1) Before posting a new topic here, be sure you actually have a project in progress or release. For example, posting a new thread called "Mario TC" with the post "Hey i'm making a mario tc, more info soon!" isn't good enough. Be sure you've got plans for your project. Think about things like main features, help you could possibly want, suggestions you'd like. Or go take a few screenshots. People like screenshots. Just make sure you have a base for what you're going to be working on or no one is going to take interest. (Your title screen really doesn't count.)
2) Just to clarify from the above rule: you need to post screenshots! If a project thread is posted without screenshots, we'll give you 24 hours to get them added, or else your project thread is going to get locked. Not everybody wants to download a large-ish WAD file and puzzle over what exactly is changed, so it helps to show people what it looks like without making them read a wall of text or download a file and be surprised. The only exception is if the mod has already been released in the thread's first post, at which point screenshots are merely suggested, not required.
3) When making a new topic, it's nice to let people know the actual progress of the project. If it's in progress, put WIP in the title. If it's finished put released. If you feel you need to, you can put a % of how much it's done, or a date it's going to be completed by (take care with that). Remember you can always edit the first post of your topic to change the title of the thread.
4) If you finish a project, be sure to edit the first post and post the link there or AT LEAST edit the title and tell us what page the download link is on. People don't feel like going through 10+ pages of progress and comments just to find the download link. Also it's nice to add screens and neat formatting on the first page too. After all no one is going to download your project if you just have a link to it. But if you have a few screens to show off what you're downloading, people will be all over it!
5) Remember, this is about YOUR project. Don't beg the community for help if you're just going to sit there and order people around. That's not how a project is built. Discuss your ideas before starting a project and asking for help. If people don't like your project idea they're probably not going to help you out, so it's best to find out first. Remember, people have their own opinions.
6) This isn't so much a project posting guideline as it is a guideline for those of you keeping track of projects. If a project thread hasn't been posted in for more than six months, it may not be such a good idea to bump it asking if it has been released yet. If it has been released, odds are that the author will update his topic with information about the release.
6b) In the event somebody DOES bump a year-old project thread, there may be a chance that a moderator will add [Abandoned?] to the thread's title. If you decide to keep working on the project, feel free to edit that out of your thread title, as this is only to prevent further irritating bumps.
7) No more Coop bots made out of DECORATE. They're not bots, they're not helpful and they won't make it as fun as a regular coop. It's been done again and again and we don't need any more of them.
8) !! NEW !! for 2013: Randy has added project thumbnail support for the Projects and Resources forums. By default, the thumbnail will be the first image posted to the thread, but this can be manipulated through BBCode like this:
- Code: Select all • Expand view
[thumb]http://imagebarf.gov/maisuperawesomesauceimage.gif[/thumb]
And if, for some reason, you don't like the thumbnails, they can be disabled through the User Control Panel.
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