Site Announcement for Discussion.

Hi all, given that the bulk of traffic to the site is on this forum I shall ask here.

It has been some years since the last forum upgrade, and this version is no longer supported. Stefan has asked me for my thoughts on migrating to Discourse so I'm putting this out for you all to gauge your views.
There is a migration script so afaik no data would be lost, some sandbox testing will be done when the opportunity presents. It is your forum, and the users are entitled to an opinion. Thanks for your time. M.

EDIT: As your opinions are important this thread will be passed to Stephan once everyone has had the opportunity to comment.

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2022 12:10AM by mortal.

I would not mind if the site migrated, the most important thing is that everyone of us that love GP4 still have this site to go to, still meet and share to keep the game alive.

Then again, if it migrates, the site that I've been visiting with layout, colors and functions, will disapear that sucks in a way...


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Ice Hockey is my Religion!

i totally agree and that's what i think, too

I don't know Discourse well enough to have an opinion so I will trust that others make the right call.

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Retro Liveries on the SMD-ZG02![www.grandprixgames.org]
Retro Renders 2.0 on the SMD-ZG02LN![www.grandprixgames.org]

No issue at all with a migration, if you need people to do some testing i'll gladly participate.

Discourse looks nice and modern, I like it. I hope it looks better on mobile!

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GPGSL - Yakuza driver

GPGSL activity check app: Direct link - Source code - Have you posted?

I had a quick look at their demo forum - looks good to me. The only thing I would like to ask for is a "colorful" theme. Their demo is plain white which looks bland and makes it hard to navigate imho.

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used to be GPGSL's Nick Heidfeld

I had a look at it too but to be honest i would have liked a traditional form of forum, thats one of the things that where atracted about this place.

Would it keep our Gp4 topics?
If we loose the topics we loose so much knowledge aquired over the years.
In my case i will backup my gp4 track updates topic so knowone looses the download links of the tracks.

Anyway Gp4forever is still open for everyone and with our style.


2010 to 2021 Gp4 Track updates

The ability to migrate the entire forum into a new system is important, nothing should be lost. Testing will confirm that and will be done when time permits, meanwhile we'd just like to gauge your opinions is all.

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

I am still waiting for the site update with the results of the new banner competition results to be realeased from 2007/8? if i remeber correctly hahaha

I have no experience or idea of how discourse works, so i do trust others with more experience to make the right decisions for the community


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Discourse is new to me but no issues getting used to it. If we need to get this site migrated it makes sense to use something new.

Kimi forever!

Discourse looks very good, i like it.
I just ask to keep the original header image

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GP Files | GP Videos | Discord: Carl_gpgames#2350

Same sentiment as others, new to Discourse, open to give it a try.

I just want to add my thanks for keeping this site going for all these years, it's great to see it busy once more, and it's a great motivation to keep creating for this game, sharing and keeping GP4 going.

Perhaps its worth a conversation to centralise all the downloads.
Or perhaps a fandom esque site/section with a proper faq and knowledge base?

Probably not a bad idea to switch to something still supported and a slight bit more modern. Some things here have been bugging me for a while now, i.e. broken youtube embedding, lack of image scaling, messed up formatting of various elements, search function.

Had a short look at the demo, some good looking things, some a bit annoying (imo) like the endless scroll in threads instead of pages or only using like half of the screen. Don't know if that's something that can be configured, didn't look like it browsing a few of the linked sites using it.


//

linked the thread in the Discord, maybe also pin it to the front page here.

Hope for a better search on the new site and maybe no PM storage limitation as well as it was a problem for some (my own is almost full too atm). N00bi said something that the white scheme looks bad, but these forums are white as well, so dunno what's the problem. I do prefer the silver/light grey colour scheme, but I wouldnt mind forums being white as it has been always here. And people will get used to the new one quite soon, I believe, as far as the design not totally horrible (i.e. yellow/pink/brown/lime or any obvious acid combinations like it is shown with the GPGSL Car of Shame)

___________________________________________________________________________
For a list of EVERY download for GP4, look here:[docs.google.com]

For my share, I would leave the site as it is. But I admit that of course I don't know what it exactly technical means to have no software support anymore.

Nevertheless, in case of a migration of this forum, I fear...
- that many users would not come along to Discourse due to doubt about data protection, half-active members don't feel still connected enough to the game or simple laziness.
- negative impact on accessibility of content via Google. For the Google-algorithm this site is very very high connected to search terms like 'GP4'. With a new site, we would completely start from zero.
- financial issues (just if you plan to choose a 'managed forum' at Discourse. I mean, 100$ per month is a huge amount of money for a little forum. If you would choose a non-managed forum, of course, it would be for free, if I understand Discourse correctly). Anyway, for me it is very important that we don't get problems on the financial site, because in my opinion, the content of this site should be online for at least even 20 more years, not only one or two.

While I appreciate the need to move forward (as others have mentioned I too am exasperated by the faulty search and embedding, the mailbox size and the dodgy scaling etc) but I have to say I'm becoming pretty horrified the more I read on the Discourse site. It comes across as an application more suited to one-liners, emojis, ham-fisted social engineering and cat pics than anything remotely interested in promoting in depth discussions about the finer details of our beloved racing game.

As kedy89 pointed out earlier, the endless scrolling is extremely problematic. While it might work well for a three line conversation, it will kill a thread like Pedro's (with 92 pages and 1839 posts as we speak) stone dead.

Klausfeldmann also makes a very good point about data protection. Please don't underestimate the importance of this to some users. As someone who's been in and around IT (including forums and bulletin boards) for several decades I for one would never willingly allow a company like Google or Facebook to have access to my data, my log in credentials or anything else for that matter & I'd be very surprised if I'm the only one here who's suffered at the arbitrary hands of these lawless control freaks. For a start, who would own the copyright on anything you post? I repeat: don't underestimate the importance of what I'm saying here. (There's a lot more I'm NOT saying, trust me).

Similarly, who wants to see some user-targeted ads on GPG? Even if you go with the cheapest $100 a month option I'd be very surprised if the site survives (again as Klaufeldmann hints) unless you allow the experience here to be ruined with annoying ads (which still won't generate anywhere near enough revenue given our limited reach) - but on the other hand, if you go with the free self-maintained option you'll be setting Stefan up for a steep learning curve. That might be fine with him and I'm sure he's more than up to the task if he wants to take it on, but what if he decides to call it a day down the road?

Look, I'm not trying to cause alarm here. I'm just as keen for this wonderful site to continue as anyone, but in my opinion moving over to Discourse would be a huge mistake. Even if it didn't destroy the site it would undoubtedly change the essential nature of it, with its "Want to share a cool link you found? Just paste it in on a single line and we’ll make it awesome" and its "Encourage positive community behaviors through the included set of badges."

Please no...

I could go on and on and bore everyone to death, but instead I'll just throw this into the pot.

This is not necessarily an either/or thing. As far as I know phpBB is still very actively maintained and it's very similar to the way this site is now in terms of look and feel, only better. Not only would the transition for far smoother for everyone to get used to, but it's completely free and has a big community to support Stefan, should he require it. Simple Machines Forum would be another 'familiar' option and there are several others, including NodeBB, which is kind of a halfway house between Discourse and what we have now. All free to use.

Well, that's just my 2 cents. Much love and respect to you all, as always. Live long and prosper GPG!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2022 08:32PM by Noog.

Noog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> While I appreciate the need to move forward (as
> others have mentioned I too am exasperated by the
> faulty search and embedding, the mailbox size and
> the dodgy scaling etc) but I have to say I'm
> becoming pretty horrified the more I read on the
> Discourse site. It comes across as an application
> more suited to one-liners, emojis, ham-fisted
> social engineering and cat pics than anything
> remotely interested in promoting in depth
> discussions about the finer details of our beloved
> racing game.
>
> As kedy89 pointed out earlier, the endless
> scrolling is extremely problematic. While it might
> work well for a three line conversation, it will
> kill a thread like Pedro's (with 92 pages and 1839
> posts as we speak) stone dead.
>
> Klausfeldmann also makes a very good point about
> data protection. Please don't underestimate the
> importance of this to some users. As someone who's
> been in and around IT (including forums and
> bulletin boards) for several decades I for one
> would never willingly allow a company like Google
> or Facebook to have access to my data, my log in
> credentials or anything else for that matter & I'd
> be very surprised if I'm the only one here who's
> suffered at the arbitrary hands of these lawless
> control freaks. For a start, who would own the
> copyright on anything you post? I repeat: don't
> underestimate the importance of what I'm saying
> here. (There's a lot more I'm NOT saying, trust
> me).
>
> Similarly, who wants to see some user-targeted ads
> on GPG? Even if you go with the cheapest $100 a
> month option I'd be very surprised if the site
> survives (again as Klaufeldmann hints) unless you
> allow the experience here to be ruined with
> annoying ads (which still won't generate anywhere
> near enough revenue given our limited reach) - but
> on the other hand, if you go with the free
> self-maintained option you'll be setting Stefan up
> for a steep learning curve. That might be fine
> with him and I'm sure he's more than up to the
> task if he wants to take it on, but what if he
> decides to call it a day down the road?
>
> Look, I'm not trying to cause alarm here. I'm just
> as keen for this wonderful site to continue as
> anyone, but in my opinion moving over to Discourse
> would be a huge mistake. Even if it didn't destroy
> the site it would undoubtedly change the essential
> nature of it, with its "Want to share a cool link
> you found? Just paste it in on a single line and
> we’ll make it awesome" and its "Encourage
> positive community behaviors through the included
> set of badges."
>
> Please no...
>
> I could go on and on and bore everyone to death,
> but instead I'll just throw this into the pot.
>
> This is not necessarily an either/or thing. As far
> as I know phpBB is still very actively maintained
> and it's very similar to the way this site is now
> in terms of look and feel, only better. Not only
> would the transition for far smoother for everyone
> to get used to, but it's completely free and has a
> big community to support Stefan, should he require
> it. Simple Machines Forum would be another
> 'familiar' option and there are several others,
> including NodeBB, which is kind of a halfway house
> between Discourse and what we have now. All free
> to use.
>
> Well, that's just my 2 cents. Much love and
> respect to you all, as always. Live long and
> prosper GPG!


This is the exact reason why I didn't want to give an opinion.

Clearly a very knowledgeable guy when it comes to this stuff and some fantastic insight there for everyone to take onboard.

Thank you Noog

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Retro Liveries on the SMD-ZG02![www.grandprixgames.org]
Retro Renders 2.0 on the SMD-ZG02LN![www.grandprixgames.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2022 12:07AM by mortal.

My humble opinion; this site is equal to the eternal GP4. One cannot live without the other.

If some have more insight about that stuff and so, I just have to say that the only real problem with the current one is the broken search function, but the google search using the "site:www.grandprixgames.org" line request works perfectly, so no real problem with that and in fact I'm up to moving if only it is really needed and there is a potential risk of forums decease. And of course there are can be some alternative web-design options and something more than just only Discourse is available. I have no problem with Google or Facebook having my personal data, cos it is internet and they have some of mine while being a huge monopolies controlling major stuff anyway, and the only obvious problem is an endless scrolling indeed instead of having to chose from pages sorted by number, but I used that option very rarely though and the good search function can solve this issue (since you can't tell the exact page number to find what you needed anyway). The ads never was a threat for me either cos I'm using adblock since like forever

___________________________________________________________________________
For a list of EVERY download for GP4, look here:[docs.google.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2022 03:07AM by Soutsen.