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The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 22 Jun 2013, 19:49
by ividyon
Hi there, USP,

working on the site redesign has led to some thoughts on the current Upcoming Maps system. As it stands, it seems to be sorta unnecessary - the Projects in Production forum is for housing all sorts of projects, while the UM forums contain either duplicates of existing PiP threads, or just threads that might as well be contained there.

Its primary function, providing an interface to the main site, is sorta questionable. Do we need a separate Upcoming Maps page on the site? Thoughts have led me to believe that one might as well just add a link to "Projects in Production" in the site's navigation and leave it at that. This would save coding effort for me as well as organization effort for the project leads who would otherwise have to keep updating 2 entries (UM and PiP) rather than one. So I'll leave the decision to you, the faithful community who will actually be impacted by changes.

The 'Upcoming Maps' forum WILL be cut either way, as I plan to replace it with a fully main site-integrated feature (postable and editable similarly to the new reviews). However, now we need to think about whether or not we need Upcoming Maps at all...

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 22 Jun 2013, 21:45
by Semfry
It depends a little on how much work is added but I chose the top option to separate it off into a feature. I agree that the existence of both forums is kind of redundant, but I think the Upcoming Maps page works as a more flashy way for someone to browse mods in production and check out the ones they are interested in, whereas just putting a link to the Project Presentation forum with no information would make casual browsers finding upcoming mods that interest them be kind of hit and miss.

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 23 Jun 2013, 02:23
by Mister_Prophet
The idea was that Mike was was using them as a way to template projects on the main site, but...

Yeah. Kind of redundant to the forums after all is said and done. I think it should be made clear which threads are being used and which are taking up space, the former of which ought to simply be moved to Projects. Authors can decide. What threads have significant content can be bundled on a main site projects page.

My two cents.

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 24 Jun 2013, 04:50
by TheIronKnuckle
I'm for axing the forum, but the upcoming maps page itself is cool. Voting for top option!

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 28 Jun 2013, 23:25
by radios
the upcoming maps page is full of projects around 5 years old that will never be completed, so that page should be axed..

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 28 Jun 2013, 23:40
by Buff Skeleton
radios wrote:the upcoming maps page is full of projects around 5 years old that will never be completed


Oh shut up already

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 30 Jun 2013, 23:39
by Delacroix
Bug Horse wrote:Oh shut up already


Why would he? Some of these projects are in there for a long, long time and from the outside they appear as if they were in development hell. Lack of updates can get us these kinds of remarks, they come with the territory. Besides, it's not your project that is challenged here as inactive, so why the spite?

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 30 Jun 2013, 23:40
by UB_
Delacroix wrote:
Bug Horse wrote:Oh shut up already


Why would he? Some of these projects are in there for a long, long time and from the outside they appear as if they were in development hell. Lack of updates can get us these kinds of remarks, they come with the territory. Besides, it's not your project that is challenged here as inactive, so why the spite?


Let's be honest, most of radios' posts are all about "is this project alive y/n" or "this project is dead" and those do get really tiring. No offense to the person himself.

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 01 Jul 2013, 00:31
by Buff Skeleton
Delacroix wrote:
Bug Horse wrote:Oh shut up already


Why would he? Some of these projects are in there for a long, long time and from the outside they appear as if they were in development hell. Lack of updates can get us these kinds of remarks, they come with the territory. Besides, it's not your project that is challenged here as inactive, so why the spite?


People constantly bitching about projects' status, with no other contributions to the community, does not make for a friendly or motivating environment for developers OR other players who might want to hang around and talk about stuff. It's also really rude and reeks of entitlement. People develop their projects at their own paces.

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 01 Jul 2013, 10:18
by Delacroix
Still, if they throw us a shot or two or write a few words now and then, you know, throw a bone or something, they don't look as if they disappeared from the place entirely.

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 01 Jul 2013, 13:17
by AlCapowned
It would make sense to just move projects that have been confirmed to be cancelled elsewhere, even if the cancellations haven't been mentioned here. The one that comes to mind is Vandora's Secret Passage. Creavion has said on UT99.org that he's never going to work on it, he just hasn't gone here to change the status of the project. I guess if it absolutely had to be done, projects could be removed from Upcoming Maps and then returned after some confirmation that said projects aren't cancelled.

Just because there are a lot of projects that haven't been updated in a while is a lousy reason for wanting to remove the Upcoming Maps page. Most of radios' posts are just asking for project statuses, so Bug's reaction is pretty appropriate.

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 10 Jul 2013, 19:57
by radios
I think we need a new rule here, you need to be at least 12 years old to join this site.

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 10 Jul 2013, 21:53
by Buff Skeleton
Maybe some kind of auto-archive system, where Upcoming Maps that haven't had their entries updated for over a month get put into an archive list somewhere else (still accessible, but not with screenshots and full details). They come back to the main Upcoming Maps page as soon as they get updated again. This would incentivize more frequent maintenance of projects and theoretically keep people around talking about their projects / progress. And if an auto-archive event sends an email notifying the listed developer(s) of the project, bonus.

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 10 Jul 2013, 22:41
by Raven
I highly doubt that, most likely it'd put most of the project into archive :). Most of the times You want to release very few sshots every once in a while (month, two, three) or at least I wouldn't want to see lots of sshots about a mod I'm waiting for - it'd spoil all the fun of discovering new stuff. Of course You can post info, but why the hell post all the time all variations of "yeah we're slowly progressing forward it'll be released when it's done". IMO current solution is good once You force EVERYONE to follow same standard. So if there are 4 sshots, bold title with Arial 14, etc then everyone has to use it or be removed form main page. What could be added is time since last OP post since it can be easily taken from DB and could be taken as last update.

Re: The future of Upcoming Maps

Posted: 10 Jul 2013, 23:00
by Buff Skeleton
I don't mean forcing people to post new content so much as just post like a generic status update, even just "yep, still alive." Even every six months would be better than having stuff stagnate, without updates, for years. It might result in fewer people whining, at least.