Which forums should be here?

Post by **Gambit37** » Wed May 07, 2003 12:30 am

Beowuuf, that's pretty much George's suggestion, so I'll leave it as his call... I'm too undecided!

George Gilbert · Post by **George Gilbert** » Wed May 07, 2003 10:54 am

I'd vote for disbanding the "RTC Gameplay" forum and moving it's posts into the various "Dungeon Master Games" forums/a as appropriate.

The rationale behind this is that nearly all issues with RTC *gameplay* (as opposed to editing etc) will be the same as for the original games. Anyway, as RTC gameplay is meant to be the same as the original, any differences should be posted to the bugs forum ;-)

If there are any RTC specific posts (e.g. those on Reactor gameplay) then they should go into the "Other" forum along with posts on Nexus etc. Accordingly I would change the name of group from "Dungon Master Games" to "Dungeon Gameplay" or just "Gameplay", or even "Dungeons".

Post by **Gambit37** » Wed May 07, 2003 1:01 pm

I agree in principle with your proposal, but I'm concerned that non-gameplay issues will become a bit messed up with all the gameplay stuff. For example, what about users coming here and posting general messages about DM? If the DM forum is all about gameplay issues, are other posts relevant there? Does it even matter. I'd just be a bit concerned that if we focus on gameplay problems in these forums it'll put off new people who just want to chat about the game in general.

Perhaps another forum....

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Wed May 07, 2003 1:13 pm

I think that alot of the discussion about the game in general comes down to gameplay anyway. So i agree that 'gameplay' should be more 'games & dungeons' but i think that this would be sufficient without anooooother forum : )

I would even be tempted to combine the DM & CSB
forums, since many of the versions have both, and the engine is the same

George Gilbert · Post by **George Gilbert** » Wed May 07, 2003 1:18 pm

<prepares to be flamed>Are there really that many questions people post about the original game that don't relate to gameplay?</lets guard down again>

Looking through the posts on the encyclopedia and Ians forum nearly everything is covered by gameplay, dmute, other clones / editors or discussion.

Possibly adding a "General" forum to the renamed "Gameplay" group would be good and cover posts which aren't specific to a given dungeon...

Post by **Gambit37** » Wed May 07, 2003 1:39 pm

Upon reflection, I think you're right George. So we can move the RTC gameplay stuff to the relevant forums, delete the empty forum, and create a new General one in the Dungeons category (or whatever we call it). makes sense. I can do this now if no-one objects....?

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Wed May 07, 2003 2:30 pm

The only thing I object to is how slowly the day is going today : )

andyboy_uk · Post by **andyboy_uk** » Wed May 07, 2003 2:31 pm

Know what you mean [edit] beowuuf not Gambit (sorry mate) [/edit]. It is dragging a bit today.

Post by **Gambit37** » Wed May 07, 2003 2:35 pm

Wasn't me who said that! The one benefit of being unemployed is that I have time to do my own things. Hmm..., I think I'll go out for a cycle in this lovely sun, then have a spot of late lunch, then perhaps do some job hunting, then maybe watch a film. Oooh, so many possibilities!

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Wed May 07, 2003 2:46 pm

Don't be fooled, its a warm front so by this afternoon we will be wet again!
A frenchman who knows these things has told me so : )

Post by **Gambit37** » Wed May 07, 2003 3:50 pm

OK, I've moved all the topics from RTC gameplayinto their relevant forums. I've also updated the subject titles so that they are easily identified, and I've posted a sticky note in the DM and CSB forums giving some info about how to make posts. I hope it won't put people off, and that it'll utlimately make it easier to track posts for different versions of the games. haven't bother with DM2 or Others for now as there's not much there...

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Thu May 08, 2003 8:35 am

you know if you hace so much free time Gambit.. there is a certain website that was announce oh.. say 2 or so years ago that could be worked on.

moo

Post by **Gambit37** » Thu May 08, 2003 10:09 am

Hey, don't worry, I'm working on that too... I've only been able to do this stuff for the forums BECAUSE I've been working on my site; having decided to convert my site to use mySQL and PHP, it's been a useful exercise working on the forums as it's taught me things that are directly useful to the Codex....

The site's still goin well, just not fast!

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Thu May 08, 2003 10:27 am

Well we know it's worth the wait, so no worries

*wrings hat in hands and shakes in a corner trying not to be impatient*

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Thu May 08, 2003 10:46 pm

Annother comment with regards to Ians forums and the new changes I'm suggesting. For archives of posts and what not, anything that is not directly integrated into the forum itself could simply be Archived into a zip for download. So people can view it offline if they feel like searching through so much stuff.

I mean at the moment his forums have a few posts last month maybe a few more from the month before and it looks like only two this month. Aside from being an archive in itself it's looking rather dead.

I would certainly agree that integrating all the forums to one cohesive one is looking more and more usefull.

Fuzzface and I speak to Alandale often enough to that we can get him onboard aswell if we wanted.. however, his has a good many years of posts too. Though things like old bug reports and what not may be archive material all the same since the project is now open source and not going to be worked on by Alan himself. Were fairly busy on annother project as it is.

(shrug)

more to think about.

Post by **Lunever** » Fri May 09, 2003 2:03 pm

There is ine soething imortant still missing in this thread: Ian's presence!

Post by **Lunever** » Fri May 09, 2003 10:49 pm

Another question: Cowsmanaut, what about the posts at the old Drake-forum? Now that the RTC forum has moved here, shouldn't they be moved here also?

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Fri May 09, 2003 11:51 pm

I could be going mad but I think he did...umm....maybe a few of the drawings....
There were some good posts there, for example a whole thing about perspective

They are still be available via dmump - the link is http://www.dmjump.net/jumpsite/Cowsmanautforum/ and of course the forum is still up and running anyway....

Equus / ZPC · Post by **Equus / ZPC** » Wed May 14, 2003 3:17 pm

Have anybody asked Alandale about importing ezBoard DMJava Forums?
If so, what is the result...

thx

Equus / ZPC

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Wed May 14, 2003 6:02 pm

Currently i don't think they need imported - think of the extra bulk of posts that are there! We haven't even moved Ian's yet : )

Equus / ZPC · Post by **Equus / ZPC** » Wed May 14, 2003 6:06 pm

yeah, me neither ... especially when there is so "heavy" traffic there ...

Post by **Gambit37** » Sun May 25, 2003 7:34 pm

Ian's opened up his forums so I can go ahead and merge all of the old posts with this forum.

Before I do so, a few things to mention/discuss:

1) Do we want *all* the posts from there (except the admin stuff)? Anything we can easily forget or get rid of?

2) There's a lot of old poster IDs and again it'll be a big job to combine both databases. I start my first freelance contract on Wednesday (yay!) for 2 months, so I won't have a lot of free time now. This means I'll have to do the work over a number of evenings, and again it means these forums will need to go offline for the duration. Can you all give me some idea of when I can do this... thanks.

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Mon May 26, 2003 5:18 am

I think all the Dmute stuff for sure. Any clones stuff can come too. as those two things are lasting information. Things that will come up again and again.

The rest of it.. I dunno. For me it's simply a question of value vs size. When you do this all the posts in the relevant areas will be pushed to the bottom and need to be brought back up. I think a lot of the really dead forums are the rest.. it seems clones and DMute have the most recent posts.

However, it's not just my say.. so I'm open to hearing other oppinions.

moo

Ps congrats on finding some work.. money is good.

Post by **Lunever** » Mon May 26, 2003 2:27 pm

I want all the posts. Everything. That's it.

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Mon May 26, 2003 3:36 pm

If we can have everything, that would be nice, but there is a LOAD of posts from the archive section, all of which have 'guest' users since they were included by hand by me, so i don't know if that constitutes alkot of unnecessary work and space when ian's forum's aren't going anywhere!

Also, i think that we other moderators can take out junk posts ourselves later, rather than any time needing to be taken up by this task right now - congratulations on your contract, btw!

as for timing..well, i leave here on wednesday morning *sniff* and won't get back to my computer until monday night so i really won't notice them being down!

Post by **ChristopheF** » Mon May 26, 2003 8:52 pm

I'd like to have all post transfered here too but Gambit, as you do the job, you have the final word.

Then in some weeks/months (when I find some time to work on it), I'll integrate the encyclopaedia forums here too, if people want. (except the forums to uplaod files).

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Mon May 26, 2003 11:57 pm

well it looks as if most people seem to want it all transferred. We have the space so.. I guess it's a go.

moo

Post by **Gambit37** » Tue May 27, 2003 12:03 am

Just tried a quick test, but it's not working properly on Ian's forums; something to do with that bizarre style he's set. I've contacted him to try and sort it out, but he often takes a while to reply, so watch this space. I'll give you all plenty of warning when I'm going to take these forums offline...

PicturesInTheDark · Post by **PicturesInTheDark** » Tue May 27, 2003 12:21 am

I'd go for all - but I'd also go for closing off information that is not overall knowledge being needed again. Readable is o.k. but no new posts need to be allowed. After all, it's a huge workload already (Thanks Gambit, Moo and all the others devoting your time to this!)

Regards, PitD

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Tue May 27, 2003 5:43 am

wow, this is sooooo freaky.. all the forums being merged after all these years!!

All I can really say is thanks for the trust and for the help in putting this together. This truly is a community effort after all!

moo

Dungeon Master Forum

Which forums should be here?

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