What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Julius » 19 Nov 2017, 08:33

All that takes a lot of time and effort... we/I have certainty played with the idea of a Podcast etc., but the truth is that it isn't as easy as sitting down an hour and doing a quick recording, but takes a lot of extra time for preparation and post production. Throwing (likely non-existing) money at the problem is also not helpful, as all the current occasional contributors seem to have a income that they are unlikely to exchange for uncertain donations (and not enough free time for it to be worth to do it as a second job).

Truth is that we need to find a way to get more contributions from this community and while there certainly is and has been interest in doing guest posts on the Blog, it seems like the effort involved and the not exactly strait forward procedure make this a rare event.
User avatar
Julius
Community Moderator
 
Posts: 3297
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 14:02

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Julius » 28 Jan 2018, 18:39

Two related polls:
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=7781 (preferred chat systems)
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=7780 (forum software)

Too lazy to make another poll right now, but what kind of integrations to external services would you find really useful? Discourse forums for example offer quite good Github and Patreon support (and actually Blogger, which might be used to revive our Freegamer blog a bit). There are also bridges to external chat systems like Slack. Furthermore, which external authentication systems would you like to have? For example some systems allow logging in with your Steam account etc. (Edit: I am fully aware of the close source nature of these services... but convenience often wins and if it helps getting more people involved with FOSS game dev I consider it a net win.)
User avatar
Julius
Community Moderator
 
Posts: 3297
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 14:02

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Lyberta » 29 Jan 2018, 05:12

Deleted.
Last edited by Lyberta on 01 Oct 2021, 03:52, edited 1 time in total.
Lyberta
 
Posts: 765
Joined: 19 Jun 2013, 10:45

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Julius » 29 Jan 2018, 09:44

Github certainly does, even if I personally would prefer a more open platform like Gitlab.
User avatar
Julius
Community Moderator
 
Posts: 3297
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 14:02

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Wuzzy » 20 Jun 2018, 12:00

How about reviving the blog?

At least some minimum operation would help, like quick mentions of major game releases.
Like Flare / Empyrean Campaign in April 2018.
User avatar
Wuzzy
 
Posts: 989
Joined: 28 May 2012, 23:13

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Julius » 20 Jun 2018, 13:32

Highly unlikely as we tried several times to get new contributors and the old ones are not motivated to post.
My plan is to get a Pleroma instance running soon though, which would allow federated microblogging. We could then aggregate a few good microblogs into one official news feed.

With nice mobile clients that lower the barrier to posting significantly, I am also sure we will see some more contributions again.

Edit: While Pleroma is really nice and light-weight (if you want to set up your own federated channel have a look at it, runs nicely on a cheap VPS or even a RasberryPI in your attic), I decided to set up a HubZilla instance instead as it is easier to administer and can run alongside other services on my PHP host easily. The address is https://social.freegamedev.net
As HubZilla can federate with Pleroma easily, we might set up a Pleroma instance at a later point in time anyways.

The adress for the blog is https://social.freegamedev.net/channel/freegamer (can be made to autopost to other outlets, such as the original blog)
And the discussion group is: https://social.freegamedev.net/channel/freegamedev
User avatar
Julius
Community Moderator
 
Posts: 3297
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 14:02

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Julius » 09 Dec 2018, 18:53

Had some time to conceptualize and start prototyping a possible way forward:
1. Move community or hosted forums (really up to them if they want to move) over to the new https://community.freegamedev.net (Flarum Beta8 forums)
2. Link community user-database to XMPP server, every user will have an account username@xmpp.freegamedev.net (Edit: works, currently linked to the Hubzilla instance)
2.1. Via XMPP we link to the Freenode IRC (biboumi) and for IRC users there will be a Bitlebee IRC bridge to connect to the XMPP MUCs (Edit: I'll test another way for IRC clients to join XMPP MUCs)
2.2. Offer web-based group-chat via conversejs (Edit: https://chat.freegamedev.net/), maybe also Movim.
2.3. Link XMPP MUCs to other communication channels such as the new Discord chat and maybe the Steam group via Matterbridge
3. Offer a group collaboration space for hosted projects (will explain about it more later, but the prototype is very promising and federates as well :) ) (Edit: https://groups.freegamedev.net log in with your Mattermost account)
3.1. will probably have stuff like a kanban board, Etherpads, survey-polls, groups chat conferences and some limited file sharing with group members
4. Maybe focus with the existing social.freegamedev.net Hubzilla more towards the Planets and for hosting groups pages (with wiki, web-showcase, events and maybe a donation shop).
4.1. This will also allow to make nicely federated web-expos and game-making competitions
4.2. individual accounts for the fediverse might be moved elsewhere (see point 3 above, or maybe a separate Hubzilla/Osada instance?). (Edit: evaluating Friendica, but not so happy with it so far)
5. Additional hosted services such as weblatePootle? etc. and 3. a small git repo with gitea.
6. A Kanban based group collaboration tool that links to external source-code repositories, see https://kanboard.freegamedev.net (Edit: need to fix user accounts)
7. A Mumble voice chat server?

Edit: Yeah, takes much longer than expected, but I had to reorganize my server and are very busy at work... but it is getting there. Most of the above works already in prototype stage or was working until I broke it (sorry for those using the biboumi and bitlebee services already).
User avatar
Julius
Community Moderator
 
Posts: 3297
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 14:02

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Arthur » 18 Dec 2018, 21:42

I don't really like the horizontal category bar, seems like rather inefficient use of space.

All the other social stuff honestly mostly goes over my head.
Hey pal, I took an oath for justice! "In happy days or tightest tights..." or something like that.
User avatar
Arthur
 
Posts: 1073
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 00:49

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby charlie » 19 Dec 2018, 14:30

I really like the way that forum looks Julius.

In an ideal world we'd be able to pull in the content of the phpbb forum, but this world is far from ideal.

I can't seem to register for it though? Is it mandatory to register using github?
Free Gamer - it's the dogz
Vexi - web UI platform
User avatar
charlie
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 2131
Joined: 02 Dec 2009, 11:56
Location: Manchester, UK

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby onpon4 » 19 Dec 2018, 16:05

Julius {l Wrote}:1. Move community forums (but not necessarily the hosted ones... really up to them if they want to move) over to the new https://community.freegamedev.net (Flarum Beta8 forums)

Nonononono

That's the worst forum I've ever seen. Seriously. Turn off JavaScript (which I do), and it's 100% useless. Not broken, useless. All you get without JavaScript is a list of topics. No login, no posting, nothing. Even the absolute worst proprietary forum software has at least partial no-JavaScript support.
onpon4
 
Posts: 596
Joined: 13 Mar 2014, 18:38

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Julius » 19 Dec 2018, 17:15

Arthur {l Wrote}:I don't really like the horizontal category bar, seems like rather inefficient use of space.

All the other social stuff honestly mostly goes over my head.


Would you prefer the "tags" view as the default? The way this forum is structured is partially to allow easy use from mobile browsers, so a little bit of compromise is to be expected.

The social stuff.... not sure what you are referring to, but the social.freegamedev.net Hubzilla site it is basically like Twitter, just decentralized and will a lot of additional but optional functionality.
User avatar
Julius
Community Moderator
 
Posts: 3297
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 14:02

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Julius » 20 Dec 2018, 16:14

I split this topic off to here, where the discussion about the issue of FOSS javascript on websites can be discussed:
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=8282


charlie {l Wrote}:I can't seem to register for it though? Is it mandatory to register using github?


Shoudn't work with github either ;) For now I disabled registration as I am waiting for a crucial fix to the Hubzilla login mechanism (for linking them) and and update to a Flarum plugin (for a link menu). Should have probably said that. Of course any external login will be purely optional and not required at all.
User avatar
Julius
Community Moderator
 
Posts: 3297
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 14:02

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Arthur » 22 Dec 2018, 20:44

Julius {l Wrote}:
Arthur {l Wrote}:I don't really like the horizontal category bar, seems like rather inefficient use of space.

All the other social stuff honestly mostly goes over my head.


Would you prefer the "tags" view as the default? The way this forum is structured is partially to allow easy use from mobile browsers, so a little bit of compromise is to be expected.

The social stuff.... not sure what you are referring to, but the social.freegamedev.net Hubzilla site it is basically like Twitter, just decentralized and will a lot of additional but optional functionality.

Definitely prefer the tags view, that's what I expect from a forum. The social stuff is somewhat intriguing but at the same time, it's only as good as its reach (that's what social media is all about isn't it). I don't use social media much myself anyway.
Hey pal, I took an oath for justice! "In happy days or tightest tights..." or something like that.
User avatar
Arthur
 
Posts: 1073
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 00:49

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Julius » 23 Dec 2018, 18:53

Hmm, given the strong opposition to the Flarum boards (yeah, I know the loud minority...), maybe we could see how this cool looking new theme for PhpBB goes:
https://github.com/phpbb/chameleon
https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... &t=2485796
User avatar
Julius
Community Moderator
 
Posts: 3297
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 14:02

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby drummyfish » 23 Dec 2018, 19:09

No JS requirement please. I'd prefer plain HTML without CSS, but I understand people are spoiled. So it can has colors, but let it be minimal and usable with command line browsers.
socialist anarcho-pacifist
Abolish all IP laws. Use CC0. Let's write less retarded software.
http://www.tastyfish.cz
User avatar
drummyfish
 
Posts: 448
Joined: 29 Jul 2018, 20:30
Location: Moravia

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Julius » 23 Dec 2018, 19:39

All these JS haters ;) I guess everyone that actually likes a nice user-interface has long abandoned this forum :D

Anyways, this new phpBB theme seems to use minimal JS, so that might be an option that satisfies all? Can someone else have a closer look and conform this?
User avatar
Julius
Community Moderator
 
Posts: 3297
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 14:02

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Lyberta » 25 Dec 2018, 19:05

Deleted.
Last edited by Lyberta on 01 Oct 2021, 03:52, edited 1 time in total.
Lyberta
 
Posts: 765
Joined: 19 Jun 2013, 10:45

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby Julius » 25 Dec 2018, 20:38

That was a just reference to this severely outdated and by now not very user-friendly forum...
User avatar
Julius
Community Moderator
 
Posts: 3297
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 14:02

Re: What direction should FreeGameDev.net take?

Postby GunChleoc » 01 Feb 2019, 19:28

I think a modern phpBB would be perfectly fine. It's easy to transition to for the user base and it is also more mobile-friendly. I haven't tried using it without JavaScript though.

CSS is actually an important usability feature, because it allows layouting without resorting to tables, which would be bad for screen readers. In order to be accessible, a site should still look fairly decent if you replace/take away the CSS though.
User avatar
GunChleoc
 
Posts: 502
Joined: 20 Sep 2012, 22:45

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest