Cull the stickies.

As Drew has said, we normally leave this to the individual moderators of each forum -- but I think you're right -- they need some attention. I'm planning to have a look through them all, do some clean-up and re-formatting and then offer a set of specific suggestions to each forum moderator. Time to clear out some clutter and make sure everything is still relevant and helpful.

//EDIT: I've made a start on cleaning up the formatting in most of them and removing some dead links -- looks like there definitely are at least some good resources left there -- I'm sure we'll be able to do a good clean-up though.

Split Visual Arts into separate 2D and 3D forums. How on Earth is it still one forum?

I'd actually agree with this, they should really be separate. Our normal rule for creating an additional forum has been that we do so when topics (threads) covering that particular topic start to be numerous enough to warrant it, and at the moment the visual arts forum containing both topics is still one of our least busy. Do you think splitting out the separate topics into their own forums might actually help to encourage more discussion? Our worry is creating "ghost town" forums where any topics that are posted end up going un-answered.

RSS

I joined GD in 2000 under an old defunct account (it might have been called MatrixCubed?) and have seen many changes, the vast majority of them positive.

About the time the most recent changes came into play, I started taking an interest in aggregating my intake of various sites using RSS feeds.

The current offering for GD's forum posts is only a single "GD Forum RSS" URL; I'd like to see the RSS offering expanded to support individual forums.

Theme

I miss the old "classic black" GD theme. It was mentioned previously in this thread; I'd like to add my voice to that request.

Web and HTML5

With the continued expansion of web technologies, it would be nice to see separate forums which focus on web-specific technologies (Canvas, Audio, Video, WebSockets, Workers, Unity3D, NaCL, and so on). I suppose forum tags could be used to facilitate related searches, but there are many subtle differences between developing for a platform and developing for the web which I feel warrant their own space.

Note that my above request does not concern web design, but rather developing games using latest web technologies.

Thanks again for a great 2012; looking forward to 2013! :-)

[quote name='jbadams' timestamp='1357292200' post='5017403']
I'd actually agree with this, they should really be separate. Our normal rule for creating an additional forum has been that we do so when topics (threads) covering that particular topic start to be numerous enough to warrant it, and at the moment the visual arts forum containing both topics is still one of our least busy. Do you think splitting out the separate topics into their own forums might actually help to encourage more discussion? Our worry is creating "ghost town" forums where any topics that are posted end up going un-answered.

[/quote]

Thanks jbadams!

I imagine it's a little off putting for a new user thinking about posting a question about pixel art and seeing most of the recent threads are about Blender (or vice versa). Just having them more coherently named would help people find them, too. I think splitting them is worth a try, at least.

Spitballin': To boost initial traffic, you guys could put them on the front page spotlight announcing them as "new and improved," pointing out the revised stickies and maybe new articles (if there are some).

9. (And I requested this before) It would be nice if the news threads also showed in the New Content page. They would certainly get more traffic and more people to respond. As of now, people just copy the link and create a new thread. Which seems quite pointless.

Well let's see.....

1. Classic Black Theme
2. Points breakdown in the name header
3. Ability to show different category of points
4. People using the upvote/downvote system more
5. A system set up for getting points for finishing a game
6. GD Showcase for 5.
7. GD Mobile App

A tutorial for C++ game programming that doesn't use VC++ 6.0. I mean, come on, have you guys made a book on C++ in the last 5 years? I have a ton of books on C++ from you, but all are old. So would it hurt to have something new?

Wait what?

8. Have upvoting and downvoting in the CSI forum

No adds for GDNet+ (I'd get one if there were absolutely no adds)

9. I wonder if no ads means we'd have to pay a little more to offset that. Free = All ads, all day. GD.NET+ = some ads, but not intrusive, current price. GD.NET ? = No ads, whatsoever, but 10-15% more.

You're going to need to give us more than that. I have no clue how you would like to see this set up. Define "finishing a game" - is it releasing onto some sort of marketplace? Meeting pre-defined goals outlined in a previous journal entry? Putting something online people can download and play in some capacity on their machines?

I've been thinking about this (5. on my previous list) as well. What I've come up with so far is having in a user's journal or in Your Announcements (or a dedicated page/section), a user provide the following:

1. Name of game
2. Name of developer or group
3. Screenshots
4. Link to media (demo, gameplay, trailer video)
5. Link to webpage and/or finished product
6. Status
7. Tags (2D, 3D, Platformer, Clone, PacMan, Mario, Shooter, etc)

If the Status is Finish or Complete, then the user gets X points. Either this will be verified or will be on the honor system. If the person is found to be lying or fraudulent, appropriate actions will occur.

If this system works, then the GD Showcase would just be a page listing all of the Journals or Your Announcements that are tagged games, resource, or Y. And the users will be able to filter through the games/resources based on the tags.

So how crazy does this sound?

10. (And I requested this before) It would be nice if the news threads also showed in the New Content page. They would certainly get more traffic and more people to respond. As of now, people just copy the link and create a new thread. Which seems quite pointless.

so, two things.

1. attempting to start a new thread in this forum give's me an "You are not allowed to do that" message.

2. i was going to post a new thread asking if their is any button for finding unanswered, or even threads sorted from newest to oldest. i like to only post in unanswered threads(if i'm able to), since most other threads are quickly answered, and i'm not a fan of regurgitating information, i'm currently going through many forums to find unanswered posts, but is their any button of place in the forum i'm missing for this?

[quote name='slicer4ever' timestamp='1358241415' post='5021737']
1. attempting to start a new thread in this forum give's me an "You are not allowed to do that" message.
[/quote]

This happened to me a couple times, but not when creating a thread. Instead, I was writing very lengthy replies (that often took me over half an hour) and the site seems to just forget me, and I have to sign back in and copy-paste my post into a new reply for it to go through. I'm not sure why it happens. There could've conceivably been some site maintenance in between.

1. attempting to start a new thread in this forum give's me an "You are not allowed to do that" message.

This happened to me a couple times, but not when creating a thread. Instead, I was writing very lengthy replies (that often took me over half an hour) and the site seems to just forget me, and I have to sign back in and copy-paste my post into a new reply for it to go through. I'm not sure why it happens. There could've conceivably been some site maintenance in between.

hmm, maybe it was just some site maintenance, as i'm now able to create a post.

Two things:

o Fix the formatting issues that happen with RSS import from an external blog.

As it stands now, this feature just generates a mangled journal entry that serves no purpose other than as a reminder that I have some content I need to reformat for my gamedev.net journal.

Even if the formatting wasn't perfect, it would be better than nothing. I understand it might be hard to handle all the various ways people mark-up source code for display on a web page on their external blogs -- various WordPress plugins want different things or whatever -- but it should be possible to get the basic stuff right and just not touch anything un-basic.

o As a feature request, how about if you could set up a special page attached to your profile for your game development projects that are currently active? These could also be shared between people if several users of gamedev are a team. This project page could have descriptions, screenshots, and a progress log and then there could be a portal that would aggregate updates across all of the project pages.

Assuming something like this doesn't already exist, how about some sort of "team building marketplace"?

I'm not really referring to the "Help Wanted" forum which we already have, I thinking of something a little more flexible and sophisticated. This would be targeted at forming teams out of groups of people who have decided they'd like to be involved in some project, but can't decide what, or maybe they're just flexible regarding some of the details. While when someone posts under Help Wanted they usually have a pretty good idea of what they're trying to do and what the project is, this would be much more open and generic. One of the main differences would be that instead of one person being the sole source of inspiration and a base idea, all team members would be a part of the idea and concept, and if all goes well during early design phases theoretically your team might be a bit more dedicated since everyone had a hand in it from the start.

The way I envision it would be a little like the old Neverwinter Connections DM/Player matchmaking service, which worked a bit like freelancer.com but without the monetary aspects. You'd have a profile, specify your skills (including skill levels), interests, experience, and background. It'd allow users to post a general team or project idea with as little or as much information they prefer which would be searchable by others. You might say that you're interested in a medium size long term project, 3-4 team members, interested in designing an XYZ type of game. Could be a "clone", something general like "space related", or something more developed. You'd specify the technologies to use, possibly multiples: Ex. Java or C++, or Slick2D or Unity or jMonkeyEngine, and so on.

Obviously the idea would have to be designed and matured more than I explained above, and it's a pretty big project, but if you're looking for something big... there you go.

Can't say for sure if it'd be popular, but I sure would like something like this.