I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! It's been an exciting year for us, and we hope it'll continue to be as or even more exciting in the years to come. This site is nearly a year old already, and it's been filled with an amazing amount of support since it's launch. This site didn't even exist at the beginning of the year, but despite that, it's managed to uncover and archive tons of never before seen content and bring resources and information to a more accessible place. So, let's go over the recent new changes and upcoming updates, the last one for this year.
Before we continue, I'd like to give a big huge thank you to our Donator Paola, also known as DrFrasierCrane. With her monthly donations, she has been a huge help to the projects. I would even go as far to say that without her, the site wouldn't be up right now. Thank you Paola!
You can donate using Paypal. All donations received will be used for the servers and services the site provides. It is very much appreciated.
Updates
The site has had a lot of recent changes and I'll be going through the more important ones.
Library Designs
Some design changes in the library have been made. In a way, it can be described as being organized like a bookshelf, with different categories on separate lines. This allows us to fit more selections on a page and also not waste page space. Along with this, new archival topics have been made. These currently only include flash games and old minecraft versions, but there are plans to expand this even further in the future with a more broad range of softwares.
Not only has the main library directory been redesigned, but plans are in the works to redesign the specific software pages as well. The idea is to give as much information as possible on the main page and have links to external, more important archives of the software. This way, it's a more ordered information hub. This change will take a while for it to be in full effect.
Ruffle Implementation
If you haven't heard, Flash is dead. Thousands and thousands of flash games and content from the early internet would've possibly be unplayable or unviewable. However, due to a huge community working on alternatives, we've seen huge archival projects come into play and also some software collaborations. Things like Flashpoint are a good example of how huge the community has been grouping together to preserve and keep on the era of Flash.
Since a small portion of archives we collect contain Flash or use it in some degree, I've decided to implement Ruffle into the site. On the home page, you'll see the Ruffle Flash Emulator in the Projects. You can then link any .swf and attempt to play it on Ruffle. Ruffle is still a huge work in progress and will not work perfectly yet, as it still has a long way to go. However, it does give a chance to see Flash movie playback without the need of Flash. Simply copy the link of a .swf file on the site and link it on the Ruffle page, and it should play when you click Load.
The emulator will be updated every now and then, and with that hopefully some better compatibility will come into play.
Redirects
This is a small one, but older users and navigators of the site will be happy with it. For old and previously used locations, I've added redirects to the newer paths. Examples include the entire 'files' directory that was removed now redirects back to the root of the site. This means old links to Worlds or resources will still work, they will just direct to the newer placed. No need to change your URL's anymore.
2021 Plans
Account System
The site has been using a method to allow trusted users to upload their own content called FTP. The issue with this is that it is insecure, needs constant moderation, and restricts access to only users we trust. It's a manual method to create the ftp account and requires human intervention. While our plan is not to completely remove human hands in this process, we plan to make it a lot easier for not only us, but to all other users.
The idea is to implement a simple account system for uploading and managing your own content, all through the site. This will allow the accessibility to this kind of resource to be more public. An account registration page will be made and an approval system will be put into place. Along with these changed, our moderation is going to migrate to a site based Accept/Deny system. When you request to upload new content to your own folder, it'll be stored in an offline location until a moderator can approve it. Very trusted and important users can bypass this restriction.
With these new additions, it is in the plans to add a storage cap to all folders unless fully trusted. It is undetermined whether or not there will be a system or method to expand data capacity, or how this would be done. The current date that is planned for this system to begin development and for the ftp server access to be shut off is in late January or early February. When the process begins, any new data you want uploaded has to be sent through e-mail to admin@wirlaburla.com. Until then, the system will remain untouched. No new FTP access will be given, and no changes will be made. An announcement will be made when the process plans the begin.
Forum
Intentions are being made to bring in a forum to the site, and allow users to communicate with each other over various topics. If the account system succeeds, then the forum will be implimented using the same account. It is unclear how this would be structed or if this will actually be implemented. For now, it is only an idea.
Thank you! I hope you all have a Happy New Year.