We've been asking for that for a long, long, long time.
We do have a separate Foundry forum where all the quest advertising/requests/reviews are supposed to be posted: Foundry Spotlight
For some reason though, the moderators don't move them out of this thread and into the spotlight thread.
Probably because the name of the forum, 'Foundry Spotlight' doesn't sound like a review-trade/feedback forum. It sounds like something more to do with the Foundry Spotlight quests. And the recommended format there seems very daunting. Especially for people looking for feedback on just released quests, that they know need work.
Personally I'd like to see the Foundry Forum split up between a general section and a review trades & feedback section. But if the Foundry Spotlight is suppose to be that, it needs to be renamed. And focus in the sticky taken away from the Foundry Spotlight program. Then, you'd need the moderators to enforce the issue by moving threads there until players get the hang of it.
Thanks for your thoughts on these subforums. Let me chime in with a few things!
Planning out forums and subforums can be tricky, because while we want to create specialized areas for different topics, having too many subforums can quickly become unwieldy and difficult to moderate. It also can have the negative effect where threads in some subforums don't get any viewership because they're eclipsed by more popular forums. Overall, less tends to be more in terms of subforums.
The Foundry Spotlight forum is meant to serve two purposes: it provides a place for authors to showcase their quests in a guided format for reviews, and it allows for a streamlined process in presenting one's quest(s) for the Foundry Spotlight (and in-game featuring).
Now, all that being said, there's no question that it's much easier to post a trade reviews thread in the general section of the Foundry forums, without having to use the Foundry Spotlight guidelines and with assurance that the thread will get more eyes-on. This has been resulting in some Q&A threads getting buried under other more general threads.
The quick and easy fix would be to add a Foundry Technical subforum or something similar, but I'd be curious to hear your feedback on what you'd like to see. Reviews threads will always wind up in the Foundry general forum, and the mods would be able to move them to a dedicated subforum, but that might be more work than necessary. We could also ditch the Foundry Spotlight subforum, but it is well-used and an excellent repository of quest/campaign information.
So what do you think? Add a technical subforum, or add a reviews subforum and ask the mods to move everything there? Keep the Foundry Spotlight forum or no?
I think pulling the Technical questions to a subforum would be the biggest help for me, rather than trying to have the Foundry general moderated for all the review threads.
I have no problem with the Spotlight forum existing, but I don't really look there so have no problem if it disappears, either. I know some people take issue with the assumed submission for in-game featuring.
A sticky in the Foundry General might serve just as well as the forum avenue for Feature requests.
1. Nix the "spotlight" terminology and use the existing "Foundry Spotlight" subforum as a library for us to use to post our quest threads. This includes re-naming the forum to something less intimidating, and getting rid of the "pro quests that want to be featured" text in the sticky. See my earlier conversations with Zebular in this thread for an example of how the "Foundry Spotlight" is perceived. Let us post how we want to post, without comments from moderators that our layout doesn't fit the guidelines, without technical guidelines that we don't all understand or have access to, and without the concept that it's for feature purposes. If we want our quest featured, we'll submit it to Cryptic. If we want to post fancy screenshots, we can. If we just want to list stuff and describe our quest, we can. If you want to indicate quests that are actively trying to be featured, put a sticky at the top of this forum where we can post a link to our quest threads to be seen.
2. Create a "Foundry Bug Reports" subforum so we can have a place to discuss the bugs we find. Someone over there has to be responsible for foundry bug reports, getting tired of being passed around so much from place to place because we don't belong. Then, make sure someone on your end is keeping an eye on that forum.
3. Create a "Community Support" help-oriented subform for all the how-to questions and answers.
4. Leave the opinions, discussions, trade requests, et cetera in the general forums, because as stated here, that's where they'll end up anyway.
So what do you think? Add a technical subforum, or add a reviews subforum and ask the mods to move everything there? Keep the Foundry Spotlight forum or no?
I'd say add a technical subforum. Let the traders have the main. If you were to keep the main clean from review traders you would have to be super strict and keep cleaning all the time. Just having a sub for tech would improve things a lot, and it would probably be easy to keep clean.
And I don't mind the spotlight being there. I'm planing to post my quests there when I am fairly happy with them.
With dreams to be a king, first one should be a man.
1. Nix the "spotlight" terminology and use the existing "foundry spotlight" subforum as a library for us to use to post our quest threads. This includes re-naming the forum to something less intimidating, and getting rid of the "pro quests that want to be featured" text in the sticky. See my earlier conversations with zebular in this thread for an example of how the "foundry spotlight" is perceived. Let us post how we want to post, without comments from moderators that our layout doesn't fit the guidelines, without technical guidelines that we don't all understand or have access to, and without the concept that it's for feature purposes. If we want our quest featured, we'll submit it to cryptic. If we want to post fancy screenshots, we can. If we just want to list stuff and describe our quest, we can. If you want to indicate quests that are actively trying to be featured, put a sticky at the top of this forum where we can post a link to our quest threads to be seen.
2. Create a "foundry bug reports" subforum so we can have a place to discuss the bugs we find. Someone over there has to be responsible for foundry bug reports, getting tired of being passed around so much from place to place because we don't belong. Then, make sure someone on your end is keeping an eye on that forum.
3. Create a "community support" help-oriented subform for all the how-to questions and answers.
4. Leave the opinions, discussions, trade requests, et cetera in the general forums, because as stated here, that's where they'll end up anyway.
this exactly
0
ambisinisterrMember, Neverwinter ModeratorPosts: 10,462Community Moderator
edited October 2013
I love the idea of the spotlights. The problem becomes that if people don't want recognition it discourages them from posting there and while I would have no problem putting their threads within the Foundry Spotlight subforum I would never do so without an explicit request due to that.
Either a technical or Foundry Content discussion forums would be fine.
I do agree it would be easier to moderate if the threads if the subforum was a technical forum, though, but in either event it would be excellent to separate the discussion about Foundry Mechanics and Foundry Missions.
celantraMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Silverstars, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 465
edited October 2013
There is a submit to cryptic button in the foundry editor. If I don't hit that button I don't expect cryptic to single me out for feature.
That is the authors control over the state of their work. If the author does not believe that the work is ready to be put in a locked un-editable state, then they don't hit that button. If simply posting quest info on the forums can remove this control from the author then its a bad thing.
I know it can be difficult to understand for some people why a feature would not be welcomed, but there are cases where it cannot only be a bad thing, but could potentially prove disastrous to the development of a campaign. Granted that there is always a editable version out there, but that tends to be ignored in the shadow of the featured version due to the current methods of rating.
The Foundry Spotlight forum is meant to serve two purposes: it provides a place for authors to showcase their quests in a guided format for reviews, and it allows for a streamlined process in presenting one's quest(s) for the Foundry Spotlight (and in-game featuring).
I'm all for forum/facebook spotlight/featuring, but NOT "in-game" featuring of Foundry Spotlight. In-game featuring should be handled by the "Submit to Cryptic" button in Foundry -- which claims to be explicitly for in-game featuring.
So...
Keep Foundry Spotlight - but remove in-game featuring of posted quests
As stated in my OP I am all for a kind of "technical subforum". Players seeking help & advice for their Foundry projects would probably be more willing to make a few extra clicks - at least I would
In case you find my grammar or spelling weird ---> native german speaker
OK, so it looks like we're all in agreement about starting a Foundry Technical subforum, so we'll add that.
The Foundry Spotlight subforum is a little more tricky because it gets a lot of use and people seem to like it. I think we can probably change it to something like "Foundry Quest Repository" (or something that sounds better) and reword the guidelines post so that it's friendly for those who don't want to feature their quests.
Foundry Bug Reports subforum is probably a no-go right now. It's (maybe surprisingly) a lot easier to keep track of bug reports when they're all in one location. So please continue to post them here!
OK, so it looks like we're all in agreement about starting a Foundry Technical subforum, so we'll add that.
Not that i speak for everyone, but to me, "technical" implies things that deal with my computer versus your software. In other forums i've participated in, that's what "technical" forums were for. Someone new has a question about how to get an elf to wear a different shirt, is that "technical?" Does it go in the "technical" forum? If they don't think so, it goes right back into the general forum. In my opinion, as little weight as it may hold, a technical question would be "every time i open the editor, my computer crashes, why?" That's technical. "Is there a music option that is soothing?" is not technical. Hence my suggestion to label it something more along the lines of "Community Support".
The Foundry Spotlight subforum is a little more tricky because it gets a lot of use and people seem to like it. I think we can probably change it to something like "Foundry Quest Repository" (or something that sounds better) and reword the guidelines post so that it's friendly for those who don't want to feature their quests.
Foundry Bug Reports subforum is probably a no-go right now. It's (maybe surprisingly) a lot easier to keep track of bug reports when they're all in one location. So please continue to post them here!
I disagree. The foundry, and it's issues, are separate from the gameplay. People have been posting a LOT of foundry bugs over there, but nothing ever seems to get fixed or acknowledged, until enough people are talking about it here that it gets the attention of a green-, red-, or blue-name. Am i wrong in assuming there is a team of foundry devs who work on the editor and it's issues? We need a direct line to them. Again, this forum is where the foundry authors are, this is where we talk, this is where we look for information.
Not that i speak for everyone, but to me, "technical" implies things that deal with my computer versus your software. In other forums i've participated in, that's what "technical" forums were for. Someone new has a question about how to get an elf to wear a different shirt, is that "technical?" Does it go in the "technical" forum? If they don't think so, it goes right back into the general forum. In my opinion, as little weight as it may hold, a technical question would be "every time i open the editor, my computer crashes, why?" That's technical. "Is there a music option that is soothing?" is not technical. Hence my suggestion to label it something more along the lines of "Community Support".
The Foundry Spotlight subforum is a little more tricky because it gets a lot of use and people seem to like it. I think we can probably change it to something like "Foundry Quest Repository" (or something that sounds better) and reword the guidelines post so that it's friendly for those who don't want to feature their quests.
Will the Foundry Quest Repository now be the place where people request reviews and trade reviews? Or will it remain mostly a list of quests? While players using Foundry General for that since questions is getting its own forum?
Just trying to understand. I look at it now and the last post in that forum was over 30 hours ago. Would hate to see that happen to a question sub forum.
"Foundry Mechanics and Questions" sounds like a good start. Ideally, the "Foundry Quest Repository" will be the place to request and trade reviews, but I don't doubt that those types of posts will end up in general anyway.
Not that i speak for everyone, but to me, "technical" implies things that deal with my computer versus your software. In other forums i've participated in, that's what "technical" forums were for. Someone new has a question about how to get an elf to wear a different shirt, is that "technical?" Does it go in the "technical" forum? If they don't think so, it goes right back into the general forum. In my opinion, as little weight as it may hold, a technical question would be "every time i open the editor, my computer crashes, why?" That's technical. "Is there a music option that is soothing?" is not technical. Hence my suggestion to label it something more along the lines of "Community Support".
... The foundry, and it's issues, are separate from the gameplay. People have been posting a LOT of foundry bugs over there, but nothing ever seems to get fixed or acknowledged, until enough people are talking about it here that it gets the attention of a green-, red-, or blue-name. Am i wrong in assuming there is a team of foundry devs who work on the editor and it's issues? We need a direct line to them. Again, this forum is where the foundry authors are, this is where we talk, this is where we look for information.
First, thanks Som and Zeb for taking steps for making changes.
I agree with Zbkolde here, brought up good points... A foundry community thread for questions/tips/how-to's for foundry authors, a foundry bug thread for posting bugs for the dev's that work on the foundry itself. Even if such a group of dev's doesn't exist, foundry bugs would still be less buried than where they currently are. That way people can quickly see if something is already reported as a bug or not that related to just the foundry.
Thanks. Looking forward to posting hints and tips.
Hidden Valley Ranch - NW-DPNGENL6E D&D Adventures Part I House of 1000 Corpses - NW-DIEYVLCML D&D Adventures Part II Well of Dragons - NW-DTPJEKZCT Third Place Winner CotD Foundry Contest
It's Just a Flesh Wound Pt. 1 - NW-DM8GHAME2 Monty Python!
It's Just a Flesh Wound Pt. 2 - NW-DFADOS4EX Monty Python!
a foundry bug thread for posting bugs for the dev's that work on the foundry itself. Even if such a group of dev's doesn't exist, foundry bugs would still be less buried than where they currently are. That way people can quickly see if something is already reported as a bug or not that related to just the foundry..
I'm trying to maintain a "current" list of all Foundry related bugs (check my sig) -- I would love to have a Foundry Bugs forum as well.
Thanks, too bad most people will keep on posting their quests in the general foundry forum instead oif the quest subforum, but at least now we have a questions subforums.
Comments
Probably because the name of the forum, 'Foundry Spotlight' doesn't sound like a review-trade/feedback forum. It sounds like something more to do with the Foundry Spotlight quests. And the recommended format there seems very daunting. Especially for people looking for feedback on just released quests, that they know need work.
Personally I'd like to see the Foundry Forum split up between a general section and a review trades & feedback section. But if the Foundry Spotlight is suppose to be that, it needs to be renamed. And focus in the sticky taken away from the Foundry Spotlight program. Then, you'd need the moderators to enforce the issue by moving threads there until players get the hang of it.
Thanks for your thoughts on these subforums. Let me chime in with a few things!
Planning out forums and subforums can be tricky, because while we want to create specialized areas for different topics, having too many subforums can quickly become unwieldy and difficult to moderate. It also can have the negative effect where threads in some subforums don't get any viewership because they're eclipsed by more popular forums. Overall, less tends to be more in terms of subforums.
The Foundry Spotlight forum is meant to serve two purposes: it provides a place for authors to showcase their quests in a guided format for reviews, and it allows for a streamlined process in presenting one's quest(s) for the Foundry Spotlight (and in-game featuring).
Now, all that being said, there's no question that it's much easier to post a trade reviews thread in the general section of the Foundry forums, without having to use the Foundry Spotlight guidelines and with assurance that the thread will get more eyes-on. This has been resulting in some Q&A threads getting buried under other more general threads.
The quick and easy fix would be to add a Foundry Technical subforum or something similar, but I'd be curious to hear your feedback on what you'd like to see. Reviews threads will always wind up in the Foundry general forum, and the mods would be able to move them to a dedicated subforum, but that might be more work than necessary. We could also ditch the Foundry Spotlight subforum, but it is well-used and an excellent repository of quest/campaign information.
So what do you think? Add a technical subforum, or add a reviews subforum and ask the mods to move everything there? Keep the Foundry Spotlight forum or no?
Let me know!
I have no problem with the Spotlight forum existing, but I don't really look there so have no problem if it disappears, either. I know some people take issue with the assumed submission for in-game featuring.
A sticky in the Foundry General might serve just as well as the forum avenue for Feature requests.
PS - thanks for the posts!
1. Nix the "spotlight" terminology and use the existing "Foundry Spotlight" subforum as a library for us to use to post our quest threads. This includes re-naming the forum to something less intimidating, and getting rid of the "pro quests that want to be featured" text in the sticky. See my earlier conversations with Zebular in this thread for an example of how the "Foundry Spotlight" is perceived. Let us post how we want to post, without comments from moderators that our layout doesn't fit the guidelines, without technical guidelines that we don't all understand or have access to, and without the concept that it's for feature purposes. If we want our quest featured, we'll submit it to Cryptic. If we want to post fancy screenshots, we can. If we just want to list stuff and describe our quest, we can. If you want to indicate quests that are actively trying to be featured, put a sticky at the top of this forum where we can post a link to our quest threads to be seen.
2. Create a "Foundry Bug Reports" subforum so we can have a place to discuss the bugs we find. Someone over there has to be responsible for foundry bug reports, getting tired of being passed around so much from place to place because we don't belong. Then, make sure someone on your end is keeping an eye on that forum.
3. Create a "Community Support" help-oriented subform for all the how-to questions and answers.
4. Leave the opinions, discussions, trade requests, et cetera in the general forums, because as stated here, that's where they'll end up anyway.
[UGC] Kolde Acres (Discontinued)
I'd say add a technical subforum. Let the traders have the main. If you were to keep the main clean from review traders you would have to be super strict and keep cleaning all the time. Just having a sub for tech would improve things a lot, and it would probably be easy to keep clean.
And I don't mind the spotlight being there. I'm planing to post my quests there when I am fairly happy with them.
Rise to POWER with <House of Power>.
The Exterminator - (NW-DLNXF3BGG)
this exactly
Either a technical or Foundry Content discussion forums would be fine.
I do agree it would be easier to moderate if the threads if the subforum was a technical forum, though, but in either event it would be excellent to separate the discussion about Foundry Mechanics and Foundry Missions.
That is the authors control over the state of their work. If the author does not believe that the work is ready to be put in a locked un-editable state, then they don't hit that button. If simply posting quest info on the forums can remove this control from the author then its a bad thing.
I know it can be difficult to understand for some people why a feature would not be welcomed, but there are cases where it cannot only be a bad thing, but could potentially prove disastrous to the development of a campaign. Granted that there is always a editable version out there, but that tends to be ignored in the shadow of the featured version due to the current methods of rating.
I'm all for forum/facebook spotlight/featuring, but NOT "in-game" featuring of Foundry Spotlight. In-game featuring should be handled by the "Submit to Cryptic" button in Foundry -- which claims to be explicitly for in-game featuring.
So...
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
The Foundry Spotlight subforum is a little more tricky because it gets a lot of use and people seem to like it. I think we can probably change it to something like "Foundry Quest Repository" (or something that sounds better) and reword the guidelines post so that it's friendly for those who don't want to feature their quests.
Foundry Bug Reports subforum is probably a no-go right now. It's (maybe surprisingly) a lot easier to keep track of bug reports when they're all in one location. So please continue to post them here!
Sound good to everyone?
Not that i speak for everyone, but to me, "technical" implies things that deal with my computer versus your software. In other forums i've participated in, that's what "technical" forums were for. Someone new has a question about how to get an elf to wear a different shirt, is that "technical?" Does it go in the "technical" forum? If they don't think so, it goes right back into the general forum. In my opinion, as little weight as it may hold, a technical question would be "every time i open the editor, my computer crashes, why?" That's technical. "Is there a music option that is soothing?" is not technical. Hence my suggestion to label it something more along the lines of "Community Support".
Perfect. Thank you.
I disagree. The foundry, and it's issues, are separate from the gameplay. People have been posting a LOT of foundry bugs over there, but nothing ever seems to get fixed or acknowledged, until enough people are talking about it here that it gets the attention of a green-, red-, or blue-name. Am i wrong in assuming there is a team of foundry devs who work on the editor and it's issues? We need a direct line to them. Again, this forum is where the foundry authors are, this is where we talk, this is where we look for information.
It's a start.
[UGC] Kolde Acres (Discontinued)
Foundry Workshop ?
Foundry Mechanics ?
Foundry Crafters Corner ?
Foundry Collective ?
Foundry Syndicate ?
Foundry Cabal ?
Authors ...(as above) ?
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
I like this one... maybe "Foundry Mechanics and Questions"
Will the Foundry Quest Repository now be the place where people request reviews and trade reviews? Or will it remain mostly a list of quests? While players using Foundry General for that since questions is getting its own forum?
Just trying to understand. I look at it now and the last post in that forum was over 30 hours ago. Would hate to see that happen to a question sub forum.
First, thanks Som and Zeb for taking steps for making changes.
I agree with Zbkolde here, brought up good points... A foundry community thread for questions/tips/how-to's for foundry authors, a foundry bug thread for posting bugs for the dev's that work on the foundry itself. Even if such a group of dev's doesn't exist, foundry bugs would still be less buried than where they currently are. That way people can quickly see if something is already reported as a bug or not that related to just the foundry.
Thanks. Looking forward to posting hints and tips.
House of 1000 Corpses - NW-DIEYVLCML D&D Adventures Part II
Well of Dragons - NW-DTPJEKZCT Third Place Winner CotD Foundry Contest
It's Just a Flesh Wound Pt. 1 - NW-DM8GHAME2 Monty Python!
It's Just a Flesh Wound Pt. 2 - NW-DFADOS4EX Monty Python!
I'm trying to maintain a "current" list of all Foundry related bugs (check my sig) -- I would love to have a Foundry Bugs forum as well.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
Sorry for the delay, we've been busy bees with upcoming cool stuff.
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/forumdisplay.php?1181-Foundry-Quest-Database
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/forumdisplay.php?1241-Foundry-Mechanics-amp-Questions
Foundry Quest Database sticky updated: http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?222972-Foundry-Quest-Database-Guidelines
Let me know if you have any questions. We'll see how this new format works and update accordingly.
Thanks again!
Sweet! Thank you!
(I'll come back later to bug you for the bug forum.)
[UGC] Kolde Acres (Discontinued)