Situation Critical

[shnorb]

i already think it is the best rts ever! ta used to be my fav... spring just allows us to do everything we want it to do, and look and sound better while doing it. what else would i ever need...?

[mongus]

(hhdms.d,dieji)
aw.. shut up redfish.

[genblood]

.

..

... Spring is a game RTS game in beta ...

In time it will get better ...

In a few months it will get BETTER ...

[LordMatt]

It's only played by noobs at the moment, if at all.

Hardly "only," though I agree there are a lot of them. I at least try to teach people something if they're interested.

LordMatt.

[Ace07]

We can't and shouldn't spread this game yet. Until a user friendly Lobby Client is set up, and the game is "free", people won't play it. If you advertise it too much right now, people will try it once, and then give up. They will never try it again.

For now we must have patience, so that we can spread the word later. A massive advertising campaign does need to exist, but we need the right people to promote it. We can't have a bunch of people running around yelling "SPRINGGg111." That is where better project management comes into play. We really need committed artists and designers to join the team and start working on a unified marketing plan. We also need a lot better PR if this game is to be of any success outside of the TA world.

when the Team decides that spring can handle a wider audience, why dont you send an email to the UK PCGAMER magazine? The July ABC was 57,023 copies.

They have a section of about 10-13 pages dedicated to all sorts of mods, free games, online culture etc, so TA:S would be perfect for it. They might put it on the cover disc, as they did with a TA unit pack quite a few months back. They'll probably get exactly the right message across when it comes to the promotion side of things.

On the other hand, how many Moderators are there on these forums? you might need more for any large amount of publicity, when numerous idiots start signing in. And how hacker-proof is spring?

That sounds like a very good idea. We will have to do that when the time is right. I wouldn't dream of publicizing this game until it is completely legal anyways. To be frank, there is a lot of work to do to even get to that point.

Also, there are not a lot of moderators. At some point, we need to increase the number of moderators quite a bit. This site also need to be revamped so it is more friendly for artists to contribute to the project.

So much time, and so little to do!

(Scratch that...reverse it.)

[AF]

Moderators is a problem.

SY's ahve 2 choices:
Go for the deffo reliable people who never log in enough to be good enough as moderators

Or go for the people who would fit into every category but would cause controversy. These wopuld be people like myself and aGorm etc.

Go for the major producers, when I think of these bgugi jumps into my mind, of course these people have better things todo than moderate

moderate themselves, of course there being a hit at the amount of time for deelopment as a result, it seems that Jouninkomiko and SJ are the only major moderators and ahve been the only major moderators for a long while.

[Ace07]

I have been a moderator in many forums before. In fact, on one forum (with over 80,000 registered users) I was a Staff member, which is only a step away from the Admin. I wouldn't mind picking up the "management" role on the team sometime, since it is obviously needed.

However, I need to finish the project I am working on now. (New Lobby Client)

[AF]

I'd be happy to see someone like you become a moderator, at least soemone who understands that project management is important.

Though I feel that by saying that you have jinxed yourself, and my support is a, oh alantai supports you it must be good, whose alantai, oh alantai supports you you must eb a twat sorta thing.

*closes mouth and wanders off aimlessly*

[[K.B.] Napalm Cobra]

I'd be happy to see someone like you become a moderator, at least soemone who understands that project management is important.

Though I feel that by saying that you have jinxed yourself, and my support is a, oh alantai supports you it must be good, whose alantai, oh alantai supports you you must eb a twat sorta thing.

*closes mouth and wanders off aimlessly*

Is it neccissary for a moderator to have project management skills? I thought that would be more appropriate for a project leader working with the SY's? Althought it appears they're a good choice for either.

[Buggi]

Moderating/admin is only a position offered, not requested. I've not been approached by SY for this nor would I ever ask for it.

It's just not how it's done.

-Buggi

[Ace07]

I'd be happy to see someone like you become a moderator, at least soemone who understands that project management is important.

Though I feel that by saying that you have jinxed yourself, and my support is a, oh alantai supports you it must be good, whose alantai, oh alantai supports you you must eb a twat sorta thing.

*closes mouth and wanders off aimlessly*

Is it neccissary for a moderator to have project management skills? I thought that would be more appropriate for a project leader working with the SY's? Althought it appears they're a good choice for either.

Well, in my opinion we need someone to coordinate the entire project. That involves providing feedback to the masses (public relations = moderating forums). We need someone who can coordinate the project better and is able to coordinate the many people who are a part of this community.

Basically, we have to set up a better system for recruiting new members of the Team. We need to make it known what positions are open and at what times. The most important people needed next would be artists and designers. We need a consistent theme for this project, and you need an art coordinator for that. In addition to trying to recruit those positions, it is imperative that we set up a part of the site where people can contribute art assets easily.

Among the less needed things, we also need to organize the site better. We need to coordinate with the various factions that are now beginning to form. This includes "the porters", "the mappers", and "the fans". Currently the mix isn't all to helpful to the development of spring. If we could produce parts of the site which promoted their efforts more officially, the project would surely be better for it.

Anyways, there is a lot to be done in this area. (as you can see)

[[K.B.] Napalm Cobra]

What we really need is someone to give fnordia a swift kick up the backside.

[AF]

Perhaps if the front page had a side table with an rss feed that we the users maintained for thigns like tool this and that and map that and that has been updated/released etc.

[AF]

The use of online message boards has surged over the past decade and an obvious need for moderation has certainly arisen. Instead of attempting to hierarchically control message boards through the use of moderation or auto-filtering software, Webmasters have a much simpler alternative. They can use the power of a well-networked and guided system to moderate their content.

The system works from the bottom up allowing complete coverage of all threads and all users. Complex systems require little or no external moderation, which keeps long run cost down. Further, the technology already exists to make all of this possible. Many forums are already building databases full of karma scores. These forums could be creating much more useful databases just as easily. Those databases full of thousands of opinions from thousands of users could act as the sole form of moderation if applied correctly.

The result would be a community of people who learn quickly what it takes to acculturate to message board norms. They will quickly adapt their writing styles to fit into the community standards or they will be ejected from the system. Finally, the Webmaster sets up the community rules and allows the masses to enforce them. Thus, the message boards will be able to run themselves.

Taken from AI depot and with a good suggestion there imo. Self moderation..

http://ai-depot.com/Essay/Moderation.html

[Warlord Zsinj]

Alantai, think carefully about that.

You yourself are a prime example of why such a non-disgression-based system would not work, as you would be significantly worse off in such a system.

[AF]

The way I work and the reasons you gave are complimentary but why it is so is soemthign you fail to see.

Incase you havent notice if someone flames me I flame them abcka nd I dont back down, if someones beieng flamed and they're flaming back I jump in on the bandwagon on whoevers right with th aim of rubbishign whatever false logic I find. Take the flamers (such as yourself) and the trolelrs out fot he community and I have no reason to get into big flames anymore. Just remember that my actions are heavily dependant upon yours, and tho I try to be nice I will not have it thrown back in my face by elitist imperialistic predjudiced arrogant ignorant snobs.

You must also see that you didnt read the whole article just the quote and thus didnt realise that the system is designed to encourage people to self moderate and be nice, not to force them with rigid rules and censorship overnight.

[Warlord Zsinj]

Incase you havent notice if someone flames me I flame them abcka nd I dont back down, if someones beieng flamed and they're flaming back I jump in on the bandwagon on whoevers right with th aim of rubbishign whatever false logic I find. Take the flamers (such as yourself) and the trolelrs out fot he community and I have no reason to get into big flames anymore. Just remember that my actions are heavily dependant upon yours, and tho I try to be nice I will not have it thrown back in my face by elitist imperialistic predjudiced arrogant ignorant snobs.

My previous post was not intended as a flame. I was simply saying that if such a system was in position when you started spamming the forums, you wouldn't be here anymore.
People are very fickle; you'll find that giving 'power to the people' is not a good thing, much of the time. Having a few benevolent all-powerful moderators is a far better solution. And this forum has all of about 30-40 people posting on it, making such a complicated system unnecessary.

[mongus]

(hhdms.d,dieji)
aw.. shut up redfish.

Well ok, i think some of the comments on this post have something to do with this...
So i apologize to redfish for being blunt and so reactionary to its posts...

mostly, he saying the game is not up to spectations and that TA plays better disturbs me (as i really think completely different), its like throwing dirt on it.
i think this is a beta, and that its getting better as ppl help and work on it.

[Maelstrom]

Well a few things.

I would like to help if I can. Where do i sign up? I have some 3D modelling experience, programming experience (but not in C/C++). I would be interested in modeling (possibly 2D graphics, but thats not my strong point)

There is a online gaming program called GameArena( http://www.GaneArena.com.au ) who host many online games. They might be interested in setting up hosting capabilities for this game. (They have hosting for an obscure little game called Soldat( http://www.soldat.pl ) thats made by one person in his free time). But if you do want game hosting with them you will need a dedicated server (i couldnt find any mentio of one anywhere on the site)

And I really like this game. Few things to improve, but over all I like it.

[Tim Blokdijk]

Help with the new lobby Maelstorm
https://opensvn.csie.org/traccgi/taspri ... c.cgi/wiki
http://lolut.utbm.info/cgi-bin/mailman/ ... ring-linux