Welcome back!

By Mike Macauley March 4, 2010 Shur'tugal 99 Comments

As you’ve noticed by now, Shurtugal.com and it’s sub-sites (Shur’tugal Fan Fiction excluded — we’re still working on bringing this back up) are back online and on a new host. We have a lot of great things in store for the websites in the near future, all of which will be recapped in a six year anniversary post this weekend. In the mean time, we’d like to ask all of our visitors to report any errors they may have found on the website (broken links, broken features, etc.) in the comments of this news post so that we can fix them as soon as possible. On a related note, we’d love to hear any suggestions for ways to improve the website or features to add to the website from you guys, so feel free to share those in the comments as well!

  • Denmark111

    The link to the Facebook inheritance fan group doesn’t work.

  • MagitekElite

    I liked the interview, but..um, this is not on topic.

    Which parts of this site are suppose to work? Some stuff for me doesn’t work; Forums, fan area and Media doesn’t work correctly….

  • Mike

    Links to the Book 4 theories and Brisingr discussions on Inheritance Forums at the bottom of Shur’tugal are now back up and working properly. 🙂

  • Banned4ever

    My spoon is to big….my spoon is to big…..my spoon is to big!!…..I am a banana!!
    ok back on sub…great to be back!!

  • EpeFin

    “We also have the 5th Q&A ready to post. Got delayed because of the site being down for 2 weeks. 4:33 PM Mar 7th via web” – So, when are we going to see it?

  • LOCOKIMO

    Just to let you know if you don’t already, when you click the “Contribute your own wallpapers to be featured on this page!” link, the info is displayed for about 1 second before being redirected to the home page.

    Hope it helps.

  • claw

    what happened to 51 ways to annoy murtagh??

  • Glorfindel

    Get Google Chrome. That’s what I use. It’s really fast, and is compatible with every website I’ve tried to go on.

  • Imoratachi

    Shurtugal causes Firefox to crash. Anyway, thanks for starting up again.

  • EpeFin

    VinrAlfakynElfFriend, your work is amazing indeed! If I may give an idea as the background image, what about Eragon and Oromis standing on the edge of Tel’Naer (sp?, the place where Oromis lived?) and looking over the never ending forest of Du Weldenvarden a nice sunrise or a sunset? And Perhaps Saphira and Glaedr flying towards them so that the sun really shows of their colors or something like that. 😛 If you can imagine what I mean:D

  • Chris

    Did we delete the facebook page we already set up? I don’t remember. >_>

  • Eldest13

    Mike, when are we gonna see Q&A 5? it’s been almost a month sice you posted it.

  • Banned4ever

    yes mister person wit dots how do u know? he might look like an elfy

  • Banned4ever

    yeah!! were back on track!!

  • VinrAlfakynElfFriend
  • ShurtugalLiam

    omg yeah your work is amazing :O

  • Glorfindel

    Michael, what about Lytherus.com?

  • Statler

    VinrAlfakynElfFriend your stuff is great! And I agree, the artwork for the site should change from the Lethrblaka(if that’s how it’s spelled) to what I’m not sure it could be any number of things.

  • Sir

    … How do you know Galby doesn’t look like an elf? Don’t use the movie as a source(in case you were thinking about it).

    Mike, I hate to ask but, interview? It’s been over a week.

  • …

    Okay why doesn’t Galbatorriz look like an elf?

  • VinrAlfakynElfFriend

    Why thank you.. 😀 that makes my day..

  • Legacy

    VinrAlfakynElfFriend – Can I just say that your artwork is beautiful! I love Dawns Early Light and The Butterfly Effect the most, but Wyrm Dance is my favorite dragon one 🙂 They are all spectacular. The animal ones are great. They definatly catch the spirit. Expecially Waiting 🙂

  • steven

    You should try having a yorkshire accent no one knows wot the hell your on about

    I was thinking is there anyway of geting a moblie version of this site? I can and do visit this site from my fone a lot an it takes a while to load up

  • ShurtugalLiam

    filtered* sorry xD

  • ShurtugalLiam

    Lol its fitered at school 😛 ill check out your work when i get home 🙂

    and ive just found the local site to my borough ¬_¬ and funnily enough … its taking the mick how we speak lmao 😛

  • VinrAlfakynElfFriend

    If any one need a temporary artist.. I can do green dragon for the site…. 😀 Free…
    To see exmaples of my dragon work check out my site:
    http://snowy-brook.deviantart.com/gallery/#Fan-fiction-Work-Examples

  • Mike

    I’m working hard on getting SFF back up asap.

  • Eldest13

    I agree with sirsimon, it would be cool to have a dragon, or Eragon would be a cool graphic.

  • skulblakafricai

    Glad to know that SFF hasn’t been abandoned. 😉 I was worried for a second there that only mainsite Shur’tugal would be reparable. Good job for fixing the sites so far!

  • swenson

    Hey, just as a note–for those who are interested, there is a (semi-official) Shur’tugal Fan Fiction Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=56960927575. It isn’t updated with SFF news particularly often, but it is a place to chat away from SFF/SF3, especially if the site’s down.

  • Kate

    Is it me, or have the links at the bottom of the main site pages and comments pages changed? o_O I liked when you could select a random forum topic rather than links to sections of the site 🙂 I mean, rather than ‘Media’ and ‘Fan Stuff’. Glad it’s up and working though XD

  • ShurtugalLiam

    Here-here sirsimon! 😛 lmao. a picture of the green dragon would be cool (fingers crossed John Jude Palencar) 😛

  • sirsimon

    Hey guys its great to be back, I was thinking we should change the Shurtugal image, its cool, but a lethreblaka, (can’t spell it) isn’t really pivotal to the story, we should have Saphira, or someone should draw a proper Eragon and put him on. that would be cool,

    its been seven months since our last update on book four, Paolini should be well into it by now.

  • Nameless

    Book 4 index and FAQs like doesn’t work. Says page not found.

    Any idea when the next Q&A will be posted? 🙂

  • ShurtugalLiam

    Brightscales; it used to be Glaedr, but Mike changed it to celebrate the release of John Jude Palencar’s drawing… i think that was why it was changed 😛

    and Yes! the site works on both google chrome and IE8 for me 🙂 😀

    and cool, as long as like … nothing is missed 😛 lol.

  • brightscales

    I have a suggestion, which if you would , make a poll of and see what happens….

    its abit silly but i dont see the point of having a letherblanca as your main picture…you should change it to the most important character for example a Dragon…like sapphira ! just thought id put that thought out there

  • feanarang

    Wow, and the forums got a makeover!! I love the new look! Awesome!

  • feanarang

    Hey, the “wide spread” too big horizontal page problem has been fixed! Well done, Mike and/or Bob! The whole site (so far as I can tell) now looks and works properly in Google Chrome.

  • Bob

    The things that we post on Twitter aren’t big news stories that we’d normally post on Shurtugal. The things being posted on Twitter is more of a behind the scenes and quick updates that don’t warrant a full post on Shurtugal.

    That is to say, if you’re not watching the Twitter feed, you won’t miss anything horribly important. If it’s worth knowing, we’ll post it here!

  • Davidlewing(notguest)

    They don’t want to post everything on this site because a lot of the things they will post on Twitter will be little things that people who visit the site every day want to know but people who visit every week don’t really need to bother with. The way I understand it, they will post information about bug fixes and project time frames and progress on Twitter.

    Basically, they don’t want to clutter up their site little bits of information every day.

  • Sarah

    I guess I don’t see why everything can’t be posted here, or why there’s a need to use Twitter. Even if it’s free and easy to sign up for, it just seems unnecessary. But there’s my two cents worth.

  • Tulkas

    Well, I know that at least Shurtugalliam and I, and a few others, will not see anything that is posted on twitter. To revise my origional suggestion: perhaps someone could post the things from twitter here, rather then on facebook. Good idea, though Mike.

  • MeghanSwiftSword

    It’s good to see Shurtugal back. Thanks for the hard work, Mike!

    Meh, I can’t even have a facebook!:)

  • fan404

    my life would end without shurty.and what up with the,
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    at the bottom?

  • ShurtugalLiam

    Lmao i guess 😛 i don’t think my life would stop if facebook broke or something … but it would be a slight bump in the road, same as shurty going down XD

  • Evarinya

    Eh, we can live without facebook 😀

  • allalea

    The forums aren’t working

  • ShurtugalLiam

    Om … so is facebook but thats cool if you’d prefer twitter 🙂 just :O dont update something on there and NOT on here lol …. cause i dont have/want twitter 😛

  • Mike

    I would really prefer people don’t start posting things on Facebook in our name. That creates complicated issues I’m not looking to get involved in. Sorry folks. Twitter is free and easy to sign up for!

  • alucard

    No Facebook? OK, I can live with that. Tulkas’ idea i bet will probably come to pass-its just a matter of time ;*)

    “if the problem is that wide spread.”-Mike
    That was pretty good! lol. I’m glad you are taking this problem into consideration-Thanks.

  • dragonloverrr

    It’s awesome to have you back!!!!
    welcome back

  • Tulkas

    Well, then, can someone independent of the Shurty staff here read this and perhaps transit everything that they say on twitter onto facebook? And we already have alagaesia games. There’s that junior riders thing, and the Eragon video game, and I doubt that with their limited resources the shurty staff could surpass even those games, though they do manage their limited resources very well.

  • Evarinya

    We really appreciate it :]

  • Eragon.Saphira

    Congratulations on getting Shur’tugal back online! I never realized how much I relied on it until it was down. Thanks for all of your hard work on running the site 🙂

  • Eldest13

    OK

  • Mike

    Not a clue. They’re working fine for me and everyone else as far as I know. I was just on them a minute ago.

  • Eldest13

    do you have any ideas why i can not get on the discussion boards?

  • Mike

    But costly and time consuming to manage. Not only would we need to install the software, but we’d need to customize it and keep it up to date for Inheritance as well. We’d need a team of staff dedicated to managing, monitoring, and moderating the game. It’d be an additional strain on our SQL database server.

    There are a lot of things that go into launching these kinds of things, especially when you’re dealing with a community of tens of thousands of users.

  • Shawn

    But the logd source code is completely free. And is very easy to set up.

  • Mike

    Our message boards are safe – why would they not be?

    I have no plans at this time to update a Facebook page as I would a Twitter page. I see Facebook as a place to network with friends and family. I see Twitter as a place for people to post about their current doings, as well as a place for companies and websites to update their fans and followers on happenings. Twitter is free and easy to sign up for, so it isn’t like we’re burdening anyone with it.

    Chances are very unlikely that you will see a game produced by the Shurtugal.com staff. Why? That is incredibly hard work that requires a large amount of money and a substantial amount of time. Unfortunately we do not have either to spare.

    If you’re having fan art issues, it’s likely that you have Javascript disabled. Enable it to use the fan art viewer properly.

    I’m looking into the wide page horizontal scrolling errors. Something is definitely wrong if the problem is that wide spread (no pun intended).

  • Sarah

    I’m not a fan of Twitter, myself… I’d prefer updates are either kept here or are also made available on a Facebook page.

    Thanks for your hard work, Mike. I’m glad you were able to recover the site!

  • Shawn

    I’ll go ahead and say it again. How about you design and Eragon based logd(Legend Of the Green Dragon), that way you are able to offer a game to you visitors.

  • fan404

    ya, new adds…

  • alucard

    yeah I would prefer Facebook as well, one social networking site is enough for me.

  • Freedom11

    Thanks for getting Shurtugal back up!:) I was really scared there. Oh and the interviews aren’t working.

  • Taslin

    Hey mike, can you give us a time estimate for the movie post?

  • Tulkas

    I am not about to get a twitter anytime soon, so perhaps you could get it on facebook?

  • Homeschooler

    I agree with homeschooledtoo, we should have quizzes on the books and stuff like that. Also when is the QandA interview comming out?

  • ShurtugalLiam

    Yay one of the ads is changed to “follow shurty on twitter” lmao. Has shurty got facebook yet? or are you already on there?? because i typed it in and this spanish website came up i think :S

  • Evarinya

    Mike: I guess it must be my own computer or something, because whenever I click on the Fan Art, at the bottom left hand side of my screen, it says “Error on Page” .. Thats alright though. I think I”ll live 😀

  • HomeschooledToo

    Maybe you could add quizzes and such. More interactive stuff. And how safe are your message boards? Just wondering.

  • ShurtugalLiam

    Well im at home now and im running Chrome on my laptop …. its worse lmao cause you scroll sideways and you reach the edge of the page like, and thats EXACTLY where the words end …. i keep trying to scroll more but i know there isn’t nomore lmao ……… oh well 🙂

  • Sir

    Mike, thanks for addressing my suggestion. I think if you follow your plan, it will be a successful year for you.

    You said that the minor updates (ie: interviews) will be posted on twitter. Does than mean the interview will be posted there or just the update?

  • nktio

    Congrads and Hurray for getting the website back up!! 😀 You ROCK for not giving up on this little haven for The Inheritance Cycle fans. Saluting you all the way down from Israel~

  • feanarang

    This is awesome! Thanks for all your hard work on getting the sites back up!

    Mike, I’m running 1280×800 resolution on my computer, and I still have to scroll lots horizontally to read the entire page… so the problem is not with my resolution.

    The web browser I’m currently running is IE 7 on this computer, I’ll check the site from the computer running Chrome later today.

  • IronAngel

    Nice to have you back.

    When at the earliest canwe see Q A 6?

  • ***Tara***

    Thanks for getting the site back up!!!

    I agree with davidlewing(notguest)’s suggestion of getting rid of or at least limiting ads like evony. It’s definately not what i want to be seeing when I come on here to read a Q&A or Book IV theories or see some fan art ect. and just like so many other people I’m letting you know about having to scroll sideways to read everything. No rush though! I don’t have any serious problems with the site and awesome job getting the site back up =]

  • fdsfds

    wen u go to enlarge the fan art pic it doesnt work

  • ShurtugalLiam

    Yay! 😀 what i think is great is you guys talking to us 🙂 its nice to see a different colour on the comments lmao 😛 we usually end up arguing with ourselves, and i know the comment section isnt there for conversation, but i think its Unavoidable 🙂

    well done shurty staff for fixing the site. As pointed out by someone, i have to scroll sideways for me to read things, and i have a new computer lmao dont know if theres anything you could do, if you thats cool 🙂

    🙂

  • Mike

    The error below me has something to do with the forums upgrade. I’m going to look into getting it fixed.

    Minor updates on stuff like the interviews will be done through our new Twitter account.

  • Tulkas

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    LATEST BOOK 4 THEORIES

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    LATEST BRISINGR DISCUSSION

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    And the page narrow thing, but i think that you’ve answered both of these problems already.

    Welcome Back!

  • Chris

    Where’s my plug? ;(

  • Bob

    I got a plug in one of Mike’s comments! Yippee!

    Working on the errors at the bottom of the page, they have to do with the connection to the forums which changed from our old server.

  • All.Hail.Emperor.Murtagh

    An improvement I would like to see would be regular updates on the progress of upcoming things like the interviews, if possible. Even something as small as a single comment every few days to the extent of, “We just got the answers from CP and will be posting the interview as soon as we’ve sorted out this minor issue.” This would give us a better idea of when something new is going to be posted, and would help to curb the people who continuously complain about missed dates and no news.

  • davidlewing(notguest)

    Getting rid of the evony ads would help… and the lose weight ads… and all those other stupid ads. I don’t pretend to know what I am talking about but aren’t there some less… disturbing… ads out there to choose from? I don’t want to sound rude, that is not how I wish to come across. I just want to put my vote on the table for different ads. Thank you.

  • Eldest13

    the site will not let me on the discussion boards. it never has honestly. a little help?

  • Mike

    If the page is too big horizontally for your screen, the likely problem is that you’re using an old computer or old monitor with an outdated screen resolution. Shurtugal.com (and most websites these days) are designed for computers with a resolution of 1024×768 or higher.

  • Mike

    My goal for this year is to be a lot more on time with anything promised. I’m also going to promise fewer dates for this because when I do miss a date, I never hear the end of it. I try to remind people a lot that Shur’tugal is a one man project (cept for Bob, who does the coding) and it’s one of my many projects and jobs. I do my best.

  • Sir

    My only suggestion is when you tell your viewers you’re going to do something, do it.

    I don’t care about what the site looks like, all I care about is interviews and Book IV info.

  • Joanna<3

    yeah i’m on google chrome server and i have to scroll a lot to see the whole webpage as well…

  • Shawn

    First of all, congrats on getting the site back up.

    Secondly, I have a way to improve the site, or rather add-on to it.

    Mike, you may remember EragonLive. I say that Shurtugal creates one so that it can offer a(n) Eragon based game to its visitors.

  • Eldest13

    Oh, and Tommy’s idea sounds really good!

  • Eldest13

    not to be rude or anything, but do you know when we will be able to read the fifth interview? 🙂 it’s been a lot longer then a week, not that i blame you guys.

  • Tommy

    any chance of getting an audio reading of eragon, eldest, and brisingr by james earle jones and putting it on the site for us to listen to? i think that would be fantastic!

  • Maco

    Idk if you can see it, but there are little errors over the website, for example, below the comment box:

    Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to parse RSS file. (not well-formed (invalid token) at line 694, column 11) in /home/eragon01/public_html/includes/magpie/rss_fetch.inc on line 238

  • alucard

    Hello again! Glad to be back.

    A relatively minor problem- in Microsoft Explorer and Netscape (Firefox seems to work fine), the screen is oversized-meaning I have to scroll the page horizontally a bit to see the full comment section. In Evarinya’s comment, from “Ahh” to “wasn’t working” was all on one line, compared to two on Firefox…

    By the way, I thought that the sad Thorn picture on the broken Shurtugal.com page was interesting…

  • Mike

    Hmm, I just checked the fan art viewer and it works fine for me. Full image opens and everything.

  • Evarinya

    Ahh.. I dunno. On the fan art, it would be nice if you could click on the picture and it would go to full size. Last time I checked, it wasn’t working right.

    Thanks for everything staff!! I don’t know what we would do without you.

  • Terminator

    Hmm… maybe constant Mods? I don’t know, nor do I care. Glad you’re all back…in one piece.

    Thanks Mike for Shurty