coded emag project

writing public domain code that any new emag could use

One of the biggest problems with starting a new emag is writing the code, which explains why coders rank at the top/near top of just about every emag nfo. It's fine to release ascii, but a coded form provides a lot of benefits like the ability: to include graphics, to prevent people from modifying your articles, and to put everything in one file. To help encourage new emags to start up, we'd like to write an easy to use code for editors to produce a simple coded emag.

Releasing all the info on scenelink.org in a ascii/coded form would help us to spread the news even further. Lots of people in the scene don't have web access, or have machines that don't work well the newer browsers, and some people just dislike the web in general. The file would also be a good way to publisize scenelink itself since it could be upladed to ftp sites, put on dcc bots, or uploaded to boards.

coded emag/ascii

releasing the info on scenelink.org for non-web people

vga, ascii, music, demo galleries

selections from this month's releases

The lit gallery is up, but we still need to find releaible people to manage the galleries for vga, ansi, ascii, music, and demos. The galleries will be a place for people to get a survey of what's new, targeted at both scene regulars and those outside the scene. For scene regulars it'll be a way to keep track of what kinds of work individuals or groups are doing lately, and for those outside the scene it'll be a great chance to see the best the scene has to offer. For example, warez people would be unlikely to download the latest twilight pack, an ansi viewer, unzip all these, and shell to dos to view it, but they'd probably click on a jpg version of the image. If you'd like to help out, get more info on the gallery page. .

Still very much in the discussion stage, lots of copyright issues to be disussed… The general idea would be to release cds of scene material to the public to help expose people to past works. Some possible ideas include: a years worth of music/art/demos/emags on a disc a collection of interviews (audio), nfos, logos, articles, and packs for a kind of group history results from music/art/demo compos we'd organize Obviously everything would need to be cleared with the artists, but it would be a good way to rasie a little money for the scene ftp server. NOTE: once again, no one in scenelink makes ANY money off the group

cd compilations

putting scene material on cds

parties

getting together face to face

Organizing things in big cities for scene people to come hang out at… perhaps like a european demo party, perhaps just some live bands and whatnot. Scenelink would pay for everything, assuming the group can generate some revenue. And yes, there are privacy issues to be dealt with (especially the warez people) but I'm sure people can be smart about it.

RThere are too many articles on software piracy that never mention the warez scene, and too few that get written on any other scenes. Most of this can be traced back to writers without the time to spend delving into the scenes, or without a clue as to their existence. Scenelink, as a totally legitamite organiztion, could be the go between to help reporters write articles that gave credit to the little world we've created. For the art scene, we can mail out info packets to newspapers and magazines describing a little about the scenes with an offer to help reporters put together stories. Given the usual white space newspapers have to struggle with, hopefully we can get a few publications to do small features on the scene instead of another Kathy Lee Gifford story.

geting articles written in media

convincing newspapers and magazines to do good articles on the scenes

game tournaments

a chance for groups to compete outside packs and sites

Kinda like the olympics, but without the commercials. Imgine the chance to compete in a game of quake with team Razor, or imagine yourself defending your orcs from Radman's pitiful archers. Well wake up, it'll never happen. Not unless we organize a neat little game tournament for people and/or groups. If we get some kind of budget we could even offer prizes to the winners.

An offering channel would let people and groups offer anything they wanted, provided it wasn't illegal. This would let people make files available instantaneously instead of waiting for scenelink to put it up on our website. There's a lot of potential for an offering channel, but first we need someone to donate legit shells to help run security and a few offer bots of our own.

offering channel

like #exceed, but for artpacks, emags, demos, etc

ftp site

like ftp.cdrom.com but run by the scene itself

A place for people to upload any scene related files they want, with more freedom than cdrom.com allows.

Having a scene irc server would be a lot of work, and require convincing lots of groups to leave the "safety" of efnet, which is why we're not even thinking about this for another 6 months. There would be a lot of advantages to creating a scene only irc server, right now some of them that come to mind: eliminate all the takeover bullshit that takes up so much of our time more flexibility in adding new servers, any group that wanted their own server could have it cut down on the lag considerably privacy, to some extent a bot friendly policy, and even assistance getting bots up eliminate the complete lamers that join #ansi, #warez950 or whatever. Similar channels would exist on the new server, but people would have to know enough about the scnes to have that irc address

scene irc server

an irc server just for the scenes

scene history projects

a combination of interviews, articles, and file archives

Another BIG project slated for the future. We'd probably start with some small histories of groups and then look at a more comprehensive one later on. The history would include interviews with dozens of people, like the founders, some of the groups competitors, and of course an interview with the current membership. A larger article with timeline would be put together from the interviews, articles in emags, nfos, and any other sources available, while including links to all these resources for those interested.

Sort of like the present index of groups, except these would be entries devoted to groups that no longer exist, or to former incarnations of present groups. Once the index picks up there will be a steady supply of dead groups, but we'd also like to include groups that died a long time ago. Anyone who spent time in a group that meant something to you, contact us so we can start making the tombstone. Hopefully each entry would have a couple of the logos, nfos, and interviews with former members… who knows, perhaps current groups will be able to learn from old mistakes.

cemetary for groups

keep the memory of great groups alive

scene meetings

irc events

Another pretty hazy idea… We'd invite people to speak and then we'd all hang out in a big +m channel listening to the person, after which people would be free to ask questions or contribute in another way to the discussion. Other then the obvious collection of scene celebs we could try to get some other random people like artists for Origin, people from the FBI, or anyone that people would be interested in hearing.

The listserv would be mailed weekly to group heads, giving them a chance to address lots of groups without having to go through all the middle men first. This would be a way for groups to agree on file sizes and other mututal concerns. The usefullness of such a project is still questionable, but it's likely that increased communciation would create opportunitys that didn't exist before.

scene listservs and councils

heads from various groups talking to one another

art request board

a place for people to request ansi/ascii/vga/html for their groups

Lots of people in other scens need art, and right now the only way they can get it is to join #ansi or something similar and beg, which is irriating for all involved. The request board would let people see who needed what, and if anyone was offering rewards for work.

Tech news will become a regular feature of scenelink once we find someone to edit the page. The goal is to provide lots of info quickly. Topics will include game descriptions, new scripts, and summaries of major articles in Wired, PC Week, Computerworld, Computer Gaming World, and others.

tech news

an update on games, net tech, and life in general