A way to bring back RPNow?
There’s a site called Glitch.com which lets people create and host websites. It has a particularly interesting feature: allowing you to clone someone else’s project and make it your own. It is also entirely free to use.
Basically, I could make an RP page template on Glitch, which you could create a copy of, and then invite friends and write your story just like how things used to work. Creating an RP room would now be a one-minute process, instead of the error-prone, hours-long process of setting up a server on Google Cloud. I believe this is the best way possible to let everyone use RPNow again.
Doing this addresses many of the reasons why I stopped RPNow in the first place. This way, I’d no longer be responsible for managing the servers and an enormous centralized database, and will no longer be troubled by the potential personal liability of hosting that data.
If you’re not so sure about Glitch, know that after doing some research that I personally am very impressed with everything about it! They’re the same people who made Trello and StackOverflow, so I’m pretty confident in their ability to continue providing good service for many years to come. Besides that, their company values openness, accessibility and a healthy welcoming community, and their actions back that up. Also, after using the service myself for a few months, I’ve found that it’s my new favorite way to create and host websites.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I am considering moving forward with it, as long as there’s still enough interest in RPNow. So if you are interested please like this post! (And share if you want!)
Would we still be able to keep the one we’ve hosted on Google? And would we be able to import RPs into glitch?
Yes you’ll be able to continue hosting the ones on Google. That server belongs to you and is in your control so I don’t have the power to stop it, even if I was interested in doing so. And yeah I’d definitely provide a way to do an import!
