What is going on at DDR Freak? Questions from a regular

Sk1p

I've been a consistent visitor to this page and the forums for almost two years now. It used to be THE place to go for anything related to DDR, and I don't need to remind anyone about the reasons why. Problems started to pop up a few months ago, but I thought they would be temporary. Instead, in my view and in the view of almost everyone I have talked to about this issue, there has been a consistent, disappointing pattern of non-action taken by administrators and moderators to correct these problems. The biggies:

- Step charts. This was the #1 draw to DDR Freak when I started posting. It's not an exaggeration to say that I wouldn't still be here if you hadn't hooked me with the step charts from the start. You guys started to slack in getting all the Max1 charts up, but ZYX-19 filled the void, albeit not as well or as professionally as you guys had been.

When ZYX-19 shut down, there was a desperate need out there for some source of charts; J Dogg stepped up to the plate and said in this post that DDR Freak was taking initiative and that they would be "released by Mar 24." March 24 came and went, and J Dogg told us on March 30 that the "DWI parser is done. The work that's left to do is hook up the files to the existing infrastructure." Spike assured us, a month later, that "Jason is working on the stepcharts, he'll get them out as fast as he can, so don't worry." Another month went by, and I posted a question about the charts on May 25. It wasn't answered. I asked again on July 25, and again received no response.

Given that J Dogg said only nominal work was left on March 30 and that we obviously don't have new DDR Freak step charts online, there are two possible scenarios:
1) He was lying.
2) He didn't finish hooking up the files to the existing infrastructure.

I assume the first option is not true. Why hasn't ONE administrator bothered to respond since April? Why is the thread about the charts still sticky, even though there has been no new information from J Dogg since March? If you guys have decided that the launching of sherlok's charts took away your need to make new ones, then what's the point of leading us on?

- Videos. Another former unmatched resource of DDR Freak was its collection of videos, which chronicled pretty much every good freestyle performance in the country up to that point and had the single biggest impact on freestyling in America. It's understandable that they would go down for a little while at some point, but we have seen the following message, as J Dogg said, "quite some time":

IMPORTANT NOTICE: We are sorry, the video section is unavailable at this time for technical reasons. We are doing our best to find a solution to this problem, so please bear with us for the time being.

I'm sorry, but you guys are definitely NOT doing your best to find a solution. I have a hard time believing it is simply about money; since videos went down, DDR Freak evidently could spare the cash to fly all of its moderators to E3 for free. If the videos are never going to go back up, which seems quite likely, then why leave the structure for the page there and keep a link to it on the top of every page to remind us of how DDR Freak used to have videos? There has been no new information in months, and questions asked about your progress -- not unreasonable, seeing as you claim to be "doing your best to find a solution" -- are ignored by admins. J Dogg himself replied to the latest thread asking about videos, and didn't bother to give a timeline or even a token reassurance that they will be coming back up.

Site speed: I visit a number of message boards and web sites, and none even come close to DDR Freak in terms of consistent unreliability and general slowness. It's not that large phpBB2 boards can't be fast -- EQ Realm has 43,000 registered users and more than 800,000 articles, but their forums work just fine. As you guys have noted, the server just can't handle the traffic DDR Freak gets. If that's the case and you truly care about being accessible at a reasonable speed at reasonable hours, then why resort to band-aids like taking away the search function? Why don't you guys solve the problem for real and upgrade to a better server that can handle more traffic?

There are other issues. The recent success of any number of alternate and regional DDR boards shows that DDR Freak's forum and resources, for whatever reasons, simply don't matter as much as they used to. Maybe it's because so many people were banned by increasingly Nazi-esque moderators, maybe it's because of the site's general slowness, maybe it's because the Bemani craze is winding down, maybe it's because other people have thought of better ideas (AAA page, for one), or maybe it's something else. Speaking of resources, DDR Freak simply doesn't have them any more -- Machine Locations, which doesn't suck because forum users do most of the heavy lifting, is pretty much it. Pokgai Kenobi said he was planning the DBA tournament, but his disappearance until about two days beforehand sparked some giant drama about what would happen with rules and prizes (and warning points). You guys have had the same front page for such a long time that I don't remember what the old site looked like. To me, the Poll of the "Week" is the most fitting example of the administrators' attitude toward the site.

The main point is this: it's obvious that DDR Freak has slipped, and there are very obvious ways to bring the site back to what it used to be. What's going on? Do you guys simply not care any more? If that's the case, it's totally okay. People move on and get other interests, and we all understand that. You all have put untold hours into creating DDR Freak and making it tick; if you have had enough, then that's your decision to make. I just don't think that's true, though, seeing as we just underwent a massive (yet, when you boil it down, quite unnecessary) forum reorganization. What I don't understand is why you guys promise to do things, lead us on, completely drop the ball, and respond to questions 1) with attitude or 2) by simply ignoring them. If you're not going to get step charts up, just say it. If you are, then give us a timeline. These are not unreasonable requests.

All this is coming from an outsider's view; I am making observations and trying to come up with admittedly uninformed but reasonable guesses as to what is going on behind the scenes. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there are great explanations for all of these problems, but I'm tired of not getting a chance to hear them. As a regular, as someone who has spent a very, very large amount of time here and loved it enough to make more than 3500 posts on any number of user names, I don't think it's out of place to ask for some straight talk about what's been happening recently.
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Junior Asparagus · Administrator Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Location: Natick, MA

You bring up lots of valid points, and believe me, there's been lots of discussion among the mods about what needs to be done to the site.

I know I'm an admin, but I actually don't think I'm qualified to address a lot of the issues at hand. I have no idea what's up with the videos, because I never had any part in the handling/managing/hosting of those. I don't have much hardware experience either, so I don't know what's causing the speed issues. J Dogg did say something about it being more than a server issue though. I'm across the country from the other admins, so I don't know as much of the details as they might.

I believe the stepcharts thing is still being refined, but J Dogg can comment on that more.

I actually DID set up a new poll in the database, but I was waiting for one of the other people to show me how to change it out on the main site, as I've never changed it before, and some of the stuff I tried didn't work.

I think the main reason that the site hasn't been updating as much is that the people in charge of it have just been swamped with loads of personal things, be it work, school, or other life problems. I know I personally can only really add thing to the site on the weekends when I'm not doing anything (which doesn't happen all that often these days).

But we are aware of the problems and have been discussing the best way to go about doing what we need to do. The crux of the problem is just that the people who have the ability to make important changes (be it with programming or graphic design or even money) aren't able to devote themselves full-time to its improvement.
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mrÖ¼selfÖ¼Äestruct · Maniac Member Joined: 10 Mar 2002 Location: a warm place

Just to answer the step-charts issue:

Sk1p · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2003 11:26 pm Post subject:

The solution to these problems are simple: delegate work to people willing to do it. Spike's gone and can't do the poll of the week (not that he ever updated it when he was here)? Have someone else take care of it. Don't want to spend the $$$ to put videos back up? Make like Aaron and ask users to host them (and we would definitely host them). This isn't difficult stuff. Again, I point to DDR Freak's one remaining good resource, the machine locations; it is no coincidence that users, not administrators, are the ones who keep that listing viable.

After long conversations with Phrekwenci and mr. self destruct -- mods who seem to actually give a shit about this place -- I'm totally convinced that DDR Freak is not going to come out of this malaise. The fact is that the people in charge just don't care any more. Forget I ever wrote that post, because it was completely pointless.

PM me if you want to know more about those IM convos.
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Edible Bondage Tape · Trick Member Joined: 26 Jan 2002 Location: Kerri

maybe ddrfreak sholud redeligate to just the mods/admin who actualy care AND have the time to work on it?
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Junior Asparagus · Administrator Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Location: Natick, MA

Mr. Deus · Trick Member Joined: 27 Dec 2002 Location: smooveville

I have an idea about hosting the videos.

Find a company that has a lot of bandwidth it doesn't need, and then have it host the videos. And for the payback? A nice, big ad for them on the videos page.

Tamarik · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2003 10:06 am Post subject:

For the longest time I've wanted to get the step charts working myself, but I'd probably just break things even worse. I'm a pathetic programmer, and something as complex (I assume) as the step chart engine would melt my brain in a matter of moments.
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lol wut

Junior Asparagus · Administrator Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Location: Natick, MA

Look! We do stuff! There's a poll! And hopefully the forums will run more quickly now!

More to come in the future, hopefully, but some of these things take lots of time...
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J Dogg · Administrator Joined: 16 Jan 2002 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

Damn, that's enough to make me feel terrible, and I'm definitely guilty of a lot of things, including neglect. I currently don't have an internet connection at home yet since I just moved, but when I have time, I would like to address all these issues. Thanks for your continued patience and I'm really sorry about all of it.
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St. Nick · Trick Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002 Location: Marietta, GA

Yeah....I don't think Skip can hear you anymore though. Seeing that he has been BANNED.

Brilliant. Ban one of this board's most intellegent users. Just brilliant.
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cfusionpm · Trick Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002 Location: San Diego, CA

skip got banned?? what the hell?
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mrÖ¼selfÖ¼Äestruct · Maniac Member Joined: 10 Mar 2002 Location: a warm place

Yup.. he brought it on himself though. He had 7 points, flamebaited and got warned.

Anyways.. It's good to see that J Dogg replied to this thread.. hopefully once he gets settled and less busy, we can get things started.
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TL · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2003 8:46 pm Post subject:

look at bemanix, bemanistyle, ddrmaniax, ddrseattle, and more, those layouts are so cool to look at. those people put effort into their pages. most of them are jerks, however.

the mods at ddrfreak are generally nice people but dont seem to have the time or skill to create a beautiful layout.

mrÖ¼selfÖ¼Äestruct · Maniac Member Joined: 10 Mar 2002 Location: a warm place

Junior Asparagus · Administrator Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Location: Natick, MA

The Game II · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2003 11:09 pm Post subject:

J Dogg · Administrator Joined: 16 Jan 2002 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

Still no connection at home, but I just wanted to say that if I went to your normal web host colocation company out there, it'll cost about $1000/mo to host videos at the bandwidth level we need. The E3 trip only cost something like $4000, and it's a one time cost, so it's not really fair to make the comparison.
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Ni-ban Neko · Trick Member Joined: 08 Feb 2002 Location: Over there.

That's fair enough. Have you looked into BitTorrent yet, JDogg?
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Cutriss · Staff Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

BitTorrent is really only helpful if there's a lot of consecutive demand for a file. Bandwidth spikes, if you will. Movies hosted here would probably get a medium amount of constant traffic, and thus would impose a constant drain on resources. If the drain is moderate, but not overwhelming, then BitTorrent won't help much to lower DDRFreak's bandwidth usage.
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