Spring RTS Engine

OK, so then it's well-worth it to put the effort in there. Point taken.

one thing to note, simply googling the word "Spring" now shows this site on the first result page, about 4 links down. That is a MAJOR achievement.

The thing I've been trying to stress here is that both sites as supposed to be working in conjunction... Springinfo helping to guide people that don't really know wtf is going on and provide insight as to how it all works and what to do etc etc etc.

This site does a much better job at the newbie experience, but it still blows at leading people from start to finish, and considering that this site is trying to cater to dev/content dev/player it's not shocking that it only does the 2 former the best. We all know it is better at 3 than it was, but it still don't not provide the information in a way that is particularly great for a new player.

Sadly I think most of us have come to grips with the fact that our wiki will always suck. It's a LOT better than it was with the old site, but it's still a massive pain in the ass. At least now less cutting of one's wrists is needed to find what you want.

Edit: Only for interests sake, today springinfo is at 240 unique hits so far, here are the top searches:

Top Searches

supreme annihilation, balanced annihilation maps, springinfo, spring rts problems getting started, spring f12 screenshot

Also interesting is that Supreme Annihilation has more hits than any other mod page.

maybe people confuse it with supcom ;p

There's an excellent opportunity coming up for something to make it to the frontpage with the upcoming release of S44's installer package.

Search results are unreliable because as spring users our search results are tailored to us and thus spring engine pages already have an unhealthy bias because google thinks we're more likely to mean spring engine not spring flowers when we google spring.

*doublepost*

Anyway I think forb you need to support your site for the next month and be prepared to do so single handedly while trying to figure out how to make things easier for new users to submit news even if it's anonymously because a big list of posts to flag as appropriate and innapropriate is far less work then writting them all yourself, and common contributors can be promoted lessening the burden.

At the moment your riding an initial wave of curiosity. This is starting to peter off now. I can see it in google analytics, the percentage of traffic coming from springinfo referrals has dropped by 60% in the last week. You wont attract news contributors unless they feel their contribution will have value, which means the site needs to be active.

They should want to help because they want to help, not because they are needed. What's more there's no reason for modders to invest in your site if there's no audience. Your relying on them to populate your site, and they'll post if there's a populated active site, but you dont have one or the other so you need to kick start it yourself, or you face a chicken or the egg type paradox.

There's also the question of your reaction to help. I predict you wont react too kindly to this post and that reply would serve as an example of what not to do. I know youd ont like me but by pouring scorn on my offers of help your actually harming yourself not me. Your setting an example for potential contributors, your showing them what will happen when they try to help. Would you contribute to darkstars fi you saw someone else trying to help and me pouring scorn on them making them do all the work and showing no appreciation and going round the forums complaining about unkept promises?

Lighten up, play the charm game, and keep the site active with good quality content posted at regular intervals, while improving it. People will get there eventually, just dotne xpect everythign done for you all at once.

AF: +1. It's essential that the lobbies integrate springinfo ASAP to keep the curiosity factor up.

AF wrote:Search results are unreliable because as spring users our search results are tailored to us and thus spring engine pages already have an unhealthy bias because google thinks we're more likely to mean spring engine not spring flowers when we google spring.

You don't turn that off?
I've checked it on browsers with nice clear everything, third site / fourth result.

imbaczek wrote:AF: +1. It's essential that the lobbies integrate springinfo ASAP to keep the curiosity factor up.

I suspect this will not fix everything. Sure it will be a system but a system needs to do more than just 'exist'.

You don't turn that off?
I've checked it on browsers with nice clear everything, third site / fourth result.

I could but my search results are more relevant when its turned on. I can always use my phone if I need unbiased results though, but its good to know we're definately on 3rd/4th result

AF you have a warped view on helping sometimes.

THat said, I already am maintaining it. Lately there hasn't been a lot going on and I've been busy.

And AF please get it in your head. Registration requires, an email, a username a password and a capcatcha. If ppl can't do that simple step that they do for everything else in this world then I prolly wouldn't want to have do deal with the crap they would submit anyway.

Satirik hasn't said anything about integration in over a week, so I have no idea what is going on on that front.

Edit: AF the reason people get pissed at you is because you go off making claims of what should be done without looking to see what HAS been done.

re satirik, i was bugging him about this the other day, and he said he's still not happy with how the site looks, something about removing [more] tags and whatnot.

Forboding Angel wrote:AF you have a warped view on helping sometimes.

THat said, I already am maintaining it. Lately there hasn't been a lot going on and I've been busy.

Granted, but making posts complaining people aren't holding up their commitments will only drive people away. I love how your totally dismissive of what I know, its as if your treating me like a child. I, exclusively in this forum, have to reel off a list of diplomas and references and a hefty dossier of evidence for you to recognize that what I'm saying might be worth actually looking at.

And AF please get it in your head. Registration requires, an email, a username a password and a capcatcha. If ppl can't do that simple step that they do for everything else in this world then I prolly wouldn't want to have do deal with the crap they would submit anyway.

http://www.uie.com/articles/three_hund_million_button

http://www.uie.com/articles/account_design_mistakes/

http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2629.asp

Either way you admit that it could be easier, even if you think it already is easy. That's sort of the point. Make ti as easy as possible to submit news, even if its already quite simple if theres an even easier way then do it. But yes I am not stupid, =O *shock horror gasp*, and I understand what a registration form is, Ive built them int he past, read about them

Satirik hasn't said anything about integration in over a week, so I have no idea what is going on on that front.

Edit: AF the reason people get pissed at you is because you go off making claims of what should be done without looking to see what HAS been done.

I have looked. Lets take news submission as an example again using the actual site.

Looking at the frontpage of sprigninfo.info there are no submit news buttons. There is no link to a 'how to submit news' kind of page, there is no inkling that news of any kind can actually be submitted by the user. The nearest thing is a register button at the bottom hidden in 2 columns of links. Its not highlighted in anyway, it requires scrolling down, and its ambiguous. Why should we register? Is it for comments? After all this is wordpress, maybe its for admin purposes etc etc...

So lets say well this is just the frontpage, lets go to the menu at the top and look at news ( your menu overflows out of the main menu bar and onto the second row, needs css fix, it looks like a submenu not a continuation of the main menu. ), and again we look at the page and find no such button, no paragraph explaining how or that its even possible.

As such the only way to know that the ability to submit news actually exists is to go to the forums which isn't exactly plain sailing as it has multiple barrier such as being hidden in a large horizontal menu and having a proxy page with an agreement on it to accept. The onyl other way fo knowing is to surf a handful of threads in these forums, and we all know that most of the community avoids the forums like the plague.

How to fix this? I would suggest making a box with a how to submit news title in it that sits at the top of the highlight reel with a different background color so its more obvious. It would lead to a page saying that you need to register, possible with a built in registration form.


In future though foreboding, a constructive criticism or suggestion should be met with discussion not attack, if only for the reason that it wastes less time.

I feel this thread is being derailed, I did not intend for it to be about springinfo at all.

don't worry, if it is any indication, I got the jist.

Just throwing my +1 in there.

Its a shame, its a fall from grace

I personally prefer getting my news on major Spring-related developments from the site's front page.

I do not usually bother going to an external site for Spring's mod or game-related news and developments because I can track almost all of the mods/games i'm interested in from the foums, and don't bother at all to visit external sites to get info on Spring, because it is a completely separate site.

.: More effort/barriers to get the info people want = fail.

http://www.springinfo.info/?p=361

How about less barriers?

i havent read any posts in here but yes Major Game releases should be on the Spring frontpage

shit, Steam spams you with "update news" about new games to buy every time you even try to use it. this is just puttin stuff on the frontpage.

Good but all it takes is another 4 news posts before the improvement is negated by being pushed off the main page or into the long list of highlights. At which point all my points on submission rear their head again and your in the same paradoxical situation. A more permanent solution required.