[discussion] how can the forums be improved?

[Linuxdirk]

phpBB was written in the year 2000 and with the online discussion design paradigms of that time.

And it is coded like that and behaves like that. phpBB has anything modern forum software should avoid.

[Sergey]

I hide all signatures for myself.

Listen folks,

• I am tired to scroll down posts where 1/2 of whole page are useless signatures.
• I am tired of reading something like "God's not dead!" in every second signature. Are religious people obliged to repeat the same mantra?

[ABJ]

Sergey, be careful, it might just be yet another undecipherable reference.

[Sergey]

Sergey, be careful, it might just be yet another undecipherable reference.

What do you mean?

[texmex]

I belive the answer to the topic question is by migrating to modern forum software first and foremost. Other smaller issues may then get resolved. That means admins need to get involved, or nothing will change.

I for one would like to hear ShadowNinja's opinion.

[rubenwardy]

I for one would like to hear ShadowNinja's opinion.

celeron55 is the person who will ultimately decide this. ShadowNinja is just an admin in case c55 isn't available.

[texmex]

Well, the admin c55 then.

[Nyarg]

add chat on form top ) and if keep following of data aggregation idea an echo of minetest IRC may be usefull.

[Sergey]

I belive the answer to the topic question is by migrating to modern forum software first and foremost. Other smaller issues may then get resolved. That means admins need to get involved, or nothing will change.

I am convinced forum engine is not important at all. Other things related to the game itself should be done/fixed to increase its popularity.

[TumeniNodes]

I had a thought on a couple of areas where the forum might be improved.

The overall theme of my thoughts is, "clean up and reorganizing"

** The textures section:
go through and separate actual "texture packs" posts with working links, from general discussions.
using the same method the mods section uses.

*WIP Texture Packs, *Texture Pack Releases *Old Texture Packs *Texture pack discussions
(there are quite a few TPs which no longer have a working link, or are not updated, or even finished.)

** and regarding the mods section. The only thing I see which is problematic is the *ask your modding questions here" post

Would it not be better to have users make individual posts for their questions?
The way it is now, gets confusing... and requires much scrolling, etc.

I imagine this has also created a situation where sometimes a user may ask a question which has already been answered in the past... I think the method I mention will make finding answers easier for users and mods/devs who are helping.
And then, once a mod question is answered and resolved, make the user add [RESOLVED] to their post heading.
Now, if someone may be looking for similar answers, it will be much easier to find.

** The newest "mapgen questions" section would greatly benefit now (early on), if the same method is implemented.
Each individual who has a question, opens a new post..., someone answers, and when the question is resolved, add [RESOLVED] to the post title.

I realise MT is very low on staff to tackle this, because it will be a fairly sizeable job. But it is just a thought I want to put out there.
But, overall this would upscale the communities' experience, as well as make it far easier to navigate for new comers or even just end users looking for specific content.

The ideal situation would be to find an individual who would be willing to take on the task, be dependable, and thorough in the execution. (p.s. I'm not that guy) :P

[Sergey]

But, overall this would upscale the communities' experience, as well as make it far easier to navigate for new comers or even just end users looking for specific content.

For newcomers there should be complete and detailed wiki. Forum is more for questions and discussion about them.

[TumeniNodes]

But, overall this would upscale the communities' experience, as well as make it far easier to navigate for new comers or even just end users looking for specific content.

For newcomers there should be complete and detailed wiki. Forum is more for questions and discussion about them.

You might be surprised how many people just browse the forums looking for certain information, yet never post.

Or may browse for a long time before ever posting.

As of right now, some of the sections they may browse, are... simply put..., a mess and confusing.

[ABJ]

I believe that the "ask your modding questions" thread is for asking as the question comes up. I do not believe that it is meant to preserve the information.

[TumeniNodes]

I believe that the "ask your modding questions" thread is for asking as the question comes up. I do not believe that it is meant to preserve the information.

But preservation of such helpful info is a good thing.
And it would make it much easier to search for answers to your issue, as well as make it easier for mods and devs who like to help to see new questions and interact in a more focused manner... and reduce the amount of time searching for links to the same questions, to post for the one asking.

In a more basic and simple response... "just makes everything more simple and clear for all parties involved."

[ABJ]

Oh, TumeniNodes, how can you scorn the convenience of asking a question the moment it comes to your mind?

[TumeniNodes]

how is it scorning?
just as quick to open a new post as it is to ask in that extremely long, mangled thread....
and then far easier to follow answers or tips directed toward you're specific question....

then when done, add [RESOLVED] to the header and, the next person looking for the same answers, down the road, can easily look at posts and find it.... It just makes sense.

[ABJ]

Haha :) true but have you taken into account the fact that millions of different questions are possible?

[TumeniNodes]

yes. and having them all in one thread is insane. :P

[gamerdadster]

Here are a few of my thoughts and suggestions. But first, let's thanks the creator (celeron55) and early adopters of Minetest for what they've done. It is easy to complain when when something is free, but first think about how you can contribute before you post. Development like this takes time and money. There are several cycles to a product and these are the key ones; what was a PASSION at one time, often turns into a HOBBY, then a CHORE, and lastly a BURDEN. We need to make sure that this game never sees the last two phases.

So here goes, and don't give up:
1) We need to get more buzz, to get new blood involved so that testing, development, documentation, and help is available to the community
2) We need more YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, etc for more exposure to create interest in Minetest
3) Get the documentation and versioning cleaned up.
(As someone quite technical I find it difficult to find information on server builds, compatibility, and availability)
4) Testing versions and mods, this needs to be done, I've found incompatibilities with version 0.4.15 and errors that could be fixed.

What am I doing? Well,
1) I've created my own local wiki to store documentation I'm building to put somewhere out there when it is completed...
2) I've created an Internet accessible production server, and shortly a test server for mods testing.
(The server is IP restricted, so you will need to contact me to get access)
3) Want to help, get involved. Want to help me? Message me, time to move it forward.

If you are a good programmer, learn Lua, do some patching.
GamerDadster
http://www.gamerdadster.com

[Sergey]

Wow, we see here newcomer full of enthusiasm. This is good.

[ABJ]

Right now, you complain that we don't have a big enough playerbase. But once we get that, you'll complain that our community is flooded with 12 year old wannabe greffers.

[Nyarg]

"We cannot tolerate these greffers in our midst! The lies of greffers weaken our nation! Ban the greffers! Ban their lies! Ban! The red faction!" (c) Red Faction II Sopot's Speech )))

But keep in mind IMHO forum improving must be Synchronized with MT improving and aggregating all data in one page. It's like a blitzkrieg in "12 year old wannabe greffers" mind. )
MT must give new part of community something what ones haven't with MC - Free.

Lua is great (free) but current MT object model is a little inconsistent (cage)

[muhdnurhidayat]

first think about how you can contribute before you post

Hmm... The ways for me to contribute is limited because I only use a phone for everything right now, but at least I'm translating some mods and Minetest into Malay (still work-in-progress). I also opened a topic in Bugs/Problems thread but no one replied. I did asked in signs_lib topic if it is possible to make or if it is already implementing plugin mod to support non-ASCII letters in their mod because I want to make such plugin to support letters with symbols like á, ñ, etc. before extending to Kana (katakana, hiragana) like マインテスト but it didn't get reply yet (on the time of writing this post). I can set Jota Text Editor on my phone to force UTF-8 while writing the mods, so text encoding should not screw up the mod itself. (If you have better Android apps to write codes, do tell me).

If I ever have enough money to fix my laptop, I might make some videos of Minetest (in fact I was in middle of some personal video project when my laptop is broken, and no they are not overclocked) like introducing more mods, showing that the same Minetest server is playable across multiple platforms be it on laptop (Windows/Ubuntu) or phone (Android) I don't have Mac nor iPhone, sorry while applying what I've learnt on Multimedia course in university to make it interesting for people to watch (something like Pewdiepie is doing, but make it more prone to Minetest instead of those VR Girl games... or maybe mixed them... ANIME GIRL NPC, HANAKO MOBS, ANYONE??)... and I could speed up translating because I could multitask on a laptop. Android keeps killing app after some times after I switched to other app, it makes me difficult to multitask on phone. I also tried to record phone screen playing Minetest with the native screen recorder but somehow the recording overlay just disappeared after few minutes of recording (lol).

+ Other contribution?

If you play on IhrFussel's Server, I'm the one who built the public farm and the food tutorial. I'm also helping the owner of Spawn's North Road in maintaining the North Road and all of the roads which are connected off the North Road. I built the letter shop & furniture shop in Westfield (the new shopping city). I'm also the one who checks for shops on the server, remove any shops violating rules, and adding shops into the server's shop list (more info on shop list will be added in the server's forum thread -- see my signature). That's my contribution. :P

Right now, you complain that we don't have a big enough playerbase. But once we get that, you'll complain that our community is flooded with 12 year old wannabe greffers.

Not all of them are griefers, plus there are also moderators on some server that is as young as that, and they do jobs quite good that you don't even know they're 12. The server is not inside my signature btw, I only put stable servers into my signature. Also, my little brother is also 12 years old this year and he play this game just fine, he know how to survive without asking for stuffs like some other players.

[ABJ]

I'd still like to say to TumeniNodes that I never mentioned that you'd have to scroll questions. Just ask them as they come. So what if they were answered earlier? They may just as well not have been - we are talking about something totally different from just a giant FAQ.

muhdnurhidayat, refer to the Minecraft community. Also refer to the Internet.

Be careful for your kid brother - it's hacker, griefer, troll, and kid!

[burli]

This spam is annoying.

[cx384]

I think the mods at the mod releases page should become categorized, because this would make it easier to search for mods.

For example:
Home Decor: decoration, modpack, nodes, ...
Mesecons: modpack, technical, ...
More Ores: mapgen, tools, ores ...

[Sergey]

Now new posts are limited only to 10 newest posts?

[muhdnurhidayat]

Now new posts are limited only to 10 newest posts?

It loads 30 posts here... are you sure you didn't change forum settings?

[Nyarg]

Threads like "Minetest improving" "Minetest bug" must be top of page.
It forms newbee's mindflow safety aka 'no one more double thread' somewhere forgotten be read.

[theFox]

I also think messages or especially mods should be categorized.
Maybe like this?:
-item transport
-ores
-plants
-furniture
-game improvement
-documentation
-mobs
and many more...