FB Community Rebuilding Project

Eclipzer · Post by **Eclipzer** » Nov 22, 2006 8:22

Straight to the point. I believe that if the FB community is to grow beyond its current state we need to start deliberately implementing outlets which foster a community environment. At present, it seems the only major outlet is this forum.

The QB community, from which the majority of us have come, was strong because of sites like V Planet!, Pete's QBASIC site, Neozones, NeoBASIC and others. These's sites acted as central hubs for the community. They were sources of news and downloads. Also magazines such as QBCM, QBE and QBoA among the many smaller ones acted as outlets for other forms of content related to the community, such as tutorials, comics and essays.

As I see it, QBE is dead. It was the last pillar of our community. It's time to rebuild. Collectively, we have more than enough skill to accomplish this. It's simply a matter of taking stock of our skills, organizing and stepping up to the plate and taking action. It doesn't have to happen overnight, but we can slowly start moving toward a more robust community and a stronger sense of connectedness. This can only push us all forward, faster.

Maybe I'm way off here, but if anything I've said here resonates with you, then respond with your skills and what you're willing to offer. It can be any skill you possess or would be willing to contribute. Some examples might be:

-Writing Tutorials
-Writing Articles
-Writing FAQs
-Interviewing People
-Organizing Events/Competitions
-Reviewing Programs
-Building/Maintaining Web Sites and/or Databases

Where ever you feel you would fit or be useful let us know. From here we can develop a game plan to start creating a better, stronger community.

-Eclipzer

www.eclipzer.com

Nodtveidt · Post by **Nodtveidt** » Nov 22, 2006 8:28

I am seriously considering starting up an FBOA, but each time I've done this in the past (QBOA), interest wanes, not only from me but from readers/submitters. So I'm not so sure. It sure wouldn't be a "representative" zine for the FB community but it would be *something* regardless. I agree with you when you say that things need restructuring and new direction, I'll help out wherever I can in any of the aforementioned areas of interest, as I have experience in them all.

badmrbox · Post by **badmrbox** » Nov 22, 2006 8:51

Something like VPlanet but for Freebasic would be really nice.

relsoft · Post by **relsoft** » Nov 22, 2006 11:38

I'm for writing tutorials. But I'm not writing anything until FB 17b comes.

AAP and I are participating in a shoot-em-up contest due this December. I believe we are the onLY FB entry.

Doing these things makes FB get noticed.

cha0s · Post by **cha0s** » Nov 22, 2006 12:11

That looks Realllllllllly good, rel.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Nov 22, 2006 13:15

You are a god among FB mortals... ;)

AAP's Dragon Dancer kicked tail, too.

Maz · Post by **Maz** » Nov 22, 2006 13:26

I was excited when http://insight.freebasic.net/ came along.. as far as technical specs go the site seemed very well built. But the content never seemed to appear.

I think you are right though, I can't say how many times a day I have a quick peek on the freebasic.net projects forums hoping its got a new thread that would grab my interest

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Nov 22, 2006 14:18

I started to work on a community site.... but I just got other work, ya know? It was gonna be http://tracker.freebasic.net designed to keep track of the projects and old code snippets that have been lost in these forum pages... If I had the time or motivation, I could crank that out in a couple weeks, but it's just not happening right now. I'm still willing to offer website development help for Drupal related sites (or just general PHP buff-ness)... I'll probably redo the Tracker in Drupal 5.0, the system I've posted elsewhere that my blog runs on... it's just too sweet for community driven sites to pass up.

syn9 · Post by **syn9** » Nov 22, 2006 15:12

i think i was just talking to chaos about this same thing yesterday... ive noticed it too. this community could really explode. there are always tons of demos and examples posted here, but there isnt really a user friendly browsable archive of the programs.

and why do we not have an fbtop50? ive been seriously considering writing an fbtop50 app lately... i can go ahead and start coding it

MystikShadows · Post by **MystikShadows** » Nov 22, 2006 15:12

I think all these efforts are quite commendable....I agree with eclipzer that things like that are needed, drammatically...even though FB is great and we all know it...the community's strength is what makes it all even better.

From the past year or so..different things have been started, different attempts at what we're talking about here. Not all were received with flying colors however....

For this reason I suggest we try to make a list of what can make up this new era of community ... agree on that list (so that we know atleast X amount of people will agree to it so we know we're not throwing all the efforts up in the air...then start to build what we agreed on.

That would be a great idea too syn9...Awesome idea...so far everything mentionned here, in my opinion is awesome. :-)

Xerol · Post by **Xerol** » Nov 22, 2006 15:44

I'm not exactly the most verbose person in the community, and I put most of my efforts into programming.

I guess that's not going to be much help, but you can be sure I'll keep working on stuff for you to review.

syn9 · Post by **syn9** » Nov 22, 2006 15:51

something that would be nice would be a project and program database like neobasic had before their crash. that was full of tons of programs that the community uploaded themselves, and it was really nice that you could look at projects vs completed programs, if only it had a screenshot feature >D

acetoline · Post by **acetoline** » Nov 22, 2006 17:37

This sounds like a good idea.

I'm not really good at organizing stuff, but I offer my (humble) programming and article writing skills. I also tend to review every single fb program I get my hands on!
Damn, I love Freebasic. It's only getting better with every release, and it's a pleasure to program in.

I hope this thing really takes off, and doesn't enter the trashbin like so many other projects...

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Nov 22, 2006 17:50

If we can generate enough buzz and get me excited enough, that's exactly what FB Tracker was meant to be. I have work left to do at the RndLabs website (go play BaboViolent 2 ;), but I'd be happy to finish this if I knew it would get used.

Basically, it would enable project tracking, reviews, bug reporting, etc. Any number of developers, teams, contributors, etc. Drupal is extremely flexible, and I can make it do whatever you want. Maybe read the blog posts for ideas I had at http://tracker.freebasic.net, critique/expand on them here, and let me know where to go from there.

If some other solution is more viable, I'm happy to bow out or help that instead, too.

(I'm heading out of town for Thanksgiving and may or may not have internet access.. I'll check this eventually, Sat. night at the latest.)

Deleter · Post by **Deleter** » Nov 22, 2006 21:15

If some other solution is more viable, I'm happy to bow out or help that instead, too.

Why don't you work with others instead. Then instead of a couple average sites and many failures, you could have a good strong site that didn't rest on the shoulders of only one person. Especially in a highly hobby-oriented community, people sometimes have to take long breaks, and this could spell doom for any type of project.

Personally I think this sounds great, as I have only seen the remnants of the qbasic community, and from the looks of it freebasic could have an even better base if only the above mentioned stuff actually took place. At the very least, we should start up a web ring, ie, link to each others pages. (I could even do this!). Maybe we should start a thread for just that, something easy that people could participate in who don't have much time. What do you think about this?