I'm outtie.

[begrimed]

This is my official withdrawal from the Metroid Construction main site (not the forum or IRC, don't worry).

It just now came to my attention that my FTP access to the main site is no longer... accessible. Which I can only assume is possibly a result of changes made by someone that inadvertently tinkered with my permissions or something. Or the much more likely scenario, my access was revoked by James because I gave Scyzer my login info (many months ago) so she could make some corrections or updates due to my slug-shit slow pace of adding new content. Anybody who knows anything about anything knows that Scyzer is trustworthy on matters like this, and assuming I'm right in assuming my access was taken away because I violated some sort of 'trust' by giving her the info, complaining about it in front of everyone while I wasn't around, revoking access without any kind of notice and not simply talking to me directly about it was a bitch move. I don't consider taking the site's best interests into account as being a violation of trust, and I have no problem asserting that this was a sore lack of rational judgment strictly on James' part.

If I'm wrong about the circumstances here, I'll own up to that and assume the full blame instead.

I'm honestly surprised a replacement for me wasn't called in sooner. But there never actually was. As it stands, there is nobody actively overseeing the main site. Certainly not James, and as of now, even more certainly not me. JAM is the only one who's probably contributed anything to it in the past year by making an awesome, up-to-date archive of all patches to match the current site's format. So where does this leave the site? Who knows, but I know where it's left me, and I'm happier for it. Being disemburdoned from updating a community hub is kind of nice, however bullshit the reasons for it possibly were. Even if offered, I would not take my position back.

This gives me full freedom to create my own Super Metroid hack resource as a subset of my begrimed homepage, and with it being personally attached to me, it might even get updated more than once a year. I'm only going to be focusing on the information; patches and hacks, I could care less about. The only content of that nature I'll be hosting will be my own.

I don't want this topic to be just about whatever the hell James might have been thinking or what an asshole I am. Some ideas on where to take the main site next would be nice. For instance, who's going to run it now? ProjectXVIII asked me not too long ago about it, Scyzer is a given if she felt up to the task. Surely something can be worked out.

[Zhs2]

I didn't even know that he completely revoked your access. What the fuck. >_>

As a side note, going to pitch the idea of a team of people along with the rest of the post outlined above. The forums are easymode, and I wouldn't mind jumping into helping out with whatever else people want to do to update the site (responsibly, of course.)

[begrimed]

Speaking of the forums, I never did address my mod status here. After this post, I don't expect to be keeping that either, lol. I wouldn't mind still having it, but I'll admit it's partially because of the status alone. IRC ops though, I'll viciously defend because I'm actually active there.

[Silver Skree]

I already have a little python script that, with some tweaks, could store hacks and patches and their metadata in SQLite database files. There is a function built into this tool to also generate static html pages based on the contents of the database.

I'll just pitch the idea now, and if any of the people that will be managing the site are interested, I'll be glad to cooperate in getting this set up. Basically, I envision it working thusly:

1) New forum board with a thread in which people post resource submissions and ONLY submissions with NO DISCUSSION, specifically for the managers to sift through and pick out the submitted resources from.
2) Pull the current database file from the site.
3) Using the python tool, add these resources to the database file with the metadata specified by the manager (probably taken from the submission post for each resource).
4) Upload updated database file.
5) You're done. An auto-running python script server-side will rebuild the site from the database file automatically every X hours.

[Digital_Mantra]

Ron Paul 2012

[Damski]

Ron Paul 2012

Good to see that there are Ron Paul supporters!

[passarbye]

I didn't even know that he completely revoked your access. What the fuck. >_>

As a side note, going to pitch the idea of a team of people along with the rest of the post outlined above.

this ^

i wouldn't be able to help with the main site for another 4+ years, so good luck with that in the mean time guys.

and i hope everything goes well for ya grime.

[Lunaria]

Skree: That just sounds like a really silly excuse of not using FTP if you ask me.

[Silver Skree]

Skree: That just sounds like a really silly excuse of not using FTP ...

I don't think you understand what I'm saying. You'd use FTP to down/upload the database file, as well as anything else you might need from the site; FTP is still essential. The point would be to eliminate the need to manually edit each page's HTML directly; you pull one file (the database), edit it with a glorified text editor, store the resources, and upload it back. No need to download each .HTML, and edit it manually, and then upload each submission. It'd all be stored in one spot: the database.

How they want to manage the site is up to them, but I'm offering this as one way that (in my opinion, anyway) would make it easier.

Edit:

... if you ask me.

Unless you're going to be managing the site, I didn't ask you.

[snarfblam]

I think some sort of general purpose content management system would be worth considering. I don't really have any experience with this, so I can't make recommendations, but it would make it easier all around to keep things up to date, and would make community collaboration easier without the need to give anyone FTP or admin access to the server. Instead, assign CMS accounts with appropriate permissions. Manually editing HTML is so Web 1.0.

Documents and hex tweaks should go in the wiki (does that still exist?). This is exactly the sort of thing wikis exist for, and, again, it allows community collaboration. And it's a good example of how a CMS could help, if it were actually used.

[Silver Skree]

Documents and hex tweaks should go in the wiki (does that still exist?). This is exactly the sort of thing wikis exist for, and, again, it allows community collaboration. And it's a good example of how a CMS could help, if it were actually used.

Hear, hear!

[Zhs2]

Documents and hex tweaks should go in the wiki (does that still exist?).

Why, yes, in fact, it does!

[Silver Skree]

Man, I'm using the wiki, and it feels a lot easier to work with the new software. Pretty simple stuff; I got used to it in like 5 minutes. I think I'm gonna do a little 'porting' from the docs on the main site. With this, we can merge a truckload of redundant information in each of these guides together and have one, single go-to page for what it is you want to do.

And the ones that discover/create new content can be the ones to update it! Ah, the beauty of the wiki!  :^_^: