The future of the Encyclopaedia

[ChristopheF]

First of all, although my web site has not been updated for months, know that I have not lost interest into it, I just lack enough free time to do all I want to do. I'm sorry for people who sent me some new stuff I have still not published since the last update, it will certainly be done at some point in the future.

I spent a lot of time in the past few months testing some Content Management Systems (CMS) that I could use on the Encyclopaedia web site. I think I have finally found one that suits me, which is drupal (http://drupal.org).

So I want to tell you what I plan to do in the next months so that you can react and make suggestions.

Here are the features that I plan to include into this new Encyclopaedia web site and the changes applied to the current web site:

- Simple visitors will be able to see all the content of the web site (read only). Users who register an account on the site will be able to contribute to the site directly online: it will be possible for them to add comments to any page of the site, to create new content (new pages) and upload files (up to 2 MB in size). However, to avoid any abuse I will have to approve every new content before it gets visible by other visitors. I don't want any trouble there.
- Built in search engine to search for keywords in any part of the site.
- FAQ section: users will be able to read the FAQ as well as post new questions and answers. The current static FAQ page will be moved here (maybe also the FAQ from the DM jumppoint, beowuuf?)
- New dungeons section: the content of the current discussion forum for new dungeons will be migrated in a dedicated section of the web site. People will be able to post their new dungeons and associated files (doc, graphics, ... several file attachments allowed in posts). Other visitors will be able to comment and rate them. I can configure all the fields we need to describe dungeons. Then it will be possible and fairly easy to create custom php pages to search this "dungeon library" based on the platform (csbwin, rtc, DM PC, ...) or any other criteria. I think we will be able to merge there the pages that Paul maintains about some dungeons to make them easily playable.
- Downloads section: all the current download pages and the "Misc files upload" forum will be migrated to a new hierachical "file gallery". People will be able to add files (and links to files on other sites), describe their files and comment on the existing files.
- Links section: this will be a directory of all the links related to DM. the current Links section, as well as all the links present on other pages of the site (clones, emulators, ...) will be migrated here. People will be able to submit new links.
- Technical Documentation section: users will be able to add documentation here. It will also be presented in a hierachical way, built like a book where users can add pages. I think it will help to keep organized all the knowledge that can be found scattered in the discussion forums today. (tips on DSAs, information on some functions in CSBwin, file format specification, etc...)
- Images/scans section: people will be able to add images and scans directly to the site.
- News: people will be able to post news directly on the site. So everyone will be able to make announcements that will appear directly on the homepage (after approval of course). It might be possible to access these news through any RSS aggregator (I still have to investigate that feature).
- CSBwin corner: If needed, I can add a section dedicated to CSBwin where Paul will be able to publish new versions, post files or links to files
- Forums: the general discussion forum will be converted to drupal format and will be dedicated to discussion about the site itself, it will be clearly stated that any discussion about the games should go here on http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum. The other two forums for upload will be removed after their content has been migrated to other sections.

During the migration, I should be able to keep the existing user accounts and passwords from the current forum software (Phorum).
In a first phase, I plan to keep the rest of the current static content as is (Maps, Items, ...)
In a second phase I will slowly move the static content to the new dynamic web site.


Tell me what you think of all this, are there other features you would like to see?

[beowuuf]

You can easily take any of the FAQ stuff I had, thoguh I fear much of the information is woefully out of date now! : )

I like the ideas for all of this, sounds good! Especially for the dungeons section.

[cowsmanaut]

well, we don't have much of a front page here, so unifying the load amongst us all would be something we could all do. I had been thinking a while about uploads and ways to do that in some reliable fashion.. however, my main concern is people uploading things like MP3's and other pirated stuff here. At the college we had an open FTP for students and had not told anyone about it yet.. we were just thinking about it.. before we even had it open for 3 days someone who doesn't even know us had uploaded nearly 500 megs of pirated content porn, mp3s, and starting to upload more. So it's certainly a valid concern of mine. Port sniffers and the like. bah.. bastards... anyway

That leaves us with a validate set up where we limit file sizes and need to validate them. I don't yet know of any safe and reliable software to do this... and I'm none too keen on being the one to have to validate every new upload. but if some solution to that can be decided then you can remove the need for your forums entirely.

we have a news section here and certainly anyone wanting to learn about new stuff can check it out. That makes them responsible for publishing their own news casts as it were. Thus taking that off your shoulders as well.

not sure if any of that helps?

moo

[Toni Y]

Three days? Must be a new record... I wouldn't have expected more than 12 hours...

[ChristopheF]

Today there is no validation on the upload forum, anyone can upload any file, except that the size was limited to 200 KB. There has been no abuse yet. However, for the new site I prefer to have to approve new content and files in order to avoid any problem. There are not lots of new files uploaded and I will be checking new stuff on a daily basis most of the time (I usually visit these forums every day or every two days). So there would not be much delay after new content is available. I know it can still be a trouble, but I think it is not a too high price to pay for security.

About the news section, I partially agree with you, I was rather thinking of news directly concerning the web site, to announce new content for example. People visiting the site might not want to visit the forums here to learn that me or someone else has updated some pages or added a new file to download.

[Gambit37]

Hi Christophe, I missed this post before. It sounds great idea to migrate your site over to a CMS and I think it will make it a much more interactive place for DM fans rather than just a passive site.

I'm not so interested in the interactive side for my own site, but your post got me thinkiing about Codex again and whether or not a full CMS would be the best way to go. As noted on the thread Dungeon Master Codex tidbit, one of the reasons for my tardiness at getting this done is that the backend development takes too long and doesn't realy interest me so much as the content. Athough I would like to have created the site from scratch to be able to say "this is what I created", I think the time for that approach is gone. I just want to get the site up and running.

So, a question for you Christophe: Do you think Drupal would be suitable for the Codex site, given what you have seen in the sample that's been available for a while: http://www.dmcodex.com/sample/ ? Clearly, I would need to write some custom code for displaying stuff like monster stat graphs (Screamer) and comparison pages, but on the whole do you think it would serve my needs?

[ChristopheF]

I'm glad you plan to finish your web site!
And I think drupal can definitely help you there.

Drupal has powerful theme capabilities (several theme engines) and you should be able to do anything you need. The theme you use determines the output (HTML, XHTML, use of tables or css for layout). Of course, you will need to learn the way it works in drupal.

Drupal has lots of APIs you can use to build your custom needs. However they seem to change some functions in each new version so it can break things when you upgrade. Personnaly I don't plan to develop anything because, just as you said, it is time consuming and I prefer to focus on content. I can live with a presentation which is not as perfect as I can imagine. I also try to minimize the number of additional modules I use to ensure that nothing will breaj in the future during upgrades (if fear that the dev of some modules may be stopped and that they can become incompatible with newer versions of the main engine...).

If you decide to use drupal, maybe we can join our efforts to save time?
Like using a common graphic theme (you are far more gifted than I am in this area) or merging some content (lists of creatures, spells, ...) to avoid duplicates.

Feel free to ask more specific questions if you need.

[Gambit37]

I had a look at Drupal and I really don't like it. It's whole taxonomy metaphor is just way too complicated (and unintelligible) for my needs. I also found the way that the administration works by 'wrapping' the presentation of the site to be utterly weird and confusing. There's simply way too much customisation I would need to do to get it into a state that does what I want. Me no like.

Given that I already have developed a lot of back-end functionality for my site that's specific to my custom needs, I think I should just bite the bullet and conitnue as I was...