People are typing these 8 digit all capitalized codes left and right, and there's no real management to them. Because of the limited smileboom server space they're often removed and I can see the site becoming clustered with broken codes, where people type codes out only to have to sift through broken ones. My suggestion is a system that
-Detects when a code is posted (forums or other places, 8 digit all caps strings surrounded by characters not found in codes ( ",%~ things like that or just spaces))
-Highlights codes as red green or orange (broken, tested recently and working, or untested/not tested for a while respectively)
-Gives a pop up box when hovered over by the mouse, where you can report it as working or broken (or not a code at all). A site admin could then review the code to confirm it as broken (or working).
To take it a step further, when a code is posted there could be options to give permission from the author for the source code to be downloaded preserved and still shared should it ever disappear from smileboom's servers. That way when a popular program goes away and there's no word from the creator, as long as the author gave permission the codes could be corrected (automatically replaced through the code management system) after a volunteer uploads it using their smileboom server space, and people could still download it from this site. My suggestion is to have that option ticked by default so people don't miss it, of course giving them a good notification of what it means.
This is beyond the scope of what I can do right now. This system will likely take weeks to finish, and I just don't have that kind of time. In fact, beyond implementing comments for pages, I just don't have time to do anything for a few months. As wonderful as this system would be, and as doable as it is, it's not something that can be done in an afternoon.
I don't think codes posted in forums are going to be a big deal. If you're a user looking for programs and you're looking in the forums rather than the program list that's already laid out for you, you're probably doing something wrong. I think codes in forums are fine as they are.
Pages will soon have comments, and there's already a system in place (just not fully implemented) where the creator of a page can add people as editors. There's also a system in place (again, not fully implemented) where you can set your program as "not public anymore", which removes the page from searches and program lists, and removes the public key. A program that isn't public anymore isn't deleted however, it just gets "cleaned up" from the public view. Between these three systems, we can hopefully keep the program list clean. Basically, when a program gets removed, someone is bound to comment about it. An admin or one of the editors can then mark the page as "no longer public", which cleans up the system. If the creator doesn't mind, one of the editors can bring the page out of storage by providing a new public key. It's an easy process.
Once comments are in place, you'll be able to sort programs by "popularity". This will be the default sorting, and most people will probably search by popularity when looking for a game to play. High profile programs are VERY likely to get commented on if the public key goes out of service, so we'll definitely know when that happens. Alternatively, if I find some time, I can make a flagging system (similar to what you were describing) where people can flag a key as "broken", which would make it even easier on admins.
A few things to keep in mind with your really cool (but really complex) system:
-If the game is popular, it's probably going to be kept around. Who wants to lose all that glory?
-If the game is removed because of space limitations, it's unlikely that someone else will give up one of their precious slots for the game. Everyone is bound by the same space limitations.
-We're not going to have THAT many programs, and the time it takes to manually remove a program from the public list is a few seconds. The weeks it will require to make a GOOD automated system will not offset the saved time, and even an automated system has to be overseen by a real person.
-Automated systems are often abused, and we have quite a few troll users here.
I'm really sorry, but I can't do this system right now, and not for a while.
That's understandable, I guess it might be out of the scope of a brand new site and not a high priority atm.
You have trolls already though? How and why? Sorry about that. .___. I guess that's just what happens when a user base gets big enough.
Isn't the limited space like 2,821,109,907,456 or something? That's a pretty high number, in the trillions.
