What exactly is the core team up to?

Since Ben, Sebi and the fairies hand over the throne to us and take their well-deserved retirement, we would like to find a new legal form that will then “take over” Belletristica. We are currently in negotiations with a non-profit association that could take over the "patronage" (the essence of Belletristica comes first here! The association would protect us legally, but would not be allowed to "make rules" on the platform), but we are still open to other options. Don't worry, Ben, Sebi and the fairies will always be able to remain part of Belletristica and can join in fully or partially at any time, should they want to. In addition, the site should be reprogrammed from scratch. We would also like to think through short-term and long-term financing, as Ben and Sebi probably also had to inject their own money at the beginning. And last but not least, the moderation should be redesigned in order to better relieve the burden on the previous mods.

Why don't you take over Belletristica as it is and just keep it going?

There are several reasons why we decided against it and a particularly large part of them is simply due to the fact that no one on the team knows the programming language (Ruby) that Ben used and that very few people in general use/know this language.

Since we are planning to build a larger team so that individuals no longer have to do everything on their own, we would also like to choose a more "common" programming language.

There are also legal aspects and much more. But you can be sure that we also had this idea at the beginning, but had to quickly discard it.

What programming language does the core team want to use for the Shattered Throne?

Django, MongoDB, Bootstrap and otherwise as much vanilla JavaScript as possible.

Does this mean Belle will remain free and ad-free?

Definitely yes, we made that promise to Ben and otherwise we wouldn't get the rights to build the Shattered Throne. Belletristica will always remain free and ad-free. (Nevertheless, there is of course the possibility of supporting us with donations in the future. But more details will only be provided when this comes to fruition.)

What do you want to achieve with the “redesign”?

Basically, there will initially be “only” a minimal version of Belletristica. After all, there is a lot of work behind the current version and to do something as complex as what Ben, Sebi, and the fairies have created over several years, would be too difficult to achieve in less than a year.

Minimal versions means: A functioning Belletristica "as we know it" (reading, writing, commenting, chatting), but for the time being without the "play area" or very limited.

However, we are trying to gradually add more features and further expand the “Shattered Throne” so that Belletristica can continue to live and, above all, continue to grow. It is not yet clear which features we can and will adopt in the end. We will try to bring back most of it, but certainly not everything. (Similar to the crossing from Belletristica to Belletristica 2.0, for all the veterans who remember it.) We hope you're on board with us!

Or to put it another way:

We preserve the old Belletristica, but want to break new ground together.

Note: Don't worry, we will regularly update you on where the Shattered Throne project is at and what the next steps are.

What happens if the Shattered Throne becomes unfeasible?

We put all our knowledge, our skills and, above all, our passion into making the “Shattered Throne” a reality. We are sure that many, if not (almost) all users on Belletristica feel the same way and don't want to give up on Belletristica. Belletristica is a warm, colorful and beautiful place full of magic, creativity and cohesion and we hope that we will all stick together even in this difficult time and overcome this obstacle! We would rather go under, but at least tried, than surrender without a fight.

At the moment there are still some factors that make the whole project a little more difficult, but we are trying to work on them. So we can't promise anything, but we will do our best. For us. For you. For our literary homeland, Belletristica! And at this point a huge thank you to Ben, Sebi and the fairies who gave us this home - we will be forever grateful to you.