On Tue, Sep 02, 2008 at 04:49:49AM -0400, Zach Uram wrote: > When is the last time a new server was added (not counting when > pickled changed from pickled.psychosis.net to pickled.netrek.org)? It softoffice.net, before that the 3 bot servers + hockey server. I don't recall exactly /when/ these servers were added, but I seem to recall softoffice mid-spring and the other 4 roughly a year ago. > doesn't seem like this happens very often but I can see how it could > be abused and at least temporarily hurt games. I would lean towards > closing access and formalizing some sort of registration process for > future legitimate servers which seems of a low probability unless we > get a large influx of new regular players. Sadly, the days of multiple servers all with wait queues is long past. Back when netrek was at it's peak new servers were welcome as it permitted more people to play without needing to wait for slots to become available; this is no longer the case. As it is now we have issues with not being able to maintain t-mode on pickled due to warped's presence on the metas, compounded by the fact that as soon as one slot logs into warped it starts to attract newbies which takes away from t-mode on pickled. I've been tracking server utilization for the past couple of weeks (I wish I had done this earlier, but the project kept getting tossed on the back-burner for various reasons) and the effect is evident. Cacti preview mode for server usage on pickled, continuum and warped is available at: http://cacti.gerdesas.com:43451/graph_view.php Currently there is no side-by-side preview for all servers visible at once; I change the tree configuration to do so when I have a few free moments. Click on the server name to view utilization graphs; click on the graph to see daily, weekly, monthly and yearly averages or choose the time scale from the "Presets" drop-down box. I've long been a proponent of closing off open solicits and forcing would-be server admins to go through some type of official channel so that the problems of player-base splits, the potential for harm of bot servers, etc could be discussed with them prior to allowing their servers access to be listed on the metaservers. Openness is all well and good, but the potential for harm with a player-base as small as we currently have is too great in my opinion to continue the open-solicit model that is currently in place. John -- "I'm sorry but our engineers do not have phones." As stated by a Network Solutions Customer Service representative when asked to be put through to an engineer. "My other computer is your windows box." Ralf Hildebrandt <sxem> trying to play sturgeon while it's under attack is apparently not fun. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mailman.us.netrek.org/pipermail/netrek-dev/attachments/20080902/27a8f0f9/attachment.pgp