DIGITAL_DEVIL_DATABASE Community Forum

The ownership here is in the can. The news page still isn't functioning. Obviously whoever is paying to keep this operation afloat isn't doing much service towards the patrons, or getting much action for their buck.

As far as I can tell the administration hasn't payed a dimes worth of attention to this host's content since the ship changed hands. That is fine and understandible, But shouldn't someone be running the show?

If the dude holding the bill doesn't wanna intervene (why do I feel like I'm yelling past god) ...then at the least someone(s) should be given full access to this host's content (ftp/ssh/mysql passcodes)

Ethically I have a hard time imagining anyone going over and ruining the site for everyone accidentally or otherwise, so I'd say pretty much anyone with 100+ posts is probably qualified to access the site's backend. Of course there is no reason to do so without purpose, but just saying, someone needs to be running the show, and pretty much anyone would be an improvement.

I think its a shame the rest of the site is in permanent limbo. But over in the dbdb subdomain, we desperately need PHP5. I've scripts sitting in the cgi directory and just need someone to ssh over there and give them a run. Plus the wiki content is becoming too much of an investment to not have a means to back it up. So some kind of snapshot/cvs arrangement has to be worked out asap. I can only copy so many pages markup into backup files.

At any rate, in general I don't think it should be this difficult to get any action around here. I've found the only way to budge the admin seems to be public shame. So I apologize and relenquish my piece.

I'll do it.  I'm already in a rather comfortable position, so I may get the chance to expand on the site if I take over.

I think it's time to bump this up.

Do you all REALLY don't even give a shit about this site? =/

Yeah of course it needs admins. But, I mean, what can we really do? Who has authority as of now?

We can't do anything without Jose, who is MIA right now.

I think traci mentioned this already.

He's probably just on a crack bender.

Do we give a shit?

Site needs work.  It's been put off by MONTHS.  Who cares what he's doing, or what's he smoking.

Isn't he the one with the password and stuff that we need to access and work on the site?

Yeap.  If he was going to be away, he should have gotten someone to work on his stead.

This is lazyness, faggotry, and half-assed-ness at it's best.

Then why don't you give a shit about him? lawl

Instead of complaining about Jose not being here, design your own SMT site with your own forum or something. Since you seem so up to it, start from scratch.

If you need help with writing the stuff, I'm sure people here are more then willing to help.

That being said, I don't think Jose is ignoring this site out of laziness or faggotry, Tony wouldn't have given the site to someone like that.

Yeah...I'd have to agree with aero on that idea.About starting your own SMT site...I mean telling someone to get off their ass and get it done already,doesn't really lead to better results.

I can only think of two projects that come to mind at the moment...that have been through this situation..
manga scanlation groups - we've seen the delays,staff members disappearing,putting the project on hiatus,etc.

private servers of working on MMOs - GMs delay releases in order to keep up with the official MMO itself,haven't gotten around to fixing glitches,still translating text,whenever the server goes down,the members are complaining,"Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! I need my FIX!!"...yet the admins never say a damn thing as to what the problem is...so it leads the members to think,the admins are sitting around doing nothing,etc.

These are what I've experienced,luckily,I have never been a staff member of any sort...

Except for modding on forums,but I'll admit..I was active as much as I could be.

I'm not hating the admin, but it is pretty lame regardless. Pathetic you could even say. At this point a software project is supposed to hand off or go open source. I have to admit, I would be ashamed to sit on it myself.

So...you all want me to start up my own site?

Me, who has A) Not Enough Money B) Not Enough Resources C) Absolutely No Scratch Coding Knowledge D) Sayck

Now, I could always ask a few friends I know and am good with...but they don't even know what the hell SMT even is!

Well all you really need is the money part (and a long wait until the user base migrates over to your rock)

I agree though that isn't practical. There is no unofficial unaffiliated Megaten watering hole for the people atm other than this website afaik. So I agree it is incumbent upon the admin to either pay it some mind, hand out some passcodes, or pass along the bill or content to someone who gives two cents -- whether they really know what they're doing or not.

You said you were in a comfortable position Qbasic, so I assumed that you had the resources to do so.

Sayck means?

I think maybe the problem is this website was never designed with so much pressure in mind.

I'm really unsure what Tony was trying to do looking around. And the new admin didn't have a history of participation, so his entire role seems mysterious at best.

He must still be footing the bill :)

Yeah, Jose came out of nowhere.

A douchebag who antagonizes me.

In any case, do any of you keep in touch with Tony?  ...At all?

All right, I'm not going to lie things have been pretty awful here but I thought I would set some stuff straight.

Jose didn't come out of no where, he was actually chosen after a lot of back-end decision making. He's actually rather reliable but unfortunately has been MIA as of late due to major computer problems and some other things.

Also whenever he gets on  he is trying to get stuff done but he's never really able to get on a computer for more than 15 mins at a time.

Seems like an easy enough solution would be to just share passcodes a little. As far as I undestand, no one but Jose has real access to the site. I can ftp the dbdb subdomain Jose graciously setup. I can probably php admin the database he setup too if I tried (I dunno if the database is the same used by the main site)

But someone should be able to do something somehow if need be until Jose can get a computer. If you can afford to pay for the host, why not just buy a cheap computer on a payment plan? Is internet access a problem for Jose? Should we setup a Jose fund? I guess the situation doesn't exactly inspire confidence :)

Just open things up a little and let in some air.

Computer problems for HALF a year?  What about friends?  What about net cafes?  What about the fact that...on a friggin Food Lion paycheck...HALF a year is enough to buy three decent laptops, hm?

Is there any movement getting ssh access to the server? Over in the Imagine wiki Jose has permitted us to host:

http://dbdb.digitaldevildb.com/wiki/index.php/DBDB:Megami_Tensei_IMAGINE_inter-klan_mainframe

We have probably thousands of icons associated with Imagine. It might be wiser to bypass the mediawiki image handling features altogether for them. But that isn't very easy if even possible to do with mediawiki without PHP5. There are countless features not available to PHP4 based servers. And the PHP4 version of mediawiki has been discontinued for years now it appears. Regardless, importing so many files into the wiki, requires ssh access. As would installing PHP5 in the cgi directory. Either way, we can't really get these icons into the wiki without ssh access, as manually uploading each one, one at a time, is obviously out of the question for mere mortals.

PS: Mediawiki appears to require maintenance scripts for much of its functionality. So as the wiki administrator, I really require ssh access period in order to regularly maintain the wiki.

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Maintenance_scripts

Alternatively the php services user id can be given execution privileges within the wiki file tree. This permits php files to run caged executive commands.

Fifteen minutes is long enough to e-mail you (the other active staff member) whatever  necessary to access and work on the site. There really is no excuse, outside the possibility of him being dead or in prison. Most public libraries have internet access.

Dude.  Fucking prisons have internet access in their libraries.  I certainly can't find "Digital Devil Database" a danger to it's inmates or a threat to the security...

Heap on the shame and see what transpires...

I can setup a paypal account and take donations via poll thread once a month. If you'all can raise enough advance money for a half a year of hosting, I'll offer to take over.

editted: There's gotta be a way to do that publicly, so observers can see what money is going into an account and out of an account to where.

Hell, if people are willing to, I'd even throw in something myself.

I don't think there is anything wrong with question the admin or lack there of. It isn't as simple as creating a new site and forum.  I thought this place was going to hold a lot of promise opposed to the mess that the Haven had become.

If Jose was going to blow this place off, some type of notice would have been nice. He didn't have much of a presence from the get-go.

So no one really knows how to contact him at all? I agree that I'd be nice if things could at least be sort of 'handed' over to someone who's more present.

Maybe he has amnesia? Or maybe the host is payed up for a spell and will just mysteriously disconnect one day...

I'm free to promptly handle any technical comeuppances  at least until I'm voted planetary demi-god... it's just a matter of who'll pay the bill.

PS: I wasn't suggesting before I would split the difference of donations out of my own pocket. Six months or a year, it would depend on the thru-put needed and payment plans available, which might amount to one-year leases by default. I've been pretty disgusted with hosting options for the last couple years, otherwise I'd probably have a host handy myself.

It just pains me to not see a viable unofficial Megaten oasis as far as the eye can see. I wonder if there's a digital squatting rights law permitting community mutiny against a neglegent content provider?

Yeah, that totally wouldn't surprise me. I apologize if it has been addressed in this thread already, but is Tony totally gone now? Can he do anything?

Yeah, what exactly happened to Tony anyway? He used to answer my messages promptly, but I've yet to hear back from him recently.

I'll try to discover the hosting service provider being used, and if I can, I'll write them a letter in hopes of taking over if/when the account goes delinquent -- just before the content is disposed of. If that happens I'll pay to renew the lease out of my pocket, but expect donations to cover my loss and subsequent leasing periods.

If that doesn't happen I'd make a backup of the site incase anyone wanted to pay to revive it at some point in the future.