Zugg Software :: View topic - ATTN Zugg: MUD list from TMC soon to be incomplete.

Apprentice Joined: 29 Jun 2001 Posts: 198 Location: USA

It has come to my attention that The Mud Connector will soon, if it hasn't already, be dropping MUDs hosted by MudMagic from its MUD list.
Details: http://www.mudmagic.com/boards/chat/12/2027/2027

Similarly, MudMagic will be dropping MUDs hosted by Wolfpaw from its listings.

Since zMUD and CMUD get their MUD list from TMC, do you think it would be possible to add lists from other sites as well, removing duplicate listings, so that we, the users, could obtain a more complete, non-biased MUD listing included with zMUD and CMUD?

From what's posted in the above link, I'm sure you've been made aware of the situation, but I thought it important enough of an issue to inform anyone else interested.

Wizard Joined: 14 Oct 2000 Posts: 1368

Seems to be pretty nasty. I don't understand exactly what happened from that post. I understand it as some user on MudMagic connected from their shell there to Wolfpaw's ssh server to steal data from some user. Then Wolfpaw reporting it to MudMagic's abuse department and they don't care to resolve the issue. So Wolfpaw gets all mad and firewalls MudMagic out :P.

The mystery is actually even larger. If you try to update your MUD-list in zMUD you'll notice that it can't obtain the list from MudConnector anylonger.

Edit: Removed some unintended flame baits :P.

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 8:26 pm

There is another thread about this over at TMC: http://www.mudconnect.com/discuss2/discuss.cgi?mode=MSG&area=admin_ethics&message=8762#8762

From what I understand, The Mud Connector (TMC) tries to "ping" a MUD host to see if it is still active. If it hasn't been active over a period of time, then the MUD gets dropped from the mud listing. So it's not just an issue with Wolfpaw preventing access to MudMagic hosts...from what I've read, MudMagic has already blocked access by WolfPaw servers (like TMC) to any of it's hosts. So it's not just an issue with WolfPaw. As long as *either* of these sites are banning the other, then TMC will eventually lose listings.

However, this will take some time, and I'm hopeful this situation will be worked out before any MUDs get dropped from the TMC's list.

TMC has always been an unbiased list of *all* MUDs and until that changes, zMUD and CMUD will continue to use them. I currently have no plans to add lists from other sites. Merging lists from multiple sites would be a huge headache, and I'd probably just start hosting my own list instead. If TMC changes their policy sometime in the future and removes listings or becomes biased, then I will look into alternatives.

But this doesn't necessarily effect the zMUD/CMUD MUD list. When you Update this list in zMUD, it never deletes anything. It only adds new MUDs or modifies existing records. We don't get any list of deleted MUDs from TMC. So, the MUDs at MudMagic will remain in the zMUD/CMUD list even if TMC drops them.

Hopefully WolfPaw and MudMagic will work this out and realize that this hurts both of them. A lot of innocent MUDs and players are being effected by this. Yes, zuggsoft.com is hosted at WolfPaw and I stand by that decision. But I don't want to get into the middle of this, and there are more appropriate places for this discussion. Let's let them work this out. Try not to fan the flames here.

All I can say from my end is that I have never taken sides in these kind of issues. zMUD and CMUD will always be able to connect to *any* MUD and I will do my best to ensure that the MUD list that comes with zMUD/CMUD is a complete list of all MUDs, even it means hosting my own MUD list.

However, I also encourage MUD players to read these linked threads and make their own decisions regarding which MUDs they support and play.

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 8:28 pm

Rorso: I also just noticed that zMUD (and CMUD) cannot connect to MUD Connector. I'm hopeful that this is just a temporary issue with their server and not related to this mess.

Apprentice Joined: 29 Jun 2001 Posts: 198 Location: USA

Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking the side of either. I think the actions taken by both admins are a bit childish and could have been handled a lot more professionally.

Wizard Joined: 14 Oct 2000 Posts: 1368

Seems the issue resolved itself :P

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:00 pm

Glad to see this got resolved.

Rorso: I contacted TMC about the problem with zMUD connecting and it was unrelated to this issue. Seems that they added a redirect for the site, and zMUD does't handle redirect with the MUD list stuff. TMC removed the redirect link and now it's working again. So thanks for bringing this issue to my attention, otherwise I probably wouldn't have noticed and people might have drawn the wrong conclusions from this coincidence.