KILL THE SCREENSHOT TOPIC

Honestly, my big plan is to try to build something that would replace and draw people away from the idea of screenshot topics on merit, and not by forcing people to it. But we'll see...

I don't think he means the screenshots are being segregated, but the functionality of the site. Exactly like you said, one place is considered being for "help" and another for "showing off" when ideally all activity should be based around game profiles.

I actually like the sound of that. I really do. But I wonder to what point it is feasible... There are certain benefits to having a dedicated thread for screens that not even displaying the latest/buzzing screens on top of the forum may satisfy. That's why it's called a 'thread'; It's an ongoing discussions, with no pauses, with people always pitching in on wathever strikes their fancy, be either something recent or from three pages ago. Bottom line a forum thread encourages participation and analysis by nature.

Having a bunch of screens on top of the forum (besides looking ugly) may boost visibility and draw some extra comments, but in the end I doubt it will have the same crucial effect. Things tend to diffuse pretty quickly on game profiles because criticizing the free work of hobbyists is still very much taboo. That's why you mostly see comments like "Wow. Cool stuff, bro!" in game profiles because the minute you say "I think you could improve this or that" the chances of it getting anywhere good are slim.

All in all, I really think we should try ways to shift the way of thinking of the community, but I'm fairly sure killing the screenshot topic is not going to accomplish that; That will just hurt the handful of us who enjoy the thread. *cue to shed a single tear* ='(

Edit:Holy carp, the Mayans were right! :Gasp:

Oh. Really? Well, I definitely think having the ability to segregate "stuff I don't want anyone except other developers to see and help me with" from "stuff I want potential players to see and be impressed with" is insanely useful, and removing the ability to do that would be ridiculously super bad. So ridiculously super bad that I'm pretty positive that he'd never suggest that, because it's so obviously and unarguably ridiculously super bad. So I think you're misunderstanding, alterego. But at the same time, I still don't understand either.

author=alterego
I don't see how this cannot happen on game profiles as well.

because people probably won't browse to your game page. 1 topic vs dozens of game pages.

if all it took was having a section of latest screens to look at, there would be more comments on the game page images right now.

if I'm a person who actually wants to take time to give advice to people, it makes sense to have it all in one place. then I could comment on several at once and to follow up on the comments I only need to go to one place. if I post on 20 different game pages I'm less likely to see any follow up questions.

not to mention the fact that anyone posting in the topic is obviously open to suggestion and criticism. how many times have we seen kids rage out when you tell them something they made looks bad? if you go around posting on random games your gonna find lots of these kids who don't want your "stupid" opinions.

their loss, i know.

I think a good solution would be to post screens only on the game page, but have a central location to make it known that you want criticism and critiques. maybe some kind of flag, like with blogs. you can do a search of images and find anything marked as "craving criticism" or something like that.

Was the screenshot thread supposed to be a feedback post anyway? I mean, posting anything on the internet opens up the material to critique, but was that the actual motivation for creating a screenshot topic?

Anyone who uses the screenshot topic for showing off is using it totally wrong and should be banned from the topic

RRR's screenshot topic actually has a rule that you can't post a screenshot until you give feedback on someone else's. As dumb as most of the ways they do stuff on RRR are, I think that's a really good way of doing it to make sure it's used solely for getting help. I would take it a step farther and say you can't post a screenshot until you've posted negative feedback on someone else's screenshot.

author=Jude
Was the screenshot thread supposed to be a feedback post anyway? I mean, posting anything on the internet opens up the material to critique, but was that the actual motivation for creating a screenshot topic?

I think it is... I don't know much about their history in English communities, (I doubt is any different, though) but in Spanish communities and because the lack of game profiles, blogs, etc. a dedicated screenshot topic was always a prime source for feedback. It was not really obligatory, but posting a screenshot without commenting the ones before yours was very frowned upon...

That's the thing, though. RMN does have all these great tools to let us involve ourselves with the development of our favorite games, but many people don't give them quite the right use yet and thus their relevance gets diminished.

author=Link_twooneonetwo
not to mention the fact that anyone posting in the topic is obviously open to suggestion and criticism. how many times have we seen kids rage out when you tell them something they made looks bad? if you go around posting on random games your gonna find lots of these kids who don't want your "stupid" opinions.

I know! I see the screenshot topic as a kind of an Oasis. If I give my opinion there about about something and the author makes a fuss, is their fault for sticking their nose where it doesn't belong. If I do the same in a game profile chances are I'll end up as a bad guy and get booed away by the game's subscribers. xD

author=LockeZ
I would take it a step farther and say you can't post a screenshot until you've posted negative feedback on someone else's screenshot.

I'm really hoping you worded that poorly because as much as I'm a 'tough love' advocate, negative feedback should not be encouraged. ...It depends on what is being understood as 'negative', though. For me, as long as it's being helpful it's positive feedback, so it doesn't matter if you word it rather strongly. "This looks terrible, try this or that instead" - It also counts if the "This looks terrible" and the "Try this or that instead" are in separate post. The process of giving and receiving feedback is much like a conversation after all.

Edit: xD

When I say positive feedback, I mean telling someone that their stuff already looks good enough. Compliments. While by negative feedback, I mean feedback that tells someone that they need to improve. Criticism. Criticism is useful to the person you're giving it to, while compliments are essentially pointless in a development/feedback thread because they don't spur any improvement. All they do is make you more popular.

Well, I mean, that is a slight exaggeration. Positive feedback is almost never useful to the person you're giving it to, but it's potentially useful to other people. If you can see someone else's work getting compliments for doing the opposite of what you did, you can extrapolate that you should change what you did. Giving someone positive feedback is essentially the same as giving everyone worse than them negative feedback, after all. But this basically never works, because people don't read feedback directed at anyone but themselves, because they are self-absorbed.

Negative feedback disguised as positive feedback can also be useful - "This screenshot looks good. You should do this more often." This is basically negative feedback on their other screenshots, and is therefore useful.

author=alterego

author=Link_twooneonetwo
not to mention the fact that anyone posting in the topic is obviously open to suggestion and criticism. how many times have we seen kids rage out when you tell them something they made looks bad? if you go around posting on random games your gonna find lots of these kids who don't want your "stupid" opinions.

I know! I see the screenshot topic as a kind of an Oasis. If I give my opinion there about about something and the author makes a fuss, is their fault for sticking their nose where it doesn't belong. If I do the same in a game profile chances are I'll end up as a bad guy and get booed away by the game's subscribers. xD

This is seriously a MAJOR PROBLEM and is the reason why I do not approve of making game profiles be the only place for showcasing your work. There needs to be one place for showcasing stuff you want criticism of, and another place for showcasing stuff you don't want criticism of. Either that, or getting offended at people criticizing your work needs to be a bannable offense.

As far as axing the screenshot topic goes, I'm going to have to vote Nay on that one. Reasons as to why have already been stated by others in this topic and I don't feel I need to repeat them with an essay of my own. (￣▽￣)ノ

...The screenshot thread is still where it was a month ago. If you'd checked you would have found it, pinned as usual in the Game Discussion and Development section.