Segaxtreme will soon be closing [Updated]

[Runik]

I second Amon about a dev wiki. There are gems buried into the forum, and getting it accessible in an easier way would be great. We could update it from time to time (not everything at once), and start bulding a real community asset ...

And I don't want the site to close

Even if the community isn't as active as it was in the past, SegaXtreme was (and in a lesser measure still is) part of my life ...

 

[ExCyber]

I can understand the desire to not maintain the forums (after all, there's still #segaxtreme for us die-hards, and the spammers keep getting more sophisticated), but I wouldn't want the info to just disappear either. Getting the good stuff organized into a wiki would be some work, but it might be less work/cost to keep it hosted once it's compiled (would Wikia work?).

 

[Kuta]

Although the old content attracted a lot of leeches I think it also provided a few new members and noticibly more activity than what we have now. I think it is well worth hosting content even if we do get a lot of non-contributers taking advantage of it. I really don't mind, but one thing I've been looking into is the possibilty of attaching the sites web address to some of the material so that if someone is going to take our stuff then at least they'll be providing some exposure for the site.

I too think a wiki is the best way forward for the site. It is something that can be used to replace the current system of providing downloadable content of hosting them on pages which are hard for the public to find. I still have a lot of things I can contribute to the content of the site starting with another PC demo.

As for site maintanance, I've been doing an increasing amount of user management here and it's something I don't mind doing. So I'm more than happy to keep that up and any other way I can contribute to the running of the site.

Let's keep this place alive people.

 

[dibz]

Well, I'm certainly willing to try out a wiki. Did we ever decide on what software to use? We'll also need a "head" maintainer, as honestly I can say straight out I wouldn't have the time to give it the attention it would require.

Beyond that, anyone have experience with other forum software? I'm not particularly fond of vBulletin these days. I've been considering IP.Board as a replacement, which would just be switching back to invision after all this time.

 

[Amon]

I've had very limited experience installing and running phpBB on a server. That seems to work for some. Yeah can not help you out there. Is it any good?

 

[Kuta]

Well I can certainly look after any maintanance that may be required. I just may not have the advanced skills it would take to install and configure some of this software. Always willing to learn though.

 

[Amon]

yabause uses mediawiki

 

[Runik]

http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/top-10-wiki-software/

Could help us make the choice 🙂

 

[Kuta]

MediaWiki is the only one I've had experience with. Not sure what the others are like.

 

[dibz]

I've never really liked the software, although the new beta seems promising. However, its unlikely I'll do a whole ton of editing personally anyway, so whatever you guys want.

I'll try and get it set up tomorrow if I have time, its not like its a final decision that we can never change.

 

[Amon]

Thank you Dibz.

Suggestion from CyberWarriorX with regards to SX

SX almost needs some kind of community project to draw people in, like a game translation or hosting of some kind of emulator or something. Just look at what other news sites have done.

Also if we want to go back to hosting a bunch of files, I might be able to host some.

 

[dibz]

Don't worry about hosting, and I'd rather not just be a file-site. I agree on the project, maybe Runik wouldn't mind providing the project, eh? 😉

Anyway, don't let my pessimism get anyone down. If you guys think we can get life back to the site, let's go for it. I'd rather we not reduce ourselves to being a filedump though. Noting that there's a difference between hosting files/content, and being a filedump mind.

That all said, I set up a wiki at http://wiki.segaxtreme.net. Right now its a stock install -- maybe we should open a new thread for wiki related discussion? (Don't wait for me if something comes up, just do it!)

 

[Kuta]

Do you think we should be moderating new users?

 

[dibz]

I was taking a wait and see approach on moderating.

I just changed you to an Administrator, now that you are one, you'd want to use the "Special Pages" under the Toolbox to do similar actions.

 

[Runik]

I agree on the project, maybe Runik wouldn't mind providing the project, eh? 😉

Why not 🙂

Actually the idea already crossed my mind, and I'm not against it. But there are some things to be taken care of (like warning my current webmaster about it, even if the website hasn't seen much activity lately he always provided me the space and coded the website for free, etc...)

During previous weeks I tried to make the code more portable, in order to put the project on a opensource website like Sourceforge ... there's still a lot to do, but I'm heading in the right direction.

And last but not least, Saturnin is already on a private subversion server at home, so it could be "easily" moved to another subversion server (public this time), either on SX (if it's possible) or on Sourceforge 😛

All this can be considered later, and maybe the first step could be to put my worklog (http://runik.free.fr/worklog/) on SegaXtreme, maybe using a more classic CMS (this one was made by myself)

What do you think ?

edit:

I added some C4 stuff to the Saturn Dev section of the wiki, just to see how it works ... I think we may need a plan 😛

 

[dibz]

Actually the idea already crossed my mind, and I'm not against it. But there are some things to be taken care of (like warning my current webmaster about it, even if the website hasn't seen much activity lately he always provided me the space and coded the website for free, etc...)

During previous weeks I tried to make the code more portable, in order to put the project on a opensource website like Sourceforge ... there's still a lot to do, but I'm heading in the right direction.

I imagine others would be willing to help. 🙂

And last but not least, Saturnin is already on a private subversion server at home, so it could be "easily" moved to another subversion server (public this time), either on SX (if it's possible) or on Sourceforge

I certainly don't mind hosting it, although sourceforge is certainly also an option. I've heard quite a few complaints about them, but nothing current.

All this can be considered later, and maybe the first step could be to put my worklog (http://runik.free.fr/worklog/) on SegaXtreme, maybe using a more classic CMS (this one was made by myself)

Interesting topic. What about just a blog for things like updates, and then putting any actual information regarding the emulator in the wiki?

What do you think?

Back to the forum discussions, I see some affordable addons for both CMS and Blogging for IP.Board. Maybe switching to that software, along with the addons, might be the way to go? Although the licensing isn't much better then vB these days.

 

[Runik]

I imagine others would be willing to help. 🙂

I'm sure they would 😉

I certainly don't mind hosting it, although sourceforge is certainly also an option. I've heard quite a few complaints about them, but nothing current.

As I don't know where SegaXtreme is currently hosted, I don't know what's the best option (obviously it'll be the less troublesome)

Interesting topic. What about just a blog for things like updates, and then putting any actual information regarding the emulator in the wiki?

Mmh ... like current worklog data in a blog extension (like the one used there : http://juliano.info/en/Blog:Memory_Leak), and screenshots, downloads, etc. (pretty much everything currently on the website) in the wiki ?

It's an interesting idea 🙂

Back to the forum discussions, I see some affordable addons for both CMS and Blogging for IP.Board. Maybe switching to that software, along with the addons, might be the way to go? Although the licensing isn't much better then vB these days.

Why not ? I'm not really used to IB.Board, but I guess I can learn 😉

 

[dibz]

Segaxtreme is hosted at Site5.com, however, under special circumstances -- I'm part of the management team there. There is some interesting history to others in the management team in regards to emulation sites, but I probably shouldn't go on about it without permission. I'd rather go into detail privately beyond what's been said though.

And yeah, you nailed it in regards to the blog idea.

As for the forums, the goal is more towards moving away from vBulletin -- once the company (Jelsoft) was sold to Internet Brands, it's gone steadily downhill. IP.Boards is just an alternative that seems pretty decent.

 

[Runik]

Ok, I started moving worklog's data to the wiki 🙂

With the right blog extension it will roll.

For the forums, there are some free alternatives which seem to be as good or better than vBulletin (like SMF, or maybe myBB) I don't know what are your feelings about those ... but IP.Boards looks also like a good (non free) choice ...

But I won't be the only user of the next forum, so come on people, give your voice !

 

[Kuta]

I don't know jack about forums. This one seems ok to me as I'm sure it's replacement will be. I'm just going to have to trust those who know.