Café de Nuit

It would seem the Kargatane site is slowly dying (moreso than it had already). From what I can see, something/someone has broken the perl support on the SotK site (in fact, it would seem to me that someone had deleted the cgi-bin folder from the site).

Which of course has got me thinking. Could the FoS start their own catalogue? I'd be more than willing to help with the background mechanics (I'm a programmer by day and have quite a bit of experience with PHP). Obvious limitations would be the space such a thing would take up and I have no idea about your hosting situation, so it's just a suggestion.

The alternative would be to use Wiki software to create our own little knowledge base of Ravenloft. Obviously we'd have to be wary of legal limitations in place from WotC, but I think it could work. Hell, if you're interested but don't have the space/database capabilities, I'd host the Wiki on my own site. Clearly the Wiki couldn't be too detailed, otherwise we'd have the lawyers knocking on our doors, however, it would give us the base to work on, saving us from "re-discovering the wheel".

Any thoughts?

[Edit] Removed the part about copying the existing articles, they are probably too detailed for the Ravenloft Wiki.

I'd suggest an Ecyclopedia Ravenloftia instead, like the famous *Zavodex* that was done for Greyhawk. - No explanations, just a big index.

Yeah, that's what I mean really. And that could be applied to the Wiki template quite easily. I'm going to install it into my user area and then add a few examples, so you can see how it'd work.

Stu of the K once offered his catalogue database to anybody wishing to host it and develop it.

I don't recall the software used, perhaps Gonzoron would?

Joël

Well, I've given the Wiki software an attempt. You can see it in action at:

http://ravenloft.nickmoore.org.uk

If people like that, then I'll be keeping it up.

the Rl Wikki looks like the best option IMHO. Great idea Kel-nage!! Should you need any help with it, I offer my humble services.

I don't know the software used for the K Catalogue. Sorry Joel. I'm sure Stu would be able to help with it, if you got a hold of him. I emailed a while ago about the catalogue going down and got no response.

I would love to see the catalogue ported over here (or to it's own stable and maintained site). One of the editors was working on getting it ported to ravenloft.co.uk. But I don't think that ever went through.

I would caution against starting from scratch. Putting together that information is WAY more work than it looks, and we've already got a good majority of it in there.

Yes, I remember this request from Ravenloft.co.uk but it never ended successfully IMHO.

Stu offered the database when the site closed, but we would have to make it work with the software.

gonzoron wrote:I would caution against starting from scratch. Putting together that information is WAY more work than it looks, and we've already got a good majority of it in there.

I confirm this! It's quite a long process if you make it seriously.