Talk:Server statistics

We're still missing a coordinated effort to gather the data in one place. If you wish to start and contribute, add information/sources here or contact me VADemon (talk) 16:22, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

Online player count
Sources:
 * screenshots / videos
 * (archived) tracker pages
 * (possibly) bots
 * as of Feb 2019, VADemon's server monitoring
 * online tracker websites, for example: 2b2t.io, and prio.2b2t.dev

What to do: the websites do a great job of tracking the current status. Ask them to save the data to some place, so you can look up activity at any particular date.

What to do with missing old data: Start scouring old videos and screenshots with ±timestamps to fill in the blanks, on a best effort basis.

Online players by name
Sources:
 * tab-scoreboard screenshots / videos
 * chat logs
 * online tracker websites, for example: rebane2001.com/queuepeek

What to do: Same as with Online Player Count above. Ideally a website where you can input a date and time and see players online. These logs can be analyzed for online time of a particular player.

Chat logs
Sources:
 * players
 * bots
 * online tracker websites, for example: nigger.black/table.php

Challenges:
 * trust
 * pre-processing chat logs locally on players' computers in a transparent way
 * to remove private chat
 * exclude foreign servers
 * legitimacy
 * merging of player chat logs (with regards to time zones and duplication)

What to do: Write a transparent piece of software that'd allow players to clean local logs off personal data (whispers) and normalize the time zones (best effort). Submitted logs would be merged into the "global" log of everything, eliminating duplicates (and checking for timezones again).

If players can strip chat logs locally off sensitive data, they'd be more willing to contribute than "submitting log folder to website with the promise the website would do that".

Actually I have gigabytes of logs already, I just need someone willing to make the first step - be willing to work with me/submit his logs to get this project going VADemon (talk) 16:22, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

Screenshots
99.9% of screenshots never see the light of day. Sure, we mostly take trashy screenshots, yet such a gallery tells a player's story on the server and there're surely cool things to find. I see two options:
 * "Message in a bottle" - like how people seal their messages in bottles/bricks to be found and opened decades later. By that time the current "secrets" would become irrelevant.
 * Many people who spent their time on the server in the past decade, once leave, don't return and don't share their stories. We can try this "time capsule" approach.
 * Trust the players to not go sudoku and keep their data alive. Set reminders for 3/5/10 years to contact them with the request to upload. Note: Probably won't work as people vanish into real lives, traceless.
 * If you assume an average long-term player to not return or that he'll lose (erase) his data, you need a trusted middleman who can promise to hold onto the screenshots and not peek at them.
 * How it works: You send someone very stable and trusted your stuff. He promises to make it public in 3/5/10 years. Note: Probably won't work due to trust/drama issues. Problem: Cryptography cannot help, a trusted middleman required.


 * Encourage yearly screenshot/story sharing as an event. Requires more time on participants end, some screenshots will still not see the light of day (depends on how active the player is)
 * "Exodus", similar to the first option. People who quit could share their screenshots.

Current automated data retrieval

 * Online player count / ping:
 * User:VADemon as of February 2019
 * Some other websites came to life, notably: ask rebane


 * Map size / total players joined:
 * User:VADemon as of December 2020, by scraping the subreddit page (granularity: every 30min)