We've been thinking about some changes here at MechSpecs...

So there has been much talk around the water cooler here at MechSpecs with one of the guys from NGNG and a few of the private Benefactors who have sent PMs as well as a PGI Staffer. MechSpecs has been getting around 50-75,000 visits per month and increasing.

Many of you guys know about Smurf and how they have their MechLab. Been thinking of ways to incorporate something similar (or a collaboration with) and throwing that into MechSpecs.

With the game getting closer and closer to Community Warfare and more of the kinks getting ironed out it's always good to see what folks are thinking.

Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?

 

I think it's a fantastic idea, I've always used Smurfy to figure out the potential costs of my 'Mechs. Having everything in one place would be a definate move in the right direction. It would be nice if we could then post our finished 'Mechs in something similiar to the current format.

Mythweaver.

 

I know that NGNG had been looking for a forum but they have so much on their plate to add mods and such to it as well....Imagine if they direct people to this place .... The traffic would be amazing. More builds more discussion....all good things.

But PGI, NGNG, Smurfy.....any or all of those things can do nothing but good for you. If you can incorporate Smurfy some how that would be amazing! How PGI would fit in im not sure what they can do but I would not turn it down. NGNG support can do nothing but good things for ya with their listnership.

 

Thanks for the input guys.

I've sent an email to the Smurfy admin asking what he has in mind; perhaps moving his API over here and allowing him to administer it here might be in order? Sort of like incorporating it into MechSpecs and bringing on another "staff member/mod" kind of deal?

As for the NGNG guys I'm not too sure what they have in mind. The individual I spoke with didn't really have anything solid in mind he just asked what I was open to. I think they would rather bring MechSpecs under the NGNG umbrella since we have an established brand and traffic level rather than start their own thing and deal with all the headaches associated with it.

 

Yes, it would be great to have the build utility (Smurfy) along with the collaborative ability that this site brings.

 

I've heard back from Smurfy and, from what he has told me, the way his system is structured it just isn't possible for him to move the API Mechlab over to this server; plus I think he would like to maintain complete control over how all that stuff is presented.

It's too bad but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

We are discussing the idea of porting back and forth between sites however porting leads to all kinds of issues... ie: if his site is down then links and tools here don't work and if this site is down then links from his mech sheets to the discussions here won't work etc. It's a level of complexity which is a big headache. I also prefer having the TLD (top level domain) name of MechSpecs rather than something not really associated with MWO or Battletech in general.

If I had the PHP ability I would program something similar to what he has done and implement it here but I don't and since this site isn't monetized hiring a programmer is also out.

 

My most recent project on the mwowiki is to start linking 'Mech articles to relevant outside resources like smurfy. Last month, the wiki got 125k hits, mostly from people who do not prowl the mwo forums and I assume most likely don't know of this place. If you're simply looking for more traffic, I'm sure I can help with that.

 

Hey Seth.

No it wasn't a traffic thing. MechSpecs gets around 50,527 unique visits per month ([SIZE=-1]2,918,725 hits)[/SIZE]. So traffic is pretty good considering. I think it was a matter of trying to centralize things so that users could hit one place and have access to all the things that they would like to do. For instance; Smurfys great mechlab combined with the targeted discussion and community of MechSpecs. Finding a way to put them together.

 

Hahaha ok I've had some PMs within the last 10 minutes of this post being up.

Allow me to clarify something; no, I am not currently looking to sell the site. I was offered a fairly substantial amount for the domain/site because of it's name and traffic levels and I declined so :tongue:

 

What you guys could do in connection with Smurfy is try to work together to have a "compact" build sharing tool built into Smurfy´s site.

Right now, the way to share builds is posting something like:

AS7-D-DC

Which is just a link to his site, but Smurfy (or someone from here that he would allow to at least know some details on how he is storing data and then write a code he would put on his system) could write a code to fetch the build and save it in here. So you could create a tag and whatever build was posted inside that tag would be fetched, stored locally and displayed in whatever nice compact form you wanted. People would just have to take the link to Smurfy´s and paste inside that tag.

Something like:

Code:

eg. [smufy]http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=17&l=6eb098ea1a7a393ed703be2f4761b072c0692766

That would save you guys the trouble of have your own building tool. It would be still be needed to go to Smurfy´s to edit the build, but it could be seen and saved here (if ever he goes offline). Both system remain independent though.

Of course that would require a good degree of cooperation from Smurfy but I guess you could sell the idea to him by saying that such a system could be used by other forums, and the build displayed here could contain a link to his site.

 

How hard is it for you to add something that shortens a link? If you can say add a spot in the mech builds posts that lets you put a smurfy link in and it places it at the top or bottom of the post as a shorter link that would do allot because while the format we use here is easy to read....Smurfy offers the stats behind the build. As a quick solution I think that works well.

So far as NGNG id like to know what your view is on becoming the "NGNG offical discussion area" I like the idea but the question is are you willing to deal with the headache? I know you would have to promote some people to mod status and such to help out but....Well what do you think of that happening if that is indeed what they wanna do?

Also Shaun Lang is very approachable on their TS3 server....just give him a poke and say hi....should speed things up if you indeed want to do so .

 

Oh also, do you have the ability to build a form that could output your build into a post for you? That way everyone is using the same format? haha wish I knew how to code it, id just toss it together for ya lol.

 

A share and compare button on Smurfy's site that preloads a new thread in the appropriate 'Mech subforum with the details of the 'Mechs already preloaded in the content area would be a great way to share and compare variants here on the Mechspecs forums which isn't possible to do on the Smurfy's. The MechSpecs site could have a very visible link to Smurfy's site in each subforum for people to go to those 'Mechs blank Online Mech Lab page where they can create theoretical builds and then discuss them here!

 

We bounced this idea around a little bit today. I would have to input a BBCODE that would allow data to be imported from his site and displayed on the forums. His tool can export via XML as well as JCOL or something like that. It's an idea that I can look in to but might require extensive coding because it would require a parser being built into the BBCODE.

I speak with one of the NGNG guys semi-regularly and whenever I do pop on their TS3. Great bunch of guys. We haven't really gotten anything aside from tossing a few ideas around. I asked them to come up with some more concrete ideas on what they were looking to do and then get back to me.

I'm open to anything that helps the community grow.

As for promoting a few of them to mod status? That's not an issue at all. This platform allows multiple levels of security and access based on those levels.

I'm not quite sure what you are getting at here Seth. You mean a button on his site that lets people share their builds here and discuss? I think that is something that he had in mind to begin with (the sharing) but I am not sure how the compare aspect of things would work.

Another option that I have thought of is having one of those kickstart type things and having the public fund a professionally built system. But I would rather exhaust existing negotiation attempts before doing something like that as I think building on the existing community is better than cutting people out.

 

The beautiful about posting in the official forums is that a lot of people read it. This guy's idea is pretty solid (essentially Smurfy's side would output HTML which is easy to attack from the BBCode side).

 

Keep in mind that smurfy's mechlab will be replaced by MWO's own online mechlab with the user interface 2.0. So it may not be worth the effort in the long run if it will require a huge amount of work. In the short term though, finding a way to easily share configs made on the smurfy site on mechspecs would be a great way to increase membership here. I sent him a PM asking if it possible quickly share more than just a link on forums like this one.

 

What if you have a button that links to smurfy's website to create a build and when completed have a button on smurfy's website to save it at Mechspecs, or on smurfy's website code it so that it will recognize where the link came from (Mechspecs) and when completed send it back to Mechspecs saved to the post that created it. The coding will be simplified by inserting an if/then statement and identifying the url.

As for NGNG, the only thing I can think of is posting a banner on their TS promoting mechspecs or maybe hosting some kind of tournament together.

Just some thoughts.

 

I like the guy's idea actually...have a simple readout of what is there on the forum and link in to smurfy for the details ..... what you guys think ?

 

also having worked with a huge number of people before.....Just ask them to toss something togeather...see what sticks

 

Hey,

i want to jump into the discussion too.

First of all there are no guys behind my site, there is mainly me setting up the server, writing the code.
And there is Blark who does community work on the forums and helps me setting prios and looks over my devsystem and tests out some new features.

Of course over the time i also got help / tips by others, mainly Snib.

Ok having that out of the way, i really like to cooperate the one way or another. thats the reason why i wrote to michael in the first place.

I also created an api to cooperate with clans or other sites.

What i want:
* provide the community of mwo with an fast and complete resource of information like stats, maps and of course my mechlab.
* add community features like rating/commenting mech loadouts (thats my main focus in cooperating with mechspecs)
* keep my source closed for now (if I sometime decide to stop having interest I will release the code on github.com)
* because of the former and some technical requirements host the site myself.

If needed i'm happy with changing the domain to something we all could agree on. but with keeping in mind that my site is not just a mechlab. (started as an up2date reference guide)

Phil