Thank You For Your Patience
(August 16, 2025)
“You don’t have to become something you’re not to be better than you were.”– Sidney Poitier
***** WELCOME BACK *****
Important Update: OBS is Back Online!
Thank you for your patience during our extended maintenance period. We made the difficult but necessary decision to temporarily take the site offline to perform a complete infrastructure rebuild that will serve our community better for years to come. During a routine inspection following a software upgrade which created incompatibility issues, a malicious bot was discovered and quarantined. The great news is that your data has always been safe and secure – nothing was compromised, and all your content, projects, and connections remain intact. However, given the rapid advances in technology since our member portal was built in 2019, it became painfully obvious that substantial and very expensive upgrades would be required to keep up with both the threats and complex functionality of our site. The site administrator worked around the clock to migrate to a more robust, secure platform that will provide you with faster load times, enhanced security features, and exciting new tools for collaboration and creativity.
Here’s what was accomplished during the rebuild:Â
• Migrated 3,896 forum posts and discussions to a new, modern forum system
• Transferred 23 projects and 119 tasks to an enhanced project management platform
• Secured and patched critical vulnerabilities in outdated plugins
• Improved site performance by 44% through database optimization
• Replace 15 deprecated plugins and consolidated functionality
• Rebuilt the entire member portal infrastructure and replaced all site software with newer versions
• Fixed forum hierarchies and organization for easier navigation
• Converted legacy file storage to WordPress Media Library for better accessibility
• Implemented advanced security measures to protect against future threats
• Cleaned and optimized database tables, reducing load times significantly
• Updated all core systems to their latest, most secure versions and installed sophisticated software to thwart malicious software, code, bots, and even artificial intelligence-powered attacks
Access has now been restored to the core features you rely on daily, including the library, coverage forms, submission forms, news articles, and messenger. While you may encounter some links and images that aren’t fully functional yet, know the site administration team continuse working diligently to restore everything over the next few days.
As a token of appreciation for your understanding during this transition, we’re adding 200 stars to every member in good standing’s account. Additionally, we’re thrilled to announce a special contest coming in September with a significant prize – details coming soon! Thank you for being part of the OBS community and for your continued trust in us as we build something even better together.
Acknowledgements
Please stop by the Forums and welcome our newest members: Briauna Harris, Kim Hughes, Anthony Devon, Kacey Johnson, Cornelius Melton, and Racquel Nadhiri. They are early enrollees for the class of 2026. They bring an impressive array of experiences, visions, and diversity of thought to OBS. They have pledged to be a positive and contributing part of our community. Let’s welcome them and help them find the support and community they seek, while also challenging them to be better screenwriters (and human beings) than they’ve ever imagined.
Eat Fried Chicken and Watermelon in Front of White People
Yeah, I said it. And no, I’m not sorry. Here’s the thing—too often, screenwriters like us keep reshaping, recalibrating, and diluting ourselves for a business that’s burning down its own house. We’re told, repeatedly, to quiet down, shave off our edges, package our truths neatly, and serve them politely—just to make an outdated, broken industry feel comfortable. But why should we squeeze ourselves into boxes built to keep us small? Why dance politely around truths that scream inside of us to be free?
Look around—the current administration is actively erasing our contributions from history, dismantling our access to equity, and challenging our very right to tell our stories unapologetically. Yet, as artists, we remain at the helm, gripping the wheel through this storm of institutional surrender. It’s our duty, our responsibility, our privilege—to hold firm, to be bold, and to be loudly, beautifully defiant. Claude McKay hollered it loud and clear in If We Must Die, reminding us that bowing and scraping isn’t an option—not if we’re serious about our craft, our voice, and our freedom. Real freedom, authentic freedom, begins when we stop apologizing for who we are, stop negotiating with systems that don’t love us back, and start creating from that bold, raw, beautiful place within.
So it’s time—grab your metaphorical fried chicken thigh, savor every juicy bite of that big quarter-slice of watermelon, and proudly show the world who you really are with every single narrative you sign your name to. Make the industry come to you, because the people you’re really writing for—the ones who’ve always mattered most—are craving your truth. They’ve waited too long to hear you loud and clear.
Be unfiltered. Be unapologetic. Be free.
