Vyvyanne, the Executive Producer, gave the following reply to a kin leader looking to schedule her kinship's move date:

I would recommend a date in September or October  We found some issues in testing on Bullroarer that we would like to resolve before launching on Live. We are finishing up that new build now and hope to have it and the first phase of Live transfers started soon. There will be mails sent out in game as soon as transfer is open for each server and we will also be posting here on the forums and in emails as soon as we have dates, but typically notice will only be a couple days in advance at most as we are walking the balance of getting this out as soon as possible while also trying to make it as error free as possible.

This will also mean that free transfers between open servers will end later than the originally stated September 30th.

I am relieved to find that Crick will not get discarded.  With so many RL problems facing me I cherish the few hours I get to wander with Brunchtime.  Quite honestly, if I was not in SB I would have hung it up by now!  

I'm glad to see that Crickhollow is one of the servers that will be staying. I think in general all the ones chosen make sense as well. ^^

When I joined this server a month after it launched, I was questing in Ered Luin, and I ran across a nice lady elf dressed all in white just twiddling her thumbs at Thrasi's lodge. Well, more than twiddling, really. She was playing some lovely music and offering help and guidance to new players (being right around the FTP transition, there were many, including me playing my very first non-WOW MMO). 

That was really amazing and stuck with me -- and still does, I can't think of many other MMOs out there with a community that would do something like that! Now I know it's not really "new", and we're not likely to see scads of people new to the game with this, but something like that would be a great way to introduce ourselves to the new-to-Crickhollow people. Make ourselves visible! Since the leadership is all frighteningly organized, they probably have tons of ideas for this already thought out eleventy-one steps further than my vague ramblings, but I thought I'd chip in my two cents

Also, obligatorily -- Hooray for Crickhollow (and landroval, and arkenstone, and sirannon)! The only server I "lost" was my point-grinding server, and that could be done anywhere. 

AMAZING! Such great news. Shirefest is going to be one hell of a celebration now *biggest grin ever*

 Yay!

I just saw the announcement LoTRO forums...  (looks like I'm not alone)....

Crickhollow LIVES!!!  WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

FIREWORKS GALORE!!!  Let's CELEBRATE!!!  How about a special Elevenses tonight(8/3/15 @ 11pm)?  I'll bring the Fraggles and join you all and we will all do some happy celebrate music!

My heart LEAPS for joy!!!  ALL three servers I play on, Crick, Landy, & Laurenlin are SAVED!!!  No character transfers!!!

Star.....

Woot woot! I just saw it as well.

Rosalie beat me to it.

We made it! https://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/world-closure-announcement

We've had a few more bits of information trickle out since my last update.  Here's what's new, as well as a little loophole I just figured out:

• Transfers will not start on Monday.  You may copy a character to Bullroarer that day, but otherwise transfers will not open up until a week or two later so that they may first test Bullroarer copies to make certain there are no issues.  Transfer will now be done through the launcher and testing internally is a very different beast from a live test.  ((This is very good news, because as a former beta tester I can assure you that we saw plenty of bugs that popped up on live after we saw no issues in testing.))


• They will start with allowing players to transfer from one open world to another


• Transfers from closing worlds will start next, with the smallest opening up first so that they may keep an eye on populations and provide the more taxed servers with more resources or fixes as needed


• No server will be permanently closed to transfers, but it seems that temporary closures like the one they will have in place for Brandywine are possible


• The new hardware will be able to handle these larger populations, but it is still a process


• We are encouraged to reserve names on the open servers in case we are worried about someone else who will be transferring later grabbing the name of our character or kinship.  If the name is taken on your preferred server now, I'd recommend making a character with that name on Riddermark or Dwarrowdelf (my guess is that Riddermark may be in the first group with Dwarrowdelf to come later).  They will likely be one of the first to get transfers, so you'll have the opportunity to claim that name and grab it from the now inactive player on your destination server (provided that the person by that name has not played in the last year).  Those two were also two of the servers that opened later and usually among the least popular, so you have a great chance of getting the name you desire.  Just delete that character or disband that kin when you're ready to transfer or rename. Some of the most popular names will be taken of course, but you'll have a much better chance of figuring out a good name there than you will on Brandywine.  I believe that renames will not use the same rule with allowing us to claim the names of those who have been absent for a year or more, so take advantage of this renaming loophole while you can.

I imagine, though, like Lark and (I'm guessing) Vethlo and many others, the characters on other servers are clones created for social purposes. It's hard to think about someone being heavily invested in a Captain on Silverlode, a Burglar on Arkenstone, and a Champion on Riddermark. I know--there are always plenty of exceptions! But I personally don't want to manage any more characters at this point. I don't know what to do with those "other" Larksongs, but I can't be overly fussed about them. They're all on my VIP account, but don't have much in the way of valuables.

This whole thing makes my brain hurt: 29 servers becoming 10 seems pretty extreme. My main concern would be my Crickhollow family and how--golly, I hope not!!--to get them safely to another world. I visited my characters' Crickhollow homes last night and took screenshots of the chests' contents. I also need to go back and do pictures of the stuff on display with floaty names on. Even if nothing happens to us it's not a bad idea to help keep track of all those mathoms . . . collectibles . . . prized possessions. You might wish to do the same.

Haz, I understand completely about not being able to rebuild the crafting warehouses. We will discuss that if the need arises.

Rosalie, thanks for the continuing updates!

I am sorry for the confusion. The number of available slots will be doubled for everyone, but VIPs and premium players may receive two of those slots for free. 

This means 34 slots will be available per server. Some may have more than 170 characters on a single account, but I imagine it is a very small minority. 

Well, first it was "double th' character slots", an now it's "mebbe 2 additional slots fer VIP an premium"... So is that one or th' other, or both? Or double th' standard allotment (so 10) plus mebbe two more? If y' had 5 characters on each o' 7 closin servers, how will y' be able t' hang on t' all of 'em? (Not that I do, but it wouldn't surprise me if'n some folks did...

Don't really expect a answer, just wonderin out loud...

Hmmm, I guess we'd all better track down our strays, at the very least. I've got characters floating around on Gladden, Laurelin, etc. Ultimately, this is something we have no control over and so worrying won't do any good. It won't hurt to be prepared, though.