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Author Topic: Whither Carcassonne Central?  (Read 14770 times)
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mjharper
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« on: November 17, 2010, 02:52:57 am »

I'm posting this in the main forum, rather than the one for admins, because I think everyone should be able to contribute.

Okay, in at the deep end.

As most of you know, the forum was down for an extended period of time at the start of the year. Gantry was (understandably and regrettably) not about, and I have no idea about the technical side of things here. So the forum lay broken for several months. Gantry came back and fixed it, and then the plan was that I should take over the whole site, technical stuff and all, to prevent that from happening again.

The problem is that I still have no idea about the technical side, nor am I likely to ever be in a position to reliably 'look after' the site as it needs. I simply don't have the energy to learn everything I need to—and what energy I have for Carcassonne (it waxes and wanes, as I'm sure you've noticed) really needs to go into the CAR.

So as far as I can see, we have three choices at the moment:

A) sit and wait for the next crash;
B) get someone else involved to run the technical side;
C) move somewhere else.

Like it or not, we've really been doing A) up to now. B) is fine—are there any takers? But I'd like to kick around C) for a while.

I've recently spent a bit of time on Wikia, with sites like those for Dragon Age, The Witcher or Mass Effect (hmm, guess what I've been playing recently). The sites work. They look modern. They're wikis. And one could easily be set up for Carcassonne.

Quite apart from the emotional attachment people have to CarcassonneCentral, there would be quite a lot of work involved in moving. We have a great deal of content here, and most of it should be taken with us. But staying would also involve a lot of work, just of a different kind. And because Wikia is a wiki, the work could be more evenly distributed.

I don't want this to come across like a prophet of doom, or a rat leaving a sinking ship. But we really do need to consider the future seriously, and prepare for it properly.

Thoughts?
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Novelty
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« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2010, 07:57:08 am »

This is a simples machines forum.  It's not that difficult to configure and setup.  As far as I can see, Gantry hasn't done major upgrades to the forums, so most of it should still be default.

Now the rest (i.e. non-forums) part of the site is a different story.  That's the part I have access to and I get lost there sometimes.

We could move if that's the majority decision.
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CKorfmann
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« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2010, 11:26:11 am »

I have no preference and am not sure of my opinion.  Since I'm not a web guy, I can contribute little to nothing.  I'll be happy to go along with the majority of informed opinions.  Has anyone heard from Gantry lately?
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Whaleyland
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« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2010, 12:15:11 pm »

I personally feel that the forum needs to stay in place since it seems to be the chief reason many people come to the site. However, the rest of the site could certainly use a reboot. A wiki wouldn't be a bad idea, and if there were a page for each fan expansion, then the linked discussion pages could be used to suggest edits to the rules and whatnot. My fear is that the wiki site will never be completed. This is from personal experience. I have a very incomplete Catan wikia I made over three years ago, and it is just sitting there with like 52 mostly red-linked pages. I have another one for Tyco's Crash Dummies I began about a month ago and that too I have done little with. Wikias actually require quite a lot of knowledge of  CSS coding to make them look decent (check out Wookiepedia, for instance) and I have never been great at that.

I think that the primary purpose of this site is what has been lost. When I first came here, it was because Matt was working on the greatest Carcassonne rules document ever! It was a living document that continued to be expanded as Hans im Glück released expansions and Matt contacted them for FAQs. Currently, it is the ONLY source for many official rulings since neither HiG nor Rio Grande seems to like releasing FAQs. Yet the oddest thing is, I threw away my CAR about two years ago because it wasn't getting updated enough with all the new expansions, and Matt has yet to release an update since Wheel of Fortune came out. I think the rules, the FAQs, and the discussion between them is still the chief priority of the site and the primary purpose for the forums. A wiki could be fun, but I can tell you right now that I don't have much time to help set it up or contribute. If someone is really dedicated to it, it may turn out all right, but it may not.

I'll go with the majority on this one, but let's not toss the current website until a wiki or different site is almost completely done. "Under construction" sites have a tendency to stay that way.
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« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2010, 10:11:11 pm »

If you want, I can help!

I have an account since 2006 (5 years) at BlueHost.com with unlimited GB hosting space and unlimited GB file transfer. I do not expect to close my server because I'm hosting many other sites (Blog, Content Management, eCommerce, and so on...). So, i can dedicate all space needed for files and web site (Content management or Wiki, or... anything else)... I love Carcassonne and Carc Central Community, and i offer it for free (anyway, because one more web site doesn't cost anything more... so... Wink...)

I can make wiki like this http://www.simplescripts.com/vault/img/screenshot_MediaWiki_screenshot1.jpg
Or
I can build a Content Management, Simple Machines Forum (import database), etc.
I can do almost anything

AND we can transfer Carcassonnecentral's domain (www.carcassonnecentral.com)


So, i can help if Carc Central Community accept it!
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« Reply #5 on: November 18, 2010, 12:42:05 am »

A few things from my perspective.

(A) I really like the forums and that is 95% of the reason I come back to the site.

(B) I quite like the Simple Machine Forums software and would vote that it is kept. It is easy peasy and I can volunteer to help out if need be. I currently run two other SMF based forums and the software is quite easy to administer. (Not sure about some of the customizations though).

(C) I do not know about the hosting. I use GoDaddy for my stuff as I wanted something commercial and reliable. I do not do anything very technical at all so I wanted a hosting site that could do that on my behalf.

There is my Canadian 2cents. Smiley
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« Reply #6 on: November 20, 2010, 08:12:23 pm »

*steps out of the shadows*

I know I haven't been around for a very long time, but I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to keep this place going. I have over a decade of web development experience, and half a decade of running web servers. Granted, my prolonged absence around here works against me, so I would not feel slighted if you decided to rely on others.

Like Whaleyland, I've had poor experience with wikis in the past. People say they will all pitch in, but it either never happens or too many people pitch in and moderating the whole thing is a nightmare. If the site is lacking something, I'd be happy to build it for you.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2010, 08:14:30 pm by Scott » Logged

Tobias
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« Reply #7 on: November 21, 2010, 05:53:19 pm »

I am no tech guy and have no idea what is needed.

The Central is about a hobby project, no matter if you "only" are a player, or if you want to make your own expansions.

Well, bleh, I do not know what to say. I will be around.
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« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2010, 11:00:08 pm »

So what do you guys need help with? Upgrading the site? Within 2 seconds I was able to figure out what cms and version the site is running by going to your backend admin. CC is built on the Joomla platform and its in the 1.0 version which is way out of date and no longer supported. So its ripe for the hacking! Joomla.org put the version out of support over a year ago. 1.5 is the current version. So the main site needs an upgrade to Joomla 1.5 asap to keep it from being hacked. The migration isn't to hard, I've done these before. I'm a Joomla professional and work on these sites every day of the week. Its one of the best cms platforms out there. The board is decent too, probably needs some security patches too. So why not just update joomla 1.5 to prevent the main site from "crashing" (in another words hackers trashing it).

And not to start a hosting pissing match, Blue Host has a reputation for lax security. I wouldn't put a client site on their hosting. All my dev buddies have them on their black list of hosts. Go Daddy is bargain basement hosting. Not to mention their ads are degrading to women... They aren't the right hosting company for a Joomla powered site, you'll have to hop through hoops to get a Joomla site running. Good luck getting a restore from either one of them. Also CC should be running full nightly backups offsite. Amazon s3 storage is pocket change per month.

At any rate PM me and I can give you some more details. Upgrading the site shouldn't be a huge deal as it can be put into a dev environmental first! With the right crew it can be done in in a weekend as the main site doesn't have tons of pages. Like I said I work with Joomla all day long and its the perfect platform to run the site on.
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« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2010, 11:51:22 am »

Any news or direction on this? Just curious.
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« Reply #10 on: December 13, 2010, 05:15:29 am »

It would be a shame to see everything here slowly disappear due to technical issues.    Maintaining the CAR for me is the most critical part of the site; though the rest of the forums are great and I do enjoy reading through them as well as making up some of the variations.

It is important though to make everything work smoothly, I myself have struggled to get a post up for a while and it is nice have things back again.  With something a little more reliable you will see an increase in traffic again.

A wiki would be good for the overall CAR along with a unified pdf download.  I am however not technical when it comes to writing or maintaining site so would have to bow to the wisdom of others.
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Gantry
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« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2011, 11:28:57 am »

Hi all,

I am back.

As you all know my wife had been battling cancer, and throughout late summer and fall I had been taking care of her full time.  A new tumor was discovered in early November. She had surgery in late November but a few days after the surgery she passed. As you can imagine, for the last month I have preoccupied with the estate matters. Since I have not worked full time in close to 2 years, you can also well imagine the large to-do list I have waiting for me as I start back full time today.

My bookkeeper is here with me now trying to get some business books caught up, so I'll have to continue this discussion at a later time. But suffice to say I will be available to maintain it now regularly until such time as a good new home is found for the site and its contents.

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« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2011, 01:36:57 pm »

Gantry:

My deepest and most heartfelt condolences. Sending prayer and thoughts of healing your way.

Take care,
Matt
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Novelty
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« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2011, 03:37:58 pm »

Gantry,

My regrets and condolences as well.
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CKorfmann
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« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2011, 10:26:50 pm »

So sorry for your loss my friend.
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