THREAD MASTER'S WAR ROOM: Suggestions for Making the List/Running the Forum

[yin26]

Welcome to our new home! All the thanks again go to Mark. I've never seen a site where our suggestions are taken to this level of service.

Although this split to "The List of Ideas for Firaxis" (thanks for that, too, Mark) HAS created in essence a third forum, SMAC was never really the right place (I admit), and the General Section should still be monitored very closely by the Thread Masters. This forum here is just a convenient place to collect the ideas, and hopefully more and more people will understand that this is indeed the place to come if they have ideas they'd like Firaxis to see.

At any rate, this is the War Room. Let's hear the battle plans!

[JT]

Just a note: The SMAC Civ3 threads are dying. This is basicly the second room.

Battle plan: We collect ideas, and then E-Mail them to BR at the end of June, and once every month after that. Genius, no?

[Pythagoras]

Yin, are we to send a compilation of all the saved forum postings, or write up a summary, both? And has anyone noticed, we always here from Brian(not that its bad ), I wish the legendary Sid Meier would stop in to say hi!

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"I think you're all f*cked in the head!"
Chevy Chase-Nat'l Lampoon's Vacation.

[This message has been edited by Pythagoras (edited May 19, 1999).]


[Note: This message has been edited by yin26]

[the Octopus]

Pythagoras: "are we to send a compilation of all the saved forum postings, or write up a summary, both?"

I've been working under the assumption that we should be working toward providing the best summary we can, with enough material to adequately explain an idea, but getting rid of anything superfluous, unclear, or unnecessary. We're sort of working as filters so that Brian can just absorb the important stuff. If he wanted everything he could just read the forums himself... At least that's what I've been assuming.


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CIV3-THE MASTER LIST-TECHNOLOGY "THREAD MASTER"

[the Octopus]

By the way, what's the process for resolving technical difficulties around here? There seems to be a problem with my technology thread . Is it just send mail to MarkG?


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CIV3-THE MASTER LIST-TECHNOLOGY "THREAD MASTER"

[yin26]

Pythagoras (Everybody):

I write for a living, mainly speeches. And if I've learned anything it's that you have to know your audience. No matter how important YOU think your points are, if you can't convey them properly to the audience, you might as well sit down and be quiet.

Having said that, and having worked a little bit with Brian in the past, I know that he wants this material to be as "clean" as we can make it. This does not mean we should only bullet our ideas, but we should also clarify as needed. This might require a bit of prose on our part, but as we come closer to sending the list, it will become apparent what needs elaboration and what can just be listed.

Octopus,

I'll do what I can about your thread. Otherwise I'll ask Mark.

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"un"Officially Making Lists for Firaxis Since SMAC Enhancement 3!

[yin26]

Octopus,

I think I fixed it. Give it a try!

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**"un"Officially Making Lists for Firaxis Since SMAC Enhancement 3!**

[yin26]

Hey, Everybody:

I took out threads that we no longer needed, and I standardized thread titles. If you guys object to the titles, please give me a better system. I took out the (v1.0) stuff, but you should feel free to update the version number in your summary post as you open a new thread after it reaches 50 posts. Basically, I went for simple and consistent.

Am I missing anything?

[Ecce Homo]

Ralph wrote in the General Civ 2 forum that the Lists are too hard to read. He reccomended that each suggestion should consist of a title in CAPITALS and not more than a few lines of explanation. Long discussions should take place in the General forum.

[yin26]

Ecce Homo,

Thanks for the advice. It's hard to make the long discussions happen somewhere else, though. But, to your point, the Thread Masters will be summarizing the threads along the lines you mentioned once their threads reach 50 posts. So that should help.

[Frank Moore]

Yin,

I think that you are right, people that post ideas should give as much of a description as needed, even if it may seem too long to some people. The reason is simple, the thread masters main job is to take all the suggestions and incorporate them into one clear concise list. This could be hard to do if the original description is not detailed enough to explain to us what the poster had in mind. I do think that some things make even long posts easier to read such as inerting blank lines between ideas and such.

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Frank Moore - Civ3 Player Interface Thread Master

[tfs99]

I suggest that the Moderator (that's you Yin ) should be the one to start new threads once the old one is full. By doing this we ensure having:

- standard naming and numbering of the topics
- standard beginning post for each new topic
- standard final post for each full topic

Proposed items for the standard beginning post:

1) Have a link to the prior locked topic in the first post to a newly opened topic (Yin if you need help with the HTML to do this, just ask)

That way people could easily go back and read to their heart's content rather than solely relying on the summary posted by the T.M.

2) Have a link to the <A HREF="http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum28/HTML/000016.html">MASTER LIST LAUNCH PAD</A> in the the first post of each new topic.

Hey! I worked hard (and continue to work hard) to make this a convenient way for getting around. I don't want it to get lost in the shuffle.

Proposed item for the standard final post:

1) A link to the newly created topic for those who are reading the posts in order.

Civ3 n ... Ted S.

[This message has been edited by tfs99 (edited May 20, 1999).]

[tfs99]

It might behoove us to setup seperate SUMMARY topics from the main suggestion topics.

I can foresee the summaries themselves becoming fairly lengthy, thus increasing the download time and thereby defeating the purpose for closing long topics at 50 posts.

If summaries are seperated, a link to the summary could be included in a standard beginning post for a new topic as well.

Civ3 n ... Ted S.

[Robert]

The 2nd post in my thread is one I edit 3 times a day. This one includes all the ideas in the entire thread, by subject and by author.

This way it's pretty clear to get a good idea about the suggestions and ideas in that main-topic.

Just go into my thread, "City Improvements" and take a look at how I'm doing it. I think this works great.

[the Octopus]

tfs99: "I suggest that the Moderator (that's you Yin ) should be the one to start new threads once the old one is full."

I strongly disagree. If I am to be managing a thread, I like to be able to set the pace, etc. None of the "advantages" you mention require that a single person start a thread, they merely require that we agree on certain standards. I tried to encourage everybody to do that before, but nobody seemed interested.

I suggest that people consider what elements should be included in a standard template for the beginnings of new threads, post them here, and we can discuss them.

Currently, I believe that keeping the summaries in the discussion threads is the best approach. The summaries allow for good breakpoints in the discussion, which sometimes begin to meander, and refocus people on the task at hand, which is to gather and discuss a wide variety of suggestions.

For the naming convention, I intend to use a decimal numbering scheme to indicate major/minor revisions. I'll be posting a new summary later this evening.

Yin, can you switch the title on my thread back to v1.1? I think keeping the numbers straight will make it easier on posters. Version 1.0 of the threads were in the other forum.


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CIV3-THE MASTER LIST-TECHNOLOGY "THREAD MASTER"