Planning a Torque site
by Wysardry · in Torque Game Engine · 02/26/2005 (1:19 am) · 24 replies
I'm planning to start a new site providing articles, tutorials and a community for indie developers of all skill levels who are using (or wish to use) TGE, TSE and related games creation tools. I hope to cater to those working within a tight budget and/or just starting out.
The idea is to complement this site, not compete with it. However, I can think of several reasons why it may be more helpful in certain circumstances. First of all, current information can be hard to find on the official site. I would also be able to specialise in certain areas and provide articles written from an end-users perspective.
I have already registered a domain to use and am currently looking at various CMS, portal and forum scripts to see which would be most suitable, as I would like others to be able to contribute too, if they wish.
I would appreciate any comments, suggestions or advice as to what (free/cheap) content management software to use, which info to include or any features you would love/hate to see.
The idea is to complement this site, not compete with it. However, I can think of several reasons why it may be more helpful in certain circumstances. First of all, current information can be hard to find on the official site. I would also be able to specialise in certain areas and provide articles written from an end-users perspective.
I have already registered a domain to use and am currently looking at various CMS, portal and forum scripts to see which would be most suitable, as I would like others to be able to contribute too, if they wish.
I would appreciate any comments, suggestions or advice as to what (free/cheap) content management software to use, which info to include or any features you would love/hate to see.
About the author
#22
For example, should TGE scripting tutorials be found at an address like "www.example.com/scripting/tge/" or would something like "www.example.com/articles/view/1/2" or even "www.example.com/articles.php?id=1&view=2" work just as well?
It seems that although a number of CMS scripts have "search engine friendly" URLs, very few support "human friendly" versions.
03/22/2005 (8:59 pm)
In your view, how important are descriptive URLs?For example, should TGE scripting tutorials be found at an address like "www.example.com/scripting/tge/" or would something like "www.example.com/articles/view/1/2" or even "www.example.com/articles.php?id=1&view=2" work just as well?
It seems that although a number of CMS scripts have "search engine friendly" URLs, very few support "human friendly" versions.
#23
I think a Wiki system is perfect for this sort of activity. Malicious items placed on Wikipedia are corrected within 2.8 minutes, 1.7 if that vandalism contains a curse word or pornography. I don't expect the turn around time to be as quick as that, but with as many people who are online at all the same time here in this community - the repair rate would be very quick.
On the topic of which, TorqueWiki will be up and running tonight, at the beginning it will pretty much be a free for all. As the project progresses (after a week or two's time) the active community will have self-defined a set of standards we can all agree to abide by and get those in writing. I also intend to select at least 4-5 moderators to assist me, although with this Wiki system most of the moderation comes from the visitor's themselves.
I think with a lot of work and dedication, TorqueWiki can become an invaluable resource. I have been involved in various Wiki projects in the past, and those of us who are actively involved take a great passion in the data being relevant and factual as the website's purpose demands. There are many of us Wiki-aholics who spend hours each day on Wikipedia writing new articles, updating articles, disussing articles, and catching the morons who swing in to act maliciously. Wikipedia has over 500,000 articles - I don't expect TorqueWiki to get anywhere near that large, so the amount of dedication and addiction won't necessarily be that bad.
The beauty of a wiki is, it's all up to you how good you want it to be.
Anyways Wysardy, get up with me one of the following ways (I am currently vacationing in Florida, so my response may be a bit delayed in reaching you):
Email: evicerator52@hotmail.com
Yahoo: shrimp20
MSN: evicerator52@hotmail.com
AOL: evicerator52
Skype: evicerator52
03/27/2005 (11:02 am)
Wow, wish I would have read this post a few days ago. Wysardry, I would be interested in the two of us working together. I have already registered TorqueWiki.com and paid for hosting for a year. I've spent the past week or so learning the MediaWiki system and hacking it to the communities needs.I think a Wiki system is perfect for this sort of activity. Malicious items placed on Wikipedia are corrected within 2.8 minutes, 1.7 if that vandalism contains a curse word or pornography. I don't expect the turn around time to be as quick as that, but with as many people who are online at all the same time here in this community - the repair rate would be very quick.
On the topic of which, TorqueWiki will be up and running tonight, at the beginning it will pretty much be a free for all. As the project progresses (after a week or two's time) the active community will have self-defined a set of standards we can all agree to abide by and get those in writing. I also intend to select at least 4-5 moderators to assist me, although with this Wiki system most of the moderation comes from the visitor's themselves.
I think with a lot of work and dedication, TorqueWiki can become an invaluable resource. I have been involved in various Wiki projects in the past, and those of us who are actively involved take a great passion in the data being relevant and factual as the website's purpose demands. There are many of us Wiki-aholics who spend hours each day on Wikipedia writing new articles, updating articles, disussing articles, and catching the morons who swing in to act maliciously. Wikipedia has over 500,000 articles - I don't expect TorqueWiki to get anywhere near that large, so the amount of dedication and addiction won't necessarily be that bad.
The beauty of a wiki is, it's all up to you how good you want it to be.
Anyways Wysardy, get up with me one of the following ways (I am currently vacationing in Florida, so my response may be a bit delayed in reaching you):
Email: evicerator52@hotmail.com
Yahoo: shrimp20
MSN: evicerator52@hotmail.com
AOL: evicerator52
Skype: evicerator52
#24
Although they can work for large, active sites (such as GG), I'm not convinced that a wiki is the ideal solution for smaller sites with a narrow focus.
After looking at hundreds of sites and downloading dozens of scripts to install and compare offline (including wikis), I finally found one which I feel has the best balance of static and dynamic content, and which supports granular privaleges.
Although I don't plan to enable all its features at first, it is capable of providing forums, personal messages, blogs, news feeds, polls and comments, with several more availabe as addon modules.
Reference material can be organised into "books", consisting of sections, chapters and pages which visitors can view or add to. However, this process is more like that of a forum than a standard wiki, in that user authentication and/or editor approval may be required before changes are made. The markup code used is also more like that of forum software, so more people will be feel at home with it, plus certain groups can be given permission to use HTML.
Although I don't see an obvious way to physically merge the sites, I think it would be beneficial to us both if we linked to each other as external resources, especially if we could link directly to sections containing similar information so people could travel back and forth almost as if they were one site.
Do you have a particular subject hierarchy planned out yet? It would help if the two were along the same lines.
03/28/2005 (12:47 pm)
It certainly seems as if there is a certain amount of overlap between the two projects, but I think we're taking different approaches to providing information.Although they can work for large, active sites (such as GG), I'm not convinced that a wiki is the ideal solution for smaller sites with a narrow focus.
After looking at hundreds of sites and downloading dozens of scripts to install and compare offline (including wikis), I finally found one which I feel has the best balance of static and dynamic content, and which supports granular privaleges.
Although I don't plan to enable all its features at first, it is capable of providing forums, personal messages, blogs, news feeds, polls and comments, with several more availabe as addon modules.
Reference material can be organised into "books", consisting of sections, chapters and pages which visitors can view or add to. However, this process is more like that of a forum than a standard wiki, in that user authentication and/or editor approval may be required before changes are made. The markup code used is also more like that of forum software, so more people will be feel at home with it, plus certain groups can be given permission to use HTML.
Although I don't see an obvious way to physically merge the sites, I think it would be beneficial to us both if we linked to each other as external resources, especially if we could link directly to sections containing similar information so people could travel back and forth almost as if they were one site.
Do you have a particular subject hierarchy planned out yet? It would help if the two were along the same lines.
Torque Owner Wysardry
It would be much easier to provide a similar facility restricted to Torque related images and allow people to submit to that too. This would likely mean that (on average) each image would be shown longer, as there would be fewer to show.