RED HERRING!
hiran wrote: ↑Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:46 am
Cholmondely wrote: ↑Thu Jun 10, 2021 8:19 am
I am driven nuts by my Apple wanting to update, (I do not want this - I am perfectly happy with what I already have), by Firefox wanting to update etc. Windows forced my old windows computer to update and it is now virtually unusable (too slow, too complicated, etc etc).I bought a brand new fobile moan which then started to update while I was still registering it... I ended up having to get a second one, its "brain" burst.
[PM text removed at hiran's request.]
Linux
I've played around with the idea of installing Linux. But, I dislike change. I was very keen on the AppleMac OS up to when they changed to OX10. Especially OS 6 & 7, which I thought were super - and which I understood.
Since then it's been a losing battle.
And the older windows machine is a dead loss. Few ideas about how to do things, too complicated, too unintuitive (for me). At least with an AppleMac I can understand a little more about how to do things.
I have formed a strong impression that Linux is really for people like you and Montana who understand the guts and what's what. Goodness! You breeze in from the outer darknesses, and immediately start editing the impenetrable Dark Side pages in the wiki! Me ... I've been gazing forlornly at those pages trying to work out how to put a Yes/No choice on a mission screen, having virtually no context to work out what I'm supposed to do - or where I'm supposed to do it. I would never have guessed phkb's tweak to the SothisTC file to alow Market Inquirer to pick up the existence of Sothis externally. More importantly I would not have know where to look.
Even if I'm wrong, I just don't have the enthusiasm to learn to navigate yet another utterly unfriendly unintuitive operating system with its own list of quirks, issues, system architecture and jargon.
I never really believed in progress, Hegelian or otherwise. Developments in computers have borne out my prejudice. Oolite seems to be the only exception! I look at my screen for v.1.90 and am seriously impressed. I then look at v.1.77, and am not. And what I can
do with v.1.90 - Strangers World, Diplomancy, Weapon Laws, etc. etc. ... SOTL, ... Goodness!
Managing the Manager
As regards the Expansions Manager and expiry dates, we are in a situation where there seem to be fewer and fewer people involved. Look at the discussions going on back in 2016 - and how many more involved people there were. Still Cody, phkb, Redspear, Montana
etc, but also Dertien, Cim, Smivs, Norby, Spara, ...
Some still visit, thank heavens, but they don't get stuck into discussions the way they used to.
And then go back another 5 years ... and then go back another 5 years (and remember, we've lost many of the posts from this last period ...
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Great_Deletion)
I feel that one of the most important things is not too put too much stress on people, because that will drive them away. Look at poor old phkb updating XenonUI so that the background screens show. What a palaver! He should be
enjoying his Oolite experiences, not drudging away making himself sick over stuck-up semicolons.
As regards the EM and the growth of OXZ's, I welcome that. More people getting involved, more super ideas, etc, etc.
What I think we could do with is a new set of Norby-type meta-OXPs as adumbrated elsewhere. We sit down together and create an aesthetics meta-OXP with Griff-style ships & stations. We create a useless combateers meta-OXP with aids to combat for the pathetic such as myself. We create a realistic politics & economics meta-OXP with Diplomancy, Weapon Laws, SW Economy, Docking Fees,
etc. A lore meta-OXP with Lave, Tionisla, Tianve etc. A realistic physics OXP with the Strangers World suite. How about a piracy career Meta-oxp built around phkb's experimental pirate player oxp but with smugglers, manifest scanner, broadcast comms & anarchies added in? Or a Star Wars variant? Or a Star Trek variant?
First we need to decide what meta-OXPs we could do. Then we start creating them.
Would this not be simpler, more fun and better for new players than mucking about with the EM? All we would need would be a new, introductory category, of Meta-OXPs. Or Oolite Worlds. Or scenarios? Or whatever.
(Put up as I believe this relevant for a wider discussion. Hiran's pm edited to remove his more personal comments)