Questions and comments about new homepage

MisterX · December 09, 2005, 20:00:21

Quote from: "eatme"The Modplug site is down @ renoise forum

So nice to see such a tight-knit community, like in the "old days".

There really isn't much that anyone can do except to ask LP if there is any coding or graphical design work or something that can be done.

Squirrel Havoc · December 10, 2005, 00:10:26

All I can do is offer my services as a new releases editor when the site comes back. That was a fun job

LPChip · December 10, 2005, 14:12:16

Progress is going slow, but in a week i should have alot more time to get on coding seriously. I have big plans for the site software im going to make, so it is going to be there, and I will personally asure that it will be good!

Relabsoluness · December 10, 2005, 19:32:01

Quote from: "LPChip"I have big plans for the site software im going to make, so it is going to be there, and I will personally asure that it will be good!

Sounds good

rewbs · December 15, 2005, 09:50:44

(IMHO the invasive redirects and smart popups that have just appeared on modplug.com are a couple of steps too far.)

Squirrel Havoc · December 15, 2005, 10:29:50

Quote from: "rewbs"(IMHO the invasive redirects and smart popups that have just appeared on modplug.com are a couple of steps too far.)

I agree

Rakib · December 15, 2005, 20:43:15

looks like i was qouted from the renoise page :lol:

Relabsoluness · December 15, 2005, 21:57:19

Quote from: "Squirrel Havoc"
Quote from: "rewbs"(IMHO the invasive redirects and smart popups that have just appeared on modplug.com are a couple of steps too far.)

I agree

So do I - those are quite annoying. I already started thinking were there some weird things going on on my computer again since few days ago there appeared amigastyle 'guru meditation'-picture on the screen when I tried to shut down the computer :shock:

(EDIT: Later I found out that the guru meditation was some Winamp related thing, although it appeared after closing it - not very nice false alarm :? )

MisterX · December 15, 2005, 23:02:49

Quote from: "rewbs"(IMHO the invasive redirects and smart popups that have just appeared on modplug.com are a couple of steps too far.)

Fair enough, I'll remove them and allow the people that comment on the frequency of database backups to ponder the connection between the two.

rewbs · December 16, 2005, 00:23:21

Could you give some numbers to put things in perspective? How much does it cost to backup the DB?

MisterX · December 16, 2005, 01:18:25

Quote from: "rewbs"Could you give some numbers to put things in perspective? How much does it cost to backup the DB?

Here is the perspective:

I am an independent contractor, selling the services of web design and programming to clients. As such, I have to prioritize my time and the projects that I work on.

I have had modplug.com and castlex.com for almost 10 years now and all this time they have been a "side project", since they have never been able to make enough money on their own to even support their own hosting/bandwidth costs. Luckily, Roncli has been donating his bandwidth and hosting to keep the site online, so lately these costs have been covered and haven't been much of an issue. In the past, though, the costs to run the site have always been out of my pocket. The pocket has just changed, that's all.

Given that there is only so many hours in a day that I am awake, I need to work on the sites that actually pay me to work on them, put food on the table, pay the mortgage, etc., and when I have the time, I can work on the "side projects".

If I don't back up a client's site, I will lose the client and the income that came along with that client. If I don't back up the MPC database, we lose some database posts and some records of broken links to songs.

Where would you put the priority?

Now, before anyone goes off on a rant about me "not caring" about the site or the scene or whatever, ask yourself if I would have turned over the keys to LPChip, or would have worked hours to put something back online after the server crash, pushing my own workload back several hours.

The simple fact of the matter is that it doesn't occur to me during a normal workday of 13-14 hours, working for paying clients, to take the time to backup the MPC databases. Perhaps if I relied on MPC to support myself and my family, things would be different, but MPC remains in the "side project" category.

Perhaps once LP has the new site online, he can perform regular backups on the databases if he has the time, either to do the backups manually or program a script to do it automatically.

Randilyn · December 16, 2005, 03:29:38

Dear MisterX:

Things like your family take priority over the thousands of people that visit ModPlug. You don't have to explain it; this we all understand.

Quote from: "MisterX"Fair enough, I'll remove them and allow the people that comment on the frequency of database backups to ponder the connection between the two.

There is always a line that should not be crossed, and judging by the amount of people that disagreed with the new advertisments and whatnot, that line is, for the first time ever, evident here. We, the community, are not a source of income for anyone, not even you.

I know that sounds harsh, but you have to understand where we are coming from as well. We are people too, with (admittedly busy) lives to live, afterall, and we can't spend the few precious moments a day that we get to access this site, shewing away popups and whatnot. If it's that much of a hassle, perhaps we should just go somewhere else; ModPlug is Open Source afterall, and ModPlug.com has become nothing more than a meme to it's name, especiallly in it's current state.

You can give the whole "it's goes torwards supporting the site" argument, but it is not going to make a difference. There are better ways to go about raising funds for that, and I don't ever recall you attempting to utilize them. I've been lurking around here for a little more than half of the time that you've run the place, and your answer to the problem always seems to be advertising and other somewhat underhanded tactics that make the site (and subsequently, you) look bad.

I'm sorry if I come off as a jerk in this post but that is my stance and I will stick to it.

MisterX · December 16, 2005, 04:21:35

Quote from: "SILOH 3005"I'm sorry if I come off as a jerk in this post but that is my stance and I will stick to it.

No, that's quite all right, you've explained it well.

Because of the attitude that the community is not a source of income for anyone, "not even you" (whatever that was supposed to mean), MPC remains a side project, a hobby, and as such can only command my free time. Like the rest of you "people too", I have precious little free time and therefore the site suffers as a result.

Back in the day when I worked a regular 9-5, my off-hours were spent happily plugging away at the site. I can no longer afford to do this, which is why I have placed the site in the capable hands of LPChip. My hopes are that his lifestyle allows for the free time required to work on the project.

Of course, if he cannot maintain the site, it will just have to go away so that people can visit SourceForge to get the latest Open Source MPT, but a warning - SourceForge contains advertising.

Apologies for starting an off-topic rant, but the scattered complaints about the lack of a backup irked me. I also apologize for the popups and interstitial advertising, however, I think that we can either complain about ads, or complain about lack of attention to the site, but not both.

Rakib · December 17, 2005, 18:33:56

Isn't it possible that sourceforge can host this site?

rewbs · December 17, 2005, 19:29:33

Quote from: "Rakib"Isn't it possible that sourceforge can host this site?

Kind of. Sourceforge only allows 100MB per project and their servers are a bit slow, not sure about max bandwidth usage... might not really be good enough when we get up and running as a fully fledged active community website again.
Right now this is hosted by SF: http://modplug.sourceforge.net/builds/

EDIT: actually, having read their policy, we wouldn't be able to do much at all. Even that little webpage I put up is breaking several of their rules...