Since I think I covered pretty much everything I need to report on the UO forum, I’ll just copy that verbatim, and quote it here:

Shorah all,

First, I must apologize for all the “suspicious activity” over the past few days. The URU Exploration site did get hacked, and had a couple links uploaded to it that were doing some rather nasty things, and caused both Google and certain Internet Security apps (Norton on my box) to flag the site as trouble. The good news, is that I’ve removed the malicious links that were embedded on the site, and the back-end software has been updated, so as to hopefully prevent that from happening again.

I’ve just checked against Google today, and the suspicious flag has been removed from the site:
http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnos…axis.net/&hl=en

I’ll be posting about this on the Site News portion of the site as well, and making sure that I get an e-mail sent out to everyone who’s subscribed so that those of you who do stop by can rest assured that the problem is fixed, and that there really are real people behind the site, and not info thieves.

I’d also like to add, that the request for a First and Last name entry on the site, doesn’t require your real, personal info. So long as the information is filled in, and looks legit, we’re happy. (For instance, I use, “Isyldar Saaren”). I don’t personally believe that someone who’s hacked the site is likely to go to the trouble of filling in the First / Last name as a part of a confirmation request. Perhaps they will, but if they’re even quasi-lazy, this will help to weed out the real subscribers from the chaff.

(On a side note: For the off chance that someone does run into this again with our site, please let me know so I can get it fixed sooner. An email to isyldar@uruexploration.net will work just fine.)

Shorah,

Izy

P.S. In addition to Nad’s links, http://www.uruexploration.net will also get you to the site.

It has been a long time it seems, since last I opened this journal. With life on the Surface as consuming as it always is this time of year, I haven’t spared any time for going over my notes of explorations into the Cavern. At least, not until yesterday.

It came in the morning, as all news does, be it good, or bad. A letter, from a friend I have not spoken to in at least a couple of months: Nadnerb.

I will dispense with any semblance of delay as the news I wish to report is good, and wholly exhilerating: The Cavern may be re-opening.  It is not to be as it was in the past: the DRC won’t seemingly be in complete control of what gets worked on down there any longer. I’m not even sure, for truth, if they will even be present in the Cavern. At the moment, I only know that Explorers, in conjunction with the Guild of Writers & Guild of Maintainers, are going to be able to Write Ages…

How this possibly came about, I cannot imagine. The sheer thought of being able to visit an Age that has not first been trampled a thousand times by the DRC, or even the D’ni, is mind boggling, shocking, and dumbfounding. It’s, amazing.

But, with this news, comes more waiting, which I suppose myself and other Explorers are much used to at this point, even if it always frustrates us.  However, this proves, I believe, that with The Cavern, The D’ni, The Art, and Exploration, the ending never truly will be written.

Shorah, everyone. I look forward to when we can again sit by a Heek table and discuss explorations of yet unknown and previously visited Ages.

Izy 

Cyan has finally reached an agreement with Gametap and they are lining up to restart Uru as “MORE”, or Myst Online Restoration Expiriment, which appears to be based around the idea of user created content (which has become quite advanced on it’s own already) becoming core to the game. Additionally, they (still :P)  intend to release the content creation tools that they used during the development of MOUL along with some source code so that PyPRP and other fan tools can use them for their continued development. They intend to retain central control of the game and keep a single cavern instance, unlike the “shard” model that was used during Until Uru, while still allowing individual game servers to be hosted by more resourceful fans. Today was the day of the “Press Conference” hosted in #CyanChat with Chogon/MarkD (Cyan’s current CTO, former client lead, creator of CyanChat) answering questions about the future of MORE. A condensed version of the proceedings can be found here, and a more complete log here. Guidelines for future conent can be found on the Guild of Messengers site and older guildlines on Cyan’s own legal page.