(RFD) Which would you prefer next?

[Wayne]

For my next magic trick ladies and gents, I invite the audience to participate in what happens.

Now that @ao e-mail addresses are fixed and the bug list is low, I'm thinking about the next great whathaveyou to build and would love your input, by way of vote (or comment).

Which of the above would you prefer to see next?

Wayne

[Wayne]

What I'd like to see is a knowledge base.  There are many threads where people ask for help in solving a problem but it can be time consuming looking through all of them.  If there was a way to condense the information into a Problem: - Solution: system, it would be an incredible resource.

You mean, like Amigawiki.com?

[Wayne]

I'll second the request for the knowledge base, too.

A knowledge base is a good idea, but a little bit on the "dream on" side of reality unless you're talking about a wiki-style arrangement.

• There's no one person, or even a group left in the community that has that much knowledge about the platform.
• Even if there were, what's the incentive to put in the MASSIVE amounts of work?  Especially in light of the fact that he/she would be getting nothing out of it, financially or otherwise.
• Microsoft and Apple have thousands of REAL, full-time employees whose job it is to manage and update such information.

Seriously.  Like *all* community projects these days, everything is done on a "volunteer / because I feel like it" basis.  This site for example is run solely because I enjoy the coding, and because -- thanks to the great subscribers and donations -- it pays for itself every month.

Had we stayed with Xoops, I have no doubt I would have lost interest and closed the site in April / May.

Back to the subject though, seriously, I think Amigawiki is a great idea and the way to go to establish what you want (I couldn't think of any way to do it better).  It simply depends on the community to help build it by sharing all the little bits that each of us know.  I just don't get the impression that anyone in the community is interested.

Wayne

[Wayne]

I miss the faces of amiga.org link
Maybe the site could make it easy for users to add a picture of themselves. It's nice to see who you're talking to

I can add categories for user photos to the album, but didn't really want to take away from the Faces page creator.

Also, I just put up a block, but the only URL I have doesn't work;

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/christopher.sheffield/facesofamigaorg/

Same with the Web Chat interface.  Last I have is;

http://irc.cyberfingers.com/cgiirc/irc.cgi

What's the current one?

Wayne

[Wayne]

Ok, let's look at this from a pros/cons perspective;

Files repository
-----------------
Pros

• Tailored right, there's plenty of niche that could be filled
• It would provide a good service to the community, but only if it offered something special.

Cons

• It's been done, repeatedly, the best example of which is Aminet
• If it took off, and that's about a 5% chance, it would require massive amounts of space and bandwidth to accommodate the community
• It would ABSOLUTELY require at least one dedicated volunteer to staff, populate, and maintain the collection.
• Chances are equal that the massive amount of work to build it would amount to very little use, considering the number of actual users in the dwindling community.
• Virus controls - how?

International User Group Registry (not user registry)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Pros

• An updated one doesn't currently exist to the best of my knowledge.
• I have a good idea already for the db schema needed, thanks to Tekmage (UGN)
• It might help people reconnect on a local level or find people when traveling.

Cons

• The Internet has pretty much killed almost all local user groups.  The few that remain are fairly more "dinner groups" than user groups.
• What information comes from local groups which cannot be found globally?
• I would estimate less than 50 physical user groups worldwide in 2009.
• Social Groups already exist here and could be used by any user groups that want them in order to converse and manage their business.

Music Mod Repository
------------------------
Pros

• Gets people back into the Web site
• Could be interesting and/or fun

Cons

• Again, if successful would need lots of space and bandwidth
• Several good examples already exist on the net
• it would require a dedicated volunteer to staff, stock, and maintain
• Formats would have to be firmly decided.

[Wayne]

motorollin, Karlos, Buzz,

Mostly because I wanted to see if vB worked correctly, the off-topic conversation re: MySQL programming has been moved here;

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47964

Sorry for any inconvenience, but it's cool that vB works to let mods split conversations.

Guess we really need a "Web Development" forum eh?

[Wayne]

I really wanted to help out the site.  I really like vBulletin.  I have an idea that is not too complicated that has not been mentioned yet.  It would be kewl.

But the last time I tried to help the site, I wrote several messages explaining why it was a good idea and someone voted down my reputation.  I have never received any positive reputation.  I have received 100% negative reputation in direct correlation to how many messages I write.  This has trained me through negative feedback to stop trying to help the site.  It also trained me to stop inviting people onto the site, to stop reporting bugs and to reduce my message writing by 90%.  The more I try to help out the site the worse my rep gets.  That is why I am not explaining my nice idea.  Goodbye.

So... lemme understand...

Back when the site was still under initial rollout construction, one person gave you a negative rep because you kept harping on the "I liked the old Amiga.org better" and now, rather than trying to gain positive reputation, you're "taking your ball and going home"

For the record, you've only received one single rep since the rollover to vB, out of several dozen posts.  Please don't tell me that one single person's disagreement with you over a post in the "hate! hate! hate! thread was enough for you to quit the site.  I didn't think you were the "sensitive type".


Wayne

[Wayne]

I never said any such thing.

I stand corrected, but what I meant to say was that you were in the "hate, hate, hate" thread going on about the font in the header

(which is one of the more pointless arguments this site has ever had)

I don't go to forums to panhandle for rep points.
I go to forums to:
1. Help people solve problems.
2. Have people help me solve problems.
3. Have fun.
Playing reputation games like immature 3rd graders is not on my list.

But here's what I don't think you get.  

You just came to THIS forum/thread to tell us all how you have this killer idea but refuse to share it because you're mad someone gave you a negative rep on one single post.

I sincerely want to hear your idea, as I'm always looking for new ways to help the community, but I really don't understand your logic on this one.

[Wayne]

Could any of the persons who asked for creating a file repository please tell me what's wrong with Aminet (or os4depot, AROS archives...)?

That's a honest question, I simply don't get it. All I understand so far is "we're not happy with Aminet" - but the question is: why?

And, if there's something about Aminet that irritates you, wouldn't it make more sense to tell the Aminet team about it - instead of trying to set up a replacement?

For the record, I have nothing either for, or against the Aminet. I've used it for years.

I'm just looking for ways to make THIS site better for the community.  File repository, or mods repository, or.... were just the three easiest choices for something database driven that we could potentially add without too much trouble.

There's no intent to usurp anyone, but then again, I doubt anyone griped too much when the other file repositories were built to supplant Aminet.

Wayne