It has recently come to our attention that other networks are attempting to copy our success of #rpg-hub and some of our operations on DarkMyst. These channels are unassociated with DarkMyst's #rpg-hub and its associated websites and forums. The long efforts we've made to build #rpg-hub and the services available to our communities have required a great deal of hard work, creativity and ingenuity to pull off.

DarkMyst is not just a generic network that happens to have a group of role-playing channels established on it. We're a network that has been focused on bringing together and growing the role-playing community for many years as our sole focus, and providing them with the perfect environment and tools to help them prosper. Our unrelenting passion and dedication to this goal over the years has allowed us to build a unique community and operation that has allowed #rpg-hub to succeed in bringing the IRC role-playing community together and growing it when almost all others have failed.

In closing, #rpg-hub is entirely separate from those communities on other networks. It will continue to thrive, grow your game, be a great place to
congregate with fellow players, and be unique from all others that wish to attempt to follow our example. We will continue to bring you original, creative efforts as we work hard to grow your communities and create a
better environment for your game and your players.

With the success and incredible turnout for the network-wide Multiverse event, DarkMyst's need for a traditional freeform game has become very apparent once again. While we excel at system-based games such as World of Darkness and D&D, we offer few solutions for those seeking a traditional freeform. This is unfortunate because we constantly have players looking for this type of game, and Multiverse has proven that there is a strong demand.

The statistics of the first 24 hours of Multiverse are: 110 player characters, 736,565 alphanumeric characters, and 4,816 total posts. Nearly every game on DarkMyst that participated in Multiverse has reported increased interest or growth. At least four people completely new to IRC-based role-playing participated in the event.

Multiverse was not designed to have any kind of longevity and would be better as a special event. Although it was extended, it will not become permanent.

DarkMyst's goal is to help empower the role-playing community to prosper by providing the best atmosphere, helpful tools for locating the perfect game, and by taking steps to allow our communities to grow. However, we cannot be the best destination for role-players unless we provide a community that has a broad base of unique games so that folks can always find something close to what they're looking for.

As a result, one of our top priorities in the coming months will be getting a mid-sized or larger traditional freeform channel on the network.

Initially, we will look for an established freeform community that might be interested in calling DarkMyst home. If you are involved in a community that might be interested, whether they be an existing IRC community, a forum based game, or use a non-IRC chat based system, please let them know that DarkMyst is prepared to make a very generous offer of resources and growth to the right community.

If DarkMyst cannot locate a game within a reasonable timeframe, we will bring together a team of people to develop something fresh. We will be using the full resources of the network to assist the team in the goal of develop a solid foundation.

The type of game we're looking for is a traditional, beginner friendly, preferably tavern-based game that has a freeform foundation but an open-ended, well-developed, and on-going plot.

If you're interested, please approach Ryan on DarkMyst.

Multiverse is an event sponsored by DarkMyst. It is a freeform, multi-genre, multi-world event where you can truly bring creativity to life.

Players across all communities and all networks will gather to partake in a single, one-day role-playing event.

Please review the Multiverse Website for further information.

We look forward to seeing you there!

DarkMyst would like to welcome tiamat.darkmyst.org, located in California. This will provide users in the US with an expanded server selection for connecting to the network.

DarkMyst would like to welcome treason.darkmyst.org, located in Chicago. This will provide users in the US with an expanded server selection for connecting to the network.

DarkMyst is looking for talented, high quality people to add to our teams as we begin to tackle new projects and expand our staff to meet the present and upcoming demands of being one of the most high quality IRC networks available. Multiple positions are available and we're looking to recruit multiple people for each one, so if you're interested in becoming a part of the DarkMyst team, we encourage you to take a look. Visit our Staff Application page for further details.

DarkMyst is happy to announce a few new features that will be added to RPGServ.

1. Added a new genre setting (MULTIGENRE). This will allow games that have multiple genres to categorize themselves more accurately.

2. New command: /msg RPGServ LIST. This command will send a channel list with all of the channels flagged as role-playing channels on the network. It will be sent exactly like the /LIST command and will only include active (channels with at least one user) and public (non +s) channels.

3. Added the same LIST functionality mentioned in #2 into the SEARCH command. In addition to displaying the channel profile for matching results, a channel list will appear with the channels that match the criteria, making it easier to join them.

With these changes, we would like to stress that all role-playing channels are highly encouraged to get their OOC channel flagged on RPGServ as a role-playing channel. It will open the doors to new players and make it even easier to find. To flag your channel, please join #help. Once flagged, you will need to use the RPGServ SET command to add information about your game.

DarkMyst is proud to introduce RPGServ, a service that compliments DarkMyst's goal of becoming the best destination for role-playing and gaming, and to help spur growth within the role-playing communities that call DarkMyst home.

RPGServ is a search engine service that allows a channel to submit a complete profile about their game including genre, period, ruleset, rating (i.e. PG, R, etc), and systems used by the game (i.e. dice, character approval, etc). It also allows channels to input information about their setting and storyline as well as an overall summary.

This service was designed to work with other existing and upcoming DarkMyst projects to make it easier for new and existing role-players to get engaged quickly and find a game that is a perfect for them. It eliminates the need to have to go through an exhaustive process of searching for channels, joining each one of them, visiting their website and/or observing for hours, and asking questions - all just to figure out if it's remotely suitable for you.

To add your channel's profile to the service, you will need to get your 'out of character' channel flagged as a IRC role-playing channel. This can be done in #help.

DarkMyst would like to welcome flame.darkmyst.org, located in the Netherlands. This will provide users in Europe with an expanded server selection for connecting to the network.

DarkMyst is happy to announce a new, innovative feature that's been added to the network.

Channel mode +P (play mode) will enable the NPC and NPCA commands. These commands were designed for IRC based role-playing but can have many other fun and useful purposes.

The NPC and NPCA commands will allow you to play other characters without having to load an additional IRC client. The NPC command is used to perform a typical message to a channel, and the NPCA command is used to perform an action.

The following two are examples of how the command works if you're using the nickname 'TestNick':

/NPC #test Bartender Welcome to the pub! would result in:

Bartender: Welcome to the pub! (TestNick)

/NPCA #test Bartender collects the empty glass from the bar. would result in:

* Bartender collects the empty glass from the bar. (TestNick)

Text sent using these two commands will have the nickname of the person that executed the command at the end of the message. The simulated nickname will also be underlined.

Channel owners that wish to permanently disable the possibility of this command can do so via ChanServ's SET MLOCK setting.

We would like to extend a special thanks to Namegduf, who brought the idea to our attention. If you have any suggestions of your own, please feel free to email them to support [at] darkmyst [dot] org.

For further assistance with this new feature, please join #help.

DarkMyst's User Experience Team has made extensive changes to the network's website. While some of these changes may not be noticeable to you, others will be much more obvious. These changes were designed with two goals in mind for our visitors:

1. Dramatically improve the experience for both the brand new IRC user and the regular chatter.

2. Allow our channels to take advantage of the site and encourage their growth and visibility.

A few of the features that you will notice by browsing the site include:

1. A new navigation bar at the top of the page.

2. A completely renovated chat now page, using the Mibbit IRC client. You also have the option of viewing recommended channels or all public channels on the network. Both of these pages include the ability to view a channel's 30 day user count graph.

3. A brand new side bar that is consistent throughout the entire site - you may see things here like network statistics, random featured channels, random tips, network news, or polls.

4. A renovated help and support page. You can now easily find the answer to your questions by typing your question into a search box and it will search our 100+ available help files and find the answer to your question quickly. Alternately, you can connect directly to our #help channel through the website.

5. Clicking on a channel name anywhere on the website will allow you to connect to it via your web browser.

As a result of these changes, we're enhancing the visibility of the communities that use DarkMyst to encourage their growth. If you are a channel owner of a public channel on DarkMyst, we encourage you to take advantage of these changes by maintaining a topic in your channel that describes it's purpose in detail so that curious users will have an idea what the channel is about. To gain even more exposure, you can request that your channel be approved as a recommended channel, provided that it meets our guidelines.

On behalf of the User Experience Team, we hope that you enjoy these changes and check back often as we continue to improve the site even further. We strive to constantly improve the network and your experience in order to create the best IRC network around. Enjoy!

On behalf of the staff at DarkMyst, we would like to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a fantastic new year!

DarkMyst is now 100% compatible with the popular web chat Mibbit. We have also updated our web chat page to offer the Mibbit web chat as the first option for connecting to the network. However, if you still prefer to use the web chat we've used before or if your community uses it on their web chat, it will still be available to you as an alternate choice.

DarkMyst is proud to announce the formation of a new team - the User Experience Team.

DarkMyst has always been about creating the best user experience possible in an IRC network, and that is a goal that each and every team on the network works towards.

The creation of this team will put an even stronger focus on improving the network and making your experience on DarkMyst the very best that it can be.

Very few IRC networks have a team solely dedicated to improving your experience on the network, and DarkMyst is proud to be a leader amongst the IRC community when it comes to providing a quality experience, a quality network, and having persistent and proactive staff members that work every day to make our network an even better place.

You can look forward to seeing more from this team in the future.

Two new servers have joined the DarkMyst family. avalon.darkmyst.org is a new server located in the UK and odyssey.darkmyst.org is a previous DarkMyst server re-joining us at a new location - Norway.

Both of these servers have been approved for a test-link and have been doing very well so far.