Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 29, 2007, 03:54:00 am
Most of those here who are still active in the TI community probably noticed the drastic decrease in activity on ticalc.org over the past 12 months, while other sites still seems to be alive and kicking. In August they hired two new file archivers. One left, and they decided to fire the other one. He got fired because he became busy and couldn't do the job regulary like he used to, but he said he could at least do some weekly updates. After they fired him they never hired anyone again, so they're left with no file archivers to do the job anymore, so it's the other staff who have to do the job, and they are also pretty busy. Don't get fooled by the fact there is 3 file archivers while looking at the staff page, because it hasn't been updated in a while and all of them are retired now. Patrick Stone announced his retirement from the community last year, Joey Gannon just came back for a short while last summer to help but didn't stayed long and Jason M is supposed to be retired now, considering they posted a news about the hiring of new file archivers. As you can notice on the front page, there is like one update per 3 weeks most of the time. If there is more than that, there is usually only one or two programs added. At the beginning of this month I in fact uploaded Metroid II: The Last Chozo Expansion Set and AaroneusTheGreat uploaded Doom 68k one or two weeks ago, and still none of them got added in the archives. It has beeen like that for about 6 months now and sometimes I am starting considering getting all my files removed from here and making them exclusive to Omnimaga because it's impossible to get anything added here anymore in a reasonable amount of time.
Now the consequences of this: Of course, there is less news being posted on the front page. Less news and updates means that people visit less often and post less comments. You may indeed have noticed the decrease in amount of comments in the past year. Even Omnimaga get more comments on news articles nowadays. This also means less featured programs. Combined with the fact they've been pretty strict in the past 1.5 year in featuring programs it doesn't help their case either, because people feel less like posting their programs, because they never know if they will even be added in archives.
I remember the days where someone used to post their demo/beta on ticalc.org and relying on this one site to show their project preview to public because it would be added within the exact same week. Now it is no longer possible anymore. They now either rely on calcg.org or file uploading services.
Also, if you look at file upload form pending queue, it rarely goes above 150 anymore nowadays, even if the archives didn't got uploaded for months, even in peak periods. It seems like people are getting sick of ticalc.org updates slowness and decide to upload their files on other sites or their own blogs. There is also less reviews, because it can be a month before new reviews are added, and i even seen 6 months once. There has been like 1-12 programs featured in one entire year, while there used to be near 100 some years. Even last year there was twice as much as this year.
You probably also noticed that half of the hosted sites that were still online all suddently shutted down, all at once. I know there was some that were down long ago, but now it's more than half of the list. The server is also slower than it used to be less than 1 year ago, email requests takes nearly half a year, same for the deletion of innapropriate files (recently got a notice that my innapropriate file removal was accepted, even if the request was in early 2007) and now if they're gonna have less traffic, this means their new ads will pay less, thus, making the site stay online and pay for hosting even harder.
It's not that I want to be negative, but it just seems that ticalc.org is going the way calc.org did, minus the downtimes. It's getting less and less updates, and they hire no one else to take over the other staff job. And don't tell me it's the entire community, because on other sites there is the same amount of activity than last year and there is a lot of secret projects being worked on. Also calcg.org file archives increased drastically compared to what it was 2 years ago. At this rate I expect ticalc.org to close or stop being maintained completly around 2009; I don't expect a shutdown anytime soon, but I'm sure if it close it will shut down someday if paying for hosting isn't possible anymore for the founder. Calcg.org (Calcgames), unitedti.org or tifreakware.net may become the main unnoficial TI website then.
Post by: necro on November 29, 2007, 04:31:00 am
Post by: trevmeister66 on November 29, 2007, 08:27:00 am
Post by: Ranman on November 29, 2007, 10:34:00 am
Maybe we are all in for a big surprise. ;)
Site redesign... Staff reorganization... automated file uploads... automated reviews... etc....But... With such few POTY candidates, it may be better to just wait for next year to hold the POTY competition. It is not as much fun if there is no competition.
Ticalc should not compare program submissions to past year's submissions to determine if they should get a feature or not. That is flat-out unfair. It kind of implies that current projects have to be equal to or better than past POTY candidates to even be considered. That is a sure fire way to discourage up-n-coming programmers.
@ necro's signature:
| QUOTE |
| And Al Gore said let there be html, and it was good |
That is the biggest bunch of crap I ever heard or read. It kind of reminds me of Algore stating that he invented the internet -- remember that?
I can't stop laughing. :bounce:
:bounce::bounce::bounce:Post by: MSR5 on November 29, 2007, 11:07:00 am
I have been whacting them for over 3 years and never until recently has it been this bad
Post by: Liazon on November 29, 2007, 11:09:00 am
Post by: MSR5 on November 29, 2007, 11:58:00 am
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 29, 2007, 12:23:00 pm
That said let's hope it stay around. I'm sure that even if it would stop being updated completly it would still stay online for about 3-4 more years but it would be better if it was updated like it used to be (especially file archives).
Post by: TIfanx1999 on November 29, 2007, 01:13:00 pm
| QUOTE |
| For now my biggest hope is that they continue doing POTY. If the first week (or beginning of second) of december they start voting process then there's better sign of life. If they were to not do a 2007 POTY then I would have my awnser |
Yes I agree with you completly. They REALLY need to see if they can find some voulenteers to help out at Ticalc. This community is run by the people more so than it ever has been by Texas Instruments :)
and if Ticalc.org died it would be a big blow morally to the community. It is like the last standing behemoth of another time . I remember back when they were well staffed you couldnt go a couple days without some project being announced or some awesome project mysteriously appearing on their front page out of nowhere. There were pretty much updates daily, even if alot of them were poorly written programs with little purpose :). The community is still VERY much alive and active but the main outlet for the comminity is dragging its feet and thus the communtiy appears to be less active. Maybe if ticalc had some competiton they would get their act together. Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 29, 2007, 01:24:00 pm
Post by: dinhotheone on November 29, 2007, 01:27:00 pm
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 29, 2007, 02:00:00 pm
*cough*I am tempted to do a shameless plug*cough*... unless you mean that uber f***ing awesome looking zelda on revsoft
Post by: Speler on November 29, 2007, 02:17:00 pm
Post by: Halifax on November 29, 2007, 02:28:00 pm
I mean they don't know if the person really has the time, just wants to be part of ticalc.org to say they were part of it, or if they just want to mess with ticalc.org
There are a bunch of things that could go wrong when hiring people into something like that.
It would be cool if it was automated, but then the moderators wouldn't even be around to check what the bots updated every single day.
I think we should wait it out two more months or so before we say that ticalc.org is dead, I don't necessarily think it is yet. Try to be optimistic, I'm sure they will be fine.
Post by: Liazon on November 29, 2007, 02:35:00 pm
| QUOTE (DJ Omnimaga @ 29 Nov, 2007, 18:23) |
| For now my biggest hope is that they continue doing POTY. If the first week (or beginning of second) of december they start voting process then there's better sign of life. If they were to not do a 2007 POTY then I would have my awnser O_O That said let's hope it stay around. I'm sure that even if it would stop being updated completly it would still stay online for about 3-4 more years but it would be better if it was updated like it used to be (especially file archives). |
as long as there's POTY
SMB68k is a definite nomination I suppose?
well, they do interview people who volunteer for the jobs.
Post by: MSR5 on November 29, 2007, 03:39:00 pm
Post by: dinhotheone on November 29, 2007, 04:36:00 pm
| QUOTE (DJ Omnimaga @ 29 Nov, 2007, 20:00) |
| there is alerady Zelda :P *cough*I am tempted to do a shameless plug*cough*... unless you mean that uber f***ing awesome looking zelda on revsoft |
yes i mean that one, i think that will defenitely help the community, as will sonic on uti and ssb on maxcoderz if tr1p ever finishes it. sonic actually has an eta if you all didnt know, feb 14, to bad ill be playing ssbb.
Post by: Speler on November 29, 2007, 04:40:00 pm
Post by: Fryedsoft on November 29, 2007, 05:54:00 pm
so...http://www.bluecrimson.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?b-discussion/m-1196282384/
Edit: Moved the original post link, so I updated the above link.
Post by: MSR5 on November 30, 2007, 09:34:00 am
but it is still very sad when this sort of thing happens
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 30, 2007, 09:48:00 am
TI official site has calcgames.org linked on their calc pages though, so people may go there instead. They no longer advertise ticalc.org since the CD fiasco in 2001
Post by: rivereye on November 30, 2007, 11:00:00 am
Post by: Speler on November 30, 2007, 11:13:00 am
Well, there's some new news.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 30, 2007, 11:28:00 am
I mean Duncan Smith (review editor) and Michael Vincent (news editor)
Post by: kalan_vod on November 30, 2007, 04:02:00 pm
If someone could email/msg on IRC to MV, let them know people still care (willingness to donate/code). I would love to see someone add a automatic file archiver, but with admin approval (have it upload and all, but can not download till approval).
Post by: Fryedsoft on November 30, 2007, 07:26:00 pm
Two news stories just got posted.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 30, 2007, 07:44:00 pm
Post by: Liazon on December 01, 2007, 10:58:00 am
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 01, 2007, 12:05:00 pm
Post by: kalan_vod on December 03, 2007, 05:36:00 pm
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 03, 2007, 05:51:00 pm
Post by: kalan_vod on December 05, 2007, 06:11:00 pm
Post by: Liazon on December 05, 2007, 06:38:00 pm
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 05, 2007, 07:47:00 pm
They really need a new F.A. x.x