CP subsection for Wads & Mods

[tomatoKetchup]

That just crossed my mind while I was looking to join a new community project. They are pretty hard to spot among all the other threads about single map submissions or one-man-(mega)wads.

It'd be nice to have a sub-section with all WIP community projects still looking for new people to join in, it'd be a win-win for both those to stand out and mappers willing to find them.

What you think?

[joe-ilya]

Good idea, if many people will agree with you, there should be a stickied thread of it.

[scifista42]

+1 good idea.

[Memfis]

Or maybe divide the section into works in progress and releases. So that a person looking for something new to play wouldn't have to deal with all the development threads.

[dew]

Memfis said:

Or maybe divide the section into works in progress and releases. So that a person looking for something new to play wouldn't have to deal with all the development threads.

This is a much, much better idea, although I'm not sure how feasible it is from the logistic POV.

[purist]

Both seem like good ideas to me. Though, I've not had problems finding what I'm looking for.

[tomatoKetchup]

Memfis said:

Or maybe divide the section into works in progress and releases. So that a person looking for something new to play wouldn't have to deal with all the development threads.

That's a good idea as well. Maybe to conciliate between the 2 you could have a WIP sub-section and all "approved" community projects (whatever that means) are pinned on top?

[scifista42]

What about the following subforums:

1. In-development projects seeking mappers
2. Mostly-finished projects seeking playtesting
3. Releases

[dew]

scifista42 said:

1. In-development projects seeking mappers
2. Mostly-finished projects seeking playtesting

If you distinguish between those two, you already fail as a project manager.

[scifista42]

In #1 I actually meant "In-development projects seeking mappers AND playtesting", and in #2 I meant "Projects seeking playtesting but not new mappers".

And in practice, almost all currently existing community projects can be sorted into one of these categories anyway.

[Tetzlaff]

CP means what? Community project? Community pack?

[Salt-Man Z]

I like the WIP subforum idea, but I don't think a separate forum for new releases is necessary: just post them in the Wads & Mods forum.

[dew]

scifista42 said:

In #1 I actually meant "In-development projects seeking mappers AND playtesting", and in #2 I meant "Projects seeking playtesting but not new mappers".

And in practice, almost all currently existing community projects can be sorted into one of these categories anyway.

But why would you distinguish between the two? #2 is just marginally ahead of #1 and to be honest, they're doing it wrong for not having testers included from the very beginning. Separating the two would only reinforce a very bad practice, not to mention you're excluding community projects, so where would single/double author projects go?

[scifista42]

Salt-Man Z said:

I don't think a separate forum for new releases is necessary: just post them in the Wads & Mods forum.

Perhaps you've never been in a situation like: "Okay, I've just logged on to DW forum, and I'm currently feeling like playing some fresh new wad from here! But I don't want to be a beta playtester or run into random bugs, I want to play something already tested and finished. How hard would it be to quickly find a wad for me???"

dew said:

But why would you distinguish between the two?

Free mappers who wanted to get engaged in a community project would seek application in subforum #1.
People who wanted to playtest maps would seek application in either #1 or #2, knowing that #2 projects need them more acutely, as they're closer to a release.

[esselfortium]

Having such specific subforums would just make navigating the forum more convoluted, I think. Having a couple of new thread-tag images for a project's status would be a better idea, IMO, if anything.

[duh]

http://wadsinprogress.info/ - a dedicated site for that
http://www.moddb.com/ - in case you want to hit a different player base (here is mostly oldschoolers, I believe)
https://github.com/ - dev platform

[tomatoKetchup]

I like Scifista's idea personally, if the forums staff is ok for the extra work that might involve, that is.

Though the "Releases" would actually be the main section and WIP/playtest 2 sub-sections.

I think it would certainly add clarity and help CPs/wad authors to find mappers and/or testers.

[Pure Hellspawn]

Salt-Man Z said:

I like the WIP subforum idea, but I don't think a separate forum for new releases is necessary: just post them in the Wads & Mods forum.

nope, it kind of is. many of us don't bother looking past page 2 or even 1 and it doesn't take long for a thread to end up there.

XCOPY said:

http://wadsinprogress.info/ - a dedicated site for that
http://www.moddb.com/ - in case you want to hit a different player base (here is mostly oldschoolers, I believe)
https://github.com/ - dev platform

1st Link: Only 4 released projects in six months. You won't find much.
2nd Link: i think this is a better example. http://forum.zdoom.org/viewforum.php?f=19&sid=6ee955d5c3b4b2f1fff13a23edf1dc17
3rd Link: Don't think you'll see too many DOOM mapsets on GitHub.

[dobu gabu maru]

esselfortium said:

Having such specific subforums would just make navigating the forum more convoluted, I think. Having a couple of new thread-tag images for a project's status would be a better idea, IMO, if anything.

This would be suuuuuper useful, as it'd be an easy way to let people know what needs mappers, what needs playtesting, & what needs updating. I mean people can always edit the thread title text, but I think it'd be more eye-catching and simple for colored [NEED MAPPERS] or [NEED PLAYTESTERS] images.

[gaspe]

The idea of the thread-tag images looks better imo.

[Linguica]

*doesn't read thread at all* No!! Absolutely not, I will not allow child porn in this forum!!

[Linguica]

Anyways, no, community projects aren't gonna get special treatment.

That said, I am pondering a subforum for completed projects, so that they're all in one easily browseable place.

[Cacowad]

Aww, i really liked the idea of having a subforum for wip CPs, it would be handy... most of the time they just get buried in the sands of time until someone remember them.

[gaspe]

Linguica said:

That said, I am pondering a subforum for completed projects, so that they're all in one easily browseable place.

So is this actually happening?!

Linguica said:

* Redo the /idgames database entirely to make it more of a generalized ModDB-type thing, where the atomic unit is a "project" not a "zip file"
* Integrate the /idgames db with the forums (as in: an autogenerated thread for every project and so forth)
* Make it so a forum user can "own" a idgames db project and actually update the listing

[40oz]

Linguica said:

That said, I am pondering a subforum for completed projects, so that they're all in one easily browseable place.

Are you sure esselfortium's suggestion isn't out of the question? The thread images like HELLO, BYE, LINK, GROSS, ON TOPIC, and STORY don't look like they get much usage.

RELEASE, BETA, HELP WANTED, could go a long way.

edit:

[Devalaous]

Theres nothing wrong with forum subcategories. Trying to find old releases is absolute hell, as is finding a development thread thats been inactive for a while

[Tristan]

The little image tag things are nice in theory, but can we really be sure people will properly use them?

[Gez]

Eris Falling said:

The little image tag things are nice in theory, but can we really be sure people will properly use them?

As sure as we can be they'd put their threads in the correct subforum if we went for this option instead.

Tetzlaff said:

CP means what? Community project? Community pack?

Chuck Palahniuk

[Memfis]

I dunno, do people actually look at the thread images? I think my eyes successfully trained to ignore them years ago.

[scifista42]

Let's also not forget about the fact that threads will polls are forced to have "POLL" tag, regardless of which tag the thread starter chooses. Look at this very thread for an example. This behaviour would have to be changed if project thread tags became a standard AND project managers initially made polls in their threads.