Yes :P Another one after C and A, but I think it would be useful. ._.
I think we need a forum that would be a place for people's contributed scripts, images, tutorials, useful script answers to other's problems, GUI's etc. to be posted. Sort of like an open knowledgebase cum(damn, I'd almost forgotten this is a real word! I had to check the dictionary to make sure. ._.;;) resource pool.
It shouldn't be open to post in; only the moderators should be able to move threads in there. The thread titles should be fairly descriptive.
This way if a mod sees something that's useful, that will likely get buried under 50 threads by the next week, they can move it there. We won't lose all the contributions made by people. The mods will need to be the existing mods of the technical, critics lounge and beginner's tech forums from where threads are likely to be moved there.
Would make a good place to go when you're looking for resources for your game.
As for names...AGS Community Resources, AGS Resource pool, Community Contributions, Community Chest, Hey, look what I found!
You get the idea. Any thoughts? :)
I think this is a good idea, as long as it uses the moderator-moving-stuff-in idea. The last thing we need is yet another regular forum. The way you describe it sounds great, though.
No... this is an awesome idea! Really, it would be totally handy!
Heh, an open-source database. Yah I already planned on putting all of my own stuff in one, but wasn't sure how many other people would want to do that. I know I can find quite a few things that are open-source & place them in it already(which I have).
However, if only the mods can post, that's not going to prevent the thirtieth thread from being buried & forgotten... Something like this might do better on a webpage with a Type-Category-AtoZ style setup to it.
Great idea! This will makes it easier to AGSers who wants something particular for their games. I wonder if juncmodule will put his SCUMM based GUIs in that forum.
But each of these forums already have sections with stored contributions...on the beginners tech, you have sticky-threads with useful scripts, in the critics we have threads with tutorials etc...and every time somebody needs advice and help, that person is granted that within his own thread.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but my personal opinion is that it's really not necessary.
If it is after all implemented, I will of course accept it and use it to transfer all those threads from the crit that you described
Maybe like Moresco suggested then, a searchable database would be a better idea than a forum.
I still think it is an excellent idea because I don't think things like gui's and such are sticked in threads or anything.
Personally, I think a site would be better than a forum. It would be easier to use and it would be able to host the files as well. (Something that really peeves me when looking for certain things, guis or whatever, is when I finally find it... the download no longer works).
I had been meaning to put together a database/site of sorts for a while... just for my own personal use, as I think it would be incredibly handy to manage all the useful bits and pieces I come accross whilst using AGS.
I think I like the idea of a page better, but a forum would be easier to update. With the page, you could give the full tutorial and code for the people along with screenies, and then at the bottom, you could give the poeple the source code or a template of the example in question. I love looking for Flash tutorials with all the above.
I think adding an open source category to the games page is an effective and easy answer to this.
Here is a bare example of what I mean:
Example (http://www.eleycis.zapto.org/example.html)
Of course this is just a plain example & the real deal would be large, fully searchable, organized & hosted on a very capable server. I couldn't host such a beast but I'll probably do something less exciting.
I agree with all you have done on your mock page, and fully agree that keeping them spread out on all of our respective pages is foolish.
btw, add fonts, cause I have some to upload, unless you just want to go search my site for them. oh, and change it to be a characters and animations selection.
Ok I have changed it slightly again. What I did was assume that scripts included Modules & Functions etc...whatever that would be, I'm not very adept with AGS scripting(though it seems like c++ to me?). Then I took music & sounds and stuffed em together in Audio. Added characters & sprites. Then, I put everything in an alphabetical list.
Oh, and if you saw the example before I was done editting it, there will also be some extra layout pertaining to the items themselves & how you might do descriptions, download links, author homepages etc.....
Lemme know what ya think. :)
EDIT 09/11/03:
Ah forget the example, here's the real thing.
The AGS OpenSource Repository (http://www.eleycis.zapto.org/repository/)
This sounds like a good idea, because especially in the Technical forum, some quite detailed replies are made which should really be saved for future reference.
As for the forum vs website thing, the advantages of a forum as I see it would be:
* easier to update
* can be updated by any forum moderators
* guaranteed to still be here in a year's time
on the other hand, a website:
* can list more details and host downloads
* can be more easily searchable and categorised
Either way, it sounds good - you guys decide.
Moresco: thanks for contributing - I couldn't access your site (Server Not Available) but I'll take a look later.
Pumaman: I know it's cuz I'm acting as a mirror for Tierra's game files. It's not a problem even with the size of the files, but because of their recent magazine article/website ads etc...they've got tons of traffic coming in. Unfortunately it's just killing my webserver at the moment. Oh well, I have it fixed now.
Quote from: Pumaman on Thu 11/09/2003 21:22:06
This sounds like a good idea, because especially in the Technical forum, some quite detailed replies are made which should really be saved for future reference.
As for the forum vs website thing, the advantages of a forum as I see it would be:
* easier to update
* can be updated by any forum moderators
* guaranteed to still be here in a year's time
on the other hand, a website:
* can list more details and host downloads
* can be more easily searchable and categorised
Either way, it sounds good - you guys decide.
Moresco: thanks for contributing - I couldn't access your site (Server Not Available) but I'll take a look later.
Yup, those are some of the reasons I suggested a forum. There are already these independant databases, like the one's at Matt Goble's page or the one Terran(or RickJ? not sure) was putting together from beginner's tech . But when people don't have the time to update them or simply lose interest in AGS and move on, they're not of much use.
Also, I think one person maintaining something won't have time to comb through all the forums for resources. If the mods are doing it, there's more of them and also collectively they may be less 'biased' about what is good and what is not.
As for the 30th post thing, I am not talking about stickies or only 30 threads. I mean its easier when that forum is only resources than say the critics where people's contributed backgrounds are buried under continuous posting of other BGs for crits.
Perhaps, we can have the forum and also an index. The forum is much more immediate. The indexes can always be there as well. They could as well draw contributions from the one forum. ._.
I'm not saying don't have a forum. But, I just don't want to have to weed through it myself. I know other people agree & those people are welcome to get things from my server. If not they can wait for a forum. As for collecting it all, I've already done alot of that. :)
Who was it that said "98 posts in 11 days!?" I can't remember it was in irc heh. Why do you think the number is so low? Gotta read old posts in between new posts. ;)
EDIT:
Do you mean this page?
MattGoble AGS (http://www.mattgoble.com/interaction/ags/index.html)
Not really what I would call a complete database, though some useful Solutions there. I like that.
No offence Moresco, but you're new here. How do we know how long you'll keep the site up?
Even if its an index, it should be on the AGS site so it stays around. I'm not saying yours won't, I just don't know it will. :P
QuoteWho was it that said "98 posts in 11 days!?" I can't remember it was in irc heh. Why do you think the number is so low?
Unhhh...low? I see 7 posts a day below your profile. Most of them aren't rubbish(wow, there's a change D:) , but that isn't a low number by any standards. :P
And yes, I meant that page. :)
As long as downloads are hosted somewhere where they will be guaranteed to be there in a few months... I'm happy.
Hehe I was trying to be funny about saying low. Guess I bombed. :/ But yah, you have no gurantee & yup I'm super new... and it's ok, no offense taken. :)
But I'll win ya over, just wait & see! Heh. And yah I think there should be something on the main AGS webpage for it. That'd be great & then I wouldn't need to make a database. But even then really, I want to do it for myself cuz it gives me an excuse to dissect everything & learn more. So it's all good.
Apologies, I kinda got sidetracked and forgot about this.
I'll create the new forum today and then we can give it a trial run of a month or so before deciding whether to keep it.
Ok, I've created the new forum.
All tech forum moderators, please move any solved threads with useful answers to this new forum once they have run their course in the main forum.
I think it is good idea all around. Do we want to move the Tutorials thread there too?
This forum will work until it gets so big that nobody knows what's covered there and what isn't, and people won't bother to check all the threads, thus will once again ask questions already answered
Why dont we start a thread with a list. All of the threads are listed by number (title by number) and there is a list in a stickied thread of what is covered by what number. They could be aranged by what the subject is, give a description and then give the number. Then you go to the thread with the right number. Maybe even links if we wanted.
I think this is an excellent forum. I can already tell it's going to be really helpful as long as people actually check there. I do see Andail's point, however, and Evil's suggestion is a good one assuming there's someone to actually maintain such a list.
All in all a good idea as long as it's kept managable.
I think the website idea is better. i think it would be cool to have it like the games page and we could have categories for the type of resource e.g art, scripts, code, templates etc...
Sounds like a good idea, and I offer my assistance in moderating this new system, whatever it is. :D
I think that no matter what the solution is, it should center around a forum (even there's some sort of list or index somehwere else). The reason for this is that websites almost ALWAYS just stop getting updated. For proof of this, check most AGS-related websites that aren't the official AGS website. No matter how many times people say "I'll keep it updated!" it eventually just dies. Forums, on the other hand, are visited by all of us constantly and there's no reason they would fall out of use. Also, they're much easier to find for newbies, who are the people who could theoretically benefit most from such a forum.
is this forum going to have moderators?
It doesn't need moderators, since nobody can post new threads in it. The moderators from the tech forum just move threads over.
Quote from: Magintz on Tue 14/10/2003 16:17:00
I think the website idea is better. i think it would be cool to have it like the games page and we could have categories for the type of resource e.g art, scripts, code, templates etc...
Sounds like a good idea, and I offer my assistance in moderating this new system, whatever it is. :D
Yes, I will supervise also. I'm good at delegating responsibility to others, so somebody make me an AGS mod so I can help. ::)
ah, remix0r, didnt notice that. I guess that was a dumb question then.
I like this idea, hope it works out
Glad people like it. ._.
About the whole it'll be too big thing. Well, first I don't think this will be a 'newbie' forum per se. Newbies who are too lazy to search will always post questions. People with half a brain tho, will go look in the forum to see if anyone has done it before, better, or differently. :P
I kind of see it as similar to the microsoft knowledge base. That's huge, there's no way you could go through it all reading. But you can always search it. Programmers, being the geeks we are, read it randomly or sometimes sequentially as well, just to keep stuff in mind for future reference. Its just good to have solutions that you know are working solutions in one place.
Oh yeah, evil's suggestion is good too, as long as someone competent is in charge of the list. I don't think every thread on the forum can be on the list, but something like an FAQ maybe.
Some ideas here, too. Like translations - from time to time someone asks for translations for a game. A new forum topic is usually created, there always some AGSers who'll like to help and in a week or so it travels into history of this forum.... Until new AGS game developer asks for a new one. Why couldn't there be something like 'Translations' corner where are all games listed, which currently need translations - maybe with their text dump files, too. It's pretty obivious that no developer would wait for new translators forever and every game has some kind of a "translate deadline" after which the game will be taken down from the list. At the moment, forum topics about this stay there forever (or at least too long). This could be a systematized (uh..) thing about translating games. But this was only an example - we could have such "corners" about many other things.
And posting there could be somehow controlled/limited too - because there's too much cases where someone asks for something (like translation) then few guys offer help and third one says "you from Taleban" or something like that and that gives hundreds of offtopic posts about politics in middle east - so topic starter can only dream about translations he needed.
Just maybe I'm not a person to say this, but this forum & site is a bit more than a place to download and learn about AGS. It feels more like an adventure game developers home or something like that. So - there's millions of things CJ could pull out from resources page and make "mainstream" - like have a page for free (donated) characters and other things like that.
But then we start to call it AGC... Adventure Gamers Central... and this is something CJ probably wouldn't want, right?
After all, he has a lots of work to do without these ideas - we're all impatiently waiting for new releases of AGS and planning to write our testaments to his name. God bless the Chris...
Uh, just noticed that my english is bad as hell - hope someone understood what i was trying to say (sorry).