Another forum?

I am trying to figure out if it would be worthwhile to create some of the grand things that I am envisioning… See here to get an idea of what I’m talking about (please read the entire thread, if possible).

Right now, I want to get a feel for the community and see what you guys think. Would you guys sign up and participate at a new forum? Keep in mind that I plan on making these forums clean, simple, striaghtforward, and absolutely ad-free… as well as making them universal for multiple games and engines (q3engine, d3engine, hl2engine, utengine).

So would you? Please post any comments or questions too. Thx.

:chef:

There’s so many of these forums already…some better than others. I’m sure when they all started out they had some grand ideas. Do as you see fit.

How come you have to sign in to vote on the poll? Don’t compare to mapcenter…that one is just one forum, and I don’t particulalry like it but you still shouldn’t compare to it.

P.S.
that phpBB I think has very low bandwith. I’ve been to some forums that are hosted by it and they are always very slow…?

Well, eventually it will be more then just forums… For example, it will have tutorials, resources and various documenation. I am also thinking about doing a “map-in-review”, where the community will select a map and then dissect and critique it… seeing what makes it work and what could be better. And beyond that, I am thinking about hosting selected mappers sites… as to promote good community helpers and rid the plague of ads.

And btw, the splashdamage forums are phpBB. Are they slow for you? Cause they arent for me.

Every phpBB forum I’ve been on has been fine for me.

…so it is
I guess it’s just a few bad seeds

  No, Mapcenter is fine... I like drowning in ads and poor design.

LOL, loaded questions ?

It certainly doest seem like drowning in adds to me.
Poor design is a subjective opinion as well.

Finally, I suggest that you are unlikely to convince ttimo, Paul Jaquays, and the various raven folks to switch over. One of the best things about mapcenter is that it offers contact with those people, just as the SD forum has the advantage of direct contact with the SD developers.

there is nothing inherintly “fast” or “slow” about any given forum-serving software out there–well, there are some notoriously high-overhead packages coughubbcough–but most of the rest are only limited by the size of the pipe they can shit through. The fatter the pipe, the more shit gets into your mouth more quickly. An itty bitty pipe causes the shit to just dribble out, all pathetic-like. You know, just like everything else on the internet. Bandwidth = boners.

Lmao!

Yea, tis the truth… But perhaps. Yea never know… If I could get just a couple big fishes on the line, who knows what would follow.

…and yes, my opinion is obviously subjective. I think I could do better then other “options” out there, hence why I’m interesting in trying. Its better to try and fail then to never have tried at all.

i spend more time hopping between site’s an posting than mapping an i only visit 5
wolfproject
surface
rtcw.co.uk (mapping)
pumapeople.co.uk (yes i got a loverly puma ;))
an now splash

hence no vote
but hey the more the merrier
surface got me with the quality (and piccys) of eye’s tuts maybee you can do the same for et with ur tuts
there seems to be a shortage of et specific construction and mover tut’s with piccys rather than basic mapping elements (hint hint) maybee you can draw ppl in with them
piccy’s say a thousand words your heading in the right direction

hey im a big fish, i got fins and tail and i swim in the see woo hoo

Well thats kinda the point… This would be one site and one message board system that would include ALL major FPS games and engines… So therefore, you shouldn’t need to hop and skip from one forum to another.

That would be true IF people are willing to give up this forum, for example, and just use yours. In my case, that is unlikely, so your forum would end up being another forum that I have to visit and keep updated. It’s a good thought though, but pinned on the expectation that people will be willing to give up their current multiple forums to go to yours.

I’m with ifurita. This is one of the few cases where dividing things up is not a good idea. The fewer forums we have the more concetrated the information will be and therefore it would be easier to find things. As it is right now you have to surf through a dozen forums and websites to find what you’re looking for (editing wise). I realize that what you are trying to do is exactly that, create one place for all your mapping needs. But you can’t do that because there already are many places like that.

Me too this forum has everything I need and then some so…Plus considering how here you can get replies from the splash people themselves.

If you want to be helpful, it would be better if you just contributed to what is out there already.

You (we?) need to come up with a unique selling point (as they call it in marketing)

What makes your sites so special that we (the visitors/users) should use your site instead of the plethora of other sites avaiable to us?

answer that question properly and you’re settled

To me their is only one solution…

Since all the information is spread out, I (we) would need to go around to each and every place out there (forums, tutorial and resource sites, etc) and get them to all to agree that relocating their places into one coherant and consistant website would be helpful and productive for the entire community…

Ha! Think about it… All those places that you visit, all those forums that you particpate in would be wrapped up into one complete, well-designed and well-coordinated information mega-store! One stop shopping at its best… no ads, no gimmicks, just striaght up mapping ecstasy. Everybody gets credit for their work, no one gets cheated. Everyone is equal.

Would it work?

hmmmm Feedback plz!

Hmmm, thinking about it a little more, we (as you can see I am turning this into a community project) would probably need to create a well-defined article explaining our goals and ideas. If I were to just drop out of the blue and say “join this site, its gonna be cool”, I doubt the results would be good. But if instead we created something that defined what we are aiming for and what we are intending to accomplish, and all the little things that fall in between… maybe, just maybe something could be pulled off.

Obviously, we wouldn’t grab places like SplashDamage or Quake3world for they are already properly funded and guided yadda… but for all those “other” places out there that get alot of sidetraffic… Places like Tramdesign and Surface, HrOs q3map2toolz site, and some mappers sites, like Rorshachs, rummies, nibsworld, etc, etc. And, I’m sure a little bit of Iffuritas “for newbies” site would roll along well too…

Anyone hearing me or am I just a dreamer.

On the flip side, give a compelling reason why I would move all of my Mapping 4 Dummies stuff to your site or why Hummer or Rummie would move their stuff to your site?

I still don’t see anything in it for me that I don’t already have

Dreamer.

People have opinions and egos and like control. Remember, you are asking people to change things that they have invested large amounts of time and possibly money into, and do them ‘your way’ instead.

One primary reason there are all these different sites is that people have mutually exclusive views about how things should be done.

To put it another way, suppose you had a thriving site and astrocreep came along and told you that you ought to close it down and put all the content on mapcenter instead “for the good of the community”. I don’t know about you, but my first reaction would be “fuck off”

You might respond that you would only say no because mapcenter sucks, but that is a subjective opinion. In somebody elses subjective opinion, no matter what, your site will suck.

The way I see it, mapcenter already has the goals that you have set out, so your only reason for making your own site is because you don’t like how mapcenter is set up. To expect that other people would not feel the same way about your site is foolish. BTW, if it is the ads at mapcenter which bother you, there is a simple solution. Put $1000 into astros paypal account, and ask him to not run adds until that runs out. If you think setting up a site of size and bandwidth requirements is not going to cost you at least that much, you really are dreaming (or have the option of leaching off some already paid for resources)

Perhaps the fact that you will be helping the community by organizing everything into one consistant and coherant entity.

Theoretically, look at it this way… Why not do it? What would you be losing? All material and information created and provided by you (the contributor) will be logged and accounted for. All work provided will also be given appropriate credit… Notably in a way the is fair and equal for all. -No one will have more or less recognition on the site. For it will be a resource site gathered, compiled, sorted and applied “by the community, for the community”. Just like radiant says.

Of course, all of this would need to be laidout in a document of some sort so we could “hand” it out to all potential sites out there. So we could create a “unqiue selling point” just like joopsloop said.

Makes perfect sense to me. Hell, I’ll even be the first. I’ll give all my tutorials to the site… of course, knowing that I will get credit for them.