Over the decades, there were a number of corporations that tried to KILL SFO … in fact, here are some honorable mentions:
1: Adobe purchased Macromedia just to stop supporting Director altogether. (this action has essentially FROZEN our TCP/IP code in it’s broken 2k1 state, and has NEVER allowed us to beat LAG since Adobe did NOT update TCP/IP at all since it’s inception)
2: Google Chrome removed support for the Director Shockwave plugin, and ALL other browsers followed suit. (this action has essentially DESTROYED our player base, since over 80% of our old-school players have ALL played SFO inside their web browsers since 2k1).
3: And now, our latest contender to try and KILL SFO is: Oracle.
But first, let us go back to 2k1 and XvsSF 0.1a … because since day one, SFO has always relied on the company called “DynDNS” for ALL of our dynamic DNS needs. We had a paid DynDNS account for almost 2 decades, and it seemed like there was NO need to ever find an alternative. DynDNS has allowed us to operate on both Dynamic and Static IP’s, and has even allowed at one point for SFO to merge 2 different ISP connections in order to sustain 15,000 unique player logins per day (this was back in the good’ol circa 2k8 days).
But, on November 21, 2016, DynDNS announced that it had agreed to be acquired by the Oracle Corporation. And soon after, they announced the discontinuation of ALL of the dynamic IP services that SFO has been using for the past 2 decades. The final “retirement” date for the services in question has been set by Oracle as May 31, 2023. It may seem like we have a “bit of time”, but in reality, we just need to look at the amount of work that NEEDS to be done:
1: Over 100,000 lines of code need to be processed in Shockwave Director 8.5 for the removal of all hard-coded DynDNS and Oracle elements. Projected work: 40 hours.
2: Over 50,000 lines of the Auth server need to pre-programmed to remove ALL hard-coded references to DynDNS and Oracle. Projected work: 20 hours.
3: There are some stray PHP/HTML elements within the Official SFO Website that will need to be re-coded. Projected work: 10 hours.
To make the injury even worse, as we speak, Oracle is STILL taking 1 year renewals with 20% off for Father’s Day! And what good is a 1 year renewal when the service will stop working in May of next year?
All in all, I feel as though the corporations today not only feel NOTHING towards us … I feel as though they are ACTIVELY trying to destroy the underdog/underground indie developers. Just look at ALL that Adobe/Google and now Oracle have done. With ALL that is happening at SFO and with ALL that is happening in the world, do you think the multi-billion-dollar corporation like Oracle could at least provide the service they are being pre-paid yearly for? And of course, there was NO mention of ANY of this via the automated Dyn emails. The service continued as normal since the destructive takeover of 2016, and Oracle continued to bill SFO yearly as though nothing was happening, when in reality, and in secret, they have been plotting to shut-down the Dyn services SFO and our Auth server completely rely on!
The only logical solution is to spend the 70+ hours needed to completely ERADICATE all references to Dyn and Oracle from SFO/Auth/Website prior to the end of this year 2k22. Since the work could take several months, waiting until the last minute of May 2023 is NOT something that we can risk with: because the SFO community is NOT something we are willing to risk either!
As such, a brand new Oracle Eradication Dream Goal has now been created! With some luck, we will be able to complete this Dream by the end of this year 2k22, thereby removing ALL offensive reverences to Dyn/Oracle, and thereby ridding our beloved community of the Oracle plague once and for all, so that we are FREE to develop SFO for yet another 20 years!
BELOW: Help SFO ERADICATE Oracle from our community! Click below to vote for this Dream Goal and to KEEP SFO ALIVE!
*** BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: June 8, 2k22 *** Our very own Blanka09 is the FIRST PERSON to support SFO’s Oracle Eradication Dream Goal!
*** BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: June 8, 2k22 *** Our very own Bkbatman is the SECOND PERSON to support SFO’s Oracle Eradication Dream Goal!
NEXT UP: TMyApp is behind on everything, including the public announcements of the current and the upcoming SFO Staff Promotions! … Stay tuned true believers, as SFO CONTINUES TO LIVE-ON AGAINST ALL ODDS‼️