Sites similar to the /idgames database

[Linguica]

I'm getting to the point of the Doomworld upgrade where the rubber meets the road and I'm no longer just converting old content and I need to actually figure out what to do with it. One of the biggest stumbling blocks is how to redo the /idgames database into something more modern / generalized as a WAD depot. I'd like to see some examples of other sites with a similar sort of purpose and maybe an explanation of what design features you like / appreciate about them.

I AM LOOKING FOR ACTUAL LINKS AND ACTUAL DISCUSSIONS OF OTHER CATALOGUE-TYPE WEBSITES AND WHY YOU THINK THEY ARE GOOD. PLEASE DO NOT JUST DRIVE-BY POST SOME RANDOM WEBSITE NAME, THANK YOU.

[Voros]

While I can't give any examples, I would really appreciate an HTML/JavaScript based uploader. It would be more user friendly for a greater a number of people, especially those that don't/have trouble with FTP.

[printz]

How did you obtain the thumbnail images?

[Gez]

The Nexus?

[esselfortium]

printz said:

How did you obtain the thumbnail images?

They're scraped from newstuff reviews, I believe.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

http://www.wad-archive.com/
As for particular features; it's pretty nice that they have an automap preview option.

[Ribbiks]

Voros said:

While I can't give any examples, I would really appreciate an HTML/JavaScript based uploader. It would be more user friendly for a greater a number of people, especially those that don't/have trouble with FTP.

this would be cool. bonus points if it allowed you to upload your own screenshot as the visual icon for it, or something.

[Linguica]

printz said:

How did you obtain the thumbnail images?

Turns out Doomworld has approximately 18,000 easily scrapeable screenshots for a large portion of /idgames files just lying around basically unused except for small links in certain news posts, who knew?!? (It's me, I knew.)

Voros said:

While I can't give any examples, I would really appreciate an HTML/JavaScript based uploader. It would be more user friendly for a greater a number of people, especially those that don't/have trouble with FTP.

That's certainly planned.

Ribbiks said:

this would be cool. bonus points if it allowed you to upload your own screenshot as the visual icon for it, or something.

That too.

Don't worry, user file uploads are definitely going to be a Thing, although I need to figure out what exactly the system is, how much space each member has for uploads, how to handle in-progress WADs, etc. These sort of questions are literally why I made this thread.

[Chopkinsca]

With an easier upload system, it would be easier for people to misuse the system. What if someone is being an ass and uploads a huge file? Limit the filesize, need authorization from admin/mod for bigger files? Then you could just upload a ton of smaller sized files. So you'd need to limit the number of uploads. I'm just thinking of ways the system could be abused. probably dumb though, was the current idgames abused in anyway?

[Phml]

Your mockup screenshot looks great as is. All the important stuff is there, no fluff... Pretty much ideal.

I like user-defined tags (and obviously, the ability to search for tags).

[Chopkinsca]

Phml said:

Your mockup screenshot looks great as is. All the important stuff is there, no fluff... Pretty much ideal.

I was going to mention that, but forgot. Yeah, that screenshot looks great as it is.

[Edward850]

chopkinsca said:

With an easier upload system, it would be easier for people to misuse the system. What if someone is being an ass and uploads a huge file? Limit the filesize, need authorization from admin/mod for bigger files? Then you could just upload a ton of smaller sized files. So you'd need to limit the number of uploads. I'm just thinking of ways the system could be abused. probably dumb though, was the current idgames abused in anyway?

The current FTP uploads can already be abused, and already are. There's also already a file size limit as well (50MB, with permission needed in advance to upload larger archives).
You seem to be somewhat underestimating just how accessible FTP actually is (you can upload files directly from Windows file explorer, in fact), it's not some sort of ancient secret protected by eldritch horrors. ;)

[Memfis]

On the screenshot I don't like how you can't read some of the wad names fully.

[Catoptromancy]

Obligatory link to a map archive. http://ws.q3df.org/maps/

The general sorting of the wads is a modern issue. A wad with a few too many linedefs is categorized the same as a pk3 loaded with scripts and fancy. Rjy once made a script to find all pwads on idgames that contained a texture1 lmp, without a pnames. Something similar can be done to idgames to help sort maps.

The script would look for any behavior or scripts lmps, and sort those. If there are no obvious lmps, then script could look into linedef types. Boom maps could be sorted by use of boom linedef types. Zdoomisms and boomisms could be a problem. Improperly used vanilla features may work fine on boom or zdoom.

The q3df site has multiple categories. So may be possible for player feedback on port used during gameplay. Each map on site has links to demos for that map on its download page.

[Linguica]

The screenshot is the default download section for the software and the final thing will hopefully look nothing like it.

chopkinsca said:

With an easier upload system, it would be easier for people to misuse the system. What if someone is being an ass and uploads a huge file? Limit the filesize, need authorization from admin/mod for bigger files? Then you could just upload a ton of smaller sized files. So you'd need to limit the number of uploads. I'm just thinking of ways the system could be abused. probably dumb though, was the current idgames abused in anyway?

My initial thought was to limit each member to, like, 1 megabyte of storage space (upgradeable to, say, 10 megs after showing oneself to be a valuable member of the community). Then there would be a process to submit the upload to /idgames, at which point it would be converted into a normal /idgames database entry and the user would get back that storage space.

It would be fairly easy to have a moderation queue on Doomworld's end before the server actually submitted them to /idgames archive.

Phml said:

I like user-defined tags (and obviously, the ability to search for tags).

I would like some robust tagging stuff but the default software's tag support is pretty limited. There is a $40 fancy tagging plugin I might look into.

[Doomkid]

It's very small and very primitive overall compared to /idgames, but the doomshack.org uploader has a max file size of 128mb, a max of 3 uploads per ip per day, times out after 10 minutes and confirms md5 hashes before accepting zip files. Its basic and stuff has to be looked through by hand, but it works.

[Jonathan]

I use portfolio sites like Dribbble and Behance to find designs to rip off get inspired.

I like Dribble's filtering of items in popular, recent, and debuts. Particularly, the latter, as it helps people's first effort get a bit more attention than it otherwise might.

I like the ability to follow people whose style you admire, or are working on projects that you're interested in. And to get suggestions of similar work that you might like. Also, Behance has pretty rich filtering, with multi-level categorisation and tagging.

They also have areas where people can organise and hire for teams. I guess analogous in a wad archive would be the ability for authors and in-progress projects to connect with each other.

[Megalyth]

When it comes to managing files of a visual nature, Imgur has a nice, simple interface.

I can already hear the cries of despair, and yes, Imgur is a pile of shit in many ways, let's not kid ourselves. Obviously we can do without the "likes and favez lol" aspect, but I'm talking about what they do right. If the archive will be implementing a more user-friendly approach, give their site a look for interface ideas regarding uploading, managing said uploads, and perhaps even applying thumbnails (a great idea in my opinion).

Honestly I like the idgames front-end as is, but I've been over the FTP crap since the late 90s. An easier upload process and file management system are all that I really care about, but I look forward to any upgrades.

[Xaser]

Though this is a thing that would require some handling in the FTP archive itself, here's the thing I'd most love to see: release versioning. I'd love to be able to have both "dead-air-v0.9.0.pk3" and "dead-air-v1.0.0.pk3" physically exist, but logically be considered a single project. This would pretty much axe the whole "fear of uploading incomplete stuff" problem that plagues /idgames right now.


[this example also implies that we have long file name support too, so, uh, there's another archive maintainer convo to have...]


To link this to the whole "similar sites" topic, I don't advocate copying many of its -isms, but ModDB sorta allows this in a loose fashion. Though I had GitHub on the mind when typing this up, that's a whole different animal.

[Linguica]

The software will allow for multiple versions for one project, yes. (Although they will all count against your total file storage.)

I also don't see any reason why a file uploaded to DW couldn't have a long filename, but then make you choose a 8.3 one when you wanted to upload it to /idgames.

[kb1]

Some questions (hope they are not redundant):
1. The new system will link to the permanent \idgames storage (vs. replacing it), and will provide something like DW's search system, or are you considering hosting the downloads on DW?

2. So DW will provide temporary storage for new WADs destined for \idGames?
3. Will the user be able to store Doom-related, non-WAD content, up to their limit, such as screenshots, which can be linked to via the forum?

4. Does the WAD rating system integrate into any of this?

5. Considering the answers above, will users be able to permanently host, say, a WAD, or a web page from their user storage?

6. I guess what I'm really asking is: In your mind, what is the scope of this new offering? Is it a streamlined path to Incoming, or more than that?

Whatever happens, I applaud you efforts. I could probably provide a small bit of monetary assistance for the plugins or whatever, if necessary. PM, please, as needed.

[Death Egg]

Can you add in a function for unfinished wad's in the vein of WAD's in Progress?

[Linguica]

kb1: 1) yes 2) yes 3) yes 4) yes 5) yes (if they don't care about ever getting that storage space back), no 6) more
Death Egg: people will be able to use it in that fashion automatically

[roadworx]

holy moly is such a contrast to what we have now, it's so weird that it's white i think i might be retarded


i have a few suggestions that i can add. take these with a grain of salt, tho, i have reeeally low standards.

mapraider is, imo, a good one. it's old, and i'm pretty sure nobody really uses it anymore, but it just looks kinda nice to me. what's cool is that, sometimes, if you hover over a map it can tell you extra details in a little expanding box thingy (i took a class in web design and i call it an expanding box thingy. great.) it only works some of the time for me, tho. still kinda cool nonetheless.

lvlworld is also kinda nice. it'd be better if it had the expanding box thingies, but it looks really nice imo. it fits in with what doomworld looks like now, so that's a plus :)

[Linguica]

roadworx said:

holy moly is such a contrast to what we have now, it's so weird that it's white

Linguica said:

The screenshot is the default download section for the software and the final thing will hopefully look nothing like it.

[Voros]

I'm confident that the end product will be worth it, so I've got one question: How are you testing this? You must have gotten that screenshot from somewhere, right?

[joe-ilya]

I would love IDgames to have the minimalist space-wise, yet featureful layout of the smwcentral.net website.
It has useful stuff such as : Amount of levels, difficulty, screenshots and usernames that lead to the profile in the forum.
You don't have to read the text file, you can just see most of its content conviniently straight ahead while searching for wads.

[<inactive>Player Lin]

I like the current one but do not against about changing...

But since most of new modern design websites tend to hate who still using low resolutions so I just a little worrying about it will painful for me when look it at 800x600.
(No, never trusted about font scaling and other things so I guess I won't change unless no more 800x600 exists for desktop resolution. :p)

smwcentral.net seems good, and looks nice at 800x600.

[Linguica]

It will work, you will just probably be looking at it in the tablet mode :P

[Jayextee]

Nobody's mentioned itch.io?

Not just a games marketplace, you could theoretically stick any digital media on there (including DOOM wads/mods -- been toying around with the idea of putting my own up there, just for a wee bit more exposure).

What I like about it? Searchable tags, the ability to set a draft/development page for works in-progress, mildly-customisable pages, a feed for followed users' activity; just the usual social media stuff, really.