RE: RFOR: Is LGDC really great?

["Green, Aaron" <JAGREEN@GAPAC.com>]

> > Internet Survival Rule #56: Online polls are about as accurate as a one eyed,
> > drunk archer.
> 
> (Don't you close one eye when you shoot?  Eh - whatever.)
> 
> > - - visibility. How many people are there on the mailing list, compared to the
> >   number of authors and teams/team members on happypenguin? And is
> >   happypenguin a good indicator of how many linux games there are? I'm
> >   working on two and neither of them are on happypenguin and won't be until
> >   I'm good and ready to release demos.
> 
> Yes - but as a snapshot, it shouldn't be a bad estimate...I mean, yes it misses
> people who have yet to announce - but then it includes all the abandoned ones
> too.  It would at least give us an order of magnitude answer for the ratio
> of games writers to LGDC list subscribers.
>  
> > - - content scope. The list description is ambiguous about this "Helping people
> >   new to Linux game programming.", "Generally discussing game development
> >   problems / ideas etc" do not really help define the subjects that are
> >   permitted. For example, yesterday I was having a load of gdk related
> >   problems but I didn't ask for help here...
> 
> No - because you *should* ask those questions on the GDK list.
> 
> But questions that don't relate to particular software (like my keyboard
> question) don't have anywhere else to go.
> 
> >   because the problems were in one
> >   of the game support programs (a texture file editor) rather than in a game
> >   itself. I wasn't at all sure how the list members would react to me asking
> >   questions about texture formats, Imlib and GdkRGB widgets. I doubt I'm the
> >   only person here who has run into a problem but not asked here because I
> >   wasn't sure if it would be taken as too off-topic.
> 
> I don't think a question about GDK would be taken as "off topic" - just
> that you could find better places to get a good answer.
> 
> A question about texture formats would be *exactly* on-topic here.  "Use PNG,
> avoid JPEG", etc.
> 
> >   Perhaps a document
> >   describing in more detail just how far from pure "game developmet" the
> >   subject can get would encourage people to post about such problems.
> 
> I think that has to evolve over time.  I don't think it's good to stifle
> a particular subject area until/unless it becomes a PITA for the readership.
>  
> > - - poor integration with the website. For example, there was no mention of
> >   Steve posting the keyboard issue document on the site (although that's
> >   probably as much my fault as anyone's :/) Important "problem fixes" like
> >   that need to appear on the site and make it plain that they came from the
> >   mailing list - that's the only way to get osme people to join.
> 
> Yes - absolutely.  Milking the mailing list for content for the website
> makes a lot of sense - especially for people who don't want to subscribe
> for some reason.  Also, web site indexing is better than mailing list
> archiving.  Someone looking for information about keyboard lockouts in
> a year from now would stand a better chance of finding it if it's in the
> LGDC site somewhere.
> 
> I don't think you can automate that though - many threads are not suitable
> as news items.
> 
> > Hmm.. I would suggest something closer to Freshmeat. As Steve said, most of
> > freshmeat is useless to a game developer BUT the way they do things - each
> > project has a page where all the details, comments and links to the homepage
> > and files are collected in one place and users can "subscribe" to projects
> > they are interested in - would be a very valuable way to handle developer
> > resources. Of course, this would mean getting authors to actually add their
> > projects to the system, or have someone do it for them, but from then on
> > it would be a "developer's freshmeat": and with the subscribe option
> > developers with little time on their hands could flag specific libraries or> 
> > tools they are interested in and only hear about updates to them.
> 
> It's not just the volume of projects on Freshmeat - but the lack of filtering
> of the updates.  Many changes to (say) GCC are of no interest to developers -
> but if something major were to be added that *does* matter, we'd like to be
> alerted to it.
>  
> > This will mean that all submissions would need to be moderated - we don't
> > want to have games themselves listed, just the tools and librarires needed to
> > make them.
> 
> Yes.  Unless it's something like Quake's recent OpenSourcing where we might
> want to go and rummage through the sources looking for (ehem) "inspiration".
> 
> HappyPenguin is the right place for game announcements.  You could always
> put HappyPenguin's headlines into a side-bar so we don't have to look at
> it until something interesting comes up.
>  
> > > * I think it would be useful to have (optional) "verbose" descriptions
> > > for news items and resources - just have a look at these CrystalSpace
> > > announcements :)
> > 
> > This is a bit redundant IMO - the short description can link to the full text
> > anyway, which avoids the text storage/maintenance problem anyway.
> 
> Agreed.
>  
> 
What would be really nice is a slashcode type setup for news.  I love a site that
has new news everytime I visit.  Also, I know there are 10,000 forums out there 
but one here wouldn't hurt.  I mean, IkonBoard or phpBB is free, easy to setup, 
and would help with Linux dev problems.  Many ppl just don't like subscribing 
to mailing lists.  I also love categorized links to articles on the web.  Much like
Gamedev's, but of course, this would be a little more targeted.  You can definitely 
put me down for a "reporter" though.  subnet_rx is my username.  I love reading 
and in fact, am on a Linux 3D programming book by Norman Lin right now.