Site Discussion Thread

[Quill]

That's... what I just did.

[aero]

https://www.phpbb.com/about/launch/

Big important updates for the board software. Would really like reCAPTCHA 2.0 to finally be added here, and emoji support!

[Zha Hong Lang]

That's... what I just did.

Admittedly, I didn't explain myself clearly enough in my last post (I was on phone and cut myself short, my bad). What I'm thinking of creating is a list of announcements with as specific times as possible, preferably down to the day. Here's a personal analysis of the given times for the announcements, using this segment from the "month of july" thread as reference:

Here are the announcements:

- The new Community Contest is soon! An exact date hasn't been finalized yet, but it will be arriving early this month! This new Community Contest will include many new judges, in addition to changes to how the contest is run to make the overall experience better. It's time to get excited!
- A new system to encourage reviews is coming. Levels on the forum haven't been receiving the attention they deserve. We're planning to introduce a new system this month that encourage users to review levels more often. It won't be the return of Level Judges, in case you're thinking it's that, but it should hopefully increase the amount of reviews levels see.
- SMBX Worlds and SMBX GFX will be updated soon. These pages haven't been updated since 2014 and were once used to display the featured Episode and Graphics of a particular month. These pages are planned to be updated in August to highlight the very best episodes and custom graphics, including the ones featured in this thread. Stay tuned for more information!
- Discord cleanup. On July 5th, we'll be making some changes to our Discord server. During this period, the server will be unavailable for an undecided amount of time, but it will likely only be a few hours at worst. Once it's back up, you'll have to request access through the #welcome channel. After that, things will be back to normal. The cleanup will likely take place early in the morning for people in America, since that's the most prominent timezone.

Only one announcement has a specific day estimated, the discord cleanup. Even better, it also has an estimated hour and duration with a timezone in mind. I'm certainly not demanding that all announcements be this specific (especially since there's not much need to know the hour), but it's a great start.

On the other hand, we have the "system to encourage reviews" and the update to featured content, both of which could happen anytime over a whole month. I understand that developing something is better released when it's ready, though it's still a good idea to estimate what day it might be released. It's better for the developer than the users actually, but more on that later.

The SCC announcement gives a rough idea of what time in the month it would happen, which is good since it gives people a better idea than "this month". However, I think that it wouldn't have hurt to specify the day. It was most certainly planned to be released on the 7th beforehand, although I don't know if that was decided by the first of July or not. Even if it wasn't though, you could follow up your previous post with the specific date once it was known; one so that people would know, and two so that there isn't a threat of it getting leaked anyway.

Specified dates aren't just for users though, they can be for the staff as well. I'm not going to directly assume why the review system was not completed in time, but speaking from personal experience, most of the time when I'm late on a project it's because I hadn't created a schedule for myself of what I needed to do. I prefer to create an entire layout in Trello of every small step I need to take and which days I'll take them, but the staff can do whatever they'd like to. I'd just recommend that they try to organize themselves as much as possible so that things don't get delayed and eventually pushed back like the review system, and the staff can give us the specific deadlines so that we'd have a good idea of when we'll be receiving things.

And if life does indeed happen and things get delayed, it's better to speak first before people start wondering about it. I mean, it's not really a big deal, but it shows you have responsibility to handle mistakes than if you waited for other people to remind you that you're late. This is more like icing on the cake than a true necessity, but just don't forget to give us status updates at all, haha.

[Quill]

On the other hand, we have the "system to encourage reviews" and the update to featured content, both of which could happen anytime over a whole month. I understand that developing something is better released when it's ready, though it's still a good idea to estimate what day it might be released. It's better for the developer than the users actually, but more on that later.

I don't want to set dates and times for stuff that is still in discussion/implementation and hasn't been finalized yet. It's better to say something is planned for the month rather than a specific day, as if it's delayed the blow isn't too hard. Giving an exact date implies whatever the topic in question is is close to competition, which might not be the case. The discord cleanup was planned and ready to go from the beginning of the month, hence why an exact date as given.

The SCC announcement gives a rough idea of what time in the month it would happen, which is good since it gives people a better idea than "this month". However, I think that it wouldn't have hurt to specify the day. It was most certainly planned to be released on the 7th beforehand, although I don't know if that was decided by the first of July or not. Even if it wasn't though, you could follow up your previous post with the specific date once it was known; one so that people would know, and two so that there isn't a threat of it getting leaked anyway.

I said early July as I knew I was going to post it in early July. I started readying the topic on the 5th and decided to post it on the 6th, but it got delayed to the 7th as I didn't have enough time to finalize things. Enjl has no involvement in the contest, so either he guessed correctly or somebody gave him an inaccurate date (which ended up being true as I was unable to finish the topic in time).

So yeah, I get where you're coming from, but I want to avoid telling users that things are happening on certain dates or that they're happening at all when things can easily change.

[Radiance]

Why some users have a hyphen in their time when they were last active?

[ElectriKong]

Why some users have a hyphen in their time when they were last active?

Probably becsuse they were last active in an annomynous session and ticked to not say they were active then

[Zha Hong Lang]

I don't want to set dates and times for stuff that is still in discussion/implementation and hasn't been finalized yet. It's better to say something is planned for the month rather than a specific day, as if it's delayed the blow isn't too hard. Giving an exact date implies whatever the topic in question is close to completion, which might not be the case. The discord cleanup was planned and ready to go from the beginning of the month, hence why an exact date as given.

I see what you mean. I still think that giving an estimated day is worth the effort, though I guess this is just an essential disagreement rather than something we can debate over.

The way I saw it is that the thread pertains to everything July, so to me it was given that the announcements would happen in July (or sometime close to it). The estimated time for the review system felt not only felt a little redundant because of this, but it also felt like the staff hadn't given themselves a clear scope on what they have left to do. Now that July's almost over and you explicitly mentioned that the review system was delayed, it makes that sentiment stronger.

Maybe as a compromise, you could use estimations like early, mid, or late August in the next thread? That way we could have an idea of when the staff are planning to wrap up on it, and the staff have something they can shoot for as well. However, if you really want to avoid having to apologize for something not getting done on time, you could give an later estimation than what the staff are actually planning on. If something done should be done by mid August, say late August or early September; if it should be done by late August, say mid or late September (I accounted for school happening in this estimation).

I said early July as I knew I was going to post it in early July. I started readying the topic on the 5th and decided to post it on the 6th, but it got delayed to the 7th as I didn't have enough time to finalize things. Enjl has no involvement in the contest, so either he guessed correctly or somebody gave him an inaccurate date (which ended up being true as I was unable to finish the topic in time).

So yeah, I get where you're coming from, but I want to avoid telling users that things are happening on certain dates or that they're happening at all when things can easily change.

Alright. I was unaware of the context, so thanks for clearing things up. And if self-set deadlines end up being a little overdue then I understand if you want to use a period of the month for that rather than a specific day.

Again, if your staff aren't using something like it, I really recommend using Trello for managing tasks and discussing issues. It offers so much more than a staff forum ever could, and it's so user-friendly that it makes keeping track of tasks actually fun at times.

[kr4k1n]

Why some users have a hyphen in their time when they were last active?

Because they were/are a hidden user

[ElectriKong]

So what is with the return of Game Masters?

[Zha Hong Lang]

Thanks for using my suggestions for the August thread! I appreciate it.

[ElectriKong]

I want to know thie new system for encouraging level reviews, but you just leave me in suspense.

Also, my game masters question was answered. I was not really expecting Mafia to return this soon.

[Snessy the duck]

Well, that certainly wasn't a long break for mafia. Also, sorry if I sound stupid, but what exactly does the ban appeal do? Does it allow banned users to be unbanned?

[Cedur]

You now have a formal medium to send an appeal if you think a ban was unfair / too harsh / whatever. But if it's a totally clear case then it won't change anything of course.

[Inspirited]

We really need a proper database for levels and episodes. Instead of it being forum threads.

[Snessy the duck]

We really need a proper database for levels and episodes. Instead of it being forum threads.

You mean something like my level portal idea? I'd really want that too.

[Cedur]

A database for CGFX to get orientation within the massive labyrinth of CGFX would be more important imo

[Snessy the duck]

A database for CGFX to get orientation within the massive labyrinth of CGFX would be more important imo

Yeah. Maybe we could implement a rule that says that all of your GFX have to be in one thread, like how it is for levels? We could also do something like my level postal idea except for graphics.

[aero]

A database for CGFX to get orientation within the massive labyrinth of CGFX would be more important imo

Yeah. Maybe we could implement a rule that says that all of your GFX have to be in one thread, like how it is for levels? We could also do something like my level postal idea except for graphics.

That could be a good idea. Would make things easier to find.

[ElectriKong]

I guess if everyone just had a single Custom GFX pack then you just patch or update when you bring more GFX in. And the packs should be divided into themes.

And post 2000 guys

[Oshi]

Mafia's back peeps!

Anyways, whenever there is a new thread/discussion, we should make more visible so we can get new posts in faster. Like, it's highlighted in a different color then black and/or larger. Basically what I'm saying is to give new threads more attention, so that it can grow and be noticed.

E: Should be a simpler way to change your username