My Ideas for a Possible Forum Restructure

[Jean-Luc]

This is taken off my post in the "Why Modacity is Bad" thread, as I feel the ideas have merit.

First up would be to take all the off-topic sub-forums and knock them to the bottom of the page. This would place more visual importance on the artist and modding sub-forums, and would feel more professional. Seeing off-topic on the top gives the subconscious impression that this forum is based more around goofing around, rather than producing artwork in a professional environment.

Secondly, I feel that The Studio needs to be made into a category of its own. Having all the artistic work not related to modding in one small subforum lends to a feeling of clutter. What I feel would be better for organization would be to have subforums in The Studio.

1) Finished Work
2) WIP's
3) Questions/Support
4) Tutorials

And so on along those lines. That would place more important on that art, and the proposed sections 3 and 4 there would be used to aid newbies to actually being able to improve their work, and we'd likely see higher quality material coming out of here.

Third, we need more emphasis on modding other games than Halo CE. While I understand that CE is still popular, there is an incredible amount of untapped potential in this community to create incredible singleplayer/multiplayer maps and mods in other engines and games.

Finally, and this is taken from Halomods, it might be nice to have an emblem system. Members who accomplish extraordinary things, or are substantial benefits to the community at large would get these emblems, and would give newer/less experienced members something to work for.

Anyways, these are just some thoughts, but I feel they would benefit things greatly.

[Heathen]

Nothing is wrong with the forums as they stand now.

thats my post in this thread.

[L0d3x]

I'd like to plead (is that even a word) for more subsections supporting different engines. The Crysis engine, for example.

[Jean-Luc]

I'd like to plead (is that even a word) for more subsections supporting different engines. The Crysis engine, for example.
That would fall under what I said about putting more emphasis on modding other games. The Crysis engine has great potential.

[Sel]

http://www.modacity.net/forums/showpost.php?p=403580&postcount=16

http://www.modacity.net/forums/showpost.php?p=403709&postcount=35

I would also like to know why none of the shitposts to come after mine were infracted~

[Huero]

The only thing that needs restructuring is the video games sections

-Video Game Discussion
-Video Game Modding
--Halo
--Crysis
--Unreal Tournament 3
--etc.

[Jean-Luc]

I still stand by The Studio restructure. The way it is now is very inefficient and unprofessional.

[sdavis117]

To organize The Studio all they have to do it enforce the topic naming rules more:


Topic Naming Rubrick

Each topic must have a prefix, and a post icon ( http://www.modacity.net/forums/styles/posticons/2d.png http://www.modacity.net/forums/styles/posticons/3d.png http://www.modacity.net/forums/styles/posticons/music.png http://www.modacity.net/forums/styles/posticons/photography.png http://www.modacity.net/forums/styles/posticons/literature.png ) to state what type of media it is. You must also state the name of the piece.

[WIP] means Work In Progress. obviously, use this to show progress on a piece. You can only have one WIP per piece, and you must post all updates in this topic. Any time you update a piece, you must add the latest render to the first post.

[COMPLETE] This is for completed pieces, you may make a new topic for this. The final piece will be moved to the Completed Art Archive where it will remain.

[GALLERY] Gallery topics are free range--you dont have to have a post icon, and you can add as much art as you have. you may have only ONE gallery topic.

Then they should take out the Galleries, and just give each user their own gallery that other users can comment on.

[Jean-Luc]

That wouldn't work at all. As it stands, the Studio is a cluttered mess. WIP, Finished, Galleries, and Tutorials are all in the same place. It makes things nearly impossible to find.

Really, is it just me, or does this forum seem to be prejudiced against The Studio? :p

[Huero]

That wouldn't work at all. As it stands, the Studio is a cluttered mess. WIP, Finished, Galleries, and Tutorials are all in the same place. It makes things nearly impossible to find.

Really, is it just me, or does this forum seem to be prejudiced against The Studio? :p

Plenty of other forums have instituted that system, and it has worked.

[Jean-Luc]

Plenty of other forums have instituted that system, and it has worked.

Not in the better artistic forums I've seen, such as 3dkingdom and CGtalk Having everything in one place is a bad system.

E: Hell, even Halomaps has a better structure.

[Limited]

I like the restructing of The Studio idea.

However I dont like the idea of emblems, Ive been a member of Halo Mods since 2004. And I have one emblem, I have no idea what they are for and how to get them. If they were implemented here I feel people would see it as a challenge to get them all.

[Jean-Luc]

I don't have any. I'm just not cool enough :saddowns:

[ODX]

You don't need emblems, you just need to disable rep-giving powers in the off-topic forum if that's possible. Seriously, I bet all of you with ten billion points got it from making people laugh by posting funny pictures and stupid threads. That's really not how it should be, because you're not exactly helping the modding community as a whole, and if you're not doing that, then by God what the fuck are you doing at Modacity?

I'm not against socializing, it's natural to share a joke or two, but you shouldn't earn your reputation by doing so.

[jcap]

The first step in the right direction would be to have a really really good download system that would work with vB. I need something that will...


integrate with vB and accounts
"mask" download links so you must be logged in to vB download
allow pictures to be submitted with download items
list number of downloads and ratings
allow comments
allow a URL (or more) to be provided for support, release thread
allow tags
list all threads that contain the specified tags (would help people find help in other threads that someone might start at a later date)

This is impossible.

Once I have a working downloads system that isn't SHIT like everything else I have come across, then I can finally put all effort into building something around it. But that comes first.

[Jean-Luc]

Actually Jcap, the first step is actually getting the community to produce stuff. There's no point in having a revamped download system when there is very little to download, and very little on the way.

For that matter, having a download system would have no impact on changing the forums around, at least when it comes to the off-topic sections and The Studio.

[jcap]

What I meant is that everything the rest of the forums would be built on would tie into the downloads system, even if they're not looking to download anything.

I had a plan since launch to do this, but I could never get a good system to work with. Everything sucks. There's a lot more behind my idea than what I'm saying, though.

[Jean-Luc]

Not quite sure I understand. :(

[Corndogman]

Finally, and this is taken from Halomods, it might be nice to have an emblem system. Members who accomplish extraordinary things, or are substantial benefits to the community at large would get these emblems, and would give newer/less experienced members something to work for.

You know, I actually suggested this a while back. I'm not sure where, but I think it had to do with snafs modeling contest. If we had an emblem system, people who win snafs contest (and hopefully others) will get an emblem. Similar to how game-artist.net is set up.

It would also be great to have other emblems for good accomplishments like doing something that benefits one of the modding communities, or that helps the site as a whole.

E: Also I agree with Jean Luc about the forum restructure. I really think its a good idea to expand the studio. And I also agree about moving off topic. The only problem i see with that is that the news and feedback/questions should stay at the top, so theres no category to put off topic in. But i guess its really no big deal.

[Chainsy]

I say we remove the following:

Hce Section
TF2 section

All discussion of these topics should be banned, along with smilies, rep, black people, fun, drunk posts, birthday threads, pictures of funny and/or random things, and the entire on topic section, as since no one populates this section that is respectable, and we have no artists, its just extra baggage weighing us down on our ability to free our mind and soul and fly to the amazing status modacity should be!!

[Dwood]

To organize The Studio all they have to do it enforce the topic naming rules more:



Then they should take out the Galleries, and just give each user their own gallery that other users can comment on.

Welcome to Devia-oh, sorry, Modacity!

[InnerGoat]

Make a new section called "old games" and move halo ce into there

[SnaFuBAR]

i see you trollin'

[Sel]

i see you trollin'

I Hope he's serious!

[Jean-Luc]

I Hope he's serious!
Myself included. I still maintain that restructuring The Studio would be of great benefit.

[InnerGoat]

I Hope he's serious!

I did it before and i'll do it again :giggle:

[CN3089]

why don't you make a new usergroup called bad posters and move urself there

(it's u. ur da bad poster.)

[Ki11a_FTW]

Hce Section


I pray that that is sarcasm, because its one of the most viewed..


I also agree to moving the offtopic section to the bottom

[Sel]

Move the H2 and H3 Sections somewhere else, and make sections for tf2, l4d, and Other Source Games, and group them together, along with the unreal section. Those two games are where most of the not halo modding takes place, and tf2, and l4d both really deserve their own sections so get on it.

[teh lag]

So I had a long think about this.

Basically what I (and flyinrooster) came up with was

[The Studio]
-General forum for general discussion, art-related tech, etc. Fits the bill of "offtopic for artists."

[Subforum : Resources]
-Devoted to threads of tutorials, tools, etc.
[Subforum : Galleries]
-Devoted to galleries of finished work.
[Subforum : WIP]
-Devoted to threads pertaining to individual works in progress
[Subforum : Competitions]
-Devoted to threads for discussing and submitting entries to competitions.

The last one is what I'm hoping will really get going. We had some stuff with Snaf's competitions but it really just fizzled out; I don't know if people were scared off by the concept art requirements or just weren't interested in the prizes. Subforums would be out-of-site on the main page and more like the release subforums in the game sections, so we don't need to worry about main page clutter.

Instead, I was thinking of maybe doing a weekly animation competition. Every week, we'd provide a rig, any necessary "props", a render setup, and a general description of what should go on. Submissions would include 5 (or some other number) files detailing progress and a final rendered video. First place winner would have money donated to the site in their name, second place would get +repped by the staff or something.

This idea could carry over elsewhere too I think; you'd have short completions where a starting point is given and the challenge is to do something with what you have. Ex : skinning competitions where someone puts up a model they want skinned and people have a week do do what they can with it. This would be an easy way for people to get something they want done done and be able to pick the best result and - hopefully - the site donor status and rep would be a nice incentive to enter.

Thoughts? Suggestions? This idea is stupids?

[Chainsy]

I am all for studio restructure, it's actaully one of the only places I really visit on this forum. I know I would make 2 week competitions, but I would be annoyed by turn out, that's another thing, we need to get the most viewed together, as some of the best modelers only hang in the ce section and never go into the studio. Also I think we should have a tutorial section on all forms of art, submitted by our users.

[DEElekgolo]

Modacity modDB

[English Mobster]

So I had a long think about this.

Basically what I (and flyinrooster) came up with was

[The Studio]
-General forum for general discussion, art-related tech, etc. Fits the bill of "offtopic for artists."
[Subforum : Resources]
-Devoted to threads of tutorials, tools, etc.
[Subforum : Galleries]
-Devoted to galleries of finished work.
[Subforum : WIP]
-Devoted to threads pertaining to individual works in progress
[Subforum : Competitions]
-Devoted to threads for discussing and submitting entries to competitions.The last one is what I'm hoping will really get going. We had some stuff with Snaf's competitions but it really just fizzled out; I don't know if people were scared off by the concept art requirements or just weren't interested in the prizes. Subforums would be out-of-site on the main page and more like the release subforums in the game sections, so we don't need to worry about main page clutter.

Instead, I was thinking of maybe doing a weekly animation competition. Every week, we'd provide a rig, any necessary "props", a render setup, and a general description of what should go on. Submissions would include 5 (or some other number) files detailing progress and a final rendered video. First place winner would have money donated to the site in their name, second place would get +repped by the staff or something.

This idea could carry over elsewhere too I think; you'd have short completions where a starting point is given and the challenge is to do something with what you have. Ex : skinning competitions where someone puts up a model they want skinned and people have a week do do what they can with it. This would be an easy way for people to get something they want done done and be able to pick the best result and - hopefully - the site donor status and rep would be a nice incentive to enter.

Thoughts? Suggestions? This idea is stupids?
I likes this ideas.

And I agree %1000 with everything in the first post.

Also, Heathen for mod '09

[p0lar_bear]

Drop galleries imho. We have albums for users on this site.

If the size limits are too small, we could all work towards figuring out something reasonable for both users and the server.

[Jean-Luc]

Drop user albums imho. We have galleries for users on this site that doesn't use Modacity server space in order to host pictures.
Let's do this instead.

But really, I don't think it would be good to remove galleries, because I've seen a whole bunch of user albums, and nobody comments on them, nor really sees them the way they were intended to be seen.

[p0lar_bear]

Perhaps find a way to make them a little more prominent then? The problem is that nobody seems to notice that people have galleries, since they're not really put forward like they are on other websites.

We have lots of server space last I checked; there's a whole dedicated box here going to waste since all we're running is a pissy little website on it.

[Heathen]

I REALLY dont see whats wrong with it now.

If it aint broke...

[Jean-Luc]

The problem is that Modacity is structured in a way that puts all the off-topic forums at the highest relevance, rather than the artistic/modding forums. Off topic is great and all, but it's generally not productive.

[Roostervier]

We have lots of server space last I checked; there's a whole dedicated box here going to waste since all we're running is a pissy little website on it.
Then raise the resolution to at least 1600x1200 and file size up to something more reasonable for the albums. People don't use the albums because the limitations are ridiculous. Gallery section would be much better in my opinion.

[p0lar_bear]

Then raise the resolution to at least 1600x1200 and file size up to something more reasonable for the albums. People don't use the albums because the limitations are ridiculous. Gallery section would be much better in my opinion.

That's a start. Is this fine with the staff?

[Jean-Luc]

The problem is that the user albums are so hidden, as opposed to having forum topics devoted to finalized work.

[Heathen]

That's a start. Is this fine with the staff?
but I like the galleries threads :[

E:what he said ^

[teh lag]

If indeed we ditch gallery threads for user albums, I'd say two things need to be done in tandem.

1) Provide an instant, clearly-marked link in the postbit (under the IM things for example) linking to the user's art gallery.

2) Allow for comments on entire albums.

Do this and I'll be ok with it, but I think that the thread-based galleries are more unified and easily accessible than the user albums at the moment.

Also, any other comments on my contest idea?

[Heathen]

i still say keep gallery threads

[p0lar_bear]

What would also be cool is a couple modules for the front page that link to the highest rated and the newest album submissions.

[Jean-Luc]

What would also be cool is a couple modules for the front page that link to the highest rated and the newest album submissions.
That would be neat, I'm just still worried about accessibility, especially when it comes to newbies. Just having the highest rated albums could mean that the lesser known members, or newer members will have difficulty having their work seen. Another potential issue is that albums can easily contain other things than artwork, and could also be rated high. I would hate to see a 5 star album that consists of nothing more than amusing internet pictures, rather than artwork.

[Timo]

The problem with albums is that they're so far out of the way and more or less of the forum - there's no way for people to easily keep up to date with someones work. Unless you're constantly going to other people's profiles to check for updates. Threads although limited would be better with the current system. +1 vote for teh lag's idea.

[English Mobster]

+1 for Laggy's idea, as well.

[p0lar_bear]

My main problem with the thread system is that they get cluttered. It's discussion-oriented, not content-oriented.

They'll do it for now, but I'd really like to see the user albums feature emphasized and eventually replace the threads.

[Huero]

nobody's going to go out of their way to go into someone's profile to see their work and give constructive criticism
it's much easier to have an established, collective place
when i go to the studio, oftentimes i go "oh hey, that guy posted something new!" and i check it out
i'm not going to go around everyone's profiles checking for new work
because nobody's going to go to their profiles, people will stop putting their work up
etc.
this applies to everyone except for the popular folks like snaf that have people checking up on their profiles every few seconds

[Corndogman]

Yeah, I was going to reiterated what everyone has already said, but I think the point has been made. Gallery threads just do the job better. My gallery thread has quite a few comments on it, but my albums only have 1 total.

Teh Lag, I like your contest idea, but I think once a week may be too much. At least in the beginning. As we've seen with Snaf's competition, its not always that popular. If we make say every 2 weeks, we'll see how it goes and eventually maybe we'll make it weekly.