20 replies to this topic

[anubis]

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the articles seems to be writen very fast, they don't have a lot of depth in them

well, so are many articles on gamedev and we don't have much control over that. we could reject them but that would be fatal. some of them are actually pretty good, like the OpenAL series

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4) where's the IOTD?
5) where's the COTD?

you complain about the articles being gamedev style and then suggest copying flipcode ?

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The forum is too divided. I'm pretty sure people don't visit each sections all the time and so many helpfull answers can be missed

i actually find it very compact... what would you remove ?

[NomadRock]

I thought this too about missing sections, but after joining I found out that there is a view new posts option. This solves that problem entirely. Basically that is what did it for me.

[Dia]

Thanks for your suggestions.

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1) Articles layout == gamedev layout which are too dull (and devmaster even cross-links to articles on gamedev)

1. This has been pointed out a couple of times. It will be changed very soon. The whole layout of the articles will be very unique. As for the cross-linking, I agree with your point. The main reason for cross-linking was because initially we didn't have any articles. But since now we have quite a few number of articles, they could be removed and maybe added to an "External Resources" category.

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2) General site layout, it seems as if the site was built with a "Site building template" of some sort.

2. This is not true. The site has been built from scratch. Just look at the 3D Engines Database and tell me how you can build that using a "site builder". What exactly do you dislike about the layout?

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3) The forum is too divided. I'm pretty sure people don't visit each sections all the time and so many helpfull answers can be missed.

3. What forums would you remove? As NomadRock mentioned, you can easily view the new posts by clicking on the "View New Posts" in the top-right (only for registered users) OR by clicking on "Active Topics" located in the bottom-right in the main forums page (for all users - no need to be registered).

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4) where's the IOTD? smile.gif
5) where's the COTD? smile.gif

4-5. I couldn't find a better answer than anubis's answer above I think this is a potential feature once DevMaster is more active. However, if implemented, something unique must be presented, not just copy from other sites.

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6) the articles seems to be writen very fast, they don't have a lot of depth in them (ok I know it's more a content problem and the site is young...)

6. As explained before, this is due to the the fact that this site is young and it wouldn't be benefitial if we reject all articles. We do have a number of high-quality articles though. However, as we get more artciles, we will be more selective. How about you contribute and help that change?

7. explained in #1

[Francois Hamel]

It was I who made those suggestions...
Sorry if they came too abruptly, I know you guys have put a lot of efforts in this site.

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1. This has been pointed out a couple of times. It will be changed very soon. The whole layout of the articles will be very unique.

Cool.

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As for the cross-linking, I agree with your point. The main reason for cross-linking was because initially we didn't have any articles.

That;s what I thought..glad to hear they will eventually be moved elsewhere

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6. As explained before, this is due to the the fact that this site is young and it wouldn't be benefitial if we reject all articles. We do have a number of high-quality articles though. However, as we get more artciles, we will be more selective. How about you contribute and help that change?

I'd be glad to contribute... tell me when the new layout is ready ;)

as for the IOTD, why not let it grow by itself? Flipcode grew because of this for a while... until it got closed. I don't mind seeing a IOTD for a month because no one can post anything...it's been like that for decades on flipcode since people moved elsewhere.

[NomadRock]

wd40, glad to hear you are giving this site a chance. The comment on IOTD does have some merit. Perhaps it should be changed to not be of the day but rather name it something like community spotlight or somesuch. This way visitors or new members would not get confused seing the same image of the day several days later.

Dia, good to hear that the site is welcoming suggested improvements. I think the 3d engines database could be very very cool once it gets more reviews so that sorting by rating actually means something.

[bladder]

wd40 said:

Flipcode grew because of this for a while... until it got closed. I don't mind seeing a IOTD for a month because no one can post anything...it's been like that for decades on flipcode since people moved elsewhere.

Hold the phone! Flipcode is closed for good?

[davepermen]

it's not officially closed. but the site doesn't get any updates anymore, and kurt, the owner of flipcode, doesn't seem to bother much. and so the only active thing on flipcode is actually the forum..

so we can call it dead.. at least currently.. but that current state goes now on for too long


i don't want an IOTD.. but some images would be cool. just OTD is not good.

[TheNut]

What I think would be neat, in correlation to IOTD and COTD, would be something like a DOTW (demo of the week). Perhaps not weekly, but as often as possible. Viewing some open/closed demos from what people have accomplished would be entertaining to play or watch.

[Noor]

good point TheNut, I always wanted something like that (DOTW).

another suggestion would be if someone already did a game and want his game to be public and famous?, maybe we can open a new server for it so people can play multiplayer, that would be very nice. A simple open source game would do the work.

[Ed Mack]

I like the idea of a 'jukebox' style image manager for the frontpage - Anyone with a neat image can upload it and some meta-data into a FIFO queue, and when there are no more just spin through them so each day the page looks different. Name it 'Development view' or something that doesn't imply daily updates.

[anubis]

EdMack : i like that idea...

edit :like the "featured engine" in the engine database

[davepermen]

i dislike the OTD OTW OTM OTwhatever.. it forces some regularity in a thing that doesn't have one..

[anubis]

which is why i like EdMack's suggestion

[Ed Mack]

When making my site (http://www.edmack.com) I'm far too lazy to make anything that requires updates, so these measures are required :D Hence the self-colouring etal

[Dia]

I like EdMack's idea too.

[Francois Hamel]

could the "Today's article spotlight" be replaced ? The "latest articles" is nice and usefull but the spotlight I don't know...

could it also link to a forum section at least where the demo/effect/software/game could be explained and so the author could help others acheive the same thing, answer questions, etc...

[Dia]

yes, these will be displayed on the front page and they will link to the forums where users can provide comments.

[davepermen]

ed macks idea is fine

[Mihail121]

Agreed with some of the stuff but i'm not agreed with others like bad quality articles or anything of sort. By reading of this site's articles i learned how to:

- use OpenAL, great articles!
- make proper homogeneous clipping (my software rendering articles, clip one comming soon!!! Sorry for great delay but Hans is now in university and i'm trying to follow the deadlines :P)
- cool code design, which can be applied to many different types of games
- BSP and portal stuff from Samuel Eskotta's articles
- a little bit of terrain rendering from that new article, which also has some very useful links!

so i can't call the articles bad. But pretty much of selection is needed if everyone is writing articles of course :).

I also find the idea of adding COTD, IOTD sections very much. I loved those stuff at FlipCode.