Future Of Site

[2flush thirty]

Although the site's original author and owner, Christian, has given me the site to manage for years now, he understandably doesn't want the liability of it anymore. He has been paying for this out of his own pocket since he started it.

A while ago, he offered to legally transfer ownership of the site and all its assets to me - otherwise, he'll need to pull the plug on it for good. Him and I discussed this and he agreed to hold off a bit until I can sort out with you guys what to do.

As you know, I've also had very little time to deal with this site lately. It's also very broken.

The site was created by Christian as essentially a demo of the programming foundation behind it. It wasn't designed to run for this long or be this popular. As a result, the databases have exploded in size to the point where it can't keep up. (Every HOF, every custom category someone enters it saves, stats back to when the site was started, etc etc).

The code is old and out-of-date. The databases are choking. It will take a good amount of effort from an experienced developer who's familiar with the site's foundation, and an experiences Systems Administrator to not only fix it, but to maintain it.

Then there are the hosting fees.

So, what to do?

Let's discuss. We don't have very much longer either.

[2flush thirty]

This is open for comment if anybody wants to add anything or discuss.

[McKenna Seymour]

Well, you know how I feel about it. And a few of us have discussed paying for the site as well. I know it comes up for renewal in May I believe. As far as someone with those qualifications to repair/remake the site, is questionable. And would you even have the time to work with someone to get the game fixed? If monthly maintenance had been done, would the site still be broken like it is? I mean the game hasn't had anything done to it for a very long time. I've only ever built web pages, not game sites so I don't know all the ins and outs. I do know from what I've seen, there are many things I could do, but I'm sure there are many more I would not know what to do with. 

So are you asking for someone to run the site for you? Do all the updates/monthly maintenance? The data files should be easy enough to purge, making things less apt to go bad? If Christian has offered for you to take ownership of the game, is that what you would do? Be the owner, but not work on the site? Find someone who could take care of the gateway errors and whatever else came up? As a volunteer/for free. My opinion is that would have to be someone who loves the game like we do. There is only one person I know who has that kind of background. 

I will spread the word for others to come and comment and maybe there are people able to do the work that I don't know about. 

Please check back for any questions people might have.

Thank you,

Keeks.

[McKenna Seymour]

All I know is that we all miss it. Very much.

[2flush thirty]

To fix the site, I've had to purge some data. As follows:

All your score history. The way the system stored it was unsustainable. (For techies, it kept an array on your profile with the data of every game you ever played).

HOF down to last 500. (There were 113,779).

    --> This will be pruned now and again. Probably no more than a year will be kept).

Categories down to 200.

So, all rooms now work.

[McKenna Seymour]

Thanks Flush for getting it going. So the big question remains. Will you be taking Christian up on his offer and try to find someone else to keep the site maintained? I know you want conversation about it, but really until you have decided whether or not you are going to take it on, nothing else really matters. I think there are several of us that would be willing to pitch in for the costs. You could even do small adverts on the home page to make money. So many little things that could be done to the site to make it seem more updated. Background color is a big one. Making the acro answers bold to where you can actually see them in the list would be wonderful. Not allowing anonymous players.  Making old profiles update before joining again. It would help keep out questionable people. We seem to be a magnet for some lol. I must be the one loud person fighting for the game I saw you mention in the chat? I don't think I'm loud. It is just important to me. Finding this game, now 8 years ago, was a lifesaver for me. It helped me thru cancer, twice, the death of my dad, and helped me to smile again when I didn't think I ever could. And I am very lucky to have made what I consider lifelong friends. It is comforting to go to Fever to play a game and know you have friends there, to know you'll laugh at least once that day. So I think it comes down to you. 

Keeks

p.s. Americans do not in any way hate Canadians. We hate what is happening as much as your country does, trust me. 

[Cary Blakeley]

AcroFever's future: Keep the current version running on the internet while new and improved code is being built upon the shell of the old code. Mend it when it breaks. Be faithful to its needs. Work on a better version. It's THE BEST GAME ever to grace the internet. A game of mental skill [you have 60 seconds... go!!] and physical dexterity [how fast can you freaking type, huh?] I play against real people, not AI bots. I chat with players. Meet new folks. Laugh. Scratch. Have a great time. Its hard to find games like that on the internet anymore. Acrofever is more entertaining than television, and three times funnier than the best sitcoms, too. All the players here are talented acro comedians. I LMAO every night I play with them. They should be writing scripts for Hollywood, that's how talented their acro humor is. In fact, when AF was down and the regulars started showing up at Acrochallenge to satisfy their acro jones, they we're given high praise by the regular AcroChallenge players for their ability to craft humorous adult acros. The AC players had never seen anything like that before; they were impressed and they gave it two thumbs up.
IMO, the alternative sites to AcroFever are poor substitutes. AcroChallenge looks like it time traveled straight from the 1980's. It's cumbersome to use, especially when trying to create rooms for gameplay. It's glitchy, sometimes requiring a group boot for stuck players. Acrozilla is elitist - its a stuffy and rigid playing environment, and its closed more often than its open for play.
I have some suggestions for an updated AcroFever that I'll post if the site survives.

Thanks, I enjoy my time at AcroFever,

Cary, "Lawn Gnome"

[McKenna Seymour]

Well leave it to one of the best acro players to state pretty much how we all feel about AcroFever. It is a personal relationship that we all have to this game. After the general room broke, the game started bleeding players. Zach and I worked hard to keep people playing; encouraging them to stay in Experts even tho they couldn't get half the acros in on time and stood no chance of winning. Why? Because of the people. Because of the chat area. It is what makes the game. It is what gets people to open up to each other. It is a special game. And this latest break really hurt the number of players, again. Every time it crashes, we lose players. Challenge is always up and running. It may not be perfect, but it is available. We need that at Fever. And you know I'm willing to do whatever I can to help with that. 

So I think now it is all up to you Flush. 

Keeks

[Elizabeth Vaughan-Williams]

I echo McKenna’s sentiments and would be willing to chip in to keep the site running & healthy. 

I consider all my fellow players to be my friends, and would hate to lose a platform to meet, create and banter with them on the reg.   Can someone post a cost estimate so we can begin to gauge commitment levels from fellow players?  

KAAAW (keep acro alive and well)

-Elizabeth (AyCarumba). 

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[Kevin]

I know there will never be more than myself playing acro for the reasons I do. First and foremost I genuinely love the game. But the benefits it provides to me for medical recovery is innumerable.
In 2000 I had two surgeries for a brain tumor the surgeries left me with a severe limp on my right side and short term memory problems. I've talked to my DR about the game and he says he thinks it's great and probably the best therapy I could get. I started playing in the mid 90s and at that time was considered a fairly decent player. Then the . com bomb happened and I was lost for a few years I had even bought  to them in an

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[John Chernoff]

Hi, I used to play Acrophobia as a kid in the 90's via IRC.   I wonder if, ironically, the future of the game could go back to its roots via Discord.   I'm a semi-competent programmer (by avocation, not by profession) that's once wrote a bot to play this game on the old Internet Chess Server.   I could do so again for either a web app and/or Discord bot.   If there's any interest in doing so feel free to let me know either in this thread of via my account on lichess.org (https://lichess.org/@/ZugAddict).  Thanks.

- John

[Geoff Bartlett]

I personally think a mobile game would be the best way to increase engagement and ensure the future success of ACRO. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/acrofever/eae3a825-8a3b-4d28-860f-b698ae21912cn%40googlegroups.com.

[Troy Wolf]

I loved playing the original game in the 90s! A couple years ago, I remembered the game and went looking for it. I was sad to see nobody had developed something similar to the original. I found Acrofever and played for a few days.

I am a web application developer by profession, and enjoy building things on the side, too. I keep thinking about developing the game as a fresh web app. I was surprised to come here tonight to see this discussion.

I agree with Geoff Bartlett, that it needs to work well on mobile. I don't think it needs to be an actual native web app--just needs to work really well on mobile, and these days, you can "install" a web app so it feels like a native app (icon on the phone screen, etc.)

I'm not a "game developer", but I think what I'd want to build would be in my wheelhouse. Hmmmmm....

[John Chernoff]

A mobile version also sounds like fun, though I remember the game being somewhat dependent on fast typing.

[Tunacrab]

I'm by no means a great player. I disappear sometimes due to life things. I go on runs, make some friends, play the game... and keep coming back.

I've been involved in every form of this game, back from when it was a simple IRC script, in the late 90's.... since I was 16. I was deeply involved in the "Berkley Acrophobia" era... I'm 43 now, and I still keep coming back, in whatever form or port it currently operates... There's just no other casual fun chat game on the internet with such a reliable collection of smart people and wordsmiths.

I'm poor. If I had money to offer, or a programmer to hire, I'd step up... but I cant. I can barely pay rent.

Acro must remain a keyboard game. I can't imagine playing on VTT or swipe, but maybe that's because I'm old. Maybe a mobile app could work, but I don't know... I'm an old windows 2.1 nerd. The core game itself, especially "couch rules" as it is usually played, is a perfect experiment in humor, fuckery, playful nonsense. I love it.

[Tunacrab]

Keeks, my email is my username, at gmail. I'm assuming "John" in this thread is JohnLimo.

email me if you want. I want to help however I can. I don't have much money, but I offer my help to heep the spirit of acro alive.

If acro dies, the soul of the internet dies.

[John Chernoff]

Welp, I'm happy to write a simple server/webclient for this.   If you guys like it, let me know.  If not, that's OK as well. :)

Also, is there a Acrophobia discord channel?   Could make communication a bit simpler.

Cheers,

- John

[McKenna Seymour]

Hi there everyone, and thanks to all of you who have replied. Not sure what's happened to the guy who started this chat and is in control of Fever, but wanted to respond as best I could.

AcroFever used to have an app. I know many people who play on their phones, but I tend to agree that it truly is a keyboard game. Typing speed = extra points. And myself, being able to type 110+ wpm, I need that weapon to win LOL

I had found a player that offered to do the monthly maintenance on the game, but again, haven't heard back from the admin. His biggest complaint was not having the time to work on the game and do his regular job, so I was looking for ways around that and to help take care of that. 

From what I know, Fever wasn't meant to be a long running site. It was a something the person who made it did for coding practice or something like that. When it took off and became popular, he continued to maintain and run the site, but decided several months ago, he was done with it. Offered it to the admin., who I have been working with in trying to keep the site going. All of you who have offered to help, thank you so much. I wish I knew something more to tell you.

For the person who wrote about the game being a healing thing for you to do, I do know exactly what you mean. Acro has gotten me thru two rounds of cancer. Made me laugh when nothing else would. Kept me company during chemo treatments and hospital stays. I completely get it. 

And Tuna, thank you for your offer of help. I too have offered to pay the fees for the site, but again no replies. And you need to come play more often lol

AcroFever has the best players, hands down. We've tried acro challenge and acro zilla, but it is the players that help make the game. They are some of the most creative, funny, and genuinely good people that I am fortunate to have met and become friends with. 

Thanks for your responses and offers of help. It means a lot! And when I know more, I will definitely share.

Thank you all again,

McKenna

aka Keeks 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/acrofever/0b0bfa4c-7cfe-4a4f-ab19-bb862da6a3d0n%40googlegroups.com.

[Jen Stosser]

how do I unsubscribe from notifications about upcoming acrofever events that never seem to happen?  there's a "to unsubcribe click here" on the emails, but clicking on it doesn't do anything.

[2flush thirty]

Hi Jen, this isn’t a mailing list it’s a Google Group.

If you want to stop receiving email notifications for a specific group, you can change your subscription settings. Go to the Google Groups website, sign in with the account associated with the group, and navigate to the group’s settings. From there, select “No email” to stop receiving notifications.

Alternatively, you could leave the group.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/acrofever/3e2a3c95-a014-47ae-9d76-efa30cc70f44n%40googlegroups.com.

[Nik Ivanoff]

I'm interested in a transition, I can host, develop and evolve this. As a huge fan of Acrophobia (which led me to this group), I think we need a revival. 
Put me in contact with whomever and we can get the discussion going. #saveacrofever
Does the admin have a Github repo or any documentation to start by chance?

[Nik Ivanoff]

Welp, found the repo here: https://github.com/ckiely91/acrofever
Will try to decipher what exists, hoping Christian has something newer than the last update, which was 3 years ago.

[John Chernoff]

I just tried to post an update about a client/server I hacked up a few days ago but it was deleted for some reason.   Anyhow, the site I've made for this is https://acro.cafe, and it's definitely a WIP but perhaps ready for some alpha-ish testing?

Note that logging in via Google doesn't yet work and also there's almost certainly a lot of other bugs waiting to be discovered. :)

Cheers,

- John

[John Chernoff]

Hey,

WTIW, I've created from scratch an acrophobia client/server that's ready to test - it's somewhat barebones (no topics, etc.), but seems to work.   It can be accessed at https://acro.cafe

Cheers,

- John

P.S. -> Obvious bugs are everywhere, of course.  In particular, logging in with Google isn't a thing yet, etc.   If there's interest in this let me know and I'll add/fix more stuff.  Actually, I probably will add more stuff anyhow but will do so quicker if prompted. :) 

[Joe Bloggs]

now that Acrofever is done and dusted, obviously the time to finally (at the very least) first establish some much-needed dialogue about how to resurrect the site has now got to get underway, with those like me that have been playing this game for some time now. First of 2 things to mention I feel: a) I feel I speak for the vast majority (if not all) of acroers who come online to play regularly or intermittently, that I am more than happy to pay an individual fee to essentially monetize this game on a different website. The only other question then seems to be, on which server?  so, the other question I have then regarding getting acrofever back up and running again is, I suppose (b) if it's a personal server, can they give us (the acrofever community) full autonomy to run that server and effectively let us migrate there, once we have arranged to pay for it collectively?

On one final note, the major endearing thing about Acrofever wasnt just (in my opinion) how fun the game was to play in your downtime, let alone the superior functionality of the site compared to other acro clones, but more the ability to chat to others while playing and henceforth develop a sense of community online: something rare in this day and age of social media arguably failing to do likewise.
 

[2flush thirty]

The code is open source and on GitHub. I also wasn’t the one who pulled the plug on it. It was the site owner. He couldn’t wait around any longer.

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[Joe Bloggs]

is there a  possibility of any of us getting in direct contact with the site owner (Christian I believe, if my memory serves me correct)? To put our case forward for collectively resurrecting the site by way of financing it ourselves etc?

[2flush thirty]

I’m working on having ownership of the site transferred to me. Then we can discuss how to cover the hosting costs.

[Nik Ivanoff]

You may want to rethink the level of effort. I’ve reviewed the codebase, here are my findings:

1. Outdated Dependencies: Most packages are 3-7 years old
2. React Version: Using React 16.2.0 (current is 18+)
3. Meteor-specific: Heavy reliance on Meteor ecosystem
4. External Services: Integration with Cloudflare, SendGrid, Twitter
5. Game Features: TrueSkill rating system, emoji support, charts
6. Real-time: Uses timesync for synchronization

Key Technical Challenges

• Legacy Framework: Meteor.js is less popular and harder to scale
• Outdated Dependencies and monolithic structure: Will require a code conversion and refactor.
• Complex External Dependencies: Multiple third-party services
• Real-time Requirements: Game requires low-latency real-time communication (not timesync, needs to be socket.io)
• Scaling Concerns: Current architecture may not handle 100 users

Thanks,

Nik

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[John Chernoff]

If it's any way helpful, I've put my client/server (currently running on https://acro.cafe) on github as well.   Here are the relevant libraries: 

https://github.com/JohnChernoff/java-acro-serv (main Acro server)

https://github.com/JohnChernoff/ZugServ (main underlying networking/game management library)

https://github.com/JohnChernoff/flutter-acro-client (main Acro client, written in Flutter)
https://github.com/JohnChernoff/zugclient (main underlying networking/game management library)

I currently don't have a useful readme file for either the client or server but could easily make one if there's any interest.

[Runey00]

Hello,

I just randomly thought about this game after a 10 year absence and low and behold I googled and found this thread! I am a web dev company and I was thinking about making something like this.  I would possibly even make this an app.  Let me know your thoughts! 

[Jaymee Wallace]

Go play Acrorage, looks like a great version of the game.

[Gabriel Ng]

I was looking for Acrophobia and went down the rabbit hole and found this.  Love this game along with You Don't Know Jack.

[Mostly Anonymous]

Hi, I've played on and off for years under the name GoBucksGo and sometimes ChompChompxx.  I came back to it recently and found this thread. I would be willing to pitch in funding-wise to get an app started. I love this game and the small community it fostered. I am not a tech person but if anyone can get in contact with a developer and we could all pitch in, I think this would be a great idea. Implementing noninvasive ads would help with the costs of running the site/app as well. Does anyone have an update on how things are going?

[Adam Marx]

Register on www.theacrogame.com, we're going to launch BETA games less than 2 weeks.

[CincyExotic]

Tuna, come play our BETA version on https://theacrogame.com/game, i will approve your BETA access when you register

-Cincy

On Friday, March 14, 2025 at 2:53:45 PM UTC-4 2flush thirty wrote:

Although the site's original author and owner, Christian, has given me the site to manage for years now, he understandably doesn't want the liability of it anymore. He has been paying for this out of his own pocket since he started it.

A while ago, he offered to legally transfer ownership of the site and all its assets to me - otherwise, he'll need to pull the plug on it for good. Him and I discussed this and he agreed to hold off a bit until I can sort out with you guys what to do.

As you know, I've also had very little time to deal with this site lately. It's also very broken.

The site was created by Christian as essentially a demo of the programming foundation behind it. It wasn't designed to run for this long or be this popular. As a result, the databases have exploded in size to the point where it can't keep up. (Every HOF, every custom category someone enters it saves, stats back to when the site was started, etc etc).

The code is old and out-of-date. The databases are choking. It will take a good amount of effort from an experienced developer who's familiar with the site's foundation, and an experiences Systems Administrator to not only fix it, but to maintain it.

Then there are the hosting fees.

So, what to do?

Let's discuss. We don't have very much longer either.

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[Vivek Subramanyam]

Was MIA for a while and just figured AF is dead... Have registered, pls approve beta. 

Vivek

aka, Funnzoid

[CincyExotic]

I could've done it but now that we have moved the entire AcroFever community to TAG, we're not looking back anymore.

RIP AF!