Yes I agree with the downgrading quality of our archives. Even some of the programs I have uploaded are not worth it. I think we should have a committee go through and mark the ones that should go. If more than 50% of these people think a certain program should go, then delete it.

Yes, I agree with the committee thing.

Hey, has anyone played 'Phantom Star v.0.81b'? It's the best side scroller shoot em' up ever!

I strongly agree with the committee idea. If there's gonna be a committee, I want to be on it. I enjoy deleting other people's files.

Drew Worthey
Head programmer of BHW Software

wow! They actually listened to my ideas!

But to qualify to be on the committee, you have to prove you know how to filter between good and bad programs. (Someone who has uploaded a ton of BASIC quadratic solvers should not be on the committee)

that is evil! you actually ENJOY deleting peoples files? that is cruel I have about 6-8 files i'm waiting to show up and I think the whole committee thing is the worst idea ticalc.org has ever had.

you had better not delete my new esolve series, that is a program that is actually HELPFUL!. it isn't already on any voyage 200 and unlike most programs, it shows its work. when you see an esolve program, dont delete it. it can help lots of algebra students with homework!

For one thing, this is a free site. You do not control it, so they can delete any and all of your files at their own free will. YOU ARE AT THE MERCY OF THE STAFF!!! GET THAT THROUGH YOUR HEAD!!

The committee is a very good idea. It gives a chance for some extra people to help out a little more in the TI community, and the deletings will be fair.

Who cares about a program that shows work?? Most people can do that, so what's so special about it?

Sorry for the boldness of my comment everyone, and MV.

well.... we could have a hired staff, like the file archivers. That way, the exsisting Ticalc.org staff can screen through the honest people, and the not so nice and honest people to be on a file removing commitee.

Actually, none of the staff is paid. I actually wonder how the owners of the site pay for it. No way they could pay for all the bandwidth on the site and a bunch of guys working 20+ hours a week (I assume this much).

Quottion form the hardware page:
"All of our machines are physically located at SolNet in Sollentuna, Sweden."
And a quote from Magnus' staff page:
"He is also the provider of the network connection."

I'll let your mind fill in the rest.

And if you are interested in knowing what SolNet is:
http://www.edu. sollentuna.se/

Work showing is an anti-teacher method, so for example I made a simple distance formula program that shows the original coordinates plugged in and then them simplified under a square root and then that "deradicaled". So all I have to do is just copy down the whole thing and it looks like I did work. Of course, I never see the dformula any more, and it would be possible just to type the whole thing into the homescreen, but you know :)

I don't know guys I like the rating system... I think it will turn out better results seeing that even if you they remove "junk" there still will be a lot of junk on the site. also it is less offensive the saying ppls stuff is junk

Don't worry. If your series of progrmas really is useful, then the committee will do its job and your programs won't get filtered out. I for one think it is a great idea. I've loaded two basic programs, and one of them I'm sure would have been filtered out...it was my first program. My second would have easily made it through because it is very useful. Remember that with this idea if your program is good you won't have to worry.

correction, this committee idea it the only bad idea ticalc.org has ever had

I would simply like to point out that this was not ticalc.org's idea, but rather the opinion of angelboy, a member of our community.

I likewise have several programs waiting to be uploaded and i too think that a committee is a horrible idea and find it amusing that someone who has not authored any program thinks he has the right to delete other peoples!

Actually, all of my programs are authored under Sam Brotherton's name. We are both members of BHW Software, but I don't have the means to transfer my files to the internet. So, Lewk, what say you now?

The Omniscient Drew Worthey
Head Programmer of BHW Software

If you can't upload files from your computer, why not log onto your account through Sam Brotherton's computer, then upload it?

Lewk has spoken.

Perhaps because HE DOESN'T FEEL LIKE BUYING A US$1000 PLANE TICKET?! Just a wild guess.

Have Sam whoever log on for him then. Besides, what I was really geting at is what the guy below is talking about, he obviously does have means of uploading stuff to the internet. Just look at his post!

My computer is not able to upload files to the internet. That doesn't mean that I can't use web site features such as comment posting. There is something wrong with my built in FTP protocol, so file cannot be uploaded to the internet from my computer. Get off my back, or I'll find something to get on yours about.

Drew Worthey
Head Programmer of BHW Software

Please do. I love constructive critisism!

Get Sam to log onto your account, THEN have him upload it, or have him put you down as a secondary author. Chill out man.

How do you not have the means to transfer files to the Internet? You've already uploaded some data from your computer to the Internet as evidenced by your post.

"Authored" vs "Submitted" is the fine line here. Just because we do not post a "hello World" program does not mean that we cannot code, or that we can not decide if a program is good or not. If your program is good enough, the commitee should let it through. I prefer the rating system, but still...

I think that this will make people start downloading BASIC programs, finally. Contrary to popular belief, there are some very good BASIC programs out there. The fact that there are about five thousand totally useless ones discourages people, and with a slow connection you can barely load the page.

I agree with that. I am sure that there are many great BASIC games hidden somewhere in there, but I really don't feel like going through all of the muck to find them.

MWM

They could always make 2 catagories, "muck" programs and the "good" programs. Of course then people feel discriminated against, or picked on, it's not fair, however you want to phrase it. Or they can make a "best programs" catagory, and post only the games and programs worth downloading in there. I'm sure ticalc.org can think of something to allow everyone to upload their games and yet give downloaders the choices of viewing only the "useful" programs.

I don't think that seperating them into two seperate directories would work the best. I would prefer just to have an option so that I can hide all files with less than a certain rating, much like how a user can hide fake news items. Perhaps there could be somewhere to click in each directory that says "Show all files in this directory" also.

MWM

Exactly what I would do...back when the user reviews came up (about two weeks ago?) that is exactly what another member and I were suggesting. In addition to the reviews, there should be a "Would you like to rate this program?" option. Also, another thing that would help me to filter these "bad" programs out would be to get the search engine back up. Not that I want to burden you guys with any more tasks to do, but it would be really helpful... -Jake

I personally think that the current search engine through google works better than the old.

I can do with out the seach engine, but what I really want is the mailing list archives! How much longer will it take?

Also, take a look at the subjects in this thread; is that a bug in the system?

MWM

Hey now! Don't attract attention to something like that. They might just take down the message boards for a few days to fix such a trivial thing, that is if it is a bug in the first place. I mean common man, what are you thinkin'?

We already know about it, and it should be fixed fairly soon. I don't think we'll need to take down the boards to fix it. :-)

AFAIK, it's fixed now.

That's why most rating systems go:

Good, Very Good, Excellent, Superb, THE BEST.

Instead of

Very Bad, Bad, Okay, Good, Very Good.

My position exactly. That's why I almost never even visit the BASIC program archives.

As you can see if you look at my little profile thingy, all i can do is program in basic. I really cant program in assembly. So a few times i have been really bored and i have looked through all the lists of basic programs. Some of them i have found very useful, however, even as there are some useful basic programs, there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of them that are stupid and utterly useless. I like the rating idea. With the rating, the newer people would get discouraged because there files were deleted and might just give up programming. If there are no newbies, then there is no future for programming. There will just be the same old people and no new people resulting in the extinction of programming for the TI's. The rating system is by far the best idea.

Think about my point and i think it will make sense to you. GO WITH THE RATING!!!!

Peace and good programming to all-JD

I strongly agree with you. If it weren't for newbies trying to learn more about programming, then we wouldn't be here listening to sound on a TI or playing games. We would just use the calculator for math class.

You can do math on calculators? Wow... :)

Amazing what crazy stuff people come up with.

Everyone's a pessimist, eh?

If a program has a bad rating, that could encourage newbies to improve their program, learn more about programming, and not be newbies anymore.

That sounds like a good solution.

Some programs I have posted I would like to be deleted. When I first started writing programs I thought they were good, but now I realize they're not worth anything!

Is there not a way to remove your own programs?
If not, there should be. It might help cut down the work that a committee would have to do. Also, would it help to have a way to block uploads from those who have a history of junk programs? They might then have to petition to upload anything else.

The problem with letting everyone delete their own files is that some people could find ways to access oters accounts and delete their whole author record. So that won't be added.

However you can delete any of your programs at any time. Just e-mail filearchive@ticalc.org and after I prove that you are the author of the files I will remove those that you wish.

Even that's faulty though - someone once send you an email with forged SSH headers telling you to delete all of my files.

Just a little paranoid arn't we?

thanks for the tip

I usually ask for their password if I need further verification.

do you have access to the passwords?

yes they do...I remember a while back when Morgan (i think) went on someone's account to check some bug or something...it was in some news post about 6 mos ago. The "victim" said he felt violated...it was pretty funny

Without giving away any specific details, I can, from what you stated, tell you that statement is completely false.

If need be I can compare passwords to check for validity. If you want to change your password before I do so then change it back after that is completely fine and a good thing to do if you don't trust me.

Are you saying that we can't trust you?! :O

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Do you store the passwords encrypted like Unix or even (though not as securely) Windows do?

If you don't, you probably should.

Granted the server is running postgresql I bet the hash is stored in the data base and then compared by the script. (that is how is is done normally)

I wouldn't go as far as saying md5, but maybe.... (md5 author claims only he can reverse the hash so its not likely they would be able to look at the tables and see what your pass is)

I agree with this sentiment.

Then why do you still have so many programs? It is also possible to put all calculator versions in one zip file then have that cross-linked to all the different directories

I think that you need to implement the first and last ideas. Definitely do the folders - we've been asking for that for a long time. Also, the manual review by the archive staff would help. However, I think that some people might misuse a peer rating system.
Just my $0.02.

I think the rating could be controlled. If the ratings of files were done by user account (much like a poll), then that way, people would be less likely to misuse it. If they hate a file enough to make tons of accounts and vote poorly for it, then they have serious issues.

If ratings is the way that we go, I think a system of ratinf where you can over write your olf rating would most likely be used. Thus you can only rate a file once and if they ever update the program you can change your rating.

I think that you just realize that people hate all your useless programs and you are afraid the programs might be voted off the site.

I agree, if the people don't like it, it can have a "this stupid program sucks" sign next to it, or can be deleted in low memory conditions; perhaps a notification of soon to be deleted programs for people to try out and save in a re-rate if good enough...

look whos talkin :)

just kidden

I really like the rating idea. I think we should implement that. The only problem is, it (as well as many of the other ideas) could be abused.

The subcategory idea also sounds nice, to me. That way, people could track down whatever type of game they wanted to download, much easier.

If the two of these ideas were both done, I think that would solve the problem.

it's a good idea but you would need it to not have a bunch of asm people because no ofence but they seem to think that most basic programs are dumb because there basic

I don't think there are many people that believe that basic is absolutely evil. There many good programs in basic, just not as high a percentage as asm.