This is a great idea, and I support its implementation and enforcement. Instead of punitive enforcement in some cases though, I would recommend a civil discussion or reminder to the author to point out there are broken links.
Also, while I fully support and have a couple projects documented on Wadhost I also acknowledge it is not for everyone since the bar can be pretty high in terms of documenting what your project is about. Achtung [the head admin of the Wadhost network] is a fantastic guy and I admire, support, and participate in his requirement of documentation which, I will point out, is exactly the same format people used on BBS in the heyday of Doom and it is excellent that he continues to use this format.
If you are unable or unwilling to use the Wadhost system there's still hope!
A couple of wonderful people in our Zandronum community have set up an automated hosting solution, called best-ever hosting. Their website is
http://best-ever.org/ and they can be reached on IRC at irc.zandronum.com #bestever.
I have explicitly asked them if they are ok with MM8BDM being used on this and they have granted permission to use this valuable resource for the purposes of MM8BDM since it uses the Zandronum[/ Skulltag] engine(s) and is compatible with the Doom-style WAD file format. With their automated hosting of course they have a repository for hosting wads as well, located at
http://www.best-ever.org/wads/ which is searchable by Doomseeker/ Wadseeker. Although users are not required to document what their projects are in great detail like the new and improved Wadhost, they are still required to register. The goal of this registration process is likely to be able to shut down people who use the site for malicious purposes or for hosting non-wad resources.
For me personally this might have an impact since when Wadhost died a lot of the stuff I had released got lost since I relied almost exclusively on Wadhost for file hosting. I tried to restore most links in posts on the forum using dogsoft and others but there may be some I have missed. I have most everything archived on cd-rom somewhere. Please private message me if you find a non-working link (especially in my achievement challenges thing or other project). I will fix these links as I become aware of their non-working status. The issue of unintentional link breakage is something to consider in enforcement of this rule.
With these resources available to users, this rule should be one that is minimally burdensome to wad authors and I look forward to seeing what new projects and custom content people create and share!
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