Oolite Bulletins

Ignoring the discussion about microsoft, I just wanted people to take more care about the zips they are creating for OXPS.

We want to make Oolite (and the Elite spirit) last forever. By introducting a steady stream of new players, enough will become hooked to continue to support it as others fall to the wayside. To do this we must make it as easy as possible to play it. Having OXP zips that fall over because of extrainous files does not help! Newcomers will get hacked off and abandon the game, if the 'cool' add-ons doesn't install correctly. It is not a Apple/MS/Linux OS issue thing, it is a 'supporting the cadets' thing.

I know I sound like a grumpy old fart, but it's a really important that we think about these things. It's taking care of the niggly stuff, that turns a great game in to classic. Why the snot you think I'm being so anal about the RS <said in a lighter tone.>

Eric Walch wrote:

I now know how those zero byte icons enter the mac files.

Good news on the file front :-)

KZ9999 wrote:

It is not a Apple/MS/Linux OS issue thing, it is a 'supporting the cadets' thing.

Sorry KZ9999, but I'm pretty sure that we can't totally split Oolite from the OS where it is running on. And talking about weak points is the same category of support and users will know why it goes wrong and how to fix it. It's not a M$ discussion (even if it sounds like it).

And you are totally right - a lot of zips are containing unnecessary things (forks, thumbs.db,...) and we can make it easier and faster (reducing the filesize = reducing the used bandwidth). So whenever you find some of these things post it or write a pm - as a reminder .-)

KZ9999 wrote:

It is not a Apple/MS/Linux OS issue thing, it is a 'supporting the cadets' thing.

You're right. Keyboards with bucky bits for all!

Svengali wrote:

And you are totally right - a lot of zips are containing unnecessary things (forks, thumbs.db,...) and we can make it easier and faster (reducing the filesize = reducing the used bandwidth). So whenever you find some of these things post it or write a pm - as a reminder .-)

Agreed. I'll go through the OXP's I've downloaded and PM their creators about what I've found.

To prevent the poor creators from being overloaded from PM, we should have a bug tracking list for all oxps. Perhaps there should be a sticky thread if the moderators ok it. That way we don't get multiple posts on the board covering the same issues (in theory.) A simple thing like this should cut down a lot of the nigglly glitch this sort of massively decentralised projects like this generate.

Oh and amen to cutting down the bandwidth. Living on a 45Kbps dial-up connection at the end of the Internet, every KB shaved off a file size makes the world of difference. <shame face admittance of my low tech status.>