Article Feedback is appreciated :)

[Eriken]

Hi folks

As you might have seen, articles written by people here has been posted on the site and due to not having an Article forum or commenting-options on them (yet... ) we'd like to hear about if it you've read them and what you think about them. As both Cairnswm and Traveler mentioned in a thread feedback is important for several reasons:

1. Feedback encourages people to write (more) articles.
2. Feedback helps them making better articles.
3. Feedback gives them the feeling that they haven't wasted their time creating articles. Time is for most of us not in abundance, so you get the picture

So if you've read through some of the articles, please let them know, it benefits everybody

_____
Eriken

[cairnswm]

Congrats on your new job Eiriken I hope you have more time for it than I did.

Here are the issues that I have identified but have not yet found solutions for:
:arrow: There is no indication of what sort of articles are needed.
:arrow: New articles in series have very low visibility - I think they should be shouted out on the first page. (Who has read my latest on on GLXtreem)
:arrow: Articles do not show on the Newest Posts list
:arrow: Articles do not have a feedback mechanism - Comments etc

And most important
:arrow: There are too many technologies to cover. How do we get more interest in specific technologies so that the articles have more relevance (like how many people actually use GLXtreem or Xcess or GameVisio SDK?)

Have fun

PS. I promise to have an article released each month on the 20th. It will be ready for proof reading each month on the 10th.

[Eriken]

Thanks Cairnswm The time-monster gets us all at some point, these days I'm unemployed so I got some time on my hands (Quite nice actually)

I've run into the same issues you have with the articles as you have and some of them has been mentioned to WILL occasionally :twisted:

Many of these would have been solved with an Article/Article Feedback forum because there you can communicate about the articles, suggest new articles, post about new articles and things like that

I know WILL has something on his list, and I'm sure he'll drop in and say what when he gets some time. That dude is also abit busy

In the meantime we'll have to make some fuzz doing posts like this, and maybe start putting it in the news when there is a new article around.

For what to write, I guess we'll just have to write what we want to write about until someone has some better ideas. Hopefully there will come some ideas on the other post I made And if there are no ideas, I guess people don't need articles? :twisted:

For what technologies to cover, I think we should cover those who are most active on our site. The smaller ones have been suggested removed and I don't know when or if that will happen. Some of them seem to want the people to go to their own forums anyways, so I guess they have their own articles/tutorials?

So, we're in the end on the same page about the status and I'll be playing mindtricks with WILL each time I see him on IRC to get something done (And I'm sure he'll do the same with me)

I know someone has read your articles though The Proof-reader
(Oh joy, my first Proof-reader-joke, and probably not my last)

We'll get something cooking here, keep up the good work with your series Cairnswm
_____
Eriken

[WILL]

You know... when you name is brought up 3 times in a message it probably means you should post something huh?

Here are the issues that I have identified but have not yet found solutions for:
:arrow: There is no indication of what sort of articles are needed.

I think this will be ongoing no matter what setup we have. Best thing to do is seek out the oppinion of the visitors. Ask them and when you get feedback you can ask too. See what others are interested in. What do they talk about? What sort of off-side comments do they make... etc.

:arrow: New articles in series have very low visibility - I think they should be shouted out on the first page. (Who has read my latest on on GLXtreem)

I agree fully with this and was actually just htinking this the other day. I have a plan! Basically some flashy graphics for the icon... make it draw peoples eyes to it. I'll work to impliment this quite soon as it defeats the purpose of getting new articles and making such a dramatic push if it's going to be just brick-walled on the index page. I'll prioritise this with the Article Editor collectively.

:arrow: Articles do not show on the Newest Posts list

Uh... not sure what you mean by this. :scratch: All the Articles that the staff has has written DOES show up in the Latest Articles box on the index page.

:arrow: Articles do not have a feedback mechanism - Comments etc

Well going along with what Eriken has also said. Yes, this is unfortunately not available yet. :? However, this will happen rather soon. I would like to get it up as soon as possible. I am right now stuck between 2 ways to do it.

Way #1:
Like www.php.net has it where you have your article's page listed and the comments are below it (possibly with the ability to collapse or expand it, and a default user account setting for it too?)

OR

Way #2:
Like the News Section has where you have the News post and the ]Way[/b] we could also have a 'Writter's Lounge' where all the writters can receive suggestions and discuss authoring topics.

What would you guys like best?

And most important
:arrow: There are too many technologies to cover. How do we get more interest in specific technologies so that the articles have more relevance (like how many people actually use GLXtreem or Xcess or GameVision SDK?)

Well this is a 'problem' I hope we NEVER not have! This in a way is a good sign. In my honest oppinion, Pascal developers should never have to be able to summarize all their possibilities in one tiny paragraph. Otherwise why would we be using it?

What to write about will be a consistant challenge to take on. It's best handled, IMO, one monster at a time. Slay one then take on another. Or wound the little bastard then go wack another. :lol:

One point I'd like to make with this is don't base everything off of an API or a component suite. Remember when DelphiX was THE one and only thing to make games in pascal using Delphi. There was 'no' other way to do it. [size=9px](Not really, but this was the primary attitude taken by WAY TOO MANY programmers at the time.)[/size] This sort of approach needs to be discouraged. Seriously, how many (warning here it comes) C programming sites go on and on about only APIs? It gets dull and uninteresting.

The best and I mean BEST articles are not about any API, but by techniques, algorithims and ideaologies. API based articles are great, but should not be relied on soley as they are in the simplest of forms just the popsicle stick that applies the glue. If that analogy works for you.

I'm not saying stop making API and 'game suites' Articles [size=9px](we need them too!)[/size], but often try to think a bit more outside of the box and come up with some other more creative stuff than plugging in your type of program into a different game/graphics component suite.

I think that pretty much covered all of the major stuff mentioned here. Any more questions just ask... Eriken :lol:

That dude is also abit busy

Oh boy tell me about it. :? I had to get up at 4am today and again tomorrow.


Seeing some good stuff so far Eriken, keep 'er up big guy!

[Sly]

I vote this thread the highest smiley per post ratio of any thread so far on PGDev. :lol:

[WILL]

PGDev? What site is that?

[cairnswm]

WILL

I dont bookmark the index page I index the 'Posts since last visit' page. Articles that get released are not displayed on this list (thats because they are not posts).

[Eriken]

You know... when you name is brought up 3 times in a message it probably means you should post something huh?

It's that all it takes? It's like that wolf-story... the third time Will actually shows up

[quote="WILL"]Way #2:
Like the News Section has where you have the News post and the ]

Yes, I'll take 2 of those, and if you've got a headache, it can wait until tomorrow Well, I option 2 and the Lounge as well.. so I'm going to vote for them.

Oh boy tell me about it. :?

Dude, I'm not going to tell you about it again

I vote this thread the highest smiley per post ratio of any thread so far on PGDev.

Gotta love smileys :twisted:
_____
Eriken

[WILL]

I dont bookmark the index page I index the 'Posts since last visit' page. Articles that get released are not displayed on this list (thats because they are not posts).

Well why would it? It's a feature of the Forums Section not the Articles or News Section. The 'catch all' page is supposed to be the index page. Latest Forum threads will be listed on the index page soon though and I may even have the 'Posts since last visit' link there aswell for those that like the feature.

Eriken: Well Way #2 kinda goes with what I've already begun to do with other areas so it's probably best to keep with it. It also helps centralize all of the user interaction into one Section.

[Incubii]

Hey as a way to find out what sort of articles people require, maybe you should setup a thread for people to list the sort of things they would like articles for