On another thread, esteel wrote:

Also i would like to remind all of you, that there was a VERY extensive testing period for all the changes in 2.4.2 and hardly anyone complained back then. Now you will have to bear with your lack of reporting till the next version is out.

I've heard this stated before when people complained about new changes to Nexuiz. I have always thought the communication between the devs and the rest of the community could be improved. For example, I know that myself and many fellow players didn't know about the crylink changes until they went into effect.

Over the past few months, I've made more effort in keeping up with development changes by reading the SVN notes and such, and I still don't find it easy to keep track of new features and changes. The best way seems to be to scan IRC logs every day to keep up with new development discussion, and that would include both the #nexuiz and #alientrap channels.

I think there could be a Nexuiz development blog where the devs can post a quick entries summarizing new development topics. This would allow us to have one place to keep track of Nexuiz development without having to scan the forum and sort through to find the important bits, or to scan IRC logs, or SVN notes. The blog entries could link to threads on the forum for continued discussion.

I was actually thinking about posting this yesterday due to needing information about the new racing mode. I found multiple threads about it, but no useful information about implementing it on a server to test it out.

If (understandably) the devs are too busy to type up blog entries, then maybe some regulars in the community that do keep up with Nexuiz development can collect details from the devs (in IRC or otherwise) and summarize new things in the blog entries.

Think of it as a funnel and filter for development news.

Doku's Idea's are always good. This seems usefull to me.

I'm watching the Pandora blog nearly every day, so why not another blog to look at?

<<DJ>> wrote:Doku's Idea's are always good. This seems usefull to me.

Butt approves, so I'm pro.

I used to follow via the dev wiki but it seems that its not a reliable source anymore.

It's a good idea. Reading the log messages can be tiresome after a while, many of them is fixes for the fixes.
Some kind of weekly, daily or topic summary makes more sense. And also documentation about new mapping features.

I voted for it. Almost every project I've been involved with has a dev blog, and it's been very successful in getting the community excited for the project's next release.

very good idea.

HarryButt wrote:I'm watching the Pandora blog nearly every day, so why not another blog to look at?

<<DJ>> wrote:Doku's Idea's are always good. This seems usefull to me.

Butt approves, so I'm pro.

God, where's the RSS feed on that thing?!

If we have a development blog, /please/ have an RSS feed.

The community has more than enough methods of communication available already. Maybe a dev sticky could be maintained in the appropriate forum?

Too many methods.

How many stickies should there be?

Mute Print wrote:The community has more than enough methods of communication available already. Maybe a dev sticky could be maintained in the appropriate forum?

Creating a forum sticky for it would be a poor solution. A blog is much more than just a few news updates. The databases are usually filled with goodies to increase your SEO and help promote whatever it is you're writing about.

By the classic look of the forum, I'd assume many users are unaware of RSS save the savvy firefox users who understand the RSS icon in their address bar. Blogs usually flaunt it to attract more users.

good idea

I think this is the best idea I have heard in a long time. I would definitely be willing to write for it, too, pulling the important bits from the SVN logs.

I would love to see a Dev blog. I'd follow it religiously

Well, i'll try to find some time to update the dev wiki a bit..
But basicly currently a LOT of stuff is moved over to use CSQC (client side quakec) which will reduce network load, make things smoother, less load on the server and maybe more control on the client. Things like a new hud, better way to transmit centerprints, some effects like the hook beam, zoom(!) are now done via CSQC. Besides some fixes, new menu skins, a few texture tweaks, new player sounds, race game mode, on screen map for ONS game mode.. such stuff.

You could read the svn commit messages on the nexuiz-2.0 branch (NOT on the trunk). That should have much less noise from the "fixes-for-the-fixes" as I only merge changes over when I think they are stable.

As for a blog - I already write commit messages, why should I write the same work AGAIN? I certainly wouldn't post there.

divVerent wrote:You could read the svn commit messages on the nexuiz-2.0 branch (NOT on the trunk).

Sorry to ask such a noob question, but could you provide a link?

halogene wrote:Sorry to ask such a noob question, but could you provide a link?

Anyway, imo the development status should be available from the website, so that noobs (and me ) don't have to look that much in the depths of the forums. It's quite common to provide that kind of information, so I don't see why Nexuiz doesn't.

divVerent wrote:As for a blog - I already write commit messages, why should I write the same work AGAIN? I certainly wouldn't post there.

Well, the problem is that there are too many places for development information, and none if it is provided in a summarized fashion.

As I said before, think of the blog concept as a funnel and filter. Perhaps there could be someone who would perform the task of upkeeping the blog. Then this person (or people) would know where to look for dev updates, and to ask the devs for more clarity on topics when needed.

Maybe a few of us from the community can work together to maintain it, but it really should be on the Nexuiz website, or at least linked from it. Otherwise, we could just do this on the nexuizninjaz.com site, but then a lot of people wouldn't see it.

Adding the blog into the nexuiz website sounds good for me.

It's a blog integrated with the main site, not a remotely-hosted wordpress.org/nexuizdev type of thing? By all means, then, captain.

I'm not trying to be a debbie downer but this requires setup / system integration / maintenance and additional attention (time) from the devs that they could be spending writing code. Sure integrating the blog with the website sounds like a great idea but I estimate it to be ~8 hours worth of work. For a project div has already expressed his lack of interest in.

The svn has an RSS bot in the IRC channel... so maybe a feasible solution would be to parse these commits daily into 'blog posts' that are edited by a reviewer(s).

I agree with [-z-].
If there's an auto generated pre-feed some volunteers can edit and publish, as for the news freak I am, I'd be more then happy to take part in this.

but this requires setup / system integration / maintenance and additional attention (time) from the devs that they could be spending writing code.

Setup, sure. But I think it's worth the setup time/effort.

With proper use, I actually think it will save some of the developers time, Think of the time wasted on making changes to the crylink that they will end up having to change again later due to community outcry. That time could have been saved.

The contribution and maintenance of the blog can be done by volunteers that aren't the developers. So divVerent doesn't have to change anything that he's doing aside from occasionally explaining something with more clarity when asked (which he does already) because often the SVN notes don't make much sense to a casual observer.

The difference is that he would only need to explain something once. I see Div spending time on the IRC channels explaining things a lot and updating people on various aspects of Nexuiz. In theory, he would need to update only one person instead of 20 people.

Or, why not ask a bunch of volunteers to do that work for them? Kind of like reporters. They ask the devs what's going on from time to time, and as they explain the reporters write it down, possibly simplify if there are lots of technical stuff and post it in a blog. Thus the devs won't waste too much time doing all this extra work, only the time they are on IRC and talk anyway about stuff. A good observant reporter could just quietly (if you want that) observe a conversation between the devs whenever he/she have the time and will.
Kinda like a Nexuiz Frontier, or something that reports what's going on. lool

I don't get the point, but it was surprisingly entertaining

simple summary

1) Doku's favorite game is Nexuiz

2) Doku tries to use words he doesn't understand.

3) There are so many options for getting info on Nexuiz development! Yay!

4) Doku attempts to get info

5) Crap... too many options... can't find the info that I want.

6) Omg, Britney Spears is gonna eat me! Ahh!!!

Dokujisan wrote:5) Crap... too many options... can't find the info that I want.

Choose one option, read through that, choose another, read through that and so on.
I always thought that the more places you can get info the better, as then you can verify some information with other places and find the info a lot faster. You have to be the first one that I've run into who has problem with too many options

Well that ( http://svn.icculus.org/nexuiz/branches/ ... s?view=log ) would be a first starting point for info about changes. I think i already gave a quick overview of what was changed and as DivVerent in not having time to do more then coding and doing changelogs it will be up to others to make something nice out of it. I'll see to find some time for that but the commit logs are quite understandable already..