Why is this still on the homepage?

[sleepalope]

I feel like this should be hidden or something, given it is not active at all...

[Flandre]

Yeah, no one ever had much input on how all the Guide systems and such should be reworked, so this stuff fell to the wayside. Sometime by the end of the year we're being forced to update the forum software from Invision 4 to Invision 5, which will drop support for the thread upvoting system (which no one used anyways), at which point we'll probably just delete all this stuff.

What we ended up on is just letting anyone post their guides in Community Guides, and the replies can criticize them if necessary

[Ranger]

The new guide system I put forward accomplishes two important things- First it gives people the option to give their feedback on guides in a way to include the group of people who think, "I like this guide" and don't have much else to say. The second thing it accomplishes is having a board for making guide drafts (notice it's except from the upvote system).

 

As for the actual draft approval process I came up with- no one was motivated to carry it out. I'm disappointed that was the outcome, but I expected the possibility. 

 

The biggest and most important accomplishment the new guide system did was make guide curation optional. It was better for guide writers because several just want their ideas out there, not to be criticized over their writing skills. And overall, I'm not even sure if most people even know there's a guide curation system in the first place. But that’s okay, because people now have easy access to posting guides.

 

So the end result of people just posting to Community Guides, Tips & Tricks, or wherever else is still a huge sucsess given everything else. I created this system to allow that, and here it is allowing it.

 

Only a small group of people would come and talk about the guide system in the first place. Everyone had a complely different idea for how guides should be curated. I knew most people wouldn't be happy with the new system. Given the fact many had ultimately destructive end goals in mind, I think that's for the best. So motivation to care dying out, alright, fair enough.

 

---

 

Although, I think the biggest problem with any guide curation system is how people would use it in the first place. A lot of active users are anti-guide, and that sentiment highly discourages people. Where are all of the guides? They're not here, because they were criticized and shot down before they even got to thinking about posting them. Even silence is discouraging. "I wrote this guide nobody will see or seems to care about... Why did I even bother making it?" This is a problem outside of .info too- you can see it in the subreddit too.

 

But then suddenly, they get tired of all of the same repeat questions, and especially over hour counts, "Aw we need new guides", "We need a guide system to get rid of guides like that". 

 

But their underlying toxic stance is still the same. "You disagree with me, therefore your advice is crap", "Why do we have so many terrible guides, we should just get rid of all of them". 

 

And nobody wants to do it. Because that would be more work! But I think it's actually because everyone knows what the immediate next problem is-

 

"Wait this community exists?"

 

And then new people don't come in because there's nothing to ask questions about in the first place. Most people aren't going to read the may-as-well-be private threads where you give advice. The studious will, but only because they read the guides and want more information. 

 

There are people who find the community without reading a guide. "What even is this?", "How do I make one?" But without guides, those repeat questions will be the only questions. "I'm so tired of this" experienced people say, and then people leave. Eventually, there will be no one left- everyone with experience will get squirreled away into their private friend servers.

 

A lot of people vocalize they don't like .info. But if the guides went poof, what viable community is left, even outside of .info, will get cut at the knees. Even the subreddit points to guides hosted here.

 

If you know me, I think you'll realize I wouldn't be 100% upset about this outcome unfolding into reality.

 

Okay, hate the guides. Tell people their advice sucks and all guides are terrible. "Wait why is everything so outdated and nobody is here?" Hmm, I wonder why.

 

Most experienced people just want to find other plurals to make new friends. But that won't happen without guides. You don't value the work, eventually, that will bite you in the butt. The people willing to do the work won't be serving you! No new friends for you- because you actively kill your own community.