:arrow: new site, this one is buggy and "old", a smf or phpbb3 forums are free and works fine
:arrow: warm things up, weekly articles about programming for example (community contributed) ex: "make your game run on same speed on all computers", "how to make nice looking effects", etc.. etc..
From brazil (:
Pascal pownz!
About the repository idea, I'll insist I think it's not necessary the files hosted at PGD. There are a lot of free hosting sites, as SourceForge, Megaupload, etcetera to do this work, and a lot of us have our own web site as well. I think also is a good idea to allow only regular users for this service, but then PGD will need some moderators to be aware of "trolls", people who post only to gain the access to the repository.
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Hi Guys,
thanks for everyone's comments. Traveller and I hope to sit down and talk about the future direction of PGD in the next few days or so.
I agree that the current site is starting to creak at the seams, so an update is required. Currently my ISP provider uses CPanel and Fantastico as their server software installation tool. At the moment, Fantastico supports phpBB and SMF as bulletin boards. I can easily install an instance of SMF if others think this is a better alternative to phpBB. I have never used SMF, so am not in a position to say anthing about it.
Continue to provide your ideas for the future site.
<br /><br />There are a lot of people who are dead while they are still alive. I want to be alive until the day I die.<br />-= Paulo Coelho =-
I don't know what you can really do regarding the site and forum aesthetics.
I mean really there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, the way it is?
We just need more people, active people and most of all content.
I mean if you can find a more effecient forum software (or do a custom from scratch job) that looks and works like this site/forum then it'd be great.
Actually, there are quite a few problems. Next to the occasional (forum)errors, the main page could benefit from a lot of changes.
In any event, keep in mind that when we change to the new forum, the current look and style will not come back. There will probably be a default style and maybe a custom style, but not one that is custom made for PGD, like we currently have.
Also, I see a lot of you mention more articles/content. IMO, that really is something that should come from the community in general. PGD can provide space to place the articles (and as part of the planned changes, better accessibility) or people to proofread what you've written.
Yes a system for users to contribute to would be great, I have intergrated such a thing into an old website of mine before.
You might already have something.... I am actually not sure LOL!
Hey Alex and Dom, just wanted to wish you guys luck on the new site idea. I'll miss this old site, but I knew it would eventually get replaced by something newer and better for the community.
I think the idea of using a wiki-like article system (but moderated and restorative) might have more success than the overly complicated one it has now. If you do get it up and going please feel free to transfer over my own articles to the new site. I've not given up on my series either so if you copy those over I'll gladly continue it as I have time. I'm in school now, little to no time for it currently.
I'm hoping for great things for you guys, don't forget to take advantage of previous contacts and media mediums such as member sites and of course the great people at Dev-Mag.They have been wonderful in publicizing PGD.
Jason McMillen
Pascal Game Development
Co-Founder
Here's an update about the current situation.
While we understand that vBulletin is probably the better choice of all three options (next to phpbb, smf), we also have to take the price into account. 140 euro may not seem like a lot of money, for a site such as PGD which currenty has inactivity issues we cant really be sure if its worth it on the long term. So for the moment we're going to focus on either phpbb and SMF, where the latter has our preference. We already have set up a test site to see what its capabilities are regarding a portal and wiki extension.
That said, vbulletin is not completely out of the picture. In the end it only is a cost issue. If enough people are willing to make a donation we can still take that route. I've set up a poll here, where people can submit if they are willing to make a donation, or alternatively choose to go with whatever forums software we decide upon.
To my knowledge phpBB has massive support and a massive amount of add-ons and extensions, it is "probably" the easiest to go with and customize.
I tried smf once and it was immediately (visually) way too overloaded and confusing looking.
Although I personally I create generally everything from scratch myself, including forums, I don't have "all" the fancy features but I have mostly what I need
If going from scratch is not realistic, I guess I would suggest phpBB, although there are other alternatives I cannot recall the name of, off the top of my head. I tried quite a few locally using WAMP but ended up opting for a from scratch job to get the most out of my bandwidth and have good website intergration etc.
I am sure what ever you guys decide will be great. I mean it does not need to be fancy right? Just clean, functional and easy to read (seen as most of what were doing here is well reading and writing lol).
I must say I really love the idea of a user-contributed wiki. Actually, the repository may be implemented through a wiki, using templates and links to user websites for more information.
I also agree having some sort of advanced search a la Google would be great. Anyone thought about categorization? Using word tags for articles could improve searching.
Just my 2 cents
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