R.I.P. TBCS mod wiki?

[Konrad]

Title says it all. Can't find any linky to it (though I admit I didn't look very hard). And it was never very active or comprehensive back in the day, even though a few sporadically ambitious attempts were made.

Any thoughts or comments about ye olde wiki, official or otherwise?

[OvRiDe]

Unfortunately, it had to go when I upgraded us to vB4. It was pretty stale, and very little traffic, so it didn't make a lot of sense to spend the time it would have taken to try and integrate it. But I will join you in saying...

R.I.P. ModWiki

[Konrad]

A dying breed, avid PC system modders.

Almost seems time to try putting out another Introductory Computer Modding For Dummies sort of book, eh? Alas, the one which brought me to this site years ago seems to have vanished from the public library.

[d_stilgar]

I own a copy of that book.

http://www.amazon.com/Maximum-PC-Guide-Extreme-Mods/dp/0789731924

Still relevant, especially considering the fact that most "mods" these days are a lot of really nice product purchased and assembled very nicely in a case, but not any real modding. The heyday of modding seems to be over. Builds are either that, something dumb, or extremely amazing scratch builds. There's not a lot of middle ground anymore. Don't get me wrong, most builds that get attention these days are so much better than the early days of modding in the early 2000s, but they lack that character that made them special and identifiable. You could tell from the finished product what was a Defiant or Slipperyskip mod. Most stuff today . . . could be anyone.

[Konrad]

Modding used to be more about technical skill and craftsmanship, no real choice but to DIY to get the customization you wanted. Now it's mostly about bling-bling, dropping cash on "custom" parts. So many things to pick from, pick your colour, pick your backlighting, pick from five versions of almost any variable you desire - just gotta pay for it.

At least the creativity is still important, gotta be inspired by a theme to produce an inspired theme.

I'm a little dismayed that - almost without fail - the First Prize Winner in custom PC themes is invariably the Patriotic-American. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine enough theme, the PC are often expertly built with masterful attention to the finest details. It's just stale and predictable. And biased, it seems a no-brainer that Patriotic-Canadian PC mods just wouldn't fare as well, lol.

Well, I'm also dismayed by the bountiful overpreponderance of chassis windows. Some of us (well, me, at least) just don't want a stupid window. A solid Faraday cage, EM-shielded and electrically grounded and overkill hardened, is vastly preferable to showing off the pretty lights.

[d_stilgar]

Modding used to be more about technical skill and craftsmanship, no real choice but to DIY to get the customization you wanted. Now it's mostly about bling-bling, dropping cash on "custom" parts. So many things to pick from, pick your colour, pick your backlighting, pick from five versions of almost any variable you desire - just gotta pay for it.

At least the creativity is still important, gotta be inspired by a theme to produce an inspired theme.

I'm a little dismayed that - almost without fail - the First Prize Winner in custom PC themes is invariably the Patriotic-American. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine enough theme, the PC are often expertly built with masterful attention to the finest details. It's just stale and predictable. And biased, it seems a no-brainer that Patriotic-Canadian PC mods just wouldn't fare as well, lol.

Well, I'm also dismayed by the bountiful overpreponderance of chassis windows. Some of us (well, me, at least) just don't want a stupid window. A solid Faraday cage, EM-shielded and electrically grounded and overkill hardened, is vastly preferable to showing off the pretty lights.

I remember when you had to go to the hardware store to get modding parts. A friend of mine wanted to show off his hardware, so he cut a piece of acrylic and got a car window gasket kit and cut a hole in his case. We cut holes to mount fans for better cooling. We took razors to our IDE cables so we could tie them together for better airflow.

When liquid cooling came to the scene it was fishtank pumps and car radiators. Today, you can buy all these things, which is great. It lowers the barrier to entry for people. It also means that, in terms of aesthetic, the bar has to be raised. But I don't think it has been yet.

I mean, hot rods are cool . . .
http://www.tiptoptens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/ford-roadster.jpg

But with so many it's time we raised the bar . . .
http://www.hotrodhotline.com/feature/2010show/010gnrsambrwinner/assets/images/db_images/db_100_70904.jpg
http://www.hotrodhotline.com/feature/2010show/010gnrsambrwinner/html/jerry_magnuson__32.php