Basically, I was dwelling over a sandwich at 2 AM, as one oft does, when it occurred to me that I did have a few skills I was not using elsewhere (and so would be bored/frustrated/disinterested by using on BYOND), that could be put to use to help you developer folk get along easier and get your games going.
The premise was simple really, and reflected by my own situation. In the UK, home internet connections are really only good for one thing: downloading. Their upload rates are not great, and the ping/latency to many places is also kinda poor. This means I can host a BYOND world on my beast of a PC, but it's really only good for testing with 2 - 3 people.
So if I were developing a game, and felt it was maybe ready for a nice beta weekend, or just long term hosting to weed out performance bugs etc, I really need a VPS of some kind. Those things cost $$$. Not loads, but you know, it's a bit, and student Stephen001 wouldn't probably have been able to afford it month on month, even if career Stephen001 can now.
As I'm kinda alright with this Linux thang, I figured I'll buy up a largish VPS / small unmanaged dedicated solution, and basically offer up free hosting for stuff I consider original games. You'd obviously be sharing with whoever else is on the server, but if you need a way to get started, or some reliable presence, it seems to me that this would be a nice stepping stone. Maybe because you're 24/7 and 10 - 20 people can play it, you start to hit it big, who knows?
That'd be nice, as then you are read to move onto bigger and better services, and we all benefit from a new, populated game.
The idea is one game per developer, kinda just to make sure I'm not overloading things, and hopefully avoid being taken advantage of. If games get huge huge (like, obviously in need of their own server), I'll chat with the developer and try to get them onto a reliable service, and smooth that transition.
How's the idea sound? Any obvious issues here?
ID:732033
 May 7 2012, 11:14 pm
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Interesting you bring that up, as obviously having people working around my schedule is as bad for me as it is for them.
My hope would be to develop a user-friendly "panel" for this, which would manage and show your logs within a web-page, and allow server reboot/restart/DMB upload. This (if tested properly and done correctly) should save both me and the developer considerable waiting time/hassle, and offer a solution that's actually quite useful, I feel. | |
Well not exactly, as that's obviously a business, and I am not. You pay them money, for a start.
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"a user-friendly "panel" for this, which would manage and show your logs within a web-page, and allow server reboot/restart/DMB upload"
Exactly like BYONDPanel.com | |
Littlemagik wrote:
"a user-friendly "panel" for this, which would manage and show your logs within a web-page, and allow server reboot/restart/DMB upload" Sure, if you want to assume BYONDPanel is the first non-dedicated VPS provider that allows its user to control said server (in this case, not even a server. just instances) with a "panel," which is slang for an interface with buttons. Which isn't the case. | |
Oh, I would suppose so. I'm not sure about exactly like, though, as I've never really looked into the service. Something of the ilk digitalBYOND used probably, as I did use that service, back in 2005.
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So pretty much like BYONDPanel thanks for clarifying on that.
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I guess so, yup! Any further questions, concerns?
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Why you are doing this? BYONDPanel.com also offers this I have heard if you just ask he lets you use the shared server..
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I'd like to!
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I see but seeing your reputation on the forums and around chatters I would say you would steer more to "just allowing friends" or giving preferences to them.
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I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that, but most developers are my friends, I like to think! Benefits of having run most of the old BYOND guilds at some point or other, and having handled a lot of the new games listings.
You seem very ... off, with the idea? Is there an aspect of a free hosting services developers can use that concerns you, or you feel is a detriment to BYOND? | |
No not at all just asking simple and direct questions, are you concerned with that?
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Of course not! Hence I answered. You are expressing concerns though, and I'd be glad to address those for you and explore them. Chances are, some of them will be things my 2 AM musings didn't rake up, and would help improve the service to consider now.
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Why don't you ask the owner of BYONDPanel for help with the "panel"? I am sure he will help he has treated me and my friends very very well and is really nice.
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I dunno really, it's probably worth a chat with them though, right?
Thing is, that's very much a business, and I don't really have much desire to get into business matters. I had similar offers for ATP Host when that was running, it's just not an aspect I've ever historically wanted to touch, as much as Airjoe was my friend and we had technical commonality. I do very much wish BYONDPanel the best though even if we don't happen to work together, as it looks like a very useful paid service to have around. | |
Though I have full faith in Stephen, as a service run by an individual it seems like you'd need quite a bit of expertise as far as security management goes. Considering it's open to everyone, any Tom, Dick, or Harry could come along and upload some malicious code. Downloading things constantly to use up bandwidth, or allocating infinite lists, or creating files to take up resources on the machine.
This is kind of a technical question, but if the service will be reliable, seems like this should be something that's high-priority, and that you are capable of fighting against. | |
I'm pretty sure Tom wouldn't upload any malicious code to Stephen's servers. I can't believe you would even suggest such a thing, Keeth.
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One thing I can see being a problem is that I suppose users will have to work around your schedule if you aren't providing like... access to the server, like you would with a Xen(?)-type server. I mean, if I want to see my logs, I'll have to ask you for them. And given time differences, you might not be around when I am.
That isn't really a big problem though, what with free -- it's free right? -- services being provided to me. Plus, since it's a person-to-person thing, I assume we'll be working this stuff out ahead of time.