The halloween update forum is FULL of speculation, wild accusations, wishlists, whining about unknown things, suggestions, ideas, actual facts and what I'm sure are people trolling for an easy kill by posting about lanterns and hell. Only one of these really should be common.
While I have no qualm at all with speculation, surely it should be limited to one thread? Or one thread a topic? So we'd have a Lantern speculation thread, a portal speculation thread, a biome speculation thread and a general speculation thread. Anything that isn't discussion of concrete evidence (such as "Biomes appear really small in that video" or "Lanterns needing an item from hell") belongs in these select few threads.
Stuff like "Lanterns shouldn't need items from hell, they should be iron and coal, like this: <Crafting pic>" belong in the spec thread.
I dunno, maybe it's just me, but that forum, considering its the 'go to' place for the halloween update is largely useless except to watch the freakshow with a beer gently foaming away in my non-mouse hand.
Useful threads (Such as the 11 biomes thread, or the halloween facts thread) should not be the minority. Interesting threads (Such as what will you do first when hell comes out, or Photoshop Ghasts into real situations) should not be the minority. Instead, what we have, as of writing this, is:
3 Useful stickies, which are the style of threads this suggestion is trying to increase
Speculation about other monsters in hell
Ghast emote wish
Speculation about torches
Speculation about SMP
The 11 Biomes thread
Costume contest
Speculation about obsidian
Speculation about ghasts
Speculation about lanterns/hellblocks
Speculation about biomes
Speculation about SMP
Speculation about hell
Portal room idea
Fan-video thread.
Another biome thread
Portal room thread.
Penguins?!
Silly thread about a typo
Interesting ghast size discussion
Speculation about new music
Speculation about hell
Speculation about update
Heaven wish
...
I realise there's some bias here, but surely we can combine all the red ones into a couple of threads and clear out the 'player opinions and wishes' from 'discussion of the facts'?
For one, banning speculation would be a losing battle. I don't think it can be done.
Secondly, speculation can be fun! There's a reason Notch didn't tell us what was in his Friday updates. It's a lot of fun thinking up wild ideas and finding out which ones made it into the game.
The lantern/torch complaining has gone way overboard, but I think Peri's handling that pretty well. Beyond that, I don't think any action is necessary.
Sorry, I may have been unclear. What I would like to see is the removal of all the individual speculation threads and combine them into a few threads purely for that purpose.
Speculation is neither constructive or useful and so I think it needs to be separated from the more useful posts.
I think you'd find that an initial large number of merges and moves would stop the continuous creation of these threads.
I'm bot denying that speculation can be a fun thing to do. I've done enough of my own. But when a forum designed to help and discuss a current program becomes overrun with it, it really detracts from the forums purpose.
This was a problem previously in the alpha forum as well, the forum would be completely overrun with people posting speculations about the Friday update, rather than posting useful posts.
Whoops! Yeah, I guess I skimmed your post a little faster than I should have. Yeah, I can see your point, but I haven't really seen it as a problem outside of the Halloween Update section. Which, by its nature, is almost completely speculation since all we have to go on are hints from Notch.
Also, speculation isn't only fun. It can be constructive as well. As a forum, we can find new and interesting solutions to the game and be thinking three or four steps ahead of its current state. Notch is only one man, and such speculation can really help shape the game to become better than it would have been without it.
While I have no qualm at all with speculation, surely it should be limited to one thread? Or one thread a topic? So we'd have a Lantern speculation thread, a portal speculation thread, a biome speculation thread and a general speculation thread. Anything that isn't discussion of concrete evidence (such as "Biomes appear really small in that video" or "Lanterns needing an item from hell") belongs in these select few threads.
Stuff like "Lanterns shouldn't need items from hell, they should be iron and coal, like this: <Crafting pic>" belong in the spec thread.
I dunno, maybe it's just me, but that forum, considering its the 'go to' place for the halloween update is largely useless except to watch the freakshow with a beer gently foaming away in my non-mouse hand.
Useful threads (Such as the 11 biomes thread, or the halloween facts thread) should not be the minority. Interesting threads (Such as what will you do first when hell comes out, or Photoshop Ghasts into real situations) should not be the minority. Instead, what we have, as of writing this, is:
3 Useful stickies, which are the style of threads this suggestion is trying to increase
Speculation about other monsters in hell
Ghast emote wish
Speculation about torches
Speculation about SMP
The 11 Biomes thread
Costume contest
Speculation about obsidian
Speculation about ghasts
Speculation about lanterns/hellblocks
Speculation about biomes
Speculation about SMP
Speculation about hell
Portal room idea
Fan-video thread.
Another biome thread
Portal room thread.
Penguins?!
Silly thread about a typo
Interesting ghast size discussion
Speculation about new music
Speculation about hell
Speculation about update
Heaven wish
...
I realise there's some bias here, but surely we can combine all the red ones into a couple of threads and clear out the 'player opinions and wishes' from 'discussion of the facts'?
For one, banning speculation would be a losing battle. I don't think it can be done.
Secondly, speculation can be fun! There's a reason Notch didn't tell us what was in his Friday updates. It's a lot of fun thinking up wild ideas and finding out which ones made it into the game.
The lantern/torch complaining has gone way overboard, but I think Peri's handling that pretty well. Beyond that, I don't think any action is necessary.
Speculation is neither constructive or useful and so I think it needs to be separated from the more useful posts.
I think you'd find that an initial large number of merges and moves would stop the continuous creation of these threads.
I'm bot denying that speculation can be a fun thing to do. I've done enough of my own. But when a forum designed to help and discuss a current program becomes overrun with it, it really detracts from the forums purpose.
This was a problem previously in the alpha forum as well, the forum would be completely overrun with people posting speculations about the Friday update, rather than posting useful posts.
Also, speculation isn't only fun. It can be constructive as well. As a forum, we can find new and interesting solutions to the game and be thinking three or four steps ahead of its current state. Notch is only one man, and such speculation can really help shape the game to become better than it would have been without it.
He had stated a while back that he browses the suggestion forum for ideas.
But, I think that the Halloween update section has a little two much speculation.
On the other hand, only two more days until the Halloween update goes live! thats only two more days of speculation. I think we can handle that!