So, I thought this was interesting - trapwarning

I went in to sync up the archives today and ran across something new - a "trapwarning" text file to go with some of the wads that have recently been uploaded - warning of, as you might have guessed, a trap in the map(s).

NOTICE:

The .txt and .zip files with the same name as this file have a trap at the end that is intended to lock up your game with loud continuous sounds and graphic corruption of the visual walls, floors, etc. Although not intended to actually damage your PC, you may end up having to power down to get out of the level.

Because this is such a shocking transition from the rest of the level, this message is here to warn people, as the effects could cause seizures in those sensitive to that sort of stimulus. Please do not play the level unless you accept this.

Play at your own risk.


I had actually noticed this trend recently and basically just passed them off as garbage but it appears to be a new trend which is a real shame.

Yeah I've seen stuff like this, I think it's just more Terryshit.

Personally I think Ty should deny entry to the archive for wads that haven't first been showcased in Wads & Mods and been proven to be good maps, or at least not shitwads. That would take care of the problem.

General Rainbow Bacon said:

Personally I think Ty should deny entry to the archive for wads that haven't first been showcased in Wads & Mods and been proven to be good maps, or at least not shitwads. That would take care of the problem.

I whole-heartedly agree with you on that, although I'm okay with playing shitty wads (and I even weirdly enjoy it to an extent). But Terry-wads are another thing then.

General Rainbow Bacon said:

Yeah I've seen stuff like this, I think it's just more Terryshit.

Personally I think Ty should deny entry to the archive for wads that haven't first been showcased in Wads & Mods and been proven to be good maps, or at least not shitwads. That would take care of the problem.

that would solve the problem but i strongly disagree with it. the stuff is mainly notorious because of the frontend, which is a separate entity from the archives themselves. punishing all potential archives users by routing them all through Doomworld's w&m forum is overkill.

General Rainbow Bacon said:

Personally I think Ty should deny entry to the archive for wads that haven't first been showcased in Wads & Mods and been proven to be good maps, or at least not shitwads. That would take care of the problem.

I have a better idea. Why don't you try not playing wads that you can clearly tell are shit? It really says something when Doomguy 2000 of all people has more sound logic in relation to a specific topic than you. youtube.com/watch?v=Kua-H8xjXxE

(He's still not very good at getting his points across without ad-hominem attacks, though)

It's a bit hilarious to imagine an aged man looking through dozens of WADs in search of anal rape references.

General Rainbow Bacon said:

Personally I think Ty should deny entry to the archive for wads that haven't first been showcased in Wads & Mods and been proven to be good maps, or at least not shitwads. That would take care of the problem.

I'd totally organize mobs to vote down your maps as shitwads if this came to pass, so you'd be the first to feel the sting of the new mob justice era. It is an extremely bad idea.

And you think letting all the shit that currently comes into the archive continue streaming in like piss is fine?

I don't. I come here to play maps that are fun. I don't like the fact that now when I look in the archive, I have to wade through piles of crap.

There needs to be something done. Maybe not what I suggested, but someone needs to put their foot down and stop letting Terrywads and other similar shit into the archive.

It's like the archive has become a wad hoarder's paradise, we don't need to hold on to most of the shit that comes through here now.

I say we give new wads a 1 month window to be reviewed, if they don't get at least an average score of 3 stars by then, they get canned.

General Rainbow Bacon said:

And you think letting all the shit that currently comes into the archive continue streaming in like piss is fine?

I don't. I come here to play maps that are fun. I don't like the fact that now when I look in the archive, I have to wade through piles of crap.

There needs to be something done. Maybe not what I suggested, but someone needs to put their foot down and stop letting Terrywads and other similar shit into the archive.

Well, it looks like they're doing something - those trapwarning .txt files are helpful - lets you know right away to stay away from it. Also, this is part of the reason I do This Week in Doom - so people know right up front what is worth bothering with and what is garbage.

Yeah that is something, but do we really need to save these pathetic wads? There's no reason to keep them in the archive. Do you keep all your trash and save it for later at home? Probably not, why do we do it here?

We have this forum to help build good mapping technique and help each other out when we want to hone our mapping skills. There's no reason to submit something that you know is sub-par to the archive when we have all these resources to improve maps.

General Rainbow Bacon said:

Yeah that is something, but do we really need to save these pathetic wads? There's no reason to keep them in the archive. Do you keep all your trash and save it for later at home? Probably not, why do we do it here?

We have this forum to help build good mapping technique and help each other out when we want to hone our mapping skills. There's no reason to submit something that you know is sub-par to the archive when we have all these resources to improve maps.

Bad maps are one thing - these are done like this on purpose, and I wish I knew why they keep them. But, since they do - I do.

General Rainbow Bacon said:

Yeah that is something, but do we really need to save these pathetic wads? There's no reason to keep them in the archive.

Here is how I see it:

I believe the archive is for storing Doom wads, from what I can tell these are indeed wads for the game Doom so I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be here.

As much as you hate them you cannot deny the fact that they are (to the very core) Doom wads which means they have a rightful place on the archive as Doom wads regardless of contents (providing they do not cause actually malicious actions).

You can't just censor these wads because you don't like them, if I were to do that then speed maps wouldn't be allowed on the archive (And you wouldn't want that, would you?).

Have I ever submitted my speedmaps to the archive? Yes, they're fun to make, but being that I can poop them out at about 4 per day, I don't need to save all of them. Besides, speedmapping is about brainstorming to me, then after making a speedmap maybe fleshing it out into a larger, more interesting idea and getting a real map out of it.

True: I am making a bunch of speedmaps with Obsidian that we will probably submit, but it's for a specific idea. My normal everyday speedmaps I don't give a damn about.

I even agree with you. Maybe we don't need ALL the speedmaps in the archive, just find the most interesting ones and keep them.

The problem is that the /idgames archive has never been about quality control; it's been open to all comers for over 20 years at this point and there would be an extremely strong reaction to trying to change that. Of course there are a lot more shitty trolls who revel in wasting everyone's time than there were 20 years ago, but luckily it's been a manageable problem thus far.

If you were going to start up a Doom WAD archive today you would surely have user accounts, and some degree of moderation, and a built-in rating system, and support for bug fixes and versioning, and all sorts of niceties. But it's not what we have.

GRB, the archive is neutral and only flags Terry's abusive crap. If bad maps trigger you and you're compelled to play every map that shows in the list, I think the only correct way is for you to code a new independent frontend that would have all of that filtering sweetness. Categorization, unlisting wads that drop below an arbitraty cutoff, purgatory periods. That way everyone's happy and I bet you'd get a solid following! Telling others to start deleting maps based on your criteria is not cool, though.

Both of you have some pretty good ideas there. I might think about starting a new Doom site, and making this a reality.