Suggestions

I was thinking maybe we should have Chris or the admins send out a group email notifying everyone of server status changes. I'm thinking just use the same email list required to send out drive profiles..? Something automated to make life easier for you guys but also convenient for all of us.

Also, let's have the server status thread title itself contain UP/DOWN or WORKING/NOT WORKING alongside the date so we don't have to open the thread to check the status. I feel this is necessary since we can't actually comment in that thread to begin with.

If anyone else has something to add, please do so here.

Can we reduce the update schedule of the drive. Something like an update every 1/4 or 4 months or even just twice a year. I don't think we need to be on the bleeding edge of releases.

That way we can create a issues log and work through getting the drive right.
In hindsight, when was the last time the drive was in a well working state? It seems like there has just been issue after issue, for me at least for at last 3 months, probably 6.

I'm really after some stability because at the moment this service just isn't.

That's the thing, we are currently at the point where the issues are critical to fix in order to have a well polished experience without hiccups. Until then, we can't afford to only roll out one big update every couple months. Some of these fixes important because not everyone involved will have the knowledge to fix things themselves.

Let's keep in mind we're talking about a drive consisting of hundreds of systems, thousands of games, many emulators. There is so much going on, we actually should expect the drive to never work perfectly until it has all been addressed. For as long as it's just a few people working on fixing a drive consisting of this much data, this is the best it's going to get.

I wish it was as simple as buying one system with a few games and it all just works, but in reality we have stepped into something much more complex.

I agree, but its not just fixes going in, new content seems to be getting add in as well. It complicates getting the drive right with the content it has now.

I believe that's how it works. An update contains fixes to previous updates as well. And future updates are necessary to fix new issues. That's just how it works it's just that we aren't used to having to take care of the technical side of things. I'm used to buying from Sony and MS. When there's an issue with the system I send it to get it fix rather than having to figure it out on my own.

In my opinion, this is my hobby so I find this as an opportunity to learn and grow a bigger attachment to my project than I ever could have by going to Gamestop and purchasing a system. Don't get me wrong I still get frustrated when all I want to do is play games and it won't work, but nothing worth doing in life ever comes easy.

DfknG wrote:I agree, but its not just fixes going in, new content seems to be getting add in as well. It complicates getting the drive right with the content it has now.

There hasn't really been much new content added, some of the systems that were added in recently had been previously removed because they didn't work then Chris found a way to fix them. New media will sometimes be added for placeholders that don't have any. Chris does update the emulators in attempts to fix existing issues, optimize and get support for more of the pre-existing games to work (which is the whole evolution with emulation, the games are there but not all of them are to a working status).

I would recommend not running drive updates when they are new if you find you are getting too many issues on the systems you play. The drive was in a largely working state I would say approximately 3-4 updates ago, perhaps 3 months. There were issues for sure but a lot of the I would say "popular" systems seemed to work fine. Once you get your drive to a state that is functional for what you like to use it for do not hurry to run each new update immediately. For most people the updates will not change their experience drastically unless they apply to specific items they highly value.

Some emulation for systems still isn't perfectly working after 20 years plus development so updates will continue to occur in the future as more support is added by the developers of the emulators. You will be just fine not running the updates though. The next one will be a very important "major update" once we have it online. It will automate the install and syncovery process to make things much easier and take away many issues people are having as well as some system and control fixes. It will make life easier going forward for sure. After that update you are probably ok to not be in a rush to update going forward if your systems work fine that you like using a lot. Hope this commentary helps!