Changes to the modding board (incompatibility with 0.12)

[bobingabout]

Thanks for making a topic for it.

[Adil]

Don't you find the modding board a little too splintered now?
Each of the subboards of Mods for 0.12 gets up to 5 posts per day, it's not that they're overcrowded. On the other hand, all that categorization is not that amusing to beat through all the categorization just to check whether something new got released.
Would it be too much to ask for a combined list of singular threads below the subforum index? (i.e. the list of recent mods that don't have their own subbboard, like theads from second to sixth category)

[jorgenRe]

Don't you find the modding board a little too splintered now?
Each of the subboards of Mods for 0.12 gets up to 5 posts per day, it's not that they're overcrowded. On the other hand, all that categorization is not that amusing to beat through all the categorization just to check whether something new got released.
Would it be too much to ask for a combined list of singular threads below the subforum index? (i.e. the list of recent mods that don't have their own subbboard, like theads from second to sixth category)

Well i would say it is a little bit more organized now that it is the way it is since you dont really have to search as much as you would normally for that specific mod you want.
Its the same reason why science books are with only other science books and comic books are only with other comic books because then its alot simpler to find the one comic book you want because you dont have to look through two kinds at the same time !

[Adil]

Yes thank you, I know how categories works. But mods aren't necessarily as different as science books and comics. And for some reason you assume that one already knows which specific mod he wants (at which point it is more reasonable to go for search field than to click through the index.)

The thing is: the categories don't narrow the scope of search. Why would one come to the mods board and only make a beeline to a vague list of General mods and skip older mod updates however unofficial those may be? Why would someone go into Vanila+ group but have a strong distaste for New Items, Entities, Extensions?

As a variant of that problem: why should a certain mod go into a specific category? (Apart from corner cases of modpacks and better textures.) For example, why should one search for the logic belts in general category and not in the 'new entities' or 'gameplay'?

Also, what I said before: you're not always searching for specific mod or even category, sometimes one may just hop in to see what's new. And in a merged list of threads this would mean you'd need to see only the first page of board (since most posts are concentrated in a couple of most active threads and the rest of the board stays the same for days). In the categories, you need to check from 4 to 9 of pages from different boards.

[ssilk]

Well. There are 3 basic ideas behind the current concept.

#1 The categories are from the sight of useful moderation. (*)
#2 Some categories are from the sight of how much game-change effect they have.
#3 The modder is basically responsible to have the right information in his thread.


To #1. The categories are made cause of the needs for moderation, not for the pure needs of the players.
It sounds hard to say that, but the basic idea behind the reorganization is, that the mods will have (some days) a mod db. Like this one: http://www.factoriomods.com/

Such a DB can reflect the needs a player has, this forum.... how to handle 100+ threads in any form?


To #2: ... well you saw the previous 0.11 mods-section? I searched hours for mods. I think this is much better now, cause you might remember in which category you found a mod. Because the category is somehow definite, unique, measurable.
And it is also so, that every day there are coming new mods. It depends on what you're interested at. If you are in the middle of a game you are not interested in complete game-changes for your current game. But you are interested in helper-mods for example. And vice versa.

To #3: The general mods are a compromise. There are many modders, that don't care to sort mods into the "right" category.
I don't care. It's hopeless to moderate that.


"Scope of search": The search is as good as the searcher. The forum search is mighty, but difficult to understand. Google is also a useful search. I make me notes, where I found useful mods, so that when I come back I just need to look into the notes. That is somehow 80th but it works.

And in the end: Moderators, which want to clean this mess up and keep it tidy are welcome. But most modders have a clear idea, in which category their mod belongs to.


"sometimes one may just hop in to see what's new": That would be nice, but sadly isn't supported by phpBB. And in the end it would be a big mess. Only solution is a mod-db.


"you need to check from 4 to 9 of pages": Sorry, but the way I use this board is, that I go through all new mods. That can be clearly seen normally in the overview of that board (date, nearly no responses etc.). New mods are interesting and I make me notes. And the other view is, that before I play I just go through the mods (use the search, I have a list with my mods and just need to copy/paste the mod names) and look, if there is an update.

I cannot help better now. I really think it is a lot better, than before (0.11).

In other words: Make a concrete suggestion what can be improved, but without that I need to ignore this.

(*) We can discuss, if it makes sense to put items and gameplay together, but from my sight as moderator the result is a mess, because there is just too much traffic in both.

[Adil]

There's a few statements which can be argued with or criticized but I'll try to be more constructive than the last time and keep the word count low.

In other words: Make a concrete suggestion what can be improved, but without that I need to ignore this.

There was that in the original post:

Don't you find the modding board a little too splintered now?
Would it be too much to ask for a combined list of singular threads below the subforum index? (i.e. the list of recent mods that don't have their own subbboard, like theads from second to sixth category)

At the moment of writing I thought I've seen somewhere around here an example of topics from different boards being aggregated together for viewing. But now I'm not sure. Can a single thread appear in different subboards?

And for a something completely different:

there is just too much traffic in both.

You don't read every post ever written on this forum, do you?

[ssilk]

Can a single thread appear in different subboards?

A thread can be linked when moved. That's called shadow topic. Or better: when you move a thread you can left a link. But only one.
See phpbb docs. https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3 ... ools_move/

It's not the way that can be recommended, the traffic is just too big. I do that only for threads, which I need to move and where it makes sense.

there is just too much traffic in both.

You don't read every post ever written on this forum, do you?

Of course I do. I make notes of every post and I've programmed me a own database, where I make notes about the posts and the poster. What is his mood today? How many children? Such things... Google asked me to be one node for their search-engine. But I declined with thanks.





Just kidding.
No. of course not. Currently I read more in mods, cause I want to ensure, that the effort I put into it is paying back, but in general I look into the boards from time to time and look for the creation-date, if this is new for me.

[Adil]

I've hacked these links. They're not exactly what I've hoped for, but could do in absence of a better way:
View new posts in mods subforum
View new posts in mods for 0.12 subforum
Is it possible to get them in same relative position as View new posts in the main page of forum?

[ssilk]

Pretty cool idea. No, I think this is not possible so fast, but I make links. Looks a bit ugly now, but I think it is useful yet.

Maybe I will take a deep view into the possibilities of the administration of boards after my holiday.

[Brigadon]

I would like to know why there is no option to register on the modding downloads.
It sorta sucks. I got factorio through Steam, but no login works.

[daniel34]

I would like to know why there is no option to register on the modding downloads.
It sorta sucks. I got factorio through Steam, but no login works.

You need to make an account on http://www.factorio.com, then go to http://www.factorio.com/settings and connect your Factorio account with your Steam account. Then you'll be able to use that account for the mod portal and multiplayer matching server.