Updater Appreciation Thread

2014-12-03 07:15:45 pm

I enjoyed this update. For the record, I'm totally cool with the prose that people have written, but I do like the way the list is formatted in this most recent update. Maybe combining the two is a good idea, idk

Deuceler

2014-12-04 09:50:03 am

SPEEDruns not SAFEruns

It was nice to come onto the site and say "oh wow, new runs." A lot of times when there is a wall of text I overlook it assuming it's the same update as before. Many times I've enjoyed the ramblings but the one from November 23rd was a little far fetched mainly because the game titles were changed. I know if I got a run in and saw it on an update as something goofy I would be disappointed. I still think the site is doing a much better job keeping up then it has in the past

Uilnslcoap

2014-12-04 10:15:07 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

I really appreciated the format of this last one. While I do like the creative rambling in most of the updates, I think a list like the one in the most recent updated would be much appreciated in updates going forward, say at the top before the paragraphs kick off, just to give everyone instant information.

Again, I don't want to discourage the humorous entries, just make it simple for the people who are here to quickly see what's newly available.

HoboWithaShotgun

2014-12-04 04:20:55 pm

Wake up and be awesome

Just wondering, is asking the community to make game intros the norm now? i have no problem with it, just wondering

Lag.Com

Edit history:

Lag.Com: 2014-12-04 04:30:14 pm

2014-12-04 04:29:19 pm

sda loyalist

thanks for the awesome update Radix lol

Edit: very quake retro, brought back memories of AutoUpdater

CavemanDCJ

2014-12-04 05:17:39 pm

Totally Radical Awesome Game

Jeffrey Bosboom

2014-12-04 06:58:17 pm

I appreciated the to-the-pointness of this latest update, especially in contrast to the previous update that made me hover over all the links to even see the game names.

Perhaps the mythical next site version will display this information a la the tasvideos.org front page listing of recent publications and submissions (the latter of which could get more exposure for games needing verifiers).

Radix

2014-12-04 07:05:09 pm

I'm addicted to games

Quote from HoboWithaShotgun:

Just wondering, is asking the community to make game intros the norm now? i have no problem with it, just wondering

Yes, I think it's a better idea to have people who have played the game, not necessarily the runner, write the intro, instead of the updater doing it at the last minute. Some of the game pages I put up still have a stub intro.

PJ

2014-12-04 07:15:25 pm

Is PJ

I approve of this update. One request: could you add PJ to my name so people know who it is? Hint: I'm the Bionic Commando runner. Thanks!

HoboWithaShotgun

2014-12-04 07:16:26 pm

Wake up and be awesome

Alright, cool. I'll gladly help make the game intros, I know a lot of the more modern games (2005-present day)

Radix

2014-12-04 07:16:34 pm

I'm addicted to games

Do you want PJ on the game page too?

kirbymastah

2014-12-04 09:36:57 pm

<(^_^)>

I like this update too. I'd rather have a simple update than a lengthy one where it's hard to find runs (though it's nice to have an entertaining intro); would be neat to have a shorter intro then the list of runs IMO

PJ

2014-12-04 09:54:14 pm

Is PJ

Quote from Radix:

Do you want PJ on the game page too?

Sure! I think I'm "Patrick 'PJ' DiCesare" for all my runs on SDA right now. The Patrick can be included or excluded, doesn't matter to me. Most people don't know me by that name though.

moooh

2014-12-04 10:42:27 pm

Exoray

Quote from PJ:

Quote from Radix:

Do you want PJ on the game page too?

Sure! I think I'm "Patrick 'PJ' DiCesare" for all my runs on SDA right now. The Patrick can be included or excluded, doesn't matter to me. Most people don't know me by that name though.

You are already on the game page as the abovementioned fullname including nick.
As per the standard look of a page with multiple runs, the nick only appears in the top list though.

presjpolk

2014-12-05 07:36:27 am

HELLO!

I like the update, and I like the farming out of the game descriptions. I love this.

puwexil

2014-12-05 10:10:26 am

Professional Second Banana

I liked the bonus statistics for the runs that obsoleted a previous one.

Main other thing I'd want to see added is links to the runners' Twitch channels (assuming they're easily findable in their forum accounts or on the Twitch team page).

DK28

2014-12-05 10:39:52 am

General Kong - Bullets and Bananas

Quote from puwexil:

Main other thing I'd want to see added is links to the runners' Twitch channels (assuming they're easily findable in their forum accounts or on the Twitch team page).

This. I agree this is one thing that should remain.

Omnigamer

2014-12-05 11:24:41 am

All the things

Is it possible to add a field to user profiles for that purpose? For example like the AIM/Skype/etc username fields?

AlecK47

2014-12-05 04:49:46 pm

Quote from Omnigamer:

Is it possible to add a field to user profiles for that purpose? For example like the AIM/Skype/etc username fields?

That would be a really nice addition.

LLCoolDave

2014-12-06 01:31:14 pm

I'm sorry for taking so long to reply to this topic, but I wanted to wait for the latest staff meeting before making an official statement. We as SDA, and I personally, appreciate all the feedback that has been provided in this topic and the least I can do is promise you that all of it has been taken into consideration. It has, at no point, been my intention to belittle the achievements of any runner that has submitted their work to SDA, nor did I intend to shine a negative light on any particular runner or run. Essentially all statements of opinions as part of my updates have been used for artistic purposes only and do not reflect my actual personal opinion nor that of SDA as an organization. For instance, the remark on Anal Ants Iffy IV in my latest post has just been an offhand joke at the number of titles in that series. Having not played a single Final Fantasy game in my life I hold no personal opinion on the relative qualities of any of them.

My recent lack of enthusiasm for speedrunning has clearly started to shine through in the way I approached writing updates for SDA and it has now become apparent that it potentially has had a negative impact on the way I represent SDA in my posts. I understand that the way I've been handling submissions recently can be seen as disrespectful to the runners and that I have not been giving each of the runs the attention and respect they deserved. As such, I have come to the conclusion to step down as a regular updater for the time being. This is not a mere reaction to the feedback on my latest post but rather a culmination of an effect I've been noticing for quite a while in myself. I feel that if I am, on a personal level, not enthusiastic about the content I write about I will continue to do an insufficient job of properly representing it, so this is a logical conclusion to me.

We'd like to thank everyone posting in this topic for reminding us about the purpose of the news posts in their current form and how we've started to lose track of that in the past year. As a result, expect future updates to be more like the two most recent ones, short and straight to the point. It's been increasingly difficult to write full, on-topic paragraphs on the runs being posted, both due to the wide nature of games being submitted, as well as the lack of time for proper research plus the frequent lack of comments provided by the runners. Writing humorous, but essentially out of place, jokes and stories to cover this up has clearly not been the best solution to this problem, and while I do not regret any of the updates I have written, I do see that SDA might not have been the right place for them.

I'm sorry for taking so long to reply to this topic, but I wanted to wait for the latest staff meeting before making an official statement. We as SDA, and I personally, appreciate all the feedback that has been provided in this topic and the least I can do is promise you that all of it has been taken into consideration. It has, at no point, been my intention to belittle the achievements of any runner that has submitted their work to SDA, nor did I intend to shine a negative light on any particular runner or run. Essentially all statements of opinions as part of my updates have been used for artistic purposes only and do not reflect my actual personal opinion nor that of SDA as an organization. For instance, the remark on Anal Ants Iffy IV in my latest post has just been an offhand joke at the number of titles in that series. Having not played a single Final Fantasy game in my life I hold no personal opinion on the relative qualities of any of them.

My recent lack of enthusiasm for speedrunning has clearly started to shine through in the way I approached writing updates for SDA and it has now become apparent that it potentially has had a negative impact on the way I represent SDA in my posts. I understand that the way I've been handling submissions recently can be seen as disrespectful to the runners and that I have not been giving each of the runs the attention and respect they deserved. As such, I have come to the conclusion to step down as a regular updater for the time being. This is not a mere reaction to the feedback on my latest post but rather a culmination of an effect I've been noticing for quite a while in myself. I feel that if I am, on a personal level, not enthusiastic about the content I write about I will continue to do an insufficient job of properly representing it, so this is a logical conclusion to me.

We'd like to thank everyone posting in this topic for reminding us about the purpose of the news posts in their current form and how we've started to lose track of that in the past year. As a result, expect future updates to be more like the two most recent ones, short and straight to the point. It's been increasingly difficult to write full, on-topic paragraphs on the runs being posted, both due to the wide nature of games being submitted, as well as the lack of time for proper research plus the frequent lack of comments provided by the runners. Writing humorous, but essentially out of place, jokes and stories to cover this up has clearly not been the best solution to this problem, and while I do not regret any of the updates I have written, I do see that SDA might not have been the right place for them.

gammadragon

2014-12-06 04:33:30 pm

Might be magic...

I think everybody greatly appreciates the amount of time and effort the staff at SDA put in. It's not worth burning yourselves out trying to please everybody. It's a time-consuming job which can be hard to manage when real life steps up a notch. Whatever contribution can be made without sacrificing sanity is plenty.

Freezard

2014-12-10 10:58:55 am

Thanks for your effort, LLCoolDave! I prefer these short and concise updates. Specifically I like that the improved time of runs are written out again, which was something that updaters used to do but it was lost in all the poetry that started to happen. It's annoying to have to go to archive.org to look up old run times.

Lag.Com

2014-12-10 11:57:52 am

sda loyalist

You're still fine by me, Dave.

Uilnslcoap

2014-12-10 12:04:01 pm

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Aw, Dave, thanks for bringing some color to what is often a somewhat thankless job, I imagine.

I also wanted to affirm what others have said: mentioning improvement over previous runs on the site is much appreciated.

Thinkshooter

Edit history:

Thinkshooter: 2014-12-10 03:54:23 pm

Thinkshooter: 2014-12-10 03:25:59 pm

2014-12-10 03:13:41 pm

Runs: FCP, FC3, XWA, HD1-2, KotOR1-2

I liked your updates, LLCD Sad

All else failing, personally I would be fine with just a HTML table:
Name of game, Platform, Category, Time, Improvement over the previous record (if exists), Author

(I feel the updaters' pressure to write something funny, and it IS nice to have that, but most people are here for the runs primarily.)