Plan for Rick Overman
by Rick Overman · 02/09/2005 (11:52 am) · 16 comments
Gears have changed a bit and working on a couple totally new projects but still keeping the previous fun projects on back the burner for later. Here are a few of the recent changes on the GarageGames.com site. I'd love to talk about my current project but you'll see it soon enough ;)
Changes: "friendly urls" for news, blogs and products. With more "friendly urls" to come in the future. To my surprise we were finding way too many rss/web crawlers that were still having problems parsing the classic dynamic urls containing ? and &. So to make our pages more "friendly" to all, I whipped up some fancy mod_rewrite rules and updated a little site code to make the urls looks like this: www.garagegames.com/blogs/3/7129 rather than this /index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=7129.
Changes: If you didn't notice all plans (aka blogs) now have their own RSS feeds!!! yippie, now you can just add the people you are interested in to your favorite rss reader (like bloglines) and get notified when they post rather than polling them.
Changes: Added private resources, so that code resources specific to a product (like RTS Starter Kit) can be posted and only be available to owners of that product.
To all those who replied to my last post seeking php+mysql developers thank you and sorry for not getting back to each of you individually. Shortly after I posted that entry my wife had our baby (3 weeks early) and I took some time off while the family adjusted to the new addition. When I get a break I am planing on formalizing a few projects/tasks that GarageGames needs assistance on and I will send you all an email and give you first opportunity.
Changes: "friendly urls" for news, blogs and products. With more "friendly urls" to come in the future. To my surprise we were finding way too many rss/web crawlers that were still having problems parsing the classic dynamic urls containing ? and &. So to make our pages more "friendly" to all, I whipped up some fancy mod_rewrite rules and updated a little site code to make the urls looks like this: www.garagegames.com/blogs/3/7129 rather than this /index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=7129.
Changes: If you didn't notice all plans (aka blogs) now have their own RSS feeds!!! yippie, now you can just add the people you are interested in to your favorite rss reader (like bloglines) and get notified when they post rather than polling them.
Changes: Added private resources, so that code resources specific to a product (like RTS Starter Kit) can be posted and only be available to owners of that product.
To all those who replied to my last post seeking php+mysql developers thank you and sorry for not getting back to each of you individually. Shortly after I posted that entry my wife had our baby (3 weeks early) and I took some time off while the family adjusted to the new addition. When I get a break I am planing on formalizing a few projects/tasks that GarageGames needs assistance on and I will send you all an email and give you first opportunity.
#2
I like that with the friendly URL's the old URL's will still work -- I was concerned about that at first. and though not an RSS'er myself, I see it as a powerful emerging technology, and hope to land myself on more than a few "watch" lists with my .plans :) knowing that there are those that may be "subscribed" to my feed is also good further motivation to keep the signal-to-noise ratio at a good level.
02/09/2005 (1:53 pm)
cool man, congrats on the new arrival -- another indie is born!I like that with the friendly URL's the old URL's will still work -- I was concerned about that at first. and though not an RSS'er myself, I see it as a powerful emerging technology, and hope to land myself on more than a few "watch" lists with my .plans :) knowing that there are those that may be "subscribed" to my feed is also good further motivation to keep the signal-to-noise ratio at a good level.
#3
02/09/2005 (2:07 pm)
Rick, you read my mind! I was going to complain about the old URLs because pages containing them don't validate. Thank you!
#4
02/09/2005 (6:14 pm)
Very sweet news on the capability to mark resources as "private", for the RTS-SK, TSE, and I would assume other code based kits/packs! Thanks for spending the time on that! 
#5
02/09/2005 (7:09 pm)
Rick rocks. :) Private resources, woo! RSS'd .plans and friendly URLs will be nice for everyone too, and hopefully it means it's easier to link and index deeper pages on the site this way.
#6
02/09/2005 (7:48 pm)
Quick question on the "private" resources--is this something the submitter needs to do, or part of the approval process? 
#7
Next request. RSS feeds for individual forum sections. I would love to subscribe to a section i'm sort of the expert on like "Torque Art Public Area > DIF Exporter: Cartography Shop" and get notified of new posts.
02/10/2005 (12:27 am)
Here is something i'd really like to see as a new Bloglines addict: a single RSS feed for all GG employee plans and another RSS feed for all GG Associate plans. Adding individuals and keeping up with new people would be a pain in the ass... you guys could easily do an "all employees" or "all associates" option for the RSS script.Next request. RSS feeds for individual forum sections. I would love to subscribe to a section i'm sort of the expert on like "Torque Art Public Area > DIF Exporter: Cartography Shop" and get notified of new posts.
#8
02/10/2005 (6:16 am)
Stephen, it's part of the approval process.
#9
Maybe show the link, show the abstract and the vote count. But not the actual resource and comments?!?!! Just as a teaser
I think its a good idea, but you need to tease people a bit to make them buy. In my oppinion at least
02/10/2005 (11:16 am)
Hmm - by adding "completely private" resources - as in totally invisible - you could loose some potential buyers. If I e.g. cannot see the totally awesome extra resources that are available for the RTS pack only, then I dont know what I'm missing out on.Maybe show the link, show the abstract and the vote count. But not the actual resource and comments?!?!! Just as a teaser
I think its a good idea, but you need to tease people a bit to make them buy. In my oppinion at least
#10
02/10/2005 (1:55 pm)
They are not totally invisible. The summary is shown. Similar to the way we do the docs.
#11
02/10/2005 (5:24 pm)
Man oh man... private resources! That rules!
#12
02/10/2005 (8:58 pm)
So everything in the "patches" category should be private (TGE SDK only), right? I can still view my patch in a browser that is not logged in if I already know the url. Is this because it is not yet marked as private, or am I misunderstanding the meaning of private?
#13
02/11/2005 (8:54 am)
@Eric: My guess here based on the answer Josh gave (it's part of the approval process) is that it's not retroactive. It would take a lot of hours to go through each and every current resource and set the flags I would imagine, unless/until it's automated! 
#14
I like the private resources idea. That should greatly simplify distro on updates, add-ons, etc. Good deal.
Congratulations on the new baby. Best wishes to you and your family.
Hall Of Worlds, LLC
EdM|EGTGE
02/11/2005 (2:04 pm)
Rick,I like the private resources idea. That should greatly simplify distro on updates, add-ons, etc. Good deal.
Congratulations on the new baby. Best wishes to you and your family.
EdM|EGTGE
#15
Edit: I got bored www.marinainternet.co.uk/dev/gg/
02/14/2005 (9:03 am)
Are you going to be changing the background image on the site?Edit: I got bored www.marinainternet.co.uk/dev/gg/
Associate Anthony Rosenbaum