New PB(e)M WWW Site .. free space for moderators ... From: Greg Oberfield <ogilvie@pbmgames.com> Date: Sun, 26 May 1996 00:00:00 +0000 Hi folks, I wanted to say that there is (slightly under construction) a new PBM web site out there. The special thing about this one (at least I like to think so) is that I'm also giving web space to any PBM moderator who wants it. That's right, free. Below is an information document describing it. We've already got a couple of moderators in the process of coming on board -- now's the time to get involved!! -Greg xanadu@dnai.com ========= INTRODUCING PBMGAMES.COM What is it? PBMGAMES.COM is the new centralized resource for all things PBM (and PBeM). Until recently there weren't many places you could go to get information or help on the PBM game of your choice. Now there is. Our mission is to provide the most information we can on our site, make it accessible to as many people as possible, present it in an attractive and effective format and most importantly, make it content-rich. Who runs it? PBMGAMES.COM was the brainchild of myself, Greg Oberfield. To give you a little background - I've been playing PB(e)M games on and off for the past 10 years starting off with Illuminati. In recent years I've played mainly space-opera style games. As for "work", I've been involved with online services working first as a producer on eWorld, Apple's (failed) online service and now as a producer of virtual worlds for Fujitsu Cultural Technologies (http://www.worldsaway.com). Suffice it to say that I understand both PBM games and the online world. I'm also helped out by Kerry Harrison (kerry@io.com). Heck, I'm sure you know who he is anyway so I don't need to go into too much detail! Suffice it to say that Kerry and I met while I was living in Austin, TX a few years ago. We're both net-saavy and looking for ways to make the industry better. Why is it here? Put simply, because I saw a market niche. Not only that, but I have a few machines of my own on the internet with extra bandwidth. I thought this was a good way for me to give something back to the industry that I've learned to enjoy so much! What is it set up on? PBMGAMES.COM is running on one of my workstations (a Sun SPARCStation/4 to be exact), running the Netscape Communication Server (FastTrack) under Solaris 2.5 with 32mb of RAM and a 1 gigabyte hard drive. It is connected to the internet via an ethernet backbone on a T3 (10 megabits/second) 24 hours a day. What do I, the gamemaster/game owner, get? Well - it's really quite simple. You get server space on my server (up to 20mb of space), an email account, FTP directory, web links, CGI access, HTTP file uploads, one-click web publishing, full SQL ODBC database access, mail list server accounts, you name it. I can even register you for a custom domain name (although that does cost some money since the InterNIC charges for this). Ok, there's a catch right? What do I need to do? Nothing really. All I ask is that you provide me with a company backgrounder and background information on all your games. Why? Because I have a set of templates for that information which is consistent with the "look and feel" of the rest of the pbmgames.com site. I'd link out to anywhere you wanted me to whether its on PBMGAMES.COM or not. Sounds pretty good, can I check it out now? Sure you can .. just check out http://www.pbmgames.com and you can see it for yourself! What if I'm new to the web, will you help me out? Well, yes and no. I'll help as I can, but I do work fulltime and can't spend hours a day helping people figure out HTML, or FTP or whatnot. However, I also think that PBeM is the future of the whole industry and I'm willing to help out as I can to get companies "wired". I'm much more approachable via email with questions. What about getting people into my games and the like? That's what forms are for! One of the most basic CGIs available on almost any system is called a "form mailer". What it does is take all the information someone enters on a form somewhere and sticks it into an email to whomever. Very easy to do (I'm happy to help with this) and maintain. Also, I have every intention of setting up a "PBM Player Database" which people who are checking out the site can enter in their information and interests. I'll distribute the names occasionally so that you can contact them (however you do that) to see if they want to play your game(s). Ok, I want to sign up here, how do I do that? Real simple. Just email me at xanadu@dnai.com saying your interested. Since this is something I'm doing for free I'm pretty laid back about it <grin>. ----------- Questions or comments? I want to hear them! Contact me at: Greg Oberfield Sunnyvale, CA Email: xanadu@dnai.com Phone: 408/406-0133 (primarily voicemail) Referenced By Up