18 réponses à ce sujet

[indio]

The BioWare toolset forum is going to be closed down in 3 days or so. Change needs to happen here.

1. Allow more threads on one page by reducing the size of each thread (remove the icon of the last poster)
2. Search simply must work...the same question will be asked 100 times otherwise
3. Active moderators like Beerfish and Sunjammer need to be able to prioritise information in stickies
4. These forums should be accessible to google...I can't find any results for this site through google...with search not working, google not working, and so few threads on 1 page so that any question is bumped to page 2 within minutes, this forum is essentially useless
5. Most are here here for information, not to socialise

The illusion of activity is what this forum creates. Threads move quickly from page 1 to 2 to oblivion, many without answers. Most good posts are consigned to history, never to be seen again. No searching, no google. So whilst it seems this forum is busy and that people must therefore be achieving something, this forum is just an illusion of productivity. If it doesn't get fixed, I suspect that many potential builders who arrive here with enthusiasm and energy will quickly realise they have no earthly business with the toolset and leave.

With the closure of the original BW forum, it is only a matter of time before we see the consequences of relying on style over content. That is unless this site is bought up to scratch.

[giskard44]

You make some very good points Indio and I agree with most of them completely.



But a forum is a not the right place to hold answers permanently, such answers need to be placed in the wiki or some other permanent location. Those locations can be added to stickys in this forum for easy access. Any answers left in any forum usually get pensioned off when the forum kills off old data months from now.



Its pretty much standard practice on a busy forum. So collecting good answers from this forum for the wiki or another site is perhaps more important.

[indio]

Agreed. But is info from this forum going on the wiki? I'll bet as it stands most of what's on here is awaiting a prune a few months from now and will never see the light of a wiki.



Example: This is from Page 5 of the forum, and is soon to be consigned to the dustbin of history.



http://social.biowar.../8/index/150840

[giskard44]

indio wrote...

Agreed. But is info from this forum going on the wiki? I'll bet as it stands most of what's on here is awaiting a prune a few months from now and will never see the light of a wiki.

Example: This is from Page 5 of the forum, and is soon to be consigned to the dustbin of history.

http://social.biowar.../8/index/150840

Thats the 1 million dollar question and that is what needs organizing.

To be honest, I finished my first play through today and have just launched the editor for the first time, so I am starting from the ground floor today and will no doubt have to learn all this my self as i always have to when i start modding a new game. So I'll be seeing these issues your talking about very soon now.

Btw do not confuse modding with the activities of professionals
mate, its very dangerous legal ground for a modder to be when the 2 are
not kept completely separate. Eulas and copyright issues will bite you
every time if you ever forget this. Trust me, I have been modding for
decades, i have seen what happens when people confuse the two.

Always refer to modding activities as modding or hobbies and stay on safe ground.

Besides, have you see the mess some professionals make when paid to do a job ?
I take pride in being a modder not a professional sometimes hehe.

[Shade Sharphook]

This forum does need to be fixed up quite a bit. I spent the first 4 hours after my purchase trawling through these pages to fix all my installation issues.

There is a lot of good info here, but its impossible to find in less than many hours.....

I want to use the toolset more, but with the info scattered everywhere, it feels like I am going backwards with learning.

[Metro_Cube]

indio wrote...

Agreed. But is info from this forum going on the wiki? I'll bet as it stands most of what's on here is awaiting a prune a few months from now and will never see the light of a wiki.

Example: This is from Page 5 of the forum, and is soon to be consigned to the dustbin of history.

http://social.biowar.../8/index/150840

Thank you for this link. I've added it to my favorites so it doesn't get lost.

But you're right. This Site - while it looks very snazzy - could use some serious upgrading in the usability and utility departments.

[Arkenor Oakshadow]

Subforums, and brutal moderation is what is needed. Scoop up all these mod-request threads that are cluttering the place up and stick them in their own forum where they won't get mistaken for something containing useful information.

As toolset forum-users we can also help by having a look for similar threads before asking questions that have already been asked. And by using thread titles that do what they say on the tin, rather than being ambiguous or misleading.

Modifié par Arkenor Oakshadow, 12 novembre 2009 - 11:59 .

[Wannabeuk]

It would be nice if we begun a standard of tagging forums posts aswell such as



[Tutorial]Lightmapping 101

[Solved]How does x work?

[Solved]How do i make y?



This way, it would be much clearer which information needs uploading to the wiki, and what posts still require answers

[Allan Smith]

There are some good points in here that we need to try and address.  If I could just jump in and  comment on this one:

indio wrote...

Agreed. But is info from this forum going on the wiki? I'll bet as it stands most of what's on here is awaiting a prune a few months from now and will never see the light of a wiki.

Example: This is from Page 5 of the forum, and is soon to be consigned to the dustbin of history.

http://social.biowar.../8/index/150840

The post referred to is exactly the kind of thing to be putting into the wiki, and the main purpose of the wiki is so that good stuff like this becomes permanantly accessible, and updated continuously.   Once it is in there, people can add to it, tweak it and make it even better. 
This is the kind of thing that, even in a great forum can get frustrating because there is often a lot of posting before, after, and all around  the good stuff.  You end up having to read through entire thread to find out the latest and greatest, and a lot of other garbage inbetween.  I would encourage anyone who finds good stuff like this that is useful to start moving it into the wiki.  If something is wrong with the wiki posting, it will continously be updated and tweaked by the whole community until it is right.

I would encourage all of you to get involved in adding to and editing the wiki.  I will start the ball rolling on this one by checking to see if the aforementioned post has been "wikified" yet, and if not will go make it happen.

[maikanix]

giskard44 wrote...

Besides, have you see the mess some professionals make when paid to do a job ?
I take pride in being a modder not a professional sometimes hehe.

Aha but is becoming a "professional" about skill, or sucking up to the company?

 /endcynicism

[indio]

Allan Smith wrote...

I would encourage all of you to get involved in adding to and editing the wiki.  I will start the ball rolling on this one by checking to see if the aforementioned post has been "wikified" yet, and if not will go make it happen.

Thanks Allan.

Giskard hit the nail on the head. Time to get this content on the wiki.

[Vadavim]

I'd like to echo the importance of shaping up these forums. I think sub-forums is a great idea. The toolset forum can definitely be devided into more specific topics (mod requests, scripting, area building, etc.). I'd love to see more threads fit into a single page. Having an option to customize this would be nice.

[Kunikos]

Allan Smith wrote...

I would encourage all of you to get involved in adding to and editing the wiki.  I will start the ball rolling on this one by checking to see if the aforementioned post has been "wikified" yet, and if not will go make it happen.

Sooo... how long before the wiki gets defaced?

[ChewyGumball]

more like how long will it take people to revert to a not defaced version.

[Cambios]

Search



Subforums.



Stickies.



Better post editing.



Easier/faster/more convenient access to 'subscribed' threads.

[Adinos]

At the risk of repeating myself, I would like to bring up the site-improvement suggestions I made here: http://social.biowar.../8/index/119467

[indio]

Thanks for the link Adinos. Good recommendations.



This is a bump from Page 9.



Hello from page 9. I'd rather have searched for it or googled it, but instead I needed to check each page I'd have bookmarked it but I'm on a different computer.



So, with Tuesday's deadline closing in, here's hoping for some big improvements to this site.

[LutherP]

Can we also get mods to delete/rename threads with inappropriate/inane titles? I'm specifically thinking of open ended questions like "Can I do this?" or "What is the toolset good for?". Then when you click on the thread it's an ability mod question or whether you can change the races or classes in the game.

Modifié par LutherP, 15 novembre 2009 - 08:51 .

[Talonius]

Search working would help tremendously. That should be priority #1, imo.