Kerbal Stuff, an open-source Space Port replacement

[cpast]

Admin-enforced proper categorization is one of those things that it's easier to start with and back off if it turns into too much worth, than to not start with and then have to recategorize lots of things because the uploaders categorized them wrong.

On the redesign mockup: I don't really like the current UI, but the mockup redesign looks great.

On the intro text: Is "modder's hands" right, or should it be "community's hands"?

[SirCmpwn]

Admin-enforced proper categorization is one of those things that it's easier to start with and back off if it turns into too much worth, than to not start with and then have to recategorize lots of things because the uploaders categorized them wrong.

On the redesign mockup: I don't really like the current UI, but the mockup redesign looks great.

On the intro text: Is "modder's hands" right, or should it be "community's hands"?

The text is correct, it's what's on the current about page.

[TheAlmightyOS]

The work admins would have to perform is pretty trivial, I think.

Sorry, that might be my work talking. I think in terms of tens of thousands of submissions, not KSP's current community of a couple hundred. So, I suppose you would be right that admin work would be trivial. However, I will say such a thing will not scale well (though it might not need too)

[cpast]

The text is correct, it's what's on the current about page.

Sorry, I meant "would 'community's hands' be better than 'modder's hands'", not "is this what it says?"

[SirCmpwn]

Sorry, I meant "would 'community's hands' be better than 'modder's hands'", not "is this what it says?"

Probably. I'll rethink the blurb sometime before the redesign goes live.

[TheAlmightyOS]

Quick suggestion. I am looking at the redesign link for the index. I notice there is a Top Mods and and New Mods section and then two buttons to sort them as a grid or a list. May I suggest a button for "View All Mods"? in approximately the same area. Pressing the button would take the user to a category select screen.

Also, could not find anywhere this was asked so I will ask it now: Will the mod author be able to upload more than one screenshot?

Edited August 1, 2014 by TheAlmightyOS

[SirCmpwn]

Quick suggestion. I am looking at the redesign link for the index. I notice there is a Top Mods and and New Mods section and then two buttons to sort them as a grid or a list. May I suggest a button for "View All Mods"? in approximately the same area. Pressing the button would take the user to a category select screen.

Also, could not find anywhere this was asked so I will ask it now: Will the mod author be able to upload more than one screenshot?

The mod author will be able to upload only one screenshot, and then embed as many screenshots/videos as he or she likes in the description. Hold off on the feedback for the top/new stuff until you see how it actually falls together in the final design.

[TeddyDD]

At the moment this site is 100 times better than the old SpacePort

I hope that in time will become the main repository of mods.

Congratulations, and best regards.

[TheAlmightyOS]

The mod author will be able to upload only one screenshot, and then embed as many screenshots/videos as he or she likes in the description.

If I may ask, is the reason for this decision due to technical limitation or more of design choice?

Hold off on the feedback for the top/new stuff until you see how it actually falls together in the final design.

Yes Sir

[SirCmpwn]

Design choice. I'd rather have one way to do it and more people are going to ..... about it if I remove inline album support than if I remove first-class screenshots.

[Rohaq]

There is a work in progress API, currently the only thing implemented is search: http://beta.kerbalstuff.com/api/search?query=fasa

The relevant code is here. I also started working on a mod manager here.

Pull requests welcome.

Anything further on this? That API link doesn't seem to work any more, and I'd also like to pipe up and say a mod manager would be great, but it would be worth implementing your site through HTTPS if you do so: Since mods can contain executable code, you want to ensure that people are downloading from your site if they're going to be automatically downloaded/installed via an app.

[SirCmpwn]

Anything further on this? That API link doesn't seem to work any more, and I'd also like to pipe up and say a mod manager would be great, but it would be worth implementing your site through HTTPS if you do so: Since mods can contain executable code, you want to ensure that people are downloading from your site if they're going to be automatically downloaded/installed via an app.

Not sure why the API link is broken, I will investigate later. I'm letting API users work on the API themselves as they need more from it.

HTTPS will come as soon as the naming conflict is officially settled.

[Mr Shifty]

Sorry if this has been asked before. On the right side of a mod's page it lists the KSP version number that the mod is valid for. Right below that, it would be very helpful to list the mod's most current version number (i.e. the version we'll download if we click "Download Latest Version")

[SirCmpwn]

Sorry if this has been asked before. On the right side of a mod's page it lists the KSP version number that the mod is valid for. Right below that, it would be very helpful to list the mod's most current version number (i.e. the version we'll download if we click "Download Latest Version")

I plan on adding that in the redesign.

[Justin Kerbice]

I still got an issue when trying to add a screenshot to one of my mod: upload is ok, picture added to list, click on "save changes" => 400 bad request, and picture not added. (it was on my "low profile misc engines"). I have already 5 pics but I don't think it's matter as you say we can add more this way, and the pic itself is a raw KSP screenshot (PNG).

[hab136]

@hab136: just a few comments of your post:

- which is your browser ?

I figured the screenshot would give it away, but it's Chrome. Version 36.0.1985.125 m today, but it auto-updates, of course.

You know how HTML gone really bad when browsers companies enforce standard for just fancy useless effects or other "we don't want to do the same as the ugly competitor", and if you look and W3C REFERENCE now, it's just... weird, the "we set the standards" became "we follow others private standards", so this may explain that,

I'm not sure what this rant has to do with anything. Browsers are fairly standard-complaint these days; it's only when you have to support older browsers (especially IE6) that it's a big deal.

- background picture is defined by author, you can choose one as 3rd media item on mod creation final step,

I'm not complaining about the pictures the authors chose; I'm complaining about how they're displayed (through the scrolling window effect). The authors can't change that; only the site designer can.

- license links may be provided as a predefined list "apache 2.0, CC 4.0, WTPF, other" and only when one choose "other", he/she have to provide a link, or not.

Why ? To avoid: 1. unneeded work from SirCmpwn 2. have unnecessary "million" number of link which are almost the same (500000 CC 4.0, 450000 lic1, 49000 lic2, ...) on the DB (instead, lic1, lic2, lic3... can be use internally, replaced by "apache 2.0" "CC 4.0" when generating the page), I know, just a few bytes here or there, but a tiny space spared multiplied by million is a huge space spared at the end.

Fine with me.

Please see my poll posted above. ~50% picked KS over all other options even though we know 50% of the mods are NOT hosted on KS. Not even 1% is hosted right now by my guestimate. From that data and from user comments I have come to the conclusion that a large portion of this community, while not actively using KS, is behind the IDEA of a open source self hosted repo and will join when the bugs are hammered out.

Now, that is quite a bit of speculation in that post. I don't have any real numbers to go on and that isn't usually like me to do. However, this community.... resists..... being metered for a lack of words.

I finally found the poll I think you were talking about. There's 87 votes, which is entirely too small to base any kind of opinion on.

To get a guesstimate of KSP size:

* 7,905 people playing KSP through Steam at the same time (not total of players)

* 117,641 forum users

A lot of people never register an account on forums, so the playerbase is likely multiple times the size of the forum.

Anyways I wasn't asking for numbers, but for reasoning, and you explained a likely reason: they want to use it, but can't due to lack of content.

[TheAlmightyOS]

*-snip-* Anyways I wasn't asking for numbers, but for reasoning, and you explained a likely reason: they want to use it, but can't due to lack of content.

You got to the core meaning so all is good.

I notice you have your mod on all the modding sites. May I ask you (apart from KS which is in progress) which you like the most? And why?

[hab136]

You got to the core meaning so all is good.

I notice you have your mod on all the modding sites. May I ask you (apart from KS which is in progress) which you like the most? And why?

Github is the most integrated in the development process and the easiest to release an update on. For developers that don't use version control (these people should be slapped until they see the light), the equivalent would be Dropbox or Google Drive. However Github is not a mod discovery site, so it doesn't really compare to Nexus/Curse/KerbalStuff.

The forums are good at being a "homepage" for your mod, but of course you can't distribute through them. The forums + hosting site (Github/Dropbox/Google Drive) is the easiest to get going as a developer.

As a user, flipping through the forums to find mods is a giant pain. The search is terrible and there's no browsing by category. A mod discovery site (KerbalStuff/Nexus/Curse) is needed, although I also tend to find mods on Reddit, or from watching videos (like Scott Manley's Interstellar Quest mod list).

I actually don't really have a problem with Curse. I developed a mod for WoW way back when, so they gave me free premium membership. I have AdBlock installed and used the Curse client on a Mac (back when it worked), so no ad-related malware for me. I really liked the mod auto-updater for WoW, and would like to see something similar for KSP (of which there are a few projects floating around).

Nexus is way too complicated and detailed, both as a developer and user. It's definitely a site made by nerds for nerds. The required fields to upload a mod were just never-ending. I don't like it, and apparently the KSP community doesn't really use it (as download stats show).

For KerbalStuff, I disagree with a lot of the visual design decisions, but it wasn't particularly difficult to add my mod to, and doesn't look like it will be hard to maintain. As a user, it needs more coverage (more mods), and browsing by category. If KerbalStuff's API takes off and gets incorporated into a mod auto-updater program, that would be a huge incentive for people to host on KerbalStuff.

TL;DR: As a developer, Github + forum. As a user, Curse is currently the best of the three mod hosting sites (Curse, KS, Nexus), even if it's evil.

[SirCmpwn]

For KerbalStuff, I disagree with a lot of the visual design decisions, but it wasn't particularly difficult to add my mod to, and doesn't look like it will be hard to maintain. As a user, it needs more coverage (more mods), and browsing by category. If KerbalStuff's API takes off and gets incorporated into a mod auto-updater program, that would be a huge incentive for people to host on KerbalStuff.

How do you feel about the redesigned look+feel? Here's a mockup. Also, you might like the GitHub integration I have planned, where a GitHub release automatically becomes a Kerbal Stuff version.

[nli2work]

I like it! Thanks for all the hard work!

[SirCmpwn]

Anything further on this? That API link doesn't seem to work any more, and I'd also like to pipe up and say a mod manager would be great, but it would be worth implementing your site through HTTPS if you do so: Since mods can contain executable code, you want to ensure that people are downloading from your site if they're going to be automatically downloaded/installed via an app.

Sorry, the endpoint was moved:

http://kerbalstuff/api/search/mod?query=fasa

Only just had time to investigate.

[Garoad]

How do you feel about the redesigned look+feel? Here's a mockup. Also, you might like the GitHub integration I have planned, where a GitHub release automatically becomes a Kerbal Stuff version.

Oh, this is really nice. I think you're on a good track!

You might consider putting "top mods" and "new mods" side by side. Not to bring back Spaceport nightmares, but since I assume most visitors are going to be repeat visitors who'll get to know the popular mods early, the "new mods" are probably more interesting. Or maybe new mods first, then top mods, if not that?

Possibly make the buttons a tad bit smaller to save on real estate and allow for more text description.

Edited August 9, 2014 by Garoad
Additions

[Thomas988]

How do you feel about the redesigned look+feel? Here's a mockup. Also, you might like the GitHub integration I have planned, where a GitHub release automatically becomes a Kerbal Stuff version.

That is a lot better than the one we have right now! The current design it too dark. I really love the color variation and the lightness in the new design you got there!

[SirCmpwn]

FYI, this mockup is not my work - it's the work of a friend named Chris Burns. More details around its conception will be provided when it's finalized.

[Woopert]

FYI, this mockup is not my work - it's the work of a friend named Chris Burns. More details around its conception will be provided when it's finalized.

I actually like the dark and monochrome feel of the current one. It's gentle on the eyes.