DOS Games Discussion

Hi all,

Received an email from Jorrit (webmaster of dosgamesarchive.com) with an interesting proposal ... here's part of his email:

"Lately I've been running a webpoll on the site with the question "Would you like to see a forum on this site?" Now there are over 3500 votes and more than 75% of them want to see a forum on the site. Therefore I came up with the idea of linking to your forum so there's one place for the dos games community on the Internet. I think it's not a good idea to setup a forum on dosgamesarchive.com that's almost the same as yours. Last year dosgamesarchive.com had 1.850.000 visitors, so I think it would have a nice effect on the number of posts and users of the forum."

So what do you guys think of this idea? I think it sounds fine to me. I thought I'd get your opinions before I give him the "okay". The forum would stay basically the same, although slight changes would be made to get rid of references to dosgames.com to make it more ... uh, universal. The forum would still be here, still look the same, you'd still have your post counts, etc.

Sure, and our new moderation system would be excellent for the great and fast influx of members. Sounds wonderful!

The more DOS game lovers the better as far as I am concerned. Only problem is as more people show up, a few will be bad apples.

Im thinkin, Yea. Although i would like to help out the MODs, if they need it. And you might have to change the top, from

DOSGAMES.com Forum

to

DOSGAMES Forum

I am a member of the dosgamesarchive.com message board. And they really need an update. i agree with unkown_k.

I'm for it 100%

But would it be individual anymore?

This sounds great! Question though: would site suggestions be removed or would there be a "site-suggestions" for dosgamesarchive?

Have two, IMHO.

yeah, I th think it would be cool to have a dosgames.com suggestions and a dosgamesarchive.com suggestions....this sounds great! There are a couple of concerns on my head, though: 1. Will they favor our opinion on no abandonware? 2. I think we would need more mods, but I suggest that we ask them who they think fit the bill. Then, we'll have our current moderators and then their moderators combine. 3. What would come of our chat? I think at least one of the sites should host a javIRC (I don't recall dosgamesarchive having a chat...). 4. So does this mean there will be 3 admins? Our current two and then the owner of dosgamesarchive? 5. You know, if you are going to make this chat universal, there is a little known website called http://www.dosgames.tk ..........er, nevermind

BTW, I voted in that poll!

i would REALLY like to help mod......

i would REALLY like to help mod......

Is that a hint?

No, of corse not...

DUH!

Hint: I want to be a MOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
just a little hint.

Did I tell ya I'm all ready a member there.

This reminds me of a little post made by zz8 back on ikonboard....

EMMZEEE!! Think about what you are doing!! Expansion and popularity is great, but when it get so expanded and popular that the forum loses it induviduality and small-forum flavor you will wish you had never taken the step you are thinking about.
Also, are they going to help pay for bandwidth costs?
Maybe if I get to be a mod, I might change my opinion....

Da_Goat has brought up some good points. I'll have to discuss the abandonware issue with Jorrit ... AFAIK, dosgamesarchive.com doesn't have any abandonware on it. However, I think that (especially after my recent "run-in" with the IDSA) the "no abandonware rule" will not be flexible.

As for the admin issue, yes I think that there would be three admins ... me, DB, Jorrit. As for the mods, I'd assume things would stay the same for now ... and if more mods were needed, DB would be in charge of choosing them, unless Jorrit had people in mind already. Is there currently a dosgamesarchive.com board? I don't see it anywhere on their site.

The chat would probably stay the same. Maybe we could create a forum dedicated to the chat, so that people could learn how to connect to it, help setting up mIRC, etc.

webmaster from hell wrote: Maybe if I get to be a mod

I swear, if someone makes you a mod, I'm leaving this place as soon as I see than member title...

Thanks everyone for their opinions. I'm the webmaster of dosgamesarchive.com and would like to add some more information.

I have the same view on abandonware. A few months ago I received an e-mail from the IDSA too, saying that I had to delete a number of games because I would be providing full versions. That's not true; from the beginning I wanted to provide a 100% legal site, so there are only freeware, shareware, and public domain games on the site. By the way, it's also possible to download some full version games that are released as freeware or into the public domain (for example Ken's Labyrinth, One Must Fall 2097, Red Baron, SkyRoads and Triplane Turmoil).

Currently there is a small message board on dosgamesarchive.com, but it's only reachable by the contact page. There are way too much banners and it doesn't look professional (anymore). That's one of the reasons I'm looking for a better way to give the visitors the possibility to discuss about dos games, ask help when they've problems, etcetera.

About the bandwidth costs: I don't know the current amount/costs of this forum, but it's always possible to discuss about splitting up the costs. I'm already paying quite a lot for bandwidth usage, because all games on dosgamesarchive.com are locally hosted (last year it was 2.679 TB, including site and zip files).

I think that you must not expect a very high increase in the number of posts and members of the (universal) forum. Maybe it's better to take a look at the effect of it first. And then, if needed, look around for more moderators. Currently I'm the only one who works on dosgamesarchive.com (already takes a lot of time); I don't have moderators. But when I look at the replies in this topic, there are people who really want to be a mod.

Well, now MZ's new server is providing, what, 400GB a month now? I don't think that bandwith will be much of a problem.

Yeah, 500gigs per month. So bandwidth costs shouldn't be a problem. *prays* Hmmm, I guess it's at least good to know that I'm not the only one being picked on by the IDSA.

I don't think we'd need any new mods right away and, if we did, like I say, it'd be up to DB to pick some ... or, maybe hold some kind of vote to make it a bit more democratic.

So I think we're agreed. I'll start making the changes today ...