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Cyhist Jun 08 1997 A
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Date: Sun, 8 Jun 1997 11:50:24 -0700
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Anthony Spataro <ads@NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Re: [archiving MUDs/MOOs]
In-Reply-To: <199706081359.GAA21150@mail6> MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
I can certainly appreciate the complex issues involved with archiving MUDs! In order to completely archive the thing, you'd have to "checkpoint" all the players and archive them along with the MUD! Last time I looked we couldn't do this =). However, I can think of a quick technical fix that's almost as good.
Whenever an event happens, record the event and the exact time it happened (in the simplest case, the only events would be player connect, player command and player disconnect). All the events get stored in a "timeline" file. Then you write a program to read the timeline file and execute the commands. Essentially, it acts as a giant MUD multiclient, connecting to the MUD as certain players, executing their commands, and disconnecting all at the specified times.
Every month or so, you archive the entire MUD along with the timeline file. At some later date, a net historian can get the archive and start the MUD up in "playback" mode along with the timeline multiclient and walk around inside the MUD, listening to people and watching their interactions!
I may have gone too deep into the implementation details; the ideal system would be one that allows you to jump to any point in the MUD's history from any other point, and watch what's going on. Also, the observer would have to be limited somehow to observation only. He wouldn't show up in the contents lists of any rooms or the list of connected players, because that would be interacting. (For example, if someone wrote some code to iterate through all the players in the room, and the observer were there, then history would be changed!)
Although there are a number of technical challenges associated with the project, I'm very excited by it! It sounds like it would be really fun to write and use--the ultimate voyeuristic thrill! It would also be a great way to record MUD-wide meetings and other events.
If anybody knows of such a project, or undertakes it to write one, let me know. The more I think about the possibilities, the more fascinated I become.
_/\\_ "I believe with all my heart that the closer man comes to understanding / L \\ the universe, the closer he comes to understanding himself. And that, \\_ C_/ after all, may be the greatest gift ever bestowed upon us. On you, on
\\/ me, on all mankind." -- Wernher Von Braun "Good-bye. I am leaving because I am bored."
-- George Saunders' dying words
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Anthony Spataro <ads@NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Re: [archiving MUDs/MOOs]
In-Reply-To: <199706081359.GAA21150@mail6> MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
I can certainly appreciate the complex issues involved with archiving MUDs! In order to completely archive the thing, you'd have to "checkpoint" all the players and archive them along with the MUD! Last time I looked we couldn't do this =). However, I can think of a quick technical fix that's almost as good.
Whenever an event happens, record the event and the exact time it happened (in the simplest case, the only events would be player connect, player command and player disconnect). All the events get stored in a "timeline" file. Then you write a program to read the timeline file and execute the commands. Essentially, it acts as a giant MUD multiclient, connecting to the MUD as certain players, executing their commands, and disconnecting all at the specified times.
Every month or so, you archive the entire MUD along with the timeline file. At some later date, a net historian can get the archive and start the MUD up in "playback" mode along with the timeline multiclient and walk around inside the MUD, listening to people and watching their interactions!
I may have gone too deep into the implementation details; the ideal system would be one that allows you to jump to any point in the MUD's history from any other point, and watch what's going on. Also, the observer would have to be limited somehow to observation only. He wouldn't show up in the contents lists of any rooms or the list of connected players, because that would be interacting. (For example, if someone wrote some code to iterate through all the players in the room, and the observer were there, then history would be changed!)
Although there are a number of technical challenges associated with the project, I'm very excited by it! It sounds like it would be really fun to write and use--the ultimate voyeuristic thrill! It would also be a great way to record MUD-wide meetings and other events.
If anybody knows of such a project, or undertakes it to write one, let me know. The more I think about the possibilities, the more fascinated I become.
_/\\_ "I believe with all my heart that the closer man comes to understanding / L \\ the universe, the closer he comes to understanding himself. And that, \\_ C_/ after all, may be the greatest gift ever bestowed upon us. On you, on
\\/ me, on all mankind." -- Wernher Von Braun "Good-bye. I am leaving because I am bored."
-- George Saunders' dying words
______________________________________________________________________
