8 replies to this topic

[MikeyPI]

Hello guys, please do me a favor and remember not everyone "follows" your topics extensively, some are new members, others are unable to keep current on modifications and their progress.  Please update the FIRST post of your topic to include important information about your mods.  Since you follow your topics and respond to them (hopefully anyway) you know what people most commonly want to/need to know about your mod and it's current state/progress.  If your information will not fit within the first post of the topic, please contact a staff member and we will make it so that you own the second/third (as-needed) posts are yours as well.

 

Thank you for your cooperation, hopefully it will make it easier for people to follow your mods and help reduce the redundant Q&A that happens when mods have so many pages of posts within them to where it is unreasonable to expect people to read through them all.  I myself "skip" over several pages of content just because I don't want to have to read through all the posts in topics, so I am sure alot of other people do the same as well.

[itchboy]

So this means if I post anything new, I can't make a new post about it anymore?

[MikeyPI]

Not at all, it means that you can still post the new post, but any really important information add to the First post of the topic, so that it is easy to locate in the future for anyone who wishes to have a "summary" of the mod and it's progress... Just makes it easier for people who are not so current on the mod's progress for whatever reason they have been unable or unwilling to do so, along with reducing the redundant postings about the same things that can be informed about within the first post too.

[itchboy]

So if I will post that I'm stopping a mod, or doing a major change, then it goes to the front page and any details you guys can insert into 2nd or third post? I understand. Thanks for doing this for us.

[MikeyPI]

Well that's the intent behind it yes, if you've got a released version of the mod and a link for the download of said files, any major changes to the mod or it's progression (IE on hold or discontinued).  Any further information you wish to make published and easy to access can also go into the first post.  If your first post gets so large that it cannot get any further information (which can happen in theory) you simply contact one of the staff and we will make it to where you have ownership of the 2nd post (and so on as required) so that you may continue to add important information about your mod within the subsequent posts on the first page.  We won't add the information for you into the posts, but we will assign you ownership of those successive posts as-needed so you can edit/alter them as you need to.  It should make organization of mod topics and the relevant information for said mod easier to find if it's all on the first page of a topic.. The Discussions can continue as well as normal updates within the topic, this is more of a convenience factor that in my eyes will improve the experience here in being able to find the information within the first post/page of the mod topics..

[Pottyscotty]

This is a good idea actually. Some bigger things I have moved to the start of my mod thread, can I ask however, apart from updates, downloads and the like, what else we should be putting in the first post, or is it literally just new/big information.

[MikeyPI]

In the end the information is totally up to the mod creators on what they wish to put into their first post(s) of their topic.. But here's a good example of things I would list in there:

 

First Information Grouping (current release info):

• Download Link(s) for the mod
• Any Patches/updates for the mod if applicable as links
• Latest build version of the mod (IE My Mod V1.0)
• General information about the latest released build.  Like features, functions, things that can be done with/in the mod.(including media if applicable to the mod, pictures, videos whatever you've got for press for the release build). 
• A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the released version, things people commonly ask about regarding the released version of the mod (whether or not those things are in the mod or not, if people ask about it a lot, its worth noting in this section)

Second Information Grouping(future build version WIP):

• Whether or not it is discontinued, a work in progress, beta, etc... So for ex you've released version 2.0 Note below it that you are currently working on version 2.1 (IE WIP My Mod Version 1.1)
• If there is a new build in progress, put the information related to the new work-in-progress build below the notation of the next version being developed (if space permits, if not ask a moderator to give you the 2nd posting so that you can place this information in the 2nd post).
• Another FAQ related to the WIP build version.

 

Any other notes/credits related to the mod, imo it would be nice to see crediting occur on the first page of the mod's topic at the bottom of the information posts, aside from being in the readme included in the download file for the mod, it's nice to credit people in the information section of the mod too.  This is not mandatory, but IMO it's a nice way of showing appreciation to the users who you've gotten resources from to use in your mod, plus it makes it easy to keep track of credits for the mod, as well as easy for anyone who may want to use things from the mod to figure out who made what.

[Pottyscotty]

Any other notes/credits related to the mod, imo it would be nice to see crediting occur on the first page of the mod's topic at the bottom of the information posts, aside from being in the readme included in the download file for the mod, it's nice to credit people in the information section of the mod too.  This is not mandatory, but IMO it's a nice way of showing appreciation to the users who you've gotten resources from to use in your mod, plus it makes it easy to keep track of credits for the mod, as well as easy for anyone who may want to use things from the mod to figure out who made what.

Yeah I think I'll do this one. At the moment all the credit for my mod are packed into a readme which no-one will actually read, so you are right, there needs to be more visible credits.

[Newfoundking]

Plus, if we can just see credits listed on the download page, it saves us from having to download and read the readme ourselves to see if you can keep your mod or not