39 replies to this topic

[Onikhaosifix]

SpreeTree said:

Why would DevMaster want what others have. If others have them, then go there for that service, and come here for the services

Nothing wrong with being unique. But there's nothing wrong with borrowing elements from other websites either. If the staff of Devmaster.net followed your philosophy 100% then they would get rid of this message board right now.

I know alot of people who visit this site daily who don't really use the 3D Engine Database nor do they care about it. Also, if they wanted a wiki on game development they would go to gpwiki.org.

Coming up with completely new and unique editions for this site is very difficult. Until someone can come up with something whynot, for the time being, implement services found in other sites but better?

We're all concerned with improving this site to becoming the best on the web, or one of the best. Don't you think making Devmaster a complete site--one with features borrowed from others but implemented better, and with new and unique features not seen before--is one big step to the idealized site we all hope for?

Some other elements this site borrowed from others:

Wiki(very slowly growing; gpwiki.org has more content)
IRC Chat(dead; #gamedev is more active)
Message Board(growing; gamedev.net is much more active with some bad apples in the community)

What's wrong with borrowing a few more elements? Alright forget about competiting. Some of us just want Devmaster to be an idealized complete site.

Some of us are extravagant and wouldn't mind pumping the "spirit" of game programming up in steroids.

[monjardin]

I think the impetus should be from the “suggesters” to show that demand for a feature exists at DevMaster.net. Right now the implementers are defending why they shouldn't spend their personal time creating something that is available elsewhere.
What is the benefit of the features you suggest and why should they be duplicated here?
Maintaining a grudge against GameDev.net is simply not a good answer…

[Onikhaosifix]

I'm making these suggestions in hopes to improve this website to take several steps towards the idealized complete website myself, and many others, would hope for.

My grudge against gamedev.net has no influence on my decisions. I mentioned that site because it's the premiere game development website right now. Why not take examples from the best?

[ProgramWizard]

I don't have a grudge against gamedev.net. I suggested this feature because it is unique. It fits the "we want unique features" philosiphy. Other sites may have it, but no other game programming sites have it, and those are the main competitors of devmaster.

[Onikhaosifix]

ProgramWizard said:

I don't have a grudge against gamedev.net. I suggested this feature because it is unique. It fits the "we want unique features" philosiphy. Other sites may have it, but no other game programming sites have it, and those are the main competitors of devmaster.

I'm trying to defend your idea but you keep bringing up "competition". No one is in competition here so remove that idea out of your head.

[baldurk]

The difference I see between IRC chat or a message board or whatever, and project hosting is that the former is different between here and gamedev for example, but that the latter doesn't matter where it is. The point being that we have a message board here and people would want to come because we have something unique to offer - our community. However if we set up project hosting, why should anyone choose ours over anyone elses? we're not filling a gap in the market or offering anything someone can't get anywhere else.

Personally as far as project hosting is concerned I think that there should be some way to provide a distribution package with the daily image. That produces a nice balance between adding new features and linking it with the features we already have.

[Jynks]

Project hosting seams like a waste to me. I mean if you can not organise yourself and your group a webpage then your a joke anyway. Webspace is cheep, you can set your own forum, blogs, image gallery etc etc all with free php software. You have a number of file sharing apps if you need to host large files, but lets face it most of the home made games I have seen around the place are not that big. Even if you do not go with filesharing apps then there are a few file hosting servers. Still a 5 sec google search can find cheep webspace with 200+ meg easy...

Maybe Devmaster can host completed games only? So if you complete a game you get a page in a downloads section or somtihng... ...

[ProgramWizard]

That's been suggested already, and turned down.

[Onikhaosifix]

I think a game showcase--where completed projects are shown and available for download--is much better than project hosting.

The main thing that bothers me is that it appears as if you guys aren't opened to ideas suggested by the members. I'm still shocked that my game showcase idea was shut down. If you guys are worried about space and money then force submitters to pay.

One of the staff members who posted here said that "our community" is the unique thing that Devmaster.net offers. If that's truly the case then a game showcase where members of this community showcase their projects is just as unique because the games will be done by members of this community, not members of some other site.

I believe this is a valid point considering that you still believe "our community" is a unique thing offered by devmaster.net.

[bladder]

Quote

The main thing that bothers me is that it appears as if you guys aren't opened to ideas suggested by the members.

ideA. Not ideaS. Keep that in mind. Check the other threads in this Suggestions forum and then say we're not open to suggestions from members.

This whole deal with project hosting just doesn't seem necessary. First of all, running and maintaining a developer collaboration website is a pain, and would be very expensive. Either we'd have to buy collaboration software (ion-forge, sourceforge - sound familiar?, whatever), or implement it ourselves, which is not an easy task. SOurceforge.net has spent years perfecting their methods, what's wrong with just using them? The daily image presents a perfect outlet for your project at sourceforge. Using a site like sf.net will be way more productive then a half assed implementation attempt of the same thing. And then just post a picture of your project here at dmn with a link to your sf page if necessary. You're making an issue out of non-issue.

What I see as a possible addition is a "project of the day" type of thing, where we highlight game development projects that are being worked on on places like berlios, sorceforge.net and any personal home page projects. Though it may be too similar to the daily image concept. Maybe we can refine that idea instead...

[anubis]

Quote

The main thing that bothers me is that it appears as if you guys aren't opened to ideas suggested by the members. I'm still shocked that my game showcase idea was shut down. If you guys are worried about space and money then force submitters to pay.

Just because people are questioning ideas doesn't mean that they are turned down per se. Cost and usefulness are just things you have to consider. Btw, the idea has been kicked around before and hasn't been implemented so far. So you are not even the first one to come up with it. Anyway, before you say such stupid things you should really give it a second thought. Like bladder said... take a look at the suggestions forum.

Quote

I think a game showcase--where completed projects are shown and available for download--is much better than project hosting.

You may notice that that is exactly what each of the moderators suggested as an alternative to the full project hosting.

[Onikhaosifix]

anubis said:

You may notice that that is exactly what each of the moderators suggested as an alternative to the full project hosting.

Right but I made a whole topic about that idea which got turned down. The facts that the moderators are suggesting it now makes you wonder.

[ProgramWizard]

Onikhaosifix said:

Right but I made a whole topic about that idea which got turned down. The facts that the moderators are suggesting it now makes you wonder.

Not really. The game showcase thread sort of went off on a tangent about how gamedev.net sucks, and this thread raised some interesting points.

[Onikhaosifix]

ProgramWizard said:

Not really. The game showcase thread sort of went off on a tangent about how gamedev.net sucks, and this thread raised some interesting points.

If I were to respond to this comment contradicting you we'd look like two kids arguing back and forth. And therefore our ideas wouldn't be taken seriously.

As I recall, you're the one who brought up getting a ban from gamedev.net in my topic.

In this very topic some of the ideas being suggested are simply echoes of what I initially suggested in the other topic.

[monjardin]

For the love of God, let it die! :p

Since you two do seem so intent on this, maybe you would have better luck if you prototyped a desirable system and presented it.

[ProgramWizard]

I'm not intent on it, because if devmaster had project hosting or something similar I wouldn't even use it :)
I suggested this because I thought there would be other people who would find a service like this useful. I guess I was wrong.

[eddie]

Best way to find out would be a poll, I guess.

I personally wouldn't use it, however.

[monjardin]

Sorry to kick a dead horse, but I ran across this today. OpenSVN, is run by a couple students at the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taiwan University. You've got free hosting with trac and subversion.
I would make regular backups if you plan on using it since I'm not entirely convinced of its longevity. Has anyone here used it?

[eddie]

Hrmm, haven't used that myself.

But I do love trac and subversion.. They go together very well.

[Josh1billion]

This is a pretty good idea. For the disk space & bandwidth issue, you could have just the pages and images hosted and have the downloads themselves hosted elsewhere. In other words, DevMaster.net would host your whole project's mini-site (like SourceForge does), but your Downloads page would have to link to remotely-hosted files (you can just host those files on RapidShare or something else).

(Sorry if someone mentioned that idea-- I don't think anyone did, but I did skip a lot of replies)