[DVC] Let's rescue devtome.com!

[develCuy]

Good news!

- We got some people interested on moving things forward
- A user with superadmin powers in devtome.com is available to help move devtome.com to devtome.org (as proposed in the action plan)
- There is an action plan proposed at #17. Please provide your feedback before 2016-01-18!

Just added this info to the original post, under "UPDATE 2016-01-12".

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[Papacrusher]

Actually since it was the insane amounts of shares being given out to Devtome authors that screwed DeVCoin, so maybe having Devtome out of commission could be a good thing, if it means no-one can get paid for writing on the Devtome wiki anymore.

However, it seems like some people can still write there.

Plus supposedly Devtome now only pays out of its own quota of the total DeVCoin shares, so that no matter how many authors write how many articles they make no dent in the pay going out to the admins and the various free open source software projects and so on?

Great points @markm! The worst case scenario is that we are leaving devcoin infrastructure so the new site will depend completely on its own income, yet we are promoting Devcoin so payments should be in Devcoin. Also, I plan to donate some of my ongoing shares for a few rounds so the new devtome has liquidity. All this makes me feel like the worst case is not that bad, guess we can ship with this plan:

1. Start a new wiki at devtome.org (dokuwiki? mediawiki?)
2. Setup ads (adsense?)
3. Setup analytics (analytics?)
4. Setup payment rules (how do we pay people?)
5. Define admins (anyone available?)
6. Invite everyone to join the new site (launch campaign)
7. Foster the new site (marketing campaign)

Of course, this is just an initial proposal, we need your feedback to validate and improve it.

1.  I have no issue with moving Devtome, but has anyone solicited input directly from Hunterbunter or Novacadian?  Hunter was carrying the torch from UTB and was heavily assisted by Nova and I feel their input would be insightful.  Another big issue with attracting quality writers was that the Wiki format was intimidating to your average writer and it would be nice if we researched other formats that had much more friendly user features and a more appealing layout, yet retained the open source spirit central to DVC.

4. We definitely need to revamp how people are paid to ensure that it is self-sustaining.  I think the previous rating system we had in place was a great foundation, but I would suggest we look into improving it even further to ensure that quality writing carries more weight than meaningless drivel.  

5. I was a previous signing admin responsible for signing up new writers and ensuring they were not submitting plagiarism. I am still available and could take on further responsibilities if needed.  I know there are several other admins who would be willing to jump back in at a moment's notice.

7. I think it would benefit us greatly to have a social media admin who would be available to to manage several social media outlets such as, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Stumble Upon, etc as well as invest in other traditional forms of marketing.

Just my two cents and I am looking forward to helping in any way I can.  I am definitely not tech savvy, but I can write fairly well and have been involved with DVC/Devtome for a few years.

Papa

[novacadian]

Nice to see some interest.

Although MarkM makes a good point of Devtome.com removed would put the focus back on the original mandate, a lot has been invested in DevTome and it would be nice to see it self sufficient. That could be achieved if only content were scraped from the original site that would meet standards of content of AdSenses. The difference is revenue would probably make writers' payments none mining dependent.

It is likely that the present DevTome Admin will raise his head, yet the response time seems unexceptable and other arrangements the sensible thing to do.

One good programming bounty would be a scraping program employing PHP/Perl's Mechanize Module to scrape AdSense compliant content for DevTome.org.

Always here to help where possible.

- Nova

[ashleysly]

So if the site gets moved to devtome.org rather than devtome.com then the generation files would have to be edited as a quick search on unthinkingbits GitHub has it scraping devtome user/article data from the .org domain.
Also is devtome going to stay or go in the long term?

[Hunterbunter]

So if the site gets moved to devtome.org rather than devtome.com then the generation files would have to be edited as a quick search on unthinkingbits GitHub has it scraping devtome user/article data from the .org domain.
Also is devtome going to stay or go in the long term?

Devtome will probably stay in the long term. It's like a vine that ended up strangling the tree it grew on, but now the tree can't live without it. It needs to bring a ROI, so we have to convert it to adsense-compatible, and use that money to buy back coins. This is the only sustainable way I can see devcoins getting back on its feet.

Weisoq has been working with Jasinlee to overcome the technical issues the last few weeks. There was an issue upgrading the hosting service and it is being fixed, but it'll be resolved when it's resolved. We can use this time to figure out how to best clean it up.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. One option that comes to mind:

We make a script that trawls every single devtome page and notifies the url of pages that fail whatever google wants to censor. Admins then ask the person to modify or delete the page. Anyone know if google has such a list of banned words/topics?

HB

[develCuy]

Answers in context:

Nice to see some interest.

Although MarkM makes a good point of Devtome.com removed would put the focus back on the original mandate, a lot has been invested in DevTome and it would be nice to see it self sufficient. That could be achieved if only content were scraped from the original site that would meet standards of content of AdSenses. The difference is revenue would probably make writers' payments none mining dependent.

You are right! People is recovering hope on the project
Regarding how and when to migrate content from .com to .org, perhaps we should first start blank with .org and make it work, once things are working we can copy/move content from .com, the one that is compatible with the new policies/requirements/spam filters/etc. I would call it: "curated content".

It is likely that the present DevTome Admin will raise his head, yet the response time seems unexceptable and other arrangements the sensible thing to do.

Do you have contact with the Admin? can you help us reach that person?

One good programming bounty would be a scraping program employing PHP/Perl's Mechanize Module to scrape AdSense compliant content for DevTome.org.

+1, it will take considerable work and deserves a bounty if possible.

Always here to help where possible.

- Nova

Thanks Nova! I read somewhere that you and HB worked a lot on devtome.com, having you on board for devtome.org is huge!

[develCuy]

HB, it is great to have your feedback on current status of devtome.com. It was looking kind of "alone in the dark", as devtome.com was dying silently and slowly... scary!
Btw, the revolution is already started and the proposal on moving from devtome.com to devtome.org is likely to happen. I know you are doing what you can do and things on devtome.com would get fixed eventually, but it is taking too long. It is time for the people running .com to analyze if they can fix things soon and keep .com running with a growing curve rather than the reverse, otherwise, their efforts would be just a waste, nobody wants that, right?

More to say in context:

So if the site gets moved to devtome.org rather than devtome.com then the generation files would have to be edited as a quick search on unthinkingbits GitHub has it scraping devtome user/article data from the .org domain.
Also is devtome going to stay or go in the long term?

Devtome will probably stay in the long term. It's like a vine that ended up strangling the tree it grew on, but now the tree can't live without it. It needs to bring a ROI, so we have to convert it to adsense-compatible, and use that money to buy back coins. This is the only sustainable way I can see devcoins getting back on its feet.

I heard this proposal before, perhaps in the defunct coinzen site? about July 2015?

Weisoq has been working with Jasinlee to overcome the technical issues the last few weeks. There was an issue upgrading the hosting service and it is being fixed, but it'll be resolved when it's resolved. We can use this time to figure out how to best clean it up.

"it'll be resolved when it's resolved", I agree and insist: Devtome needs things to be resolved sooner than later, if Weisoq and Jasinlee could fix things before we would not be in this situation (a revolution), yet is not their fault, it is nobodies fault! it is just that current way things work don't contribute to the growth of devtome, but the reverse. We need a change NOW!

If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. One option that comes to mind:

We make a script that trawls every single devtome page and notifies the url of pages that fail whatever google wants to censor. Admins then ask the person to modify or delete the page. Anyone know if google has such a list of banned words/topics?

HB

Did you have a chance to check the proposed plan? I'd love to hear your feedback! https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1317408.msg13481023#msg13481023

[wiser]

Looks like some good news: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=233997.msg13554248#msg13554248

But does require patience.

In the long run, probably best to see how this plays out... as long as we know it's being worked on.

[develCuy]

More good news!

- Hunterbunter (head of Devcoin) and Novacadian provided official feedback on what is current status of devtome.com. See #23, #25
- The plan is suspended for 2 weeks, while HB and Nova work on fixing devtome.com issues

Just added this info to the original post, under "UPDATE 2016-01-19".

[wiser]

Awesome news. Thanks for being the "shot in the arm," DevelCuy!

[develCuy]

Devtome is back to normal! The revolution is over!

Weisoq announced that Devtome is back to normal again!

Time to celebrate!

[koguma]

Devtome is back to normal! The revolution is over!

Weisoq announced that Devtome is back to normal again!

Time to celebrate!

Hi, I guess there's been some bad stuff with devtome?  I haven't received any coins for about a year, and my account was not able to be reset.  So I PM'd ninthaxis and received an extortion pm back:

!!! WARNING: This user is a newbie. If you are expecting a message from a more veteran member, then this is an imposter !!!
Unfortunately, due to the amount of scammers involved with Devcoin, requests to recover stolen coins are subject to a .20 bitcoin fee.  Please send to 131JjRT5nScSAfyXrYRdFFxeoVQrPqJeob to initiate devcoin funds restoration and start the account recovery process on Devtome.

What is this shit?

[weisoq]

Hi, I guess there's been some bad stuff with devtome?  I haven't received any coins for about a year, and my account was not able to be reset.  So I PM'd ninthaxis and received an extortion pm back:

!!! WARNING: This user is a newbie. If you are expecting a message from a more veteran member, then this is an imposter !!!
Unfortunately, due to the amount of scammers involved with Devcoin, requests to recover stolen coins are subject to a .20 bitcoin fee.  Please send to 131JjRT5nScSAfyXrYRdFFxeoVQrPqJeob to initiate devcoin funds restoration and start the account recovery process on Devtome.

What is this shit?

Ninthaxis hasn't been a signup for a while: http://devtome.com/doku.php?id=devcoin_human_resources

It's still an odd message though. They've been on bct since oct 13 so 'newbie' doesn't make sense. Then they haven't posted since may 14. Then they're making-up a 'stolen coins' story when that's not the issue. The real issue hasn't been fantastic either (about additions to the receiver list, something we're now trying to sort out) but either an individual is being scammy, or their account has since been taken over.

[koguma]

Hi, I guess there's been some bad stuff with devtome?  I haven't received any coins for about a year, and my account was not able to be reset.  So I PM'd ninthaxis and received an extortion pm back:

!!! WARNING: This user is a newbie. If you are expecting a message from a more veteran member, then this is an imposter !!!
Unfortunately, due to the amount of scammers involved with Devcoin, requests to recover stolen coins are subject to a .20 bitcoin fee.  Please send to 131JjRT5nScSAfyXrYRdFFxeoVQrPqJeob to initiate devcoin funds restoration and start the account recovery process on Devtome.

What is this shit?

Ninthaxis hasn't been a signup for a while: http://devtome.com/doku.php?id=devcoin_human_resources

It's still an odd message though. They've been on bct since oct 13 so 'newbie' doesn't make sense. Then they haven't posted since may 14. Then they're making-up a 'stolen coins' story when that's not the issue. The real issue hasn't been fantastic either (about additions to the receiver list, something we're now trying to sort out) but either an individual is being scammy, or their account has since been taken over.

Thanks for the link.  I had PM'd Ninthaxis because a long time ago he had helped me.  I'm guessing since it's been a while, he deleted his account, and someone re-registered it to do nefarious things.

[develCuy]

@Hunterbunter, @novacadian, @Papacrusher, @markm Do you guys know what is going on with devcoin.org and devtome.com? Both sites are down, along with the count down, pretty scary!

[wiser]

@Hunterbunter, @novacadian, @Papacrusher, @markm Do you guys know what is going on with devcoin.org and devtome.com? Both sites are down, along with the count down, pretty scary!

I'm thinking it's over, for real this time. Hopefully I'm wrong, but probably should expect to move on...

[Papacrusher]

I don't have any additional information, sorry.

[Youresioure]

@Hunterbunter, @novacadian, @Papacrusher, @markm Do you guys know what is going on with devcoin.org and devtome.com? Both sites are down, along with the count down, pretty scary!

At the moment, both sites are up, but the recent events raise some questions. It'd be good to know what happened and what we can expect from the relaunch. I'm glad because Devcoin seems to be back, but in my experience, relaunched altcoins've even greater risk so I could appreciate an explanation.