Plans for the future of Gamingforce

Just a note to Blah and anyone else. I'm transferring gamingforce.com from Answerable to NameSecure (my regular domain registrar). This should occur over the next couple weeks. I don't anticipate much downtime, but I'm sure there will be some. I mainly wanted to do this now before increased activity comes to gamingforce.com.

FELIPE NO

I'd like to second the sentiment expressed by others before (Rychord and Dbin IIRC). I understand if the trading forums have to go for space and legal reasons, but I'd love the discussion part of the Concert Hall (CH main board and Listening Room subforum) to be kept around.

Even though it hasn't been very active these days, it's been a part of GFF for a while, it does have quite a few well-established "crossover" members (Dull, Zergrinch, Nahual, Hito/Iago, wvlfpvp come to mind) and it's not really doing any harm. It has had some relatively successful community events, like the yearly composing competitions or the collective arrangement projects. Plus I always thought it was kind of cool for a general purpose board like ours to have a section to discuss the playing of an instrument, classical music and related topics.

Besides, it seems to me that most (not all) Musician's Library regulars don't care much for those discussion forums (much like they don't care about the rest of GFF), whereas several "actual" GFF members have already spoken up to keep them around. This ought to say something.

How ya doing, buddy?

Needless to say, we have to differentiate between the Concert Hall per se and the Musician's Library. While the latter can be compared to My Stuff, the Concert Hall provides a lot of room for discussion, which a forum should be about anyway. And don't give me that "wow but wait a second, we're a VIDEOGAMES forum" shit - we even discuss fucking food issues.

So I guess the best idea is to keep the Concert Hall and move Musician's Library (which is taking a lot of server space) to some other place. Even those of you who seem to have some kind of personal problems with the Concert Hall and its members should realize that this is an acceptable compromise.

Of course I won't get many props for this idea since it seems to be more up-to-date to propose the total annihilation of the Concert Hall, but maybe the more mature of you can tell me what you think about it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Just want to point out that getting sheet music is not as easy as it sounds. In many case even if you want it there is no way you can obtain it. The musician library has done a great job in the exchange of rare items. And people would reach out help by going to the local library to obtain item for scanning. It has great impact on musician around the world.

And I do think if CH is not undercovered anymore, it won't survive long.

However if the split is going to happen, i have no objection and no right to object.

After all i totally believe who pays for it should do whatever they think appropriate.

And yes reading this thread gives people the impression that most poeple in GFF hates CH people, even if that's not the case.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Pangalin

You can't draw conclusions from that crap; LeHah hates everybody.

Conclusion: LeHah treats everyone equally.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The two main issues are space and legality, right?

As for space--there are other sites that offer sheet music, so why not let them look for it that way? Google can be your friend.

Legal issues--Most classical sheet music published before 1923 is in the public domain, so a nice Google search for the piece you want may actually lead you a free download.

Or, have a thread that provides a list of OTHER sheet music sites. There's a good chance that music can be found.

Just separate GFF from the sheet music that way.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Leknaat

Legal issues--Most classical sheet music published before 1923 is in the public domain, so a nice Google search for the piece you want may actually lead you a free download.

From what I've seen a vast quantity of sheet music that is shared here is not actually in the public domain. Or there are a number of other copyright restrictions in play, such as publishers who transcribe the music, make a few minor edits, and then receive updated copyright control over that specific copy of said piece for another 75 years.
Sure Bach has been dead for about 250 years now, but good luck finding a scannable/scanned copy of his music published before 1923.

This whole matter of legal problems is a steaming load of dung, and is quite clearly a trumped up argument to whip up as much support as possible, for fear that the "community differences" and "out of space" arguments wouldn't be enough to convince people to go along with the plan to separate the forums.

We've had, what, one copyright problem throughout the entire lifetime of this forum, and that was for a Superman soundtrack?
We've even had Alistair Hinton come on to these forums for a while, harassing various members to stop posting sheets that his publishing company has put out; and yet here we are probably two years since without the slightest hint of legal action. Observing his zealous behavior, I would figure that if anyone would file a DMCA notice against GFF for sheet music sharing, it would be him.

I find it surprising that either so many of you are so stupid to think that there really is a looming legal danger, or are so cynical as to think that you must masquerade as one in hopes of convincing others to believe it.
The only thing that has changed that precipitated the need for this discussion is the shrinking amount of usable server space, which is very easily resolved and I believe would be an acceptable solution to all parties concerned.

Nonetheless, I don't really intend to influence any decisions that would be made regarding this matter. I just plead that those doing so would cut the crap.

How ya doing, buddy?

So if I present supplementary arguments for moving the forums, I'm just spewing crap?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Bigblah

So if I present supplementary arguments for moving the forums, I'm just spewing crap?

Only when said supplementary arguments are embarrassingly weak and really without precedent.

FELIPE NO

packrat, My Stuff and The Musician's Library are liabilities to the server we all reside on. They have to be moved. I can see The Concert Hall staying as long as it stays clean.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I don't think there's any need to further justify things to a person who thinks a DMCA notice from the service provider is a trivial matter.

It's just one notice! No sweat!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

It just seems silly to hear people talking about the Musician's Library like a menacing cloud of legal doom.
I can understand My Stuff being a potent DMCA liability. The content of that section has often been popular and recent media, which is rigorously policed.
The Musician's Library, on the other hand, does not have nearly as much liability as most appear to be communicating here.

But I suppose I might have mistakenly (though quite easily) misconstrued their chatter to be exclusive to the Concert Hall considering that's generally been the focus of the last 7 pages.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

In any case, I've read through the posts supporting the case for Concert Hall to stay put. That's fine with me. If the Music Library is preserved as an external link visible only to members in Concert Hall people might not even notice it's moved.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Point 1 of moving The Musician's Library
* it takes most of the forum attachments off of GFF and frees up space that the server needs

Point 2 of moving The Musician's Library
* it removes one obvious (albeit minor compared to My Stuff) liability to the server

Point 1 + Point 2 = Problem solved!

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

Point 1 of moving The Musician's Library
* it takes most of the forum attachments off of GFF and frees up space that the server needs

If you can't see (or are ignoring) this part of the issue, then you are a fucking idiot.



Can I request that any user who is arguing for it staying while ignoring this issue have their name changed to "Fucking Idiot?"

How ya doing, buddy?

I know I'm anything but a regular (though a few faces may remember me from all 'dem years ago). But I've been mulling it over and I have to say moving Musician's Library and My Stuff is a good decision, given the situation, as long as those boards somehow remain sheltered. Hope someone has a specific workable idea, though, because the devil is in the details.

The irony of shunting aside the filesharing that used to be GFF's main attraction (Gamingforce Audio, anyone?) is a little thick. But, as has been mentioned before, it really isn't much of a draw anymore.

Originally Posted by Bigblah

In any case, I've read through the posts supporting the case for Concert Hall to stay put. That's fine with me. If the Music Library is preserved as an external link visible only to members in Concert Hall people might not even notice it's moved.

One problem with linking so subtly like this is that you may get a DMCA notice for Gamingforce.org anyway. If the CH/MS regulars don't notice the domain change, who's to say a DMCA-filer will notice the .org -> .com transition after clicking on that board.

However, the primary issue *is* diskspace. I understand if the possibility of an inept legal team is a little more than you care to worry about.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Kaleb.G

Just a note to Blah and anyone else. I'm transferring gamingforce.com from Answerable to NameSecure (my regular domain registrar). This should occur over the next couple weeks. I don't anticipate much downtime, but I'm sure there will be some. I mainly wanted to do this now before increased activity comes to gamingforce.com.

The transition is now complete.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Basil

There's also the option of copying posts/threads from the non-MS/CH areas of Gamingforce and integrate that into the split, though would that really work in the long run, seeing as we're still a fairly active community? Would those higher powers-that-be wonder why there's two "Gamingforce" message boards, with one of them appearing inactive (on the outside)?

Don't know enough about the backend of the forum operation, but if we were to go this way, would it be possible / reasonable to set up some kind of automated diff -> merge operation that ran at a regular interval. Maybe once a day or half-day? Would then seem externally like there was regular participation. Seems like there has already been some opposition to this route, however.

Originally Posted by Moguta

One problem with linking so subtly like this is that you may get a DMCA notice for Gamingforce.org anyway. If the CH/MS regulars don't notice the domain change, who's to say a DMCA-filer will notice the .org -> .com transition after clicking on that board.

One option here, that I've seen on several corporate sites trying to maintain family friendliness, is too announce with an interrupt page that the viewer is leaving X site and heading to a site where the content is not controlled by them. "Do you still want to go?" This would at least fix the problem of unobservant industry folks.

If it went that way, perhaps the other end could then be a very small operation liberally laden with "No robots" /robots.txt files so that it wouldn't get listed? On the crazy side, could even do a rotating name or something similar so that bookmarks wouldn't work.

Anyhow, generally agree the filesharing does need to at least be well hidden, even if it was a good member draw.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Araes

One option here, that I've seen on several corporate sites trying to maintain family friendliness, is too announce with an interrupt page that the viewer is leaving X site and heading to a site where the content is not controlled by them. "Do you still want to go?" This would at least fix the problem of unobservant industry folks.

That's a nice simple idea.
It would also help people understand why they have to log in again to access those boards. That is, unless member & session data can be shared across websites' forums. I wonder, can that be done?

Originally Posted by Araes

If it went that way, perhaps the other end could then be a very small operation liberally laden with "No robots" /robots.txt files so that it wouldn't get listed? On the crazy side, could even do a rotating name or something similar so that bookmarks wouldn't work.

Anyhow, generally agree the filesharing does need to at least be well hidden, even if it was a good member draw.

Indeed. Another easy thing to do is have the Gamingforce.com root display nothing but a blank or placeholder page. Make it so that someone has to have access to a Gamingforce.org account to be able to see any way to access the .com boards (unless they know the exact URL of the .com forums obviously), which leaves them just as protected as they are now. And even if someone knows the exact .com board URL, it could display just a login page for guests, not a forum listing or anything.

But, hell. Those who are actually working on it could already be way ahead of our thought-play.

Jam it back in, in the dark.