CoDZ + Collateral Network

[InfestLithium]

Hey everyone!

 

It's been a while since our staff has made a major announcement like this. I'd like to preface by apologizing for not being nearly as transparent as I'd like to be with these new changes. You may have seen some new things coming our way if you've been watching us closely on Twitter (and receiving our email newsletters the past few months). With this new announcement, we - myself, the staff, and our new friends - are making big changes and want everyone to know what's going on.

 

We're happy to announce that Call of Duty Zombies is officially a part of the Collateral Network! For those out of the loop, CoDZ is now being managed not only by myself, but our new friendos @AzzidReign and @Anubis. Both are involved with the popular gaming website Se7enSins and have expertise in running online communities similar to ours. After much discussion, we agreed that combining efforts would help bolster both our communities with the goal of creating a more expansive network under the Collateral title.

 

What does this mean for me?

 

I'll be the first to admit that I understand the idea of change can be scary. Ever since I became a part of the staff alongside @Hells Warrrior and @Boom115, we've worked tirelessly to operate CoDZ and ensure that our members always had an undead home to talk with friends, be involved in theories, and be provided with everything Zombies. Collateral Network will help us stimulate the community from it's [rather interesting, if you've been paying attention to the BO4 season] slumber with a myriad of improvements to the site, features, expenses, and most importantly, communication.

 

This network involvement also means we're able to provide greater features and enhancements to the community (such as in-depth map tutorials, faster page speeds, improved filtering systems when looking up threads, and more) that are soon to come. Us administrators made sure to keep the theme and feel of our community in mind when determining what's to come. This place is our home, and has been for nearly a decade. As such, I've made a promise to keep the CoDZ-aesthetic the same no matter which direction we go.

 

I have great faith in the new network conglomerate and can't wait to share for you all what we've got in store. This is a big push for us if we plan on keeping CoDZ alive and kickin', so let's spread the love!

 

By the way - we DO have a giveaway at the moment with Collateral for a free RGB gaming chair. You should check it out and get your entries in.

 

[Lenne]

 

[AzzidReign]

Wanted to give the community a little more insight. We are working diligently in the background and want to bring this site up to date a little more. We have plans in place to add additional features to the site, update the design of the site (while still keeping the same CoDZ feel), working on tweaks that should increase people visiting the site (more members!), bringing products to do more giveaways for the members, and many small things/logistics to help improve your experience on the site! 

 

I don't want to give a direct timeline as much of the estimates would come down to when projects are finished but we are hoping by mid-summer that the site will receive an upgrade to the server, optimizations for page loading times, as well as the improvements and extra features we are looking at adding. I do know that change is always hard, but we are hoping that with the help of the active members in the community, we can make these changes that everyone will like and welcome!

 

As for the network, being apart of the network means we will be able to continue to improve upon the site, keeping things fresh and up to date!

[anonymous]

While I had heard it before, I still enjoy to read it. I am definately optimistic about the future of CoDZ, and am glad Azzid and Anubis, along with the Colleteral Network (Hey, guess 'The Community' has a broader meaning now ;p), are here to support it. Changes are unavoidable, and an opportunity to improve and expand. 

 

I read comments on reddit about CoDZ, either not familiar with it or saying things like

Quote

CODZ > Reddit > YouTube > Facebook

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What is CoDZ? The forum that pretty much started the story

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The actual forum layout isnt too great and kinda ugly ( so is reddit though) but the members make it so great.

Quote

The app is total ass but the dedication and understanding to the story is far better there than it ever will be here. 

So all of those knowing CoDZ seem to be super positive about the quality of the forum, yet dislike the system, so I think changing the latter isn't a bad idea. I really look forward to our common future and, as always, let me know if I can help. 

 

To ensure a better tomorrow, comrades!

 

(Btw, @AzzidReign, has the name Se7enSins any meaning? I recently watched a movie named like that.

[AzzidReign]

On 4/14/2019 at 11:02 AM, anonymous said:

(Btw, @AzzidReign, has the name Se7enSins any meaning? I recently watched a movie named like that.

The original name for the site was Xbox Revamped. We got hacked at the same time another site got hacked. I contacted the admin there and we decided to join forces. His site was "Se7en Mods" and he wanted to keep the word "se7en" in it. Don't know the significance behind it for him so while we were brainstorming, I came up with Se7enSins and we liked it so went with it. We started as se7en-sins.tk and then when things started improving, I bought the domain  The other admin ended up getting in trouble with the law and haven't seen him since a few months after the site started. But yeah, the movie "Se7en" popped into my mind when he said he wanted to keep the word "se7en" in it, which is how I came to Se7enSins.

[Hells Warrrior]

Staying in the background for what seems like 2 years now, I've not had much dealings with the site apart from the occassional intervention. Will be good to see how things move for the community, forum software is forum software. Be that vBulletin, phpBB, Invision suite (which we run) or others such as Xenforo. Some have different activity functionality and "slightly" different layouts but in essence they are the same. 

Reddits not a forum in the traditional sense, it's more complicated and less intuitive in my view - although I'm pretty oldskool when it comes to forums. I started running forums with Ikonboard back in 2001 and ventured to YaBB and others. I've always preferred the service and the options supplied by Invision & I've been with them on several forums now for over 15 years. Occasionally involved in sites such as CoDz, that had phpBB/vBulletin/myBB/. CoDz was running phpBB and tried to migrate to vBulletin which failed spectacularly, we still had the licence for it but attempted migrations was a nightmare, they kept failing on the test setup, no matter what.

It was pretty messed up, so we switched to Invision pretty much straight after I got involved and we have been using Invision for over 4 years now. 

Change is not always appreciated, not always seen as a requirement or having a need for change other than when someone comes in that is used to a different forum software (such as myself a few years back). Bottom line, change can be good, it can open up new avenues, times change and that's OK. 

Embrace changes that occur, remember CoDz is about it's members and not one individual. We're all still here in some guise and we're all happy to help.

My only concern is losing features on this site, which we had custom built (LFG). 

However, having 4 kids ranging from 16 to 1.5, running the business, travelling up and down the UK on a nearly weekly basis and travelling to places like Germany, Austria, Lithuiana. Time for the family, myself & CoDz has become near impossible.

 

So the admins with the time and dedication & with more time on their hands than me. Is a good thing for the site and the community.

Here's to the future.

[AzzidReign]

On 4/18/2019 at 3:14 PM, Hells Warrrior said:

My only concern is losing features on this site, which we had custom built (LFG). 

I haven't seen your reply in the staff section yet so maybe you have seen that this is staying and will also likely have an upgrade to it. On top of the regular features of LFG that you are use to, the one for xenforo can be hooked into the forums so we can pull the data to each forum section. So say you are in Blops4 section, you will see all those that are playing Blops4 zombies. If you are in Blops3 section, you'll see the players that are playing Blops3. Should make things more seamless and easier to find stuff that you are looking for (or things you didn't realize you wanted lol).