Its been a few years, but I'm back / (With forum suggestions)

I think my username used to be EMPatrick. I was one of the first person Sven teamed up with to make the forum and co-ordinte the project. We then enjoyed a period of fast design development before the forum sort of revolted against Sven (he wouldn't let admins have any powers and stuff, can't fully remember). We then moved to proboards and I think that is around the time I wrote this project off. I am very glad to see it still going strong and I am back to lend a hand.

So I don't know if anyone of the original team is still around here, I think there was a Darkov, Something of Alaska, and InvaderZim were three I remeber.

My username may have also been i2enegade, or Pasteurized. I'm not sure.

Welcome back then i2enegade! :D 
(BTW his name's US of Alaska) I think big part of the team has kinda changed, old ones dissapeared and new ones (like me) joined since back then.

Thats the one, and thanks. It looks like this project has come pretty far.

Would anyone mind giving me a rundown of where were up to, or link me to a relevant thread.

we're currently trying to get the microbe stage/phase finished before 2014. progress thread.
Actually there's a couple of different threads depending on what kinda stuff you wanna contribute to .(art, music, code etc.)
Concept Art
Art
Programming
If you wanna make some music I think you should contact either Doggit or Oliver.

Hey there. You may not remember me, but way back when, I designed the OE current concept. Well, now I'm in charge of the place. Nice to see you around again.

Hello there! I am one of not new, not old members. As of course, we progresed alooot here, and we already have pre alpha super early pre test demo test super uber early 2 times version of microbe stage!

I dont do much at here, howewer, im trying to learn to make 3D models and compose. I helped revamping some stuff on wiki, made alot of organ concepts (As example, biolumiscent sacks, or sharp proboscis), Helped conceptualizing FP (Mostly by introducing new ones :lol: ), and some other stuff.

Thanks for the welcome back guys.

Not sure what skills I can contribute to the micro stage currently. I've dabbled a bit in in modeling, programming and stuff. I'm currently studying computer science with game and virtual environment, so later on down the line with the project I may be of more direct use.

I think currently my best option is to help with any sound design and maybe with organisation again when I am a bit more up to date and understand were we stand exactly.

I assume as we appear to be in crunch time, (and from looking at the wiki) that all design for the micro stage is complete?

Edit: I don't mean annoy anyone, but while the organisation of the project itself looks like everyone is doing a brilliant job, the forum itself is a bit messy, and some threads could be organised into a bit more of an accessible fashion.

Wow, I'm amazed to see someone with such a long history with Evolutions!/Thrive making an appearance! Welcome on board!

Darkov, US_of_Alaska, and InvaderZim used to be active on these forums, but have over the months lost interest. Its mostly a new generation of users who work on the project now.

If you think you could help out with project management and organization, that would be a godsend. Please post any suggestions you have for that here, and if you want to volunteer for anything to help organize and coordinate that would also be much appreciated.

And yes, Microbe Stage is well into development, far more than it ever was in the past.

Its good to be back. I remember getting really into this project years ago, and like many others loosing interest as the task becomes too daunting. I'm really pleased and proud to see how far this has come. I know I keep saying this, but the project looked more or less dead when I left it.

I think I could be of use helping to coordinate the project as I have a lot of experience admining forums. I shall continue to familiarise myself with the current situation and I'll try to be of as much use as I can.

Well a few suggestions I have is;

There should be a Announcements forum in the General section.. This would have topics mainly to do with the forum and would include topics such as the Theme Change topic, Team Leads, Permission Change and stuff. These do not need to be pinned in this forum and would be better suited to be posted loosely in an announcements forum and they can sink to to the bottom as we move on from them and while they are relevant they will float around the top as people post on them. I'm sure there other threads in other places that would suit this.

Before You Post, Thrive Abbreviations Dictionary and the FAQ should all be condensed into one thread which should cover them all. This is so that New Users will have only one topic to read which will cover their basic introduction to the forum and how it works.

The reason for both of these changes is improved organisation and it is good to reduce the number of stickied threads which make the forum look cluttered and disorganised.

The Programmers Coordination Thread could be renamed, its not apparent enough that people with programming experience should make their presence known there.

Threads should be moved to their relevant locations as much and as soon as possible, like intro threads and goodbye threads should be moved to the Intro forum. I appologise for posting my intro thread in the wrong place. I didn't see the Intros thread for some reason, my bad :oops: .There are some loose threads in here that don't really belong and should be moved.

I would also suggest and off-topic section for people to get know each other in a bit more casual environment. We are a team after all :).

A lot of the development forum looks to be working well and well laid out from what I can see as I scan through. I would suggest Team Leaders to post a thread an each are saying specifically  what needs doing in that area which people can see and act upon. I realise this is more or less in implimentation. My suggestion would be to have the Team Leader of each topic to reply to the thread as a new task up and the next thing is ready to worked on, and only the Team Leader reply, so that instructions do not get lost in conversation, and people can see when the topic is updated. Maybe you could have another thread where people sign up. I didn't look into each area that thoroughly to see how you are working things, but you seem to be doing a great job, this might just be an improvement, I don't know.

Just a few thoughts there haha, didn't intend to write that much :L.


EDIT: PS I changed my username, I don't really use i2enegade anymore and would prefer to be called Inca, which I what I use these days.

I think most of those suggestions sounds very good. However, the final confirmation power lies with ADMIN and his moderating powers.

I will get on to the task of moving intro threads into the right sub. Thats a sub that was opened recently so we are still moving threads into it.

I disagree with the idea of an off-topic section. I think it would detract too much from the productivity levels on the forums. Plus, being a development forum, it doesn't make much sense. I think OT sections fit better into gaming community forums.

Also, that final point sounds like a good idea, but I'm still a bit in the dark as to the specifics of how the threads are structured and how it would work. Could you elaborate?

Who, what is ADMIN? He some mystical power?

I don't think it would that counter-productive. Everyone is here for the same reason, to contribute and help make this game, not just hang out on a forum. You could try implementing it on a provisional basis and see how it works. You might be right, I kinda just gave a point why we don't need it :L.

Erm, I'll try. Basically, the Team Leader of the section would be the only one to post in the thread. Each of their posts would be an update each time something new needs doing. The Team Leader would post some of the things that are the priority to deal with at the current time. People then know that these are the things that need dealing with at this point in time. Once these things have been dealt with, and we can move on to the next stage, the TL would update their post saying completed (with links to relevant thread/wiki page) and then reply to the thread saying what the next focus for that section should be. This way, when a new focus has been specified everyone would know to look in the thread as a it says a new reply is available. This is the reason why only the TL is the one to post in the thread, other posts should be deleted. People can then view the thread and concisely see what has been completed and what the focus of their attention should be.

I think this would help everyone work through each thing that needs doing and really help break each section bit by bit. It would also help us document, manage and observe our progress.

Hope I explained it a bit better?

ADMIN is the site's Admin, run by ~sciocont and Alaska.

Inca wrote:

Everyone is here for the same reason, to contribute and help make this game, not just hang out on a forum.

Unfortunately, that's not always entirely true.

I see what you mean. Basically this but without the discussion, and for every team lead not for the stage currently at hand. So how would the team lead communicate with the people applying to the tasks and finishing the tasks? PM?

Ah I see.

Well this is a shame. I remember the old forums had huge issues with spam bots and stuff.

Yeah basically. Well each of the tasks would still have their own threads with people discussing and working on it just like you do now. And we then once the task has been completed by everyone, in the current manner, we can just ticket it off in the Focus thread and then post what the next focus is. It is basically a way of organising everything without all the clutter and discussion. It would also help unify the way we organise stuff into a consistent manner. If the tasks are such that people need to sign up to them then we can just have sign up thread, and also a discussion thread separately where people can put forward suggestions to what the next focus should be.

I do have another few points about the forum. I have is it could be an idea to have a forum just for the coordinators and team leaders, so that they can work closer together. I dunno if this is necessary though.

You mentioned that Alaska has lost interest and I saw that one of the sound mods had left and is still listed as a sound leader. I think that while people are absent for a length of time/ missing from the forum due to lack of interest or whatever they should be relieved from their position until their return. New leaders can then be appointed and its clear who is currently dealing with that section.

It might be worth hiring some forum mods whos responsibility it is to maintain order in the forums to allow the Team Leaders to focus on their actual departments. The forum mods could make sure topics are in the right places, that people stay on topic, duplicates are removed/closed, that sort of thing.

Hello there, I am one of the programmers on the team, good to see someone from a while ago coming back.
I myself Joined in the past few months.

Glad to see we have some programmers now. Back then we had just one guy called Blackey or something and I don't know if he actually produced anything concrete.


And Nick, I think I'd be happy to put myself forward as a project manager and help keep this organised. I have plenty of time to contribute as its my summer off from uni and I'm free pretty much all the time (though I will be away from friday to monday as I have a festival wooo!).

EDIT: I am also very against this "This topic is old, don't necro post". It is counter productive. If people have something constructive to say then the fact that previous discussion on the topic happened a year ago is irrelevant. It is better to post in an old thread and revive the discussion than post a new thread, for the sake of keeping things organised. In a project like this that is going to span many years, it doesn't seem wise to discourage people from revisiting old discussions. Unless the topic is actually complete and the concept is finalised. In this case the topic should be concluded and closed.

We generally discourage it because a lot of threads' discussions are no longer relevant, but when someone necros with a good idea, we're fine with it.

Fair enough, its just I've seen a few members telling people not to necro when their point is actually valid and worth considering. But I understand as a general rule it does make sense.

A few counter-points for you Inca.

The progress thread updated by the Team Leads is an interesting idea, although for what matters (microbe stage programming, art and music) this is already being done.

About a "moderators only" forum, I think this is unnecessary. I'm fairly sure that the team leads (me being one myself) and the moderators are in regular contact outside of Thrive. (I talk to Oliver, Cheese, Nick, Dani, UntrustedLife and of course ~scio on a regular basis.) So I think that forum wouldn't be utilized very often.

We can't "hire" forum mods per se, but if anyone wants to step up I'm sure they and ~scio could talk about it.

Also most necroposts don't actually offer any concrete ideas or progress and just stir up debate and discussion that is either pointless or has already been covered.

(I think you meant Bashinerox.)

A bit messy in a lot of places though. Like its pretty hard as a new user to see whats actually going on. I had the advantage of being around for a long time in the projects early years so I kind of knew more or less whats happening, but its still confusing to see what needs doing.

Fair enough.

Yeah thats what I meant.

Again fair enough.

I would support a separate forum section for all the announcements (FAQ, Before You Post, etc.), although I'm not sure about your other suggestions.

By the way, you said you wanted to help with sound design, and I listened to some of your music a little on Soundcloud. Some of your tracks would already fit many of Thrive's stages - I felt that Deep Space would work particularly well as (unsurprisingly) a space theme. If you want to help out with music, contact either myself or Doggit, and look at this thread to hear the music composed so far: https://thrivegame.canadaboard.net/t1186-music-list-thread-post-new-themes-here. It would be great to have you as part of the music team!

So now that I have the free time on my hands, I would like to work with you Inca to better organize the forums and the project.

To recap the suggestions, they are:

• Announcements Subforum
  
• Merging of the Before You Post, Thrive Abbreviations Dictionary, and the FAQ (On this point, I think that the FAQ should remain separate, but the first two should be merged. The FAQ could be linked in the Before You Post thread)
  
• I have renamed the Programmer Coordination Thread to Programmer Introduction Thread. If you have a better idea for the name please feel free to suggest.
  
• I'll be moving more of the intro threads into the correct sub today
  
• Removing old team leads
  
• New mods and team leads (One for sounds and one for the wiki. That's all I have right now)
  

If there are no objections, I think we should get started.

I think I got an idea for a good layout for the Task-List threads you suggested. 

---
Thread Name: (Insert Stage Here) Progress Report*

Tasks
-Bullet form points outlining the goals/tasks to be fulfilled

Links

http://www.linkstoimportantpagesregardingthisthread.com 
---
*Since there is already a Microbe Stage Progress Report, we could make a separate name for that one.

Any further ideas for the layout of these threads? Also, I think it would work better per stage than per team lead.

I'll help too. @Nick I was just about to fix the Team Leads page myself

NickTheNick wrote:

So now that I have the free time on my hands, I would like to work with you Inca to better organize the forums and the project.

To recap the suggestions, they are:

• Announcements Subforum
  
• Merging of the Before You Post, Thrive Abbreviations Dictionary, and the FAQ (On this point, I think that the FAQ should remain separate, but the first two should be merged. The FAQ could be linked in the Before You Post thread)
  
• I have renamed the Programmer Coordination Thread to Programmer Introduction Thread. If you have a better idea for the name please feel free to suggest.
  
• I'll be moving more of the intro threads into the correct sub today
  
• Removing old team leads
  
• New mods and team leads (One for sounds and one for the wiki. That's all I have right now)
  

If there are no objections, I think we should get started.

I think I got an idea for a good layout for the Task-List threads you suggested. 

---
Thread Name: (Insert Stage Here) Progress Report*

Tasks
-Bullet form points outlining the goals/tasks to be fulfilled

Links

http://www.linkstoimportantpagesregardingthisthread.com 
---
*Since there is already a Microbe Stage Progress Report, we could make a separate name for that one.

Any further ideas for the layout of these threads? Also, I think it would work better per stage than per team lead.

We surely need annoucements i news.
Merging Before You Post, Thrive Abbreviations Dictionary, and FAQ is good idea. Also, im not sure is OE CC now important enough to be at it right now. I think there should be some important concepts of microbe stage.
And finnaly, removing old team leads and adding new sounds like a good idea, as many of old team leads have left this project.

Not sure if it is possible on this forum host, but for the before you post Dictionary etc merge, you could have an into/ index in the first post and then link to the later posts in the topic where the other sections are. Like FAQ would all be contained in one post and then linked from the top.

I think you're right in saying tasks topics should be per stage.

Dunno if I've already said this, but the Wiki needs to be up to date and added to whenever something is agreed upon. It should also be linked to in the merged topic.

I'll get on incorporating those threads now. In the meantime, on the topic of the wiki, here is the thread on it. I was intending on reviving it again soon to get more work on the wiki, but I would appreciate it if you wanted to post there to help coordinate the effort.

What new team lead positions should be filled? 

Also, I made a new thread for tracking development here. It's contents can be discussed on the original Microbe Stage Progress Report, but the main task list that will be updated will be on the new thread. If everyone is fine with it, I will be unstickying the Microbe Stage Final Draft, since it will be confusing to have the "Microbe Stage Progress Report", the "Microbe Stage Final Draft", and the new "Development Bulletin: Microbe" threads all stickied. What's more, it never really was a progress report and was more a general discussion with links here and there but never collected on the OP.

Also, I don't know how to link to specific posts, only to specific pages. Does anyone know how?

EDIT: Inca, how about I link the Abbreviations Dictionary in the Before You Post thread, and then I move it into the Announcements/Important Information subforum when it is created.