Oolite Bulletins

timer wrote: ↑Sun May 21, 2023 3:35 pm

Scrolling through twitter/Oolite... that's history...
There is a link to oolite.org and we can't do anything about it.
Maybe create some "Inactive" subsection on the site's Community page?

Do we not have control of the Twitter account?

arquebus wrote: ↑Sun May 21, 2023 8:42 pm

timer wrote: ↑Sun May 21, 2023 3:35 pm

Scrolling through twitter/Oolite... that's history...
There is a link to oolite.org and we can't do anything about it.
Maybe create some "Inactive" subsection on the site's Community page?

Do we not have control of the Twitter account?

I think this Twitter account is under control of only this person (if he remembers this account)
twitter/aegidian

Can anybody say - is this current Giles activity?
twitter/HelmsmanYour

timer wrote: ↑Mon May 22, 2023 3:57 am

arquebus wrote: ↑Sun May 21, 2023 8:42 pm

timer wrote: ↑Sun May 21, 2023 3:35 pm

Scrolling through twitter/Oolite... that's history...
There is a link to oolite.org and we can't do anything about it.
Maybe create some "Inactive" subsection on the site's Community page?

Do we not have control of the Twitter account?

I think this Twitter account is under control of only this person (if he remembers this account)
twitter/aegidian

Can anybody say - is this current Giles activity?
twitter/HelmsmanYour

That's Giles, all right! When he's not on his bike, he's on a boat!

Cody wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 9:26 pm

timer wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 9:23 pm

I don't know why anyone would want oolite.org

Perhaps they're rock collectors?

As a geologist, with a friend who ran "ammonite.org" for a few years back in the 1990s, that's quite plausible.

Wouldn't it be helpful for someone with "admin" access to the BB to "bump" one of the messages here with instructions about how to edit your .GNUstepDefaults file to point to the new server to ba a "sticky" post that appears high on the front page of the BB?
As has been mentioned several times, it's a significant issue for beginners, who are eventually going to be the lifeblood of the game. Even if it only lasts as long as the current (recent) crisis?

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 3:59 pm

Wouldn't it be helpful for someone with "admin" access to the BB to "bump" one of the messages here with instructions about how to edit your .GNUstepDefaults file to point to the new server to ba a "sticky" post that appears high on the front page of the BB?
As has been mentioned several times, it's a significant issue for beginners, who are eventually going to be the lifeblood of the game. Even if it only lasts as long as the current (recent) crisis?

The crisis will last indefinitely. The old domain has been auctioned to someone else who paid lots of credits to have it. There is no hope we'd get it back.
And in my eyes for a space simulation game oolite.space is much better anyway than oolite.org.

Leaves the question why beginners need to ponder with .GNUstepDefaults at all. It is uncomfortable and error-prone.
Changing the url in the Oolite source has already happened, and the change made it into the prerelease. That means all we need to do is release it and the problem is gone.

As a workaround (that even adds more features) I created the Oolite Starter. Still work in progress but it can already fill the gap you are pointing out.

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 3:15 pm

As a geologist, with a friend who ran "ammonite.org" for a few years back in the 1990s, that's quite plausible.

Or it could be someone who lives in Oolite Road, Bath.

Cody wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 4:25 pm

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 3:15 pm

As a geologist, with a friend who ran "ammonite.org" for a few years back in the 1990s, that's quite plausible.

Or it could be someone who lives in Oolite Road, Bath.

Must be someone named Oscar Olite, living in Oxford Road, Georgetown -> OOLITE.ORG

While I'm repairing my installation after what seems to be a dodgy hard drive day, downloading lots of expansion packs to get back to my previous state, a thought.
I've seen a fair bit of discussion bout how to pay for domain services, and by implication servers too. Don't there exist things like "pre-paid" credit cards, or "iTunes gift cards", onto which payments can be made remotely, and using which services can be purchases. I freely admit that my experience of such things is restricted to news reports of them being a tool scammers often use to anonymise their nefarious activities, but on the assumption that the scammers are mis-using a tool with an honest use, wouldn't this be an example of an "honest" use? On the assumption that among long-standing members of the "community" (sense : here), we're more-or-less honest actors?
Which would at least make one of the problems a more manageable one of transferring electronic credentials between (relatively) computationally sophisticated people. Then the Holder of the card (I hesitate to raise the Poisoned Chalice of SF Trivia here) and a back-up can pass on the chalice to a new Holder as and when necessary.

Related : I've barely used them myself, but there are a host of things like "KickStarter" and "goFundMe" which seem designed to assist/ enable distributed gathering of funds into one common pot. I'm not sure that those specific ones would be suitable to our needs (I think both are set up for one-time campaigns, not on-going efforts. (A regular correspondent regularly tweets an appeal for "Koff-Me", for example, which seems more set-up for on-going funding. That's the limit of my knowledge.)

If we could agree on one each "pre-pay card", and "continuing payment aggregator" (whatever they're called), we'd at least have tools in place for the continuing funding of the site. In particular, for the newcomers, we'd have a respectable-looking tool chain for them to contribute into if they like the game.

Respondents, I'd suggest two separate threads, one for the "pre-pay card" - if that's the right term and a good idea, and a separate one for "payment aggregator", same caveats. And maybe we can get ahead of the curve on managing the not-rocket surgery parts of maintaining and improving the game.

5cents worth - over to y'all.

According to Avast, Oolite.org is now an infected website trying to infect visitors with phishing equipment....

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 9:10 am

According to Avast, Oolite.org is now an infected website trying to infect visitors with phishing equipment....

Unsurprising - and a frequent experience with cyber-squatted sites. That's what happened to mine when I thought the effort worth making.
On the cyber-squatting front, It took over a year before the squatters relinquished the domain. Given the discussion here about their investment, I suspect this bunch of Tharglets will be more ... persistent? Adhesive? - in the sense of "Klingons on the Starboard Bow".