Unavailable M.U.G.E.N data from 2000-2009

[Slivern]

This is not a request thread but an issue/concern, as the title suggests, about characters released between these time periods.

Recently, I have reset my computer to factory settings and I also considered rebuilding my M.U.G.E.N roster. The problem is that many characters such as CCI Ironmugen's Kusanagi and other characters are at this point, no longer available for download. In addition, it's likely that our character database here for many characters is now out of date.

I don't know if anyone is doing anything about it, but given the fact that many people who worked on M.U.G.E.N characters have left in 2000-2009, I'm thinking that maybe some of us should work together and start a M.U.G.EN "Wayback Machine"-like that hosts characters by people who left the community. This way we can categorize these characters by creator so that everyone can download them. Once these creators return we can remove them as well. Also consider this to be a possible collaboration between the other communities out there.

Now I understand that this goes against you guy's morals regarding warehousing, but please consider putting the past aside for the sake of the availability of even some of the finest M.U.G.E.N characters released during 2000-2009. CCI Ironmugen's Kusanagi was THE perfect Kusanagi for my roster at the time I had a roster and I never had any duplicate Kusanagis by other creators since having him. During the past decade, information has also had an impact on many communities include ourselves alike, that to lose such vital data means losing a substantial portion of ANY history, including M.U.G.E.N's.

Again, please consider my outcry. At this rate, there's no way anyone's going to find any sort of variety in their rosters without these characters. They are of considerably high value not just for their age. Losing years of data could even have a negative impact on the M.U.G.E.N community itself. CCI Ironmugen's Kusanagi is over five years old now along with many other characters.

Look, I'm going to pass this message throughout some of the other M.U.G.E.N communities out there. We need to save as much data as possible before we lose it forever, even if it goes against our morals. I can no longer stand idly by as these creations end up turning into digital dust. Once again, PLEASE consider this message!

[Darkflare]

There's either a better version out there or their coding would be too outdate to properly work on the current Mugen.

Not to mention that Requests sections exist for this reason.

[Rage]

There's either a better version out there or their coding would be too outdate to properly work on the current Mugen.

Not to mention that Requests sections exist for this reason.

this is true but the request section only serves the requester and maybe a few others. he's stating the idea of a database. which is good to an extent. A good example of this was when i requested a Zero a few years back that was rare. 4 or five thread opened up asking for said character. i even got pm's from other members asking me for said character. Id said least 15+ members asked for that character through threads and pm. This was only what i was able to track with my limited resources.

I like this idea and warehousing is something im not 100% with. Im 50%. I see good and bad. If someones leaves the community then i could see a reason to archive good pieces of work. But i think this should be an united thing. A base where there is neutral ground where all communities come together to save our history.

I dont see this every happening. Besides that i can understand people wanting to not have their works hosted.I stand the middle ground cause i dont want my work hosted just anywhere but i do understand that this is the net and i dont own rights to the characters that  create. so once i post something its everyone's. That's how the net works.

[Random Regular]

I clearly understand what you're trying to say, the database sure is outdated by now (if my old posts are anything to go by) and stuff like from CCI Ironmugen could be achieved, but it's still warehousing.
It's a touchy subject, because when you make something available for the world to use when it's not available anymore (because the author stopped doing MUGEN related stuff for example) it's a good thing in my book, but it's also violating the rights of the author to have it only hosted at places he/she desires, but if he/she's gone...would it really matter? (And yes could be an answer to this question because you're still paying repects to the author's wishes which is also a good thing).
it's a double edged sword, really. And if you want to make a database with direct links to the characters it would sure cause some debate in the community.

[Slivern]

Lemme shake this off a bit, but it does bug me a little when we say we call this M.U.G.E.N character "our work" when the character we supposedly "made" for M.U.G.E.N really belongs to the people who made that character and also, it is to be more precise, "adapted" rather than "made", so yes, like what Rage said, this also goes with the fact we are violating other people's IP. To make me happy, I'd rather justify it as fan-art since we really are just making something out of appreciation rather than for profit. Speaking of fan-art, does anyone else besides me look at M.U.G.E.N that way?

That aside, I do respect the rights of others when it comes to stuff like this; a majority of screen packs aren't really adapted from anything either.

And if you want to make a database with direct links to the characters it would sure cause some debate in the community.

Oh yes indeed, that's why we link to the author's websites instead.  But I get shocked however when the author's website is unavailable, and when that happens, I felt like I've lost something that meant a lot to me, and to be honest, all of you do in this case! It doesn't matter what you create; you create history, whether it's good, like Reubenkee's creations, or bad (I don't want to say who's a bad author even though I think they are as well like many others out of respect.) Anyways, a fellow user from The Mugen Fighter's Guild managed to give me a link to Kusanagi's site.

I still would like to carry on with this idea however. A joint collaboration between various communities to create a database that archives various M.U.G.E.N characters, stages, screen packs, patches, etc, linking to that author's website but also posting a direct download to the site should it end up being down (provided that this is with permission of the author) or if the author has left the M.U.G.E.N community for good, thus that applies to ALL of his creations. And yes, there are better creations out there than some of the things we got from 2000-2009, but even so, I feel like it's essential we don't lose it in the process.

Who knows? Maybe one day an author ends up losing all of his data because of his computer crashing or because of a virus.
+ But also, maybe that author also ends up not being able to manage his website during a time where he loses his data...
+ ...or he loses his data while reforming his website, and then the database I proposed, with permission from the author, uploads direct links to his creations as a temporary area (via another person provided that the author doesn't have a file storage account via sendspace, SkyDrive, etc.) until his website is back up and his creations finally updated after the incident.
+ This is where the database can now take these direct links down and thus put up the new link to that author's website.
+ Since I'm talking about this, the database I proposed can also have safety precautions for all new and old M.U.G.E.N authors on how to not lose your work in incidents like the one I provided above.

Overall, everything I've said in these points are some ideas I've had in ensuring the availability of various creations while being very moral about it. This is also potentially one way we can all find the works of other creators out there without depending on more than one database. This would however, require a lot of dedication.