The Depot: The Future
The original survey was up for a few days before I realized that I had forgotten to include a few questions I wanted to have, so if a question below looks unfamiliar, you know why. (If you feel storngly about any of them, or want to give me demographic information, please feel free to email me - If you didn't respond to the survey, you still can!)
A new survey is up, and it deals with a few of the issues raised by comments in the original, and also asks about which 18xx games people have, play, and where the stationmaster's energy needs to be directed...
1) What would you like to see the URL be:
http://www.server.com/18xx - 19
http://www.server.com/depot - 5
I would have preferred the loser, but will abide with the majority. I will set up an alias for /depot which will use server push to forward to the real URL.
2) What do think are the most, 2nd most, etc. important areas of The Depot:
I scored this by counting each 1st place vote as 5 points, 2nd place vote 4 points, etc. The last place vote was somewhat skewed (see remarks below).
Most Important: 18xx News: 83 points
The choice of the first place seems overwhelming, and this has always been a strong point of The Depot (except when there hasn't been any news!).
2nd Most: Rules and Rules Translations: 60 points
The second choice is a bit of a surprise to me: I have not done a lot with rules, because I feel that publishing them here without the permission of the game designer or publisher is not a good idea. The exception is with translations of rules that are not originally available in English. I can also see putting up translations of rules into other languages (like German, Italian, or French), but I will have to rely on someone else to do the translating.
3rd Most: Strategy Articles: 50 points
I am not surprised by this response, and I feel a little bit guilty about it. I haven't done well here, but I am not sure that anyone really wants my ideas about strategy: I've been playing a long time, but I don't win that often! I would love to see some strategy articles submitted!
4th Most: Variants: 49 points
I am a little bit surprised that this has scored as low as it did, as this is one of the areas I have spent a fair amount of time on. I guess I will spend a little less time on this!
5th Most: Maps: 39 points
Another area that I have spent a fair amount of time on. I will continue to work on these, however, as once they are done, they require little maintenance.
6th Most: FAQs: 32 points
Interestingly enough, this was the top vote-getter as "least important". It also scored a lot more votes in the top 5 than the two categories below it, so I have placed it here. I will not expend a great amount of energy here, but I welcome articles.
7th Most: Play by Email Information
I'm not surprised about this result. If you are playing the games by email, you're interested - If you aren't, you're not interested. I will continue to keep up the stuff for the games I am involved in, but efforts to develop a PBEM server will be a low priority at best.
Least Important: Trains, Cities, and Company Information
This category was the overwhelming loser. I will still welcome articles for this area, but I will not do any of my own, unless done in conjunction with another category.
3) How frequently do you visit The Depot?
Daily: 0
More than once a week: 5
Weekly: 10
Monthly: 7
Less frequently: 0
I will try to update things on a weekly basis, as this seems to be how frequently most of you visit the site.
4) What browser do you use to visit The Depot?
Netscape 3.0 beta: 1
Netscape 2.0x: 15
Mosaic: 1
Bad news for Microsoft here... I asked this to see about features like frames, java, and such. It looks like most of you would be able to access any feature I add. I personally am using Netscape 3.0b4, but I don't use any new features of it for page design too much. (If you are curious, I am using them on the Share Price Indexes to denote zones using the BGCOLOR tag within table cells - very useful, check it out!)
5) What operating system are you running on your computer?
Windows 32 ('95 or NT): 12
Macintosh: 3
Windows 16 (3.x): 1
Unix/Linux: 1
Again, I am looking for info as to what will be workable for most users of The Depot.
6) What do you think of the level of graphics on The Depot?
Just right: 9
No opinion: 3
Too much: 1
Not enough: 0
I'm using a text browser: 1
We seem to be doing okay on this. I'm working on getting things better optimized... Interestingly enough, the person who said they had a text browser was using Mosaic - odd...
7) Should The Depot use frames?
Yes: 9
Don't care: 6
No: 2
Okay... In the future, we will have frames. There will be an alternative for those who don't have frames or don't like them. Don't expect frames to happen for a while, though...
As mentioned above, there is a new survey, please take a few moments to give me a little more feedback.
Go back to the Stationmaster's office page.
Go back to the platform.
