RaymanZone

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RaymanZone, also spelt Rayman Zone, and commonly abbreviated RZ, has been the official Rayman website since January 2003. However, this term mainly refers to its forum, which is known to have been the stage of several unfair bans, as well as numerous attacks (of which six full deletions) since it was created.

The different periods of its history are usually referred as eras, separated from each other by a full deletion of the forum.

The RaymanZone forums on October 8th 2003

First era (January 2003 ~ December 2004)

The forums were created in January 2003 and used the phpBB software. They featured three categories: an English, a French and a German section. They were characterized by a high frequentation, but also by inactive administrators and unfair bans. Despite the rumours of a group of skilled revengeful members already responsible for numerous spam attacks, which were largely disregarded, the system version was never updated and it resulted in the first deletion of RZ on December 20th 2004. This attack was soon proved to have been performed by the Anti RaymanZone Organization, commonly abbreviated ARZO, who sent a webworm to exploit a security issue. They claimed to have been unfairly banned from the forums and wanted to take their revenge. Pirate Community was falsely accused of being linked to ARZO, as it was created by Hunchman801 in August 2003 after he was also unfairly banned from RaymanZone.

The first era was by far the most profilic period of RaymanZone. It is estimated that it reached more than 400,000 messages, making it the largest Rayman forum ever, even larger than Pirate Community.

Second era (May 2005 ~ August 2006)

After several months of absence, the forums were created again from scratch in May 2005, but they were merged with the UbiSoft forums, powered by the Infopop software. This decision was highly criticised, but a certain number of users stayed, in hope of reconstructing their community, while others joined Pirate Community. On July 3th 2006, an attack performed by ARZO caused a hard disk to break, resulting in the loss of two days of posts for the whole Ubi forums. Then, in July and August, the forums were repeatedly spammed, until they were entirely deleted by the Kill RaymanZone Klan, commonly abbreviated KRZK, a small group of ARZO die-hard members, on August 24th 2006. Those spam attacks were later proved to be a cover for a graduated deletion which purpose was to render any backups useless.

During the second era, it is estimated that more than 60,000 messages were posted on the English forums, the two other sections being totally inactive.

Third era (August 2006 ~ March 2007)

The forums started from scratch for the second time, and several members leaved because of the lack of action from UbiSoft. On January 20th 2007, an unidentified problem resulted in the loss of three months of posts, but the KRZK never claimed to be responsible for this. The forums were however deleted by the KRZK for the third time on March 3rd 2007.

It is estimated that less than 20,000 messages were posted during the third era.

Fourth era (March 2007 ~ January 2008)

The forums were deleted by the KRZK for the fourth time on January 27th 2008.

It is estimated that less than 15,000 messages were posted during the fourth era.

Fifth era (January 2008 ~ May 2008)

On April 10th 2008, RaymanZone was heavily flooded with explicit pictures. Then, only four months after the last deletion, the forums were deleted again by the KRZK for the fifth time on May 2nd 2008.

It is estimated that less than 2,000 messages were posted during the fifth era.

Sixth era (May 2008 ~ October 2008)

The whole Ubi forums were backed up after the fifth deletion, but most of the content had already been deleted by the KRZK several days before, rendering the backup hardly useful and resulting in the wrath of the other game forums. On October 17th 2008, the forums were deleted by the KRZK for the sixth time.

It is estimated that less than 3,000 messages were posted during the sixth era.

Seventh era (October 2008 ~ present)

So far, about 3,000 messages were posted during the seventh era.