Alright! The beta board is now open to the public. [link]

What you're going to find here is of course, the system revamp that we have been talking about, but also something much bigger; the information for a reset. The reason behind this is that current AK is dying with a stagnant plot, too many factions, and too many many people with multiple characters that are burnt out on RPing because of them. Without a reset, I would no longer be able to manage AK because of the reasons; it is simply too hard and too draining and it shouldn't be. RPing is supposed to be fun for everyone, and it isn't right now.

Anyways, we're going to have a live Q&A on the radio show tonight, but if you want to do some Q&A and miss the show, or you have additional questions/opinions tomorrow, you can ask here or on the beta board! We do want to get this going as quickly as possible though, so we can implement it and get main AK back and running in a week or so.

I'm still in the process of getting all the info where it should be, but there are two main spots to look at for the whole deal that Cain and I worked through step by step. There are of course, other places to look, such as the welcome thread.

[link] - Start here as it explains the new realm and set up.

[link] - Read this second as it's about the system info, which will make more sense once you read the backstory and stuff.

Note: I do respond to valid complaints, but 'I don't like change' and 'I just don't like it' without a reason and any variation of will be ignored.

Alright, no one has really raised any objections to the new stuff, so I'll be moving coding and the like over. If you have any questions, you can ask them here still. AK should be up and running in a few days.

Okay! So the majority of stuff for reset is now in place, though I have a few info threads left to fill out. There are a few things you may notice in the mean time. One is that my old Shinji account is gone, so if you PMed anything to it, you may need to PM this account with the information again. Two, everyone had their post count turned back to zero. Three, any avatars over 100x100 which is the max allowed height have been removed due to a code that was out in, as these pictures often made pages lag in loading while they were being resized; now the profile wont even accept any over the max dimensions. Also, we no longer have music codes in profiles; they were causing lag as well in addition to crashing shockwave for a lot of people. We no longer have faction colors, but instead you can earn specially colored names via contests and as prizes for stuff like MotM, CotM, and our new category, Writer of the Month, or WotM.

All old threads and profiles have been moved to an archive category. You need to collect any information you want to keep, such as old profiles, and save it to your computer. I wont be deleting these threads, but I will be hiding the category after the two weeks are up, which means you wont be able to access it unless I turn the hide option off. This is to preserve AK's sleeker, less cluttered look.

Information threads will continue to be filled out over the next couple of days, but starting tomorrow, we will be 'auctioning' off the ten high ranks we have available; five taichou and five arrancar. They will be auctioned off two per day. So a taichou and an arrancar every 24 hours. This is to eliminated fighting in the box over a first come first serve policy. You DO NOT need to have a character made. You will simply be filling out a form that evaluates you RP experience, RP skill and ideas, and activity levels. Though we have an area dedicated to activity levels, ANYONE can apply for the high rank spots. This is our clean sweep policy; past breaking of the activity rules will not prevent a person from applying for high ranks. However, it is used as a tie breaker so it may prevent you from getting the spot. Any future inactivity will still count against people. The full auction info will be listed in a separate thread.

After the auction period, registration for new characters will start. People who were actively RPing on AK (meaning not in limbo and hadn't quit) will get a small bonus for their new character. You will be able to unlock one additional stat tier, skill tier, or ability tier in addition to the amount you can pick from your respective rank. You will also be able to pick a [smear:33ccff]color smear[/smear:ff0066] for your title, though your title itself will be based on your rank/job. You wont be able to change this unless you win it through a contest or the like.

Any questions or issues you have need to be pointed out NOW before we get into registrations and RPing, which will hopefully be sometime next week.

Alright, so tomorrow will be the end of the auction period! This means RP will be starting here soon, but of course, before RP, comes registration! However, I will not be checking the registrations until 24 hours have passed from the end of auction, meaning, I will start going over them on Wednesday afternoon after 2PM board time.

What you guys need to starting tomorrow, is make sure you go over the faction info threads (whichever is relevant to your character), the rule threads, the history, and all that good stuff to make sure your profile is in line with everything, and you need to communicate with other people in your faction (especially Shinigami) about if and when your characters might have met and the existing level of your relationship.