Release For all of us

[bakawhite]

Can a little community project be discussed?

I'm not a developer, but I want to be. I know alot of us here are the same. Actually, I'd say everyone getting a pandora may feel so as well. I think it would be well worth it to create a program, applet, or website that could easily get everyone involved.

What I propose would be a little system that is connected to the internet and is basically a forum in its own. developers or visionaries get on, say they have a project, announce the details and the requirements. you can take a look at it and see if you have necessary skills to contribute, then contact the dev through a message board/im-pm.
You could have a registered account, even, that would list your skills and past/current projects.

I really think this system would be a good way to speed up development by helping get everyone involved.

 

[PoisonedV]

already is one, bud. viewtopic.php?f=14&t=269&start=70

 

[bakawhite]

yeah, like that. I knew about that, I've been following that since it came out.
But I'm saying like, sexy. And, all over the map like DStillery.com meets facebook meets that. A real easy-to-grasp-because-its-hitting-you-so-hard-in-the-face website.

 

[dentrado]

I'd like that too, and I would like it to be easier to find files in the filearchive (than in the GP2X archive), with some a good description and screenshot and a rating system like on linux game tome.

 

[PoisonedV]

Ahahah, yeah, missed half your post. I get what you are saying now. well i understand but you mean, but I think the pandora archive and the forums would be a resource that would work as well if not better

 

[bakawhite]

Well, again, simplified. Like facebook(pre-suck). right there, you have a name, a picture, and status. Click, and you see info. click again, and you see people working. Also, think of the "quest postings" in video games. You have name, goal, poster, summary, and requirements.

I would love to sit down, tap an icon on my pandora, and see a list of up-and-coming software ideas flash up on the screen. I see that one would like some music or a 3D model, so I write a quick post, drop out, and whip something up in a tracker or Blender. Post results into a 'holding page' and see if they responded by the next day.

simple, easy, really emphasising group cooperation and tries to get all the pandora users involved. we have 4000 people all getting one of these units. If all of them got plugged into an urging community like this, by the time production2 rolled around people will think that this is gamer(or what-have-you) heaven.

Like you say, poisonedV. "I'm develop software", why don't we all?

 

[dentrado]

Forums is good, but far from perfect and it can be hard to keep track of everything that happens sometimes, so I think player4's idea could be someting really good, if done right.

A start however, to make forums (especially the gp32x forums) more easily navigated is to have more categories like on this forum.

 

[PoisonedV]

Alright, I get it. while the forums would do, it just adds to the burden of developers, and I can see how this would make things a bit more fun and easy. yeah, i like the idea.

 

[bakawhite]

Does anyone want to pick this up? I'm sure that lots of developers are currently busy, so if this idea can be kept alive long enough for one of them to pick it up... but I might try learning to coding just for this little program. what would I need?

 

[dentrado]

I think a website would be more apropriate, I wan't to be able to use it on any computer, and not just on the pandora. (Maybe you could have an app on the pandora too if you wanted, with extra functionality.)

 

[darkowl]

maybe we could have something like http://www.maemo-apps.org/
but also allow people too list the media that they require; art, sprites, sounds, etc? pandora-games.org

 

[bakawhite]

Yeah, that's the idea of it. Perfect!
A website, yes. with an app on your pandora (etc...) that keeps you up to date on projects, favorite developers?

I need to get this going somehow...

 

[ashdjones]

'Wishlist' - Pandora feature request website

I voluntered a while back for a company that runs a fairly big browser based game, they had an in-house script they developed for users to add and vote for their own feature requests/improvements.

I thought something similar would be great for the Pandora, slightly scaled up.

Brief description:

- Website is account only, needs email athentication
- Front page has main catagories (possibly fixed) eg. Applications/Firmware/Games/Emulators/Port
- Catagories contain entries for requested or existing software
- Entries for requested software are user submitted
- A requested software entry can be upgraded to existing software entry by mod/user vote/lead dev
- Existing software entry becomes a sub-catagory for feature requests
- Feature requests are also user submitted
- Users vote for feature request or software request with 'wishes'
- Users get a fixed amount of wishes to spend, eg. 5
- Users can only assign one wish to each request
- Users have an interface to examine and remove existing wishes
- At certain intervals (once an hour/day/week) the server uses a script to compile a list of most popular requests by amount of wishes

Anyone have an opinions about the wishing system? I tried to think of the best solution that represents up-to-date opinions while encouraging users to think carefully about what they want. I think it also encourages people to spread out their wishlist a bit rather than voting repeatedly on the same thing. Hopefully it should be able to cope with long-standing requests AND quick and fashionable voting without either getting lost or drowned out.

I can code this up with PHP and Myqsl but making it efficient and easy on the server may take a little longer. I don't have any server space of my own and it would be lovely if the Pandora team could make it part of Openpandora.org (official).

Do I have to contact Craig for this? I don't see any contact details and I imagine he is deluged with PM's.

 

[Chip]

Re: 'Wishlist' - Pandora feature request website

In the context of an online game where a single entity is doing all of the work, this might make sense. In the context of the Pandora, it does not.

The people who write and port games are not employees of Openpandora. They are users and hobbyists like the rest of us. They write or port games because they enjoy doing it, and they choose projects that they are interested in. You can't say "OK, 82% of users want Quake 3, so somebody has to start working on it right away." It wouldn't even really be all that helpful from a suggestion standpoint, since it is plainly obvious from reading the forums what projects are highly desired and which less so. Besides, it still comes down to what the programmer wants to work on.

If a programmer wants to be especially democratic about it, he/she can put up a poll with potential projects and work on whatever gets the most votes. However, I suspect most of the programmers here don't appreciate being told what to do. :wink:

 

[ashdjones]

Re: 'Wishlist' - Pandora feature request website

In the context of an online game where a single entity is doing all of the work, this might make sense. In the context of the Pandora, it does not.

The people who write and port games are not employees of Openpandora. They are users and hobbyists like the rest of us. They write or port games because they enjoy doing it, and they choose projects that they are interested in. You can't say "OK, 82% of users want Quake 3, so somebody has to start working on it right away." It wouldn't even really be all that helpful from a suggestion standpoint, since it is plainly obvious from reading the forums what projects are highly desired and which less so. Besides, it still comes down to what the programmer wants to work on.

If a programmer wants to be especially democratic about it, he/she can put up a poll with potential projects and work on whatever gets the most votes. However, I suspect most of the programmers here don't appreciate being told what to do. :wink:

Thanks chip, that actually clarifies things better. Would it still not be useful to gauge which features are most desired for individual software?

I kind of imagined some utopian world where a programmer comes along, checks the list and works on something that everybody says they want. I think you're half right, maybe only some programmers like doing it that way? It's probably a coincedence that the developers make stuff that they'd like to see and lots of people happen to be on the same wavelength?

 

[Chip]

Re: 'Wishlist' - Pandora feature request website

Would it still not be useful to gauge which features are most desired for individual software?

It would, but we should leave it up to the individual programmers to request that sort of input. Some devs work extra hard to include user requests, and with the dev fund, likely more will soon. Still, it is their prerogative to ask for suggestions.

There has been talk of a feedback system for determining dev fund distribution. Perhaps your idea can be modified to serve this purpose? I do not know if Craig or ED has anything specific in mind, but considering how much else they have on their plate at the moment, I doubt it. Since you seem to be looking for a project, why not work up a game rating / feedback system and submit it to ED. If it works the way they want, I'm sure he'll host it. Somebody's going to have to do it at some point, you might as well save the Openpandora crew the trouble.

I do have one suggestion if you do intend to take on this project. Since there is money involved, there was considerable concern about potential gaming of the feedback system. You should keep that in mind when designing your site. Having email-verified accounts is a start, but perhaps additional security is possible? Some way to ensure that a user has at least downloaded an app before voting on it? Each OAMP chip has a unique itentifier number - perhaps this could be tied to the account so that only people who actually have a Pandora can even register. Maybe that's going too far, but as I said, many were concerned about the system being kept fair.

 

[dentrado]

Why don't try to contact opendesktop.org and ask if we could have an pandora-apps site? they already have Gnome-apps, KDE-apps and a lot of other sites so it shouldn't be impossible.

For the requests there could be categories for that like "art/sprites requests", "sound/music requests" etc.

It looks quite good actually, they have forums and groups, so developers can discuss with eachother.

 

[absolofdoom]

That seems like a brilliant idea.

Someone important should contact them. Or, I can try.

 

[disjfa]

Another board isn`t the best option i think. A softwareguide would be nice. But that can better be intergrated on this site so teh base people can organise.

And building such a page isn`t the most dificult in the world. I have an appspace on my site wich i was intended to use for apps like these. It`s only in babyfase so can`t do much with it now. But maby someone has a great idea and makes that. Isn`t there a gp2x site witch already does this sort of things sinsce i`m new in the scene and know little about the time before.

 

[dentrado]

Yes, there is archive.gp2x.de, but it isn't very good (at least that's my opinion), there is no rating system for example and it's only an filearchive.

But that can better be intergrated on this site so teh base people can organise.

We maybe could integrate the pandora-apps site on this site if you think that is better. The site could be hosted on this server, but they could use the base already built for maemo/KDE/whathever-apps.org.

Then we could adapt it to whatever feels best for the pandora community.