HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

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TheUnbeholden
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HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by TheUnbeholden »

I have scheduled its archival to happen on the 21st of March

Due to no updates in over 3 years on both the website and moddb.

Its release date is listed as a TBD (To Be Determined), these mods can be archived because they suggest the mod is being worked on.

I could change the release date to that of the demo's release. But because its a small texture/model pack I can give you guys the choice of archiving the mod and reupload it as a addon due to the small nature of these packs.

If someone new is in charge of HDTP (in other words someone else than metche_steele) I will hand over ownership of the mod to them, they will in turn have to post media (images and/or videos) newer than 1 year.

If its a small group working on it, I can assign control over to a group.

I can suggest new articles on the website and/or moddb profile but its not necessary in order to keep it on moddb, you merely have to show that it is been actively worked on... talking about it is merely to keep people informed and should be done once or twice a year or even better, every few months.

I'm a newer admin of moddb... but even I know that no updates in over 3 years is unacceptable practice regardless of the rules.

The right thing to do would have been either
A. have Metch Steel archive the mod, or B. have team members contact moddb staff to archive it for them.
C. contact moddb staff to hand over ownership to someone else.
This mess could have been avoided sooner.

Yours Sincerely
TheUnbeholden
Last edited by TheUnbeholden on Wed Feb 22, 2012 11:44 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by TheUnbeholden »

I also suggest this forum to have a
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by DDL »

Or, we could just let it die on Moddb, then rehost it.

OH THE DECISIONS WE MUST MAKE


(if indeed this really is moddb policy, which I highly doubt...I've found mods from games YEARS old, that haven't been updated in aaages)

Also, you know where to shove your passive-aggressive attitude, right? Yeah, thought so.
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by Salk »

No need to get angry, DDL. ;)

We people that come to this Forum, we learned what sacrifices and what commitment people like you had to this project. We have had the chance to get to know metche, you, Akerfeldt, DaveW and all other contributors.

But ModDB is a big and important community that shouldn't be dismissed light-heartedly. You DDL are too important in this project to make you use even one minute of your time to keep the HDTP page there updated.

But perhaps someone else could do it? It wouldn't be good to let it die or have the admins declare it officially archived. It's bad publicity. And HDTP does not really need it.
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by Jonas »

I honestly think it'd be more productive to wait until HDTP is done before resuming the PR. At this point, there is so little good-will in the community that anything released now would garner a large negative response, as far as I can predict. Better to wrap up and release, and THEN start carbet-bombing the sites with press material.
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by DaveW »

Jonas wrote:I honestly think it'd be more productive to wait until HDTP is done before resuming the PR. At this point, there is so little good-will in the community that anything released now would garner a large negative response, as far as I can predict. Better to wrap up and release, and THEN start carbet-bombing the sites with press material.
Agreed; I don't think there's need for any media releases now. It's gone past that stage, and we're close enough to a release that it would just be a waste of everyone's time.


I do have to agree with DDL and say you can shove your attitude though, Unbeholden. HDTP is doing no harm on ModDB and it's clear it's still being worked on - there's absolutely no reason to archive it except being petty.
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by TheUnbeholden »

DaveW wrote: I do have to agree with DDL and say you can shove your attitude though, Unbeholden. HDTP is doing no harm on ModDB and it's clear it's still being worked on - there's absolutely no reason to archive it except being petty.
The website and moddb profile beg to differ, I'm not a mind reader.

I'm just following the rules... it would be a disservice as a admin and to moddb to continue a charade.

The harm is allowing mods to take up space on moddb and continue to give false hope for anyone following said mods, while not as bad as freeloaders (mods with no actual proof that they where ever worked on, merely a story idea and some concept art).
serve as a reminder that moddb profiles are for active mods... or completed mods. All the ideas, dead mods, ect stay in forums. Hundreds of thousands of mods in hiatus clutter up a otherwise productive community.
DDL wrote: (if indeed this really is moddb policy, which I highly doubt...I've found mods from games YEARS old, that haven't been updated in aaages)

Also, you know where to shove your passive-aggressive attitude, right? Yeah, thought so.
Yes it is, as stated by Scott Reismanis who appointed me as a admin, in agreement with Dave Traeger.
Its shown in red writing whenever you or someone uploads a mod that hasn't been authorized yet.

the exceptions are if the websites connected to the mods have updates instead, or if the mod is released.

I wouldn't call my assertive clarification of rules and suggestions as passive aggressive but it is up to you.
It's not my job to comb through forums looking for hints that suggest things are being worked on, there is a strict requirement of proof.
Last edited by TheUnbeholden on Tue Feb 21, 2012 8:51 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by TheUnbeholden »

Even Black Mesa: Source is not an exception

http://wiki.blackmesasource.com/Black_M ... ent_events

Its website has news articles with images (it came close to being archived when the Dev blog disappeared) and because its media lacked dates there was no way to prove it was being worked on or if anything at all had been released in the past 3 years... all it had was its moddb profile and its impending ticking clock of doom.
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by Jonas »

Can a new page be created for a mod if its old one has been archived before its release?

If so, I say go for it. And I add: whatever.
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by SyntaxError »

Now, I guess unless you write moddb about it, there won't be any confirmation if the guy is legit.
If not, you at least have to give him some credit for his creativity in this (understandable) attempt to get some info about the project.

For anyone who is not in the lucky "inner circle" or somewhat faithful, there's little reason to assume it is still being worked on.
Wouldn't be the first time a highly anticipated project was supposedly "almost finished" for years, only to die before a release occured.
For what it's worth, you guys could be a group of master trolls, laughing about our puny begging for more screenshots, beta versions or whatever. :D

As stated before, personally I find your PR less than perfect, but hey, it's your decision, so who am I to complain...
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by DDL »

Ugh. I just can't understand why anyone one ever believe anything so fucking retarded. The problem seems to be that the internet's version of "innocent until proven guilty" is "dead unless updated weekly"..and quite frankly, fuck that. I strongly suspect that one reason fucking hundreds of mods die is that they spend so much time on PR that they forget to actually implement any content. I've never really understood this, since it's not like mods technically benefit from masses of publicity (being, after all, free): we're not selling anything. The only two real reasons I can postulate are to

1)attract like-minded people and thus assemble a team (which we really are not interested in at this point), and
2)bask in the adoration of people who post things like "OMG I CANT WIAT FOR UR MODDDD" (which I could happily live without)

Quite frankly, I don't see what we get out of wasting time posting PR, other than (perhaps) fewer angry entitlement-complex peeps on the forums. And even those guys are an indication that people still care, if we..you know, actually worried about that (for reference, I would finish HDTP even if nobody still cared, because I want a copy for myself).

If you really want updates, there's a ton of info all over this subforum, you literally have to read the top few threads. And don't go all "but the last update is over 3 months oldddddd!!!" when the project as a whole is vastly older than that, and yet we're still fucking here. I'd say as a rule of thumb if the "time since last update" is greater than the "age of the mod up to the last update", then you might have a case for deadness. We have a while to go before that happens. As things currently stand, there are a few things we'd like to finalise, but then we're done, and it really is simply a matter of finding the time to do them. This is not trivial.

Finally, inner circle? Seriously, we're like, right here. This is me, talking to you. OTP is where us HDTP peeps hang out.
If you're on this forum at all, you're by default "inner circle".

Also, TheUnbeholden, by passive-aggressive I specfically refer to "This mess could have been avoided sooner", a statement of such smug pointlessness that it actually removed my ability to care about any semantic content in the rest of your message. Though for what it's worth, the HDTP currently on Moddb is the first release. It IS a release, i.e. it has content (quite a lot of content). It will continue to be a release, and will continue to have content, even if we actually formerly announced HDTP was dead (which as noted, it isn't). What you are proposing is somewhat analogous to deleting HL2 episodes 1 and 2 from everyone's hard disks because clearly ep3 isn't providing enough updates. It's inexplicable to me, and frankly, I call bullshit. Or failing that, massive fucking stupidity. Or both.
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by SyntaxError »

Ah well, PR doesn't mean that you are forced to create a twitter feed (@HDTP: just implemented manderleys "sitting on the toilet" anim), churn out weekly updates on your blog, or dress your dog up as Gunther Herman and set him loose in town.

I guess what many people (myself included, I won't lie about that :oops: ) would like too see once in a while is something like a new screenshot of an updated npc in the game. Hey, even if it's just every couple of months, it's something to look at.

If those actually exist, I guess I have been struck by a temporal blindness or such thing.

But sorry if any of my writing did upset you, that certainly wasn't my intention.
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by DDL »

Problem with that is that we can't do all the NPCs (because there are fucking hundreds) and also, last time we put any screenshots of NPCs up, the shitstorm it created resulted in one of our most prolific NPC modeller/skinner peeps quitting in disgust, and lots of other team members reduced their subsequent involvement. It certainly killed a fuckton of forward momentum we were experiencing at the time.

Hell, one of the things on my list of "things to do" is code up a way to make NPC remeshing optional, just because of that. *sigh*
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by Salk »

In the end I think that DDL won't show anything new because he wants it to be a very nice and big surprise. :)
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Re: HDTP scheduled for Archival on ModDB

Post by Jaedar »

I'm guessing that some people like publishing stuff during development to get feedback and or adoration for what they've accomplished so far.

Totally cool if HDTP is not like that. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see this mod released sooner rather than later, but I'd rather see it get released than be empty hype. Showing what's been done so far won't do anything.

Do yourself a favor and assume it's vaporware, and then maybe, one day you'll get a nice surprise.
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