United StatesMy guess is it just returns the top match. YI matches because that's the abbreviation listed for the game. "xa" just looks like you got lucky and it happens to be the highest match. It seems like it does exactly what the search bar does, so I don't think it appears "inconsistent". Note: "fa" pulls up too many series and no games, which could theoretically be improved?, but why not just look up an actually meaningful and reliable string.
Many communities only really care about proof if you have a top time. If runs are to be taken seriously they should have a full video though.
Validity is subjective.
Apparently I can do name changes through the site interface :)
It's a known issue just on the front-end. I think we fixed this in most places, but it's apparently still broken on the user pages. You don't need to change anything.
I assume this is you as well? www.speedrun.com/user/YodaCage/ (Can I delete this account later?)
I contacted Pac to see if I can do this through the admin interface without breaking everything (importing runs, etc), or if he needs to do it in the database.
The Ape Escape game itself has no favicon assigned to it as far as I can tell. The series page favicon seems to be working fine for me. It could be a caching issue, which could be on our end, but I can't replicate the issue at the moment.
Not saying there isn't an issue though, because we've had similar caching type issues with themes.
The current moderator has 0 runs submitted in the series, so I'm fine with adding you as a series moderator. Try to figure out how people are actually running/timing/organizing other games in the series before making any new decisions. The rules should try to be what a runner would expect out of the game, not just what someone decided, if that makes sense. (Timing can always be changed later on obviously.)
Also when asking questions it helps us respond to the question more easily if we don't have to guess/research what game you're playing.
Ideally it should probably support flagless provinces. I don't really think the "region" flag image is that useful as a whole, people on average don't really recognize them, even for states in the US.
Yeah this shouldn't be too hard to add. Lightnat0r already has the admin/full mod panel set up to handle items of this nature. We used it for notifying 2 weeks of a game not being set up.
Even if it just sent a link to the page and gave a reason box it would be reasonably sufficient.
General answer:
You can call it a category if you want. As for whether the site adds the category, that's more up to the general OoT community. Odds are if one or two people are the only ones who runs the category seriously for a game with numerous categories, it isn't going to get added.
This page: http://www.speedrun.com/oot could have 500 different categories on it each with slightly different rules and timing and it would greatly dilute the ability for users to get to the more common information.
Common ways people are playing the game or want to see the game played is what we want to track, and it's definitely subjective, and we leave it up to the community provided they are doing a reasonable job of discerning.
I would like to support unverified personal bests in arbitrary categories for individual users on their profiles at some point. I don't foresee this getting implemented any time soon though, as we have other tasks to work on.
Yeah we add games through that form.
(We'd prefer you have a run to put up, or the intention to link to someone else's run to put up before requesting them. Empty boards aren't exactly desirable.)
Try messing around with "Full game extra variables" Runs are sorted by category. That list within the category can then be sorted by users with the extra variables.
This post is my personal opinions and may deviate slightly from site plans/visions. I did not consult with other staff on this topic.
In my opinion the site's primary goal is vaguely to connect users with runs, runners, and guides.
The goal is not to get the most users to click on the site. Otherwise we'd be posting articles like "17 Reasons you should start speedrunning, #5 will make you go fast." This is a bit of an exaggeration obviously, but more isn't always better. If users perceive content as trash, it will reflect poorly on the leaderboards. "An article a day" is probably not a good recipe for success for this site.
Homepage UI
I agree the homepage UI could use more content in some form.
Featured runs: This requires someone to manage what the featured runs are and tools to submit and add runs as featured. It is subjective, but could be beneficial if managed appropriately.
Expand your social reach
Again this requires people to manage the social media more heavily. I don't think we're looking for any organized promotion. We get the word out reasonably well by word of mouth and links to runs and Twitch bios, etc. An active Twitter or Facebook certainly isn't a bad thing, but I don't see it as a priority right now. It requires people and time to manage
Share Buttons
This is an okay idea. I'd probably personally want it limited to a "Share" button that opened to display the icons to not add distraction to all of the pages. Having a button to 1: save users keystrokes and 2: help prod the less tech savvy who were thinking about sharing into actually sharing is probably a good thing.
** Blog **
If ever done they would have to be done carefully and managed appropriately. If blogs are seeded with self-promotion, the community is not going to respond well. People are going to argue about what types of things should and shouldn't be on the blog. It would have to be quite neutral and factual to fit in well with the rest of the site. Again, requires subjectivity, people and time.
Forums and Games List
Forums listing definitely does not scale well at the moment. That's a known issue. Do you have any particular suggestions to improve the games list? I kinda feel that "By platform" should maybe only show games once a platform is selected. Organizing the consoles might be useful as well. Maybe it should be a two step process to get to the game (since it already basically is anyway.)
** Conclusion **
Many of these highly subjective things require highly subjective management. The focus of the site is largely objective data and independence, and moving into subjective data territory could interfere with that focus if done incorrectly.
As a huge generalization, limiting subjective bias will inherently make the leaderboards more credible I feel.
Other
S, I think there is a medium between maximizing growth and ignoring growth entirely. I also personally don't really see the use in blatantly insulting ideas rather than offering explanations of your differing opinion. I disagree with the notion of purely maximizing the site visitors, but I don't think it's "the dumbest idea", I (probably similar to you) just think it easily conflicts with what we're trying to do, which may not be evident to a newer user at all.
We've been getting a lot of requests for Alpha/Beta builds of games recently.
Best example at the moment: http://www.speedrun.com/ahitab http://www.speedrun.com/ahitbb
My concerns: A: I think it is desirable to support Alpha/Beta builds short term B: I think it is desirable to not clutter games with Alpha/Beta categories/variables long term. C: I don't like removing good information.
My suggestion (after consulting with some of the other mods) to remedy this is to "Archive" certain games/game builds. Archiving would basically remove them from normal searches and hopefully attach them as legacy information to the current game.
There are not currently short term plans to implement this in the very near future, I just wanted to get the thought out there and see if anyone had better suggestions.
For now we may have these copies of games, but just be aware there is reason to it and thought to remedy it eventually. Creating the separate game is the short term solution that aligns most with long term solutions I feel.
I tend to agree with most of this. I was hoping to separate IL tables and Full game tables into individual units that there can possibly be multiple of.
Timer update is another somewhat separate but related concern.
Much of this is going to take a while to resolve. I'm going to catch up with Pac in a couple days to see what we want to prioritize next. (He's on travel currently.)
Any additional feedback from others would be helpful for planning purposes.
I'd rather not have it display this by default: 愛蔵版 封神演義
Between the two of these:
- Aizbouban Houshin Engi
- Fengshen Yanyi
I'd rather use the more common Western reference to the game so that people know what it is on this page: http://www.speedrun.com/games#byplatform,PS Both being listed is also a good choice.
See also: http://www.speedrun.com/Akumajou_Special_Boku_Dracula-kun (Which I think is the common Western reference for that game.)
Maybe more translation options can be added to better help your concern, but for right now I think using a primarily Japanese reference to the game as the primary name may make it hard for most users to find the game right now.
It's more of a functional concern that substantially more users for this site speak English and refer to games by the English reference.
Hi Zutara. I saw your game request. I wanted to consult with Pac about what the plan is with purely online flash games. (If there's a version for download let me know.) Pac is currently traveling so it may be a day or two before I can catch up with him.
We're aware the timers need improvements.
I was hoping for an arbitrary amount or arbitrarily configured/named timers, which appear in the selected order, and each of which is sortable. Some users also want time conversion between versions.
It's not an easy update, and may still be a while before it is implemented.
