How bout we get one?

Uh.. why?

Massassi is updated so infrequently it seems really pointless.

*snigger*

So, it still could be a good thing to have.
Maybe an RSS Feed for the showcase forum

Quoted for truth. I'm disspointed that more people havent been submitting news items after I scripted that new submission form, too.

gammasts, I bet it would be a fun project for you to script a Massassi vBulletin message board PARSER to make an RSS feed for yourself. Imagine the benefits it would bring to your life.

I would submit, but nothing I run into on a day-to-day basis is in anyway Star Wars related... :\

Er excuse my ignorance, but what does RSS actually do I've seen many instances of it, but have still failed to discover its true purpose ..

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html

Believe it or not, I just read that article .. and am still confused. I need an example.

What about file submission updates?

Think of it as a news ticker, with URLs.

And to Echoman: Refer to TheJkWhoSaysNi post:

"Massassi is updated so infrequently it seems really pointless."

The trouble is, the JK series doesn't really have any news lately.

What massassi needs is to become more community-oriented, as evidenced by the fact that the strongest area of the site these days is the forums... rather than having a staff that does all the work, allowing users to submit work and updates a lot more easily, which will then be verified by the staff. The news submission form is an example of this, Brian also talked about a level reviews system where anyone would submit/post a review. I've also got a few ideas for enhancements for the Editors Corner area which would make it more than just a place people use for screenshot image hosting.

I think it'd really be interesting to have Massassi become the "Sourceforge" of mods and such. Have a custom CVS just for mods/maps for people doing multi-person projects, have a gallery place for images, a complete hosting solution for their releases, and a controlled environment hosted website (Aka maintains the Massassi theme, doesn't vary too much, but lets mod makers customize to fit their needs).
Or instead on focusing on specific projects, focus on the authors, with a Deviantart-type system. Have their own image gallery, links to their involved projects/co-authors, their releases, and some other small bits of info.

Obtaining hosting for these would be a simple request, and sites would be checked every once in a while after updates. (An admin panel with recent updates on pages, and direct links to those updates to allow easy monitoring would help, along with controlled hosting, so Pugler doesn't sign up for 3476345 accounts and goes wild. Only those with something to show would apply for hosting)

Heh, Cool Matty, its like you're reading my mind or something. Get out of my head!

Great minds think alike

I like what CoolMatty is suggesting.

Also, I think I may have seen a script that makes an RSS feed out of a forum.

So, with all this talk, any possibilities of this happening? I'd be willing to help in any way I can. (Basic PHP, and I'm really good at making clean designs via HTML/CSS)

Just seems like such a great idea that I wouldn't want it to fall into the annuls of Massassi "well it sounded good" archive.

Any ideas, DS/Brian?

Slim to none. Of course I'm a "glass is half empty person" Although how long was it until we ditched a decrepid forum system for a slightly less decrepid forum system? :p

(BTW, kudos to those hardy souls who venture into vBulletin code. I have seen horrors that no programmer should witness.)

At Massassi? Slim.
That's why some folk have started work on a separate system. Now, before we get flamed to Heck and back, the idea is to complement Massassi, not compete with it. This idea has been bandied about for a few yers now, and there have been people willing to work on it, but Brian was reluctant to let people he didn't trust have access to the Massassi source. So a group of us figured talking about it wasn't enough, and we started DOing something.

Obviously, it's not finished yet - not even the basic features required of the system are in place yet - but we're working on it and the systems are emerging. If movers and shakers at Massassi are keen to get something like this actually happening, we'd love to talk. There seems no point in duplicating effort.

Thanks for the encouragement.

What I'm envisioning wouldnt be for Jedi Knight though... It would be a system available for those modding Star Wars themed game engines, as well as Star Wars themed mods for any game engine.

Good idea to include SW based projects for other games.
Would this include applications for SW games or just mods?

I'm thinking of a word, and, this time, it's not "kitty."

I think either could work, but applications would have to be limited to programs that directly assist in the editing of games, such as an editor or custom launcher. No trainers, or things of that sort.

Also, as a safeguard, all executable applications would require a running version of the program before it would be accepted, and all versions of the program released thereafter would require an admin to check the program before it would appear released on the user's page. That way, potentially damaging software could be avoided, such as viruses or cd-key trojans.

The thing I have the most problems with in JKHUB is the lack of administration. Without administration, anyone can submit a virus as a mod, or flood the project registration system with useless junk.

That's why a sourceforge-type system would work great. Sourceforge only accepts projects that meet their criteria, so you are sure the content you get from sourceforge is safe to use. (Besides the obvious danger of beta software)