Interest in a community MegaMek site?

[Taharqa]

Some of you may remember my attempt to start up a community site at megamek.info awhile back. Despite some initial enthusiasm, it ultimately petered out and my lackluster modding led to the place getting taken over by spammers. I still own the address, however, and I am trying to gauge interest in the idea and also who might be interested in lending a significant hand in developing and managing such a site.

My renewed interest is driven by a couple of factors. We now have a pretty nice blog-style front page for the megamek project site on sourceforge and a forum, but there are some serious limitations and pains with administering a site like that on sourceforge. Also, thanks to Beerockxs hard work, there will soon be a way to list all servers in a central location and we are right now planning on hosting that on my webspace anyway.

So the idea would be to create a community site that would serve also serve as an external project front page. It would include news updates, tutorials, data uploading/downloading, and forums.

The catch is that if it really falls to me administering it, its going to fall on its face again. Simply put, I have too many other important MM projects to spend time on this, as much as I enjoy futzing around with CMS stuff. So if this is going to work, I would provide the hosting and some back-end administration but would need at least 2 other folks to step up as dad-to-day admins, preferably folks with some CMS skills. It would also be helpful to have some people step up as mods to handle the spam issue. If you have been looking to contribute to MM, but Java coding isn't your thing, this could be your chance.

I want to get a sense of how much interest there is in something like this. Would you visit such a site? Would you contribute data to it? Would you be active on the forums? It may be that the sub-forums here are sufficient and I should just let this go, but I want to get other people's feedback.

[McSlayer]

I would visit and play frequently if we can get one that works. It should be something that has the ongoing grinder feel.

[SLDF_Spector]

Sounds like it would helpful for new players.  Find a sysadmin or 2 to help you out and it sounds like it could work.
Myself, mod or not, I would use it since MM is about the only way I get to play BT these days.

[Davout73]

I'm with SLDF_Spector.  I'd visit/use it.

Davout73

[mancub72]

I liked megamek.info, visited it quite often. I even made several contributions to the download sections. So if it were to make a comeback I am all for it.

[Bedwyr]

If it were kept up and were the true central point of contact for MM, I would use it.

I don't have time to administrate though.  Sorry.

[Davout73]

I could be a mod, but not an admin.  Either way I am pretty sure I'd be a pretty regular participant.

Davout73

[greatsarcasmo]

I'd like it.
What's CMS?

[Hammer]

I would use a central site for all things MegaMek. I would help anyway I could but unfortunately I have no programing skills.    :-[



edited for Spelling

[DarkISI]

What's CMS?

Content Management System

One thing to add here:
A community based CMS would have to follow the same rules as MM itself. No unit files for units whose RS is not at least 2 months old. Should new official maps be released, the same rule would apply for them.

[Bedwyr]

Content Management System

One thing to add here:
A community based CMS would have to follow the same rules as MM itself. No unit files for units whose RS is not at least 2 months old. Should new official maps be released, the same rule would apply for them.

That's the same kind of reasonable limitations that are on Sarna.  So no big deal.

[Spork]

I would use and probably contribute to such a site.  I've been considering the same thing myself.  Sourceforge is too hard to navigate, even for those of us who use it frequently.  Reality dictates that I barely have time to administer mekwars.org, so I can't help there.

[DarkISI]

That's the same kind of reasonable limitations that are on Sarna.  So no big deal.

But, given how often people ask for the 3085 units.... It was worth mentioning. So no one should be surprised when I start deleting stuff ;)

[Taharqa]

But, given how often people ask for the 3085 units.... It was worth mentioning. So no one should be surprised when I start deleting stuff ;)

You request to be a moderator has been accepted. Thanks!

[Aokarasu]

I'd use/contribute to it.  I have no idea what CMS is, though, otherwise I'd offer to help administrate.

[DarkISI]

You request to be a moderator has been accepted. Thanks!

Ah, see. Since I'm part of the MM team, I thought that would just be part of it anyway ;)

[Taharqa]

Ah, see. Since I'm part of the MM team, I thought that would just be part of it anyway ;)

For you, yes.  ;)

So it seems like a fair amount of interest, but I still need to rustle up somebody with skillz. No easy feat.

[Bedwyr]

For you, yes.  ;)

So it seems like a fair amount of interest, but I still need to rustle up somebody with skillz. No easy feat.

And if you do get it going, be sure to make it the main place of contact.  A site you actually refer people to if they're curious.

[DarkISI]

For you, yes.  ;)

So it seems like a fair amount of interest, but I still need to rustle up somebody with skillz. No easy feat.

I have basic administration skills. I can keep a CMS running, as long as it is relatively simple.
But as longas you do not plan to use one of the CMSs freely available on the web, I don't think I could do much. I surely couldn't program one. I had one freeware CMS running a few years ago, but I can't remember which one and the domain is long gone...

[Taharqa]

I have basic administration skills. I can keep a CMS running, as long as it is relatively simple.
But as longas you do not plan to use one of the CMSs freely available on the web, I don't think I could do much. I surely couldn't program one. I had one freeware CMS running a few years ago, but I can't remember which one and the domain is long gone...

I was planning on using an open-source CMS. The previous incarnation ran on Joomla.

[Demos]

I want to get a sense of how much interest there is in something like this. Would you visit such a site? Would you contribute data to it? Would you be active on the forums? It may be that the sub-forums here are sufficient and I should just let this go, but I want to get other people's feedback.

I'd defintely visit it and would be active on a forum.

[Machiavelli]

It is something I would definately make use of and contribute to.  As for any skills or admintype help, right now am fully involved in reprogramming MekWars4Ever Mekwars server and don't have any time I could commit to anything else. 

[jasper_ward]

I enjoyed MMinfo while it had interest, but once it started feeling like an abandoned warehouse I kinda stopped paying attention... plus RL issues came up about the same time... anyways, I don't have much experience with being an admin of anything other than joomla, but if my skills can help, I'd be willing to help out however would be useful (mod or admin)

[Taharqa]

Well, we have gone with a partial approach. The new MegaMek front page and forums are now online at http://megamek.info.

Right now, the site doesn't have all the features that I talked about above, namely because I don't want the responsibility of figuring out how to get them working and maintaining them, and no one has really stepped up. But the site is designed in Drupal, so it should be fairly easy to expand in that direction if we decide to.

We also have new forums. These ones should be considerably more spam-resistant but I am still definitely looking for mod volunteers. I would like to see these forums more active. If you are running a campaign on the CBT forums (or elsewhere) I encourage you to move over to our forums.

We are still fine-tuning but I would appreciate people kicking the tires a bit, so let me know what other features you would like to see.

[Kojak]

Well, given the abundance of spare time I seem to find myself with these days, I wouldn't mind being a moderator, assuming it doesn't entail a particularly significant time commitment.

[Bedwyr]

What font do you use for the logo?

[Taharqa]

What font do you use for the logo?

I don't know for either one. The big "MegaMek" header has been in the miscellaneous image files in MM for a long time now, and the subheading I just threw together in GIMP with whatever the default font was.

[Bedwyr]

I can do a more fresh one in either BT old or BT new if you like.

[Taharqa]

I can do a more fresh one in either BT old or BT new if you like.

That would be great.

[Bedwyr]

That would be great.

Which one's your preference?  This might be the face of Megamek after all.