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The Main Site

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 6:58 pm
by Roth
picking up from Banshaku's recommendation: http://nesdev.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?p=38220#38220

I think it'd be a great idea to get everything on the main page more updated. I like the idea Banshaku proposed about separating the pages. I was thinking we could just split them up how they are already divided:
  • NES Documents
  • NES Programs
  • NES Development Tools
  • NES Hardware Information/NES Hardware Projects (I think these would be better combined. Thoughts?)
  • Links
Also, if we're going to make this a reality, we should talk about what is outdated and should be taken down, what might be helpful even if it's outdated and should stay up, and any new content that should be added to the respective areas of the site. The areas in the list above are also subject to questioning, should any of us think the pages should be different from said list.

Let's make this happen!

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 8:06 pm
by BMF54123
Perhaps the front page should just be replaced with the NesDev Wiki (with a few added sections, like you mentioned), provided we get more people interested in updating it? I can't think of anything the current front page provides that the wiki couldn't.

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:21 pm
by Celius
I think that this site needs updating in terms of showing people's homebrew stuff. Most of us just start a new topic in either the NESDev section or the General Stuff section and post a link to it on a personal website. I think that a new thread area should be opened up called "Homebrew Releases" on this board, because I think it's good to be able to talk about new releases, but there should also be a section on the front page where you can download these releases from a list, or at least have a list linking to personal websites where you can read about the project. I know there's something like that for some demos, but lots of them are outdated and they don't work on most emulators.

Though the discussion area may not be very active as there aren't lots of homebrew releases all the time, I think it deserves it's own space and the front page should be a little cleaner in organizing people's games/demos.

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:32 pm
by atari2600a
I like the wiki idea. I mean look at wiibrew.org! It seems to be the center of Wii homebrew!

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:42 pm
by BMF54123
Probably the biggest benefit of using a wiki is that multiple users can update it, as opposed to the current front page, which only Memblers has access to. I think this is a necessity if we truly want to revitalize the site.

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 11:01 pm
by Banshaku
The wiki could be a nice idea, as long people don't wreak it of course.

And is it possible to move the wiki on the parodius servers? or the main page would just redirect to the wiki?

That part requires to be planed properly. Then if we do a refresh of the main page, we should make sure to not stick only the nesdev wiki at the front, but at least some new updated content will the suggested sections. The old wiki could be one of those sections.

edit:

I nice idea would be that if we use the wiki, individuals that do have some homebrew projects could create a page about it and give the status, information, files etc. Be either a nes game/software, work in progress for some documentation, some hardware related thing etc.

This way, instead of this individual host a simple web page for a project that could go down someday and the information will be lost forever, it could always persist on the wiki. How many time does some information disappear these days because the website doesn't exist anymore? I wouldn't mind to put anything I find on the wiki, if the information is pertinent enough for everybody.

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 11:33 pm
by atari2600a
Does Mediawiki have a feature or plugin that allows moderators/administrators to have their hand on the handle of updates?

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:24 am
by tepples
atari2600a wrote:Does Mediawiki have a feature or plugin that allows moderators/administrators to have their hand on the handle of updates?
MediaWiki allows an administrator to assign a protection level to any page:
  • unprotected: any IP that's not blocked can edit
  • semiprotected: users who registered at least x days ago and are not blocked can edit
  • fully protected: only members of the administrators group can edit
For example, English Wikipedia fully protects anything placed on (not linked from) the Main Page.

In addition, the wiki owner can semiprotect or fully protect an entire namespace, as well as restrict which groups may create accounts. I've seen wikis where the main space is semiprotected and Talk: is unprotected, and I've seen wikis such as wikitruth.info and wikimediafoundation.org that are fishbowled (all namespaces semiprotected, and only administrators can create accounts).

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 9:37 am
by clueless
(Just an example - I don't have a firm opinion worth sharing yet.)

The OS-Dev community has a simple home page with two major links, one for the Wiki and one for the BBS.

http://www.osdev.org/

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 8:30 pm
by BMF54123
Hey, nice and simple. I kinda like that.

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:43 am
by dXtr
clueless wrote:(Just an example - I don't have a firm opinion worth sharing yet.)

The OS-Dev community has a simple home page with two major links, one for the Wiki and one for the BBS.

http://www.osdev.org/
I see I'm not the only one lurking around that site :)

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:48 am
by clueless
dXtr wrote:
clueless wrote:(Just an example - I don't have a firm opinion worth sharing yet.)

The OS-Dev community has a simple home page with two major links, one for the Wiki and one for the BBS.

http://www.osdev.org/
I see I'm not the only one lurking around that site :)
Ha! I used to post there. I wrote a mini kernel but got distracted by stuff at work and never finished it.... OSDev is a very active community, much more so then here. But NesDev is much more fun. Sure beats the hell out of page tables, cache coherency problems and PCI bus drivers.

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:52 am
by dXtr
OT
Yeah, but it's still fun to play around with from time to time. It's very educating to write your own memory managers and what not.

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:34 pm
by clueless
dXtr wrote:OT
Yeah, but it's still fun to play around with from time to time. It's very educating to write your own memory managers and what not.
Yes, it is.

In hind-sight, I wish I had gotten involved in x86 OS development and NES development back when they were new (for the hobbyist) and cool. I read Marat's documents back in 1997 and it never occurred to me then to try to tinker with NES development. Now days it seems like every hobby that I pick up has already been explored by many others and that I'm highly unlikely to contribute anything ground breaking. :(

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:00 am
by B00daW
Would be nice if the main site could get out of the late 90's and be in one organized browser frame. Seeing that I'm necrobumping this post and Memblers hasn't chimed in yet, I'm not sure how or when this would be happening.

Roth's suggestions are great. Artists could also ship to create new icons and logos for the site and BBS. (Personally I believe that nothing cutesy would be acceptable.)

I like Memblers's personal touch to the main page and wouldn't want his influence removed from the site in any way. Perhaps he and another respected and trusted web developer could hash together some ideas casually for a month to see what happens.