Topic: PSpong.com? ][ (Page 1 of 1)

Old thread here: http://www.ozoneasylum.com/Forum19/HTML/000009.html

OK; while I'll take the feedback concerning PhotoShopPong.com vs. PSPong.com under advisement, I already registered the latter, so...

(I always prefer short domain names, if possible, and the 'ppong' at the end of the first one looked odd to me, and easy to misspell, heh.)

New website coming to: http://www.PSpong.com/

I'm going to start a new thread for this topic, and the DNS is already pointing to the Pugzly's server farm, he'll have the server up and running by the time the DNS records percolate around, I hope. We *do* need a logo and a color scheme, so the next stage should be submissions for this concept! I'll grab the one that seems best to me and clean it up into nice pretty vector graphics and make it as a mask for playing around with, and this weekend I'll do a first draft for the technical/functions specification, cool? We can discuss that further once I get the first bits written down. I'll close this thread once I open the next, and add the link!

Your pal, -doc-



[This message has been edited by DocOzone (edited 11-30-2001).]

11 days from testing the water to getting the domain name and hosting sorted (and other goodies under negotiation) - not bad.

I know I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of this.

[edit: and Peter Spong will be kicking himself for not moving faster for that one!!]

Emps

[This message has been edited by Emperor (edited 11-30-2001).]

so pugzly, if you'd hand me the connection details, I'd be more than willing to raise a quick bulletin board on there, so that we can discuss in a more ordered fashion about the details.

yours,

Tyberius Prime

hmm. maybe the pictures should be presented on either white or black. maybe so that the artist can select wich one to use?
would that fit into your concept of the site?
(I personally am always in favor of 'classic' (ie. black/white/grey) color schemes.)

TP - Doc has the connection info and he's working out the specs. I'll let him give that info out if he chooses.

Hope that's ok.

TP: I think it would help get as many people involved as possible if we put a little suggestion box in the canteen and people could throw in their ideas for logos (I threw in an idea for a logo in the previous part of this thread - lets see some more), colour schemes and designs. So come on people lets see your ideas - this is the Asylum I know you must have an opinion!!

Emps

pugzly: sure that's ok. trust has to be earned.

emperor: that was just what I posted. my personal oppinion :-)

What about a CVS? Anyone know where we can get one? (Besides sourceforge).
(For the unknowing: a CVS is a version control system, it basicially keeps track of who did what to what file when. Very handy if you do any teamwork programming.)

yours,

Tyberius Prime

[This message has been edited by Tyberius Prime (edited 12-01-2001).]

TP: And I like the way you are thinking!! Its just I'd like to hear from as many people as possible.

I like the idea of a CVS but I wonder if it'll be needed. If we have a few people working on different aspects (server-side, graphics, HTML, content, etc.) I think it should be possible to get things working without that but we'll see how it goes.

Emps

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

Thank you InI, for bringing this back to topic! We need logo concepts right now, we'll have plenty of time to build the things we need once we know what we want to build, hmm? Pugzly has set aside a GB for us to play with on this, but before we start working, I want a framework. And a logo. This thread would be best served with logo concepts, I think someone should start another one for discussing the feature set, what do we really need to implement? First off on that list is a good user database system, we need to know who people are, and how much they want public, people gotta log in! Then we can worry about getting into the roster for games, uploading the images, making thumbnails, making room for the "peanut gallery" to kibitz during a match, etc. etc... What really needs to be there? You tell me.

Carry on! TB, you'll be in this, never fear, this was no slam, just a "nudge" back on track, priorities are important in a project like this.

Your pal, -doc-

I think it would be cool if the players had a way of describing the techniques they used. Maybe not on a per-move basis, but maybe on a per-game basis. (That's the Gurus Network part of me thinking).

Just a thought.

Yep, I'm picturing two sorts of commentary for these matches, one, the players, discussing what they've done (or not, perhaps simply taunting each other?), the other the running commentary of the "peanut gallery", either viewable or not as the visitors to the site choose. Perhaps each game could have a place for a "post-game analysis", for commentary after the fact as well.

It also seems to me that the fun of competition is a great reward, but some people might like the chance to actually *win* a match too. Maybe we could set up panels of judges, kind of like a boxing match does? Each judge (chosen, how?) might have a set number of points to allocate to each volley, either to one contestant or both, split as they choose. At the end it gets added up and winners are announced, and points are earned. We could set up matches, have tournaments, climb the rankings, etc... could be fun!

Or not. We should approach the cut-throat competition aspect gently, otherwise we'll end up with bad feelings, that'd be no good. Thoughts?

Each registered user will need a bio section, who they are, what different skills etc. they might possess, as well as their current rankings. There should also be links to the matches they've competed in, which should be archived nicely and searchable, by name or by dates. (Possibly by keywords? Matches would then need some kind of meta information saved for them, or we could do a free search on the commentary text? Picture a search for "tennis skirt", it'd probably find 1/3 of the matches! :-)

I'm thinking it'll be nice if the contestants talk about what they did and how during the matches, but do *not* think we should host tutorials here, instead we send them to the GurusNetwork, Handson, or the Asylum for more indepth chatting about what's to be learned.

Heh, this is just rambling on my part, trying to picture what's to be happening here. I do think that simple and direct is for the best, let this be a site about Photoshop Pong, and nothing else. If this catches on in a big way, I can picture people using their rankings in the ladder on their job resumés! Sponsorships, which could turn into cash pårizes! (Or possibly computer junk or software, who can tell?) For now, it should be about fun, bragging rights and prestige, that ought to be plenty for everyone now, no?

Please, somebody else jump in and help me ramble about features we want, cool?

Your pal, -doc-

Doc: I suspect I've mentioned the features I was thinking of but to reiterate as well as the one you mention (some nice ideas there, of course):

1. Polls: I prefer this method to having judges - let all the inmates have a say.

2. Online admin: Allowing users to take themselves out of the pool, change their preference for time/turn

3. Links: To the other similar collaborative efforts and Pong related resources (I've seen some good Flash related stuff posted in the main forum here before).

4. Shop: Hooked through to CafePress so we can get the merchandising from our favourite matches - a wj vs wj mousemat anyone??

Another ideas? It just seems to be us 5 talking at the moment and as much as I enjoy the sound of my own voice.....

I think we'd all like to see people's ideas for a logo.

Emps

Off topic...



Doc, congratulations on 3000 posts!

Now back on topic...

If you need any help with programming all this, you know who to contact...

Ooh! Did I hit 3000 posts without even noticing it? Must have, how cool. Thanks for grabbing that capture for me, maX! I'm checking the staus of this domain, it seems that the first two DNS servers are pugzly's, as they should be, but Networksolutions seems to have appended two of theirs at the ends, and it's their placeholder I get redirected to, hrmph.

...

Hmm, looks like I may have figured it out, just added those two DNS servers again, now it seems to have overwhelmed the Verisign/Netsol setup, phew! Max, you can count on more than a few please fro help, I'm sure! :-)

Your pal, -doc-

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

InI: not seeing where you're getting that 'prove-angle' from.
I'm aware that security and speed are the prime issues from the coding point of view here. And I'll do my very best to assure both are met.
But I'd also like to work on this with someone else, so that we can check each others code. That would be part of what we need the CVS for.
<edit> on a site note, don't get tipped of. </edit>
/me goes off to draw a logo, knowing that it will not be accepted due to my lack of graphic skills...

so long,

Tyberius Prime

[This message has been edited by Tyberius Prime (edited 12-02-2001).]

I opened a new thread for the logo/color proposals.
It's here.

TP: Good idea starting a new the logos thread it should get things moving on that front. I suspect there will be plenty of opportunities for coding but if InI has a well tested content management system and is willing to share or adapt then that would make a good start - trust me there will be plenty of things that will need doing (I like your enthusiasm!!).

InI: I agree that the public's views would be better - I suggested having a poll but I'm curious to know if you have something more cunning up your sleeve. I also like the idea about being able to add comments on various stages.

~looks around for a spare day to lend InI and finds a missing Feb 29th under the bed and chucks it in the general direction of Switzerland~

Doc: Congrats on making 3k - it became clear mr.maX would storm ahead but second place isn't bad!!

One further thought is that we could also offer some of the results of the games as wallpapers - perhaps only in response to requests to keep storage of big files down as much as possible.

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

Yah, I was thinking on my next match I'd try and shoot for something big enough for a desktop image. This could be one way of choosing a match type, based upon pixel sizes? I'm picturing open challenges on 1024x768 desktops, or smaller quickie matches with 600x400 images, up to the bandwidth-buster matches at 1600x1200. This might be worthwhile trying to negotiate something with some of the tshirt companies also, maybe they'd be willing to work with us so that we could automate a t-shirt purchase on *any* image shown, that'd be kinda neat, methinks.

Your pal, -doc-

Doc: Nice idea about being able to pick the size of your court - at 1600x1200 wouldn't one require a bazooka to get the ball over the net or would people be issued with 30 metre high robot avatars?

I could imagine one of these T-shirt/etc. shops (does anyone know of ones other than CafePress?) might be interested in working on a way to expand their range of services in such a direction. It could be possible with CafePress if one just uploaded all the images after a match was finished and then generated the images at our end server side (mr.maX should be able to help with that one I suspect). Any thoughts on this anyone? Anyone out there work for one of these companies and fancies a challenge? The more flexible a service you can offer your prospective customers the more customers you'll get!!

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

The Tshirt idea sounds great, but don't the have a rather high minimum resolution? I would imagine that 640x480 doesn't look too good stretched onto the back of an XXL shirt :-)

TP: Vector! For T-Shirt design we need some talented illustators. And it should be few colours too...

Softhead

TP & SH: Quite - what might look good on a T-shirt might not look good on a moucemat and vice versa so its worth keeping these things in mind while we are planning. To see a store in action see the Doc's:
www.ozones.com/store

and visit cafepress for more details:
www.cafepress.com

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

I went to cafepress, and as far as I can see it, they print the shirts with a 8x10" pictur. at 150dpi (the minimum their faq suggests), that would be 1200x1500, so only the real monster games could be used for this. on the other hand, we might try a few 1024x768 ones and see what comes out... (or we adjust our images size to a 4:5 ratio...)

yours,

Tyberius Prime

TP: Thanks for having a nose around. I'd throw this back to the Doc (and anyone else who has used them) - have you found any problems with image sizes, etc.? Didn't I read that you can output pictures of various sizes from PS (or was I mistaken)? I suspect the print people might also have some input on this.

Emps

well, I had a couple of my works printed on 20x30cm photo paper, and any resolution below 150dpi didn't look good. but the tshirt won't look as crispy anyway. so it might not be too much of a problem.
and if you want to output a big picture with PS, you'd better have drawn a big one in the first place. of course you can 'scale up' but that won't add any more detail to the picture. it'll just resample (ie. guess) the new pixels...

Yah, this is a serious issue, most of the designs we'll end up with will not have the resolution needed to print well, even on the t-shirts. I think the store will not really have a major presence on this site due to this, chances are we'll just have the same basic shite everyone else has, our logos, and a few select images that ended up huge.

I'd like to se a very clear focus on this site, let's make it all about the game, and only those things directly related to it. I do think we need a way to rate each competition, one of the big draws to artists we don't know yet is going to be the chance to *win*, and then show off their rankings. The concept of judges has been proposed and shot down, so I think we should limit the judging to registered members only, or perhaps people who've compted in "x" amount of matches?

Your pal, -doc-

We could have t-shirt design contest now and then... but that's maybe off topic....

Softhead

general member voting gets my vote.
maybe we can vote on each voley, then add the votes up and declare a winner.

just my 2 cents,

Tyberius Prime

I think that all members should get a vote. But there has to be ways to prevent people from just creating multiple accounts to vote for themselves, yet still have the voting somewhat private.

Maybe only registered contestants should be allowed to vote?
I don't think there should be a limit to the amount of matches you've been in for voting privileges, because then even after the issue of getting through the first couple rounds, there would only be 2, maybe 4 people getting to vote until more matches have been played.

Voting seems to be a popular option and I think its a good idea to have to be logged in to vote (when the Doc moves the Asylum over to PHP it shouldn't be a problem opening this up to all inmates without any extra hassle) - sure people could create numerous accounts for voting purposes but as there are 1600+ inmates they'd have to create a lot to make it worth it and a lot of things we do relies on the integrity of the inmates (also anyone caught doing that would be pretty roundly condemned by their peers). We could also keep an eye on the voting logs and see if any odd anomalies crop up (people would struggle keeping multiple identities running and slip up).

If it is voting I would just say have one poll per finished game as it would get to be a pain server side keeping track of all the different polls.

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

Voting is fine, if we do some sort of fraud protection, like cookies.

I was thinking a little bit. Voting. Shall we have like a top 10 list, with the players as have won mst matches?

Softhead

Pugzly: Good plan.

SH: I think it should be possible to offer various ways to look at the stats - most games played, highest score, most matches won, etc.

Emps