New forum suggestion

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

Yes 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?  

[remixor]

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.  

[Toefur]

No... this is an awesome idea! Really, it would be totally handy!

[Moresco]

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.

[Mats Berglinn]

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.

[Andail]

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

[Toefur]

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.

[Scummbuddy]

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.

[RickJ]

I think adding an open source category to the games page is an effective and easy answer to this.    

[Moresco]

Here is a bare example of what I mean:

Example

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.

[Scummbuddy]

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.

[Moresco]

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

[Pumaman]

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.

[Moresco]

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.

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

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. ._.

[Moresco]

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
Not really what I would call a complete database, though some useful Solutions there.  I like that.

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

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.

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?

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.

And yes, I meant that page.

[Toefur]

As long as downloads are hosted somewhere where they will be guaranteed to be there in a few months... I'm happy.

[Moresco]

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.

[Pumaman]

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.