Oh god, i hope you’re trolling. As you can see here, the devs are more than capable of putting out media. They also have a YouTube channel for videos.
Also, the maps are not copied and pasted. Levels in-game has been altered to make more sense, and this mod is not trying to just have Half-Life in the Source engine. They’re remaking the whole thing, to create it the way they think Valve would, if they had the technology in 1998.
First of all, let me say that I very much appreciate the work done by the team and in no way do I think that they are unprofessional or that it takes too much time. I’m a professional developer myself, I’ve worked with artists before and I completely understand how much work actually has went into this to produce such stunning screenshots.
Nor do I wish to push for progress reports or release dates. It’s obvious that a volunteer project like this simply cannot have any set release dates; and bugging developers with progress reports would be detrimental to the said progress.
But I would like to add my voice to those who say that some signs of life would be greatly appreciated on the front page.
Yes, I know of the wiki uploads page. I actually found it ages ago by myself. But I’m not exactly an average computer user. Most people wouldn’t even suspect that a wiki section like that exists, much less go looking for it. I had dealt with MediaWiki before, so I knew what to expect.
The forum is also very lively, but it’s actually too lively. I tried looking for signs here about the status of the project (meaning alive/dead kind of status), and it took me a good deal of time to find anything. (Over 15min I think, and I started by checking the sticky topics in the relevant forums.) If I remember correctly, a link in a signature line of one of the devs finally brought me to his blog where there was an update about it a month ago… Yeah…
The point is - all the official sources of information (twitter feed, links on the front page, youtube channel, etc.) have gone dead for well over a year now. Unless you go digging deep into the unofficial, uncharted waters of community activity (wiki, forums, dev blogs), there’s nothing. To any outsider - and even those like me who visit the page every month or so to see what’s going on - the whole project looks simply dead.
Anyways, I suggest putting a link on the front page “to see how we are doing, check out the gallery of new files in our wiki”. This won’t put any pressure on the team, and will feed the hungry fans who will finally have some indication whether things are actually still in motion.
And I don’t think this will increase the people who whine about release dates. Actually I think it will decrease them. But if not - you’re doing a great job of ignoring them already. 
(Which, btw, I wholeheartedly I agree with)
Keep up the good work and may you make the best free game the world has ever seen!
This is a good idea.
Also, nice first post.
The way I see it, if someone can’t even put the effort into less than five minutes of searching whilst the developers are putting in hundreds if not thousands of hours into this mod, then they don’t deserve information. It takes just two clicks to get to the information they desire.
Also, the front page is not managed by developers; it is managed by the webmaster who goes by “Hubicorn” on this forum. Hubi recently updated the main site with rotating screenshots and some new quotes.
The information is there…one just has to put a LITTLE effort into finding it.
Well, I’d call that more than just LITTLE effort. Sure, once you know where it is, it’s just two clicks (one, after you’ve bookmarked it), but you’d have to be a computer enthusiast to get to the thought “Hmm, the wiki should have a log of activity somewhere, let’s see if I can find it, perhaps there is something of interest there”. That’s borderline hacker mentality already.
I guess in the end it boils down to the attitude towards your visitors. In my webpages I usually try to go by the principle of making things easier for the potential users, especially those that they are most likely to do. But if you wish, you can also have the “first you have to prove that you are worthy” kind of attitude. Depends on what you want. Just my 2 cents.
Like I said, the developers are not the webmaster. The webmaster has just as much information about the mod as we lowly peons do. It is the webmaster’s decision what goes on the front page. They can (and do) have their own websites and sometimes post media there, but we always point newbies to the Wiki.
Also, we have a nifty “search” function on the forums. It’s not rocket surgery to search for information. Hell, even Google will provide that information.
Instead, we have users who go through the time and trouble to register for this forum, expending MORE time and energy than just searching for the information themselves. If you believe that doing a search is more 1337-hardcore h@x0rz than registering on a forum, then…I don’t know what to say.
And what do you suggest I search for? No, honestly, I tried that, with whatever keywords I could come up with, and no result. And, by the way, compared to the amount of time and effort required to currently find any information, registering in the forums and posting a question is vastly easier.
Oh, and I do understand that the devs are not webmasters. Did I ever say that I directed all this towards the developers?
The FAQ? As for the mainpage, I do believe that there should be a link to the webmaster’s contact information.
Didn’t find anything in the FAQ (which is also well hidden under the About page, btw) about the wiki updates or any other lifesigns. Found more dead stuff in the wiki.
Webmaster email is still a mystery, wasn’t under the Contact page - just a suggestion to go to the forums. 
Currently only lead I have on him is the forum name you gave me an hour ago. If I hadn’t posted here, I wouldn’t have known.
Your next suggestion?
I agree with Vilx. This is why:
There are 2 groups to consider:
Group 1: the die hard Black Mesa-fans who stay around daily/weekly: they will find info no matter what, to them, the project is clearly not dead. They will search and search all the way.
Group 2: the standard gamer/half-life fan: will check the main page from time to time to see if it’s alive, see “Check here for recent updates (Twitter): last update 442 days ago” and think wtf, no change, it must be dead, near death.
So for group 2, the need to go search in the forums does not even rise, because you would already have to be on the forums to know the devs - who provide info from time to time - are still very active on the forums.
That’s the whole point:
Vilx’s suggestion to "put a link on the front page “to see how we are doing, check out the gallery of new files in our wiki” is for that Group 2. I would like to add that that “twitter: check for recent updates” would be removed too.
Upd: Wait, wait! I found it! In the team page at the very bottom! There are some links to webdev homepages on which you can find email links, if you try hard enough! Cool…
Umm, ok… so… what was I supposed to do with that now? O_o Go ask for BM status?
Hubi does not know about the release schedule. he only changed the mainpage with rotating screens and quotes to show signs of life.
You might wanna mail Joel Nielsen with questions, the soundtrack designer, but he won’t answer that i think.
See my sig for the only progress update in a long time, don’t think too much of it, though.
“Shortly” could be years
Yeah, I think I forgot the tags for my last sentence.
Lol, never mind then, consider my previous post an FYI then
OK, whatever. I don’t want to fight here. All I want to say is that there are way too many hints that BM is dead (or at least are uncertain), and the ones that say otherwise are too well hidden.
Peace.
Let’s have a look at your “hints”:
-A page stating “Mod Progress: On Schedule”
-An inactive twitter account
-The homepage, with some media on it and the statement that “[they] have always gone for a ‘when it’s done’ approach.”
-A page full of media
-A FAQ full of information about the mod, including the statement that “the release date will be announced in advance of the actual release.”
-Another FAQ full of information about the mod, including the statement that they “have however commited to releasing in the year 2009.”
-A simple timeline of mod development, full of information about the mod’s history
-A page full of devblogs giving insight into mod development
So there are only two actual hints (in bold).
Well, here’s what I see:
I think people forget that even Gordon Freeman was late for work. There’s a theme here guys. Don’t expect shit to be on time. That’s the true spirit of Christmas err half-life.
I never said anything about being on time. Hell, they actually ARE on time, since there is no set release date.
I just say that the webpage could use some love.
Wiki FAQ - latest update: 8 April 2011
Wiki - latest update: 14 April 2011
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.