ROM Packs Available?

it would not be for reduced points, the point values are a reflection of the bandwidth used to download the files. Unless the pack had a filesize smaller than the sum of the individual games, (very unlikely) it would not cost less. Packs would be very unlikely to cover Wii, PS2, GC, DC, PSX or Saturn due to the size of the individual files.

Seph has been on vacation until very recently so that's why there hasnt been any news about this idea. It will be considered now he's back.

 

they'd be pretty huge files for all but most retro systems.

 

snes would be several GB, likewise for GBA or genesis

 

This might sound off topic considering the initial topic intention, and I've no ill intention to derail this discussion either considering how long this post will be. However speaking on the subject of points as per responded by Loonylion, I felt this urge to suggest on how to revive this forum's lack of activity, despite the idea might not be readily welcomed. But who knows, maybe it will contribute an idea or two for the admins to increase this forum's activity. Here's something to think about:

Most of us who have been here for a long time by now are aware this forum these days lacks activities (with the exception of the Spam Thread topic), while everyday we see at the bottom of the page there are plenty of members who are online who barely post anything from the time they signed up and yet everyday they sign in for the sole purpose of downloading files capitalizing of the free daily top up, while on the other hand, we have seen new members complaining about the point system expecting to get a "buffet" system because of the "free sign up" without considering the cost of running this site and the need to limit bandwidth usage so everyone can download comfortably, and that they can't wait weeks to download a single big iso file such as the Wii or PSP. Anyway here goes;

A forum sharing site dedicated to mobile phones and ebooks that I frequented incorporate a unique mechanism where at initial sign up, members get 50$, whoever creates a share topic and share a content (hosted on any external free share site) will earn 10$ (not real money and non-cashable mind you), while those creating non-share topic or simply posting questions/answers/comments will earn 0.10$. The downside to this mechanism there, is the "money" earned is used for 2 purpose only; for donation of any amount as a form of "thank you" gesture to whoever shared a file you like or to someone who helped/answer your question (which by the way isn't mandatory in either case), and as a reward as per offered whenever you make a request for certain file/content. Mind you, this forum site got more boards, child boards, sections, and sub-sections than RomUlation has, however not all are active, most active are the sharing sections and request sections. I'm sure reading the above you'll notice that forum's flaw in their point system, no one really need to spend any of their earned points/money on anything and simply accumulate them for no obvious purpose, unless they request a file.

So here's my proposal, how about aside from the already incorporated point system RomUlation been using for some 8-10 years by now, let's add this mechanism with RomUlation's own twist. Just to give some ideas on how to go about this;

• Those who make contributions by creating topics in the Tutorial section (screened by Admin for approval) and Share Board (term as guideline already in effect) should be rewarded e.g. 10 points.
• Those who create topics in the Technical and Flashcart sections (not trolling or spamming) such as giving useful information or asking question should be rewarded e.g. 5 points
• Those who responded/post in any topics, or make topics in the TALK board should be rewarded e.g. 1 point
• Those who make topics under the HELP board (excluding the Technical and Flashcart sections) should be rewarded e.g. 1 point
• Those who troll or spam, or make topics that doesn't meet the known standards/term & condition will have their topic/post removed and the rewarded points retract. With maybe even further deduction as penalty. With reoccurrence earning warning, temporary ban, or even permanent ban.
• Those who request rom/iso (not yet found in the Main Download Page or Share Board) under the designated section should earn e.g. 1 point, and the requester should offer a certain minimum amount which they may increase above that minimum according to the points accumulated at their disposal as reward to increase appeal to whoever willing to fulfill it (thus require a method to transfer their points to the specific beneficiary). Of cause the file as always should be hosted on an external free sharing site. If the person whose request been fulfilled but not yet transfer the amount promised after a certain days for whatever reason, will be penalized for a certain point amount on top of the promised amount, and that amount will be deducted by the admin to transfer to the beneficiary, with the requester receiving a warning.

Of cause this is for the Regular Members who needed these extra points to download rom/iso from the Main Download page, on top of the existing point mechanism. Premium Members naturally aren't effected despite also entitled to earn those points as per usual, though they too will require using those points when they decide to make rom/iso request. On top of it all, this could help make sure RomUlation ain't capitalized by members who are here simply to download and not give back in return to the community, and being a community means socializing. Which by the way at current situation, members don't communicate with each other as their single intention here is to download files which some of us has painstakingly compiled for everyone's pleasure.

I'm most especially sure this system will encourage regular and premium members to at least try to fulfill rom/iso requests to earn bigger point reward, and no longer rely on the admin, moderator, or existing contributing members to handle those request. Which most everyone would have notice by now, those requests put up by members aren't attracting any attention, and left to decay unless some of us took care of it. However, again it's just an idea on how to revive activity in the forum section, nothing more.

Well, that's it, feel free to delete this post if felt necessary and considered derailing the OP's topic. I just want to pour out this idea out of my head which had been brewing for hours today, so that I can sleep without further thinking about it. Whether it's acceptable and applicable is up to the admins (specifically Seph) to decide, most especially considering how busy Seph is with his mobile phone programming task, and as he said before "time is a premium" to him these days. As understandably even if it's acceptable for consideration, there will be a lot to consider, such as the need to decide if it can actually be incorporated into the existing mechanism, no doubt some programming will be needed to auto reward the members, programming to make admins/mods able to retract or transfer those points which I'm not sure if SMF covers such ability. As well as other related term and conditions to revise such as, whether necro-ing an old inactive topic/question is entitled to the said point reward or not, while also there will be a need to have active moderators backing up the Admins and Global Moderator in seeing to this (which I should point out aren't any left, since Jhon 591 quits from the Share section, Necr0 is inactive from the Share section, and Devon's Graphic Guild section isn't active), to avoid cheaters, trolls, and spammers from capitalizing on the additional point top up mechanism, as incorporating this will no doubt speed up members point accumulation. No doubt, there's a lot to do even if the idea is plausible.

With this said and done, I'm off to bed. Good night ya'll.

 

Prectorian I appreciate all the thought you put into this and I do indeed agree with much of it. I am actually already working on revitalizing RomU as it has pretty much been left to itself for the past 4-5 years.

The first step towards this is to get the site running code in a modern framework so that it's easier to add in new functionality. When that happens I will also switch to a new forum software that's much easier to write extensions for so that we can start encouraging activity again.

Look forward to some of this rolling out in late April and hopefully some of your forum change suggestions in June or July.

 

Glad to hear there is now a time frame as to when you'll unveil it. Looking forward to it, hopefully it will revitalize the forum's activity.