A little housekeeping coming soon

[ThunderRd]

I have been making some plans to do a bit of cleaning up and organizing in the Team forum - moving a couple important threads to sticky and merging some stickies on outdated/deprecated clients into an archived thread.

It has been suggested by PPM and a few others in the past to make some more prominent linkage to the Community Forum and the Official installation how-to's as well. I think it's a good idea, and I'll try to figure out the best way to do that.

I should be doing this *stuffs* sometime over the coming weekend, so all of you have a few days to post your suggestions for how to get things sorted a bit better. Post them in this thread if you have any.

[Daniel ~]

A new broom sweeps clean! Many thanks for taking this on for us and F@H!

[ccperf721p]

Sweet, let me know if I can help..

[ThunderRd]

I am of the mind that a short FAQ for first-timers is in order. Something that would answer some basic questions about what f@h is and more importantly, some specifics as to how to get started; where to get it, how to install it basics, where to go for help, etc..

Maybe we can do it as a group. Post some common questions that you think should be included, and your answer (if you have one) for same. I (or someone else willing to be the editor) will organize it and we can put it up top, authored by Team 45. We have a few new fairly active members of the site with gear that's capable - but if they don't know about the project why would they be interested?

This wouldn't happen this weekend but would take a bit more time to create.

[Samuknow]

I knew you were the right man for the job Bob.

[PorPorMe]

Great move, TR, we need the new guy to be comfortable from the start.
One aid for those useing WIN 7. Installing the SMP client can be problematic if not done in Vista compatibility mode. -configonly will suddenly run itself, installing all defaults.

[Gizmo]

You guys aren't talking about this: http://www.aoaforums.com/forum/samuk...ay-newbie.html

Are ya?

[ThunderRd]

Yes Gizmo, that is exactly what I'm talking about. The basic information in Allan's FAQ is good, so we should use it. The client information is outdated, though, so it needs updating, and I think it should have a bit more of a detailed installation procedure for the basic client, with links to procedures for the high performance SMP and GPU clients. Those we have already in their own threads, we just have to find them.

There is also this:
http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/c.../view/2092/46/
They should probably be merged and then linked to on the front page as well. One of the confusing things about our setup is that there are stickies that aren't on the front page, and there are things on the front page that should be stickied, as well as stuff that has to be archived because of old age. For example, Allan's FAQ is on the forum page but not on the front page, and the Team 45 FAQ is only on the front page. I'm not quite sure why we have two or them, since the one from '07 states that it is an update of Allan's. It looks like we have to condense a few things and merge them without creating a lot of extra stickies - actually, it would reduce the number. We'll have to think about what is the best way to do it.

Originally Posted by PorPorMe

One aid for those useing WIN 7. Installing the SMP client can be problematic if not done in Vista compatibility mode. -configonly will suddenly run itself, installing all defaults.

Since you're the only one here that I know of that is running the clients on Win7, how about making some detailed installation notes for the SMP and GPU? I'll help you out writing it up, but you have to provide me with the steps from soup to nuts, since I'm not on that OS.

PM me if you want to get involved.

[Daniel ~]

Did I say broom? I meant power blower! ":O}

[ThunderRd]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

Did I say broom? I meant power blower! ":O}

It's not that much, really...most of the stuff we have already, we just have to make it easier to find.

I'll do the small things this weekend, and the FAQs will follow when we are sure what we want to do.

[robbie]

A how to install F@H for use with video cards would be nice as well. Since I have no idea how to do that.

[ThunderRd]

Originally Posted by robbie

A how to install F@H for use with video cards would be nice as well. Since I have no idea how to do that.

Definitely in the plan...

[PorPorMe]

This is going to be good, damn I like it!

[ThunderRd]

OK, so phase 1 has started. I've got the subforums created and have begun to sift through posts to get them into the right places. This in itself should make things easier to find. If any of you see anything that should be moved let me know and link me to the post so I can move it.

Now, we need to get the how-tos/guides done. If anyone wants to take on writing one, this is what we need:

-A general FAQ, using Allan's original stickied one, combined with the team FAQ on the Front Page. This would be mostly an editing job, maybe bringing some stuff up-to-date.

I'm also going to make posts linking to the official install guides from Stanford, but if anyone wants to tackle something, it would be nice to have these things written up by our own members, and made simple enough for newbies. Sometimes the official ones require some experience to understand:

-An install guide for Windows SMP

-An install guide for Linux SMP [unified client]

-An install guide for GPU [Nvidia and/or ATI]

If anyone has the desire/time to take something on, PM me and let me know.

[ccperf721p]

Originally Posted by ThunderRd

OK, so phase 1 has started. I've got the subforums created and have begun to sift through posts to get them into the right places. This in itself should make things easier to find. If any of you see anything that should be moved let me know and link me to the post so I can move it.

Now, we need to get the how-tos/guides done. If anyone wants to take on writing one, this is what we need:

-A general FAQ, using Allan's original stickied one, combined with the team FAQ on the Front Page. This would be mostly an editing job, maybe bringing some stuff up-to-date.

I'm also going to make posts linking to the official install guides from Stanford, but if anyone wants to tackle something, it would be nice to have these things written up by our own members, and made simple enough for newbies. Sometimes the official ones require some experience to understand:

-An install guide for Windows SMP

-An install guide for Linux SMP [unified client]

-An install guide for GPU [Nvidia and/or ATI]

If anyone has the desire/time to take something on, PM me and let me know.

I can write up the linux smp guide for you. I won't be able to get to it until the weekend though.

[ThunderRd]

Originally Posted by ccperf721p

I can write up the linux smp guide for you. I won't be able to get to it until the weekend though.

That would be great, Cliff, and it's no hurry. Anytime you can.

[PorPorMe]

With Windows 7, installing the SMP client has been problematic on occasion. When running -configonly it will sometimes take off and install all defaults. This happens after entering name, team #, then when I hit enter for key it will start to run-sometimes.
Other times I can continue until it asks for advanced-I enter yes-then it runs all defaults.
The only fix I've found is to always type in the response to each question. That seems to help but I will end up running -configonly over and over until it will take each question separately.
One positive note-it saves each answer I'm able to get in so when I start again it will be OK until then and either continue correctly or take off again.
It seems to install correctly once I get passed the advanced question.
But it can take many tries before it goes in correctly, but it does go in.

[ThunderRd]

OK, I _think_ I have finished the edit and update of the New Member's Guide here:
New Member Guide and FAQ (updated 9-09)

I could some other pairs of eyes, though. So if you can find a moment, read it, double check to see that the links are working for you, and post any/all suggestions, comments, recommendations for additions, etc. You'll have to do that in this thread, since I have closed the Guide thread to posts.

Still looking for volunteers to help with our own versions of install guides for Windows SMP and Windows GPU...

The Linux SMP install guide has been picked up by ccperf, so if you want to help with that one please contact him directly.

None of these things are a big fat rush, so anytime you can get to them is great.

One more thing - does anyone have any sentiments one way or the other about someone designing a new Team 45 Badge? The one we have is fine, but is it time to make a new one?

[ccperf721p]

I have the basic install guide finished up, but I'm still working on the init script. It changes from distro to distro and it might be better if it was not run as the normal user which has wheel privileges..

A new badge would be alright, maybe something not so passive..

[PorPorMe]

TR, that was a great read. It was clear, completly understandable-from the simple to the complex. Just great.

..........as for new team badges, I'm for it. Ours is kinda bland and doesn't realy reflect what it is for. (but I'm for anything thats new!)