London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting

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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 22/11/2020 at 22:40 #134058
Rocangus
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51 posts 		Seeing as the physical London meet is canceled, I suggest some hosting to replace that: Three Bridges, London Bridge, Victorias and West Hampstead. I would be able to host one of the Victorias or West Hampstead; two sims that size might be too tricky for me to handle on my own, especially with failures and/or disturbances.

Inspired by Elltrain I shall put up a Google sheet for sim availability to mess with: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13bqjUmO7w0FqbPlU5Om5Z4kOhAygd0tLKQNOvHUrp9A

I'd like to see us come up with something running for a good portion of the day, and if I could figure out how to do it, I would try to write some formulae to allocate panels, though I ain't sure where to start with that.
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 00:38 #134059
DaveHarries
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1267 posts
Online 		Good idea but it is asking for users to request access. Is that what you planned?
Dave
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 07:08 #134060
andyallen4014
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358 posts 		Why use formulae? Let people request panels... don't make it too complicated!
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 09:01 #134061
Rocangus
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51 posts 		Okay, the sheet should now be editable to everyone who has the link, i.e. everyone on this forum.

Let's go with the everyone chooses on their own model, it is indeed less complicated than trying to math people onto panels!
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 09:08 #134062
postal
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5190 posts 		Is all this separate to whatever the Meet team are currently planning?
“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 09:32 #134063
Rocangus
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51 posts 		I haven't seen anything about that. You'd think that they should have announced something at this point because it's less than a week to the date it was supposed to happen.
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 10:15 #134064
headshot119
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4869 posts 		For various reasons (Mainly life getting in the way) I have not been able to organise anything in replacement of the meet on the 28th. I had mentioned this privately to some of the regular hosts who use TeamSpeak for their games.

I’m sure I speak on behalf of all members of the SimSig community, when I say that if Rocangus can pick the ball up and run down the field with it, we should all be cheering him on. The same to anyone else who is able to support him in his valiant efforts.
"Passengers for New Lane, should be seated in the rear coach of the train " - Opinions are my own and not those of my employer
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The following users said thank you: bri2808, Hap, James67001, Cedric2, y10g9, Meld, danners430, Rocangus, postal, GeoffM
London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 11:08 #134067
andyallen4014
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358 posts 		Rocangus in post 134061 said:
Okay, the sheet should now be editable to everyone who has the link, i.e. everyone on this forum.

Let's go with the everyone chooses on their own model, it is indeed less complicated than trying to math people onto panels!
Sorry for sounding thick, I was expecting to see some time bands on the roster, or is the expectation people will join for the whole session (what times is it running from and to?). Apologies if I've missed the point here.
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 11:34 #134069
tomkagnew
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15 posts 		Happy to help however I can- though only have Three Bridges!

TKA
Last edited: 23/11/2020 at 11:41 by tomkagnew
Reason: None given
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 12:13 #134072
elltrain3
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359 posts 		Having made a similar spreadsheet, and even found the mysterious wheel! I'd be happy to act as a wheel spinner, or MoM organiser etc should you want one :)
I can even think up some "events" to spice up the day (not extra trains just added fun events)

here is the wheel- https://wheeldecide.com/
Resident Mock Maker! / "The Out Of Control Host"
Last edited: 23/11/2020 at 12:14 by elltrain3
Reason: None given
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 17:08 #134089
elltrain3
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359 posts 		Horsham & Dorking could be chained to "complete" the TBASC chain?
Resident Mock Maker! / "The Out Of Control Host"
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 18:53 #134097
Rocangus
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51 posts 		Okay, thanks for your support, headshot119!

There is still a while to go and so far we have potential hosting of West Hampstead and both Victoria sims, meaning that London Bridge and Three Bridges are currently unaccounted for.

A working week is still a lot of time and I'm hopeful that people able to fill up hosting will be able to see this and volunteer by then. As to getting enough signalers to run the sims, to my knowledge ARS is available except from on West Hampstead with 4 panels. There are 25 panels total, and with 5 sims that means we can keep 30 people more or less busy.

The only potential limiting factor on participation I see, except from the obvious, is that none of the involved simulations are donationware. On the other hand, actually going to London would, at a guess, have cost about as much as one of the involved sims, if not much more for those members of the community that are not living in Britain.

As to shifts - the thought has crossed my mind, though I'm not certain if there's going to be enough people to really do that, other than some rotation.

Alright, TKA, I'll put you in the sheet if you haven't yourself! Would you be ready to host Three Bridges in this?

Elltrain, we could work together on getting everything set up. I consider myself fairly good at organizing in general, though I haven't done a major SimSig session yet. As to the wheel... Not entirely sure where that would come in.

Edit: I realized I had not accounted for the panels on London Bridge. With London Bridge included, we have 39 full positions to fill.
Last edited: 23/11/2020 at 19:00 by Rocangus
Reason: Taking London Bridge into account properly
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 19:34 #134099
elltrain3
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359 posts 		39! wow thats a lot of people! and the wheel is a load of random events, and we spin the wheel once (or twice) a session, and a random event is picked. you'll see how it works on the WCML Chain! :)

but sounds like a great Plan!
Resident Mock Maker! / "The Out Of Control Host"
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 20:01 #134101
andyallen4014
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358 posts 		Do you have an idea of what times it will be running? How long etc? I wasn't necessarily suggesting rotating panels, more that some people may only wish to signal for a couple of hours or so (or around work).
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 20:02 #134102
GeoffM
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6282 posts
Online 		Thanks for doing this. My wife is working that day so I'm looking after the kids which means I cannot reliably host - but may be able to join either for a session, or as a PNB relief.

For the roster I would suggest people not allocate themselves to a panel because the early birds will get the popular panels and then you may not get enough people left to fill the less popular panels as they don't want to play those less popular panels. Obviously you do need to know which sims they have though, which I note is part of the spreadsheet.

We did discuss the idea of hosting slightly differently in that each sim would run as a "perfect" scenario (no failures or delays), and then the hosts themselves coordinate failures and delays so that all panels get some perturbed running. Just an idea.
SimSig Boss
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 20:18 #134104
Rocangus
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51 posts 		The idea was to run between 12 and 18 as the original meetup was planned. This gives us a total of 6 hours worth of signaling. It might be an idea to try and set up seeds for say 09:00 or something so there is actually some good activity all the time.

As to having hosts decide what things go wrong, that sounds like a good idea, and I agree that letting users pick their own panels seems like a bad idea. However, considering West Hampstead does not have ARS, any allocating that does happen should probably start there, as the rest of the sims will run themselves to a degree. As it looks like now, 4 out of 5 users that have expressed interest or put themselves on the sheet have West Hampstead.
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 20:24 #134105
jc92
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3629 posts 		Rocangus in post 134104 said:
It might be an idea to try and set up seeds for say 09:00 or something so there is actually some good activity all the time.
If you run a 2015/19 chain (with different sims to the ones suggested) a 14:00 start is available straight out the box.
"We don't stop camborne wednesdays"
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 22:11 #134110
Rocangus
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51 posts 		I'm thinking about just putting up a game and working from there with how many users we get and hosts. Not everyone looks at the forum after all. I'd prefer the London idea, though, even if that might mean there'll be work to get a reasonable seed time. Maybe 04:45 gives people enough time to get familiar with sims before the morning peak, at the end of which the session would end?
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 23/11/2020 at 23:20 #134113
andyallen4014
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358 posts 		Indeed - why not post a game, see how many people sign up and maybe ask people to post which sims they have in the game discussion when they sign up, and also if they anticipate to only be available for part of the session.
Then nearer the time (perhaps Friday) you can make and post a roster.
Just my suggestions.
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 24/11/2020 at 00:04 #134115
tomkagnew
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15 posts 		Happy to do whatever Roc, though I haven't chained before. Should be free all day. Could be tempted to buy on of the listed sims depending on the final outcome!
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 24/11/2020 at 08:07 #134119
Albert
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1313 posts 		I have a bit of a scheduling problem - I have been asked to set up a model railway in the old people's home where my mother is working in the morning, and a sofa will be delivered to me later during the day, so my presence at the start of the game is tentative and a rolling relief would be appreciated in case the sofa gets delivered during the game.

Edit: I appear to have been mistaken, the model railway has to be set up a week later.
AJP in games
Last edited: 24/11/2020 at 08:36 by Albert
Reason: None given
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 24/11/2020 at 09:20 #134120
Rocangus
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51 posts 		tomkagnew in post 134115 said:
Happy to do whatever Roc, though I haven't chained before. Should be free all day. Could be tempted to buy on of the listed sims depending on the final outcome!
Chaining is surprisingly easy, not very different from just connecting to a multiplayer game apart from the fact that you choose "Multiplayer -> Connect to External Signalbox" in the SimSig menu, select the other sim you want to connect to in the window that appears, and ensure that "Synchronize time" is checked. Otherwise you enter IP and port just like usual and trains most of the time just seem to magically transfer to the next sim unless there is a timetable issue. It does get more complicated when you have several sims that connect to each other in various places rather than doing for instance King's Cross and Peterborough like I am currently. The only caveat is when you are hosting chained sims on the same device, where you need to use localhost (127.0.0.1) as IP.

I will be putting up a game now and we'll see how much interest we get and work from there. Another edit: Game details available at https://www.SimSig.co.uk/Game/Details/7737.

Edit: Albert, if nothing else, ARS or someone else might be able to cover for you for a bit while the sofa arrives. That should not be a problem!
Last edited: 24/11/2020 at 10:04 by Rocangus
Reason: Game announced
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 24/11/2020 at 17:02 #134126
ajax103
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1104 posts 		Well I have thrown my hat into the ring so to speak, I'm available all day Saturday and this is a chain that I have wanted to see for a while so I'm excited that it is happening!
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 24/11/2020 at 21:38 #134132
Rocangus
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51 posts 		Thanks to Peterb we now have this handy form for recording responses. This should help some, I hope! Then we can also MoM or whatnot.
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London November 28 Meet Virtual Hosting 24/11/2020 at 22:19 #134133
peterb
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451 posts 		Rocangus in post 134132 said:
Thanks to Peterb we now have this handy form for recording responses. This should help some, I hope! Then we can also MoM or whatnot.
Those of you who already filled in the previous 'sim availability' spreadsheet: Albert, StepSig, DaveHarries, Cedric2, Belly Buster to name a few - please complete the form again as it helps us to plan allocations in greater detail. Sorry you're having to do it twice!
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The following user said thank you: Cedric2
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