No, I didn't know about it, but I signed up... It doesn't look too bad, but it's just a wiki map of arcade locations.

Except only one person can edit locations. Not very productive if you ask me.
I doubt the site will catch on to be honest.

At any rate, I put a claim in for Acme. We'll see about that.

I put a claim in for Acme as well.  I wasn't able to add in Pop'n Music 13 or GF 11 though.  Oh well.

Thanks for giving it a try guys! The site is just getting started, so still a long ways to go -- namely in the support from around the world part. If you have any suggestions or come across any problems though, I'd love to hear them.

@Gosha
Thanks for signing up! Looks like there was an issue with pop'n 13 and gf11, but those should be fixed now. Think somehow they were added as "Pop 'n" instead of "Pop'n".

@BlueSS
Things aren't the most straightforward right now, but it is possible for any number of people to edit a location. I really need to rework it to be more apparent, but anyone can claim an arcade and start editing it (upon approval). Even if an arcade is claimed, you can still claim it and edit it too. Administrators (well, that's just me at the moment) decide if the location needs another editor and to make sure that it wasn't claimed by an arcade owner (who would want to edit it themselves). Also it helps prevent someone from going through and deleting/removing games from lots of arcades at once which is always a fear of mine. I approve claims a few times a day, so never takes too long anyways.

We're also looking for some regional administrators as well -- basically people that can edit any arcade within a range of an address, and given the ability to decide who else can edit individual arcades in that area. That's how it'll work eventually, but I'm still getting there.

If you guys have any suggestions on how something like ArcadeFly could be better, I'd love to hear them. After using the old DDR Freak location and my (long dead) DDRei.com list it's fun to see something happening in the arcade list department.

Dyogenez, do you have regular backups to the database/pages? Just because that would obviously be useful if the data did get deleted by someone.

The main thing I see is what I mentioned earlier about only a few selected people being able to edit it. If the regional mods were electing people to edit locations that would be ok...  but only if that person actively went to the arcade. If not, then you have to get someone else to apply for editing the page status, which has to be approved by mod/admin again. It's just more work from an administrative side.

Also, maybe this could be a feature...  but there's no way to recommend changes to the arcade if you're the non-editor. Kinda similar to the DDRFreak system of location suggestions, but if there was a way to send a PM to the arcade's editor or a page for them to check if people have posted recommended machine changes in the arcade that would be useful. I just see the page potentially getting outdated quickly due to a few mods per arcade, relying only on them and then relying on (yes, it's just a few because it's new) a few mods/admin to approve people. It's like a system setup by the government... lots of paperwork and bureaucracy.
And yeah, the link to "claim an arcade" went away after one person has it, leading to my assumption that they were only editable by one person.

There's a bug on the "area map" page as well... there are two sets of navigation arrows on the map. And if it is an "area" map, it doesn't show much of the surrounding area due to being zoomed so far in.

As for the link url's, if a location's name is ever changed, any existing links to an arcade on the site will be screwed (unless you've covered for that?).

The arcade page is bare... why not put a list of the "top games" based off favorites possibly?   Oh, and when I tried to hover over the button to the right of the machine listings (the favorite game button) there wasn't any text on the hover over to say what the heck it did.

I have Acme Bowl as a favorite, but when I check the list of people who have favorited it, I'm not in the list?

Players -> Map Players - the "b" list is blank for me... and I know at least I should be in that list.
Clicking a letter (b) on the "List Players" link also takes me back to the map players "b" page.

Is something going to be done later with the classifications checked when a new listing is added? I'd assume so, but didn't see any features yet. (yes, I know the site just launched)

Oh, and the logo needs some work.

Thanks for the feedback! There's definitely some things to be worked out in the arcade/game editing process though, that's for sure.

There are regular database backups weekly/daily/hourly, but no way at the moment to rollback single changes like to one arcade, or the games as one. I'm sure I could script this into the site, but then an even smaller group would have to be responsible for all rollbacks. ;/  Downsides to opening it up, downsides to keeping it closed. It might be worth making some kind of an "editor" role where anyone in there can edit games at any arcade, and anyone who's applied as an editor for a few places could start doing that.

Looks like arcades can have multiple editors though -- but you don't see the link to claim an arcade if you're not logged in. The idea is to spread the burden of maintaining any arcade of as many trusted people as possible, but the ramp up to having multiple editors still needs some work.

What about making the edit/claim optionally one step? So if someone hasn't claimed a location they can still edit it, but its not public until that claim is approved. Then they can go back and edit it on their own anytime later, and the immediate one is taken care of.

Thanks for the area map tip! Hadn't noticed that one.

Yeah, URLs will definitely get out of date as arcades change.  It's possible for admins to change the permalink of a game or arcade, but it's not something I'd want the general user to change (breaks any backlinks and search results and all). If an arcade changes it's name a little shouldn't matter too much, but if it's under new management with an all new name then an admin would have to change it. Think this is going to be an edge case, but I'll make a note to cover it in the FAQ.

Definitely need some indicators for those little buttons. It initially had the text on there like it does on the show arcade/game page, but it just didn't look right. Have to play with this a little more though.

Thanks for the heads up on the favorite list. I see you in the database, but it looks like it doesn't show people in the "people who favorited this arcade" if they don't have an address on file. Weird bug! Looks like the same reason while you don't show up on the map players page. You should show up in list players as you said though.

Yeah, I want to make an advanced search that really uses those tags. Also simple stuff like "open now" and that kind of thing. I'm sure they'll be other uses for them too.

Thanks for the feedback! I really helps me get an idea of where the major pain points and design failings are on my side. I'm a programmer who sucks at design, so I think i'm going to hire a designer to revamp it all, but that won't be an immediate process of course. ;/  Any redesign suggestions are welcome too.

Umm, I don't see it when I am logged in. (the claim an arcade link) This happened before and after adding my address.

Bug: Entering an address without a street field will clear the rest of the fields and not give a warning that it wasn't saved. Also, entering zip code 98105 (University of WA, Seattle, WA) gives " Browsing from: University Of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA"  In fact, it actually FORCES the change in the profile. I do know what my zipcode should be, and it's not 98195.

Yeah, an edit "support ticket" could be added to an arcade that isn't public until it's accepted by the arcade managers.

And what about machine conditions???    Probably the most important part for DDR players (as you're aware). And price / songs / general cabinet details for each location.

Yep, definitely the result of not having an address, because I put an address in and now it's working like it should.  Is their an error caused by the "X.X miles away" code that prevents the rest from being displayed?

Yeah, that is weird o.0 I'll have to research it a bit more. Thanks for the heads up though, definitely a piece I want to be working 100%.


That's a weird one. I know there are some issues with adding an address to your profile for some reason. Was that in there, or was that setting your address on the home page/arcade page?

As for cabinet conditions I can see that in the future. Whatever is implemented will be a blanket setup for any arcade machine though, so things like price, difficulty, number of songs won't be on there. There might be general notes on each machine available at some point though. I don't like that too much myself though, and it's not searchable ("find all ddr with 4 or more songs within 25 miles"). It may be an improvement later on, but it would be after games were categorized so I could tell what additional info to ask for.  Either way long long ways out if at all for the searchable game data. ;/

As for why people aren't showing up without an address? It's because Rails was lazy and inner joined the addresses table for a query; so it's only pulling up people who meet the conditions AND have an address. Should be left outer joining the table.