My Adopts Clone

[Nemesis]

Well is MyAdopts gone for good? been getting a blank page for days now...

Anyway HOF do you think we/ you/ whoever, could make a clone of my adopts?

What I mean is can we get a forum going or use this one, but have a script on a vps that will automatically install and host adopt sites for people?

I am still plowing my way through PHP and MySQL myself and have never made an install script... but could this be feasible?

[Abronsyth]

Yes, Myadopts is officially closed. Brandon did post an announcement on MA a month before closing, and it was a month or three ago that it closed for good.

While that would be a neat idea, I think their is a problem with how much funding it'd require and how much of a strain it'd put on resources. If payed for services were offered such as domain names, different features (such as making the day care a payed for feature, the pound, etc) it could be possible to provide funding, but I'm not sure. All I know is funding is one of the main problem a host would run into.

[Hall of Famer]

Well if I know how to do it, Id probably give it a try. As you see, my current hosting service already has a dedicated server, while right the server load is usually not more than 5-10% due to lack of activity. So funding is not a problem, its more of technical and maintenance considerations. I wonder how BMR did that though, perhaps theres an easy way.

[Kesstryl]

Basically what you would be doing is cloning a copy of mysidia for people who register as site owners to their account, each clone is an instance of mysidia complete with an admin panel for each site owner that they can develop on your server for their pet game. As you change the parent script, those changes automatically apply for each child site, and this could be good for implementing bug fixes for all sites at the same time too. There could be a premium features that site owners could purchase from you to add to their site, and/or allow site owners and modders to upload mods for server wide currency or credits that site owners can then spend credits to add to their own site. Obviously you will want adds for free users which can be turned off for those who upgrade to premium. I'm giving you these ideas because right now I'm alpha testing another site who is doing this very same thing and letting you know how the features and cost upkeep are working on their site.

[Nemesis]

So is this a project we should take on? Also would Brandon release the source code for myadopts? seems a waste to let it die like that.

I think we could display ads like myadopts did and offer like a 10$ year subscription to remove them.

I recommend this host https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing

Been using them for some time now, very reliable and scalable. Starting on the smallest 5$ package I now use the 20$ one. I needed the RAM but currently my CPU load is generally at 5% unless my game servers are full or rendering maps.

The script to do this would need to create a new directory, copy over mysidia script, create a sql database, and edit the config.php.

This seems doable to me and I have an idea how to start. One thing im not sure on is ftp access for users. Not sure how to set that up or if their is software for that, that can also be set up by a script automatically for user. Mainly for changing site design, or each site could look the same...

[Nemesis]

Further researching this. We can install virtualmin on a vps to be a free whm/cpanel solution.

http://www.webmin.com/virtualmin.html

for now we can forget the auto install junk. mysidia takes less than 5 min to install and can be managed by admin/moderators or even other community members that know how.

For these services, hosting/installations. We will use the post to host model. Or rather each post gets you a credit/point. You can then spend points at the shop for services. Hosting/Installs/code/art/members etc... This could really strengthen the community and hopefully advertisements on forum would cover all server costs. Each member can offer operate their own shop/services.

Project budget would start at 5$ a month for vps. Which I am sure will scale quickly but won't be a problem. then we would need a domain. so 10$ + 5$ = 15$ start up plus we need members.

So who is interested in joining the moderating team?

And we also need to find clients or get a petition to see if anyone would actually use this service like they did with my adopts.

My goal is to keep ads off myadopts sites and only on the forums.

And the forums should stay active as members will be using points to trade for code/ installs/ and art with other members.

[Abronsyth]

If y'all are serious about this then I can ask around and see if it'd be possible to get a big member base...I know a few sites where a lot of users exist wanting to create their own sites but turning to EasyRPG because they have no other option. In regards to activity...if you require posting on the/a forum for users to gain points to use to buy features/etc for their sites then that'd really boost forum activity.

In regards to the Moderating team, it depends, for me, on what sort of knowledge would be necessary to be a moderator for this sort of thing. I for one have a pretty secure knowledge of HTML and CSS, but PHP and Javascript (amongst others) escape me. However, despite my lack of coding knowledge, I do have a good understanding of how to deal with confused users in the sort of situation that creating a sort of Adopts-Site-Host would create. You will need good moderators for this sort of thing to deal with the various problems that arise from hosting adoptable sites...art theft being the most notable problem, but bickering between members also occurs...also one of the major problems that occurred for Myadopts for certain users was "hacking" aka easy passwords getting guessed...I think the best way to prevent this would be to require users have a secure password containing a min. amount of characters and lower case and upper case letters as well as numbers and possibly symbols.

Sorry, that's a whole lot of nonsense up there! Basically if this is something y'all are seriously wanting to attempt, then I want to help in any way I can...I honestly miss being a part of a community like Myadopts, I met some really cool people there and it was upsetting to see the activity drop like it did.

[Nemesis]

Abronsyth thank you for your reply. This is exactly what I am interested in and looking for. Anyone willing to put forth the time and effort, and is willing to learn can be apart of the moderating team.

As you mentioned you have HTML/CSS skills which is great you could trade those skills on the forum for points and hopefully use them to pay for a coder if you needed.

For art theft if that does occur and is brought to our attention, we can shut down the sites easily if they're hosted with us. And any problematic members can be warned/banned. Is true for any community.

And since you brought up weak passwords we can definitely put out a warning and try to require strong passwords.

I see that myadopts.org is available for $6.99

But I am wondering if we should expand our site to include more than just adopt sites.

We could support a ton of different artists, coders, writers, and provide hosting and support for other scripts than just mysidia.

We would just make adoptables its own sub forums but it would be apart of something much bigger and a good start!

[Abronsyth]

I honestly don't like the thought of having "myadopts" in the URL simply because it could possibly confuse people...while it is/was a good name, I think it might be good to start over fresh...something new that'll get more attention. Oh boy, you certainly have some big plans, Nemesis! Baby steps, baby steps (haha)!

Anyways, I was actually talking to my little sister about the possibility of it, and she did make the comment that she would love to create her own adoptables site (she'd been working on one when MA shut down) but she doesn't want to put up with finding a good host and getting it set up. I think a lot of people, really a lot in her age group (12-16) are probably interested in creating their own adoptables sites, but are also lose interest for the same reasons. So, basically what I'm saying is, well, it could work out very well, and y'all likely wouldn't have problem finding interest.

Ah, well, I should be off to continue studying for regents...June might bring a lot of good things (summer vacation, my birthday aka: new laptop and photoshop Cs5) but the regents testing kills.

[Nemesis]

Update on this:

I agree with you on the domain Abronsyth. So the domain will be 99webs.org.

For the control panel i am switching to zpanel as webmin/virtualmin is not making me happy.

This should be ready in a few days. What forum software should we use? I am leaning towards myBB.

Also HOF what are you thinking about all this?

[Hall of Famer]

One thing I was wondering though Nemesis, Mysidia Adoptables get new versions every a 1-3 months. In this case, how do you handle version upgrade?

[Nemesis]

good question, either the client handles it themselves or the admin/moderators would have to do it.

But remember my whole forum and point system. My hosting and services will be free or rather attainable by everyone. I am setting up an economy, much like your shop system here. Members receive points for every post for participating in discussions.

For example my shop will have 1 month hosting-10pts, one install of any script-5pts, and say update of script-5pts. Could also do site transfers-2pts etc...

Now we have Member X who wants to run a site but knows nothing of hosting or installations. So X signs up on the forum and makes a introductory post, explains their website needs and ideas. Joins in on other discussions, collecting 1pts for each post.
So member X accumulates 10pts from posting but needs 15 for a full site. Well luckily member X is an artist and finds member Y needing help with an item.

So member X contacts member Y, whips up an item and sells it for 5pts. Now member Y is happy with new site content and was able to spend pts for a service. And member X was able to sell a service to earn more pts. Member X now has 15pts to get hosting and full site install to start their own site.

this process continues, a way to exchange goods and services with points rather than money. So in theory anyone can obtain anything from others in time by participating with the community and offering what you can. pts can range from anything to contests, being a member of a site, coding, art, writing, moderating, installing, anything the community is willing to pay for.

So to answer your question, anyone that has knowledge to install or update a site can post it it in their shop and even do it less than me for say 2pts.

Now we have a full on working economy, where inflation may arise from posting but that's okay as the cost of services will just go up as well. And if it gets out of hand we can just remove pts from the system.

Most importantly we have a helpful community. where each site doesn't just have one admin but maybe multiple people all working on it that wouldn't have otherwise.

Great example: I met a 12 year old online recently in the UK. He is a great PHP programmer. Better than me :/ But being 12 he doesn't have much money to pay for hosting domains etc... I have already paid a month hosting for him and got him SSL for his custom blogging script he is working on. He also has extensive linux knowledge and has helped me tons with my VPS.

So he wants hosting, and you need coding help. He uses team viewer to step you through the process. (Another idea I had, spend pts for training). Well by helping you code for pts you get a good programmer for free and now he gets the hosting he wants.

To summarize we have a lot of young talented people and this way we can all help each other.

[Abronsyth]

I can see you put quite a bit of thinking into this, Nemesis! This sounds likes it could turn out to be a very successful project. I will be busy in the next 1/2 month dealing with finals and regents exams, but after that I should have plenty of free time. So I'd like to help out in any way possible. I have experience as a forum/community moderator and I've done a lot of investigating of sites while Myadopts was still up and running. So if you're going to be needing experienced moderators I'd be happy to volunteer my time to this project. As I've said before, I really enjoyed the community an active VPS host can encourage, and I look forwards to be apart of one once more.

The points system, the way you described it, sounds like it could be quite a bit of fun to work with! It's always good to see sites, hosts especially, encouraging user interaction like that. Not to mention I could exercise my installing/upgrading process, haha.

[Kesstryl]

I'm a little confused by how this will work, will each user have to install their own individual mysidia software? So no instance of mysidia per site owner under a root install of mysidia? As HoF said, this will make upgrading difficult as it will be on an individual basis, and I've been holding back on starting any project with mysidia until the OOP and MVC transition is completed as those changes could potentially break a previous version, or make upgrading a seriously difficult manual task. I'm not sure how other sites are designing their actual software, but here's a link to 2 sites that are in the process of doing something similar:

http://www.myvirtualpetsite.com/index.php

http://www.virtualpetlist.com/showthread.php/14008-CreateAdopt-Com-Official-Sneak-Peak

[Nemesis]

Oh yeah this is happening. Site/server is nearly complete http://99webs.org/ ready for new users, we can start a beta. Though I still need to add a lot of content and I am still testing new hosting accounts. But all is looking good.

Break Down:

Points:

new members get starting 10pts.
each new thread/post/poll/vote is 1pt.
each log in session is 1pt.
pts can be donated/sent to other members.
points can be traded/pulled/given for any reason or service.

Boards:

-99webs -
Hosting is to order a hosting account with us. and keep track of your account info, re-ording, expiration etc...
Questions & support is mainly for the hosting accounts/clients. Zpanel is different and there will be lots of questions on how to use the host. Email, Databases, FTP, Usage, etc...
Suggestions and Feedback is to better the 99webs service. Let us know what to improve and how we are doing.

-community-
General discussions on anything and new member introductions
Request Help is generally not for point trading but possible tips. Basically members can ask the community as a hole on how to set something up. And anyone with knowledge can answer. a Q & A board like how to set up a domain(DNS), install a script, create a database etc... Goal is for users to do it themselves and learn, not trade services.

-Workshop-
The workshop and respective categories are for developers of that trade or learning the trade. It is not free work for anyone to use nor is it up for trade. It is simply a place where developers can show their work, get feedback, or help with what they are working on or trying to accomplish.

-developing-

Developing boards is where you can post your skills you will offer for members to purchase with points. Members can also post what they need help with. This is where you trade your goods or services.

2nd part is for describing your project idea and trying to find feedback or interested developers on it. Below that is for public ready projects (maybe ongoing development) looking for feedback or members.

Bout what I got so far. Its ready I believe but not necessarily set in stone. Can always add more boards if needed let me know!

@kesstryl Hope this clears things up but to answer your questions, yes each hosting account is its own instance so they will have to do updates. I don't see how we could share one instance accross all accounts. While yes that would be nice for updates, however a lot of sites have mods or custom php files so it wouldn't work then.

[Kesstryl]

I'd be glad to help with beta testing, I'm already doing that for a similar site. Theirs is more cookie cutter, at least with Mysidia you get your own feet wet with actual programming and modding. How will the urls work? Will there be options for multiple sites, or changing a site's name and url if a user decides on a different one? Also, will domains be available at some point?

[Kesstryl]

Also, something to consider for both you and HoF, what if Mysidia were to eventually be modular? This way you could have one instance that could be cloned per user, and then modules could be added to expand site features. Such a system would have to wait until Mysidia itself is finished, I imagine, so that would be years away.

Also consider advertising your site on VirtualPetList.com (http://www.virtualpetlist.com/index.php), a forum site dedicated to all pet games, adoptables, pet sims, etc. They have a sizable user base made up of pet site owners, pet site artists, reviewers, and fans.

[Hall of Famer]

Well ideally a fully object oriented script is modular, you can add/remove a complete feature without thorough script modification. I am not sure if Mys v1.4.x will achieve that, but it will get there sooner or later.

[Ruinily]

I just wanted to add I think that its a great idea, it'd be nice to have a myadopts back. ^_^ Thats how I got drawn into all this lol, I wish I could help somehow, but all I can really do is cheer from the sidelines I think...

[Kesstryl]

Any info on when this will be ready for alpha or beta testing? Looks like CreateAdopt.com is no longer going to be developed, and MyVirtualPetsite.com developer is in hiatus which opens the door for Mysidia.

[Nemesis]

I still need more php knowledge so this project as you can already tell is going to be on hold.

Right now I am focusing on making mods for myadopts.

Starting with food, and then battle system.

[ChibiMaestro]

This seems so interesting!!
I've only seen this now but I believe it's a great idea. I've been busy with exams and some personal problems but I am able to commit to this if I can be of any help :) I was one of the Vice-Administrators of MA and it saddened me when it closed since that was where I learnt about digital drawings and coding (unfortunately I only know HTML and CSS haha).
I don't know any PHP or such but I think this would be quite complicated and hard to do. I hope you guys can figure out how this could be done in the most efficient way. Ahhh, I'm excited for this :happyc:

[Nemesis]

ChibiMaestro please have a look at 99webs.org

We are a free hosting web forum so as a side goal we are trying to set up and host anyone's adopt sites. This is different from myadopts in that we don't show ads on the sits and we don't have an automatic site creator/set up.

I am looking for staff to help moderate the forums, find members, design/code the forums, and assist other people's sites.

If you are interested, apply in this thread
http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4233

and signup at 99webs.org

I can set you up as Reseller/MOD and teach you how to use our control panel to get members set up and collaborating on their adopt sites.

Thanks for your intersect!