As is our tradition around here, we have updated our site ahead of the next expansion. This refresh was bigger than most as we are introducing a new application system and a new content management solution, plus we are retiring our 10+ year old forum. Read on for the full details.

Refreshed Home Page

Our banner has been updated to theme the site for Shadowlands. The fight scene between Sylvanis and Bolvar's Lich King is a huge improvement over the BfA design. Below that, our full progression history on final bosses has been added to the carousel. It highlights our 15+ years of excellence. And finally you have the blog section, which you're reading now. We're not sure how much we'll be using the blog, but it's a nice feature that lets us put out information on the site.

New Guild Application System

We have a new guild application system! The bespoke web app created by our very own Argo is a huge improvement over our forum-based form we had been previously using.

By utilizing the Blizzard API, we have applicants log in with their Blizzard account and let them select their character. From there, we pull relevant data from the Blizzard API such as progression history, notable achievements, and more.

Additionally, by utilizing Discord's API, we automatically create a private Discord channel for the applicant. We post the applicants details in that channel for our raiders to review and we get a chance to chat casually with the applicant as we evaluate them.

It's an impressive system that we hope to grow as we progress into Shadowlands.

New Content Management System

Our previous iteration of our site was a static web site hosted and generated from a Git repository. While it worked and was easy for someone with technical knowledge to update, there was a barrier to entry that prevented painless content updates.

This iteration we're using a headless CMS to power the site. Now anyone can easily publish changes to our content, navigation, carousels, and more. While we don't know how much updating we'll be doing, it's nice to have a pain-free solution to do so.

Potential Retirement of our Forum

Since we're switched to using Discord, our forum has been on life support. 99.9% of our communication is now done through Discord. The primary purpose of our forum over the past 4 years has been applications. But with our new application system launching, our forum doesn't have a clear purpose other than to collect spam.

So in the coming months, we'll be evaluating whether to retire our forum. There's a ton of history there. We have posts going back to October 2009. We've got old screenshots, kill videos, and other valuable history we need to at minimum archive elsewhere. There's also the resource of over 2000 accounts and being able to contact them that we would lose.

Maybe we'll remove it. Maybe we'll make it private. Maybe we'll let the spam bots take over. We need to think about this one.

As of writing this post, the forum no longer appears on the navigation bar above. You can still access it via https://www.decidedlyuncouth.com/forums/.

Updated Content Pages

We have refreshed out content pages. Our Guild History now includes our latest BfA history. Guild Leadership has a few new names on it. Our Sales page has been updated for our BfA sales. Most pages have seen some level of change.

If you notice any issues with our site refresh, reach out to us on Discord