Just came across Zaarin's old site 'The Petrified Forest' (http://www.geocities.com/laadventures/Grim/) and i think it looks cool, maybe it could be taken over again and added to the network, if zaarin aproves! what do u think? i mean its just sittin there

I had actually thought about that myself. I'll move this to feedback to promote more discussion. Even though that site is dead, I think it'd be good to have it on the GFN rather than let it be eaten eventually by Geocities once it converts to a pay service. For instance, Spaff's monkey island page, the site that evolved into the mixnmojo.com empire, was recently devoured by geocities, shortly before the staff was going to back it up on mixnmojo. This is a good opportunity to save the PF from a fate worse than Geocities...er, death!

However, this would mean an adjustment in the hosting policy of the GFN, to allow for "dead" sites to be hosted and be on display like in a museum. I'm not sure how much the LFNetwork higher-ups would agree with hosting inactive sites, but it's good to know that GFN-founder ZeroXcape is an LFN exec :). We'll just have to see what develops.

I'm personally of the view that hosting too many sites will dilute the audience the best and most up-to-date ones receive. This particular site looks very nice, but doesn't offer much (if anything) that isn't readily available elsewhere, on a site that's maintained and therefore, you could argue, deserves more visitors.

Having said that, having a specific "museum" (mausoleum? Ho ho - no) sounds like a good idea, so long as it's clear that sites within it are are inactive and outdated. It seems a shame to let good sites die, and poking around old (embarrassing) sites is always "fun", unless it's your own.

I was thinking about putting "Inactive" identifiers by those sites that are in that condition (CLD, LSA, Bones, Mausoleum(?)), but which could quickly be removed if they start to update again.

I have to disagree about the audience dillution bit. I think that more active sites would inspire a bit of friendly competition to start pumping out original features and things.

it dosnt actually have to remain 'dead' i was thinkin someone could pick it up.

I agree that the network shouldnt be crowded with too many sites, some of the hosted sites arnt doin a thing, like the LSA and lets face it CLD, i mean it aint been touched for over a year. I know mojo had the down time but surely one of the conditions on having a hosted site is to keep it updated and make use of it. Some of the hosted sites just arnt doin this. I know ur workin on BonesOfLife Met but some of the other sites are dormant. I think the whole network should be revised and sorted out(i know thats easy to say...)Dormant sites should be dropped and the sites that are serving a cause on the network should be kept.

I dont mean to have a go at anybody who owns one of the hosted sites but i just feel the the network has been back long enough to be sorted out and kept up-to-date. I'd be happy to help with any sites that are tryin to pick up once again

CLD rocks, even if it is dead!

never been a fave of mine really...who is the owner again?

y'know, I've never even talked to him. The site stopped being updated a couple months before I started working for the GFN.

I still think we should can the dormant sites, and then only bring them back when they had owners that will update on a regular basis, or if not update them make sure that all the content is correct and the files that being hosted are all working.

I mean not all the sites need to be updated as they are simply there to provide information about the game to people who want it.

If someone wants to take over TPF, they're more than welcome.

:jawa
this a question,
I know you mods are busy
and have other things to do
as well but what happens to
all the locked threads?
and so so working sites?
I mean a locked thread
is good to read but you can't
participate any longer so should
it not be moved off to make more
room for other threads and posts?
I mean High Rollers has a great many
locked threads.
and sites that show up on GFN hosted
site list that are not active
aka Bones of Life as example
get people's hopes up.
maybe they should be hidden
and posts could be made by mods for
and like fansite needs a new
webmaster any takers
please apply and submit
preposeal. proposals
man did I spell that wrong.
and is there a spelling check feature?
I mean sending email by hotmail or
eudora is great because I can check
spelling,
it is kind of goofy sending
someone a preposeal.:)

locked threads are just pushed down the list of threads as new ones appear...over time they get pushed back down the line untill you have to go to other pages of the forums in order to see them. Theres no point in removing them as people still might want to read locked threads.

as for the hosted site thing, its been talked about a lot...believe me, i know some of the sites are pretty much dead at the moment but they do have content on them..(apart from bones of life) so people can again still read them and get info from them.

Bones of life was a big site when it was in its prime so its not like we can just can it because it isnt doing much at the moment. We'll just have to see how things develop. Now that there are a few more people on the forums, maybe this will motivate some of the old webmasters to build up their sites again.