gmod

[tawny briar]

if its for small servers then why are there already things like zarp on the front page, kinda defeats the point

[grave yacht]

We don't discourage signs up. There is also more smaller servers on the front page then larger.

[peak flume]

Why would a player check the website to find a server over checking in discord servers or just browsing the serverlist

In my opinion, Server aggregator sites work best when theres no official general index or server browser. Minecraft for example has tonnes of server listing websites

[grave yacht]

Why would player randomly check discord servers? This is an alternative to the server listing as the gmod server listing ranking algorithm is not fair nor is game tracker. As traffic increases on the website - it will make more sense.

We also plan to support other games. However, gmod is home to me so I have started here first.

We have truely only been out just about 7 days in a very very soft rollout (minimal marketing). And the traffic on the site is already much more then what these server owners would see in the listing.

[peak flume]

How big of an impact will sponsoring the website have on your servers ranking

In the Learn More it says "Servers that are sponsored appear at the top of the home page"

Also how in general do you grade/rank a server, since it doesnt seem to be by playercount

Unless its just randomised data tbf

[grave yacht]

Sponsoring your server would have no immediate impact on your server ranking as only monthly votes affect your ranking. However, a sponsor server is shown at the top of the page so it will likely have increased votes during its sponsorship period.

[grave yacht]

ranking is done based on total vote counts in the month

We are still collecting data on how sponsoring a server increases the audience, but it for sure helps. I will soon display all the clicks, steam connect button clicks, home page impression... etc to server owners. So they can see how this site helps their server in many ways. I am not trying to beat the gmod server list. Just making a alternative.

[peak flume]

If the tool is meant to help smaller servers get players, and the server ranking is directly tied to the amount of votes you get, surely large servers would simply implement the same signup/reward bonus they've always been offering like "$10k if you join our Discord" etc

The larger server has more players to vote surely?

[glossy marten]

Big servers have less of a need to worry

[grave yacht]

I've been asked that a lot. I say it would not play out like you think. Smaller server owners would probably work harder to get votes. I don't want to implement anything too early but if it comes the fact of larger servers suppressing smaller servers then I will just change the ranking factor when you hit a certain threshold

[peak flume]

I don't understand what you mean by "working harder to get votes" in this context. Surely once an integration is made to directly reward players for voting like all the minecraft servers do with keys etc, there would be no real need for hard work

If you offer a large enough incentive the players will vote for your server

[grave yacht]

Sure, which is why I said the latter on a solution. No need to fix a problem that doesn't exist yet.

[peak flume]

Fair, I guess I'd have to wait to see how it ends up eventually. Thanks for answering questions though.

(Really to me at least it all depends on how sponsored servers are ultimately treated/positioned etc)

[grave yacht]

Even myself, this is a relatively new service in gmod but not a new idea. I think a lot of it depends on how it is my responsibility to increase traffic to the site. I do appreciate the conversation though.

Sponsor servers are capped at 5 slots, 1 sponsor server per account.

[peak flume]

If the website actually ends up being able to help smaller servers then it'll be great, I just hope it sticks to that original promise throughout.

Also completely off topic but I'm just curious

On the FAQ it mentions about recruiting moderators. If the server list is just server name + a2s info, why would it need proper moderation other than removing spam etc?

[grave yacht]

More features are coming out that would require moderation / manual reviews. Right now it's just server names, comments, and few other that require moderation.

[peak flume]

As long as server moderation remains fair, especially around removing it from listing if players are actually voting for it (in my opinion, these servers should not be removed but the name/desc could be altered)

Would be a very easy pitfall to have excessive moderation since at that point its not a fair representation of players actual votes (if the server were to be removed)

[grave yacht]

Sure, all moderation would be done in good faith if that's what you're asking. Moderation is more for vulgar comments, vulgar server names.. etc. . In other words, moderators are moderating user content.

We wouldn't delete a server for having hate speech in their server name -- we would send notifications to the server owner and disable that server until the corrections are made for it to be public on our site. They would lose no calculated votes etc

[peak flume]

Sounds good to me, Good luck

Also final thing since its not really mentioned. Is this part of/ran by Physgun or is it seperate?

[grave yacht]

It's not owned or operated by physgun if that's what you asking. When a player is looking for a server host, we do recommend physgun. As stated in our FAQs and what not

[peak flume]

Hate to keep going here but actual final thing

Is the developer API paywalled?

[grave yacht]

Lol ask all you want. It's a good conversation

[grave yacht]

Yes, as stated in the FAQ, there is a one time fee for the server owner

[peak flume]

Would you reconsider that? API access is a pretty basic feature on most server lists and paywalling it just seems cashgrabby (in a non rude way)

[grave yacht]

probably, we are still new and figuring things out. There has to be a trade off somewhere. Some sites will plaster ads everywhere, sell your cookies, etc. We provide a lot of features for free and soon to be even more.

[peak flume]

If the site manages to do what it set out to of aiding small servers etc I can guarantee you people will sponsor it over time (as im sure you're aware)

Free API is the main stickler for me, the day that happens I'll be an official gmodlisting.com fan

[grave yacht]

Well stick around - like I said we are new and still figuring things out. As much as I love to be providing this service for free and have even more features releasing for server owners (such as giving insight on trends based on our data). I would hope some would support the platform so it's self sustainable at some point. Where that would be monetary or word of mouth. Either is great

[peak flume]

I certainly will, the trends data sounds really cool. You should have the /api/v1/vote/{serverId}/* routes should be free to use still. The trends data would be a great to offer as a paid API service (which depending on the data actually provided I'd 100% pay for), but you should be able to implement vote tracking yourself without having to pay money to the site imo.

When I talk about the API here I basically just mean /api/v1/vote, you could add tonnes of paid additional stuff for sponsors

[grave yacht]

Thanks for the suggestions!

[peak flume]

also damn looking at the docs it seems really cool actually. the connections data especially

having a trusted source for the players discordid is pretty big

anyway, nice talking again but I have work quite early later today so I must go off. good luck again also, and #MakeVoteAPIFree

[grave yacht]

@peak flume fyi: api is free now, thanks for the suggestion.

[peak flume]

great change, nice to see that you're listening to feedback!

[brazen axle]

There's no custom tags? darnit!

[runic silo]

Very well made website - thanks Nykez

[grave yacht]

soon, I had them but disabled them due to I need to put a content moderator infront of it lol