For no reason currently known to us, the forum is unavailable. Some other services are also down—the IRC chan and nickservs, FTP—which suggest that the server itself may be knocked offline (possibly due to an upstream router issue). More news when we have it.
The So Spake Martin collection has added a link to his audio interview for World Fantasy Con 2008, as well as a new piece of fan correspondence discussing the use of Valyrian steel and twist endings.
We upgraded the board to the latest version of the software, but this necessitates us doing a rebuild of the contents of the database to take advantage of effeciency improvements. Unfortunately, the database is so large at this point that the rebuild process simply chokes, and with it goes the whole board, and then the whole server. This is a problem not only for the members of the board, but for the other sites hosted on the same server, and we’d like to be a good neighbor.
So, what we will need to do is prune the forums of excess posts, the usual house cleaning, and then run the rebuild.
The So Spake Martin collection has been updated with a new audio interview with GRRM. It’s a very good one, actually, from the Law Talk podcast. A number of questions about the setting in relation to law are asked, as well as questions concerning magic in fantasy, the trend towards the medieval setting, the proposed HBO series, and more.
The So Spake Martin collection has been updated with a link to an interview with GRRM conducted by Entertainment Weekly, drawing from a pool of questions submitted by fans. There are some very candid and interesting answers, as well as information regarding the proposed HBO series which confirms details previously reported, including something only hinted at in our earlier report: HBO has gone so far as to conduct a budget study for the project.
The So Spake Martin collection has been updated with reports from the World Fantasy Convention, as well as to a newly-published interview originally given during the San Diego Comic Con.
The So Spake Martin collection has been updated with a link to a new interview with George, which also features Daniel Abraham and Gardner Dozois as it’s primarily focused on the forthcoming release of Hunter’s Run.
The So Spake Martin collection has been updated with a number of reports from this past weekend’s Trinoc*Con, where GRRM made an appearance. Some interesting tidbits include George’s remarks on the warging abilities of the Stark children, future Dunk and Egg stories, the Sandsnakes, and more.
The So Spake Martin collection has been updated with a link to a new interview with GRRM at iTunes, and a report from a Q&A at InConJunction.
Westeros.org has been immortalized in the latest My Elves are Different comic. Alas, it’s not entirely for good reasons, but the comic is amusing.
It’s that time again, folks! The A Song of Ice and Fire board needs your support to continue going. While the hosting is generously provided by Sparks, our terrific site admin, the costs of keeping the board running are not insignificant. We’ve currently set up a Fundable group action for $750. This is more than the previous fundraisers, because we’ve decided to move from twice-yearly fundraising efforts to annual. We believe the community is certainly capable of raising this kind of funding.
Fundable.org allows users to submit donations via Paypal or major credit cards, so everyone should be able to contribute. The group action will be open for 25 days, with a minimum donation of $10 (if you can’t manage quite that much, but would still like to contribute, please contact us and we’ll see if we can help arrange your contribution).
To go to the group action, go here. And please do feel free to spread the word around to other fans and supporters of the website!
The So Spake Martin collection has been updated with a report from the Opus Festival in Denver and a brief video plus complete transcript from George R. R. Martin’s appearance on Second Life.
Just a quick update on the previously noted award nomination that the forum has been put up for.
We’re firmly in second place in the contest for ARWZ’s first annual award, but we’re well behind first place. I suspect we can do a lot better than that, so get the votes moving! The contest is running to the 1st of May, so that does give fans of the forum time to help us catch up.
If you’d like to vote, go here and scroll down a bit to the list of forums. We’re down towards the bottom. Information about what the award entails—including prizes—can be found at that page as well.
The Citadel’s FAQ has been updated with a lengthy survey of potential parents for the character of Jon Snow, with a focus on attempting to ascertain their physical locations at the time of Snow’s conception based on evidence from GRRM and the novels.
Thanks to Sparks introducing a MySQL backend to chat, which made sure that channel and user data would be retained indefinitely, the Westeros.org chat has become much more functional. However, as many may have noticed, the login page was not working correctly for quite awhile, with all users being assigned a random name regardless of what nickname they put in.
Well, that problem has now been fixed as well! Feel free to drop by the new, improved Westeros.org Chat and say hi.