Re: robowiki are down now

On a more positive note, I just got the archived rankings and
@roborumble Twitter account working again:

http://robowiki.net/wiki/Category:Archived_Rankings
https://twitter.com/roborumble

Missed ~20 months of RoboRumble activity. Maybe I/we can get these
running on the server instead of my laptop while we are doing
housekeeping here...

On Sun, Jul 26, 2015 at 6:42 PM, Patrick Cupka <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 3:26 PM, fnl <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hi Patrick,
>>
>> If it is possible to keep the RoboWiki up and running with the help of other
>> user stepping up with admin responsibilities as you propose, this would of
>> course be the best option. :-)
>> Would that be sufficient for keeping the RoboWiki up and running?
>
> It won't hurt. :-) I guess we can wait and see if/when there is
> another big outage before doing anything drastic. But I do think a new
> admin that's both seasoned (trustworthy / knowledgeable) and active
> (available) would be helpful. It's pretty much me and Skilgannon and
> we both have plenty of other stuff going on. (Heck, I even have a
> competing game.)
>
> As for bots, Rednaxela has a pretty sweet automated bot archiving
> system which saves them here:
> http://robocode-archive.strangeautomata.com/robots/
>
>>
>> - Flemming
>>
>> Den tirsdag den 21. juli 2015 kl. 22.22.40 UTC+2 skrev Patrick Cupka:
>>>
>>> > Anyway, it seems that hosting a stable mediawiki instance is a bit too
>>> > much
>>> > of a bother at current. Seems like a great idea to see if it can be
>>> > exported
>>> > to SF. If that doesn't work, then just exporting a static HTML site is
>>> > an
>>> > alternative:
>>> >
>>> > https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Publishing_from_MediaWiki#Built-in_methods_of_exporting_data_via_the_command-line
>>>
>>> Ditching the current MediaWiki altogether seems a bit drastic. How
>>> many instances of down-time have there been in the last couple years?
>>> There was a big outage over the holidays in 2013 and then this one in
>>> May. I doubt migrating the pages to a free host would work to
>>> anybody's satisfaction. We couldn't migrate users, we have custom
>>> MediaWiki plugins, even one that communicates with the LiteRumble
>>> server. The RoboWiki is pretty huge and gets quite a bit of traffic.
>>> The wiki would be a shadow of its former, uh, self. And who knows if
>>> the reliability would improve, anyway.
>>>
>>> Our current setup is pretty good. I use VPSLink for my BerryBots, too.
>>> We just don't have any admins that still have the passion for
>>> Robocode. When there is down-time, there is still the Wayback Machine
>>> (at archive.org). If we can also offer a dump of the RoboWiki pages as
>>> a big download, I'd be pretty satisfied with that setup.
>>>
>>> When my passion started to fade, I made sure to give admin (MediaWiki
>>> and SSH) access to some trustworthy folks that were still active:
>>> Skilgannon, Rednaxela, and Darkcanuck. But I guess their passion has
>>> faded too. (That's the same access that I have. David has that + the
>>> admin console at VPSLink, for "hard" reboots.) Maybe someone like
>>> Chase would be willing to step up with server admin responsibilities?
>>> I certainly trust him and he knows his way around the wiki.
>>>
>>> > On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 8:03 AM, Peter Strm <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> > Very interesting mail thread! I know I used to be one of those
>>> > advocating
>>> > Robocode game play should stay as clean and simple as it was, but I do
>>> > not
>>> > remember ever thinking it through on a level even close to Patrick's.
>>> >
>>> > I'm also sure there are still major innovations to be made, even though
>>> > the
>>> > interest for the platform might fade before that happens. I can relate
>>> > to
>>> > how discouraging it could be to go about trying to compete with DrussGT
>>> > and
>>> > Diamond and realise you will have to perfect every existing trick in the
>>> > book...
>>> >
>>> > Anyway, it seems that hosting a stable mediawiki instance is a bit too
>>> > much
>>> > of a bother at current. Seems like a great idea to see if it can be
>>> > exported
>>> > to SF. If that doesn't work, then just exporting a static HTML site is
>>> > an
>>> > alternative:
>>> >
>>> > https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Publishing_from_MediaWiki#Built-in_methods_of_exporting_data_via_the_command-line
>>> >
>>> > Regardless, when the export is done, let me know the hostname/IP of
>>> > where it
>>> > is published so that I can repoint the DNS things.
>>> >
>>> > /PEZ
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >> On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 11:47 AM, fnl <[email protected]>
>>> >> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> Hi Patrick,
>>> >>
>>> >> Thanks for sharing your thoughts. :-)
>>> >>
>>> >> It would be great if we could move the RoboWiki to another Wiki or
>>> >> similar
>>> >> (static pages?), e.g. using the Export feature of the MediaWiki
>>> >> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Export).
>>> >> Perhaps it could be moved to the Wiki for the Robocode page on
>>> >> SourceForge? It should be enabled first. Currently the developer pages
>>> >> on
>>> >> SourceForge are down (is being restored after a disk breakdown). So I
>>> >> am not
>>> >> able to see, if it is possible to import the MediaWiki export (yet).
>>> >>
>>> >> At least I want to let people access all the vital knowledge to make
>>> >> good
>>> >> Robocode robots. And people get upset when the RoboWiki is down. But I
>>> >> fully
>>> >> understand that you (PEZ) and David Alves don't what to be involved
>>> >> with the
>>> >> RoboWiki anymore. The best thing would be to put it somewhere where
>>> >> more
>>> >> people is able to maintain it - and hopefully without to pay for
>>> >> hosting
>>> >> etc.
>>> >>
>>> >> When the developer pages of SourceForge (SF) are up and running again,
>>> >> I
>>> >> will see if I can import the RoboWiki pages to the SF Wiki somehow.
>>> >> I will also try to make an export of the RoboWiki pages, when I get
>>> >> time
>>> >> for it (probably tonight). I expect that it will not be possible to
>>> >> export
>>> >> the RoboWiki users. So this will be an issue.
>>> >>
>>> >> Regarding the development of Robocode. I am only maintaining the
>>> >> current
>>> >> Robocode with bug fixes etc. If somebody want to add new features, they
>>> >> should go ahead and implement these. I will help with the integration
>>> >> etc.
>>> >> if the features are not too complex to handle. But I won't be the one
>>> >> doing
>>> >> all the work (anymore).
>>> >> Robocode is Open Source, so if somebody else want to take over the
>>> >> development, they are free to do so. I just hope he/she/they will have
>>> >> skills enough to get it in a better shape. ;-)
>>> >>
>>> >> - - - -
>>> >> I am still working on a "Robocode 2", which is protocol based (on top
>>> >> of
>>> >> WebSockets) making it possible to be language independent and also work
>>> >> for
>>> >> web - e.g. using JavaScript. The development progress is slow as I
>>> >> don't
>>> >> have so much spare time as I had 10 years ago (when taking over the
>>> >> development/maintenance of Robocode).
>>> >> I am not sure if I will ever finish this new version, but at least the
>>> >> development is still ongoing. Currently it is not open source as I want
>>> >> to
>>> >> make a clean core and have the freedom to change anything at anytime
>>> >> without
>>> >> being forced to coordinate with other developers. I see this new
>>> >> version as
>>> >> "my new baby", so it must be good enough before I let other people in.
>>> >>
>>> >> Best regards,
>>> >> - Flemming
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>> Den lørdag den 18. juli 2015 kl. 20.04.23 UTC+2 skrev Patrick Cupka:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Hey guys - late to the dialogue, but a few things to mention. (Beware:
>>> >>> wall of text incoming.)
>>> >>>
>>> >>> The wiki mostly runs itself and is hosted at VPSLink, which is pretty
>>> >>> reliable. The problem during downtime is that neither myself, who
>>> >>> "owns" the
>>> >>> wiki (i.e., from PEZ), nor David Alves, who actually pays for hosting,
>>> >>> actually care so much about Robocode anymore. When your heart's not in
>>> >>> it,
>>> >>> there are plenty of other things that take precedence.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I believe MediaWiki has a facility to export all the pages to an XML
>>> >>> format. We could make the full archive available somewhere (eg,
>>> >>> someone's
>>> >>> Dropbox) every so often, if it's something people are interested in.
>>> >>> Then
>>> >>> you can do whatever you want with it. It strikes me as the kind of
>>> >>> thing
>>> >>> people say they want, then nobody would actually download it. :-) But
>>> >>> we
>>> >>> could try.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> There's certainly nobody acting as a gatekeeper here to keep it single
>>> >>> sourced. There are no ads. PEZ and I gave a dump of the old wiki to
>>> >>> someone
>>> >>> upon request a while back. The RoboWiki is all about sharing Robocode
>>> >>> knowledge.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> There are plenty of other programming games, but nothing in the same
>>> >>> league as Robocode as far as number of bots or active competitions.
>>> >>> Then
>>> >>> again, people also complain that there is nothing new to be innovated
>>> >>> in
>>> >>> Robocode, so it's a double-edged sword. I like to joke that it's the
>>> >>> "Google
>>> >>> Reader of programming games" – it got a huge corporate push from IBM,
>>> >>> it
>>> >>> smothers the rest of the market (tons of bots, history, Java, name
>>> >>> recognition), and might need to die off before all these other games
>>> >>> can
>>> >>> blossom - hopefully with some kind of common community, as well as
>>> >>> communities of their own.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I have my own offering: BerryBots (http://berrybots.com). You can read
>>> >>> a
>>> >>> comparison to Robocode gameplay here:
>>> >>> http://berrybots.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17 ... Or even try it in a
>>> >>> browser: http://playberrybots.com. Primarily, it features programmable
>>> >>> stages, walls on the playing field, and a secondary weapon
>>> >>> (grenade-like).
>>> >>> It also has a pretty sweet automation API with built-in
>>> >>> multithreading,
>>> >>> (optional) graphical form inputs, and the ability to save HTML5
>>> >>> replays of
>>> >>> matches. There are only a few bots, but I'd be hella impressed if you
>>> >>> can
>>> >>> beat Sanic (from Frohman).
>>> >>>
>>> >>> The other games that have caught my eye are FightCodeGame.com, a fully
>>> >>> web based Robocode-inspired game; and NodeWar.com, which might be the
>>> >>> only
>>> >>> truly inspiring / innovative gameplay I've seen. I'd also check out
>>> >>> http://programminggames.org, which seems to be gaining steam.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I sympathize with the desire to join a large, active community. But
>>> >>> the
>>> >>> RoboWiki might make the Robocode community seem a lot more active than
>>> >>> it
>>> >>> is. Good luck catching me and Skilgannon while we never update our
>>> >>> bots. ;)
>>> >>> At some point, we have to make something new. I suspect even "Robocode
>>> >>> 2"
>>> >>> will have the same problems as the rest of the new entrants into the
>>> >>> genre.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Hope that's enlightening! Best of luck,
>>> >>>
>>> >>> -- Patrick
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Sent from mobile
>>> >>>
>>> >>> On May 4, 2015, at 4:32 PM, Jesse Clark <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I'll raise my hand.  I just don't know what would need to be done
>>> >>> though
>>> >>> since I've never done this before.  Would a service such as
>>> >>> http://www.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page suffice?  Can anyone provide
>>> >>> some
>>> >>> other guidance on a good way to host that is minimal cost?  Also, how
>>> >>> would
>>> >>> one obtain the current wiki content?
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Question.  Is robocode still viable or are there other better, widely
>>> >>> used, supported platforms along the same vein?  Please advise.  I'm
>>> >>> looking
>>> >>> to work with a platform like robocode to ultimately compete against
>>> >>> others..
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> On Sun, May 3, 2015 at 5:57 PM, ramn.se ‘¸ <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> How do we get hold of the database?
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> On Sun, May 3, 2015 at 8:31 PM, Pavel Šavara <[email protected]>
>>> >>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Hi everybody,
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> it would be perhaps good idea if all people who think robowiki is
>>> >>>>> important would try to help.
>>> >>>>> Somebody may try to run mirror, or perhaps somebody would organize
>>> >>>>> and
>>> >>>>> run it on more stable hosting ?
>>> >>>>> Perhaps people would donate some cash needed to pay for the hosting
>>> >>>>> ?
>>> >>>>> Just suggestions, in the end it's community project, right ?
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Anybody at all ? Raise your hands !
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Pavel
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>>> On Sun, May 3, 2015 at 11:48 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> >>>>>>
>>> >>>>>> Yeah, I hope they fix it soon... It's really important for many
>>> >>>>>> people!
>>> >>>>>>
>>> >>>>>> --
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>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>>
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>>>
>>> --
>>> Patrick Cupka, [email protected]
>>> --
>
>
>
> --
> Patrick Cupka, [email protected]
> --



-- 
Patrick Cupka, [email protected]
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