The new toolbar has black icons designed by Riverghost, our resident artist who designed almost every graphic you see here. A big thanks to him! Also, your unread message count will now be displayed. Also, this version will assist the server by sending the TLD of the page checked for tools if the server has no record of it. This behavior may increase your traffic slightly for a couple of days, but should quickly taper off for most users.
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Messaging is now available from your user profile, a link should appear at the top of the page called "Messages". If you are signed in, you can click here. A new toolbar was released to fix some doorway chaining issues, so update as soon as possible!

All members please take the time to read the following message.

"To all our cohorts:

Nova Initia has been built from the ground up with privacy in mind. I realized when I first created this project that user privacy would be a hot issue, especially since we are a free (and eventually open source) project. During the time The Nethernet was closed, many questions were asked about the ultimate fate of user traffic data My goal is was to create a game abstracted from this problem by not recording such data. In the interest of keeping everyone informed, I thought it to address a couple of areas.

Our partnership with Nexplore

Consideration of new development

Along the way I have learned that we cannot totally avoid personally identifying information. When Nexplore offered to provide the hardware for Nova Initia, we were asked to use their authentication system. This means, eventually, all users that sign up for Nova Initia will also have a Nexplore account. This was agreed to after a vote with the staff and contributors to the project. Those voting for the partnership sited it was because they ask for minimal information (Username, Email, First & Last Name), and the guarantee that no spam would be sent to users, nor would the information ever be sold. Nova Initia will also be able to provide new game elements through the use of some of Nexplore's technology. The implementation of the integrating code is nearly complete, at which point a notice will be sent out to all current users. Those grandfathered into the system will not be required to accept an account.

This also is why we use hashed versions of urls to track tool locations instead of the actual urls. You will find that the only time we record an actual url is when you create a doorway or a signpost, and then only because their inherint function requires it. Not recording urls also leads to some problems, however. We have no way to report to other users where tools are unless that user has previously visited that url. And while we don't want a full events stream explaining every tool's exact location, we believe reporting at least the top-level domain of some tools would make things more entertaining, and give early players a means of finding their way.

With this in mind I would like to propose that we change the system to record the top-level domain for each tool set. This would be done by having the toolbar send the url & domain hashes as they do today. However, if the system receives a hash it does not have a matching domain for the toolbar would be notified, and a second request would be sent to provide this information.

What this means to the player is that you will be able to receive notifications and/or events from domains you may have never visited before. The sacrifice is the top-level domain of pages you visit when you lay tools will become somewhat obvious in our database. Although your toolbar reports the hash of the top-level domain and the hash of the full url of each page you visit, this information is not recorded.

So, tell us your thoughts. Visit the forums to sound off on the issue.

Sincerely,
Stephen Kraushaar
Lead Developer
Nova Initia
"

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This weekend we will try to get the messaging system up and going. Hopefully this will be ready by Monday. Those wanting to help test this feature should join us in the Nova Initia IRC Channel. We also encourage anyone needing help or having questions to join us there, or to post in the forums.
Download the Toolbar

And so it begins! The team here at Nova Initia would like to welcome our new players. Many people have put close to a year of hard work to make this moment happen. While we know you will love what you see so far, there is still a lot more on the way. If you run into any bugs, please report them in the forums. The toolbar can be downloaded from here Click the "Register/Signup" button in the top right hand corner to sign up for an account. Now, get to work, we've got rebuilding to do.

Download the Toolbar