arcadeplans.com

[Jakobud]

Hey everyone. I'm in the process of converting http://jakobud.com 's cabinet plans/dimensions over to something new and I could use some input from the community.

For a while I've owned the domain http://arcadeplans.com (which I've simply had forwarding you to jakobud.com). My plan is to do away with jakobud.com in favor of arcadeplans.com.

What I'm trying to figure out is a good way to make the site community-driven. What I mean is that anyone could add new plans, make changes/fixes to existing plans, etc... Basically the community could make the site grow with more plans and improve it without having to rely on me to update it. I haven't updated jakobud.com in like.... I dunno. 8 years or something. Many more priorities in my life. But the site still gets a very consistent number of visitors seeking plans. So there is obviously a need for it.

So what I'm looking for is some input on how to do this and how people would like to see it work. I want people to be able to upload their own plans to the site, but at the same time I don't want people to just be able to upload random stuff too. Also I want people to be able to make changes to plans to improve them, but at the same time I don't want people to be able to purposely screw up stuff too.

What I'm thinking is that people "log in" or authenticate using typical OAuth credentials (like login via Google/Facebook/Twitter/GitHub/etc). And people's actions get flagged by others as bad (like if someone decides to delete pacman arcade cabinet plans), then their login gets banned or something like that. Or else, maybe people have to login and be registered for 10 days before they can do anything. I'm not sure what the best approach is and that's what I need your guys input on. To have a community driven site there has to be some sort of trust built up for users. I'm not sure the best approach.

I'm a professional web developer (you couldn't tell that from looking at the 14 year old jakobud.com site! ha!), so I'm not worried about the technically skills necessary to put together whatever you guys come up with.

Any thoughts?

[pbj]

All I know for sure is that your Donkey Kong plans are "off."

[Locke141]

Your X-man 6player planes got me started on my pedestal. 

How does KLOV do approve people? There are always people here asking for a recommendations for there site. 

[Malenko]

a moderated wiki ; you need a way to roll back changes for when PBJ deletes everything.

[JDFan]

Your X-man 6player planes got me started on my pedestal. 

How does KLOV do approve people? There are always people here asking for a recommendations for there site.

I think they require a donation or recommendation from other user (so that they can verify it is not just a spammer - since the donation system requires using a credit or debit card that verifies the person exists and is who they say they are (provides verifiable name and address since you have to pay using a credit\debit card or has a current member vouch for you (and hopefully they don't just vouch for anyone that asks without having some history of the person they are vouching for.

[yotsuya]

X-Man 6Player Planes sounds like a badass game. 

[Vigo]

Sweet! Your plans have been a huge help getting me started in the hobby. 

Maybe different levels of authority based on experience, for example:
level 1: add materials to be reviewed and approved
level 2: add materials with no approval needed
level 3: add or remove materials

Another option might be a two step registration, where step 1 is simply registering, step 2 is putting a request on a forum page to be granted editing rights.

Side note - It would be awesome to have the capability to embed sketchup or other 3d models and view them online.

[bfauska]

Sweet! Your plans have been a huge help getting me started in the hobby. 

Maybe different levels of authority based on experience, for example:
level 1: add materials to be reviewed and approved
level 2: add materials with no approval needed
level 3: add or remove materials

Another option might be a two step registration, where step 1 is simply registering, step 2 is putting a request on a forum page to be granted editing rights.

Side note - It would be awesome to have the capability to embed sketchup or other 3d models and view them online.

All of this sounds good. Maybe the "approval" process for materials is that they get uploaded to a section that is available to all but is marked "unverified" and then anyone from level 2 or 3 can move them if they are approved? It would also be nice to have a discussion associated with each set of plans so that they can me altered based on the observations of the group.

[JimmyU]

It would also be awesome if people could upload CNC files as well.

[Jakobud]

It would also be awesome if people could upload CNC files as well.

Yeah I'd like to make it available for people to upload JPG, PNG, GIF, PDF, Cad files, CNC files, etc. Would CNC files be STL files typically or what? I don't know much about that industry.

[Jakobud]

All I know for sure is that your Donkey Kong plans are "off."

I think Ms Pac Man is off by a bit too :-( Sorry. Hopefully this approach will help to rectify these kind of problems.

On a related note once I get this change over figured out I'll be expecting you to be the one to fix the Donkey Kong plans ;-D

[Jakobud]

Does anyone know if Saint (or whoever the heck is running arcadecontrols.com these days) has the forums setup to do any sort of OAuth authentication? For example, if users could login to arcadecontrols using their arcadecontrols.com forum logins and then use their post count to determine if they are trustworthy or not... I would consider a users arcadecontrols.com post count and account age as a good measurement of how trustworthy they are.

[Jakobud]

a moderated wiki ; you need a way to roll back changes for when PBJ deletes everything.

I have considered this. I think this might be the lazy solution. I am looking to do a little bit more than just a freeform wiki. Like have the ability for users to upvote/downvote cabinet plans and track which are most popular etc (although I have tracked the # times each plan has been downloaded since the beginning...)

[yotsuya]

All I know for sure is that your Donkey Kong plans are "off."

I think Ms Pac Man is off by a bit too :-( Sorry. Hopefully this approach will help to rectify these kind of problems.

On a related note once I get this change over figured out I'll be expecting you to be the one to fix the Donkey Kong plans ;-D

I don't pretend to speak for Jim, but I think he's pointing out how often someone posts how the DK plans are "off" even though it's been posted for years now.

[Jakobud]

Maybe different levels of authority based on experience

But the real question is how to accurately determine someones experience.

One simple solution to all of this is for users first register for an account on arcadecontrols.com and then message me on arcadecontrols.com and tell me their username. I would then be able to see who they really are and give them editing access. Now...... if only that was automated........

[Jakobud]

All I know for sure is that your Donkey Kong plans are "off."

I think Ms Pac Man is off by a bit too :-( Sorry. Hopefully this approach will help to rectify these kind of problems.

On a related note once I get this change over figured out I'll be expecting you to be the one to fix the Donkey Kong plans ;-D

Oh lol I got it. I don't check arcadecontrols.com much these days.

I don't pretend to speak for Jim, but I think he's pointing out how often someone posts how the DK plans are "off" even though it's been posted for years now.

[pbj]

Dude, it's Jakobud's Law.

"The second someone mentions Jakobud, someone else will be compelled to respond that the plans are "off."  When asked to clarify, the next response will be, "I'm not sure, but they were a little off when I made my cabinet.""

 

[tomstewdevine]

Well I don't really have any input on how the new website should be handled, but it's sounds like a really cool idea, and extremely helpful.  Your website right now is already really really helpful as far as starting a full size build.

[Rick]

Yeah I'd like to make it available for people to upload JPG, PNG, GIF, PDF, Cad files, CNC files, etc. Would CNC files be STL files typically or what? I don't know much about that industry.

I work primarily from DXF files,  personally. Then, it's up to the CAM program (Cambam, Mastercam, etc.) to convert it to GCode.

[keilmillerjr]

Use a simple honeypot to eliminate spammers. I've done this with rails gem invisible_captcha https://github.com/markets/invisible_captcha and have had 100% success. CanCan(Can) https://github.com/CanCanCommunity/cancancan can handle authorization.

users can upload files (with size restrictions)
professionals can make a revision of a file
moderators can tag files (the best or most accurate)

Something along those lines?

[Jakobud]

Use a simple honeypot to eliminate spammers. I've done this with rails gem invisible_captcha https://github.com/markets/invisible_captcha and have had 100% success. CanCan(Can) https://github.com/CanCanCommunity/cancancan can handle authorization.

users can upload files (with size restrictions)
professionals can make a revision of a file
moderators can tag files (the best or most accurate)

Something along those lines?

Yeah definitely going to have something like that involved but I also want to avoid trolls too. You know, people who just want to get on there and screw stuff up for everyone.

[Rick]

Yeah definitely going to have something like that involved but I also want to avoid trolls too. You know, people who just want to get on there and screw stuff up for everyone.

I know what you mean...



Couldn't resist. (Seriously, when would be a better time to use that pic?)

[keilmillerjr]

Another option could be just using a gihub repo and create guidelines. Assign a few collaborators to help you accept push requests.

[gamepimp]

Emumovies.com has a pretty nice site. Users create accounts. They can download files for free up to a certain amount each day (250MB I think). The site owner (Circo) posts videos and other files that he puts together, but he also posts files users have submitted. Users who have "donated" to the site have unlimited FTP access to download content. It's a great repository for arcade and console content...

[bfauska]

Yeah I'd like to make it available for people to upload JPG, PNG, GIF, PDF, Cad files, CNC files, etc. Would CNC files be STL files typically or what? I don't know much about that industry.

I work primarily from DXF files,  personally. Then, it's up to the CAM program (Cambam, Mastercam, etc.) to convert it to GCode.

Yeah, I think the standard would be dxf or dwg. Any closer to machine code (text files or CAM files) and you already start to have variation based on what machine someone is going to use.

[matsadona]

This is an excellent initiative. Your site is appreciated by the community, so having it upgraded to 2.0 would be great.

Maybe there could be a board of trusted members that approves and release plans (or updated plans) to a public area. And an upload area that anyone could upload, but that is not accessible until approved etc.

Perhaps a subsection with Sketchup models?


PBJ is really spot on with the Jakobud’s law… 

[Jakobud]

Another option could be just using a gihub repo and create guidelines. Assign a few collaborators to help you accept push requests.

That is a great idea I haven't thought of. How difficult of a hurdle do you think it would be for non-developers to have any clue how to fork the project and submit push requests with new plan files? Like if someone wanted to add a CNC file for Pacman.... they would have to #1 have a GitHub account, #2 understand what it means to fork the project. #3 understand how to add a new file #4 understand to do a pull request. I'll have to think about this one.

[Gaetan]

Excellent ! 

I worked on Donkey Kong plans (with help from ChanceKJ) and when I compare his cab with other cab sometimes we can find little differences.
Maybe all cab are not exactly the same and a perfect plan doesn't exist.
But we can do better than existing plans on jakobud.com.

There is a lot of work.

 

[keilmillerjr]

Another option could be just using a gihub repo and create guidelines. Assign a few collaborators to help you accept push requests.

That is a great idea I haven't thought of. How difficult of a hurdle do you think it would be for non-developers to have any clue how to fork the project and submit push requests with new plan files? Like if someone wanted to add a CNC file for Pacman.... they would have to #1 have a GitHub account, #2 understand what it means to fork the project. #3 understand how to add a new file #4 understand to do a pull request. I'll have to think about this one.

It's not too hard. you could always commit a how to video, and link it on the repo's readme. What you are describing for a jakobud 2.0 sounds awfully similar to what Github already is. If a user didn't want to use git to upload file changes, they could always just send it to a collaborator. I noticed github has been adding a lot of gui lately., including  "pages" to have it  host a website. It could make things easier to not reinvent the wheel.

This is just an idea.