Attention: FFR Administration and Staff

[Reincarnate]

[gold stinger]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

nominating for best quality post 2014

[Wayward Vagabond]

Originally Posted by choof

ps I already applied for a moderator position of bits and bytes and I was basically told "quit shitposting and we'll think about it"

yeah i was told the same thing when i applied for mod

as you can see im still not a mod

[Reincarnate]

Seriously though, I always wince when I see discussions like these.

This site is large enough and has enough content such that getting anything (serious) done and maintaining it is (probably) going to require full-time efforts. Unless you're getting paid, this is really hard to pull off when you're only relying on the free time of volunteers. And those volunteers have to be both trustworthy and competent, too.

Major change can't really take place anyway when you lack direct server access. Synth is unwilling to give up his baby, and yet he is also unwilling to put in any effort into the site's growth/expansion/etc (which actually isn't much different from how he has always handled the site). He's been pretty consistent about this for nearly a decade, now. His approach to communication (i.e. radio silence) makes any potential discussion an exercise in futility.

You know in Mortal Kombat, after you hear FINISH HIM, the opponent is sort of standing there, writhing around in a daze, ready to be put out of his misery? That's pretty much FFR until Synth pulls the trigger or runs out of time. I don't see FFR ever coming back -- it's been death-rattling ever since it stopped being a business.

Creating break-off sites has been done before countless times, and it never works. All you do is split the userbase a bit until the break-off site inevitably dies, and everyone returns here anyway.

It seems like this discussion comes up every so often, and it's always the same thing. "Let's figure out roles! Who's interested? Let's divvy up the tasks!" It's like watching someone trying their damnedest to, idk, optimize some shitty bubble sort for a super large random list or something. Even if you make some gains, you're still dealing with a worthless framework for the big problem you're trying to solve.

[hi19hi19]

Re-establishing FFR the non-profit company and using that as a framework to give actual meaningful delegation is the only way the site will succeed.

That involves contacting and involving Synth. So we're at a stalemate...

[TheSaxRunner05]

Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2014-12-18 11:03:00Z

Does that mean FFR will crash after that date if not renewed?

[mr_candy]

Originally Posted by TheSaxRunner05

Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2014-12-18 11:03:00Z

Does that mean FFR will crash after that date if not renewed?

I'd be amazed if it wasen't auto renewed.

Looks like ffr is destined to remained in 2005

[___________]

what's the purpose of a site whose owner won't let admins have access to its servers

[Xiz]

Originally Posted by hi19hi19

Re-establishing FFR the non-profit company and using that as a framework to give actual meaningful delegation is the only way the site will succeed.

That involves contacting and involving Synth. So we're at a stalemate...

We will no longer be at a stalemate when all admins (Yes, all admins) approach synth through those who can directly get in contact with him and do something about it.

Now here is the ironic part...

If we actually do get in contact with synth, and he assigns admins to those who actually will help progress FFR, there is a good chance admins who have been doing nothing over the years will loose their title. But what admin would want their 'power' to be taken away? So why would there be any initiative to approach synth with that on the line?


THAT is the real stalemate.

[Mahou]

Originally Posted by ___________

what's the purpose of a site whose owner won't let admins have access to its servers

Nostalgia.

[noname219]

Originally Posted by ___________

what's the purpose of a site whose owner won't let admins have access to its servers

I've been in that situation and in the span of 7 years, the website went nowhere, stuff broke and we couldn't repair anything, couldn't add new extensions/features/whatever and everybody left.

[DossarLX ODI]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

This site is large enough and has enough content such that getting anything (serious) done and maintaining it is (probably) going to require full-time efforts. Unless you're getting paid, this is really hard to pull off when you're only relying on the free time of volunteers. And those volunteers have to be both trustworthy and competent, too.

Major change can't really take place anyway when you lack direct server access. Synth is unwilling to give up his baby, and yet he is also unwilling to put in any effort into the site's growth/expansion/etc (which actually isn't much different from how he has always handled the site). He's been pretty consistent about this for nearly a decade, now. His approach to communication (i.e. radio silence) makes any potential discussion an exercise in futility.

I would say this goes back to my post. Synthlight spends money on servers and whatnot, and then doesn't want unpaid volunteers having access to the backend. However this is ultimately the worse decision because not only will the site go down, he also wasted money for those servers for not allowing other users a chance to maintain the site. Even the most successful companies need the element of trust when it comes to sensitive information.

Even if Synthlight is busy, that doesn't mean that he can't delegate responsibility to other users to maintain the site. Going back to my post, I see a major issue with trust which ultimately leads to lack of delegation. Nobody really knows who's in charge of what, and no successful company runs like that.

[Fission]

Originally Posted by DossarLX ODI

doesn't want unpaid volunteers having access to the backend

while you mention this, it doesn't really make sense of him to do this. if velo wanted to stop FFR from functioning i'm sure he could. access to the web server and it's associated services isn't going to change anything with how secure the website is, if i'm not mistaken.

[Trumpet63]

Maybe part of the problem is vision.

It seems like everyone has a different vision for what FFR is or should be.
Let's think about this from a practical point of view. FFR is basically just some files on a server. You've got the engine(s), the user accounts, the actual site, and the forums. Who knows what machinery is being used to connect all these things, but one thing I do know is, I've left out something important from this list. US. THE USERS.

These people who we know at least have some affinity for rhythm games, and may or may not read this thread, and feel varying amounts of apathy about the whole problem. The people here are NOT the property of Synthlight, especially since there's no money involved. So who decides what happens to the people after FFR may or may not disappear? WE DO.

We're the general populous of FFR whether we like it or not, and we have all the power. If anyone wants to make a change, it has to go through us first. The only problem we seem to be having here is a discrepancy of opinion concerning what to do with US.

I for one, would like to see something happen, but I don't know what. Until someone tells me what I should do about any of this, I'll just sit here, typing on my keyboard. Unless somebody wants to announce some specific goal that I have some power over, all I can do with this information is sit on it.

And it's probably just because I haven't been here that long that I don't have a defeatist attitude about this, but seriously, there is so much manpower here. There's no way we couldn't code a site, call it NotFFR.com, and make our own engine in under a year.

There. I'm off my soapbox.

[___________]

solution: fake site issues, force synth to come back, and then beg like crazy

[DossarLX ODI]

Originally Posted by Fission

while you mention this, it doesn't really make sense of him to do this. if velo wanted to stop FFR from functioning i'm sure he could. access to the web server and it's associated services isn't going to change anything with how secure the website is, if i'm not mistaken.

The idea is that Synthlight probably thinks he has to do all the configuration when that's clearly not working. It was mentioned previously in this thread from Velocity that Synthlight had another server he could install but never got around to it.

If you swamp someone with too much work and that person is too busy, something's got to give. If nobody is given that kind of access, well the problem of that small amount of space left isn't going to just go away -- you need others to help.

[Fission]

i suggest the admins discover why synthlight is reluctant to allow developers access to FFR's backend and work from there. i'm sure there is some reasonable compromise that will give the developers more control.

[choof]

Originally Posted by Fission

i suggest the admins discover why synthlight is reluctant to allow developers access to FFR's backend and work from there. i'm sure there is some reasonable compromise that will give the developers more control.

but this is a circular issue because none of the admins can actually get synthlight's attention unless the site goes down (and from what velo said, the site can't handle another large crash)

the current staff, and the userbase as a whole, would love to hear from synthlight, but is that going to happen? given synthlight's history, no. it's not.

ffr is going to die and there is nothing we can to do to stop it, aside from creating yet another offshoot website (gg ts) or going to other existing communities, which, in terms of rhythm gaming, consists of bemanistyle, stepmania.com, and osu

[Wayward Vagabond]

Originally Posted by Fission

i suggest the admins discover why synthlight is reluctant to allow developers access to FFR's backend and work from there. i'm sure there is some reasonable compromise that will give the developers more control.

Because he just doesn't want to. Synth is stubborn and unwilling to talk about changing anything FFR relates. Getting every admin to talk to him about FFR is just going to lead to everyone not being able to get in contact with him.

[Fission]

you both mention that he doesn't want to put any effort into FFR's longevity, but that contradicts his mentions about FFR "being his baby." if he is truly invested into FFR like he would imply he is, he would allow those who have the time to continue maintaining it.

so what exactly is going on here? does synthlight not mean what he says? it's difficult to believe this is not the case.