Guess I'll have to rotate my phone so I can see signatures... That's asking a lot of me, but I'll do it for WARHOLIC's locked down hair. Every now and then. FOR FORGEHUB It would help if sites like this had important info like this predominantly displayed so that it's hard to miss. Unless we're huge fans of *ahem* drama here. It would be best if such info were centralized and hard to miss, like linking to it from the game's Forge interface, but since that's up to 343, forgehub can only ensure its members are more likely to know what's happening and less likely to have a *ahem* fit of something on this site. People here seem to know that the lack of info has caused problems. It seems like it would be easy to display some info here with a new forum or with stickies. So it's a little surprising that a small effort to do so and save people here some later troubles hasn't been done. This is aimed for forgehub, not the ATN, but the lesson is universal and this info connects both. Use any influence you got if you can. FOR ATN Try to centralize some info, though this is difficult to do with forum posts. Make use of links to prior posts or repeat (copy) info in spoilers so you avoid having to answer questions that have already been answered (I see this already happening here). I'd create a template that has important links sitting pretty at the top. The signature links are a good start for doing this, but not reliable since sigs are down low, often ignored, sometimes not displayed, etc. I also like how Xdemption, CF & others update their original post, so there's just one place to go for info. FOR NO ONE (THE BEATLES, REVOLVER) For a while now, I've been thinking about how to make info easy for people to get to using various systems on the web. It's also good if info can be prioritized, displaying general and prerequisite info first but having easy access to more detailed info from there. But it's not easy, especially with forum interfaces and when info is contained is scattered and not inherently connected. I'm kind of hoping someone like CF is working on this. I'd like to offer my help with this stuff, but I'm not in good health and my thinking and concentration are diminished and I'm not left with much usable time in my day. I wish I had answers on hand and could just implement them like I used to. But I know you guys can come up with solutions, so I'm trying to prod a little here, maybe get some priorities shifted. Take the time to list the community map selection process, who is involved, and how forgers can access it Let people know the process is evolving and Don't Panic Make the info easy to get to, hard to miss, and centralized as much as possible Prioritize this over the more complicated bit about developing this evolving process. This effort should help with the development anyways. Don't wait for someone else to do something. Keep doing what you can so people can see some of the picture and appreciate your efforts.
It would be nice to figure this one out. We prolly need to come up with something on our own. A spontaneous lobby would be great. Maybe someone who wants to host can just post a SPONTANEOUS LOBBY in the Halo forum? Anyone can reply to join. And we just let those threads die off and the OP can update it that it's closed.
I'm curious as to what you feel the criteria would be for deciding what gets shown. And are you thinking like what requires the most attention across all community websites? As sort of an aggregation of the latest happenings in the community? Are we also talking about for finding maps? Are we considering perhaps more helpful posts rather than filler question posts? Sounds like perhaps a bit of a preview of what the content contains since forums don't easily give a preview (you can use hover text, but meh). This may want to kick off its own thread and we can come up with the requirements for such a tool as a community and when I find time in the future it could be a project I could help tackle.
I agree with everything you're saying. The problem, as you mentioned, it's just hard to be super visible on a forum. ATN has been bumping for at least a month now, we have tons of submissions and maps moving thru so ppl obviously are finding us. Then again I see you on forgehub all the time and if you are only now finding out about us it's a little frustrating. We do have a master thread, the one linked to in signature. Each lobby host does have a single info/submission thread (except paranormal who makes a weekly thread). And we would love a front page spot and its been discussed with the powers that be, just as yet it hasn't worked out. These things have all been explored and continue to be explored. theres actually a fairly massive effort behind this and other community organizations like forgehub, CF, etc. So certainly no one is sitting and waiting for someone else to do the work. @GodlyPerfection if you do start a separate thread speaking more broadly to the visibility issues and announcements community-wide please tag me I would like to be a part of that conversation.
I like the way you think, GP and MS. I also like the goals and attitude of CF. I never get to be on the receiving end of these lists! I wish I had more coherent usable time, or that you had more hours in a day. Wish I knew more, but it's not needed as long as someone who can take care of things know it. My vantage point is just from someone who's been paying attention to forgehub and some YouTube since the new Forge came out. I don't have any sort of access to what's happening inside anything. That makes me slightly more knowledgeable than someone who forges but hasn't searched for forging communities. From what I can see, there's very little chance that regular forgers will be able to understand the Community Playlist map selection process. They might be able to track down how to submit their maps, but it's not easy. It's gotta be frustrating. I (think) I was addressing: Community Playlist map selection transparency & a process overview That would include ATN's and UCC's parts of it General problems of sharing decentralized info Also, I provided vague, non-implementable solutions Trying to answer directly: The info that needs to be shown across the communities is the stuff that would alleviate the major problems, so basically info about the community maps and how to submit them. I think the latest happenings isn't critical and that info gets decent coverage and is largely announced in the game where everyone can see. Wouldn't it be nice if critical info got that treatment? Heheh The filler question posts like this one are good by me. They provide info and let the community interact. It's preferable if people can easily access prior info that's related (like a faq at the top that gets added to as questions are answered), but even without that these are good to have. It sucks that they get lost so easily in forums. The content preview thing is a neat idea. I've had an idea about setting up info in layers like Overview, Basic, and Detailed. Then a UI can let the user expand a section to see deeper levels of detail. Not sure if we're talking about the same thing, but maybe it can be done with spoiler tags? Anyways, I'm mostly trying to prod towards getting the map submission process explained as much as possible ASAP and getting that into the hands of any forger of any level of knowledge wherever they look so that they can both understand (be placated) and use the info and services you guys are providing. Thank you all for your work. I'm feeling better about where things are going and I trust the people working on them. But I still want some info cuz I'm still in the dark here.
Dissemination of info and communications is a big deal at every level of well... Everything. So we do what we can in big posts but not everyone is going to see my ATN announcements. And not everyone is going to read or at least retain every word. And something may be confusing, lost in the shuffle, whatever whatever. So from time to time I like to just stick my head up and see if anyone has any questions. I'm always available via DM and will address anything- but even that fact is probably not well known. So here we are!
This is what I thought but just thought it would be good for the community to hear. This way people know that they didn't have to go through this process to get their map selected for matchmaking. The more transparent the better. You don't want people complaining that their map wasn't tested in the lobby and that's why it wasn't selected for matchmaking or that it was tested in the lobby and that's the only reason why it made it into MM.
I honestly don't understand the confusion about how the lobby works or where to find it: You can find the affiliated lobbies both in the halo discussion and forge discussion forums and it's always on the front page. Submit your map to the test lobbies and when your map is deemed ready by at least 2 of the lobbies (unless the number changed to 3 with the addition of Demption), it will get tested by the UCC team. That's it!
Good point there at the end- no matter how many lobbies we put into the network we plan on keeping the number of green lights necessary to advance at 2. We think 2 lobbies worth of feedback and changes has proven to be effective thus far. Case in point That said, the purpose of the network is to provide resources and there's no reason NOT to take advantage of all the lobbies therein!