Topic: What would you like to see in a VGMaps.com makeover?

[JonLeung]

I'd comment more on what has been said but I'm already at work...  



Some of these possibilities sound like they'd need integration with the forums.  Even something as simple as having "Favourites".  This will certainly be interesting.  I'm sure TerraEsperZ will freak out at the thought of another forum migration...  



Are there any current columns we don't need?  Do we still want two columns for the area name and sub-area name, for example?  For many games, it works well.  For others, not so much.

[Maxim]

Drop: file type, ripped/original/whatever column. (Maybe drop all non-ripped maps?) Type can be indicated graphically, perhaps - icons for flash and PDF, and no icon for regular images. Merge the two area columns into one overall description and stick with a decent naming convention.



It might be interesting to offer a "view all maps for one game on one page" option, and/or a "download all maps for one game as a ZIP" option, both similar to viewing image attachments in GMail. Both could be implemented fairly easily - the ZIP can be uncompressed to avoid using server-side CPU and generated dynamically.

[TerraEsperZ]

Forum migrations are alright, as long as the threads/members don't disappear into the night, which is what happened, what, twice?



Which I shouldn't complain about, since I wasn't involved in the actual process. It's just that we lost not only many interesting threads, but also many regular posters who didn't bother to join up again, and that sucked.



As for suggestions, I'll have to get back to you on that. So far, the only thing that really annoys me is not knowing which maps are new, and which have been updated. Personally, I'd like to have a column indicating the date when a map was added/updated.



---

Current projects: Ristar-The Shooting Star (Gen), Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES), Bucky O'Hare (NES)

[JonLeung]

Well, as someone mentioned before, the timestamp is likely a piece of cake once a database system is set up.  The time would be taken off the file itself.  I imagine that image area and filesize could also be automatically derived.



I was thinking about having more information about each game itself.  Things like alternate names (like other regions' names) and links to the other versions.  That would be handy if someone wanted to quickly look over all the different Prince Of Persia games...or Alien Syndrome or Xevious, etc.

[Maxim]

Forum migration is easy, so long as you have someone capable of a little data massaging. Sticking with popular/well-supported forums helps too because there's likely to be migration scripts out there already. Migrating users can be more tricky, more so if their passwords are securely stored.



Certainly, it'd be nice to be able to distinguish new from updated, especially on the front page.

[Maxim]

File timestamps can be troublesome. On smspower.org's server, on a couple of occasions everything's been migrated to a new disk and all timestamps were reset to the time they were copied. It's easy enough to avoid but I can't control the host's every action.



While image libraries exist to get that information from files, they can be problematic on large images. It may be necessary to have a fallback to manually entered data.

[Revned]

I wouldn't recommend using the actual file's timestamps, as something like renaming them might end up changing the date. Instead just have a field in the database that reflects the last time Jon updated the map's metadata.

[Will]

I reckon the easy start you'd best make is to erase certain topics in the forum. For example "The Addams Family (SMS)" which considering the Addams Family map is readily there, is doing nothing and is useless. I won't mind if you get rid of it, after all I brought it up. But this is the question. Should we wipe out any Map requests and Map progresses, because that requested or progressing map is finished and put up on the site? There are many fulfilled requests and progresses but the forum could contain useful information like tips and guides hidden.

[DarkWolf]

Store timestamps in the database.  IMO, also avoid the MySQL "timestamp" data type and have the script control the updating of the value.



Why do you want to erase legitimate forum topics?  They don't take up much space and it really doesn't hurt to have a record of things.  At some point a large forum might benefit from the archival of older posts, but I don't think this forum has even come close to that point.

[JonLeung]

Will, I know nothing about how such a process would work, but I'm pretty sure that if we do another forum migration, we would consider automated processes, in which case deleting a few obsolete topics isn't going to make much of difference.



I could do a cleanup of topics and/or maps one day, but that could also be entirely independent of a site conversion.



(And for the record, me and bustin98 had nothing to do with the failed forum migrations in the past.)

[Maxim]

I thought threads were moved from "maps in progress" to "map gab" when complete.

[JonLeung]

Well, that's all in the past, bustin98 wasn't in charge at the time, and I didn't know better.  >_>  One of those was an all-around bizarre situation, anyway.  We won't get into all that...



I was thinking about making some mock-ups of how I'd like to see the site, before we go shopping around for some code we can use, or whatever.  Of course, if I go that far, it'd be hard to enforce the "no promises" I made at the beginning...maybe it's already too late?

[Revned]

I would start by planning out your data model first. How do you want maps/games to be presented? What details should they have? How will different pages be connected? How will users work? Don't keep quiet, either. Post your ideas here and we can offer feedback.

[JonLeung]

I haven't forgotten this topic.



It will take some time to juggle some ideas and then do a mock-up...

[Maxim]

Mockups mean very little; presenting the data is the easy part. Getting some framework for inputting and presenting the data is the hard part.