Posted on the Fansites section of uo.com

Changes to the fansite program

Hail, and well met:

Websites run by and for the Ultima Online community are the life’s blood of the lands of Britannia. Without you, there would be only the game. With you, there is a rich world filled with characters, intrigue, fellowship, and fun. We could never thank you enough for all that you have done if we had a thousand years.

But you wouldn’t know that from our Fansite page. It has been sadly out of date, and worse, it promised that which we cannot give. There is also the problem that always comes with “lists,” in that people are rewarded for completing a process, instead of evolving. I cannot apologize enough for this state of affairs.

A clean break is called for, and with that clean break, we want to do something very different. First of all, we want our websites to think of themselves as members of the media, because that is exactly what they are. The community team will respond to your requests as best we can – and we will let you know right away when we cannot give you what you’re asking for. Typical requests would be for beta access, interviews, and Q&A features. But don’t stop there. Let your imagination run free – always ask, and we’ll always do our best.

Second, we will be more active about promoting all of the websites dedicated to our shared passion of Ultima Online. We will link to you through the FoF and the website whenever you do something newsworthy, no matter the size of your webpage. Got a feature, a story, a tool, or anything else you want to share? Send it to us. We want to tell the world about your contribution to Ultima, and we’ll feature our best submissions every week in front of everyone, not buried as a link on a dusty and distant webpage.

Please, email your community team with any questions – especially Jeremy Dalberg, who is your own personal developer.

We hope this clean break results in good things for those of you that have kept the faith for all these years. And again, I apologize to you all for the way things have been. I hope the future holds good things for us all.


--Sanya M. Thomas
Director of Community Relations

I'm optimistic things will change with the program

We (uoforums) have been a member of it for sometime now and well, we kept up our side of the bargain (copyright, updated content, keeping everyone in line with the UO ROC/TOS), but EA did not

90% of emails were unanswered and any follow up emails to chase up progress, also went unanswered

But i'm hopeful this new team will give us all a fresh start

Communication seems better, only problem I see is requests or interviews submitted weeks ago, still haven't been sent back to us

Mind you, we've been waiting for 6+ months, so hopefully it'll be sped up with this latest announcement

Thanks Sanya and Jeremy for the news.