---THE PROBLEM---
As you may have heard, I lost my HDD Database with everything I've collected and made for a number of games over the years including this one (GP4), so I had to start all over again and what I discovered was a bit of an eye opener.
Luckily with the support and love from everyone on this community, I was back on my feet in no time, but looking at that situation from a new members’ point of view, GP4 contents and resources are all over the place and many with a lot of broken links and dead ends, making it pretty difficult to find things or even start making new content for GP4.
Many members on here (including myself) say that the community's best times was between 2004-2008 and if you look back in time through the pages on here, the content amount was overwhelming.
Now members come and go all the time (like myself), also losing car shapers and/or painters can have a big impacted on content and resource, also leeching or copying becoming more common didn't help matters.
We do still get new content which is great and the amount of new full mods and other stuff has been picking back up in recent times, but I feel that’s not the problem GP4 is facing, the problem is the lack of having everything in one place and with the ease of obtaining it,
also the lack of new templates for new up-coming painters and skin releases has dramatically dropped down.
GP4's state of its contents and resources are like little dots all over the internet, trolling through pages and pages on forums like this to find something, even the GP4 Database page is very helpful, but not a solid solution with uploaders/creators with different download hosted accounts like mediafire etc. and the possibility of that uploader/creator ending their account and/or run of content, then breaking the links to that content which becomes lost maybe forever.
---MAYBE THE POSSIBLE SOLUTION---
I was talking with my wife on what a possible solution could be and I feel that we need some type of main HUB or Resource Centre for all contents and resources for GP4, where everything is stored in one place using a GP4 controlled upload host like mediafire and is built on a website which makes it easier to navagate around, GP4 forever is a good place, but it’s built as a forum more than a Database HUB.
The creator can still upload on their own hosted account, but also sends a copy to the hub, so for example:
I've built a Ferrari 2017 car with template and created a thread page about it on here or GP4 Forever and have released it with a link to my mediafire account... great stuff, but I also sent a copy of the file (release) to the person in charge of the GP4 HUB file server (maybe GP4 Mediafire account or something) and gets put on the HUB website as well (a bit like gp4db.com but more up to date and bigger),
Now all areas are covered... if my links ever get broken or my mediafire ends, my work is still on the GP4 HUB forever (depending on which server to use). No lost content and easier for new members to get started.
This is just an idea I had to make things a bit better and help keep the community and GP4 going for more years to come.
Feel free to share any other ideas you may have, I feel if we all come together, we could keep GP4 going for another 10+ years.
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FLASH FORMULA MODS Website ==