If any of you know, every 1,000 posts I get I make a big, long winded blog. The first time was a GBAtemp retrospective, the second time was a get to know me thing, and this time it's just some future GBAtemp aspirations as well as the announcement of some new, personal projects. Oh, and other random blog stuff. IT'S AN EXTRAVAGANZA!
So, the first big thing I'll be announcing is the start of my own personal editorials...
Guilditorials!
I know I haven't been here for the longest of times so I can't say "I remember back in the day on GBAtemp..." (although I do), but I still remember my early days here. There was a lot of easy, lighthearted discussion that had plenty of friendly arguing and stuff you'd expect from a good forum. It seems like a lot of that stuff is gone now. I know most of this is because people have lives to get to, but I still miss it. Like the Retro Reviews and other staff articles, as well as things like Wii/DS Games of the Week. I kinda brought back the Wii/DS Games of the Week thing with a "Of the Month" version, but there's still a whole for Retro Reviews and other things. I won't be doing Retro Reviews, since I'm still just a kiddie, but I will be doing opinion pieces. Here's some future topics:
- Mature Games on the Wii
- General Misconceptions and Stereotypes (for video game consoles)
- Top 25 Wii/DS Games of All Time
- Hardcore vs. Casual
- The Future of Video Gaming
And so on. Expect the Mature Games one to be popping up in the Wii section sometime soon. I hope these sincerely spark some FRIENDLY discussion, not shit tossing. Since a lot of the friendly discussion seems to be shit tossing nowadays.
The next project is *drum roll*
GBATEMP WIKI IMPROVEMENT PROJECT!
For far too long, the Wiki has been underused and outdated, and its a shame. Wikis are a great way to convey information and even do some discussion. Hell, before I joined GBAtemp, I was a member of a Wiki for years. That Wiki did go down the drain eventually, but that's because of an incompetent moderator staff and shithead trolls who were too "popular" with the Wiki to get any reasonable punishment. Oh yeah, and I left because I stopped playing Guild Wars (it was a Guild Wars-related Wiki). So, I understand how a Wiki works and hopefully my expertise can work on this Wiki. My main goals are to clean it up, add more pages, update/delete older pages, as well as make it a viable means for discussion. Sure, we have the forum for discussion, but multiple outlets of discussion are good. I mean, we have IRC for discussion (well, not REAL discussion), why not have the Wiki? Of course, it's main goal will be information relay, though.
A list of what needs to be done. If you know some basic Wiki coding, you can do some of them. Otherwise, odds are you need to be an admin on the Wiki to do a lot of this:
- Deletion/update of outdated pages: There's a lot of old information and unneeded pages on there, the main thing being a listing of the first thousand or so DS releases (which is useless since we have gOnline to list DS releases). Update, archive, or delete pages.
- Addition of more pages: A comprehensive, universal softmodding guide, a list of how-to/what games need fixes per MAJOR carts (this means R4, Acekard, Cyclo, etc, not clones), key articles relating to GBAtemp (notable users, mod/admin pages, key contributors), articles of key members of the hacking scene, as well as articles for our sponsors.
- More templates!: The main one would be an OUTDATED template, that we can put on outdated pages. I'll go more onto why this is needed as well. Specific templates for flashcart-related pages (such as one for Acekards, R4's, Cyclos, etc) would be appreciated as well. Then there's basic stuff like candidates for deletion and other basics.
- Archiving!: Some pages are outdated but still have a historic significance, aka things like PassCards/old flashcarts, older softmod methods, older game launchers, etc. Things that are still relevant to the history of whatever we discuss here but no longer used today.
- Moving of key "stickies" to the Wiki: A lot of stickies here are information, and a Wiki is meant to store information. Not only would this clean up the amount of stickies on some cluttered forums, but it would put them in an organized manner.
- Encourage discussion!: As I mentioned before, a Wiki is a great way to have general discussions, just as much as an IRC room or a forum. While I don't expect it to be anywhere near as popular as the forum or IRC, I would at least want some discussion.
- Other things: Things I'll think of as I go.
If you want to help, you can of course. I just suggest you have a basic knowledge of Wiki coding (which in itself is very, very close to HTML or basic forum codes).
My other personal project is improving the GBAtemp Magazine Reviews section. It's become a lot more lively since I started reviewing in there, but it's still a rather dead forum compared to our other sections. I'll start doing more reviews and try to make GBAtemp a reasonable outlet for game reviews. This means A LOT of reviews, from yours truly. Of course, I have a life first (I know, that's hard to believe), but I can imagine the Reviews section being a big part of the forum.
So, now for other aspirations and stuff.
beMy first aspiration would be....
MODERATOR ELECTION REFORM... PERSONAL THOUGHT!
I know that a lowly user like myself can't do anything, but I can see a new system in place, taken from the Wiki I used to go to. Here's a general rundown:
- A user can nominate another user for a staff position that's NOT administrative staff (aka Supervisor, Administrator, or Technician). The nominating user must have AT LEAST 100 posts and the nominated must have AT LEAST 500 posts or the request will be thrown out immediately. Seeing as all our staff members have at least 500 posts (or so I thought), this seems reasonable. The nominator and nominated must have also been on GBAtemp for a period of AT LEAST 6 months. Nomination threads would be in Site discussions and suggestions and would follow a specific template.
- To go into the administrative staff thing, seeing as that is a big position, an "upgrade" to that position is solely made by the current Administrative staff.
- Unlike my previous Wiki, a nominator CANNOT nominate himself. It was unpopular to do it on the Wiki I went to anyway, but it was allowed. Personally, it just seems kinda dickish.
- Users will then argue for/against the nomination. The nominator must update a list of supporting and opposing users. Users can give small speeches on why a user is fit/unfit for the role.
- Once an Administrative Staffer reads enough, they can choose whether the person can be elected or not. Admin staffers can deny or approve any nomination. Mind you, that if you have a list full of respected users supporting someone and only a pinch of users opposing them, it would be quite unpopular. Still, the end decision is by staffers alone.
- You may say "Hey Guild, if the end result is up to only the staffers, why does it matter?" and I've got the answer to that. As I said before overturning the popular opinion won't be very popular. Additionally, these nomination things measure the community's feelings on getting a new mod.
Seems a bit "radical" I guess, but it feels like a good thing. Also, this is obviously just a thought, so don't start posting random threads saying "____ FOR MODERATOR WOOOOHOOO!"
My other aspiration, kinda obviously following the theme here, is to obviously be a mod someday. Not any global moderator, but maybe just of the DS and Wii forums. I know, I flame a lot and troll a bit, so this is easy to laugh at, but I'm one of the most active members here and I've significantly improved from a few months ago. I do sometimes lose my cool and have gotten a 10% warn because of that, but over the next few months, I plan to be better at this. It's just a hope, no matter how far away it is. Go ahead, laugh.
Also, as per my large post count and short time being here, I wouldn't say I spam. I just post a lot because I have nothing else to do. Most of my posts are usually a few sentences of substance (outside of EoF stuff, of course) and it's not just useless, one word posts that aren't even humorous. Well, maybe they're humorless, but they're more than a word long! Quite frankly, I just have nothing to do except go around here a lot, so I post a lot. There, arrest me, call me a hypocrite.
Anyway, tl;dr summary:
- Personal editorials
- Wiki improvement
- More reviews
- Moderator election reform
- I wish to become a mod someday (
)
- I wouldn't call myself a spammer.
Sheesh, this is a long post!
So, the first big thing I'll be announcing is the start of my own personal editorials...
Guilditorials!
I know I haven't been here for the longest of times so I can't say "I remember back in the day on GBAtemp..." (although I do), but I still remember my early days here. There was a lot of easy, lighthearted discussion that had plenty of friendly arguing and stuff you'd expect from a good forum. It seems like a lot of that stuff is gone now. I know most of this is because people have lives to get to, but I still miss it. Like the Retro Reviews and other staff articles, as well as things like Wii/DS Games of the Week. I kinda brought back the Wii/DS Games of the Week thing with a "Of the Month" version, but there's still a whole for Retro Reviews and other things. I won't be doing Retro Reviews, since I'm still just a kiddie, but I will be doing opinion pieces. Here's some future topics:
- Mature Games on the Wii
- General Misconceptions and Stereotypes (for video game consoles)
- Top 25 Wii/DS Games of All Time
- Hardcore vs. Casual
- The Future of Video Gaming
And so on. Expect the Mature Games one to be popping up in the Wii section sometime soon. I hope these sincerely spark some FRIENDLY discussion, not shit tossing. Since a lot of the friendly discussion seems to be shit tossing nowadays.
The next project is *drum roll*
GBATEMP WIKI IMPROVEMENT PROJECT!
For far too long, the Wiki has been underused and outdated, and its a shame. Wikis are a great way to convey information and even do some discussion. Hell, before I joined GBAtemp, I was a member of a Wiki for years. That Wiki did go down the drain eventually, but that's because of an incompetent moderator staff and shithead trolls who were too "popular" with the Wiki to get any reasonable punishment. Oh yeah, and I left because I stopped playing Guild Wars (it was a Guild Wars-related Wiki). So, I understand how a Wiki works and hopefully my expertise can work on this Wiki. My main goals are to clean it up, add more pages, update/delete older pages, as well as make it a viable means for discussion. Sure, we have the forum for discussion, but multiple outlets of discussion are good. I mean, we have IRC for discussion (well, not REAL discussion), why not have the Wiki? Of course, it's main goal will be information relay, though.
A list of what needs to be done. If you know some basic Wiki coding, you can do some of them. Otherwise, odds are you need to be an admin on the Wiki to do a lot of this:
- Deletion/update of outdated pages: There's a lot of old information and unneeded pages on there, the main thing being a listing of the first thousand or so DS releases (which is useless since we have gOnline to list DS releases). Update, archive, or delete pages.
- Addition of more pages: A comprehensive, universal softmodding guide, a list of how-to/what games need fixes per MAJOR carts (this means R4, Acekard, Cyclo, etc, not clones), key articles relating to GBAtemp (notable users, mod/admin pages, key contributors), articles of key members of the hacking scene, as well as articles for our sponsors.
- More templates!: The main one would be an OUTDATED template, that we can put on outdated pages. I'll go more onto why this is needed as well. Specific templates for flashcart-related pages (such as one for Acekards, R4's, Cyclos, etc) would be appreciated as well. Then there's basic stuff like candidates for deletion and other basics.
- Archiving!: Some pages are outdated but still have a historic significance, aka things like PassCards/old flashcarts, older softmod methods, older game launchers, etc. Things that are still relevant to the history of whatever we discuss here but no longer used today.
- Moving of key "stickies" to the Wiki: A lot of stickies here are information, and a Wiki is meant to store information. Not only would this clean up the amount of stickies on some cluttered forums, but it would put them in an organized manner.
- Encourage discussion!: As I mentioned before, a Wiki is a great way to have general discussions, just as much as an IRC room or a forum. While I don't expect it to be anywhere near as popular as the forum or IRC, I would at least want some discussion.
- Other things: Things I'll think of as I go.
If you want to help, you can of course. I just suggest you have a basic knowledge of Wiki coding (which in itself is very, very close to HTML or basic forum codes).
My other personal project is improving the GBAtemp Magazine Reviews section. It's become a lot more lively since I started reviewing in there, but it's still a rather dead forum compared to our other sections. I'll start doing more reviews and try to make GBAtemp a reasonable outlet for game reviews. This means A LOT of reviews, from yours truly. Of course, I have a life first (I know, that's hard to believe), but I can imagine the Reviews section being a big part of the forum.
So, now for other aspirations and stuff.
beMy first aspiration would be....
MODERATOR ELECTION REFORM... PERSONAL THOUGHT!
I know that a lowly user like myself can't do anything, but I can see a new system in place, taken from the Wiki I used to go to. Here's a general rundown:
- A user can nominate another user for a staff position that's NOT administrative staff (aka Supervisor, Administrator, or Technician). The nominating user must have AT LEAST 100 posts and the nominated must have AT LEAST 500 posts or the request will be thrown out immediately. Seeing as all our staff members have at least 500 posts (or so I thought), this seems reasonable. The nominator and nominated must have also been on GBAtemp for a period of AT LEAST 6 months. Nomination threads would be in Site discussions and suggestions and would follow a specific template.
- To go into the administrative staff thing, seeing as that is a big position, an "upgrade" to that position is solely made by the current Administrative staff.
- Unlike my previous Wiki, a nominator CANNOT nominate himself. It was unpopular to do it on the Wiki I went to anyway, but it was allowed. Personally, it just seems kinda dickish.
- Users will then argue for/against the nomination. The nominator must update a list of supporting and opposing users. Users can give small speeches on why a user is fit/unfit for the role.
- Once an Administrative Staffer reads enough, they can choose whether the person can be elected or not. Admin staffers can deny or approve any nomination. Mind you, that if you have a list full of respected users supporting someone and only a pinch of users opposing them, it would be quite unpopular. Still, the end decision is by staffers alone.
- You may say "Hey Guild, if the end result is up to only the staffers, why does it matter?" and I've got the answer to that. As I said before overturning the popular opinion won't be very popular. Additionally, these nomination things measure the community's feelings on getting a new mod.
Seems a bit "radical" I guess, but it feels like a good thing. Also, this is obviously just a thought, so don't start posting random threads saying "____ FOR MODERATOR WOOOOHOOO!"
My other aspiration, kinda obviously following the theme here, is to obviously be a mod someday. Not any global moderator, but maybe just of the DS and Wii forums. I know, I flame a lot and troll a bit, so this is easy to laugh at, but I'm one of the most active members here and I've significantly improved from a few months ago. I do sometimes lose my cool and have gotten a 10% warn because of that, but over the next few months, I plan to be better at this. It's just a hope, no matter how far away it is. Go ahead, laugh.
Also, as per my large post count and short time being here, I wouldn't say I spam. I just post a lot because I have nothing else to do. Most of my posts are usually a few sentences of substance (outside of EoF stuff, of course) and it's not just useless, one word posts that aren't even humorous. Well, maybe they're humorless, but they're more than a word long! Quite frankly, I just have nothing to do except go around here a lot, so I post a lot. There, arrest me, call me a hypocrite.
Anyway, tl;dr summary:
- Personal editorials
- Wiki improvement
- More reviews
- Moderator election reform
- I wish to become a mod someday (
- I wouldn't call myself a spammer.
Sheesh, this is a long post!