Ravenloft Catalogue Down + its ultimate fate . . .

eldritch · Post by **eldritch** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:43 pm

I need it, I crave it, I have to have the catalogue. If it is unretrievable (pity what a loss) then I would be happy to help contribute to a new one as I have a good deal of the ravenloft products and nothing is better than reading them to me. for those in the know retrieve it if you can, but I would help contibute to a new one if all else fails.

stu · Post by **stu** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:36 pm

Howdy all,

Sorry I've been fairly out of contact - I don't check any of the old Kargatane emails anymore because of the barrage of spam on those accounts, which is why you might not have been able to get hold of me...

Anyways, I'm having a look at the website now to work out what the problem is, so wish me luck... And yes, the Catalogue is available in a delimited text file, if someone wants to take it and make use of it....

Stu

stu · Post by **stu** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 7:36 am

OK, it's back up and working now. I've also got the text file containing the complete Catalogue, if someone wants to take it and use it.

Stu

Joël of the FoS · Post by **Joël of the FoS** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 8:55 am

Hey Stuart,

Good to see you here

I emailed you for the text file.

Regards,

Joël

cure · Post by **cure** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 10:26 pm

Thank you Stu for making this invaluable information available to us.

And thanx Joel for putting it up here on the site.

Gonzoron of the FoS · Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:48 am

Stu! Glad you're ok. And thanks again for getting the catalogue back up. Joel, please keep me in the loop if there's anything I can do to help move the beast....

Joël of the FoS · Post by **Joël of the FoS** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:18 pm

Well Stu sent me the file. It's a .db file. It has the coded links, ex:

2|Count Strahd von Zarovich (The Devil Strahd, Lord Vasili von Holz, Strahd XI)|npc|Secrets of the Dread Realms`` Domains of Dread`` I, Strahd`` House of Strahd`` Ravenloft I6`` Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I`` I, Strahd, The War Against Azalin|Secrets of the Dread Realms - p11`` Domains of Dread - p61`` House of Strahd - cover, pp1,5,25,60,63`` The Ravenloft Campaign Setting - box cover`` The Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - p9,p98`` Roots of Evil - front cover, p7,69,72,93,95`` Forbidden Lore: Nova Arcanum - p3, front cover`` Vampire of the Mists - front cover`` Realm of Terror - p117, front cover, reference cards`` TSR JAM 1999 - front cover`` Ravenloft I6 - cover, pp3,15`` Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I - p151`` I, Strahd, The War Against Azalin - cover|Secrets of the Dread Realms - pp10-12`` Domains of Dread - pp61-62`` House of Strahd - pp4-5`` The Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - pp97-101`` Roots of Evil - p6`` Realm of Terror - pp116-119`` Ravenloft I6 - p3`` Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I - pp150-152|Secrets of the Dread Realms - pp7,10-12,18-19,27,31,114`` Ravenloft Third Edition - p4,12-13,17,114,124`` Domains of Dread - pp61-62`` Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium I - pp10-13,17,43,82`` I, Strahd -throughout`` I, Strahd: the War Against Azalin -throughout`` House of Strahd - throughout`` The Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - pp7-10, pp97-101`` Van Richten's Guide to Vampires - pp6-9,13,46,77`` Roots of Evil - p6,15,39,55-57,90-95`` From the Shadows - pp14-15`` Tales of Ravenloft:Caretaker - pp303-316`` The Evil Eye - pp57, 58`` Vampire of the Mists - throughout`` Realm of Terror - p5,pp116-119,p127`` Ravenloft I6 - throughout`` Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I - pp150-152`` I, Strahd, The War Against Azalin - pp15-303|NULL|
...

Anybody wants to look at it?

Then, where to host it? Wiki? My first impression / bug with wiki is that anybody can modify the records? Am I right?

Joël

Gonzoron of the FoS · Post by **Gonzoron of the FoS** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:46 pm

It's my understanding that wiki is not a place, but a style of website managment. There are apparently about a billion wiki "engines" that are programs you can run on your own server to manage the database, and they have all different features, including the ability to restrict access. So it's only open to anyone to edit if we decide to make it so. The best known wiki (wikipedia) just happens to embrace the open-source, moderation free style, where anyone can edit it.

Apparently the different engines run in different platforms:
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiEngines
But there are a few dozen on that list that run in php, just like this forum. So whoever set up the forum should be able to set it up here (in my completely uninformed and possibly erroneous estimation.

). (assuming you guys even want to keep it here.)

Of course, there's also the option now that Stu's contactable of asking him how he set it up over at the K.

Gonzoron of the FoS · Post by **Gonzoron of the FoS** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:56 pm

update: just found out there's something called a "wikifarm" where they will host wikis for free or cheap. One promising one is http://pbwiki.com/
There's a list of others here http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiFarms
An alternative if we can't get it going here....

Joël of the FoS · Post by **Joël of the FoS** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 6:14 pm

gonzoron wrote:It's my understanding that wiki is not a place, but a style of website managment. There are apparently about a billion wiki "engines" that are programs you can run on your own server to manage the database, and they have all different features, including the ability to restrict access. So it's only open to anyone to edit if we decide to make it so. The best known wiki (wikipedia) just happens to embrace the open-source, moderation free style, where anyone can edit it.

OK, I stand corrected (I thought this would be melted to wikipedia, duh)

This wiki possibility is indeed interesting as a new format for the database.

I assume this can be hosted by us - we'll have to check with Socko and the server dudes.

So whoever set up the forum should be able to set it up here (in my completely uninformed and possibly erroneous estimation. ).

Well... We all have our strenghts and weaknesses. The FoS are all a bunch of idiots / ignorants / illiterates / etc. when discussing database management (let it be known that our strenght is "recipes with peanut butter").

Anybody would like to set this up (considering the file I have from Stu), and make it work?

Joël

Le Noir Faineant · Post by **Le Noir Faineant** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:47 pm

Joël of the Fraternity wrote:Well Stu sent me the file. It's a .db file. It has the coded links, ex:

2|Count Strahd von Zarovich (The Devil Strahd, Lord Vasili von Holz, Strahd XI)|npc|Secrets of the Dread Realms`` Domains of Dread`` I, Strahd`` House of Strahd`` Ravenloft I6`` Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I`` I, Strahd, The War Against Azalin|Secrets of the Dread Realms - p11`` Domains of Dread - p61`` House of Strahd - cover, pp1,5,25,60,63``...

... Gaah! Can't go on reading!

*Madness check DC 35*

...

Check: Failed!

cure · Post by **cure** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:15 pm

Personally, I would also like to have in my hands the text delimited file. I have not asked Stu to supply it to me individually thinking that the site would want it too and would post it in The Vault. Will this happen or should I give Stu a shout?

Thanx

Joël of the FoS · Post by **Joël of the FoS** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:19 pm

well if the catalogue isn't hosted anywhere, that could be the next option we'll consider.

Joël

Gonzoron of the FoS · Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:16 am

Joël of the Fraternity wrote:Anybody would like to set this up (considering the file I have from Stu), and make it work?

Well, I'm not an expert in databases specifically, and I've never set one up before. But I'm pretty handy with computers, unix, perl, scripting and such. I'd be willing to take a crack at it, if no one who actually knows what they're doing volunteers, and Socko and the server dudes approve.

Now that the catalogue is back up at the K, I went to see what they used. Apparently it's a database program called dbman from gossamer-threads.com. It's written in perl, runs in unix or windows, and is free for non-profit, academic, or personal use. It looks like I could probably handle the install, if none of the FoS can. That might be our best bet, since it would require no reformating of the file. We could be as open or guarded in granting permision to edit as you guys want.

Ail · Post by **Ail** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:02 am

Joël of the Fraternity wrote: Anybody would like to set this up (considering the file I have from Stu), and make it work?

Joël

I also would like to take a look, just to see if it would be possible to do something.

Ail

Café de Nuit

Welcome, friends, to our establishment.

Ravenloft Catalogue Down + its ultimate fate . . .

Thank you