kichik
Anders
NSIS Users,
Winamp Media Player is dead, for a very long time. We all know that. Some people think streaming is the only solution...
What if they are wrong? In my opinion there is still a place for good old media players, that plays music from local storage (but also support streaming!).
What about Winamp forum? There are no new users, no posts, nothing, except hundreds of spam posts (daily)... How long yet will this forum be active? Month? Year? Nobody knows... but we all can see it is not good. There are 2 active moderators left. No real administration. Nobody cares. Abandoned piece of internet...
I think it's high time to think about creating an NSIS forum on a separate server... Just to be sure the NSIS knowledge will not be lost.
The question is do people really need forum? There is a Discord server.
Do people still want to share knowledge, ask questions etc? Hmm, maybe they do! I believe this is so.
How do you think?
Is it worth creating a new, independent forum? Who can do it? What about existing posts... can it be copied and movied to new location?
Ps: I decided to write this post when I removed another milion spam posts...
-Pawel
NSIS Forum Future
10 posts
Sorry had to help my son move to another town.Originally Posted by Pawel View Post
Most of the days i have already been deleting spam before you come onlline.
but good idea to start a new forum for this.
This forum has a lot of useful knowledge, hopefully it stays up for as long as possible.
if it were to die, hopefully Justin would give us a section on their forum.
if it were to die, hopefully Justin would give us a section on their forum.
I just woke up from my cryo-bed to tell you that Winamp LIVES! 23 years since my first and only post back in 2003 regarding .sid output for Winamp (alas, without an answer), just to see if it can play some Commodore 64 sounds.
If Winamp can run in Win 11 x64 24H2 and playing some electronic-dance song with my trusty Winamp 5.66 original skin, then it is alive... and the forum as well.
Cheers.
If Winamp can run in Win 11 x64 24H2 and playing some electronic-dance song with my trusty Winamp 5.66 original skin, then it is alive... and the forum as well.
Cheers.
Since few people have stated the obvious, I'll take the liberty of writing a post to clarify.
When creating this thread, I had the future of the NSIS forum in mind.
This isn't about Winamp - but it was impossible not to mention Winamp, because this forum is a Winamp forum (and NSIS is only here because it was created by the author of Winamp).
In my opinion, the path taken by the current owners of Winamp is a road to nowhere (from a business perspective, it's probably different). Despite initial hopes, my fears have been confirmed. Winamp (in its classic form) has been shut down and has been discontinued for a very long time. Hence my concerns about the future of this forum.
Yes - Winamp still works. You can still play music (although, of course, there are many unresolved issues and bugs). No one will fix them.
The natural continuation of Winamp Classic is the WACUP project, developed by a former Winamp developer. Darren did what the code owners couldn't (and never wanted to). He gathered a community, introduced hundreds of improvements and new features. He is developing a player that looks and works like its original version, but brings it into the modern era. Thanks to Darren and WACUP, we can still call Winamp a legend.
Whoever can afford it, support this project and its creator.
NSIS is still great piece of code. Very useful and freeware. This forum is a source of invaluable knowledge and experience. Let's not lose it.
-Pawel
When creating this thread, I had the future of the NSIS forum in mind.
This isn't about Winamp - but it was impossible not to mention Winamp, because this forum is a Winamp forum (and NSIS is only here because it was created by the author of Winamp).
In my opinion, the path taken by the current owners of Winamp is a road to nowhere (from a business perspective, it's probably different). Despite initial hopes, my fears have been confirmed. Winamp (in its classic form) has been shut down and has been discontinued for a very long time. Hence my concerns about the future of this forum.
Yes - Winamp still works. You can still play music (although, of course, there are many unresolved issues and bugs). No one will fix them.
The natural continuation of Winamp Classic is the WACUP project, developed by a former Winamp developer. Darren did what the code owners couldn't (and never wanted to). He gathered a community, introduced hundreds of improvements and new features. He is developing a player that looks and works like its original version, but brings it into the modern era. Thanks to Darren and WACUP, we can still call Winamp a legend.
Whoever can afford it, support this project and its creator.
NSIS is still great piece of code. Very useful and freeware. This forum is a source of invaluable knowledge and experience. Let's not lose it.
-Pawel
We already have a Discord (nobody in there?) but a forum is better, it can be found by Google and the information stays around for much longer.Originally Posted by toaljwdThere is a community project called WACUP (WinAmp Community Update Project) they have a pretty active discord server.
I think you should visit their website and discord server.
couold this be something
you could copy and past most of this
ProBoards is the largest host of free forums on the Internet. We provide the best forums and customer service to help your online community thrive.
you could copy and past most of this
Not sure about this: I like this (old) forum, it is one of the few free forums left in the world that I visit...
I joined discord, but there is plenty of smileys and other stuff that really prevents from focusing on code...
Forum is much simpler and faster to navigate and search, so I prefer to stick with forum format.
If anyone watch the competitors NSIS is probably the last one totally free software for making setups: even Inno Setup switched to commercial.
I joined discord, but there is plenty of smileys and other stuff that really prevents from focusing on code...
Forum is much simpler and faster to navigate and search, so I prefer to stick with forum format.
If anyone watch the competitors NSIS is probably the last one totally free software for making setups: even Inno Setup switched to commercial.
It's been so long since I logged in here, that I couldn't remember my info (not even the original email I used to sign up a billion years ago) and had to create a new account. Bummer...
Anywho, I've been a software engineer, systems architect, senior tech, etc for ~30 years now. Not flexing, just prefacing to note I'm no dummy. I spent a good chunk of my career in web stuffs. The much-adored forums here are powered by vBulletin (specifically vB 5, EoL I think). It wouldn't be hard to spin up a new forum platform, and migrate all the data over. Something with more security and anti-spam features and such would be wise.
Concerning the migration - I always approach those scenarios as "all data is going to be lost, guaranteed". Then triple redundancy, multiple backups in multiple places. Spin up new forum platform and environment elsewhere, don't replace this existing platform. Keep this place online, and hammer away at the new one in maintenance mode with limited access for team members. Then eventually open it slowly to alpha testers. Put the new one through its paces, using security/pentest tools to replicate attacks and spam campaigns to make sure it stands strong. Then move into beta phase, letting more members in.
How old data migrated over is organized is up to everyone, but that should be a communal decision in my opinion. Typically I'd see approaches where we would put old forum stuff in legacy sub-section. Some clients/communities would opt to just nuke it - dumb decision in my opinion, but sometimes space/budget constraints make those decisions. I always made a strong suggestion to keep the old platform(s) online and operating as normal for as long as possible, and let everyone organically migrate over to the new. That's for technical (load ramp up, rather than an explosion of traffic/activity), emotional (nobody likes change), and spiritual reasons (many members of the community grew up and even passed away here, devoting many many years).
It's generally safer and less laborious to migrate between the same platforms, so vBulletin -> vBulletin would be the least amount of headache. Moving to vBulletin 6 might be smart, as new major versions typically introduce many bug fixes, performance improvements, and security capability increases... not to mention new shiny features. That being said, it's also worth doing an audit of other platforms, working out a weighted list, and communicating a lot before making that decision. The 3 hardest hurdles when migrating to a different platform would be: data interoperability (vBulletin database export/migration to other platform might require a lot of manual tasks, or might not even be compatible), staff/team onboarding (learning the new platform, and not just basic daily interactions, but maintenance, security, and rescue task familiarity), and community onboarding (community members need to adjust as well).
Many non-technical (and even self-proclaimed technical) people assume this sort of thing is a simple task, and in certain scenarios it can pan out pretty smoothly, but this is rare. No, moving a whole community with decades of data (across many sectors) to a new place is a big undertaking. Think... Oregon Trail. Timmy is definitely getting dysentery, and wagon wheels will break. One prime example of substantial workload and a single point of potential disaster? Sanitizing data before migration. That is, removing spam content, bot members, cleaning out content that missed moderation, etc. I've seen this "simple" task take months, with several people working on it every day. I've seen clients opt out of sanitation passes before migration, only to see their new platform completely spoiled rotten, as they brought the rot right along with the good stuff. Keep in mind, this is just one of many tasks across multiple phases (yes, planning and phasing the migration project should happen before a single byte is fondled).
I think this sort of project is a great idea. WinAmp (and friends) and this community has earned legacy status in my opinion, and simply letting it fade away with a whimper would be the weakest and unintelligent act (or inaction, rather) I've seen in a long, long time. I just wanted to drop my 2 cents here, being objective and realistic. It's not my intention to make it sound scary or hard - it's a normal routine for nerds in the industry and requires communication, planning, and coordination/cooperation.
Final note: I'd stay away from obscure platforms that try and lure you in with cliche marketing. ProBoards for example - I've personally not heard of them, or at least the platform didn't stick into my memory banks. The new community needs to be self-hosted and self-sufficient, using a platform with sensible licensing and complete control. DO NOT migrate to some free hosted platform. There WILL be regrets. Privacy, security, control, and a dozen other nasty scenarios are guaranteed to present themselves. Despite how much popular communities try and push for donations because "its expensive", that is simply not true. Either they don't know how to scale efficiently, or are being dishonest and lining pockets. I've set up platforms with hosting, domain names, security certificates, automation task runners, and traffic/data flow that would easily encompass what the current (and previously thriving) community here would present. For less than $50 a month. Any community with 1-10,000 members that is asking for hundreds of dollars of donations or risk shutting down, will likely get chin checked at the pearly gates...
Anywho, I've been a software engineer, systems architect, senior tech, etc for ~30 years now. Not flexing, just prefacing to note I'm no dummy. I spent a good chunk of my career in web stuffs. The much-adored forums here are powered by vBulletin (specifically vB 5, EoL I think). It wouldn't be hard to spin up a new forum platform, and migrate all the data over. Something with more security and anti-spam features and such would be wise.
Concerning the migration - I always approach those scenarios as "all data is going to be lost, guaranteed". Then triple redundancy, multiple backups in multiple places. Spin up new forum platform and environment elsewhere, don't replace this existing platform. Keep this place online, and hammer away at the new one in maintenance mode with limited access for team members. Then eventually open it slowly to alpha testers. Put the new one through its paces, using security/pentest tools to replicate attacks and spam campaigns to make sure it stands strong. Then move into beta phase, letting more members in.
How old data migrated over is organized is up to everyone, but that should be a communal decision in my opinion. Typically I'd see approaches where we would put old forum stuff in legacy sub-section. Some clients/communities would opt to just nuke it - dumb decision in my opinion, but sometimes space/budget constraints make those decisions. I always made a strong suggestion to keep the old platform(s) online and operating as normal for as long as possible, and let everyone organically migrate over to the new. That's for technical (load ramp up, rather than an explosion of traffic/activity), emotional (nobody likes change), and spiritual reasons (many members of the community grew up and even passed away here, devoting many many years).
It's generally safer and less laborious to migrate between the same platforms, so vBulletin -> vBulletin would be the least amount of headache. Moving to vBulletin 6 might be smart, as new major versions typically introduce many bug fixes, performance improvements, and security capability increases... not to mention new shiny features. That being said, it's also worth doing an audit of other platforms, working out a weighted list, and communicating a lot before making that decision. The 3 hardest hurdles when migrating to a different platform would be: data interoperability (vBulletin database export/migration to other platform might require a lot of manual tasks, or might not even be compatible), staff/team onboarding (learning the new platform, and not just basic daily interactions, but maintenance, security, and rescue task familiarity), and community onboarding (community members need to adjust as well).
Many non-technical (and even self-proclaimed technical) people assume this sort of thing is a simple task, and in certain scenarios it can pan out pretty smoothly, but this is rare. No, moving a whole community with decades of data (across many sectors) to a new place is a big undertaking. Think... Oregon Trail. Timmy is definitely getting dysentery, and wagon wheels will break. One prime example of substantial workload and a single point of potential disaster? Sanitizing data before migration. That is, removing spam content, bot members, cleaning out content that missed moderation, etc. I've seen this "simple" task take months, with several people working on it every day. I've seen clients opt out of sanitation passes before migration, only to see their new platform completely spoiled rotten, as they brought the rot right along with the good stuff. Keep in mind, this is just one of many tasks across multiple phases (yes, planning and phasing the migration project should happen before a single byte is fondled).
I think this sort of project is a great idea. WinAmp (and friends) and this community has earned legacy status in my opinion, and simply letting it fade away with a whimper would be the weakest and unintelligent act (or inaction, rather) I've seen in a long, long time. I just wanted to drop my 2 cents here, being objective and realistic. It's not my intention to make it sound scary or hard - it's a normal routine for nerds in the industry and requires communication, planning, and coordination/cooperation.
Final note: I'd stay away from obscure platforms that try and lure you in with cliche marketing. ProBoards for example - I've personally not heard of them, or at least the platform didn't stick into my memory banks. The new community needs to be self-hosted and self-sufficient, using a platform with sensible licensing and complete control. DO NOT migrate to some free hosted platform. There WILL be regrets. Privacy, security, control, and a dozen other nasty scenarios are guaranteed to present themselves. Despite how much popular communities try and push for donations because "its expensive", that is simply not true. Either they don't know how to scale efficiently, or are being dishonest and lining pockets. I've set up platforms with hosting, domain names, security certificates, automation task runners, and traffic/data flow that would easily encompass what the current (and previously thriving) community here would present. For less than $50 a month. Any community with 1-10,000 members that is asking for hundreds of dollars of donations or risk shutting down, will likely get chin checked at the pearly gates...
You might want to look into GeekStorage. I use them for my sites. New Customer teaser rate for Deluxe plan is just over $80/yr and comes with unlimited SSD. Normally around $120. Ad Derjyn said, not expensive in the real world, but if that is the difference between paying rent and eating, it could be.