Stiletto wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

Qbix wrote:

Second of all, it's in the name: "Very Old Games On New Systems". Those forums are to support all the methods users use to make old games work on new systems, although mostly ignoring emulation and virtual machines. How to get stuff to run natively, typically. All the hacks, patches, registry fixes, etc. etc.

They are NOT closely related to Marvin. If anyone is posting threads in them that are asking questions about how to run a DOS game on their 486, those threads need to be MOVED. Previously, the only place for them was Marvin (general), but now Marvin has subforums.

Thanks for the info.

I would say in retort to "Very Old Games On New Systems", without getting too deep in Darwin... that things evolve. It may have started for this purpose.... but almost like a democracy, the users have chosen either by popular demand, more interest in "Older Systems", or otherwise. In a sense, how Vogons had turned out really was an overall vote of subject matter people prefered to focus on in the forums.

Personally, new systems do not interest me one bit. Anything pre, and including 486... using ISA, EISA and/or VLB bus... you've got my attention.

Autoclose does not mean that the thread disappears, only that necroposting gets less. If you need further information you could always pm...

The purpose of these forums isn't going to change. Getting "old" games to work on "new" systems.

"Old" hardware is old and dying. Software is forever....well until the bits rot and no one archives them.

Obviously not all games work on new systems which is why we need old hardware.

If Vogons changed to focus on old hardware then the userbase would drain away.

My focus is mainly games. If I weren't playing games, I'd most likely never have a good reason to actually build computers. Heck, I only started playing old games on hardware that was mostly old stuff simply because this was the cheapest thing to do at the time and my pockets were shallow.

Personally I think things are pretty much good as they are now.

I noticed some older topics being moved to their more fitting subforum. Does that change the url to reference that topic? Meaning it could cause older links to such topics to become dead links.

DosFreak wrote:

"Old" hardware is old and dying. Software is forever

Old hardware can actually have an amazing life expectancy with the right care and maintenance applied.

Software's intended functionality is often mangled by software emulation. Virtualization isn't nearly as bad but can be a headache to work with. Native software support is the best but can still have undesirable problems.

As long as old hardware is available, cheap and still working, I'll always choose and recommend old over new.

Anyone who disagrees hasn't spent enough time with such modern conveniences as Windows 8, 8.1 and 10, or wonderful new hardware with UEFI, GPT and SecureBoot. 😵

Just out of curiosity, what do people have against necroposting?

The alternative may be numerous threads about the same topic/problem/answer/flame posted at different times? Since old hardware/software is going to be discussed, the same problems would no doubt keep croping up (especially with new users), sometimes with little variation. Would that warrant a whole new thread?

There wil be a lot of threads like..

Hi I have problem X

Welcopme to vogons, see topic Y. Have nice day.

Sometimes context is easier to understand in one single topic, rather than multiple ones? And there will still be large sizable threads which are frequently posted in on a daily basis (woudn't ever get 'auto'-locked) so thread size would still be huge for some topics?

The problem with necro posting, IMO, is that all the information is out of date and you have to start anew anyway. *AND* a lot of necro posting is in fact *not* about the same problem but it shares something.
For example in the DOSBox forums there is often an old topic about SUPERDUPER GAME X, the original problem being it won't start with error foobar. *YEARS* later someone necro posts in there "Hi, I have another problem with this game, saving at the tower crashes. I'm not even using Dosbox but PCem!"

gerwin wrote:

I noticed some older topics being moved to their more fitting subforum. Does that change the url to reference that topic? Meaning it could cause older links to such topics to become dead links.

The most valuable part of a VOGONS url is the part that says "t=" or "p=".

While moving a thread to a different forum will change the part of the url that says "f=", phpBB looks at "t=" or "p=" first, and will ignore the part that says "f=" if it does not match.

Compare these two urls:
1. What happened
2. What happened

So while moving a thread to a different subforum technically changes the url, it will not create a dead link.

spiroyster wrote:

Just out of curiosity, what do people have against necroposting?

I've ranted about this before.

Ex:
Re: Tex's new Socket 7 DOS machine
Re: What sound card is this and does any one have the drivers for Win 98 and Dos/Win3.11?? Uses crystal cs4231-kl chipset
Re: Vortex cards for DOS
Re: Another Retro Project Intel PR440FX Board
Re: These all in theory fit the same socket

It depends on whether you see a forum thread as purely a information resource or a natural conversation that ebbs, flows, and eventually draws to a natural conclusion. In truth, it's both, but which do you feel it more to be? I feel it more to be a natural conversation, because if you want to be an information resource that stands for all time, that's why they make webservers and wikis and FTPs.

It's not like you go up to your friends in reality, "Hey, remember that conversation we had eight years ago?"
... if you do, you would not necessarily be friends with me! 😜

But also, because it makes a few moderators (like myself) cranky, you need no other reason. 😉

ah I see, what a delightful little read that list was this morning.

Yes, necro bumping a wiki-esque post was the position I was thinking, and yes there is always a wiki (bit hard to flame on that platform though 😵).

Not that is my problem, since I am a meare minion, and do not have to waste valuable life cycles myself with the inability of the world to read a date of the last post.

My position has thus changed, I vote auto-lock threads after <insert longevity here> no replies. A mod bot, whose is uncompromisable, doesn't have a union, can't be emotional corrupted (mem corrpution another issue).... I'd buy that for a dollar! 😉

Of course my 'changed position' may change in the future, at such a time, I will duly report back to this thread to amplify this dereailment, to muse to the world.... And I'm sure Tetrium will be here to remind me of what I did!

Speaking of thread locks, I'm looking around this one, thinking hmmmm....o.0

notsofossil wrote:

Old hardware can actually have an amazing life expectancy with the right care and maintenance applied.

Software's intended functionality is often mangled by software emulation.

Old hardware is required to study its behaviour, so that software emulation can be perfected. So the two are very much related.

Scali wrote:

notsofossil wrote:

Old hardware can actually have an amazing life expectancy with the right care and maintenance applied.

Software's intended functionality is often mangled by software emulation.

Old hardware is required to study its behaviour, so that software emulation can be perfected. So the two are very much related.

Exactly why we didn't end up telling the people who started the MARVIN section to go get their own forum (tho that may have been done in their earliest days).

Stiletto wrote:

Scali wrote:

notsofossil wrote:

Old hardware can actually have an amazing life expectancy with the right care and maintenance applied.

Software's intended functionality is often mangled by software emulation.

Old hardware is required to study its behaviour, so that software emulation can be perfected. So the two are very much related.

Exactly why we didn't end up telling the people who started the MARVIN section to go get their own forum (tho that may have been done in their earliest days).

Personally I think this symbiosis is a beautiful thing. And interests kinda have the habit of rubbing off onto each other 😜

Tetrium wrote:

Personally I think this symbiosis is a beautiful thing. And interests kinda have the habit of rubbing off onto each other 😜

luckybob wrote:

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/bxhnj6y.gif […]
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Tetrium wrote:

Personally I think this symbiosis is a beautiful thing. And interests kinda have the habit of rubbing off onto each other 😜

In Dutch there's this saying: Zoals de waard is, vertrouwt hij zijn gasten.
Roughly translated it comes down to people tending to see in others only what they recognize in themselves.

Jade Falcon wrote:

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/029/970/trainn.jpg […]
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You should travel with Dutch railway company, it's pretty good for derailing all your plans of the day (for European standards) 😜

Stiletto wrote:

So while moving a thread to a different subforum technically changes the url, it will not create a dead link.

No worries then. Thanks for the info!

Thread closed. Guess why.