Bots United jan.2005 presidentials

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

*brass music* Ladies and gentlemen, here's a presidential allocution *brass music*

I almost forgot it but it's high time to elect the new president for the upcoming 3 months term. So I would like to profit of the occasion to poll our regulars a bit. I'd enjoy everybody to come here and say what they find good OR / AND bad currently in Bots United itself and the way it is evolving. Your revendications help us greatly

For myself I am pleased to see that Bots United is growing stronger and stronger, and that it's becoming a better and better place to hang around, for gamers and developers. It is rare on the net to find other places where users can meet coders and have so much fun together. I am also pleased to see the overall level of maturity of all members. We have good laughs altogether, but we never (or hardly ever ?) flame, and I have seen none of these arguments we sometimes see on other forums. This is something rarissime, and, as botman would say, we can give ourselves a big pat on the back for being a bunch of cool lads

Even though, it's not time to sleep over that. As KWo says, some moderators (and me the first) need to learn patience more, and not freak out on anyone asking a lame question or breaking the rules for the first time. I apologize for that. We need to keep that open minded attitude that was ours in the start (before the (3)COLORS incident) and improve it to keep attracting regulars and keep the fun going on.

As the current president, it's also time for me to look back at my commitments and see if they were achieved or not. Hmm, let's see *searches forum*

Originally Posted by Pierre-Marie Baty

Goals of this upcoming 3 month term:

• start coding, ACTUALLY coding for the United Bot
• get in touch with non-HL bots and invite at least one of them
• appoint maintainers for parts of the Bots United services: maintainers for the wiki, for the filebase, for the Linux server, for the IRC channels, and people to keep a constant level of interest through the offtopic forums and the IRC channels by all means available
• fidelize even more our visitors (it's already on a good way)

- The United Bot is finally starting to emerge. Stefan and myself are working on our engine-independent interfaces, and the HL2 SDK is being explored by botman and others. While that's great, we must keep it up
- As for the non-HL bots, we have 2 of them, ! These bots are our most precious bots here, for they attest of our diversity. Funny thing is, we didn't even need to invite them, they proposed spontaneously! Good sign, no ?
- Maintainers are named, although since the server reinstall, we have had VERY little hardware or software problems it's good to have something that works at last. Big thanks to Onno for that. And the offtopic section is more active than ever, people like to hang there, it's visible, über then
- The fourth point still applies...

So, any new goals ? Sure.

• Work on and *release* the United Bot (alphas, proofs of concept, anything).
• Have more non-HL bots join us. Yeah!
• Increase the efficiency of the cooperation between coders through a clever wiki maintenance policy.
• Acquire a strong credibility towards other organisms, be them professionals (game development companies), associations (United Admins) or websites (HL2.net, RTCW community, CS-Nation, whatever).

Here's for the agenda. I am willing to endorse a new 3 months term, especially since this year I'll have less pressure on my back, professionally I mean. However, we also need diversity, so if another council member wants to propose, please make noise here

Ayayayyy! viva la revolucion, caramba !

[biohazerd87]

i can start a poll

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

we need to see the candidatures first

[sPlOrYgOn]

I nominate PMB

[KWo]

Originally Posted by sPlOrYgOn

I nominate PMB

I agree. I guess he should stay the President here until end of the BU life.
He made really a big job to get to work this server (he was working on this very hard), he cared the most about BU (other Councils cared, too, but PMB - the most). I've never need to ask him to vote in some poll (for validation something by Councils), because he is so active - he reads almost all (or all) here and knows all problems and he vote before I may read the poll. He deserved for this.
Sometimes he has (IMHO) to much hard hand, but maybe is the feature the President needs to have it? Also since he promised to change a bit this (to be more patient for new memebers), seems as the best candidate. Another thing is this - if I'm informed good - he is paying from his-own money for keeping alive this server in Internet - well - who has money, he has the power - it's immortal rule.

[stefanhendriks]

i also nominate pmb

I'd like to suggest for some points of attention to BU in order to reach the written goals by pmb: Let me quote them:

Work on and *release* the United Bot (alphas, proofs of concept, anything).
Have more non-HL bots join us. Yeah!
Increase the efficiency of the cooperation between coders through a clever wiki maintenance policy.
Acquire a strong credibility towards other organisms, be them professionals (game development companies), associations (United Admins) or websites (HL2.net, RTCW community, CS-Nation, whatever).

First point, the 'concept' works already ofcourse. We need just more interfaces. Personally i lack time to get things really going, its just snippets of time i use to get stuff together... sometimes i spend to much time on coding and then i have a big problem with school again. Argh.

Second point, about non-hl bots, see my point "PR"
Third point, this is ofcourse some kind 'extra time investment'. Its not bad, but i experience the wiki as a time consuming thing; this is due the fact you have to code stuff first or work on it to understand and then take extra time to write it down in an understandable manner.. I don't say its bad, because i love the purpose of wiki, i just don't see too much of contribution. I have seen though on http://www.hl2coding.com that their wiki was updated in very nice written tutorials. (also relates to my point PR)

4th point (also PR point!):
I suggest we have some sort of "PR" team. As for myself i try to get in touch with these sites, but its tough. Very tough. I also think we should have some sort of 'website', or something different then our frontpage right now. When entering the bots-united site, i'd see all the stuff we have about BU itself on the left, and all the bots on the right. In the middle you see news from all bots (websites?). I think it would be great to see how news would be taken from a forum, so one single forum for each bot to post news on.

Either way, it should be a bit more 'catchy' if you know what i mean. Also, before we can gain any 'extra popularity', we need something new to show. Ie, when the United Bot alpha gets released, and works on HL1/HL2 , etc. It will be more interesting, because it is 'one of the first HL2' bots. Since HL2 has lots of popularity, it comes down to BU. (like the old days, with POD, etc).

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

Originally Posted by KWo

Another thing is this - if I'm informed good - he is paying from his-own money for keeping alive this server in Internet - well - who has money, he has the power - it's immortal rule.

errr no no no, I don't pay anything any longer for the server. The machine is rented by Nova and hosted by Onno Kreuzinger, all my financial contribution was limited to buying the bots-united.com and .org domains in the first place, but they've been transferred to Nova a short time after, to centralize the €€€ management.

I don't read "every" post here also, most of them perhaps, especially in the general and coding forums, but there are bot forums I visit rarely, because I can't keep myself informed of everything... even reading is time-consuming.

Anyway, as Stefan says, I think we should release stuff that works before thinking about "public relations". Please keep in mind that for non-coders, "stuff that works" usually has a totally different meaning than it has for coders.

[KWo]

OK - doesn't matter.
Even without this there are sufficient reasons to nominate You as the best candidate.

BTW - how long time the next candidates might be nominated? When the eventually poll?

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

can we see the remaining council members' opinion here ? or do I assume that I am the only candidate ?

[gazpunk17]

When is the target date for the release of bots for Counter-strike source. This means the world to me please reply