dd9r1v49thp27ltbncue3udo8od5v846ot@4ax.com...
> understand it is hard work but it is hard becouse it is one-man work. Why
not
> to allow TAG members to add links to database for example? Why not to
create
> some container like group I mentioned? Why not to make it community work ?

I think that there are several problems with links databases these days (and
not only with the povray links).

1) Links databases are not as useful as they were : I used to go there a lot
a few years ago, but today, simple google searches can return much more (and
more updated) relevant links than a human-maintained list can.

2) There's simply too many sites out there to be properly classified. In
fact there seems to be some sort of nucleus of permanent, really useful
sites and then an amazing amount of secondary sites which can have great
content but keep blinking on and off the web. I'm often hunting for 3D
props, for instance, but keeping track of every single 3D model site has
become both impossible (there are hundreds of them) and useless (even if I
had a exhaustive, updated list, exploring each site one by one could take
days). Ditto for texture sites, modellers etc. Again, a google search or a
direct search in one of the "core" sites can be more fruitful.

Note that I maintain a professional links database myself, so I really
appreciate the sort of work that Ken has been doing. I do know that it is
hard work, and I believe it has been extremely useful when the Web was
young. Still, I think that comprehensive links databases of this kind are no
longer adapted to the current state of the Web. It is just too big now.

I'd propose :
1) a leaner, shorter and quite restrictive list of URLs with only the proven
core of really popular sites I was talking about, so that we can direct
newbies to it.

2) more or less what ABX is describing, i.e. a rolling list of URLs
automatically submitted by users, if possible with comments, but with no
classification and no promise of updates. It would be searchable and simply
archived (i.e. with the 50 last links on the main pages and the rest on the
archives page).

G.


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