These forums going down the toilet

[Dominion]

There is an MWG awards board but I see no "Contest" or "Competitions" boards. MWG awards was/is a nomination based system, not a contest/competition. If there is another location please point me in the direction of it so that I can see what has been done.

There are threads with this general idea -

http://makewebgames.io/showthread.php/40060-quot-The-n00b-Challenge-quot?highlight=contest

http://makewebgames.io/showthread.php/40061-Would-you-compete-in-a-MWG-Mini-Game-Contest?highlight=contest

http://makewebgames.io/showthread.php/42159-Let-s-have-some-fun?highlight=contest

And actually some people did take part. If it was the right contest I would probably take part, however the overall entries next to how many people say "yes" is rather low. If you have idea's about how to run this, what contest there is going to be (etc) I'm sure it could work.

 

If the goal is just to bring forum post counts up then I think the bigger picture may be missing. Shouldn't the goal be something more like increasing quality post? Having good quality, informative post will spawn other discussions. Either way doesn't matter, the idea was more of just a community involvement project.

The goal is to improve content so more people get involved in worth while threads and discussions. Post count just happens to go with that. A how-to guide per engine should be the responsibility of those who sell it. Doing one for open source engines (ezrpg for example) may draw people to it, and get more threads with mods and improve that section of the site.

So thinking about this suggestion I take back what I said. It's actually not a bad idea, however I would promote either open source projects or those who have active support staff who participate on the forum.

 

I am missing the logic here. Having things organized will cause more confusion?

Of course I know it is/would be a lot of work. Definitely not something that could be done overnight but feel it would make things more user friendly.

It would be more confusing if done badly. I was simply saying we would need to agree on a new structure for the site to avoid problems.

[Djkanna]

Wasn't this tried before and failed.. Although people say they are bored/hate these forums we've all been coming here for years its a way of life now...

Tru dat!.

Bringing us back on topic.. I'd be happy to run a new forum with the old favourites.. Or staff this one and sort it out.

What do you guys think?

Not sure a new forum is the solution to the problems this community is having, but hey doesn't hurt to try.

We did try it, but as AB mentioned it was a little bit of a flop.

We need some new ideas, revitalise the community as it were.

Rather than adding to the pile of forums for this specific community.

[a_bertrand]

Quality posts about what Analog? McCodes always? Anything proposed by anyone which goes out of that seems to receive little to no interest. Well personally I'm not interested in McCodes, McCodes games, and McCodes modules... And I doubt we could have so much quality posts about that kind of subjects.

Now if you talk about how to create a game in general, what kind of technology, how to advertise, and more, here I'm open to discussion. But guess what, all that as been already tried, and... beside the usual 2-3 nobody participated ;)

For the split of modules in many different categories, it's usually not a good idea. What you would need is to have "tags" on modules, as a module / modification could have multiple tags. Anyhow just to download a module, a forum is not the right media. A marketplace, with search and more would be the way to go. If I remember right CB said he want to offer one at some point. When? Well... that's another question.

[Dominion]

How many people would be interested in threads specifically written to be controversial, for example (some time ago now) I wrote a large post on another site (yay for the site dying...) explaining my views on learning OOP in php before you can actually do the basics and how it is why many people struggle. There was another about optimization, and how, at the end of the day, a lot of the arguments about what is best becomes both confusing for new programming and irrelevant for most as it's unnoticeable.

They started some heated, but interesting discussions if you ignored the people who outright insulted those who disagreed with them.

[Analog]

Thank you Dominion for the response to the ideas I posted and the short discussion about them.

However, overall I feel ideas are not really welcomed based on the response I've got so far.

@A_b

Not once did I mention McCodes as being the focus of anything. My ideas are/were merely general thoughts regarding things contained within the forums.

With that said, I shall just keep the rest of my thoughts to myself and go back to being the occasional lurker.

[Spudinski]

As said by pretty much everyone here, it's not [only] the quality that needs to improve, it's the substance.

Most people here aren't interested in the same things experienced members are. Examples can be seen across almost every section of the forum, things like discussing low-level PHP or C# have no attractiveness for anyone else.

This is the reason many others left. Once they've started being good at anything, this forum doesn't have anything to stimulate them anymore.

You can really thank MCCodes for that, since they did it all on their own.

[spikereloaded]

As a relative newcomer to the PHP/MC codes/web games arena, I have to say that I've found this site immeasurably useful for information and advice, and i feel my knowledge of the area has grown from near enough nothing, to a level that's now allowed me (and a friend) to make a significantly unique game.

I understand the frustration about idiots and time wasters but at the end of the day, it's the internet, there's no getting away from them. I've found the more experienced member on here really helpful and informative (although i do still feel like a complete novice when asking for help).

I for one will continue to use the forums and hopefully, as time goes on be able to put more back into the community.

[Mint Berry Crunch]

As another newcomer I can agree with spikereloaded on this issue. I have very little knowledge on MCCodes and all these other engines that are discussed on this forum and little interest to look into it. I am not sure if I am being an idiot or if it was intended for people to join this community with prerequisite knowledge on the said game engines, but I can't seem to find concise documentation that explains what these engines are and whether I would want to look into them.

Nonetheless, I post here because there are few communities for me to discuss browser game development theory and as long as there are people here to share their ideas and their experiences I will follow these forums and attempt to post wherever I can. I have witnessed an essence of chauvinist arsehole culture where people pick on others on trivial things but in my experience all forums are like this. Add anonymity to any situation and humans act like tossers. It isn't avoidable but it can be suppressed with discouragement from other members.

With regards to the lack of good quality posts, I imagine there is probably a lack of posters with the right information and the willingness to be discuss it. After all, this is a site dedicated to people producing web games; people intend to create something and hope it succeeds on the internet, financially and socially amongst players. Inherently, we are all competitors, so I am not surprised to see someone being slagged off immediately after starting a thread about their game or the service they offer. For these reasons I feel that members are constrained to the type of posts they will contribute here.

[DeathsAlive]

With regards to the lack of good quality posts, I imagine there is probably a lack of posters with the right information and the willingness to be discuss it. After all, this is a site dedicated to people producing web games; people intend to create something and hope it succeeds on the internet, financially and socially amongst players. Inherently, we are all competitors, so I am not surprised to see someone being slagged off immediately after starting a thread about their game or the service they offer. For these reasons I feel that members are constrained to the type of posts they will contribute here.

Sadly. This is what I have found. I have met a fair amount of people through these kind of forums and games in general. But mainly we discuss ideas, concepts, experiences etc in-between ourselves only. (outside the public forums)

In an almost saturated market, it's hard to come up with something niche to attract enough people/players to succeed...

Edited August 14, 2013 by DeathsAlive