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Electrosphere.info is an Ace Combat fansite founded in 2005 by members of what is now Ace Combat Skies. The Electrosphere is an Invision Power Board-based forum that recollects information on the Ace Combat series.

Site historyEdit

Grabacr and Ouroboros (1/1/2004 -- 9/29/2005)Edit

The origins of this specific website date back to July 2004 as the base for the 'Ouroboros' Black Operations Wing. The actual origins of the Ouroboros (OB) however, date a bit deeper into the past. Back then, the indirect "ancestor" of Ace Combat Skies, namely AC.net, was filled with fan made Squadron conflicts. Grabacr was spawned as an infiltration unit headed by Ribbon-Blue (RB) under the umbrella of a larger squadron (the name of the squadron is classified, but we'll call them Squad Z just to avoid confusion).

They were assigned various missions in favor of Sq Z. One operation, however, included collecting as much IP addresses as possible to identify any spies in Sq Z's mesh of members. Indeed, it was more than apparent that Sq Z was being spied on for a long time. Squadron A (again, just an alias) was the source of these spies. Soon enough Grabacr organized a counterattack on the squadron, to turn members on the same Squad against each other. Despite the long periods of time it took to push the mission over the line of success, it was perfectly commenced.

After conditions in AC.net started to stabilize, Grabacr One (Ribbon-Blue) put up one more goal, to clear out all the disagreements between those squadrons. Being too few at that time, Ofnir, lead by Ofnir One (Ribbon Green), and Sphyrna Self Defense force (SSDF for short), leaded by Acrobat Ace was spawned, and the Ouroboros was formed in July 2004. That was the birth of this website, but as the base HQ for the Ouroboros team. Grabacr and Ofnir were assigned offensive missions on other squadrons (whether in their forums or in AC.net) while the SSDF was assigned defensive missions to protect OB headquarters.

The way OB operated was unusual, trying to provoke both sides of a conflict in order to end it. In the words of Ribbon Yellow, "makes as much sense as using nuclear bomb to end all wars". It was proven to work though, and AC.net's recovery as Ace Combat Skies witnessed no flame wars.

The Birth of the Electrosphere (10/1/2005 -- 1/1/2006)Edit

The ES as we know it now, however, was created around 10/19/2005 when the Ouroboros wing moved their headquarters to another domain. This happened because one user was attempting to join without being assigned by the OB, thus jeopardizing all what the OB achieved. Inspired by what the OB did, Ribbon-Blue started with a mere selection of leftover AC3 topics, including this and started building up "a unified central source for Ace Combat info accessible to anyone" with the assistance of the few other members such as Ribbon Green, Acrobat Ace, PhantomPhanatic, and other long timers. At that time the site grew at a very slow rate, reaching merely 10 members by the first day of 2006.

Steady Growth (1/1/2006 -- 2/1/2006)Edit

During the first ten days of the new year, people started flocking in, and known faces and high-ranked members like Ribbon Red, Scarface One, Ribbon White, Ribbon Zero, and Ribbon Yellow came in.

Meanwhile, Ribbon Red (called Swordsman then) made an excellent compilation of Ace Combat Zero information back on the then-popular website and Ace Combat Skies, AC.net. Ribbon Blue, after seeing the great compilation, proposed an offer to Ribbon Red to post his ACZ info in the ES in exchange for Moderator rights over that section. Ribbon Red accepted the offer, which thus gave ES a great boost in the ACZIC department.

ES grew further as more members joined including present day mods and admins like Millie, Ribbon Zero (as Cbale2000), Ribbon Yellow (as Stuka), and Ribbon White, reaching a cumulative total of 65 members by the end of the month.

Further Growth and Turbulence (2/1/2006 -- 5/1/2006)Edit

Thanks to an idea conceived by Ribbon Red, at the 1st of February, Ribbon Blue announced that ES has gotten a new domain name, www.electrosphere.info. This was warmly welcomed, and ES members foresaw that as the first step towards building a great site.

People continued to flood into the site at an increasing rate, including remarkable contributors which contributed large amounts of info the ES still holds toady. ES easily reached 150 members by the start of May of the same year.

The steady growth rate throughout the start of the year wasn't necessarily great news. A situation had occurred involving a moderator and resulting with the deletion of many of his topics, which made up a large part of the Peek-A-BOOM area. It was a major blow to ES, and the Moderator was immediately banned by Ribbon Red. Ribbon Red's quick response opened the door to his promotion to an administrator, which did happen by mid February 2006.

Note that Ribbon Yellow and Ribbon Zero's promotions to admins can also be traced back to this time period.

Contributors of ES tried to restore the lost information, however, not all was recovered. As a result, lots of members of the ES seem to hate the Moderator today.

Article Addition (5/1/2006 -- 10/1/2006)Edit

The second half of 2006 witnessed a great increase in the number and content of ES articles. Existing articles were improved and their layout was changed to a more eye-friendly format. Contributors started collecting information about the then-upcoming Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception for the PSP, at such an astounding rate that even Ace Combat Skies members started referencing ES. This period of time was perhaps proof to everyone that ES' information compiling capabilities were enormous, thanks to the Admins and Contributors homogeneous and coordinated work.

The number of members continued escalating at a stable rate of approx 1 member per day (which was at the start centrifuged by the May surge at an extraordinary rate of seven members per day). Most accounts created in this period of time however are, as of 02/22/07, inactive.

Finally, the Electrosphere Gifts idea was brought to life. A selection of hand picked artworks is posted on the ES Gifts forum for anyone to use (as long as it doesn't violate any copyrights). The selection includes signatures, userbars and boxes, as well as wallpapers and just standard images made by the ES graphics team.

Post-ACX Era (10/1/2006 -- 12/31/2006)Edit

For the most part, members continued flocking into the website at an increasing rate, reaching 700 members by Jan 1st, 2007. The site also got a banner change at around Nov 13, '06.

Millie was also promoted to an administrator during this time period. He is the only admin that hasn't had a name change to a "Ribbon" due to his request.

Around the end of October 2006, Ribbon Yellow communicated with F22_Fan of Ace Combat Skies and came to an arrangement for a -supposedly- joint venture, Project Final Sortie. It was made public by mid November, where F22_Fan said it'd be a partnership between the two websites, ES specializing in collecting AC info and ACS being the community hub. However, lots of negative feedback arrived from both sides, saying it's a one sided deal favoring ACS and that the benefits of a new clean server would be overshadowed by the project. At the moment there have been no updates concerning the matter.

Project RIBBONS has also been started at around this time. It was a project originally conceived by RY and RB to test and fine select the most beneficial and contributing members and if they do pass the testing, they are promoted to moderators or even administrators. The first team was selected for testing in Nov 2006. RB originally was also recently considering promoting all Team One Ribbon Trainees to moderators, however he hasn't taken any action about it till now.

November 2006 has also witnessed its own share of troublemakers.

The New Year (12/31/2006 -- 2/18/2007)Edit

In the new year, ES was fast growing and quickly approaching 1000 members. New articles had been made, and existing ones modified. The second group of trainees were chosen in February. Ribbon-Green, an old Ouroboros member retired and left ES, thus causing the promotion of Scarface One to a Super Mod. When asked, the admins say they're satisfied with what they achieved so far, though there is still a long way to go. Admins still have the Ouroboros symbol as an avatar as a tribute to the origin of the ES, the Ouroboros black ops wing.

The Peek-a-Boom project also commenced at around Jan 10th, '07. It consists of major modifications to the structure of the articles in the ES. Of course, this is done by Ribbon Blue. Ribbon Red also announced that any one who registered in ES before January 31, '07 and hasn't posted more than 5-20 posts will have his/her account deleted. This action is being discussed throughout the high ranking ES staff, but it has been confirmed that it will sooner or later be implemented. You can read the announcement here and the update here.

On Feb the 18th, a Contributor who had many contributions to the Electrosphere had an argument, which escalated quickly and resulted in him leaving the ES, only to return to spam many of the boards. Ribbon-Red once again went into action and banned this member as well. Some people still think what the Contributor did for the ES far outweighs something "ridiculous" like that, however the banning was permanent and no change of plans happened till now.

Bright Futures (2/19/2007 -- March 2007)Edit

One or two weeks later, a new sub forum was created, named ES Preview. It is intended to be a simple introduction for the guests to ES, and was shortly assigned to Ribbon Team One for a period of two weeks. Once the area is complete, it will be masked from all members, and made visible only to guests. This history article is one of the many topics that will be included in that sub forum.

Acrobat Ace came up with the Ribbons system less than one month later. Each user has the right to place up to four of these small images in his sig as a display of his status in the Electrosphere. There are different images for the different ranks, such as for the Graphics Team, Contributors, Ribbon Trainees, OB long timers, etc. This little contribution was widely accepted by members of the ES and it wasn't long before these images made their way to everyone's signature.

With the announcement of Ace Combat 06: Fires of Liberation, the Electrosphere had began to gather information as quickly as it can and the formation of the Ace Combat Information Group is a product of this new activity.

On March 15, the Electrosphere officially gained it's 1,000th member. That was one of the largest landmarks within their history.

March 25 brought the revival of AceCombat.net has occurred thanks to staff over at AceCombatSkies[dot].com. It's revival is solely for the purpose of serving squadrons within the upcoming Ace Combat 06 release. The Electrosphere Staff is to enter close contact with the ACS Staff soon to discuss and develop this venture, together.

Set-ups and Set-backs (3/26/2007 -- 5/01/2007)Edit

The Electrosphere.info's members begin to collect any scarps of information they could find at that point in time and began to create initial articles on specualted or semi-confirmed aircraft, games features, characters, etc.; for the newly announced Ace Combat 06. New forums were made to accommodate this information.

Ace Combat 06 was initially announced as an XBOX360 exclusive. This did cause small flaming incidents on the Electrosphere's Boards, between "PS2" and "XBOX" supporters, but these were stemmed by the ES Staff.

The Ace Combat.net - AceCombatSkies[dot].com and Electrosphere.info Ace Combat 06 collaboration concept was dropped shortly after it's announcement, due to unwilling parties on AceCombatSkies[dot].com. Thus ending the revival of Ace Combat.net.

On April 11, 2007, the Project Ribbons program is completed and two new moderators are announced. Ribbon-Silver (X-49) and Ribbon-Orange (Odyssey 1) become an official part of the Electrosphere Staff. At this same time the Ace Combat Information Group is formed. The Ace Combat Information Group (ACIG) was made up of the Ribbon-Trainees which were not chosen, but had high marks from Project Ribbons. They began to work on organizing and correcting information all over the Electrosphere. It can be confirmed that with the ACIG's formation the information on the Electrosphere was refined and expanded, unlike any other time before.

The Electrosphere adopts their "Official Word of the Electrosphere" concept on the same day that the ACIG is adopted. Any article seen on the Electrosphere, using White and/or Light Blue text is considered to be official information, by Electrosphere standards.

Steady Expansion (5/01/2007 -- 6/22/2007)Edit

Ribbon-Yellow is announced the Electrosphere's Information Commander and is promptly put in command of the Ace Combat Information Group. While now having to meet deadelines, the ACIG still operated and continued to refine the Electrosphere.

Starting on May 2, the Electrosphere steadily creates more and more articles of information, spanning every section of the website. For the first time in a month, normal members who were previously inactive suddenly began posting multiple articles and became Contributors.

During the midst of this expansion, two more Ribbon members were added to the Electrosphere Staff. They are known as "Ribbon-Gold" (-Red-Knight-) and Ribbon-Cobalt (RaptorR3D). Also, during this time Ribbon-Orange is taken off of the Ribbon-Roster. Also, due to multiple reasons, Ribbon-Yellow is taken out of command of the Ace Combat Information Group and the Ribbon-Roster.

With those demotions and promotions, the Ace Combat Information Group is disbanded, due to complaints about deadlines, security issues and other problems which had been occurring. However, with a sudden show of their willingness and desire to continue to work, the top members of the Ace Combat Information Group become the core of the "Ribbon Honor Guard". This group would act much like they did in the Ace Combat Information Group, but with less mobility and with direct support from members of the Electrosphere.info Staff, to remedy any past security problems. Ribbon-Gold becomes attached to the Ribbon Honor Guard as the main Ribbon-Squadron Supporting Officier.

The Count Down (6/23/2007 -- 8/09/2007)Edit

With more information being taken in about the abilities of Ace Combat 06: Fires of Liberation, the Electrosphere itself had changed. For the first time in its history, squadrons were allowed to recruit and if they so wished, operate within the fourms. This decision came under heavy fire by many Electrosphere members and staff, and later, by members at AceCombatSkies[dot].com. It seemed as though it was the same reaction that the new Ace Combat.net had suffered. However, after many neutral and heated discussions between ACS Staff and ACS Members, the situation has seemed to calm; though, tensions are still within the air between the two sites.

On the Electrosphere, members who acted rashly against squadrons were punished, harshly. While being under direct orders from Ribbon-Red and “Millie”, a strict policy against flaming was set-up and is still being enforced to this day.

On July 31, 2007, Imperial Decree #2 was finally carried out by Ribbon-Red and the Electrosphere’s numbers were lessened to around 230+ active members. Starting on that day, every six months, inactive members were to be purged from the Electrosphere. To balance this inactiveness, the Electrosphere.info was reopened to guests. Fears of information being copied had arose, but with plans for an Electrosphere.info Wiki in the works, these fears were not taken seriously.

The Electrosphere began it’s long process of backing up all vital information (80% of its contents) but, changes to consolidate information to handle the new arrival of Ace Combat Squadrons or “Virtual Squadrons”, were made as well. Sections such as World Media were reduced from a small category to two small forums. More ES staff changes were made due to inactivity, but this did not shock anyone. PhantomPhanatic and Scarface One were removed from the ES.info team. About the same time, Stuka was re-promoted to Ribbon-Yellow and the status of Ribbon Lieutenant, then he and Ribbon-Gold replaced PhantomPhanatic and Scarface One. Finally, RZ was demoted to Lt., and MenAce was promoted to Ribbon, becoming Ribbon-Vermilion.

The Ribbon-Squadron, a squadron which is based on the Electrosphere, was established around this time. This squadron, lead by top members of the Electrosphere.info staff, was not formed to “combat” members at AceCombatSkies, but to simply operate as any squadron would. Though many of its members are currently of the Electrosphere, open recruiting else where is to begin soon.

The Electrosphere did slow for a week or two because of these events, but, things returned to normal in the few days ahead. A major evolution of the Electrosphere hung in the horizon.

The Lull (8/09/2007 -- 10/28/2007)Edit

The Electrosphere operated normally for the months following the information back up. However, as the release of Ace Combat 06: Fires of Liberation grew closer, more and more articles began to show up on the Electrosphere. With the addition of two new Ribbons, Ribbon-Black and Ribbon-Rena, the moderators of the Electrosphere took control of things on the Electrosphere, due to inactivity within the 'higher' administration.

The staff made a temporary power change, entrusting moderators with more power, in order to balance their inactivity. This move did stabilize command of the Electrosphere, but, the flow of new information in the month of September slowed greatly. This same trend carried over into early and mid-October. During that lull, the Electrosphere Graphics Team, still plagued by complete inactivity. The Graphics Team was reformed, partly due to the creator of Electrosphere.info Commercials, Mounishoko and renamed the Electrosphere Media Team. The ES Media Team would now expand it's work outside of graphics and into video and beyond.

Evolution (10/28/2007 - Late 2010)Edit

October 3, 2007. This day marked the beginning of the evolution of Electrosphere.info. "The Pinnacle Project" was announced, though no actions were officially taken during its announcement. The project was to lead to the creation of a wiki, which would present all information in the Electrosphere.info in a format, easily accessible by ES and non-ES members. Mid-way through October, The Pinnacle Project officially began. Though still small, the Pinnacle Project is to be the most important project ever undertaken in the Electrosphere's History.

At nearly the same time, X-49 (formerly Ribbon-Silver) returned to Electrosphere.info, after being inactive for months, and restarted the "ES Custom Skin Project". X-49, with the Custom Skin Project's original creator, cbale2000 (still known as Ribbon-Zero). The project nears completion with much anticipation among staff and members alike.

Ribbon-Red and Ribbon-Cobalt suddenly announce that they are retiring from the Electrosphere as whole for personal reasons. These sudden announcements shock the entire Electrosphere Community. After each member takes their leave, the Electrosphere founds the "ES Firewall", a sort of official newspaper/newsletter for the Electrosphere. Among the announcement of the sudden retirements, the ES Firewall announces that has begun it's evolution to version 2.0.

Soon after, a dispute between Electrosphere.info and AceWiki @ Wikia.com broke out. After the AceWiki experienced vandalisim, believed to be from unknown Electrosphere users, Ribbon-Blue and the head administrator of AceWiki, Hellmaker1/Sgt. Johnson established contact. After discussion, it was decided that the two parties would also collaborate on the Pinnacle Project and move all information at the ES-wiki at http://www.editthis.info to AceWiki@wikia.com.

Server migration (March 23, 2011)Edit

In late March 2011, Ace Combat Skies went offline for a few hours as a result from their IPB software updating. Being hosted under ACS, Electrosphere followed suit, however the site instead lasted offline until March 23, 2011. The site now possesses a new, streamlined layout, amidst other differences.

External linksEdit

Electrosphere.info - the home forums of Electrosphere.info.
AceCombatSkies(dot).com - the largest Ace Combat forum on the internet. Electrosphere and AceCombatSkies are partners in many dealings.

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