64Digits - Greater Size Demands Greater Control

Posted by Joewoof on July 2, 2006, 8:29 a.m.

A few months ago, before this place became hugely popular, it was unneccessary to have more efficient systems. However, with the influx of so many new members, there is an increased demand to establish more order.

The new "View Queue" and "Report" systems are obviously made to do so.

However, I believe that it needs more than that. The blogs, which the site revolves around, really needs to be better organized.

Here is my suggestion: separate blogs into categories. There are a number of ways that this can be achieved.

First, in the "New Blog Entry" page, there should choices for categories (either as radio buttons or a drop-down menu). The main categories may be:

  • Game Development

  • Life

  • 64Digits MMORPG

  • Miscellaneous

    (just an example, the "64Digits MMORPG" category may be problematic)

    Second, there should be a way of labeling blogs according to these categories. I've once suggested making use of the tiny gray icons on the left of the blogs. A different icon will be used for each category. For example:

  • Game Development (gray GM icon, with the hammer)

  • Life (default icon)

  • 64Digits MMORPG (circle with "64" inside)

  • Miscellaneous (a question mark)

    Third (optional), users may be able to choose blogs of which category they want to view (including the default "all" option).

    To easily implement this, all categories of past blogs will be set as "Life".

    This should improve user experience here at 64Digits a lot. Please consider it.
  • Comments

    Maxcore 18 years, 5 months ago

    No because those ideas are dumb. The thing about blogs are that they are random, and the title should give the content of the blog away. I have a huge problem with most blogs, but this is not the way to solve it. It is though, a good way to piss people off and make the site ugly.

    neonut99 18 years, 5 months ago

    I agree with Joewoof. I think that It might make a better experience because blogs would stay on the list longer which means more comments…

    Also, (Biggmax) how would it be ugly. I think you just like to argue against people!

    Maxcore 18 years, 5 months ago

    because it would cause a break in uniformity along the left site with dumb icons.

    flashback 18 years, 5 months ago

    Biggmax has a point - I can see how multiple icons in the blog list would make the site look, well, horrid. Also, how would we force people to put their blogs into the catagories? How about blogs with multiple bunches of content - say someone blogs about their new dog, then the game they're working on, then bananas? What catagory does that go in? Are you suggesting that we have members blogging crazy amounts of blogs to fit each catagory?

    This doesn't give more control. Neither do View Queue and Report. This suggesting just makes the site overly complicated, while view queue allows members to see how far away their game is from acceptance, and report merely makes bad posts visible to moderators.

    Also, please note that this has been suggested many times, and turned down.

    Joewoof 18 years, 5 months ago

    The very fact that it is suggested many times should speak of many users being discontent with how blogs are being managed at the moment.

    This is merely creating a forum-like system with blogs.

    Quote:
    Also, how would we force people to put their blogs into the catagories?
    Once it is made into a rule, it will be followed. In the case of the one regarding "no-blogs about 64Digits MMORPG", for example, people do follow that rule. In fact, it will have to go into one category or another. Of course, the default will be "Life" (or "General"), which can really be anything.

    Quote:
    How about blogs with multiple bunches of content - say someone blogs about their new dog, then the game they're working on, then bananas? What catagory does that go in?
    Either "Life"(or "General") or "Miscellaneous".

    Quote:
    Are you suggesting that we have members blogging crazy amounts of blogs to fit each catagory?
    You should not make silly presumptions, Flashback, because it allows me to say this: Are you suggesting that this implementation will suddenly (by some divine intervention) cause all users to forget the only 2 blogs per day rule?

    Quote:
    title should give the content of the blog away
    They should, but most do not and are often beyond vagueness.

    Another way to implement categorization is to have buttons near the "Latest Blogs" title. These buttons allow you to toggle between blogs of each main category. All blogs will automatically show up under "General", for example (which is the default). When a user selects "Game Dev", then only blogs that are in the "Game Dev" category are listed, for instance. These can be tiny square-shaped buttons with a miniscule symbol for each category.

    flashback 18 years, 5 months ago

    Flaming me earns you nothing but warning levels. Having a "General" catagory means noobs post directly into that, regardless of what their blogs is about, and magically… it's the same as it is now.

    And you are wrong about users actually following the 2 blogs a day rule. We spend a good chunk of our time taking out more than two blogs a day rule breakers.

    And yes, if they had to divide everything into neat little catagories, that will cause the 2 blogs a day rule to become obsolete: You cannot possibly fit everything into a meagre two blogs.

    And now think about how much work it would be to implement this. Imagine being one of the admins, and having to go around catagorizing every blog currently posted, coming up with catagories that can have no vagueness, and then moderating blogs put in the wrong catagories. How do you define the catagories, anyway? You could say "oh, this blog is about gamemaker, it belongs in the gamemaker catagory!", but hte blogger might say "But the development of games is part of my daily life, so this goes in the life section!"

    Also, just because meany people have suggested it doesn't mean it's a good thing to do. for instance, many people have told to kill myself in numerous ways on this site, yet I have not. This site isn't a democracy - It is a dictatorship. The staff makes the rules, and decides what to do. No number of users whining and complaining can actually force us to do anything.

    melee-master 18 years, 5 months ago

    I, personally think Joewoof is on the right track. We do need the site to be more organized, but that will come in V3 this summer.

    Quote:

    No number of users whining and complaining can actually force us to do anything.

    I hope you aren't suggesting that Joewoof is whining - because he isn't.

    flashback 18 years, 5 months ago

    I never insinuated that he specifically was whining, I was merely makign a statement.

    Joewoof 18 years, 5 months ago

    Flashback,

    I used to be an admin of a fairly active site for a few years (it's closed now). I am also a GameMakerGames staff member, so I can understand the pressure from members' ideas. I don't have to imagine; I know. However, appealing to such pity does not make a good arguement. It does, in no way lessen the importance of improving management. Moreover, you are essentially saying that "negative abusive personal criticism" is the same as "constructive criticism for the site".

    I'm most disappointed that you actually threatened me with a warn level. This is an abuse of authority. I am in no way attacking you; I am rebutting against your arguement.

    Besides, you have ignored some things that I have said, such as the creating a system that automatically sets all past blogs as "General". Lack of acknowledgement of that proposed solution is no different.

    That aside, you've got some good points.

    I'm surprised that you admins are spending so much time doing the tedious work of enforcing the 2-blogs-per-day rule. The question is, why? Isn't it greatly more time-efficient and less stressful to implement an automatic system that limits the number of blogs one user can make per day? What bothers me most is that you admins have the time to make that 64Digits MMORPG, and yet, not create a script for handling something very important such as this. If this is indeed such a big problem that no new additions can be made to the site, then do something about it.

    Anyway, I'm glad to hear that a new site version is coming up, Melee. That's great.

    melee-master 18 years, 5 months ago

    Yeah, the next version will be very, very good.

    Quote:

    Isn't it greatly more time-efficient and less stressful to implement an automatic system that limits the number of blogs one user can make per day?

    I've thought of that before, but I don't think it's needed yet.

    Quote:

    What bothers me most is that you admins have the time to make that 64Digits MMORPG

    In the admins defence, Jake was only one admin who did that. =]

    Anyways, I'm really happy that you care about 64D, Joewoof. I'd recommend posting anything you want to say in the recent news post.