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Introducing the Power Pros Password Preservation Project
https://www.mlbppworld.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10653
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Author:  dishnet34 [ Fri Jun 09, 2017 11:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Introducing the Power Pros Password Preservation Project

Image

In the wake of the recent forum server borkage, it gave me a pretty big realization: one day, this forum won't exist in its current form anymore. And if the forum (God forbid) go the way of SimYard, then what will happen to the thousands of passwords collected over the years? They would be lost to the internet ether, never to return. Because of the somewhat-historical aspect of these passwords, this led me to start wondering what to do to preserve these passwords for the long-term future.

Hence, the creation of the new Power Pros Password Preservation Project (P5). Here's some details on how I think this will work:

The Plan

The overall plan for P5 is to create a database of all of the created players and passwords posted to the MLB Power Pros Forum over its history. At the onset, it will focus solely on Power Pros 08, but Power Pros 07 could be implemented (and probably should be) down the line. Said database, if the forum goes kaput (God forbid), would eventually be turned into a website to preserve the players and passwords for the forseeable future.

The Setup

To set up the P5, a new e-mail account will be created by me to create an Imgur account to host the password pictures/screengrabs that will be accumulated for preservation. In case Imgur has problems down the line, I have a 32GB flash drive secured solely for the purposes of storing the password pictures/screenshots if they go away.

A shared Google Sheets spreadsheet will be created as well under said e-mail account, and will be used to enter the personal, ability, and special ability data of the created players collected for preservation. This will be helpful for the eventual website, where stats and abilities can be easily sorted.

The Execution

I know for a fact that I cannot do this by myself, so after talking it over with a couple people in the Discord earlier today, I'd like to divide up the work between different the different years of passwords in the PW Exchange. For right now, this is how I'm thinking of dividing it up:

User A helps out by doing 2008-2010 Wii players*
User B helps out by doing 2008-2010 PS2 players*
User C helps out by doing 2011-2013 Wii players
User D helps out by doing 2011-2013 PS2 players
User E helps out by doing 2014-2016 Wii players
User F helps out by doing 2014-2016 PS2 players
User G helps out by doing 2017-on Wii players
User H helps out by doing 2017-on PS2 players

This could change with more discussion, and of course I'd be doing a good portion of the work as well. The imgur account info may be shared with those helping out to upload the image/screenshot files for preservation.

A note on 2008-2010 passwords: The players created in the early days of the forum, for some of them, did not have password pictures attached to the player, rather they were entered in via text. If I recall correctly, there were standards for how to type in the passwords in these early days, but some did not follow these standards, meaning that some of these would have to be checked in-game to make sure they still work.

Making sure the passwords still work will probably be the biggest challenge with this entire project. It will take a lot of doing and a lot of time to confirm that passwords still work. It will be imperative to make sure that passwords do not get overwritten, either. That would not be good.

The picture uploaded will be titled with the player's name, position, and system, just like a forum topic post. When pictures are uploaded, the Google Sheet will be updated to reflect the new entry into the imgur account and the stats and abilities will be filled out accordingly.

Endgame

If the project does get completed, the database will be regularly updated with the new players that get created down the line. If the forum (again, God forbid) shuts down unexpectedly, a website will hopefully be created to host the complete database and passwords, and the e-mail will be used to accrue new players and passwords for the database.

Final Thoughts

I know for a fact that this is a huge potential undertaking, and it will take a long time. I understand that. But I also think it's important that history be preserved in the worst-case scenario of the forum shutting down. Since it's the summer, there's probably going to be people with some free time to help out with the project, but I'm not 100% sure about it.

I hope that this project becomes a reality, and will help preserve Power Pros passwords for the next generation that might somehow pick up this game. Let me know what you think, and if you can help out. I will be posting updates and links as to when the imgur account, email address, and the Google Sheet will be created so you can potentially help out with this historic undertaking.

Thanks, and let's preserve some history.

Author:  AgentP [ Fri Jun 09, 2017 11:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Introducing the Power Pros Password Preservation Project

i'm here for this

willing to help out as much as possible, though I'm probably not able to do much password testing at this time :/

Author:  PP27 [ Sat Jun 10, 2017 11:08 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Introducing the Power Pros Password Preservation Project

Could we do this for logs as well?

Author:  dishnet34 [ Sat Jun 10, 2017 11:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Introducing the Power Pros Password Preservation Project

PP27 wrote:
Could we do this for logs as well?

I mean, it's possible, but it'll take some doing to copy and paste all the log posts to somewhere else (and besides, where will they go?); probably just as difficult as preserving passwords.

Author:  PP27 [ Sat Jun 10, 2017 11:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Introducing the Power Pros Password Preservation Project

We don't have to preserve all logs, just the ones we submit (and the better logs in forum history)

Author:  dishnet34 [ Sat Jun 10, 2017 11:29 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Introducing the Power Pros Password Preservation Project

PP27 wrote:
We don't have to preserve all logs, just the ones we submit (and the better logs in forum history)

That seems do-able. We can certainly look into it in the near future.

BTW, the imgur account and e-mail have been created. If you'd like to help out with the project and want the e-mail and/or imgur credentials, PM me.

Author:  ZeroGibson13 [ Sun Jun 11, 2017 2:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Introducing the Power Pros Password Preservation Project

Suggestion: Add another rank on the forum called "Password Preserver" or "Historian" or something like that lol. Gives people more of an incentive to help with the project I guess.

All the rank would do is just change the color of your name I guess, but it's something new to spice up the forum.

Author:  dishnet34 [ Wed Jun 14, 2017 2:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Introducing the Power Pros Password Preservation Project

Going to start going through the early passwords tonight and save them to the imgur, which can be found here: http://powerprospasswordproject.imgur.com/

Might be a bit hard with some of the early passwords using Imageshack to host the pictures (such as the early cooldude1045 players), and those tend to go away after a few years, so it might be a little dicy near the beginning.

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