Spring RTS Engine

From a recent thread:

FLOZi wrote:And join #moddev and #lua on the lobby.

I used to join these channels for discussion of mod development, until I felt the amount of users and discussion in both was so low that there was no need to split them into two subgroups. Lua is a large part of mod development discussion, and there's virtually no non-Spring lua discussion. In silent protest I decided to only join the #moddev channel and keep things simpler on myself.

Anecdote:

In the development of Weblobby I didn't feel like deciding which "main" channels to default autojoin so I avoided the tough choice and added all of them: #main (Tasclient), #newbies (Springlobby and ZKLobby), #<localename> (ZKLobby) and a new one #weblobby (intended specifically for discussion on the client). This was with some apprehension and I noticed it was getting out of hand even then.

I think my initial intention was that a game-specific adaptation would replace the Spring "main channels" with the Game's main channel. Then when Forb adapted the use of Weblobby for Evo he didn't replace them, but added #evolution (not to fault him, I never expressed my concern and didn't think much of it at the time). As a result, hundreds of newbie steamers ended up asking newbie questions in one of five random channels, requiring we in the help crew to pay attention to all of those. It can be undone now but it's mostly too late anyway.

What's the benefit of dropping a channel? Cost reduction?

On the odd occasion it is handy to have multiple channels if you don't want to get lost in someone elses discussion.

That said, I have considered this multiple times over the years.

Jools wrote:What's the benefit of dropping a channel? Cost reduction?

Click reduction.

then don't go there? I stopped joining both.

smoth wrote:then don't go there? I stopped joining both.

The goal of my suggestion is to help new people, who now have a 50% chance that I will see their questions, and a 0% chance that you will. The point is to funnel new devs to one place instead of two.

I don't think that will be a problem. Few people are doing projects any more and moddev is less active. Many days so many of the channels in the lobby barely have a discussion at all. It is a bit more than disheartening.

What actually defines a channel? Isn't the channel created when someone joins it? At least I can join whatever channel I want.

But the !info command doesn't work in all channels. What's the procedure of applying for the channel to have the presence of the chanserv robot? For instance, the #lol channel has lost access to chanserv.

A channel is defined by having a channel founder, who is (iirc) attached to that channel by a moderator and then has control of that channel - the channel founder can op/de-op people within that channel. I think its also precisely that which makes chanserv present.

Yeah, but then the only difference if you remove #lua is that chanserv disappears from it. But people can still join it and have their normal discussions. It won't change much. Only !info doesn't work.

Not that I really care. Just saying it won't make a big difference. Also #bota is not an official channel with chanserv but it's still quite active.

Yeah, but then the only difference if you remove #lua is that chanserv disappears from it.

I think this is a discussion about whether or not people decide en masse to disappear from it, rather than a discussion about whether or not to remove chanserv. I have never used #lua much but I do use #moddev reguarly, so personally I don't feel like I would lose anything if we stopped using #lua.

Jools wrote:Yeah, but then the only difference if you remove #lua is that chanserv disappears from it. But people can still join it and have their normal discussions. It won't change much. Only !info doesn't work.

Not that I really care. Just saying it won't make a big difference. Also #bota is not an official channel with chanserv but it's still quite active.

Oh Jools you always complicate everything. For your benefit:

Suggest drop #lua

• Don't suggest the channel to potential new devs on the forum.
• Change the topic in #lua to request users join #moddev.

Better?

#lua exists so people don't interrupt our politics discussions with pesky "game development" questions!

TIL that #lua exists.

Nuff said.

ask a mod to set password for #lua

taking away a channel is wrong. the choice should always be there.