ChaosSquid - lets set it up!

[DaForce]

setting up a new phpbb2 server on say your existing server hardware might be an option.

Damn easy to look, and then could have a forum style thing going for all the files and the users could rate them that way.

[instinct]

I got it set up so far for testing using a dedicated download center script. Includes Rating, categories, user managment, a gallery and more. So far looks pretty nice. got 2 ppl to test it so far, some more would be nice.

*note* no content yet, as am not 100% sure yet if the script suits our needs, so only pm me if you got a few minutes to spend on testing it inside out.

Regards,
Thorsten

[DJ-Studd]

Sounds like a fantastic idea.

My PM box is empty instinct

-- DJ

[DanielBrew]

Couldn't we have a 'Free Stuff' section added to this forum which could only be accesed by full members like on Evermotion?

Dan

[instinct]

Would prolly work for smaller stuff. Adding bigger assests as attachments is a bit bitchy tho, plus attachments are turned off here. So you'd have to provide links to the assests wich has a lot of disadvantages (dead links, link stealing, etc etc)

Thorsten

[DanielBrew]

Yeah, the person posting would still have to have their own webspace I suppose. I just thought it would be a easy way to control access.

I'll pm you and test your BB if that's ok.

Dan

[visions]

How and where do i sign up....?

Do i get any points for being the first person to offer to purchase the Shop front textures? :=)

Vivek

[glyph]

when I'm not doing 3d I build php/mysql sites - so if the script isn't doing what you need I think I could quite easily rehash a forum thing I built - not sure how long it might take - main issue would probably be bandwidth and server capacity and some sort of control on concurrent downloads - and keeping out hackers

[mmikee]

This really is a great idea. For example, at work we needed some hockey
equipment models. The only place we saw any decent models of hockey
skates was Digimation, and they were not that great. And they were
$400 !!! Well anyway, I just went ahead and modeled them at home in my spare time. I would happily upload them, and mabey items like this could help someone in a pinch.
I am all for this. Im not sure if I can help much, but I could sure try.

[deflix]

update,


I am in communication with Instinct who clearly has the knowhow to implement this (many thanks for this instinct!), and other members with FTP space like meandadam, and others (many have pm'd me). We will moderate content; and we will keep a log showing who has uploaded what.

The initial upload will be my shop maps (all 550mb of them), as this is probably as big as any file will be, and therefore a good test for the system.

In principle it is assumed that users will share quality content for reasons of pride, and authorship. I would suggest that any money making potential be resisted for now, and we wait for the resource to grow first. Thereafter we can re-consider this option, possibly with a turbosquid type front-end.

For the record meandadam has a got the first upload on server already, and I will be providing this link to those who PM'd me over the last week. Many thanks for this meandadam!!

Watch this space for progress, and please keep suggestions and comments coming, via this thread or PM. Any help like Glyph's would be great, as there is a wealth of talent in this forum that go's way beyond the scope of 3d.........what a community!

Cheers..

felix

[instinct]

Hey everyone,

sorry for beeing non-responsive the last two days. Had a trip to attend a friends wedding, and didnt see a monitor in 2 days (YAY! :P)

Anyways, i´d like to inform you about the current status of the project.

I have installed a php download system that allows for everything we need so far. What needs to be added (i might do it if the author doesnt) is a tad better logging (it currently logs only by IP from what i can tell). I plan on having nice graphical statistics. But that is currently not priority number one.

I already tweaked the theme/template/style to look a bit like our beloved forum. There´s still lots of work to be done in my eyes as far as usability, and overall look is concerned. Good thing is that the download script has a very nice theming and styling system that allows for very nice and extensible customisation of rather everything.

Another thing i am working on is figuring out a decent and usable Category system. So everything is easy to find and browse. I am looking at spots like turbosquid and others to get ideas. Then there´s also a fulltext boolean search to allow in-depth searching of the db.

Then there is other things i am thinking about. Mainly the general Rules and guildines. Like what should i pick as a name for my file ? What needs to be in the Description? What kind of licenses are allowed (like do we want GPLed files ? do we want cardware or alike etc? What are the usage-restrictions on the files posted ? I have an idea for most issues and pitfalls that come to my head. But it´s 00:20 and i got a tough day at work tommorrow. I will post everything i got atm tommorrow and you all can give input and thoughts and ideas. I´ll also reveal some work i need/want to outsource so you guys can apply.

Another thing i was thinking about was size restrictions. I honestly dont want to put any up, but it is not really convenient to up bigger stuff via the browser. So i thought it would be better to have a restriction for regular uploading (like 10 20 25 mb? dunno) and to have bigger files uploaded via FTP and mods/admins can add them directly (yes, the download/upload script allows for that too :P )

That´s all folks....oh wait...two things left out...bandwidth and capacity restrictions.

For the first, good news, there are none. It is 100mbit behind a redundant multi Gigabit line and should be fast enough. For the latter not so good news i can currently only offer a max of approximately 15GB. More is most likely possible, but would hit me on the financial side, and i would have to find out if i can afford that (and sell the idea to my better half, wich is prolly more difficult :P )

If you got any questions feel free to post here or pm. Sorry for not answering the last few PMs. ATM i dont think it´s a good idea to add more users till it is really up and running, as it would most likely make things just complicated and messy. (no real categories set up yet etc)

Phew...now that´s really all folks for now

Regards,
Thorsten

[jow]

Its coming along very nicely
Great work Thorsten...

[jacksc02]

nice one thorsten, let me know if i can help out in any way

[deflix]

UPDATE

Chaossquid now has its own domain name at www.chaossquid.com
Its coming along nicely, and I've taken recepit of numerous contrinutions already from users who've downloaded my MALL maps. If anyone would like to contribute at this stage (with an eye on establishing some content before going live), then let me know via PM. For the record your Chaossquid admin peeps are myself and Thorsten (AKA Instinct), without whom this wouldn't have been possible.

Watch this space --

f

[nvanherpt]

cooooool

when can we log in and test it?