We wish the site to continue (Y/N)

[Sreliata]

I am one of those 'silent lurkers' and not usually active per text, but this site has helped me a lot in certain ways and I'd be more than just sad to see it go.

Thus: Of course I'd therefore be absolutely happy to support it, too! Getting an idea about the monthly /yearly costs would be ideal, so those of us wanting to support it, can get an idea on how we can best get together to do so.

[mambox]

As said Sreliata:"I am one of those 'silent lurkers' and not usually active per text, but this site has helped me a lot in certain ways and I'd be more than just sad to see it go."
this place is legendary but i fully understand you,i'm here since 2004 damn,so old
if in any case you close it,i hope that a backup copy of this place will be done as it's a great part of reversing games,codes and so much more,it's history ressources for actual and future reversers.
all my greets!

[Metal64]

I don't think discord was the reason the site is understaffed

It totally is

In my humble opinion, Discord does a lot of damage, XeNTaX Discord server should have never surfaced in first place, I can understand why one would like Discord better, no one has to pay a dime to use it while the forum costs money to maintain it.
A archived version for the entire forum and its attached posts contents would be a great idea at least, assuming it will indeed be gone for good.

Also, it would not be a bad idea for us all to get an idea how much the forum costs monthly to maintain so we can have an idea what to do moving forward.

This. There is no good reason to create a xentax discord server if the forum exist. Discord servers are not wikis, are not files hosting and are not good substitutes for forums. It's nothing more than a chat service. A forum it's more organized in relations of topics, so it's much more easy to find good informations than in discord. I don't care if discord has a "create a thread" option, those values informations shouldn't be confined in a random discord server, they should be in a public site where anyone can see it.

Here is my proposal... deleted the discord server, or just lock all the rooms and archived the server, this will make people start to post here more for information instead of discord. This is non-negotiable, either do what I am proposing or we will just move to a more competent site.

[SWTOR fan]

While I haven't logged into the site for many years, I'll echo the other users that both the forums and the wiki remain a valuable resource. At the same time, the community has moved to other platforms, and as much as I lament the decline of the open web, I don't see a path forward where forums like these will ever become relevant again.

So, Mr.Mouse, if you feel you are no longer motivated to host this site, I won't blame you for it. The hosting cost can be covered but the maintenance and moderation remains. However, I politely ask that if you decide to close the site, you give ample advance warning, and work with communities like the Archive Team to ensure the valuable content is preserved. Thank you very much for building this community and offering a safe space for people to get into reverse engineering!

[Gh0stBlade]

Hi folks,

I also voted that i will support the site in any way possible. This is not because of my Moderator status but more-so because of how much I have learned from so many people from this amazing community. It would be a massive shame to see it go then everyone forget but remember what we once all had. So please if you can answer the poll and also post what you need to.

In recent posts in this thread it has come to my attention that members here think the Discord server is the reason behind XeNTaX having low forum numbers. Though i disagree this is primarily the cause I am more than happy to shut it down at request and keep it archived. XeNTaX was purely originally a forum based site however the Discord extension was only created to modernise things. People were told in the rules on the Discord server to also post their findings on the forum but I dont believe they have. In addition, it was also stated the Discord would maybe be temporary to see how it goes.

All in all I believe the Discord has been up for a while and I also don't believe it serves a purpose as it is not used widely to communicate anymore. When it first opened there was lots of good discussions.

I downloaded commander actually. I been helping for years on this site as Sharppy until Ghostblade decided to ban my account. And many others I seen on reddit. So as long as site is backed up I could care less. I even donated [email protected] via paypal. Some experiance I've had here. Better atmosphere on Zenhax.

If you would like Staff to look into this case about your old account. I am more than happy to have this escalated but please note. Multiple offenses against the forum rules which in your case has occured may lead to bans.

Thanks so much.

[Hinki]

It holds no real value to the site as a whole. But if it wasn't for xentax I wouldn't have had the ability to access or mod lots of games that haven reinvigorated interests and emboldened love for them. If it wasn't for me even randomly asking for help for Gladiator RtFR I would have never been able to semi translate it and I'll always cherish those days. I wish I could contribute more and honestly mostly silently lurk and leech off others hard work. I still to this day wish I could figure out how to modify the csb files and compile them into ary but that's mostly a fairytale dream. I love everything xentax has done and contributed to the internet as a whole and if it ever goes down even if everything is archived will forever be a net loss to the niche modding communities.

I'll admit I don't know what MultiEx Commander is but I'll look into it.

All my love goes towards the owner and all the experienced users helping people like me.

[Sura Modder]

I am too am one of the many silent lurkers here and have been following this site from 2017 onwards.

Xentax has been a wonderful site for understanding game file formats and was partly responsible for inspiring me to get into modding games. even though discord is the preferred medium for a lot of people, nothing can substitute this site and the openly available nature of forums that one can easily access from a simple google search.

Please continue keeping this site up and If I am having some income, I am ready to spare some of that to support Xentax.

[lolwatt]

Share the costs. I'm sure enough people will be happy to help.

(and I do not like Discord for this matter as well, but I think this forum could use heavier moderation. Clean up the useless threads, set proper rules for help/request, give the releases more attention!)

[Mr.Mouse]

Thank you all so far for the comments.

- Just to restate, the costs need to be covered, yes, but that is not the most pressing at this time, since I've paid for them myself mostly the past two decades (though we did get more donations in the far past, so it could be done from those). Perhaps a Patreon may be a solution there.
- I very much doubt that the Discord channel is impacting the forum a lot, since the number of posts per month have been stable the past years.
- The number of new user registrations per year keeps growing, but that is because attachments to posts can only be downloaded by registered users.

The biggest problem is the cost of time. Time costs a lot of money and energy. That cost is not reimbursed.

Some responses and answers:

I hink this forum could use heavier moderation. Clean up the useless threads, set proper rules for help/request, give the releases more attention!

That sounds like a job. Who wants to do the job? Any volunteers?

Here is my proposal... deleted the discord server, or just lock all the rooms and archived the server, this will make people start to post here more for information instead of discord. This is non-negotiable, either do what I am proposing or we will just move to a more competent site.

Wow. Rude. Get off your high horse there, partner.

What are the costs of keeping the forum going?
If its say $100-200 a year for example, i think a few of us could provide some support without a problem

As said, costs is not the biggest issue, but there is also no room with the current hosting to offer any downloads as a site, the number of emails send through the site is capped, and yes, people forget the cost of time. Time to do proper site maintenance. Not included in the package, so I have to do these things myself. Keeping code up to date is the least I still do, barely, but to expand the site and implement new features? Look at the wiki.xentax.com. Good luck implementing the new Mediawiki code. No time. You need true webmasters for that. I could outsource it, but that will increase costs significantly. And I still would need to provide oversight. Time.

i personally know nothing about how to run a forum/website in general and its costs, there for, more info needs to be provided.

There's a lot you can leave to a host, but you need to know SQL, PHP and HTML at minimum, and general knowledge about webservers.
Then you must be able to update code for the different websites, like phpBB for this forum, Wordpress for the main page, Joomla for another, Mediawiki for the Wiki. You need to be able to update to the latest php, and fix compatibility issues when thing go wrong. You build the websites yourself, build the correct tables, upload the code, test the code offline, any new feature you implement yourself or use extensions, that fuck up your code due to crap backward compatibility etc. So yeah, you can throw a host a bone to make sure basic stuff is in order, like security, bandwidth and emails, but the bulk of the cost is time and dedication.
And then I haven't talked about site moderation and writing. That requires time on the hands of our wonderful moderators, that also do this in their spare time, since no-one is paid here.

Perhaps the problem is more clear with the info I provide.

[adam0000]

I discovered this forum when I was a teenager
in those years you had to pay to make a account
I was only able to create a account in 2015
but I learned a lot here, just by reading
I have few topics, but I learned a lot here
this forum helped me and still helps
made me learn 3D modeling and later game programming.

I would like to support and I believe many members will too
but if not possible, move xenax forum to some free hosting server or save in wayback machine
would be a good option.

So during these years, for everything I learned here
to all the moderators and friends who helped me in the threads or in private messages
thank you all
thank you xentax for the knowledge freely transmitted to everyone during these years
thank you.

[RedBear]

The opinion of Shadowmael user is exactly the same as my own.
I don't comment much on this site, but I read a lot. I do not publish anything myself, as I do not have the necessary knowledge and experience to do so.
I did not know about Discord at all. But even if I knew, I would not use it, because it is not convenient (the reasons have already described above).
Unfortunately, I can't support this site financially either because of the huge difference between the dollar and my country's currency.
However, I would like, if possible, to keep this site alive.

[Gh0stBlade]

I downloaded commander actually. I been helping for years on this site as Sharppy until Ghostblade decided to ban my account. And many others I seen on reddit. So as long as site is backed up I could care less. I even donated [email protected] via paypal. Some experiance I've had here. Better atmosphere on Zenhax.

Due to reasons we now discovered your Discord name which surprisngly you are also perma banned from there. I would like to add that i will further ban this account due to violations on both the forum and discord. The discord violation was so severe these bans will never be lifted.

Thanks for your understanding.

[Gh0stBlade]

Some posts have been removed. Please do not bring Moderation matters into this thread as its not relevant to the topic.

[zhelatinobambino]

The biggest problem is the cost of time. Time costs a lot of money and energy. That cost is not reimbursed.

i think it won't make much sense to ask the people, most will always vote with "yes". at the end it still depends on you. if you believe that it's the right time now for the end of this forum, then go for it. there is nothing wrong with that

let's be honest: the old posts especially all the shared stuff is the most important and probably the most reason why people do create a account here and since there will be always some people who are interested, it will be always like that. if you think it's time for the end, then it's absolutely fine but we need a archive version of this forum. usually the archive.org waybackmachine is the #1 way to go if it's about saving pages BUT the problem with the waybackmachine is, you can't download attachments, because the registration is required

my solution would be: disable this, that it's possible to download attachments without registration and then making a full snapshot of whole forum @ waybackmachine OR you let the site keep running but only for viewing and downloading attachments, just like a archive. for example you can do it like this: https://www.kernelmode.info/forum/

actually the site would be down, but it was turned into archive version instead. registration is deactivated, no one can login or post, just for viewing. i really like this and i think this would be the best solution for a forum like xentax

[Mr.Mouse]

i think it won't make much sense to ask the people, most will always vote with "yes". at the end it still depends on you. if you believe that it's the right time now for the end of this forum, then go for it. there is nothing wrong with that

That is correct. It is a bit of a silly and stupid question. But it does show the contrast quite clearly: a lot of users would like the site to continue, but only when it is free of labor or cost to them personally.