Wolfhome
From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.
Wolfhome is a graphical chat interface that is similar to Furcadia, but is one that focuses purely on the conversation and connection aspect of a "chatroom" and strongly discourages role-playing in rooms other than the designated RP room.
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[edit] History
[edit] Beginnings
The chat was released on Halloween of 1999. Originally, the programming was done by Underdog and the software ran only on the Netscape 4 browser. Underdog later collaborated with Gre7g to create the first public version. The first Wolfhome artwork was done by Goldenwolf.
For a time Wolfhome was quite popular, with the expressive wolf poses and scenery and fun interactions. Wolfhome's ability to attract artists of fame, such as Goldenwolf, Kyoht, Yelth, and others, has been a huge attraction within the were community, and indeed it has helped launch more than one now-famous artist. As its name suggests, the site was based on the theme of wolven-therians, with a pack-based ranking system (Alpha, Beta, etc.) though the site eventually also included other wild canines and even large wild felines (though felines are now no longer allowed). As a free site, the popularity grew so much that Underdog and Gre7g were forced to turn parts of Wolfhome into a fee-based chat in order to support its own costs. Throughout its existence, part of the Wolfhome site was always free.
The partnership between Underdog and Gre7g that created Wolfhome eventually led to the creation of a business venture, "A Thousand Words Network of Kansas, LLC" and that company launched the site www.a1000words.net (now defunct). This website gave others the ability to create and manage similar graphical chat servers, to control their own membership and to create their own unique characters and environments.
[edit] Server crash
Gre7g eventually moved out of the Kansas City area to Utah, and in the fall of 2004 the a1000words.net server suffered a serious server crash while Gre7g was away on vacation. This server crash brought down wolfhome.com and of the other affiliated chat services. It turned out that almost all of the recent database information was irretrievable. Because of many other factors, including some disagreements among the members of the admin team, and coupled with both Underdog's and Gre7g's lack of continued interest in the site, Wolfhome was allowed to remain offline and users were refunded their remaining balances.
A user named Kerfuffle appeared several months later in the spring of 2005, approached the administrators of the then-dead site, and proved himself to be a very capable programmer who brought with him the hope of resurrecting Wolfhome. Indeed he did, and so recreated the chat, albeit in the form of a downloadable client as opposed to the web-interface it had been in the past. Wolfhome's popularity swiftly returned.
Unfortunately, Wolfhome once again fell into political disarray. Bickering started between members of the userbase and the Wolfhome administrators. Different factions formed within the userbase and different theories were being followed through on how the chat should be run and moderated. It has been said that many of the users did little but constantly complain and fight over which of the admins listened and which did not. The feuding spilled over into the public forums. Perhaps because of his disgust with the never-ending conflict, Kerfuffle decided to take leave of Wolfhome in the fall of 2005, saying he would "keep an eye" on his project. He left a warning that if things didn't start to work, he would disconnect Wolfhome for good.
[edit] Site closure
In February of 2006, one of the Wolfhome admins, FoxGrin, was demoted by majority vote of the admin team. There were allegations that FoxGrin had a conflict of interest within the administration, that she was leaking information from the admin forums, and actively creating dissent against the other admins on the chat itself. After the demotion Kerfuffle returned and closed the site down. Kerfuffle personally refuted rumors that FoxGrin's demotion was the sole cause of his taking Wolfhome offline. In a public post he wrote that he felt the demotion had been mishandled, and that it was "the last straw" in a string of greivances and conflicts. Wolfhome has remained shut down since then.
After taking the site offline, Kerfuffle disappeared from Wolfhome and seemingly the internet entirely, leaving behind only a faint glimmer of hope: that if the remaining patrons of the site could work together to form a plan that would ensure peace on Wolfhome and be agreeable to the majority of people, he would turn it back on. A shrinking group of former members have been working hard ever since on this very goal. The fandom is currently watching and waiting to see how events will unfold.
In September 2006, Underdog posted several messages on the Wolfhome forums, volunteering to resurrect the original Wolfhome service, but with software updated to run on modern browsers.
In the months since the February shutdown, a group of users has been attempting to recreate the site to entice Kerfuffle to return. This group was, for a time, headed up by FoxGrin and it included other former users as well. Many of these have have since resigned citing real life commitments. Roughly half of the admins remain.
There was a separate effort to start a Wolfhome chat site. A small group, headed by benevolent dictator for life Hadey and lead programmer LinuxDewd, both former admins of the old Wolfhome, had thrown in together and attempted to create "Wolfhome Classic". Not billed as competition to Kerfuffle's Wolfhome, but rather a return to an older method of running the site and a "return to roots". This project is currently shut down, with no plans to continue, due to several emails and conversations between the project works at Wolfhome Classic and Underdog, who threatened legal action. This was due to Kerfuffle allegedly not having permission to allow other projects to use Wolfhome art and names. It was decided instead of a drawn out legal affair it would be simpler to merely halt work, dissapointed many users and staff who had put in a large amount of work.
[edit] Current Status
On Halloween of 2006, Underdog successfully reopened the former web page version of Wolfhome and the chat is functional once again. There are missing features and bugs present in the system, however, these issues are being ironed out as they present themselves to Underdog and the administration team.
The current administration team includes a handful of former administration members from when Gre7g and Underdog previously ran the site as well as some of the newer administration members chosen during Kerfuffle's 'era'.
As of June 2007, the payment system has been implemented onto Wolfhome once again and users may pay for additional chat avatars and private room uploads, however, individuals may still use the chat site for free. Free accounts see ads in a side panel, are not allowed to enter private rooms without permission from the room owner and may not enter the chat if too many free members are already online.
