Free Wargames Rules resource site needs assistance!

[Craig]

There are some people in our hobby that put in a hell of a lot because they love it and like to share. Few do more that Pete Jones of Free Wargames Rules (http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk/).

This is one of the greatest wargames resource sites on the net and has inspired generations of wargames. He has hosted thousands of sets of rules for over a decade now and never asked for anything to support it. Well crunch time is approaching as for personal reasons he won't be able to do this much longer.

What he needs is somebody, or a group of people, to step forwards and take the burden from his shoulders and continue his work. You can read about this here: http://freewargamesrules.blogspot.co.uk/

Pete is an old friend of mine and I'd hate to see all his hard work just disappear, so if any of you can help please contact him through his blog. I can also pass messages onto him.

[Stavros Banjo]

There are many of us that owe Pete Jones a huge 'thank you' for all his hard work & perhaps should be more forthcoming with our appreciation for everything he has done for the hobby. I do hope there is somebody out there willing to carry the torch & keep things going. It's an awesome site & I defy anyone not to come away without a huge pile of new rules to peruse. It's always been my first point of call whenever I've fancied trying out a new period or dabbling in something away from the mainstream published rules.

It would be brilliant if all those resources could be somehow incorporated into the LAF boards. The best home for all Pete's hard work that I can think of 

[robh]

It is a great resource and it would be a shame to lose it. I agree that Pete is deserving a huge "thank you" for what he has been doing with FreeWargamesRules for so long.

I like the idea of making it community based, a free wargames rules wiki.  Finding a single person with Pete's amazing dedication will not be an easy task!

[Craig]

Despite the kind comments above I must admit to being underwhelmed by the community response to this 

[YPU]

Only learned of this website from this topic just now, It would indeed be a grave loss if it were to vanish.
I wish I had my life be a little more structured so I could jump in to a project like this but I have said yes to things like this to often and then pulled out at the last moment.

[Onebigriver]

Despite the kind comments above I must admit to being underwhelmed by the community response to this 

I'm a regular visitor to FWG and I've sent Pete links to free rules before now. I would love to help but I'm using a 3GB a month dongle and money is tight at the moment so I doubt I'm in a position to maintain a website. I'm going to repost Craig's first post on Frothers. It would be a crying shame to see FWG go. I hope things go OK for Pete in his personal life.

[Red Orc]

There are several suggestions about how things can go. OK, they're all on the table but I don't think anyone wants the site to close or to just be frozen in time. It doesn't seem likely that anyone is going to jump in to take on the entire thing (maybe someone will but I don't think it's safe to assume that some Superman will rescue it). Which leaves either option 4 - that Pete spends less time on the site, but still keeps it going as 'FWR lite') - or option 5 - a group takes over the site to keep it going.

There is another option that isn't listed but is possible - that Pete continues to be involved as part of a group venture; essentially keeping the site going by bringing other people on board to help, which should in theory take no more effort than 'FWR lite' but adds other people to take over the work Pete's not going to be doing any more.

Anyway - if it's going to be a community enterprise (with or without Pete's further involvement), then some things need to be sorted.

The site will need to be paid for. Can we set up some crowd-funding-type method of getting cash together? In the long-term, probably the way to go is advertising from games-related companies, but there's no reason not to ask if people are prepared to put a bit of cash forward for a great gaming resource (a bit like the Prof does here with the 'Supporting Adventurer' donations).

There needs to be some sort of 'management team' - if Pete is prepared to continue working on the site that's ace, but either way there needs to be a group that will (help to) take over the running of the site, generating new content and advertising it around the gaming community, securing future sources of funding, etc.

What else needs to be done? Anyone got any ideas?

[Craig]

Thanks guys, my faith is restored 

I have messaged him to try and find out what exactly is involved in maintaining the site. Once I know I'll be back here.

[Stavros Banjo]

Clean it up. Ditch every rules set that has not had a download in 6 months, ditch every ruleset that is not PDF, ditch all beta rules and half finished rules projects, Ditch every set of rules that has since had a later version put out.

After that see what is left and take it from there. Though I suspect there will not be very much left at all and many of those will be links to stuff like gorkamorka or void 1.1

Ouch! That's a bit harsh. You make it sound like the site is full of worthless garbage, which it isn't. Granted there may be some pruning required here & there but just because a ruleset's a beta version, old, or not a PDF doesn't mean it deserves to be wiped from the face of the earth. I've downloaded & tried out many rulesets that don't meet your strict criteria & found some real gems in there. Sometimes you find some neat ideas that can be incorporated into the games you already play. Just because some of the rules may be old or a bit rough & ready doesn't automatically make them worthless.

That aside, I only wish I had the time or technical know-how to offer some help to keep this great collection of free material available to the gaming world 

[Red Orc]

The last question I think deserves a comeback (I agree with you pretty much on the rest, though in principle there's no reason the as-yet mythical 'we' couldn't turn the non-pdf rule-sets into pdfs if the rules themselves seem sound).

Simply, we don't know what will happen. Let's assume, no-one has downloaded 'System X' for eight months. Does that mean no-one will want to download it next month? We don't know. What happens if there is a 'System X' revival, because Will Smith decides to star in a movie set in the System X universe (or even something a little more plausible)?

I think pruning dead wood is fine - and what exactly constitutes dead wood will have to be a decision for the management board. But I'd argue if things are OK, then they should stay, even if they're not exactly belles of the ball.

[Archie]

It doesn't seem likely that anyone is going to jump in to take on the entire thing (maybe someone will but I don't think it's safe to assume that some Superman will rescue it).

I'm no superman but I have messaged Craig to say that I am interested in taking on board the whole project and indeed potentially developing it further. Certainly updating the links etc. as has been mentioned above.

As you all don't really know me the real me can be found at - www.edenchanges.com

Archie
(Given name Stephen in case you go to the website)

[Craig]

Hi Scurv,

What I see here is the 'I must have it now, in the format I want' attitude of the 21st century... sigh.

What is wrong with the old bookshop approach eh? Where you browse about looking for something but constantly tripping over other items that you find you like but perhaps would never have thought of looking for? I blame Google for narrowing people's search capability honestly.

I have spent many a happy hour in the stacks at FWR and discovered no end of gems I would never have even looked for if I'd followed the Google mentality.

While I have no problem with good organisation, and perhaps it does need a bit of a makeover and tidy up, surely one of the objectives of such a resource site is to offer you the ability to browse serendipitously?

[Torben]

What I see here is the 'I must have it now, in the format I want' attitude of the 21st century... sigh.

And I'm seeing an attitude of "it must be preserved as it is right now, forever and ever".

While I like the idea of freewargamesrules.co.uk and think it is a shame to see it go then I'll also add that the reason I personally never used it is because of the critique posted by Scurv; it was impossible to find anything useful, you had to spend hours combing through it and - as Scurv said - there were a lot of Beta rules and in many weird formats. I know, because I was one of them who contributed some beta rules to the site and have never, ever done anything to update it.

So, in my eyes it would need some streamlining and some submission guidelines. I'm not clamouring for an editor, but a Moderation system or similar wherein you look through the files that are to be added, figure out if they're roughly done and if they're in pdf. Then you classify them for the correct subject and within any variant rules (like 40k etc.).

I fail to see how this improvement will also deter from the 'going through a used bookstore'-feeling?

[dampfpanzerwagon]

Thank you for the heads-up.

I've downloaded two sets in the last couple of days, two sets that I would not have known about if not for this post/thread.

Thank you

Tony

[Pendrake]

First: Interested parties should establish mirror sites.

• Then Pete Jones can freeze (http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk/) but put up links to the mirrors as one of the last few updates he performs.
• Scurv can establish one of the mirror sites under his sole control and then proceed to apply whatever ruthless culling, brutal editing and brilliant[?] organizing he fancies.
• Some other mirror site can carry on with a group of editors who are more interested in mostly preserving the archive, carrying on with whatever practices are traditional for the site, incrementally improving the organization and accepting new material.

But step 1) ONE is, in the time remaining until Mr. Jones bows out, establish some mirror sites. That preserves and enables all options.