Courier Weektop Scorecard, 51

The nDB project was started around mid-1998 as there was indisputable growing concern amongst members of the scene about the quality of releases, and the reliability of what was being nuked on sites however of more concern, was what wasnt being nuked on sites. The current Aim of nDB is to begin gathering a database available via bot commands, and in the near future via a web page - of verified nukes as tested by the staff of the project. This database is available to all members of the scene, and is designed to be used as a guide by the Siteops And Site Nukers of all warez related ftp sites, regardless of their status. The idea being that all sites that nuke a release nuke it for the same reason. It also decreases disputes by the releasers themselves when there is assurance that their release was tested thoroughly and nuked appropriately by trusted members of the scene, and reliable end-users. We plan to achieve this in several ways. 1. By allowing total scene involvement, for example if somebody downloads a release by a group 4 days after its release date and find it non-working they are welcome to request a nuke via the ndb staff or via the up and coming web page, this request will then be placed in a queue and subsequently tested by one of the nDB Staff and by 1 reliable acquaintance of the staff. If it is then verified to be a nuke it will be added by a member of staff to the database in the following method: <release date> <release name> <nuke reason>. The amount of X credits the release is nuked is purely at the whim of the nuker and/or the siteop according to the site policy. 2. By getting as many people involved in this project we feel that this will snub out suggestions of corruption within the group. Our aim is not to attack any particular groups or promote any particular groups. Any such occurence will not be taken lightly, all accusations will be checked out thoroughly and any perpetrators of such acts will be removed from the project immediately. It is all about bringing the standard of quality up in the scene, and anyone that impedes that goal will be dealt with. 3. An important objective of this project is to gain the interest of all siteops and site nukers. Without their involvement this project is simply useless. We do believe we can achieve this and that it certainly is for the good of all sites if not for the entire scene and above all, the end user who is the one who suffers when something does not work or is unacceptable for some other reason. Some people dont realise that if something does not work, and is not nuked then nobody else is eligible to release a working version as it is considered a duplicate , or "too old" The benefits of this project are unquestionably huge. a. Pressure on release groups to TEST their releases, which should be a standard already. One thing that may discourage release groups from not testing their releases in future is that eventually our plan is to make the database COUNT the number of nukes from each group on a monthly basis and of course, who wants to be the top nuked group in the scene? b. Think of the storage sites, archivers, end users etc.. are wasting on the amount of stuff that isnt getting nuked, but quite simply doesnt work! Of course we dont all have the time to test each and every thing we download/receive but with a project like this and with numerous people of different software interests give their support we all can use it as a guide to what we should store , and what should be discarded. I can assure you the time and space saved would surprise a lot of us. Currently the nDB project is obviously in beta, we welcome all suggestions and more importantly we welcome the support of anyone and everyone out there, its not hard to come and tell us something doesnt work, or to check our database and use that as a guide rather than listen to hearsay (in other words somebody who says THIS IS A NUKE! but could have gotten his information from someone else and so on). Undoubtedly there will be problems during the initial stages but we can only see that as another reason for more and more people to get involved. The nDB staff can be found within #ndb, our web site is yet to be completed. We're happy to take on anyone who thinks they can help, you don't have to become a member of staff, you dont have to be of any significance to the scene .. just simply have the same goal in mind as us.. to bring quality back to the software we all use on a day to day basis and to create a standard amongst all people and sites as to what is considered good working software and what isnt, and to make this information available in a similar method to that of the current dupe checkers and other such databases within the scene. -- nDB Staff