BSN is shutting down; files there could be lost.

[CreeperLava]

I need help from an admin here. I've tried to contact a mod author named Dheuster on Nexus, but I get the error "The member Dheuster cannot receive any new messages". If this is because his inbox is full, is there any way to work around it ?

 

I'm done with the pages 2-5. Page 1 has been done by someone else before. Some tips for other participants :

- When searching for an author, use quotation marks in google. This ensures google will only give you results that contain exactly the author's name.

Same goes for mod names.

- To reduce the number of results, append the game's name next to the author/mod. eg "tmp7704" dragon age

- For now, I've contacted authors on Deviantart, Nexus, Youtube, Twitter, ModDB and Bioware forums (when I didn't have another choice), so it's quite varied.

 

@giftfish

I added a DA2 tab in the spreadsheet, I didn't touch permissions though, I let you handle that. Also added a Planning tab to keep track of who does what, and if it is done or not.

Edited August 12, 2016 by CreeperLava

[moho25]

@Dark0ne -- Thanks for keeping an eye on the thread; we appreciate it.

 

--------

 

@Creeper --

 

1. Whoops, I forgot DA2. Thanks for that. I'll get the content headers protected in just a bit.

2. I did page 1 as I set up the examples. For games with no projects on this page, I just arrowed to their first project in the list. I was a bit lazy with NWN, lol.

3. Good search tips. I'll add them to the instructions tab.

4. I'll take look at the planning tab.

 

--------

 

@Everyone -- Important.

 

1. Please fully read the new website and check the content for accuracy. I need to know if anything is wrong or if I've missed information.

2. Not looking for comments on general edits short of typos.

3. I'll get the final blog article up this morning, which will be about the project preservation effort in this thread.

 

One thing I need to be very clear about. The BSN Project Inventory is a community project. If the community wants to preserve this content, then the community has to do the work. It's not something that's going to get done based upon the efforts of only one or two (or three) people. And those people should not have to work tirelessly for the next two months in an attempt to compensate for the lack of effort by others. We need a decently large group of folks for this, or we won't make the deadline. Judging by the 300K unique downloads for DA Redesigned, there are plenty of people who use mods for these games. If 200 people inventoried 2 pages each, this entire project would be almost done.

 

So, those of you with tumblrs, facebook, and twitters, please work on getting the word out. Please register on some of these new forum communities and let the users know what we're doing. I've hit up the main BSN threads, but if folks are already gone, they won't see it.

 

I've spent a lot of time getting the ball rolling for this, but I won't be putting much time into the inventorying process. I have commitments to the toolset as well as work on my own mods (which have been repeatedly neglected due to the toolset and now due to this), and I have only so much free time. I'll be here to monitor progress, update the website, make any necessary edits to the spreadsheets, and other random stuff.

 

Let's find some more folks to help :)

[CreeperLava]

@gift

Should we add an "Answer" column, to note the results of the contact ? I received an answer from Gibbed, he's going to look into organizing his repos on his website.

https://twitter.com/gibbed/status/764100009214304256

[Tarshana]

Sorry I am so late chiming in. When I went to the gym this morning I decided that dropping weights on my toes was a good idea. Just call me Hobbles.

Dark0ne, thanks, appreciate the support!

 

Creeper, thank you for the google search info, I knew there was a trick to it but I forgot. As for an answer column, I would use the note note column. "Gibbed organizing mods on website, more info tba."

MohoFish; I have modified the reddit posts, but it might take a reload for them to show up. Post ME Post DA

[moho25]

@Creeper --

 

Answers should be put into the Permissions column, using the valid data formats for those fields. So, just put "closed" and then if you want to pop in a note, you can. Once he's put them up on his site, then the External host link needs to be inserted. I'll clarify this in the instructions tab.

 

Also, looks like there's some confusion about valid data in the fields. Please read the comment directions in the column headers carefully.

 

Here's the errors and other random bits that I'm seeing:

 

1. Owner --

• Inserting links isn't necessary, and really, it isn't worth the time. All will be broken in two months time. It's easy enough to look up a specific author on BSN, if necessary.
• This should be the BSN username, not the username on any other site. User handles for other sites go under author aliases.

2. External Host -- I know it's a bit of a pain, but please follow the example and take the time to type in the site name and then add the link to that. It'll keep the spreadsheet looking cleaner. Unlike the owner links, these won't be broken in two months.

 

3. Editor -- This is you. The person who contacts the mod author. I worded the column title in this way, as it's possible we could have situations where the person entering the data for the mod isn't the one who contacts the author directly. We need accountability for who does the contacting and what the permissions are assessed to be.

 

4. Author Contacted -- Once an author is contacted, the site used for contact should be listed here. "Yes" is not valid data, as per the directions in the column header.

 

5. Author Aliases -- Please follow the specified format of site=name. If you'd rather insert the name and then a link to their site profile or something, that's also fine. I'll put that into the comment header.

 

Thanks for all the work you've done on this so far, Creeper. Looking great, overall.

 

Will get to the planning sheet momentarily.

Edited August 12, 2016 by moho25

[moho25]

@Creeper -- Also, I'd say go ahead and keep screen grabs of authors who grant permissions via mod descriptions, or those that do it via direct communication with you. Ideally we want the latter into handling the re-hosting themselves, but if we can't convince them and the contacter is willing to do the uploading, we'll need a record of the permission being granted.

[moho25]

And... do we want a new column with the sites used to contact the author?

Derp. The site name used to contact the author should go in the "Author Contacted" field, as per the column directions. Will update my previous post on this momentarily :)

Edited August 12, 2016 by moho25

[Tarshana]

Good question- I contacted Sunjammer and _L_o_B_o_ via email. Everyone else on the list I sent you was via Nexus, so that's up to you if we need another column or if we should use notes.

[moho25]

@Tarsh -- Refresh the page; I made a ninjaedit.

 

I'm going to go ahead and add a new column to differentiate between "inventoried by", and "Contacted by". Folks are still getting confused about this.

 

Also, Tarsh, be sure to read my post 145 above :)

[CreeperLava]

FYI, I posted information for this project on Reddit. Edits to existing posts go generally unseen there, better to make new ones. Upvote them if you can, so they stay longer at the top and can reach more people.

 

@gift

1. I didn't insert links, I just copy pasted the author name from the project page, and the links were automatically copied with it. Didn't lose any time with that, trust me :smile:.

2. You're right, it's a pain, but more importantly, it takes time. Why not do the cleanup afterwards ?

3. Oooh, my bad. I'll edit that, we definitely need a new column for this info though. In case someone else needs to contact the author, and the original person who contacted him/her is not available.

4. What if there are multiple websites ? Do I just use the same order, like "website1, website2" / "username1, username2" ?

 

Very few mod authors leave permission details in their description (none so far), permissions are something relatively new in modding, it would seem. Will keep screenshots though.

 

Edit : I'll let you do the edits you need to do gift, I'll make mine in an hour or so, to make sure I'm not interfering.

Edited August 12, 2016 by CreeperLava