Reply to Re: Dink Network - Site Upgrade Planning
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1) It seems like D-Mod categories (Epic, Quest, Romp, Demo) don't have much value. May eliminate these (or maybe reevaluate)? Maybe user-submitted tags that staff have to approve?
I think the categories are useful, it's just that they have been applied a bit... liberally on some dmods. A tag system could work, I guess.
2) Add ability to classify a D-Mod as 'mature', and make this status visible to users.
Sounds like today's world.
This would obviously fit with the tag system...
3) Replace (or supplement) review system with 'thumbs up' / 'thumbs down', potentially allowing anonymous voting. Use fancy algorithm so it takes into account low votes = lower average. Maybe move reviews to forum discussion posts.
I like reviews, they make this site's file system light years ahead of nexus sites, for example. I've browsed the comments section on those sites so many times, hoping someone's written an actual review. Usually no such luck, and you just have to download the file blind and try it. Looking at the most popular files doesn't help at all, probably because my tastes don't really align with what many people like (screw anime hairstyles in my Fallout/TES), or because an otherwise decent quest mod has some fatal flaw (dialogue written and acted by a 5-year-old).
What I don't like about the review system is when someone writes a decent review, but the score doesn't match or it's very high/low. Then you have to decide whether to approve the review and skew the score, or reject the review and probably have it remain rejected forever. I don't really like the staff controlling the scores by approving/rejecting reviews in the first place. It would be nicer to just reject them based on more tangible stuff, like if the review is obviously lying/text copied from another review/incoherent/etc.
I think thumbs up / thumbs down is pretty worthless when it comes to something as complicated as a dmod. You can't tell anything by that, other than 'maybe the dmod will at least be okay', 'maybe the author at least tried', or 'so many thumbs down, oh look at that the dmod was made by Skorn.'
Umm, a thumb system could actually be nice for ranking reviews rather than the whole featured/normal stuff. If you found this review helpful, give it a thumbs up.
4) Add compatibility information (v1.08, Freedink, Dink HD) to D-Mods.
Yes. (Tags?)
5) Update the main entry page to look nicer.
Yes. It would be nice to give the whole site a bit of a facelift, if only because it's been like this forever.
6) Make it very obvious how to play the game for most people (install v1.08, then copy freedink into that folder)
YES.
13) I think deleted posts should be handled differently. Right now, you can either see them just as well as every other post, or not see them at all. They could be minimized so that you'd have to click a little icon to expand them, or moved into their own subforum that's not visible on the main board, or something like that.
EDIT: The ability to add screenshots/pictures into reviews would also be very nice.
I think the categories are useful, it's just that they have been applied a bit... liberally on some dmods. A tag system could work, I guess.
2) Add ability to classify a D-Mod as 'mature', and make this status visible to users.
Sounds like today's world.
This would obviously fit with the tag system...3) Replace (or supplement) review system with 'thumbs up' / 'thumbs down', potentially allowing anonymous voting. Use fancy algorithm so it takes into account low votes = lower average. Maybe move reviews to forum discussion posts.
I like reviews, they make this site's file system light years ahead of nexus sites, for example. I've browsed the comments section on those sites so many times, hoping someone's written an actual review. Usually no such luck, and you just have to download the file blind and try it. Looking at the most popular files doesn't help at all, probably because my tastes don't really align with what many people like (screw anime hairstyles in my Fallout/TES), or because an otherwise decent quest mod has some fatal flaw (dialogue written and acted by a 5-year-old).
What I don't like about the review system is when someone writes a decent review, but the score doesn't match or it's very high/low. Then you have to decide whether to approve the review and skew the score, or reject the review and probably have it remain rejected forever. I don't really like the staff controlling the scores by approving/rejecting reviews in the first place. It would be nicer to just reject them based on more tangible stuff, like if the review is obviously lying/text copied from another review/incoherent/etc.
I think thumbs up / thumbs down is pretty worthless when it comes to something as complicated as a dmod. You can't tell anything by that, other than 'maybe the dmod will at least be okay', 'maybe the author at least tried', or 'so many thumbs down, oh look at that the dmod was made by Skorn.'
Umm, a thumb system could actually be nice for ranking reviews rather than the whole featured/normal stuff. If you found this review helpful, give it a thumbs up.
4) Add compatibility information (v1.08, Freedink, Dink HD) to D-Mods.
Yes. (Tags?)
5) Update the main entry page to look nicer.
Yes. It would be nice to give the whole site a bit of a facelift, if only because it's been like this forever.
6) Make it very obvious how to play the game for most people (install v1.08, then copy freedink into that folder)
YES.
13) I think deleted posts should be handled differently. Right now, you can either see them just as well as every other post, or not see them at all. They could be minimized so that you'd have to click a little icon to expand them, or moved into their own subforum that's not visible on the main board, or something like that.
EDIT: The ability to add screenshots/pictures into reviews would also be very nice.
