A necessity I say.

If anything, maybe I'll volunteer on that or something else if necessary. I'd really want to be of help for the whole website in some way. Otherwise... guess I'll be cursed with the usual routine of writing reviews and articles - which I don't really find a bad thing for the website itself.

It's anything but bad; without content, the site wouldn't be much of a site

Yeah, I'd be more than willing to publish anyones reviews on the site with proper formatting (as long as it has been proof-read by the site elders first). Really, the people who write the content are the most important people IMO for a site such as this.

I'm not sure which "site elders" you'd have in mind - as a content editor, that's probably something you'd have to do for yourself.

Well, I guess it could be assumed for a select group (Prophet, MMAN, UBerskerker, LH, ect.) that the content doesn't really need to be proof-read as much as for other contributors because of their already growing contributions content wise to the site. I'd be more worried about some news/map review contributes that don't have the same experience from the site.

As a matter of fact, because I might get this rank as site publisher, already a few other members I've spoken to from OldUnreal.com have thought about writing reviews and ect. to support the cause. While this would hopefully only strengthen UnrealSP.org, I'd like to think that a certain quality control could be maintained by people other than me (the publisher) for the site.

I thinking that you (Hellscrag) may underestimate the amount of quality control that is already in place for the site. I think it definitely shows that mostly everything that comes from the main site is of much higher quality than usually offered by a game review site. I'm thinking that Prophet might be the best candidate for proof-reading peoples content after your leave.

For the record, I see no issues in maintaining the HTML, FTP and other aspects of the site that can't be taken care of by a tiny core team and community contributors. Whoever provides the funding (the greatest issue in my eyes) should be in control and, if needed, appoint a webmaster to keep the site running and do the uploading. I believe with basic HTML skills the role of the webmaster is not even hard to fill, since Hellscrag laid a stable foundation and forum software and (already done, non-custom) hacks are easily installed.

Plus, Unreal isn't exactly the most active game, so from what I'm seeing proofreading and publishing reviews is the main task of a potential new manager. We don't need a Grand Ruling Council of UnrealSP for that, right?

That all makes sense.

How much € per month is needed for the funding? I can possibly cover that part if it is something like 10 to 20 €.

I pay £10.45 at the moment, which currently works out at 11.92 €. You could probably get a better deal than I do; I didn't shop around that much.

Of course, if we have more than one person willing to contribute (which we seem to), perhaps a peer funding arrangement could be put in place to allow two or more people contribute e.g. by Paypal. It depends on whether the person in overall control is prepared to share that controlling stake in the site's future, and whether any other contributors can reliably make that payment every month.

EDIT: UB, do you have an income? I wouldn't advise committing yourself to a monthly cost if not.

I can (co)found the site and unrealsp.org domain. I'm a programmer too so count me in if you need any web-related developement, but since there are already 2 volunteers I doubt it'll be required.

What makes me wonder is: why hasn't anyone yet stepped up as a new leader? I mean we need new admin, don't we? I'm not as dedicated as I used to be, I only check once in a while in topics that interest me so I'm not the right person but... anybody?

I feel that going all "gibe admin plxz" shows bad manners, so I avoided phrasing it like that . Plus I'm not sure if people would be comfortable with someone like me, who never contributed any finished content to Unreal's community, assuming direct control, while more important figureheads of the community are around...

I have no problems with you Sana

I don't think it matters. If you're willing to pick up the slack and manage/run a website, small as it may be, then that's giving back to the community on probably a bigger and more important level than just making stuff. You can make stuff all you want, but without a semi-central place to share it, who will see it? I think that without this site, I probably wouldn't have ended up putting as much effort into my own work as I have, and definitely wouldn't have had as good of a place to publicize progress on it.

I'm glad this isn't the end of USP. Thanks to this great community, Unreal lives on. As it is now, I haven't got the time or experience needed for serious contribution. Too bad Hellscrag is leaving us.. but I understand, and wish him the best of luck on whatever his plans are. After all... He is the one to thank for this community and site.

As for a new admin, I don't think sana should worry. But there seems to be many contributing members, and I think we shouldn't overlook the other paying, or contributing members' wishes. But I don't think sana would be a bad choice.

sana as lead admin with Raven as technical support seems like a sensible choice, although whoever funds the site (Prophet?) should have a right to a veto at the very least. Appropriate agreements would have to be agreed internally between the key players.

Also, let's not forget jackrabbit's offer to assist w/ webmastering.