New region tag "Public Domain" (or "PD")

General No-Intro related discussions.

Is it neccesary to add "Public Domain" regional tag?

Poll ended at 28 Dec 2022 07:06

Yes
3
38%
No
5
63%
 
Total votes: 8

Hiccup
Datter
Posts: 1720
Joined: 09 Oct 2015 11:29

Re: New region tag "Public Domain" (or "PD")

Post by Hiccup »

omonim2007 wrote: 30 Nov 2022 04:42
I see you aren't setting digital homebrew archive to "unset" anymore, which is good. But why are you changing digital homebrew sources from World to Unknown?
Fugus
Posts: 62
Joined: 11 Oct 2022 17:50

Re: New region tag "Public Domain" (or "PD")

Post by Fugus »

Don't really see the reason. How many possible things are "Public Domain" without also being "Homebrew"? Just seems redundant.

The main tags I can see needed outside of labeling where something came from like Virtual Console or MiniGenesis are

Unlicensed, Pirate, Beta, Prototype, Demo, Homebrew

How many other titles could we really need that aren't just redundant versions of those? Except for the "Superseded" suggestion I made before which would make the 1 game, 1 rom sets automatically setup by the DAT-o-MATIC and allow it to be up to the No-Intro to decide which version would be the best version for those sets.
Gary_Oak
Posts: 29
Joined: 29 Jul 2009 23:06

Re: New region tag "Public Domain" (or "PD")

Post by Gary_Oak »

Genuinely interested in seeing how this turns out. If anything, it would allow us to catalog all those Public Domain ROMs that can be found in a lot of GoodTool sets.

While their quality is all over the place, I believe it would be a shame to lose over time a lot of what the scene has produced over the decades for each gaming system.
Hiccup
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Re: New region tag "Public Domain" (or "PD")

Post by Hiccup »

I don't think there should be any further increase in scope of the main DATs until further filtering options are added (and enabled by default). No point having a repeat of the issues with homebrew/aftermarket games.
omonim2007
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Joined: 20 Jul 2016 12:20

Re: New region tag "Public Domain" (or "PD")

Post by omonim2007 »

Gary_Oak wrote: 18 Dec 2022 13:00 Genuinely interested in seeing how this turns out. If anything, it would allow us to catalog all those Public Domain ROMs that can be found in a lot of GoodTool sets.
Absolutely no chance to those thousands of shit (tech demos and so on) to be added to main dats.

Public Domain or PD or [Blank Region] was meant to be just a replacement for World tag predominantly for modern unlicensed non-physical games.
omonim2007
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Re: New region tag "Public Domain" (or "PD")

Post by omonim2007 »

In any case, as the results of the voting so far show, the original idea with a clearer definition of this type of game is quite appropriate and makes sense.

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sCZther
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Re: New region tag "Public Domain" (or "PD")

Post by sCZther »

Public domain is a term that has a legal meaning. Going around and slapping it on things will just confuse everyone. I understand the idea, I don't feel strongly about it, but it definitely needs a different name for itself.
omonim2007
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Joined: 20 Jul 2016 12:20

Re: New region tag "Public Domain" (or "PD")

Post by omonim2007 »

sCZther wrote: 20 Dec 2022 09:57 Public domain is a term that has a legal meaning. Going around and slapping it on things will just confuse everyone. I understand the idea, I don't feel strongly about it, but it definitely needs a different name for itself.
I hope there are no problems with a specific name, we can come up with a more accurate version. My personal vision is an empty tag without a region. Because of this, the name will be more concise, and it will immediately be clear what it is, and it will be very easy to sort.
Hiccup
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Re: New region tag "Public Domain" (or "PD")

Post by Hiccup »

I'm not sure what purpose removing the region tag serves. Reducing filename length doesn't seem to have a particular purpose and removing a well-understood tag would only cause confusion, surely?
rarenight
Dumper
Posts: 94
Joined: 19 Mar 2017 09:41

Re: New region tag "Public Domain" (or "PD")

Post by rarenight »

"(PD)" is not a commonly-known acronym, so it's less useful than "(World)" for casual DAT users. I question its additional utility. Those who aren't in-the-know about what "(PD)" means will ignore the tag accordingly.

"(Public Domain)" is more clear, but I agree with Hiccup that it's a muddled definition if applied to aftermarket ROMs which employ a commercial license.

I don't think omitting regions for homebrew is harmful per se, but it does make the No-Intro naming scheme less clear for users who don't implicitly understand that "(Homebrew)" almost always implies a region-free, digital release.

I think the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies here. "(World)" is an innocuous and easily-understandable tag. I don't understand the drive to change its usage, personally.
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