First step towards improving the forum!

[Ritz]

This is basically a repost of the discussion that briefly took place on IRC not too long ago. Anyway, I'm sure I don't have to point out to the intelligent among you that the Editing forums are in a crippling state of disarray. The simplest solution? We establish quality control- that is, a handful of sensible members assigned to thoroughly reviewing and critiquing each and every wad posted on the boards.

Basically, it'd be a partition of the Moderators group that presides only over the Editing boards. They'd be responsible for doling out constructive, thorough criticism- everyone else can still voice their opinions, of course- and in extreme cases (i.e, every wad on the forum), administrative action would be taken. This would involve either removing the topic or, ideally, moving the wads to a special 'Banana Basket' forum where everyone can wallow in their own fecal matter to their hearts' content- you know, so no one complains. Of course, should a miracle occur and the wadder in question actually takes our criticism to heart and improves their work, the topic would be moved back to the proper board.

So, what say you? As far as I can tell, this should be a fairly simple thing to implement, so long as Mystic can spare a few seconds from his stringent Molten Core raiding regimen to get over his board-modding phobia. Or, hell, just give people Mod status and rely on the honor system- that is, trust them not to mess with any boards outside of the Editing section.

 

[Segmint]

y

This is absolutely perfect. Every time I check the Editing forum, there are in excess of ten topics average that have new posts, and the wads being discussed are mostly crap, leaving maybe two or three good ones.
Although, they should not be in the Moderators usergroup, and should be totally seperate, considering they judge the wads in the first place. Besides, there are other things you have to figure out;

- Who will be chosen?

- How will they be chosen?

- What they should be called (because they aren't moderators)

- How many do we need?

- Even if this poll has more than 90% Yes (after more than 50 votes if it lives long enough), will the Administrators instate this (brilliant) idea?

I still support it, but before this actually works, it has to run by Mystic, FoxBlitz, SSNTails, Arrow, and whichever other Administrator(s) I'm missing. Also, it would most likely be worked out in the Hidden Palace, and we wouldn't know whether or not they care.

Edit: Not to mention that the Editing forum is basically a bunch of people just posting about what their working on, and that's it. The Editing forum needs its own set of rules and regulations, because I don't see any in effect. If their are rules, and I just didn't notice them, they need to be revamped. It's like, "ololol ill psot my wad in liek progrs and il jus relees it bcuz i jsut want ppl to see im doin it. lik wat is th prob wit tat it not lik the eidt fornm has rulz". People post to show that they're working on something, and put up a poll saying "HOW AWESOME IS THIS", and have a majority of the options positive, and one slightly negative. No input needed, because the people doing that don't necessarily use input, and just call it "flaming". Constructive criticism doesn't work there, as most "editors" complain about how "I dont want to do that" and "no thats a dumb idea".

Edit: Also, the banana basket (I would say, "Editing Trash" or "Abominations", but meh.) should be a locked forum, or just a forum that has all of its settings disallowing people to post there, without being locked. Like the Archive forum, you can post there, but may not create any topics, except you can't post either.

Ok, I promise, rant over.

 

[Ritz]

For some reason, I thought that all of the wad-related boards were grouped under Editing. Correction: This only applies to the Releases forum.

 

[Segmint]

lolwhut

Uh, why not both Editing and Releases? They both contain the same amount of crap, so why not?

 

[Sykotic]

I like the idea. Here's a list on who I think deserves to be a part of the group.
*List removed because Seg's got a point on Page 2.*

 

[Ritz]

Uh, why not both Editing and Releases? They both contain the same amount of crap, so why not?

Editing is the "work in progress" forum. It wouldn't be fair to shelve an unfinished project when it could still theoretically go either way; while this is never the case, we still owe people that right.

Edit: Also, the banana basket (I would say, "Editing Trash" or "Abominations", but meh.) should be a locked forum, or just a forum that has all of its settings disallowing people to post there, without being locked. Like the Archive forum, you can post there, but may not create any topics, except you can't post either.

No. It's not like the Wad Gestapo would always have the final say- everyone needs to be able to express their opinion, we can't smother them like that. As for creating topics there, if people are willing to outright admit that their work is trash, then hey, it just saves us the trouble of having to put up with them, right?

 

[SSNTails]

I've always thought of the Editing forum as the dumping ground for a bunch of garbage, while the worthwhile stuff shows up on the Addons page.

 

[Shuffle]

"- What they should be called (because they aren't moderators) "
Let's take the obvious answer and call them Mod Critics.

 

[SuperMecha]

I like this idea alot, we could finally put a waste to all the crap that is posted on the Editing Section. Here is a little list I came up with
List:
Me
Ritz
DarkWarrior
Sykotic
Draykon
Flame_the_hedgehog
BlueWarrior
Spazzo
-
That is my list *bricked*
EDIT: Shuffles idea kicks ass.

 

[Chaos]

Um, what about me? *banned*

 

[Segmint]

Mod Critics. Hmm, sounds great actually. As for the Editing... I guess it wouldn't make sense to delete what would be wads in progress, as they would make themselves to Releases anyway, but it has to be stricter. Wads that basically come from a sprite sheet... well, aren't very nice to see. Especially when:

- No corner sprites
- No credit to person who ripped them
- Over 5 topics on a page with them

Also, users abuse the Editing forum to start multiple projects, spam about their levels, etc., and it's really annoying. A couple of rules for that specific forum wouldn't do any harm (and may just help).

In response to these lists of people;

No. The Administrators will pick whomever they feel is fit for the responsibility.

(Yay, 11 yes, 0 no)

Offtopic: Woah, trippy, my old account, "Segmentium" joined exactly 2 months before "Segmint". Weird.

 

[_Manic_]

There might be a downhill to this, at some point, as something bad may happen, but in other words, I agree.

 

[I'll Begin]

Because everyone else is being silly and nominating themselves.

O PIK ME PL0X. *killed by some random method*


In all seriousness though, I'm all for this idea.

 

[Cue]

Just for the record, you can already set up users to moderate single forums, you just put their name in the moderator field of the forum in the admin panel.

I'm liking this idea, I too am getting rather sick of the lack of quality in wads lately, especially character wads.

 

[ST218]

It's a nice idea. It's both needed on one end, and it's useful for Mystic from an administrator standpoint. Anyone who could be a mod in the future could be put here, to see if they can handle a little responsibility.

 

[Spazzo]

Wow, I'm downright shocked. First steps are actually being taken!

If what is being planned here happens, please, count me in. Being a part of something this constructive for a forum in need of it would really do something for me.

The only part of it that needs reworking is the team - putting this effort on the moderators might be a bit of a hassle, especially due to three quarters of them not frequenting here as often as others do. I suggest that only users who have been here over 1 (2?) years should have the possibility of being a part of this "Mod Critic" group.

 

[Princess Plushima]

Definitely a nice idea we have here. I have only two worries:

- How will the people whose WADs are moved to this "Bananna Basket" forums react? It could lead to reactions even worse than how some people react to negative criticism.
- Who would both be willing to do this, and is trusted by the people in power? Most of these lists consist of random people the general public likes, but who does Mystic actually trust?

Otherwise though, I like the idea.

 

[Hyperknux]

This is basically a repost of the discussion that briefly took place on IRC not too long ago. Anyway, I'm sure I don't have to point out to the intelligent among you that the Editing forums are in a crippling state of disarray. The simplest solution? We establish quality control- that is, a handful of sensible members assigned to thoroughly reviewing and critiquing each and every wad posted on the boards.

Basically, it'd be a partition of the Moderators group that presides only over the Editing boards. They'd be responsible for doling out constructive, thorough criticism- everyone else can still voice their opinions, of course- and in extreme cases (i.e, every wad on the forum), administrative action would be taken. This would involve either removing the topic or, ideally, moving the wads to a special 'Banana Basket' forum where everyone can wallow in their own fecal matter to their hearts' content- you know, so no one complains. Of course, should a miracle occur and the wadder in question actually takes our criticism to heart and improves their work, the topic would be moved back to the proper board.

So, what say you? As far as I can tell, this should be a fairly simple thing to implement, so long as Mystic can spare a few seconds from his stringent Molten Core raiding regimen to get over his board-modding phobia. Or, hell, just give people Mod status and rely on the honor system- that is, trust them not to mess with any boards outside of the Editing section.

I actually quite like the idea of this. It will save a lot of things, flaming, critisism, you name it.

I've been here for about a year and almost 2 months. And I think I've matured quite a bit, so it's up to you whoever's organising this, but I'd to help out someday. SuperMecha's list is a pretty good choice.

 

[Spazzo]

- How will the people whose WADs are moved to this "Bananna Basket" forums react? It could lead to reactions even worse than how some people react to negative criticism.

Maybe we can get around this. Rather than it being the "Banana Basket", it should be named "Beginners" or "First wads", giving a name that is more constructive than derogatory.

Another thing about choosing the users for this "group" - the top 30 posters list should be the cap for users who can join. Anybody below either has not been here for over a year, or doesn't frequent here enough to be a part of this group.

 

[ST218]

Top thirty posters Spazzo? With me at number 42? :p

Post count does not mean a thing, which is why it isn't displayed next to posts. It should be entirely the admins descision on who, if anyone, is part of this group. If they want to limit it to top thirty, fine, but if a regular user suggests this and said user is in that category, he looks like he's pining for power.