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[Mighty Midget]

I noticed there is an issue with the Oldwarez List (OWL), in that the list is too large for any efficient efforts to keep it up to date.

Now: Can it be done to have an external/internal software that will look up titles at known online stores and compare the findings to the OWL? If it finds a match, that is a game is sold on these sites and is listed as AW then a message is sendt to Abandonia.

...or something.

[Sebatianos]

I'm guessing that might be a problem.

You see it would probably be really hard to see if the game is really being sold or is sold second hand (especially on non-english sites), or if the game was sold, but the store doesn't have it any more, and thre's just an old add saying sold out (could also be in various languages).

Example:

Mantis is a game store where I started buying my first PC games way back. Now can you tell me how a program could figure out which games are really sold and which are just second hand copies.

Also the updating of the OWL is quite a problem. At the moment there are many games missing in it and updaters have to keep the list going, since there is no one here anymore who'd take care of the list exclusively. Tom and Timpsi started the list and both of them have been inactive for quite some time now. If there were some enthusiasts to take care of the lists that might help...

[Mighty Midget]

I can see your pont about the difficulties in having a program checking, but then again: I'm kinda illiterate when it comes to what an AI can and cannot do. Sure, the langage barrier is an issue but I'm still wondering if it is, even theoretically, possible to create such a program. I guess the point behind this topic was just as much about that, a discussion what it would take for a program to be sucsessful and if so, if it can be done.

About manually updating the OWL, personaly I wouldn't know where to look, so for the time being reporting on findings is about all I can do really, but a dedicated crew would help a lot, so...

[The Fifth Horseman]

I've contacted Kosta on the subject a while back, but didn't get the access permissions yet. Perhaps he's busy at the moment.

I think that in regards to the upcoming site upgrade the OW List could use a small addition, that being an automatic date stamp showing when the entry has last been updated / it's accuracy verified.
That, and perhaps a field to list the number of copies reported by the store? It's obvious that after a year, 352 copies still wouldn't get all sold out, but if the store only had 3-4 copies, some attention may be in order.

[Dave]

Don't worry, when I'm checking games I always use different resources, Ow list is important for information about games, we all know that OW can't check if a game is sold out or still sold and how many copies in stock there are (we have to search a lot)
The only problem is that sometimes a game is not on the database, and me and Luchsen have to find info on wiki or mobygames.

[Sebatianos]

Reporting helps a lot! But I don't know if the mods/admins can all modify the OWL. I know updaters can.

Maybe a SOLD button (like the report button) could help, if it would notify all the people who can acctually change the OWL.

[_r.u.s.s.]

or there could be 'update history' with each game like on wikipedia, with an info "what, when, who, source"

[Mighty Midget]

Maybe something Sebatianos suggested: A report button visible to long term members, mods and admins (if they have no access to the OWL editing) on the game pages.

I didn't get the "update history" idea. Russ, could you explain that one?

[_r.u.s.s.]

an example: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...;action=history

[Mighty Midget]

Yes, but how will that help us keeping the OWL updated?