Discussion EDCodex: "A fansite full of community resources!". VOLUNTEERS BADLY NEEDED - for adding content/entries

[wolverine2710]

EDCodex: "A fansite full of community resources!". VOLUNTEERS BADLY NEEDED - for adding content/entries

Annoucement: Saturday the 23th of January 2016.
Brilliant news: On the 5th of January 2016, Zac Antonaci -Head of Community Management of FD- wrote in the "Open Letter to Frontier Developments" thread that usage of the iPhone companion app api is LEGAL. Source. Which makes the usage of tools which use this api like EDMC, EDAPI and EDCE LEGAL. Other great news: On the 18th of January 2016, Brett C. -Community Assistant/Manager of FD- created the "Elite Dangerous->Gameplay and Features->Player Tools & API Development" subforum. Its an excellent place for checking out new and existing tools. The EDCodex thread is also there.

It has been a wonderful day. EDCodex has today made it to the fansite section of the official ED Community website. The title is a quote from the fan site!!. Announcement.

Biobob has created EDCodex which is basically my third party tools thread on heavy steroids. EDCodex is a website with a database of currently approx 215+ tools,threads,websites,videos for ED. Any one can and is encouraged to add entries there. EDCodex is and should be community-driven. EDCodex companion thread. Its equally suited for PC's, tablets and smartphones and has RSS feeds.

Quite a few commanders have added entries to EDCodex and/or have claimed their entries in it and started enhancing/editing them. This is ofc great. Biobob basically spend most of his free time coding for EDCodex - new GEMS are on the way!! I humbly do some admin tasks, PR stuff and adding entries to EDCodex. BUT no matter how much time I spend on it there is no way that I can add all the entries I want. There are some gems out there just waiting to be added and to be shown to the general public!!!

That is why I'm writing this post. We NEED your help wrt adding more entries to EDCodex. EDCodex is and has to be community driven. Otherwise it dies ;-(

Should you want to help the only thing you have to do is register, log in and add entries. Biobob has made adding them a snap. To get things starting I will start with mentioning things on my TODO list.

• The official ED Community website, fan site section. Cmdr Roque in the past volunteered (thanks mate) has added quite a few entries from there, so have I, there are still 6+ websites there which need to be added.
• Steam Guides. Lots of excellent guide are to be found there. Almost none of them are in EDCodex.
• Steam broadcasts. None of them are in EDCodex.
• Youtube channels. EDCodex has support for the youtube API and playlists. Enter a playlist and automagically all videos in it are added to the corresponding EDCodex entry.
• Live streams. Should you have a channel or know one feel free to add them.

To make sure duplicates are kept to a minimum. If you want to add something please search first for a part of the title or the author in EDCodex. Biobob is working on a mechanism to detects dupes when entering an entry ;-)

We hope you help us to make EDCodex even bigger and in effect help us with our mission/vision: Giving authors of tools, threads, videos the attention they truly deserve. Feel free to provide feedback here (positive or negative) or in the official EDCodex thread as it will keep the threads alive, more commanders see it, poitentially visit EDCodex and give the authors in it the attention THEY deserve !!!

 

[Alien]

• The official ED Community website, fan site section. Cmdr Roque in the past volunteered (thanks mate) has added quite a few entries from there, so have I, there are still 6+ websites there which need to be added.
• Steam Guides. Lots of excellent guide are to be found there. Almost none of them are in EDCodex.
• Steam broadcasts. None of them are in EDCodex.
• Youtube channels. EDCodex has support for the youtube API and playlists. Enter a playlist and automagically all videos in it are added to the corresponding EDCodex entry.
• Live streams. Should you have a channel or know one feel free to add them.

To make sure duplicates are kept to a minimum. If you want to add something please search first for a part of the title or the author in EDCodex. Biobob is working on a mechanism to detects dupes when entering an entry ;-)

We hope you help us to make EDCodex even bigger and in effect help us with our mission/vision: Giving authors of tools, threads, videos the attention they truly deserve. Feel free to provide feedback here (positive or negative) or in the official EDCodex thread as it will keep the threads alive, more commanders see it, poitentially visit EDCodex and give the authors in it the attention THEY deserve !!!

I looked at what videos you have uploaded, and it's a mere 14.
Are you looking for separate videos? Or links to Youtube & Twitch channels?

I'm willing to link to Twitch & Youtube channels if that's what you're looking for, I could link to separate videos if that's what you want, but it'd be more work.

 

[wolverine2710]

I looked at what videos you have uploaded, and it's a mere 14.
Are you looking for separate videos? Or links to Youtube & Twitch channels?

I'm willing to link to Twitch & Youtube channels if that's what you're looking for, I could link to separate videos if that's what you want, but it'd be more work.

Was AFK, RL stuff. For starters, thanks very much. Hopefully volunteers will follow ;-)

We started with tools and threads. Later came video and community websites. Hence there are relative little videos but its not as bad as you might think. Some video entries have either multiple videos in them. Some manually added and others are fed with a youtube playlist (which is automatically expand). A few examples: Elite: Dangerous Early Development Videos (11 videos, youtube playlist), Elite: Dangerous. How to (39 videos, youtube playlist) and David Braben and the Raspberry Pi (4 videos, manually added). In case of a playlist, for one video an image is extracted and displayed (rest is an unordered list). In case of manually placed video EDcodex automatically generates an image for each of them.

Its NOT a matter of what I want. Its a matter of what you like to add. I'm grateful for each and every entry. If you want to make life easier you can add youtube videos entries with a playlist. You only have to enter the playlist url and EDCodex does the rest. Atm biobob has not looked at the Twitch API but it could be supported, just like the youtube API - makes live so much easier. If you like to add them separately (each entry one or two videos) that also fine. Has as advantage that it looks as if we have more video entries. Not the mere 14 ;-) Looking forward to your entries.

 

[Alien]

I think you misunderstood what I was saying (and that's my fault for not being clear) ... it'd be easier to link to people's YT & Twitch channels than it would to link to a playlist. Twitch, for example, only keeps videos for a limited amount of time, then deletes them, so it wouldn't be wise to link to past broadcasts on Twitch. I do see the advantage of linking to playlists on YT, but that relies on the uploader to have added those videos to a playlist, so a link to their channel as well, might be a good idea.

When Egosoft's X Rebirth was released, I started making a list of videos of the game http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=4285724#4285724 I also made a list of ship mods that could be added to X3TC http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=274276 (this is/was the biggest list of those mods) ... So I do understand how much work is involved in your project, and I understand how much work it would need to list separate videos. I'm just trying to determine the easiest method for all involved, if you want volunteers, you don't want to say to them "Here is how we do this, yes it's a pain, but that's how we do it".

 

[Biobob]

I think you misunderstood what I was saying (and that's my fault for not being clear) ... it'd be easier to link to people's YT & Twitch channels than it would to link to a playlist. Twitch, for example, only keeps videos for a limited amount of time, then deletes them, so it wouldn't be wise to link to past broadcasts on Twitch. I do see the advantage of linking to playlists on YT, but that relies on the uploader to have added those videos to a playlist, so a link to their channel as well, might be a good idea.

When Egosoft's X Rebirth was released, I started making a list of videos of the game http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=4285724#4285724 I also made a list of ship mods that could be added to X3TC http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=274276 (this is/was the biggest list of those mods) ... So I do understand how much work is involved in your project, and I understand how much work it would need to list separate videos. I'm just trying to determine the easiest method for all involved, if you want volunteers, you don't want to say to them "Here is how we do this, yes it's a pain, but that's how we do it".

Hi Cmdr!
first thx for your feedback about videos, it will help to improve the video section
I understand what you said,
the playlist is the easiest solution to retrieve only Elite video content for an user: if we add some channel more complicated to retrieve only ED content because most of users use their channel for many games.

For youtube: I could add a way to filter only ED videos (by retrieving only video links with the "Elite" keyword) if someone add a channel instead of a playlist,
also atm you could already create an entry for a specific user and if he don't got playlist, it's possible for a same entry to add multiple specific video links (not the most friendly)

For Twitch: with the Twitch API I could retrieve all current stream about Elite, that could be an auto process without needed a user submission on EDCodex, I have to take a look at that,
maybe could fit to go into a new EDCodex Live section.

Any suggestions are welcome to improve the current system, I will do my best to improve the process to have something the most user friendly as possible

 

[wolverine2710]

Took a stroll down memory lane wrt EDCodex and came up with the following timeline wrt created threads by the EDCodex authors.

20141028: Complete list of all third party tools, spreadsheets, manuals and other data sources
20150218: Third party tools thead -- Needing a database driven website to being able to grow any further
20150328: OT: Looking for a collaboration/cooperation tool for an multi person ED project
20150425: (WIP) Tool codenamed ED3PTT is looking for a better name. Any Suggestions?
20150708: POLL. Third party tools thread - upcoming website version - looking for a good name
20151001: EDCodex: "A fansite full of community resources!". VOLUNTEERS really appreciated"
20150817: EDCodex. The complete list of third-party tools for Elite Dangerous - Community driven website

On the 11th of March I was contacted by biobob with the question if he could perhaps help me out. I did ask for help before in the threads above without results so I was really surprised and very exited. Hence the work started and on the 18th of August EDCodex was publicly released. To be crystal clear, I didn't code a line. Biobob is the wizzard who brough you the EDCodex website.

One or two weeks before the public release all tool authors in EDCodex received a PM from us with with the request if they wanted to become owner of their entry. After the release a lot of time was spend adding new entries. Also new sections like the "Live streamings" were added. On the 2nd of October the EDCodex thread got STICKY status in the "Elite Dangerous->Gameplay and Features->Guides and Tutorials" subforum. Around that time the EDCodex was added to fansites section of the official ED community website. We were mentioned in the comms chatter early October on the Elite Dangerous website and in newsletter #94 on the 9th of October.

Personal note: Went on a holiday for a few weeks in October, got a new job starting the 1st of November - Java programmer. Got a heavy case of Fallout4 addiction when it was released around the 16th Of November. Also was quite burned out wrt EDCodex. Around the new year started with EDCodex again. Biobob in the mean while introduced quite a few nice additions to EDCodex. See the announcements section of EDCodex.

Now that I've made this post it really scares me how much time has been put into EDCodex so far. So far we have exchanged approx 1550-1600 emails. I guestimate that Biobob and myself easily put 400-500 hours each in this project.

Biobob and myself have quite a few features in store for EDCodex for 2016. If you have any suggestions please use this thread, even better the EDCodex thread or best use the "Ask a Question" website created for EDCodex. Trust us, we are VERY open for new ideas.

When EDCodex went public we had 165 entries. Now we have approx 250 entries - 123 of them all tools. That is indeed a nice growth. Its good to see that commanders have started to add entries to EDCodex and or took ownership of them. but the truth is that most entries were/are from Biobob and myself. Its IMPOSSIBLE to keep up with the forums, adding entries. We definitely need your help.

Edit: I've also updated the OP with news about the LEGAL status of the iPhone api and the new "api-tools" subforum.

Update: On request the thread has been moved to this subforum as its more suitable then the old location.