Constructive Criticism Club Thread

Constructive Criticism Club

The Moddb forums have become quite a common place to post mod ideas. Unfortunately, many members are either overly positive or overly negative when evaluating and responding to these ideas. Joining the Constructive Criticism club is a way to show members that you want to help others with their ideas as best you can. Want to become a respected member of the Moddb community? Joining the Constructive Criticism is the answer. This club is comparible to other common critique systems such as PEACH (Please Evaluate And Critique Honestly.)

It is now a rule that you must post generally in a constructive manner. The occasional pointless post is of course fine, but members who continuously post unhelpful comments will be put out of the club.

Joining the Constructive Criticism club is simple, there are no prerequisites, but you must agree to uphold the following rules to the best of your abilities:

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Don'ts

Negative Comments
That idea sucks!"

Negative comments are one of the worst offenses. If you are going to include negative evaluation of an idea, be sure to include advice within. So, instead of "That idea sucks!", something like "You need to work on characterization, and the gameplay mechanics of the weaponry".

Patronizing
"That idea is amazing!"

There is always room for criticism, never is an idea flawless. Giving them this sort of response can also be directly damaging on the modder, it gives them a false sense of accomplishment and may discourage them from developing further an idea that is good, but not perfect.Positive feedback is fine, but be sure to include critique with your response.

Bad Spelling and Grammar
"0MG teh st0ury neades w0rks"

While we don't expect perfect spelling and grammar, it is greatly appreciated by fellow members when you put effort into your responses. 1337 or Leet speak is also extremely discouraged, as it frustrates fellow members. At a bare minimum, be sure to check basic spelling, capitalization, and periods.

Unneeded Comments
"I won't critique your idea since it is going to be made on Source!"

Comments that don't help the poster with the idea at hand. Comments such as the one I put for the example are the most common in my opinion.

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Dos

Being the essential opposites of the "Don'ts", the "Dos" require little explanation besides a basic summary:

Constructive Responses
Instead of simply making negative or positive comments, include details on areas that need work, and the way in which they need work.

Detailed Explanations
Don't say "The writing needs work", be specific, use comments like "The character devlopment is in need of work, all the character feel 2 dimensional. Try adding more detail involving the character's past, and their emotions."

Good Spelling, Grammar and Structure
Spelling and Grammar, as discussed earlier, are quite important. In addition, structuring is handy. Instead of including one block of text with all the detail, divide information into sections based on their content. Use formatting tags in moddbCode to bold and underline titles, use lists, ect.

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If you feel that you can uphold the listed rules, please feel free to join the Constructive Criticism club. Members should post one of the following in their signature:

Images

<a href="https://www.moddb.com/forum/thread/constructive-criticism-club" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img src="https://media.moddb.com/legacy/images/members/11/119228/gallery/crit.png" border="0" alt="User Posted Image" /></a>

<a href="https://www.moddb.com/forum/thread/constructive-criticism-club" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img src="https://media.moddb.com/legacy/images/members/11/119228/gallery/crit2.png" border="0" alt="User Posted Image" /></a>

<a href="https://www.moddb.com/forum/thread/constructive-criticism-club" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img src="https://media.moddb.com/legacy/images/members/13/13327/gallery/scc.gif" border="0" alt="User Posted Image" /></a>

Text

Support Constructive Criticism

<a href="https://www.moddb.com/forum/thread/constructive-criticism-club" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Support Constructive Criticism</a>

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Note: System heavily influenced by similar systems at Game-Artist.net and the Wizards of the Coast forums.

Edited by (in order): Sallycin, Sallycin, Sallycin, Sallycin, Sallycin, Sallycin, Sallycin

Sounds nice. I'd be willing to join up, I'm just completely useless at helping people realize the challenges/difficulties of coding and working with engines other than Source and GoldSource (Er? HL1's engine).

I'm also useless for telling people if their ideas are too similar to other games, which may be a good or bad thing.

Overall, the CCC (Going to use that acronym?) sounds like a good idea, since so many people decide to post their ideas on these forums. Some of them are quite good, but others really do just...suck. I'll try to give constructive criticism, though.

BrokenTripod wrote: Sounds nice. I'd be willing to join up, I'm just completely useless at helping people realize the challenges/difficulties of coding and working with engines other than Source and GoldSource (Er? HL1's engine).

I'm also useless for telling people if their ideas are too similar to other games, which may be a good or bad thing.

Overall, the CCC (Going to use that acronym?) sounds like a good idea, since so many people decide to post their ideas on these forums. Some of them are quite good, but others really do just...suck. I'll try to give constructive criticism, though.

As long as you try to uphold the rules to the best of your ability, that is fine. I don't expect everyone to have perfect critique

BTW, welcome Zeph. How do people like the signature images, I'm willing to make different ones according the popular request.

Edited by (in order): Sallycin, Sallycin

Mm'hmm.

This really should help a bunch of people find flawas in their mod ideas...

It would also help if someone knew of a bunch of other mods, since I'm also pretty useless at noticing if people's ideas are similar to other mods, since I only watch a few mods.

Er, are you going to actually have a website for it, or is it just a thing that's in our heads ?

OMG tIs iS s0 stUpld!!

:p OK good idea maybe we should try and push this to other large forums as well?

Welcome Myles

Yeah, I can set up a basic site with the rules and siggy images so it can be used on different forums. I have no hosting space though In the mean time, do moderators think this is sticky material?

Edited by: Sallycin

cool nice image too, definitely joining

Damn Myles beat me to the punch.
I suck at constructive crit.

Heh, it is growing fast, welcome Rofl. Muhahaha, follow me my mindless slave

Edited by: Sallycin

I would join but I don't think there is much point in having virtually every active member having the big shiny picture in their sigs

I'm with you in spirit

I thought you were talking about an actual club to bash people with...

Is a club really needed for this?

lol so ripped from game artist a smaller logo would rock

TKAzA wrote: lol so ripped from game artist a smaller logo would rock

Haha, yeah, that and a bunch of other forums I frequent. Also, I can make a different logo, and people can text link this thread.

Edited by: Sallycin

Wraiyth wrote: Damn Myles beat me to the punch.
I suck at constructive crit.

Well someones got to do it?
Watch out though, if Sal gets angry and mean he could change the image to saying "Im gay ignore me"

Wraiyth wrote: Damn Myles beat me to the punch.
I suck at constructive crit.

Well someones got to do it?
Watch out though, if Sal gets angry and meen he could change the image to saying "I'm gay ignore me"

Edited by: myles

OMG, you just gave me a ton of good ideas

Good idea.

On the note of needing hosting, I'm sure there's plenty of places to get free good quality hosting. BlueWolf72 occasionally offers hosting, www.jaywebdesigns.com is one where I get my hosting at, good place, and there's a multitude of other places.

Once again, good idea, and I think it's long overdue for it to happen.

P.S. Man it's awkward for someone to have the name Myles, that's my name. D:

SkitZaY wrote:
P.S. Man it's awkward for someone to have the name Myles, that's my name. D:

LOL i get the same thing told to me every time - Myles walks for miles or I get called Kilometers, doesnt normally bother me, they can just talk to the hand :p
Anyway back on topic sorry you guys.

Edited by (in order): myles, myles

He Salo, you can host it in one of our subdomains on Gaia, can't you?
I think your gentleman's club is a good idea, but I'm afraid to say it's amazing, now. I actually like the impulsive reactions on an idea, even the stupid and unadequate ones. Common sense on the other hand is something I'm missing in many discussions.
I think we'd need more of a forgive-and-forget-club, because those that have bashed others are often getting cornered and defend themselves with more bashing of their own.
Everybody makes a bad comment from time to time, so it would be good to have a couple of rules to cling to. It will not stop it from happening tho, because those people who join the cirlce of CC already make use of these rules. Still, it is a very Kantian theme you picked up there and as a layman philosopher, I want to support this idea!

This thread sucks!

Edited by: Sticky

Sticky wrote: This thread sucks!

Remember the first "Don't"!

Salohcin wrote: Remember the first "Don't"!

That idea is amazing!

Yeah, I'll stop now.

Edited by: Sticky

Good idea I'll support it. Not sure I agree with having the signature reminds me a little bit of myspace and such (if you don't repost this YOU WILL DIE) but I'll support in spirit

Yeah, I figured that not everyone is going to want one in their sig. It's more of a list of rules to help out people, however, the siggy images make it easier for people to find this thread.

great (perhaps I mean useful..) idea, really good (it is advantageous) to promote the constructive criticism. *slaps self... If the banner comes in a smaller size, I'll wear it for sure ...either way. *thumbs up.