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all i want to say is update the site (the forums are fine) the site is the first thing people see  and its pretty bad to look at even when you look at the submission videos. It looks like something that was made from a geocities layout from back in the day. I hope there will be a more appealling update to the site that will sustain the future of sda for the better maybe work on the blog too not only have the records to report but more writers and talk about whats going on in specific game forums , game glitches , specific runners. this site could be so much more with amount of content and people that use this site. the site is going to be overran by SR or Twingalaxies if nothing really updates imo
Not a walrus
Everybody following this thread should check out Vulajin's latest news post, it's showing something we hope to expand in the near future.

https://queue.speeddemosarchive.com/queue/submit_news_tip/
The artist formerly known as Qxy
Wow, that's a great idea! Convenient and open ended.
Edit history:
Vulajin: 2015-02-05 02:13:47 am
Yeah, what UA said. This is just our first step, but we figured it was one that we could make relatively quickly (relative to the traditional pace of changes to this site, that is). Hope you guys like it and start contributing to it, and in the future we may be able to expand it depending on the level of interest shown.

(edit) Note that community updates are not intended to replace run publication announcements - they're an extra bonus. We don't have a solid plan for frequency of updates, but for now I'm hoping for once a week if we can swing it.
I must simply laugh.
This is a very good step you are taking in my opinion.

Not only does it give people additional incentive to check back on the site more frequently other than for a single Thread in the forums, but it also involves them and everybody can contribute.

Very nice idea, looking forward to see what becomes of it.
Any plans of a live-news-feed style portion of the front page?  Or will the normal updates just include the news tips.
No pain, no gain
Great first post, Vulajin! My biggest question, though, is if we could embed pictures and such on the page. I just think a picture per article would help to make it more visually appealing to new people. The biggest downside is that an updater would need to search for something to use, but I think it would be worth the effort.
HELLO!
It's true it would help, but I think more frequent updates are more valuable than updates with images.  It's a tradeoff, to be sure.

In the long run if some sort of CMS were used, such that the posts had individual permanent links, then images would be huge, because they are critical for Facebook and Twitter engagement, though.
No pain, no gain
Quote from presjpolk:
It's true it would help, but I think more frequent updates are more valuable than updates with images.  It's a tradeoff, to be sure.

Nice to see you already working on news posts. Good job Vulajin!

However it would be nice if news were visually distinguished from run updates so that you quickly could tell whether the post contains news or updates. Like maybe using another topic color for news instead of the normal grey/white.
Not a walrus
We already have some plans for how we want to handle the organization of the front page in the long term, but this was quick and simple in terms of code so we wanted to get the things in motion. Still got lots more to do.
HELLO!
Quote from Brossentia:
Quote from presjpolk:
It's true it would help, but I think more frequent updates are more valuable than updates with images.  It's a tradeoff, to be sure.



Because I fear the writers posting less often because of the greater workload. It's a normal thing to see with unpaid volunteer labor!
All the things
That's great to hear that things are getting worked in. I'm looking forward to seeing how everything turns out.

But if one goal is to have a greater update frequency and variety, maybe it's a good idea to put out a call for writers/contributors? The tips system is a good start, but in the long run it's unsustainable if there's only a small handful of staff that regularly update.
Not a walrus
That's part of the plan, yes, but there's a few more things we need to do before we can bring extra people in for that sort of thing.
What's that gemma?
Be careful with the news submission function.  You are going to have to play favorites with what is "newsworthy" and not, and this could lead to drama.
TIOLET!
I'd just like to say that I really like the "prototype" community news post on the front page, good addition indeed. More of that.
Regarding Naegleria's question - for now the intent is to curate tips pretty heavily. We want to ensure quality above quantity, so that each item reported has consistent coverage. We'll probably keep submitted news to their own separate posts for now, although we won't rule out the possibility of integrating news updates in other posts in the future.

All the suggestions in the thread so far are good ones - thanks for all the feedback! As we go forward, we'll probably be looking to do almost everything that has been suggested (permalinks for news posts, more contributors, etc.), but much of that is dependent on backend work, so for now we're relying on the fact that we are really serious about making changes.
steak Steak STEAK!!!
Quote from Crow!:
Be careful with the news submission function.  You are going to have to play favorites with what is "newsworthy" and not, and this could lead to drama.


I agree with this.  Discount what the new guy to SDA has to say if you want, but I know I'm a little worried that the news will be filled with more general-interest stuff (which, that's fine to talk about), but I think it should also be used to advertise breakthroughs and goings-on in more obscure games.  Some games are certainly far more popular (and dare I say objectively better) for speedrunning than others, and I in no way want to diminish the latest breakthroughs in popular games, but I do hope that at least a portion of the news cycle can take time to showcase developments in other games too.

As a new speedrunner, I will say that I've found the technical aspect of setting up streaming/recording to be very confusing, and the articles on the Knowledge Base served only to cascade me into information overload and get deterred from doing any recording rather than helping me along.  Only once I asked in the forums (no small feat, given how much the rules emphasize how this new thread better be worth posting or you'll be banned) did I get useful advice in manageable chunks.

But that's just the new person's perspective.
by "rules" you mean this?

i see there where it says "By making a thread you are essentially saying that what you create is important enough to take up space", but that's under "Special note about the Gaming Discussion Board". none of that stuff applies to tech support. sorry if that wasn't clear.
Edit history:
Drifting Skies: 2015-02-05 09:28:50 pm
Drifting Skies: 2015-02-05 09:24:02 pm
steak Steak STEAK!!!
Quote from nate:
by "rules" you mean this?

i see there where it says "By making a thread you are essentially saying that what you create is important enough to take up space", but that's under "Special note about the Gaming Discussion Board". none of that stuff applies to tech support. sorry if that wasn't clear.


Yeah.  Being directed to specifically seeing that it only applies to Gaming Discussion, it makes sense.  But it's too easy to see the starred and highlighted text and not remember the disclaimers or exactly where it applies.

I will reiterate that I feel that it would be helpful to have some of the information on capturing/recording/encoding cleared up.  It seems very daunting to the person who doesn't even have experience uploading videos to YouTube, let alone trying to dive into capturing video off a console.  It makes it difficult to jump in and asking for basic help feels awkward at times, lest you risk being called out as a fool.  I'd like to be able to help, but I don't actually have the information to do something like this.

(It also sucks to be one of about one or two people working on a particular game since there's not going to be the same kind of references, but I don't think that's the fault of SDA nor an issue for the site.)
Formerly known as Skullboy
There's nothing wrong with asking questions or seeking help with tech stuff. There's a good chunk of us out there who aren't sure what they are doing when they start. You'll find more people to be helpful than hurtful. I found that it took some trial and error plus occasionally asking questions and researching things to get my recording setup. Also, unless it's totally inappropriate or spam, you won't get immediately banned for making a bad forum topic once. You've also done your homework and read the rules.

I like the community post on the front page. As previously mentioned, using different colors or something would be helpful but that's a bit down the road. I'm also throwing my hat in for helping with writing if needed. Just don't ask me to code anything.
Weegee Time
Wow, really great to see something like this pop up so soon! Cheesy

Out of curiosity, if multiple people submit the same link, does the backend group all those submissions together for you?
At the moment, no, we'll just see a big list of all the submissions for the same thing. We can streamline it in the future if it becomes a problem, but for now it shouldn't be a huge deal.
Not a walrus
So the two feeds on the front page are now being automatically generated by the queue rather than DJGrenola's old hairy feed scripts, so please let me know if something isn't working like it used to!

http://speeddemosarchive.com/sda100.atom
http://speeddemosarchive.com/sda20.rss
guffaw
is there actually still a link to the feeds on the front page? I can't see one, you should probably have something obvious like http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/43/Feed-icon.svg

good job tho