Hi Twyst!

Welcome back!

> Here's the thought - http://povray-central.net  - Somewhat
> like the twysted.net of old, but much, much better.

Sounds very interesting.

> There are 2 reasons for my doing this.
> 1) I've noticed that there still is no major web-based information
portals -

There are currently no "Ultimate POV-Ray Portal", but there's a few places
that specialises in different areas that I think cannot be done better on a
central portal than they're done now.

> - Multi-page article system - entirely web-based, with an optional
> image on each page. This is similar to tomshardware.com.

Sounds interesting, but what would the articles be about? (Tutorials are
already covered elsewhere in your list.)

> - Links Directory - Similar to the DMOZ.org system , but written
> entirely by me. PHP is wonderful.

The links section on povray.org is *very* extensive and it is well organised
by Ken Tyler. I don't see why we need a new links resource. Sure it would be
nice, but is it worth the effort when there's already an excellent one?

> - Newsfeeds - from other graphics/povray related sites. - Possibly
> newsgroups - but that would be a nightmare.

How would that be an advantage over using regular newsgroups?

> - Code Gallery - Searchable, subcategorized code snippets.

Sounds useful and convenient if coders would support it.

> - Image Gallery - This is gonna be the fun one. All images stored
> in the database, so no problems with duplicate filenames, etc.

Exactly what would the purpose of the gallery be? Would it be for all
POV-Ray users or restricted? Would it simply be a show-off gallery or should
it serve another purpose too? How much control would users have over how the
images are presented (with regard to comments about the images and so on)?

> - Threaded News Discussion, like slashdot.

What would the advantage over news.povray.org be?

> - Software Reviews

Sounds great!

> - Benchmarks

Nice.

> - Tutorials (I have a good idea for this. =D )

If people supported this it could be a great resource. I don't quite see
though what the big advantage is of having all tutorials at one place
instead of simply linking to different people's tutorials (like on
povray.org/links ).

> Anyways - I wanted to get some discussion on this.

I'd like to discuss this: What exactly is the great advantage of having
everything at one place? There are many general portals on the net, but I
think most people use not just one portal for all their Internet activities,
but use some services from one portal, others from another portals, and do
some things on their own.

The links collection on povray.org and these povray newsgroups are things
that I think work fine as it is now, and I don't see why we need a new links
collection or new newsgroups.

Don't get me wrong - I think your initiative is a great one; I'm just being
critical and joining the discussion as you requested :)

> One of the things that I will request, is that I get more
> people than just me working on this
> I don't mind doing the programming - it's consistant, steady
> content that I have trouble with.

I hope you will have success with the project.

Greetings,

Rune
--
\ Include files, tutorials, 3D images, raytracing jokes,
/ The POV Desktop Theme, and The POV-Ray Logo Contest can
\ all be found at http://rsj.mobilixnet.dk (updated October 9)
/ Also visit http://www.povrayusers.org

Post a reply to this message