor - Goblinboy
It was also annouced at this time that Goblinboy and Qwerty had both been promoted to Global Moderator status. Also, although never officialy annouced or mentioned Sakabotu had also left the site in April.
In time bewteen moderator applications and selections several changes were made. First of all a Judges Forum was added to Salvation which allowed judges to have their own community to discuss common issues and tough rulings calls. In addition another new logo was annouced, this time by Bateluer.