Orbiter Main Forum dead again?

[Urwumpe]

Simonpro posted:
I can say with certainty that ESA will never host anything like the orbiter forums

You are right, but on the other hand: ESA sure would be interested getting such a community and tool as Orbiter... After all,
i think orbiter did more for the aerospace education as SSETI will ever achieve.

[Simonpro]

I tend to think of that as mainly being a problem with how badly organised SSETI was, though
Still, orbiter is a good tool to get people interested in spaceflight/science - and i'm sure ESA could find a use for it if
they got their act together on the education side (they're restructuring just now).
Not sure if anyone has talked to them about that type of thing though, I don't think so. Might be worth a shot...

(edit)
Just had a look at the SSETI website for the first time in a while - it seems at the moment they're desparate for software people. So much for scientific achievement. I thought it was supposed to be an engineering challenge, not one about PhP and Unix :p



Post Edited ( 03-23-07 16:05 )

[DanSteph]

flytandem a écrit:
That's the host I use for flytandem.com . I used to be with "Interland" but the price kept climbing and
eventually reached $30 a month.

My 30$ hosting exploded the month I've put Orbiter in alternate download, to much traffic
they didn't liked that and suspended my account. Most "30$" hosting are shared
hosting and dont offer unlimited traffic (nor a big bandwith, may be very slow)

Now I have my own server with unlimited traffic and 100 Mbps bandwith but
this cost about 800$ Years. (I have four website on this server)

What would be possible for Orbiter is renting of a server and a paypal button
on the site with money still needed to pay the year's bill, if at the end of years
not enough people have donated martin simply suspend it until bill is paid.

This mean that one or two peoples are in charge of server, donation, bill etc etc...

Anyway this will not happen, I don't think Martin want to bother with this and
even one week without M6 forum will not kill Orbiter.

Well, seem that as usuall one may just wait until someone at m6 wake up

Dan

[Simonpro]

I have to completely disagree with people paying to support the orbiter forum. That could leads to all sorts of bad
situations, for instance if someone donates, and then causes trouble on the forum. It could be very hard to ban
them...

[DanSteph]

Simonpro a écrit:
That could leads to all sorts of bad situations, for instance if someone donates, and then causes trouble on the forum.
It could be very hard to ban them...

I pay for food in restaurant, this doesn't give me right to spit on carpet
I'll would not hesitate to ban a bad ass even if he donated 20$, money doesn't give all rights.
(for 1 million I may hesitate anyway )

Anyway there is not vote here, 0.000001% chance martin do that.
I just say that if we relly on generous sponsors we just have
to wait their goodwill.

Dan



Message modifié ( 23-03-2007 18:37 )

[Doug Beachy]

Speaking personally, I would be happy to donate a few bucks each month
toward hosting for the forum.  The problem would be the logistics of setting up auto-billing and administering it.  

However, you could do it by offering forum memebers the option to sponsor Orbiter by donating toward hosting fees
with auto-rebill via PayPal, say for $3/month.  In exchange, sponsors would have access to a
new "sponsors-only" forum a shiny new "sponsor" icon next to their username.  That's how RoosterTeeth does it for
Red vs. Blue and it works well for them.  

If only 100 members sign up that's $300/month, which should more than cover any hosting fees -- and Martin could
keep any extra as some small compensation for his thousands of hours of work on Orbiter.  Of course, implementing
this would be a major change in how the forum operates, so I'm not sure how the community or Martin would feel
about it.  

Free M6 hosting is like having someone loan you a car to use each month, but the car keeps breaking down and
leaving you stranded for days at a time, and you no idea when someone will be along to fix the car.  At some
point you get tired of the car breaking down and you are willing to buy a new one.



Post Edited ( 03-23-07 18:43 )

[DanSteph]

Doug Beachy a écrit:
In exchange, sponsors would have access to a new "sponsors-only" forum a shiny new
"sponsor" icon next to their username.  That's how RoosterTeeth does it for
Red vs. Blue and it works well for them.  

That's a call for problem as pointed simonpro. You'll then have two class of "orbinauts"
and some will have the feeling that they have more right than others and that
they can start to command peoples. One should put a disclaimer on the donate
page saying it's just an anonymous and generous donation...

Anyway was just an idea, as I know Martin this will never happen and it's perhaps better
like that.
All is well yet, only small trouble is that M6 the actual sponsor is not very reliable.

Dan

[Doug Beachy]

Yes, I see what you mean.  I like the idea about anonymous donations for Web hosting, but I agree the odds of
switching are pretty slim.

For now we'll just have to wait until "M6 fixes the car."  

[Director]

Well I sure hope you all can get it all sorted out soon, and then go back to your own forum, and leave these nice people alone.

[Urwumpe]

Director a écrit:
Well I sure hope you all can get it all sorted out soon, and then go back to your own forum, and leave these nice people alone.

[Doug Beachy]

Director wrote:
Well I sure hope you all can get it all sorted out soon, and then go back to your own forum, and leave these nice
people alone.

 Where did that come from???   DanSteph has a great forum here, and many of us post both here
and on M6.  When M6 is down more of us natually come here so we can still talk to each other.  What is so wrong
about that?

These "nice people" would be the same "nice people" saying, "Go away and leave us alone," I assume?

[DanSteph]

Director a écrit:
Well I sure hope you all can get it all sorted out soon, and then go back to your own forum, and leave these nice
people alone.

Sorry I do not understand your agressiveness, was any post wrong here ?
I post also on m6 and several peoples write in both forum, I welcome
everyone without any obligations. I don't mind this place being quiet when
M6 is up nor do I when there is more peoples due to M6 problem.

Dan

[Quick_Nick]

If a new host was used, it wouldn't be just any host. Not all hosts allow uploading of every kind of file. You might not
be able to have the forum programs and files hosted on any one. I also noticed that there is an M6 plan for unlimited
bandwidth. I don't know how much bandwidth is typically used in the forum. Pics would be linked to another host and
wouldn't add to bandwidth I think.

[Orbiter Fan]

Quick_Nick wrote:
Pics would be linked to another host and

How would this be any different to now? If you want to show a screenshot, you have to upload it to an image hosting
service. There's no way of attaching anything at all currently.

I don't know who told you otherwise.

[Quick_Nick]

That is what I mean. I was talking about the current forum. Sorry if it came out wrong.

[doggie015]

I am concidering making making my own orbiter - related forum, but i cannot be certan that people will sign on, i will
only do this if i recieve more than 10 expressions of intrest.

Expression of interest form:

Are you interested? Yes/No

Level of interest 1 - 10





Post Edited ( 03-24-07 00:13 )

[Quick_Nick]

Not really.
3
Only people on this forum would see it right now. This forum and site is really good!

[doggie015]

maybe i can "Pull a few strings" and get some form of advertising

P.S. i may hold a starting promotion, "First 10 people to sign up are made global moderators" maybe 8)



Post Edited ( 03-24-07 00:24 )

[Director]

Even the 'I'm Hated' thread here was very nice.

The European cultural environment to this forum is much more relaxed, and yes, nicer, than the American and or British
environment of the other forum. I didn't say that was good or bad, or that a bunch of people suddenly piling on to the life
raft when the other craft sinks into the ocean is good or bad, it just IS, at least from my perspective. I'm just
looking for ideas, but more and more I am finding them in source code, and not on the forums.

That's what you get when you use a program like Orbiter that has an extensive and well designed API and does pretty much
whatever you tell it to do. Everybody is doing their own thing with it. It's bound to be chaotic and unsettling, and that
forum reflects that. That's all I'm saying, why are people so quick to take offense? A forum where one can offer criticism as
well as encouragement is a real forum, and this forum is closer to that ideal, in my opinion. Plus, with Orbiter, I'm no
longer in such a hurry to go anywhere anymore, and so I like the slower pace over here. Also, Dan is severely injured, so
that slows things down a real lot too. I've had that kind of injury before, so I know how it can be. My whole experience here
has been Dan falling off his ladder. I suddenly realized, once I got over the default flight model hump, that I have plenty
of time until the next release of Orbiter. I'm not even in any particular hurry to give Orbiter presentations anymore. That's
what I learned from Dan. Orbiter will give us the skills we need until the real space program can catch up to Orbiter, and
that looks like it will be a long time coming.

Really, I just loved that 'you're a nooooooooooobie!' raz. That thread alone was what convinced me that I liked this forum.
And when the forum goes down, well, you always have Orbiter, and hopefully, a life.

[Quick_Nick]

doggie015 wrote:
maybe i can "Pull a few strings" and get some form of advertising

P.S. i may hold a starting promotion, "First 10 people to sign up are made global moderators" maybe 8)

Well I'll put it this way: If you make a forum more like this: http://tekdino.proboards98.com/index.cgi or something like
that, it may be interesting. A recreation of the Orbiter forums isn't as good of an idea as it may sound at first.
BTW: Tekdino advertises in his signature. Don't advertise big often, don't appear desperate, you might not want to try to make everyone a moderator or some other bribery like that. May work, may not.



Post Edited ( 03-24-07 01:26 )

[DoyleChris]

What does Martin say or has he said anything about whats going on.

[Quick_Nick]

He doesn't really say much. He and especially Radu don't visit the forums much as far as I know anyways. Not sure if
he really visits this site much at all either...

[ar81]

If this is going to become the main Orbiter forum, we lack the SDK, the tutorials, FAQ, etc...
May be I am very pessimistic, but as I see it now, with every day M6 forums are down, I have a stronger feeling of being lost
in space...

[Quick_Nick]

I think I have no life. lol. I could barely live with the orbiter forums down before. :p

[Doug Beachy]

Director wrote:
And when the forum goes down, well, you always have Orbiter, and hopefully, a life.

With all due respect, just because members read or post on M6 each day does not mean they "have no life."  (That is such an old and tired cliche.)  Members who develop add-ons for Orbiter rely on the forum to exchange ideas, and other members use the forum to ask questions and get help about Orbiter and its add-ons.  With M6 down, support for Orbiter and its add-ons as well as work on the OVP (Orbiter Visualization Project) is significantly impacted.  Personally I resent the implication that Orbiter users "have no life" because they post on M6 and then ask about the forum being down.  

Perhaps I misunderstood the intent of that statement -- if so, I apologize.

DoyleChris wrote:
What does Martin say or has he said anything about whats going on.

Martin sent an email to the Orbiter Beta Team earlier today announcing the next Beta release.  He said he is aware
that the forum is down and sent M6 an email about it, but that M6 has not replied to him.



Post Edited ( 03-24-07 06:04 )