http://www.gaffer.org/scenester/

The Scenester project has been created to investigate and implement a file sharing network for scene productions which are currently being shared through a system of FTP and Web servers lacking effective indexing and searching capabilities.

Several options are currently being investigated:

1. Using existing software (Freenet, Gnutella, Napster)

2. Extending existing software to provide functionality suitable for scene productions (much like Napster has specific features for MP3)

3. Creating a new protocol loosely based on Napster, with key improvements to support scene productions, and enhancements such as unicode support and a true binary protocol

It is expected that number three will be the preferred option, however we intend to borrow heavily from existing protocols when designing and implementing our system.

Why Scenester?

Do you remember the days of disk swapping? How about the BBS scene? Do you miss the sense of community?

Maybe you are new to the scene but think that there must be a better way to find scene productions you are looking for and keep in touch with other sceners.

We believe that by building a file sharing community for sceners, we can help bring back some of the personality that the scene has been missing for so long.

Our concept is to evolve past the current state of the scene spread across IRC, Usenet, FTP and Web by taking the existing scene archive content on scene.org and hornet.org, then indexing and distributing it across a network of Scenester servers linked by a stable master server.

But there is more to Scenester than large centralized servers. Just like Napster, each user can chat with other sceners, search for productions and share their favourite productions with others for direct peer-to-peer download.

Imagine being able to search for party releases right after the party has finished and not having to keep scanning the incoming directories on scene.org for the new files as they are uploaded.

And what if you could share all your releases like demos, intros, source, libraries, art and music and text from your own computer in a network where people can easily find your stuff?

Imagine searching for recent demo releases in the last month and getting back a list of all new productions indexed by group, authors, party and platform?

Just think of finally getting rid of IRC and having a chat network for all sceners which makes it easy to exchange files and show your productions off!

We need your help to make Scenester happen!

Subscribe to the mailing list scenester@coollist.com or join in on the discussion at news.scene.org/ scene.coders.scenester and have your voice heard during the design of the Scenester.

Right now what we need most are experienced network coders to assist us with designing the protocol and developing the code for the client and central server.

We have created a project on Sourceforge to hold code developed for the project, which will of course be open source under the GNU General Public Licence.

By the way, if you aren't a programmer there are still plenty of things you can do to help out the project. Tell us your ideas, encourage us, and spread the word to all your scene friends that something better is on the way.

Send feedback to gaffer@gaffer.org