Help wanted forum?
Eric ColemanWhat does everyone think about a "Help wanted" forum (or something) so people can post contact information, PC hardware and software specifications, so people can easily find other programmer's (and artists and musicians) with certain skills, and maybe even find beta tester's based on their equipment.
Sr. GuapoSounds interesting... What the heck, why not. [:D]
masterboodaThis wouldn't have anything to do with the 12 page long debug would it....j/k... This sounds like a really good idea to me... will help keep the news and regular forum from being hopelessly clogged with issues that only pertain to certain groups... I say go for it.. DaBooda out...
VBBRSo why not change the whole thing? Like one forum for General Programming, General Gaming, DirectX, Optimization etc. ?
Eric ColemanThe idea is not to have a forum for different programming topics, but to have a place where programmers can find other programmers based on their abilities, skills, and available hardware. VBgamer hardly gets any posts in the current forum, so any new specific forums will probably stay empty for a long time, and that makes the website seem really dead when it's not.
VBBRYeah, guess you're right (as always [:D]) Hum... Then I think it will be good. Just create the "help wanted" forum; if it seems dead then just delete it. Simple, isn't it?
Almar JolingHi! I need someone to make me a quake clone! :) I need it within a week! :) Greetz, Newbie :) ^^ Aren't you afraid to get such things? :). I think making a forum to find other people won't exactly work out.. since they don't visit it overhere. :) Although it did gave me the idea to maybe compile a list of many guys overhere (and lucky's) with different system specs which are willin to try a game to see if it works properly or not.. some 'volunteer tester database' :)
VBBRHey, good idea. [:D] But a quake clone is not that hard to make. I think I would go for a really-cool-mix-of-Half-Life-Starcraft-and-Final-Fantasy-XI-and- -that-is-including-all-the-MMORPG-stuff-and-at-least-200-dedicated-servers-please. Oh-and-I-want-it-for-tomorrow. (the first sentence was to be all on a single line but that would mix everything up...) Sorry, but I couln't resist to put the MMORPG part on it.
Sr. GuapoI don't think it is for "outsourcing" (your quake/really-cool-mix-of-Half-Life-Starcraft-and-Final- Fantasy-XI-and-that-is-including-all-the-MMORPG-stuff- and-at-least-200-dedicated-servers) is what he meant by the forum. It is just a convinient way to post your program (that YOU wrote) and have a larger base of people try it out, rather than crashing all your friends computers [:D]... I think it is a good idea. It will/should make alpha and beta testing much easier if I ever get a program to that stage (I currently have about 20 or so started and uncompleted projects on my hard drive)...
VBBRI know, I was just making a bigger joke out of Almar's post.
messixYeah, that actually sounds like a great idea - either the database of hardware and people or a section on the site here to find people that might be able to help with problems that everyone else is having (lol - why not both?!?!) :-)
ballistikI think that'd be a great idea to have something like that, a test-bed if you will where we can submit our projects and let people tear them up... and hopefully be able to get there computer running again afterwards hehe.
BrykovianPlaying off ballistik's suggestiong, instead of "help wanted" ... you can call it "test bed" or something similar. -Bryk
Eric ColemanOk, so the current idea is like this: You submit yourself to the database, you specify your hardware and software, etc, see the post above. Also, you can specify weather you want to be listed as 1) wanting to join a programming team, 2) looking for help 3) a beta tester. And for contact options, the ability to receive individual emails only, or a receive a global email where someone posts to a request to all beta testers, etc. All global requests will be archived for other people to look at in case they only recently joined the database. Also, to stay in the database you'll need to edit your profile at least once every month or two, and you'll get en email notification that you're about to be deleted. Any other ideas or suggestions?
Sr. GuapoSounds like a great idea. Could we keep multiple hardware profiles (2 or 3). Some of us have more than one computer with different specs...
Eric ColemanYeah, I have quite a few different computers as well, and some have multiple OS's just for testing purposes. I figured a big textbox where you can write everyone down in one area should be sufficient. Or do you think I should provide seperate text boxes for CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, Joystick, etc? I'm sure I'll forget something, which is why I think a large text box would be easier.
Sr. GuapoI was thinking you would have specific textboxes. Maybe that way a person could search the database for everyone with, say, a Radeon 9200 card, rather than searching through several huge textboxes...
Eric Colemanwell, what should there be for hardware text boxes?
VBBR- CPU - RAM memory (size, speed, type) - Video Card - Operating System (VERY important) just some basic ones [:D]
Sr. GuapoYes, definately CPU (type, speed), RAM (type, amount), Video card (type, memory, speed), OS (since it is a VB site, you can probably get away with only listing the Windows ones) . Also it may be nice to have "sound card" and "Internet Connection" (Dial up, DSL, cable).
Eric ColemanCPU, Ram, video card, os, that's all the obvious things, here is the list that I've come up with so far, any additions are welcome.
  • cpu
  • ram
  • video
  • os
  • compilers
  • soundcard
  • networkaccess
  • lan
  • directxversion
  • openglversion
  • NETframeworkversion
  • joystick
  • multiplemonitors
messixMight be a bit extreme but maybe the service pack that the OS is on - just incase you're making a call to a system API that fails in either early/late versions of the service packs... Might also be good to know if it's a lappy or a desktop.
Eric Colemanthe service pack would fit in the OS category, Windows 2000 SP4, WIN XP SP1, etc. Other than the shape of the computer, what difference does it make if it's a laptop or desktop? I'm sure you had something in mind when you wrote that, but it's early in the morning for me as I write this, and my brain isn't working yet. I need some coffee. [:)]
ballistikThis sounds great to me. One question though... and maybe I'm just brain-farting here, what would the networkaccess field entail? Because you also have a LAN field, don't they coincide? Or were you thinking something different?
Eric ColemanI should probably rename it to "internet connection speed," but when I named it "network access" I was thinking more along the lines of ADSL, SDSL, Cable, Dial up, Satelite, MMDS, ISDN, etc.
ballistikAh ok, that makes sense then.
Lachlan87Might want to add one for speakers (2, 2.1, 4, 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1). I know not many people make 3D games, but for the few who do, they might want to be able to get testers for their surround sound functions. Maybe hard disk speeds?
Eric ColemanI wouldn't know what to do with hard disk speed numbers. Even a slow hard drive is still pretty fast these days. I thought about the sound card stuff, but considering that you're extremely lucky to get any sound at all in a VB game, advanced surround sound programming in VB might be a fantasy, although I guess I'll add it just to be complete.
VBBRHard disk speed, along with type, might be useful. Like everyone here knows that a 5000 RPM IDE hard drive is a lot slower than a 10000 RPM SATA one. For example, take a game that uses a really big save file. It may not be a problem in a new (fast) drive, something like 5 seconds for example. But a slow (old) one would maybe take 15-30 seconds to save, who knows? It may be useful. (also I want to add how virtual memory slows down disk access, I used to play a game where it would take 30-60 seconds to save the game; with 4 times the RAM and 4 times the Video RAM it takes 2 seconds only to save. Remembering: VRAM Full-> Textures go to RAM; RAM full due to textures -> data go to virtual memory. We know that textures using system memory and data using virtual memory is not quite fast)
ballistikhehe, my computer is so old I can't remember how fast my hard drive is anymore lol... I think it's at least 5400 though... hmmm...
VBBRI think mine is an IDE 7200 RPM...
messix
quote:
Originally posted by Eric Coleman
the service pack would fit in the OS category, Windows 2000 SP4, WIN XP SP1, etc. Other than the shape of the computer, what difference does it make if it's a laptop or desktop? I'm sure you had something in mind when you wrote that, but it's early in the morning for me as I write this, and my brain isn't working yet. I need some coffee. [:)]
lol! yes, I guess I should explained this one a bit more [:)] I was thinking more along the lines that if you're running off a lappy, you're more then likely going to have power features enabled, along with other special lappy things (touchpad, multiple mouse devices, extra/fewer keyboard buttons (like the function key being used to make more keys availble), etc.). Just thinking (from experience) that sometimes those really hard to find problems can be a lot easier to identify once you know that someone is running off a lappy. Might not be needed though - it could just add to the overhead of entering in system specs which, as stated previously, might turn people off the whole idea. And to be honest, I'd rather have people entering in profiles and ready to test then know in great detail what people will be testing with [:)]
Eric ColemanI was thinking about using the name "Programmer Bin" for the programmer database since I'm using a similar naming scheme the code database, "Code Bin." The reason I'm posting is becuse "Programmer Bin" just seems a bit too long to type. Does anyone have any suggestions of a similar name?
VBBRwhat about... - Beta Bin - Tester Bin - QA Bin - Coder Bin
VBBRAnd BTW, the BHGL and Submit Game pages aren't opening here. EDIT: They're working now.
Eric ColemanI copied the files to use as a template for a different page, but instead of copying I moved them isntead.
Lachlan87If it is a database of PC stats, why not call it the "PC Bin"? Originally I had thought it was meant to encompass a lot more than Beta testers, though, so maybe we're not thinking along the right lines. . .
Eric ColemanIt is supposed to be more than just beta testers, and I think I'm going to use the name "Help Bin," which is more of a general idea of what the database is for.
EACamI definately think u should add a Lappy/Desktop part, because there are games that just simply wont wont work on Lappys (Thief 3, for example). And yes, there are often HUGE differences between the two (Celeron vs. Pentium, etc.).
Eric ColemanThis is almost finished. I only have two things left before this is complete. I need to finish the email script and also add a way to simply browse through entries.
Lachlan87Thats cool. Are you going to update the way the News page looks after this?
VBBRNo, wait. Am I getting crazy or what? I just opened VBGamer and the 2.0 layout was being used!!! Then I pressed refresh to see if it was right and then everything came back to the old version! Is this right or is it just me programming too much??? (sorry for this being a little OT, I just wanted to post it as soon as it happened!) What the heck, it happened again! I refreshed and it was VBG 2.0, refreshed again and it was 1.0!! Man is this crazy!! Just voted in the poll for "the best website ever" then it refreshed and it was 1.0 again. Refreshed some more times and it was 2.0 for tha 3rd time. If you guys want to take a look at 2.0, just keep refreshing! Just stopped to take a closer look at the new design. Now I'm confident I voted with a clean conscience [:D]
Eric Colemanyeah, that's just a random beta test of it. the poll won't work because of the way votes are recorced, so that vote you saw was a previous vote. I added your vote to the database manually, so don't worry about it being lost. The final front page will be put up after I finish converting the rest of the site to the new layout and after finishing a few articles that I'm working on. I work on the website when I have spare time, so progress is slow.
VBBRHeh, but that's funny. I haven't seen something like this before. "random beta test"... althought it's an interesting concept.
Almar JolingTalking about modifications Eric; it would be nice that if I click on the VBGamer logo at the top-left here, that it would bring me to the mainpage :)
Eric ColemanEmail works. The current design is that if you contact someone through the Help Bin, he will see your email address. The person can then reply in 2 different ways. Either direct email, or to help preserve privacy, through a form on a web page. If the person replies via the web form, then email addresses will be hidden during any further communication. There is also the ability to block someone from emailing you through the Help Bin. The only thing left is the "browse" feature, and hopefully that shouldn't take too long, but I have to paint the fence today so I won't get much programming done. And for IE users, you're given a special treat in the 2.0 layout!
Sion
quote:
Originally posted by Eric Coleman
And for IE users, you're given a special treat in the 2.0 layout!
What is it?! Worms and trojans that take advantage of all IE's security holes? Layout displacements? Come on, tell us already! Oh, the joys of using Internet Explorer are many! It tries so hard to crash at hilarious occations just to give us users a good laugh... [:p]
Eric ColemanLook at the "Other" menu.
VBBRLOL [:D] That surely will come in handy.
SionHahaha! Nice touch! [:D]
sdwChange the Visited Link color to something else, preferably keep it yellow, in the navigation. It looks like regular text as gray.
SionI just added myself to the "Help Bin", but there is no option to make my profile available for beta-testing. This is the only position in the help bin I can manage right now [:)] I've just noticed that my hardware profile is set to be "visible" to users searching for beta-testers, but I still can't see my own profile in the "Help bin" statistics, or in the browse-list...
Eric ColemanRead the section "Help Bin Console." There are 3 options, and you can use all 3. There are probably a few bugs that I haven't found yet, so if you see anything strange then please let me know.
Eric ColemanWhat does it say in the "Your Information" section?
SionAhh, there is also a "visible" checkbox in the profile section, and not just in the hardware profile! That's it [:)]
VBBRWhy is it needed to specify a country...? (oh, and I'm really looking forward to the Code and Project Bins too)
Eric ColemanIt allows you to find people that might be near you. Do you have a problem specifying your country? If your country isn't in the list, then let me know and I'll add it.
VBBRThe problem is just that I'm a little paranoid about this kind of thing [:p] But I think that's not a big problem at all. Can anyone that is browsing the Bin see your country? (I searched for yours and Sion's but couldn't find, so I think not)
SionIf you search for "Denmark" my profile shows up, other than that I've found no way to see what country the other users are from. But if you're really this paranoid about the mafia or whoever hunting you down when they know the country you're in, then just choose a random country from the list. How about "Mozambique"? [:P]
VBBRHum, that's pretty cool. In fact it's a funny coincidence. (Mozambique is a country from the east coast of Africa, now what language do they speak there? [;)]) I guess it shoudn't hurt to put my real country here, as some people might have already figured it out anyway. EDIT: OK, here it goes. You all know now.
VBBROops, it seems I was testing the bin and e-mailed Eric and Sion by accident. Hehe, sorry. Please ignore any "VBBR wants beta testers" email.
SionStrange, I didn't get a mail. You probably didn't send me a mail, because we testede the mailing system earlier today, and it works like a charm.
Eric Coleman
quote:
Originally posted by VBBR <br>I guess it shoudn't hurt to put my real country here, as some people might have already figured it out anyway. EDIT: OK, here it goes. You all know now.
As Sion pointed out, there is no way to know what country you selected unless someone correctly guesses it by searching for it. I didn't get an email either.
VBBR(country) Yeah, but I put it in the forums too. [:D] About the email, I think the following happened... I searched for "120 GB" in HDs (just for testing), then Eric and Sion appeared. Then I clicked "Email contact list" thinking another page would show but it went back to the main Help Bin page. But I think I need to check the boxes next to who I want to email. [:D]
SionYes, that's right, you need to check the boxes... VBBR FROM BRAZIL! [:p]
VBBRNow, you start to wonder, where did I get the idea for my name from...? (masterbooda once figured that VB meant Visual Basic... but he couldn't find out the BR part ;)
SionWell, in Denmark we have a large chain of toy-stores called "Fætter BR", which means "Cousin BR". I think that you're "Cousin BR"! Here are some pictures of their mascot, called "Cousin BR", which pretty much resembles what I think you must look like: - [url]http://m11.br.dk/media/IKON/30333.gif[/url] - [url]http://m11.br.dk/media/IKON/35321.gif[/url] Notice his outfit. It's actually the uniform of the highly respected National Garde (that guards the Queen of Denmark) along with the helmet of bear-skin and everything. Here is a picture of the brave fella's marching in front of the Queens castle on a gray day: [url]http://www.unicahome.com/products/6497.0AC5C53D.jpg[/url] Joke aside, I think it might be the first two letters from BRazil...? Or prehaps or initials... Brian Ryan? Bobo Raisin?
VBBRCertainly. [;)] (edit: dammit you edited while I was writing. I mean it's the first two letters) (now thinking about it, what a stupid name. That's what you get when you want to comment on something and needs a name quickly...)
SionHey, I guessed correct! Pretty cool. But I think you should stick with VBBR instead of Visual Basic Brazil... The long version just isn't very catchy [:p]
Almar JolingYeah, BR. Saw it a lot in Danmark (been there often, to the north, "KlitMoller", next to the "vandet so", [;)]), Billund (lego land! :D), and Aarhus, and Copenhagen only a few times. Edit: Traditional stuff we HAVE to bring with us back to NL: - The chocolate thin layers for on bread (poleaq/k or something?) - Pulsor [:p] - WienerBrod [img]http://www.open-files.com/forum/html/emoticons/worshippy.gif[/img]
SionHaha, very nice post Almar! [:)]
quote:
Originally posted by Almar Joling
The chocolate thin layers for on bread (poleaq/k or something?)
"Paalaeg"? That just means "slices of something [cheese/chocolate/meat/etc] to put on bread". I was in the Netherlands a week or so around 1998 as part of a student exchanging project. And it's strange that you would bring home thin layers of chocolate, because where I lived we were constantly served small pieces of chocolate on white bread. I don't no why it's that popular, because I don't think it's very good for the health, but they just had a break-fast-cerial-size box with that chipped chocolate stuff. It tasted very good tough [;)]
quote:
Pulsor [:p]
Hmm... "Poelser", prehaps? That just mean sausuages. We do have some great sausuages, but nothing compared to what they have in Italy and France.
quote:
WienerBrod [img]http://www.open-files.com/forum/html/emoticons/worshippy.gif[/img]
Oh yeah, Wienerbroed! Mmm, 100 000 calories sqeezed into a little greasy cake. No really, it's the good stuff! In Denmark we call it a Wienerbroed, which is named after the large German city "Wien" (I think that's where they're playing symphony music from on the morning of Januar 1st every year. I'm usually just too hung over too be watching people in huge dresses dance around to symphony music [:p]). Back to my point, it's called "Wienerbroed" in Denmark, but abroad it's called a "Danish"... I have no idea how it got that name, but at least people know my country for that. "Denmark, hmm isn't that some sort of pastry?" [:D]
Almar JolingWell, we have "chocolate hail" ( http://images.google.com/images?q=hagelslag&hl=nl&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi ) over here :). tiny chocolate pieces. But it's no where compared to the slices/layers of chocolate. I still have a package left somewhere Ithink.. I'm suprised you write things down different as I see them. :) I couldn't be bothered to look up the char, earlier. PulsØr (Here I'm holding one: http://www.persistentrealities.com/IMG_0101.JPG [;)]) and WienerbrØd. With the special "O" right? :). I know it's caleld after the German city. But I haven't seen it in Germany actually. When I was in Washington a month ago, I think I did see a label "Danish pastry", or something similar. (I did bring some home, [:D])
Eric Colemanmmmm cholcoate! all this food is making me hungry.
IodiplinMy my is that hard to believe. VBBR is beating you in posts Eric!!! [:)]
SionSize... ehhm... posting amout dosn't matter - it's how you post them that matters! Ehhm... [:p]
VBBRFrom what I recall, I passed Eric for some time now... Not that I want to crush everyone here with my not-so-future 2000 posts. [:D]
Almar JolingWe'll just start spamming around in a hidden forum :-)