DungeonaDay and d20srd.org

arscott

First Post

• Mar 12, 2009

• #1

Just checked out the free preview of Monte Cook's new Dungeonaday.com, and there's some pretty cool stuff there.

But...

Rather than including the monster's stats on his webpages, he provides links to the appropriate monster entry from d20srd.org. Being that DaD is a pay site while d20srd is donation supported, that seems kinda... skeevy. It comes across like Monte's poaching another site's bandwidth for his for-profit effort.

Thoughts?

 

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EricNoah

Adventurer

• Mar 12, 2009

• #2

If d20srd.org didn't want people linking to them, they wouldn't be online. I don't see a problem with it.

 

N

Nagol

Unimportant

• Mar 12, 2009

• #3

d20srd.org is set up to be a definitive source. He is using it in that role.

If he was linking to arbitrary sites that made no attempt to offer comprehensive data / were set up for personal use / had restrictive terms of service, you might have a point.

 

S

Sebastrd

Explorer

• Mar 12, 2009

• #4

I agree; it does seem kind of underhanded to be charging for someone else's work. Even if it's not technically wrong, it would just be more professional to reproduce that information himself.

 

J

Janx

Hero

• Mar 12, 2009

• #5

as a developer, what Monty's doing is exactly what he's supposed to.

Duplication of data is bad, it leads to stale data (because Monty is less likely to keep his copy up to date, than the master copy at d20srd). Barring performance problems, linking is the optimal solution. You only replicate data for performance reasons. Heck, if WotC ran the d20srd site, then that's the place to link to. Since WotC failed to provide such a useful service, d20srd.org is the central repository.

A better complaint would be based on the difference between showing an encounter description with a link to the monster stats, rather than embedding the monster stats into the encounter description.

The former requires the user to follow a link, and they cannot see the all the data within one screen (or print-out). Whereas the latter, embedding the data into the encounter, means the user can print out the page, and everything they need is there.

 

Mark

CreativeMountainGames.com

• Mar 12, 2009

• #6

arscott said:

Just checked out the free preview of Monte Cook's new Dungeonaday.com, and there's some pretty cool stuff there.

But...

Rather than including the monster's stats on his webpages, he provides links to the appropriate monster entry from d20srd.org. Being that DaD is a pay site while d20srd is donation supported, that seems kinda... skeevy. It comes across like Monte's poaching another site's bandwidth for his for-profit effort.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Monte Cook's Dungeonaday.com appears to be hosted on Subhub which seems to have bandwidth and storage limitations that might be a concern.

 

JVisgaitis

Explorer

• Mar 12, 2009

• #7

I like that he is using a definitive source for the rules like d20srd.org, but I think its kinda weird to not have it right on his own website. What happens if d20srd.org goes down or something like that? If it were me, I wouldn't want to rely on someone else's website for my pay for website to function correctly. That seems ill conceived, but its just MHO.

 

Maggan

Writer for CY_BORG, Forbidden Lands and Dragonbane

• Mar 12, 2009

• #8

arscott said:

Rather than including the monster's stats on his webpages, he provides links to the appropriate monster entry from d20srd.org.

Click to expand...

I myself wouldn't link to a site I didn't have total ownership of, if I was charging money via subscriptions for my site.

The third party might disappear tomorrow, or change the way the site is set up, and all sorts of things that are perfectly normal when running a web site.

If that happened, it would inconvenience my customers (if I had any).

I also think that it would be prudent not to hotlink to d20srd.org unless the owner has agreed to it. Bandwidth costs money, and in this case someone else is footing the bill.

/M

 

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Mar 12, 2009

• #9

I'm pretty sure d20srd.org want people to visit their website.

Linking to other sites is how the internet works. For the record, everyone should feel free to link to EN World any time they want.

 

Mustrum_Ridcully

Hero

• Mar 12, 2009

• #10

Morrus said:

I'm pretty sure d20srd.org want people to visit their website.

Linking to other sites is how the internet works. For the record, everyone should feel free to link to EN World any time they want.

Click to expand...

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