Renew ACR and OYS?

[Andail]

These old threads are so full of outdated posts that browsing them is just a nuisance.

Furthermore, does anybody have some info on how meaningful they are? It seems most people just complain about how nobody reads them.

Should we have separate threads for different kinds of project, i.e one thread for serious teams with AGS-experience and a clear concept idea etc, and one thread for newcomers who just want to team up because the-more-the-merrier.

Right now it's not very easy to find teammates, which is why we see people starting threads in the chat forum just to get some attention.

Any ideas?

[Nikolas]

First of all, delete these threads cause really they seem tottally unhelpful.

Maybe create different threads for different arts. I mean let there be one thread for music, one for Background artists, one for scripters, one for story stuff and so on. No mroe than 4-5 but make these threads both for people willing to help and for people needing help. For example, in the music thread, there would be a post by me, offering my services as a composer but also a post by Kinoko who hapens to need a composer.

An other idea would be to erase old posts by default. I mean delete all post older than, let's say three months. Anyone interested to offering services or wanting services will know that and will have to post again. If they are not interested anymore, their post will be deleted.

What do you think?

[simulacra]

I think you should have a separatate sub-forum for this sort of thing, with auto-pruning in six months or so. That way, people can ask questions to posters.

[Nikolas]

IF I may ask what's auto-pruning?

[Gilbert]

I'll suggest splitting info that's too old into a separate thread, and then lock it, just in case those info may still be useful for reference.

[Kal-El]

If this has been brought on by me I sincerely apologise. But I have to agree with Andail on them being outdated and perhaps not that useful.

I like the seperate thread for each 'section' idea.

[SSH]

Well, the problem is that:

a) People read GiP threads, but you're not allowed to post hardly-formed stuff there, so if you need to recruit background artists you can't post screenshots...

b) I don't think anyone EVER read ACR or OYS, really, as we've already been through various iterations of these threads already

c) We don't want people clogging up Gen Gen or ARTC or GiP with recruitment threads

Anyway, team games never work. How many team games are released? Even including the team competition, you can count them on one hand. Most successful collaborations are for one aspect, usually music which can be more disconnected from the rest of the process anyway until CJ implements iMuse.

The only teams that work are ones where there is already a relationship going (e.g. Herculean effort!) And so maybe these threads are unnecessary anyway. If they were banned altogether though, maybe people would just post in Gen Gen anyway, so lets keep them and use them as a bit bucket

[Nikolas]

Actually my second post (my first one was locked, hehe), was in the provide your services. From there three different people approach me and I'm writting music for one of them (Radiant), while on the same time, I decided to join forces with esper, which seems to be getting along pretty well I must say. Not to metnion that we have a third person in the "group".

I don't think it's a waste of space or time or anything. I just think that old posts should be deleted.

It definately needs cleaning up of course. And there are members (like myself), who takes the making of the games quite serious. Of course not financially or anything but I personally don't want to waste my time. Thus a thread with "serious", callings, whatever serious might mean could be usefull. Of course I don't know how it's going to work, but still...

Now that I think about it, I've seen a lot of people with 2-3 posts asking for help or offering help and then nothing... Maybe these people are not really members? Maybe their posts should be deleted? I mean, since we have moderators, although a little undemocratic, they should keep an eye on what's in these threads. It seems rather easy to differantiate between bullshit and not bullshit, and excuse my language here.

[Scummbuddy]

auto pruning would be to automatically delete posts that are of a certain age.
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I know awhile ago this idea came up, but I still back it. If there was some way for us to forum search by our "I help in these departments" icons under our name. If you feel that you really can't help with scripting with others, than take it off your name, or however else it relates to you at that time. That way, when someone searches for a scripter, they don't waste time by asking you if you are free, they shouldn't even get to ask you, and they can find someone else who does have the icon there.

[Barbarian]

Well, I for one think they are useful threads for finding help with a project.
Ã,  But, you're right, it does get a bit "cluttered" and then after a while you are not sure what projects that people still are needing help with.

Ã,  So, perhaps I suggest that people looking for help in ACR thread, if they do in fact get some help, then perhaps they can take a moment to update their post as such.
Or if the project has been cancelled perhaps to PM a moderator and ask to have their post deleted?Ã,  Ã, Also, if a post in the ACR reaches a few months old perhaps with no update, then perhaps the post can be removed to help elminate some of the clutter?
But then, some projects can take a long time to complete, so I'm not sure if everyone would be happy with that.

For the OYS thread, well, I check it from time to time to see what talent and skills are being offered by the various members, and I think it's a useful way to know who to contact if you were looking for some help on a project. So, I'm not sure what to suggest to improve the OYS thread really, perhaps just to remind people to update any of their old posts if required.

But it may also be resonable to have seperate ACR threads... perhaps you may make seperate threads for ACR, for perhaps people that have a completed project or two (or more) already previously released, as perhaps the readers of posts in such a thread may be more familiar with the type of work that person does.Ã,  And a seperate thread for people who have yet to complete and/or release a project to the AGS community, as some people may or may not be willing to team up with a relatively "unknown" as far as knowing their ability for working on games.

Well, however it turns out, I still will enjoy my time at the forums here as well as working with AGS.

BTW: And maybe I'm a bit "dumb" in this point, I know that "OYS" means Offer Your Services, but what does "ACR" stand for? I know the thread is dedicated to people looking for help with their projects, just I don't know what the letters ACR mean, as I don't really see it mentioned (or perhaps it is but I missed it).

[Kweepa]

BTW: And maybe I'm a bit "dumb" in this point, I know that "OYS" means Offer Your Services, but what does "ACR" stand for? I know the thread is dedicated to people looking for help with their projects, just I don't know what the letters ACR mean, as I don't really see it mentioned (or perhaps it is but I missed it).

ACRonym: CRyptic & Redundant

[RickJ]

I think these threads are helpful, especialy the OYS one.  I usually just look at the last one or two pages, thinking it a bit foolish to start with page 1.   Perodic purge would also be useful to keep everything uncluttered.   Maybe just lock the old thread and start a new one every so often.  That way nothing get's deleted just pushed down to obscurity.

As far as imporments are concetrned ... I wonder if there is a "classified ad"  module for SMF forums?  I suppose something similar could be achieved by adding yet another forum.

[Nikolas]

Now, that's a good idea.

A new forum with ads. Wanted and offered. New threads for everyone. No, really that's a good idea, I'm not being sarcastic, although I sound like it...

[SSH]

If we charged a nominal fee for ads, then we could make a profit, discourage peopel from posting these things unless they really meant it, and completely prohibit the under-18s altogether! Yay!

[m0ds]

If people learnt to stop starting conversations in threads that are supposed to act as a resource, it wouldn't be so difficult!! I admit I was going to prune those threads regularly, but didn't get round to it & just got pee'd off with the above happening all the time. I think RickJ has a good idea with the "classified ads" thing, perhaps it would work better if the AGS site had an ad's page, where people could post up a little ad for help and also an ad to offer their services, and have them stay on it for a week or so. I don't see why these things have to lie strictly in the forums.

Personally, I think the threads are fine. But as always, Andail wants something changed I can prune them down if you want, or delete them and start a-fresh - or we can await further ideas or see whether some kind of ads thing is feasible.

edit - ACR thread is pruned

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Perhaps a separate forum that has 5 or so threads broken up into art, backgrounds, music, story, scripting and allow those interested in helping with a certain area reply to it with their current interest..If they work on a project they modify the post to indicate they are busy?  Now people looking for help could just select the area they are interested in and go down the list until they find someone available.  Again, this isn't as streamlined as it could be but it's a start.