[quote name='Telastyn' timestamp='1322888233' post='4890042']
Frankly, the majority of people who come in with the 'I don't know anything, but I want to make games' post won't ever amount to anything because it's their flight of fancy this week/month. They don't really want to program, and they don't really want to make the art. They want to mash features together since that will be awesome. I suspect that the majority will fail regardless of what we do.
I agree that many will just move on, but others wont. Others really will put in the effort, and it's very hard to tell which is which from a single post. Some come in with crappy spelling, horrible grammar, and not a clue where to start... but are willing to learn. Others come with with properly-punctuated posts, but want an easier 'Make a Halo MMOFPSRPG in 5 Easy Steps' shortcut.
I think a better solution then a "READ THIS FIRST! REALLY! PLEASE! I BEGGETH THEE!" sticky, would be a "How to make games" sticky, that goes through the difficulties of game programmer, offers helpful starting points (Python, for example), suggests small projects (Pong, etc...), and openly explains that it's difficult and it'll take you 5-10 years to get to make the game you want, but that if you stick with you, you wont regret it in the long haul.
Something like
For Beginners FAQ but touched up some more (for example, making the C# and Python language suggestions be actual hyperlinks, perhaps adding a picture or two to minimize the "Wall of text? Forget that, I'll just spam the forums for help instead" idea.
Then, when any newbie posts an illogical post without reading the sticky, forum members can just use a [starthere] tag, that the forum software will automatically covert to the proper hyperlink, thus not "wearing out" the veterans like you mentioned.
I forget... does the forums manually force you to the For Beginners FAQ when you sign up for the site? I know that's been suggested a few times, but I don't remember if it was ever implemented.
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One of the things we'll be doing with the next update is putting a series of blocks next to the individual forum topic listing itself. One of the most important new additions is a customized block controllable by the moderators of each forum that contain "Getting Started" material. This will include some of the top must-have goto resources for the forum. Another block that you will most likely see is one listing developer journals of only the members who have "joined" that particular forum, allowing you to get to know one another a little easier.
We're still nailing down the final details of what blocks we want there but here is what it will look like:
[attachment=6326:ForBeginners.png]
We're also working on the design of the resources tab, but what we did over the past few months (in addition to reorganizing our forums) on our existing site was to collapse all the article categories down to match up exactly with the forums. Likewise, we did the same for books along with a number of other resource areas.
What you will see in that tab directly are the newest articles, books, job offers, marketplace items, etc. that match up with that forum. Articles posted will be moderated AFTER they are posted just like forum posts - so we'll be largely looking to make posting tutorials for your fellow member very easy. We also are experimenting with a possible "Promote to Article" link on every forum post that will allow members to quickly create an article from an existing post.
The other thing that will be cool is this. Let's say you find a link to a cool resource you think fellow gamedev members should know about.. We created a simple bookmarklet you can put on your toolbar that will allow you to quickly share that resource directly into the resource tab of a forum you like. We'll deal with abuse just like we deal with it in the forums since topic posting is open to members as well. Sharing solid, useful information is going to be absolutely simple.. and that's the core idea behind Gamedev.net for the start of 2012 onwards.
[attachment=6327:LinkSharing.PNG]
