Due to differences of interest involving the continued operation of WyldRyde, the majority of active staff - including server owners - have decided to retract their services from WyldRyde and start fresh elsewhere. To this end, GeekShed.net has been formed, under the ownership of Geek Shed Ltd (UK Registered Company #07055433). It is proposed that this be a fun, safe and friendly hang out which is very much driven by user opinions and ideas. With your support, it can only get better!

The new IRC network, found at <link>irc.geekshed.net<link>, is comprised of most of the same technically competent network staff, the same vast array of distributed servers, the same services package with its database, and the same comprehensive botnet filtering techniques. Also moving with us is the flash chat application, topic RSS feeds and user count images which many users have grown to love since their introduction some 12-15 months ago.

However, not all is the same - for that would be plain silly. Many changes are afoot. These include, amongst others:

    * Continued development and implementation of a network wide, highly configurable bot system - available to all channel owners without the requirement for self-hosting.
    * Transparency of company accounts. We firmly believe that all users - specifically donors - should have every right to review our financial position. This will give you a better idea of exactly what we are spending your donations on. We also openly welcome criticism and suggestions from users, and are prepared to fully justify every penny that we spend. The Companies Act, 2006, states that every private limited company must submit audited copies of its accounts to Companies House at the end of its trading year. This audit trail will be made freely available to all users.
    * We vow to only take on the highest quality staff the Internet can provide. All complaints against network staff will be handled and reviewed in great detail, and in a timely fashion. All staff will remain unpaid volunteers.
    * A new Bind9 implementation with 7 synchronised DNS servers better allow us to co-ordinate the servers that users connect to in order to help better mediate the effects of any server downtime. This reduction in the propagation delay associated with zone changes, to only a few seconds, rather than 3 hours with greatly increase our ability to respond to issues.
    * Establishment of a GeekShed Certificate Authority. This allows us to securely sign our own SSL certificates and distribute the root certificate for you to install. This provides you with peace of mind that you are connecting to an official network server, and that your connection is secure, at no cost to anyone.
    * Removal of network advertising from the TFlash Flash Chat application. We want your site to look as good as it can and don't see why you should host our adverts for free. These will now be removed!
    * Less oppressive spam filtering. Although GeekShed will not tolerate spam, it shall begin with reasonably lenient spam filters.
    * Free website hosting for owners of large channels under a GeekShed subdomain. Although our spam filters are being relaxed, we have no doubt that, in time, they will build up with various free hosting providers that are used to host viruses, spam and adult content. Having a GeekShed supported website for your channel means you'll get a free website which will never be blocked.
    * Reliable and non-buggy forum software. Sometimes, free is best. We have decided to use phpBB for our forums because it doesn't cost our donors anything and has proved to work flawlessly. Our forums will also be advert free, for your viewing pleasure.
    * A user driven site. We openly welcome articles and tutorials relating to the network to be submitted by our users. This will help us build an ever-growing knowledge base of IRC trivia which new and advanced users can use to develop their channels. Full credit for every article submitted will be given to the author and we can also provide links to your site. Trusted publishers may also be given direct access to our content management system.
    * Most importantly, strong safeguards have been put in place to ensure that actions such as the ones now being taken by network staff are never again necessary, as we move forward.

We have already explained the situation to our largest channel owners, Chris Pirillo and the CNET Fans team, and have promised them our every support in getting their channels migrated over to the new network as seamlessly as possible. We would also very much like to extend this offer down to each and every channel owner, and vow to do our utmost to make the migration of your channels and users as simple as possible. After all, your nicknames, channels, memos, etc. are already migrated for you!

Geek Shed's IRC network has been started in an effort to prevent users losing contact with those who they have developed friendships with on WyldRyde, over the past 15 years. It saddens those of us who have decided to leave WyldRyde that we have been forced into doing such. All of us have put many hours of time - and many thousands of dollars - into the network, and are greatly upset that WyldRyde must end like this. We have sincerely enjoyed working with all of you over the last few years, and have developed strong friendships with many of you. We very much hope that you will join us in our new home.

Help with migrating your channel and IRC clients to GeekShed can be found at http://www.geekshed.net/

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at contact@geekshed.net

Kind Regards

Phil, Allan, Pierce, Atri, Corey, Kat, Admiral_Justin, therock247uk, PurPle_Teddy, Ryan, SubWolf and crrj