Plans for the future of Gamingforce
 

I've been throwing this idea around for a little while, but what finally triggered this post was a PM from Miles:

fuck the iphone

Anyway, note that our server is now host to SD as well, with the owner chipping in on the monthly fees. The problem now is disk space, and there is an obvious solution to that. I"m planning to separate the Concert Hall and My Stuff forums from gamingforce.org (which is our dedicated server) and move them back to gamingforce.com (on a shared hosting plan), along with all their attachments. Obviously we can't re-use our vBulletin license for that (unless someone else coughs up the cash for another one) so the .com side will most probably be converted to SMF.

Meanwhile, GGMD will be moved to the Entertainment category. Behind the Music could be made a subforum.

The move will most probably happen around the end of the month. All current members should retain their accounts on both domains. After that, registrations will be separate.

Any idea on how much disk space this move will free up?

About 15 gigs, I think.

Oh sure, but when Pang suggested it he got infracted. :(

If the disk space makes a big difference than I support this. Are there any plans to delete old (non-my stuff, non-concert hall) attachments for extra space as well, or will that be unnecessary?

Well there's a difference between suggesting it because oh shit and suggesting it because fuck you

But we're pretty much going to move the entire attachment directory over so once that's done, we'll wipe all attachments on this side (due to the implementation it's impossible to tell which attachments are from which forum -- they're stored in a directory structure depending on user ID). Plus, we'll be transitioning to vBulletin 3.8 someday so we could be nuking a good number of our modifications and plugins in addition to that.

By the way, Pang will be moderating .com as well. Just so you know.

I guess it's the end of an era. Will we be attempting to maintain the "brand", so to speak, or will the split board be free to develop its own direction?

I support this course of action, as it will eliminate a major source of inter-forum clashes by splitting up the snooty elitists on one side, and the obnoxious elitists on the other :tpg:

Simple Machines Forums? Man. I used to post on VGmp3.org a number of years back, so that'll be fun to use again.

Anyway, I tried posting an announcement in My Stuff but I'm getting database errors trying to view it. I accidentally posted a duplicate, at that.

Hmmm... This seems like an ok idea, but it seems to me that it would be a fairly temporary solution. What happens when we run out of space again? Not to mention the question of how will new members know which site to join - presuming they even realize we are in two parts...

Something in the back of my head is telling me that this isn't a good idea, but maybe it's just Pang moderating those he told to **** off.

Dice roller broke announcements too apparently. Just fixed the hell out of that shit.

(also toasted the duplicate announcement)

So will the split off CH and My Stuff just have Basil, waferballs, ^_^ and Bucky (And apparently Pang) moderating it or will we all be moderators there too? I only ask because the chances of me ever logging on to a board made up entirely of My Stuff and CH are pretty slim.

Also, I agree that this might well completely nerf our membership intake as people by and large only join for those two bits any more and just happen to find an awesome community in the process. Is there not some way you can move the attachment hosting to .com and leave the actual discussion bits here?

While the sharing forums probably do comprise the bulk of our new membership I don't think they're members we necessarily want. When's the last time a great newbie came along and their first 20 posts were requests? Just leave front page links on each forum to the other, perhaps where the IRC notice is now:

Gamingforce Filez! Click here to pirate some sheet music!

Gamingforce Discussion! Click here to actually talk to human beings!

Honestly I don't know why attachments weren't disabled ages ago. Does anyone outside CH even use them? There are dozens of rapidshare clones out there for anyone too lazy to just get their own hosting.

(Oh, it turned out I had 3 total attachments adding up to less than 1MB; I deleted them hope it helps)

Not necessarily. The type of people who join to request stuff in the Concert Hall are not usually the type who visit other forums and interact. Heck, I think I heard that refrain repeated quite often in the past year or so.

I don't know much about the sharing forums, not having found much reason to browse the boards as of late. However, if My Stuff is such a membership draw, then we may as well keep it here, since it's got more to do with the board's history (of FTP runners).

Of course, this proposal will most probably completely sever the Concert Hall for good. But hey, at least it will finally be free to develop in a direction that may turn it into a viable community. Heck, they probably don't even need to use "Gamingforce" in their name or the .com domain.

As and when we split off CH, can we change the banner to something Kristallnacht themed?

There are ways to host attachments externally.

Remote server image/attachment database hack - vBulletin.org Forum

I didn't realize that sheet music was still being hosted as attachments. I thought the decision was made to move all of that off-site a long time ago. Also, the .com site is a separate site now? Is it commercially hosted, or piggybacked off of someone else's webspace?

We recovered the .com a while back, Secret. bobo let it expire, and luckily Kaleb.G was able to snag the domain in an auction.

According to the WHOIS information, Kaleb is currently hosting it on his Dreamhost account.

I have a question Blah. What are the current specs of the dedicated server? I'm curious about this, since 15 GB doesn't sound like much today, but it is obviously substantial enough to make you consider splitting the forums.

I got Kaleb to point the DNS to my Dreamhost account, so gamingforce.com is now hosted on the same location as the former Serious Business.

Our dedicated server has 50GB of space. 22GB is taken up by VGMdb at the moment.

Yeah. And we could upgrade to more space but the host charges an additional 30 dollars a month for that and I want to milk the 50GB for as long as possible. Thanks to the economy I don't even get my end of the year bonus anymore which before would almost pay for a year of hosting so my budget is tighter than before.

If we're to make sacrifices it was always the GFF attachments that would go first. Doing cleanups of old attachments could only help for so long.

I don't know a lot about all this madness, but I think it's a wise idea to separate.

Meanwhile, I am also confused about the attachments. There are so many places you can upload them - why host them on here, especially when it is not the most cost-effective way to do it.

Since when is anyone in the Concert Hall thoughtful for anyone else except their own?

Well, the way I look at it, it's not a matter of thoughtfulness, but more "hey, that option is there. Why not use it? It's easier than going to another site to upload my shit!"

I don't think most people consider the cost and/or the burden when they're uploading. If the option is there, it must not be a major concern! (not that I subscribe to this notion, but I have to say I wouldn't think too much about it myself if I was on another site which gave the option)

And if you need me to move it again for new shared hosting, just let me know via e-mail or PM.

I'm with Pang. Who really uses attachments? I've used it like maybe once for the .rar containing the gff banner psd files but that is actually related to GFF and useful. People attaching pictures of their desktop, sheet music, etc. should kindly fuck off to their nearest free and easy imagehost/filehost. Clear the attachments and disable the feature. Really, convince me why we should keep the feature if its just going to cause us pain.

I'm not completely enthused on moving Concert Hall and My Stuff from the forums for this reason. I'm not sure what would be a better use of the .com but I don't think its this.

How about the reason that a city's worth of people who grew up wearing helmets their entire childhood are now posting in one sub-section?

Well, nobody's questioning that we should be rid of these people; it's more that there's a sense of guilt for passing the infection to what was once a noble URL. GF.com should perhaps be used for a better and more useful purpose, like serving as a mirror for furry webcomics or something

Jesus Christ Pang. These people we're trying to get rid of are the goddamned small pox blankets of the internet. GFF is Fort Pitt. Just throw them out and let them smash against the fortifications while we laugh at how awful they are.