I've been speaking very informally with a few people about starting up a project to create an EE hosting site, but not quite like a boxcar or ghq..

Basically, the site would be like a phpbb installation, in the sense that the player would download the software, and would be responsible for their own hosting. The site framework would be 1 clan per install, but for heavily pacted alliances, ops could be shared with another site that had the same architecture.

Full IRC bot integration would be ideal (but optional, considering its less likely every site would be on a unique IRC server). But other IRC tools (in bot form) could be an option as well.

This is really just in the pre-planning and brainstorming stages. I'm just wondering if anybody out there would be interested in working on a project like this. With enough support, I'd consider taking it to the next level and actually start building it.

Myself and the people I've spoken with aren't all coding gurus, and to a degree we might actually prefer people with a little less experience (not TOTAL noobs, but willing to learn).. HOWEVER, The project would be open-source, and anybody who wanted to submit patches could contribute to the project.

Anybody think this is a good idea? If you're interested in discussing what you could (or would be willing to) offer the project, PM me in-site or drop by IRC, I'm in #earthempires.

I'd suggest using a CMS system -- I've been looking into Concrete5 for some work stuff. It's free, open source, php-based, and you can create addons and such.

I'm not sure what sort of forum stuff it has built in though

They have addons (specifically for a forum system), but you have to PAY for it (and other addons).. Not only that, is I'm looking for this to be a fun project for players who might code a little in their spare time. I'd rather not go through hacking apart complex code to build something where I want simplicity to be key.

Also, "Like phpbb" wasn't the best way to put it.. "Site in a box", with robust features for earth. Definitely not a bloated CMS though :P.

The idea sounds nice. I've been trying to figure a way to use the .NET Framework as a means of providing site security, unique user accounts, and a set of forums.

this kind of interests me :)

I can help with some light-weight coding but above all would be interested in helping test this. I am an Application security professional and specialize in web application penetration testing.

let me know if you're interested in PM.

Nightshade, This would be something written in PHP. Not .asp or .net.

you could ask help from those who made lae's site (if they still play).

what language?

Mainly: PHP, js, html.. with the possibility of more behind-the-scenes interfaces being written in python, ruby or even perl.

EarthStats lives ! ;)

oh man id give the neighborkids soul for es again. that damn kid loves his drum set too much

mmmm ruby. Big fan of that language.

i can help out with coding and code review :)

Well... I don't know anything about PHP, so I guess HTML, CSS and what I do know in Java would be an asset.

NightShade, PHP is super easy. If you wanted to, you could use this as an opportunity to pick it up=)

I'm putting this on hold till the new year. With the holidays fast approaching, a lot of people (including myself) generally get pretty busy with shopping, family or vacations and what not.

Pokey made our FFA that's pretty solid: http://eepandora.com

could send him your way if you're lookin for help

I would suggest you modify some of your ideas.
The idea of a site in a tarball is great but perhaps it would be better to have a news aggregation site and spyop repository. Use that site to dole out information to the distributed sites.

This means not everyone needs to link to earth newsfeeds and redeploy their sites if something is changed and also would allow better implementation of spyop sharing with little to no changes required to the client distribution.

I would also suggest that you make it modular... Perhaps make your own forums module and then make the earth tools a module, design a basic framework and module manager and make sure you have a strong intelligent API.

This is the old if you build it they will come pattern.

If I was interested in hosting an earth site this is what I would be interested in, perhaps some have different needs.

*edit* Oh don't forget about a theme engine, something simple no js would be best.

Re: linking to earth feeds..

That was intended :), I realize having umpteen sites hammering the game server would be bad.. I would 'repeat' the news feeds.

ya... we just wouldn't give you an infinite amount of API keys, but we would help you make it so you only need the one :)

hope this takes off!

um, i dunno, i'd probably need a few sites to compare the feed against if i wasn't getting it straight from the horse's mouth. no, wait, i'm against this automatic feed. make the clan members cough up the info to feed the sites.

Real men use ajax.

Sorry, I only code in ADA.