Site Discussion Thread

[Danny]

I feel like it would be an inconvenience in that it would slow down the posting of those sort of topics. Is the end goal quality control? Or what's the general idea behind topic approval? I feel like there might be better ways of enforcing subforum rules without waiting for approval.
I just want to know what introducing topic approval would do that isn't being done now.

[aero]

Just gauging opinions.

[Taycamgame]

Hmm...
Topic approval would be good in the sense that it would control what topics are posted, therefore meaning that only the projects / levels / episodes forums would consist of legitimate threads. As in, you won't be seeing a project in the episode forum, or no progress in the OP of a project topic.
However, making people have to ask mods / admins for topic approval could be slow and possibly intimidating to some. This is because that some people may feel shy / scared to talk to mods and admins in PM, fearing consequences.
Now, topic approval does sound like a great idea to ensure that only real topics are posted. But i personally feel that it would just be too slow, especially as no mods or admins are active all the time. Just add new rules to those forums telling users that they need to post in a certain way and it would be good to go.

EDIT:
ALSO, i just noticed i cannot open or interact with Spoiler Boxes, am i the only one with this issue or is this a bug now?
To test, open this spoiler:

Spoiler: show

If you can read this then it means it is probably just me?

[Cedur]

I'm all for testing topic approval a bit, as troll threads keep coming at a regular rate, and it should be possible to have an approval done within a day or two (anything further becomes frustrating for the person waiting). And since they're from first-time posters in 99% of all cases, maybe is it possible to implement that if you have, say, 10+ posts, you're exempt from approval? (A troll newbie wouldn't do the effort of making 10 legitimate posts)

^ Taycamgame: rules are already visible and concise enough, but they keep being ignored sometimes :>

[ElectriKong]

However, making people have to ask mods / admins for topic approval could be slow and possibly intimidating to some. This is because that some people may feel shy / scared to talk to mods and admins in PM, fearing consequences.

If they make it so that posts are submitted to mods instead of becoming publically viewable, then this would not be as much of a problem. It could make creation of threads slower but if there was a maximum number of posts which once exceeded, causes this to no longer happen, then it may be OK.

And yes, quotes are broken.

[Snessy the duck]

Reports, spoilers and quotes are now broken. I hope it gets fixed soon.

[Oshi]

Even posting is kinda broken too, because whenever I post it says "Message contains too few characters" no matter how long the post is.


Only sometimes though.

[aero]

Something can be worked out for approval speed, the focus should be on the concept.

[FireyPaperMario]

I got a serious question to ask: What the hell happened to the "Spoiler" shortcut in post maker/editor?!? o_0

[Emral]

Wild Suggestion Time

Prox and I discussed this matter on the codehaus discord just now, but I wanted to bring it up here before it dies somewhere in the void of instant messages:
With the growth of the community and the rising standards due to more and more people being introduced to the likes of Mario Brown, Ceave Gaming and other Game Design Youtubers, we pondered the ideas of ways to bring the community closer together and help each other learn.

The concept of an "ideas" topic came up, where people could get feedback on their level ideas, with other users chiming in and giving their suggestions on what could be done, but I think what might be even better is an entire forum dedicated to this. Think of it as a "Level Workshop" forum, where people can make threads about their ideas and request input, feedback, help or other thoughts. In the sticky threads of that forum one could find various links to helpful sources regarding level design, creativity and inspiration, but maybe also (if this takes off) various easy-to-understand tutorials with gifs visualising the process of design or even levels illustrating the development of challenges within a level (I'd definitely help out in compiling such resources).

There are many ways in which levels here can still improve, which is why I suspect the gap between average users and veterans who seek out this information by themselves to grow even further over the coming years. Making this information easy to access while letting people with more experience directly chime in on every idea seems to me like a way to close the gap while bringing the community closer together.

Beyond a centralised hub for sharing ideas and helping each other out, I've also pondered the idea of mini-contests putting creativity to the test. I haven't fully developed any ideas yet. The furthest I've gotten is "people submit detailed level concepts, everyone gets feedback and revises them, submits them again and the best ones are asked to design the level and face off against each other, with score based on adherence to their idea, execution, fun factor, etc..."

But that's just as an aside.

I'm interested to hear what you guys at staff think of this idea. Thanks for reading.

[WildW]

I forward the idea of a level workshop forum because sometimes new users don’t know where to look for tips and may not Know what to do.

[aero]

I don't see how it would turn out differently than a Projects forum but for levels or #smbx on the main discord server. I think you should probably demo the idea first in a thread, and see how it works out.

[Emral]

Alright, made a thread to prototype it. Due to it being a single thread it focuses on the community aspect more so than the "building a comprehensive design hub" part of the idea with various usage examples and tutorials. But if this moves over to a forum, handling that part in a sticky topic referencing various topics within the forum is how I would want to handle it. Just mentioning that so that part doesn't fall under the rug.

[ElectriKong]

Another thing that seems to be broken are the [rimg] tags. They no longer embed images.

[Taycamgame]

I swear someone came up with that idea before and it was rejected, it may or may not have been me... i cannot remember.
But it sounds like an interesting idea and i would certainly support it.

[Thehelmetguy1]

It does look like a good idea. Hopefully it works well.

[GforGoomba]

Can an unfinished Metroidvania level be in the Projects forum?

[Emral]

Speaking of which - are there plans to make the term "Projects" encompass smaller projects that might not be larger than a level? Since an unfinished level is still a project and it's often better to get feedback before finishing something, since afterwards people are less inclined to revisit it and iron out oversights. It might also encourage people to advertise and build individual levels and improve through them, rather than picking up an 80 level project where every level ends up being a grain of sand in the desert.

[aero]

There aren't plans for that. I think those would also be better suited for Levels forum threads anyway if something like that were to happen.

[GforGoomba]

There aren't plans for that. I think those would also be better suited for Levels forum threads anyway if something like that were to happen.

Funny you should say that, I am making a Metroidvania level right now...