Rename TiTS Ideas Subforum

[Shura]

I’ve noticed pretty quickly in my short time here that newbies seeing “Ideas” and immediatelu thinking it means “Suggestions” is an ongoing regular issue to the point not only veteran members get annoyed but there’s also a possibility of the appropriate topics getting buried (or at least harder to distinguish from random blurted out suggestions).

As such, I really feel a renaming should be done and I believe various others have expressed this as well. Perhaps something like “Concept Work” or “Prewriting” that immediately indicates one needs to actually do the writing would help minimize the confusion?

I personally lean more Concept Work because it both indicates substance to ideas and also can account for game mechanic suggestions.

What are you guys’ thoughts?

 

[Evil]

Yeah, but you'd still get someone using the fora to suggest new things for the game with the intention that someone else writes it up.
Especially if you were to use something like "Concept Work", because some muppet is going to pop in with "Hey, here's a concept that I think would work".

 

[Shura]

Prewriting and Mechanics then. Probably gonna be hard to be concise if we want to factor in mechanic suggestions. Or we can just ignore that aspect since I don’t see the come up much? Correct me if I’m wrong.

There’s always going to be someone making mistakes no matter what the name is, but I think we can at least cut down on the number. I don’t think there’s a single person who didn’t immediately think “Ideas” = “Suggestions” because that’s how it’s typically used. And unfortunately realistically a lot of people don’t read as annoying as that is. :^)

 

[Klaptrap]

A casual reading of the Idea forum tells me that pretty much nobody is using it for its intended purpose. Not to mention that Event Submission is where people already place their WIPs, so the Idea subforum is kind of unnecessary. Just designate the ES sub as the official "help me with my idea" part and we're golden.

 

[Nonesuch]

I'd prefer Ideas to become what it sounds like (Somewhere you put ideas), and people who actually have a plan to write something put their thing in the Events Submission sub.

That way Ideas can embrace being the trash can we can all safely ignore that it always has been.

 

[Evil]

Some forums tend to limit where newbies can start new threads until they've reached a certain threshold of posts. Might be enough to give the new people time to see how the Ideas fora should be run.

 

[Shura]

A casual reading of the Idea forum tells me that pretty much nobody is using it for its intended purpose. Not to mention that Event Submission is where people already place their WIPs, so the Idea subforum is kind of unnecessary. Just designate the ES sub as the official "help me with my idea" part and we're golden.

I like this idea. It should make it pretty damn explicit that the sub forum is for writers/propspective writers to brainstorm ideas.

I'd prefer Ideas to become what it sounds like (Somewhere you put ideas), and people who actually have a plan to write something put their thing in the Events Submission sub.

That way Ideas can embrace being the trash can we can all safely ignore that it always has been.

Or we could do this.

If Ideas is already the random suggestion spam zone then it might be simpler to do this and have Event Submissions be the one-stop writing workshop.

 

[Wsan]

The ideas forum works pretty much exactly as intended, which is a catch-all for garbage. Far more efficient for the user to just create their thread already in the rubbish rather than having a mod move it there.

Yeah, but you'd still get someone using the fora to suggest new things for the game with the intention that someone else writes it up.
Especially if you were to use something like "Concept Work", because some muppet is going to pop in with "Hey, here's a concept that I think would work".

You can already see this with CoC2's forum.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

I'd prefer Ideas to become what it sounds like (Somewhere you put ideas), and people who actually have a plan to write something put their thing in the Events Submission sub.

That way Ideas can embrace being the trash can we can all safely ignore that it always has been.

The ideas forum works pretty much exactly as intended, which is a catch-all for garbage. Far more efficient for the user to just create their thread already in the rubbish rather than having a mod move it there.

The whole reason that sub-forum was created in the first place was as an effort to try and get people to stop posting random suggestions and ideas they had no intention of writing from being posted in the main event submissions and other boards of the forums. It was a pretty big problem before hand, making it hard to tell the serious projects from the pipe dreams. Removing it won't stop people from posting random ideas.

 

[Klaptrap]

So Idea forum is officially the newbie containment area/bad writing oubliette? I'm all for keeping it around, then.

 

[Shura]

Seems like our best course is to have Ideas officially declared as the suggestion dump zone. No more need to tell people not to post there; probably just a pinned topic saying "just because you have an idea doesn't mean it will be used" or something like that. And of course suggesting if people have an idea they should see about writing it themselves or else it most likely won't be used. Basically same deal as right now but without the need to enforce anything.

 

[Magic Ted]

People are incapable of reading comphrension as is, renaming something won't help.

Consider it your soapbox to sass someone when they Post Bad.

 

[Evil]

Can I just sigh in tired annoyance instead?

 

[Shura]

People are incapable of reading comphrension as is, renaming something won't help.

Consider it your soapbox to sass someone when they Post Bad.

Hence the transition in the topic to “why not make it the official dumping grounds”? Then we can just settle for ignoring everything instead of constantly having to point at the rules and have people act hostile for innocent (even if dumb) mistakes.

I honestly find that area uncomfortably (and unnecessarily) hostile, so much I’m a little nervous about pitching an actual idea I want to try writing because I feel like I might get jumped if I don’t make my wording clear enough and don’t post a detailed WIP. :X

 

[Evil]

That's just it. If you go in and say you want to try and write some content, you'll get plenty of support. Its the blase manner in which people go in and expect someone else to write up their "great" idea, essentially they want free shit, that many of us take umbrage with.

The problem with turning the Ideas forum into a dumping ground is that you'll get ten crap ideas for every one good one. And its the good one that will get lost in the tide of shit. Its easier and perhaps healthier for the forum in the long run to nip that crap in the bud than to just everyone dumping their ideas there. After all, there is a thread in the main TiTS forum about content people want to see. That said, I've never seen anyone be attacked in the ideas forum, just people explaining that its not the right place to post such a topic.

What it comes down to is that people don't bother reading the great big honking threads that explains what the Ideas thread is about.

 

[Magic Ted]

I honestly find that area uncomfortably (and unnecessarily) hostile, so much I’m a little nervous about pitching an actual idea I want to try writing because I feel like I might get jumped if I don’t make my wording clear enough and don’t post a detailed WIP. :X

See, you're thinking about this to hard. You avoid the issue simply be not posting

add this

wouldn't it be cool if this


And you're golden!

 

[Ethereal Dragon]

Could always implement a 1 time pop up disclaimer text about what that section of the forum is used for and save people embarrassment and the thought of feeling incredibly stupid. Then again that would take away from the people who get their rocks off at the shear idiocy of some people.

Edit: It would probably also annoy those newbies too like Navi does to the player when playing a Zelda game XD "HEY LISTEN!"