Irish Mapper Website

Lyconix

After reading RopeDrinks post on reviving the Irish mapping community, I thought it would definitely be a good idea to put up a website dedicated to Irish mappers. I've already thought up several features that could be on the site, such as:

- A full list of Irish mappers, with a Worldcraft experience level (Beginner, Intermediate or Expert), website link, and a list of released maps.

- WorldCraft tutorials so as to help new mappers learn the ropes.

- List of Irish servers featuring custom maps.

- Regular features and interviews with mappers.

I'm no expert web designer, but I would be willing to have a go at making the initial site... however I have no doubt that it would need additional staff.

Post your comments here Should the site be created? Public interest is, of course, crucial.

DaSilva

I could help with the site! Im not very good at design but I can do Flash and Javascript to some extent!

DRakE

i could...um...visit it.

I could release some of my old never to be finsihed maps...

so ppl could make maps off the omes i give them..open them in wc, add a few things etc, fcompile releae

good idea!

phaxx

I'm up for this, I'd consider myself pretty good with html/css/php/what have you

Does anyone have somewhere it can be hosted? If not I'm sure I can arrange something... but it's not certain.

[edit] As for tutorials and such, I think simply pointing people to http://www.valve-erc.com would be the best... great site that is.[/edit]

Ivan

I can do some semi-decent webpage or help in whatever way ye like. I'm a bit swamped at the mo, but after the Lan hopefully, I should be sorted...heck we can discuss the bleeding thing @ the LAN

Anyways, I'll try to keep up to date with this thread...

DeadBankClerk

i have sorted out hosting on fortress.ie thanks to our frined mindphuck
it should be up in a few mins on www.fortress.ie/mappers


[16:28] <dbc`marc> u there eric?
[16:28] <MindPhuck> howyah
[16:29] <dbc`marc> http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&postid=293221#post293221
[16:29] <dbc`marc> its about the irish mapping scene
[16:29] <MindPhuck> yea?
[16:29] <dbc`marc> u think u could host a webby on fortress?
[16:29] <MindPhuck> sure
[16:29] <dbc`marc> cool-a-boola
[16:29] <dbc`marc> thnks m8
[16:29] <MindPhuck> u need to email me tho
[16:29] <dbc`marc> ok
[16:29] <dbc`marc> email = ?
[16:29] <MindPhuck> i dont take hosting on irc
[16:30] <MindPhuck> security ****e n all
[16:30] <dbc`marc> "[16:29] <MindPhuck> i dont take hosting on irc"
[16:30] <MindPhuck> mindphuck@eircom.net
[16:30] <dbc`marc> hehe
[16:30] <MindPhuck> heh
[16:30] <dbc`marc> k,
[16:30] <MindPhuck> do it now
[16:30] <dbc`marc> slash away email
[16:30] <MindPhuck> and ill set u up now
[16:36] <dbc`marc> done
[16:37] <dbc`marc> keyword "mappers" if thats ok

phaxx

The site www.fortress.ie is running Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98.

AAAUUUGGHH

/me runs around screaming

So we're stuck with flat html?

Lyconix

Originally posted by DaSilva
I could help with the site! Im not very good at design but I can do Flash and Javascript to some extent!

Okay, welcome aboard!

Originally posted by DRakE
I could release some of my old never to be finsihed maps...

Good idea - open source maps are a great way to make good use out of maps you'd never finish yourself... believe me I've been there!

I've been thinking about the actual NAME of the site... IMC (Irish Mapping Central) is what I'm thinking of at present, what do you guys think?

I can start working on the site very shortly - I can take care of the HTML aspect while DaSilva offers help in the form of Flash... right now I'm working on a plan of the site and it won't be long before I can make a start on the actual HTML code. Keep in mind I'm no ultimate web designer, but I can certainly put a decent website together.

If anyone else wants to help with the site, send me an email or just post here...

DRakE

www.cscentral.com


supports all stuff, cgi,php etc

anyhoo.,..

Lyconix

Sounds good... however I think the site will start off as a mixture of HTML, Flash, Java and Javascript, then perhaps have PHP support etc. later on.

phaxx

Better to design it well from the start with php and all the dynamic things isn't it?

Oh, one thing, don't do a flash "intro" page...

Lyconix

I don't know how to use PHP at the moment...

There won't be a Flash intro, don't worry. The site will be easily accessible and simple to navigate.

phaxx

I know php, and I'm more than willing to create the back end. Is there a database available where it'll be hosted or will I have to work from flat files? (eugh...)

Lyconix

What advantages will PHP bring to the site?

phaxx

Well, put simply, let's say we have a standard navigation bar thing - if you want to make a change to it, you need to update it on all the pages, which is time consuming and irritating. With php, you could just put the code

include("navigation.php");

at the point where you want the navigation, and when a visitor comes to the site, php then grabs that file, puts it in, and viola, you have one place to make a change, and it's instantly changed in every file that inclues the above bit of code. That's the simplest and most useful aspect of PHP, I think.

For a bit more complicated use of php, have a look at my site - it's all dynamically generated from lots of little files. I have one for the little calendar, one for the navigation, one for the footer, one for the left bar, and so on... it would be a nightmare to maintain if I wasn't using php or some other server side scripting language.

PHP can also be used for things like shopping carts.

Taking my little calendar, for example... it takes the output of the unix command "cal", parses it, and creates a table for it, with the colours/etc I specify, all in the blink of an eye, and it's always up to date.

Oh, and how could I forget, heh, boards.ie! A huge forum site, done in php.

That's why we oughta have php. I'm willing to code all the php for the site, and the design too. (Plus whatever admin scripts are necessary to maintain it - add new sections to the navigation bar, yadda yadda.)

Lyconix

That sounds good... but frames can also make navigation bars easy to update

Would it be possible to make a PHP-driven site accessible and updatable by a set site staff of people?

phaxx

Yeah, well, frames, most of the time, are very badly used. PHP rules.

Yup, that's exactly what I had in mind - create it, and administration scripts for one of the staff to come and make changes - things like post news item, edit news item, add section, blah blah blah... add file, add link, all that. Just so I won't be called upon to make changes.

Ta for the message by the way. I think the cam software crashed though so you weren't seeing a recent image. I dunno. Sucky cam software

Lyconix

That sounds great - I'd appreciate any help you could give in that area Feel free to design the core of the site in PHP if you feel up to it - we can arrange that via email correspondence...

DeadBankClerk

i think we should host the site somewhere that allows us use php, and have www.fortress.ie/mappers link to the other webspace.

email NOSPAMBOTS________omorainm@tcd.ie and ill give ppl the un/pw for the site

Lyconix

The username and password for FTP access to the site?

Just give it to me and Phaxx for the moment since we'll be doing the initial work on the site...

I can see a community taking off already

phaxx

I'll look into hosting it on a server I have an account on... place in england, my site's there. It won't be a problem, as long as it doesn't have an effect on the other main site hosted there - so, as long as we're not slashdotted, we're grand! Anyway, I'll ask the owner of the server if I can host another little site. If it goes ahead, it'll be a very good host. (More bandwidth than my LAN at home - no messing)

Will get back to you tomorrow with the answer... in the meantime, what about a domain? I'm happy to give it a subdomain of my site, something like imc.sleepygeek.org, but that's not great. Is a whole new domain a bit much for what we're doing? Should we start small, or will someone else go and register a domain now?

Lyconix

Okay, good work

I can't see anyone registering a domain for the site yet since it doesn't even exist yet, so we should certainly start small with a sub-domain or something and then work our way up. If the site is successful and builds a community, then I'm sure it'd be worthing giving it a .COM domain name.

DeadBankClerk

i have emailed lyconix the ftp details for -
www.fortress.ie/mappers

we can set the site up there right now, and if you want to transfer the site to another host, we can keep the url and set up an auto forward.

Lyconix

Okay, thanks DeadBankClerk... Phaxx, any luck getting that server?

phaxx

Indeed I have, reply from the owner - affirmative.



I need to sort it out and add the site to it, (r00t privs ) and I'm somewhat bogged down at this very minute... gimme an hour or so.

Lyconix

No problemo, take your time So what will our website URL be?

Lets discuss this further by email or ICQ, preferably the latter since I'm almost always on it whenever I'm online...

phaxx

I used to use ICQ, but then it went all.. bloated and annoying. I use MSN messenger these days for IM... I quite like it, even though it's sort of cutesy and all that, but it's small, simple, does IM, file transfer, and that's it - it doesn't try to do a hundred things.

Only downside to msn messenger is you need a passport (hotmail) account

Wan, off you go to messenger.msn.com and tell me when you have it.

Oh and there's no spam on it either... nobody forwarding crap and telling me about their hot XXX sites.

The url will be, for the moment, imc.sleepygeek.org

I'll let you know when it's up and working.

Lyconix

I can't get MSN to work, I've tried before

Ah well, keep me posted through email then, the address is in my profile... I'll give MSN another try in the meantime.

Lyconix

Got MSN working... add me to your contact list, I can't find you to add you to mine...

phaxx

http://imc.sleepygeek.org

Yay!

I allocated 100mb of space to it, I'd rather it didn't go over that for the moment. I have permission to run a half-life dedicated server on that machine, which I do occasionally. I have it updated to the latest one, and it has cs 1.3 on it, so we can use that, and have sleepygeek.org as the hostname.

No shell access, decided not to grant that, at least not yet. Account details I'll send to lyconix.

Lyconix

Nice work... looks like we'll have the IMC up and running soon, folks

Go ahead and add me to your MSN contact list Phaxx...