What's the deal with the lack of comments on my stuff?

[Lexus Alyus]

So I've been working, quite hard I might add, on my 33 level megawad and progress is going really well. I'm posting screenshots and I've got a project page that ticks all the boxes, yet nobody is bothering to leave any comments. What gives? I'd really like to know because this happens to me a lot. I put a lot of effort in to everything I do and I try to give people lots of useful info, but it's as if people couldn't care less?

Is this some stupid popularity thing? Are people refusing to comment because they have these stupid cliquey groups that are only worthy to them? I dunno, but it does make me speculate a lot and it gets really annoying, as I'm sure anyone that spends lots of time creating things, for other people to enjoy, can relate to.

It seems that whenever I try to engage in conversation on forums people just ignore me. I'm a human being, nobody likes to be ignored. From what I remember this forum never used to be like this...

I've been trying really hard to avoid creating a post like this, but there's only so much being ignored a person can take. I've got a lot to offer to the whole community and over 2 decades worth of experience with the Doom engine, so what gives? I'd actually love to get a team together and work on a big professional game using a heavily modified version of GZDoom that supports modern model formats and all the shiny shaders and normal maps of today's big blockbuster games. I can't program, so this is just a pipe dream right now, but I personally believe you can make the Doom engine look just as good as a lot of AAA game engines these days, and it's a project I'd love to create. I've spent a lot of time learning the UE4 engine and there's things in that that I can do all on my own, but I just think it would be so cool to create a professional and modern looking game just using the Doom engine.

I've got so many ideas and a heck of a lot of talent in story writing, level design and music, plus everything I do I try hard to give a professional finish. As an added bonus I'm a genuinely nice and relaxed person that doesn't judge anyone, and I'd stand up and support anyone who has good talents and abilities. Saying that, I'm not about to walk away from my current Doom projects just because people aren't commenting, but it is something that bothers me, as I'm sure it would bother anyone.

[wildweasel]

This is probably more due to the fact that our community has a lot of stuff going on lately. As many mods and maps get posted, and as many new posts as there are every day, it could very well be that nobody has really seen your stuff. I've certainly seen your project, but haven't really given myself the time to actually download, test, and write feedback for it; hell, I rarely spend the time downloading and playing mods these days, as much of my time on the forums is spent either being a moderator (even if I'm not locking threads or passing out warnings, I still need to read every post!), or passing my skills on to the next generation (helping people with SBARINFO and DECORATE techniques, etc.).

I hope this isn't too discouraging. I sometimes feel the same way you do, but in my case, I pretty much only make mods for myself anymore.

[Nevander]

I know that feel OP, but I also understand that if I don't have much to show off, there's not going to be much to be said. My megawad thread I made is dead and buried at the moment, but that's fine because I haven't been making updates and I don't expect people to comment on old news. Trust me when I say if you made and completed all 33 levels, and THEN posted it, you'd get a storm of feedback and comments. Making less and larger updates is probably the best way to do it. I don't plan to update my own thread until I have a lot more to show. I only have about 8 maps done out of mine.

[Zhs2]

Hey, calm down. This isn't the best way to draw attention to yourself. You don't post on a forum to try and slam your comprehensive résumé into people's faces all at once - you keep doing what you do best, prove your skills a little bit at a time, and when people take note, they will post. The problem isn't so much that you're not doing anything worthwhile, it's that people are actually busy, and most of them will (and do) concentrate towards posting at what they believe their feedback will help most at the time. Gameplay mods take a certain amount of finesse to refine and not so much effort to get into, whereas people are not quite so fazed about 4 or 5 maps in a megawad that may actually certainly be progressing but still leaves very large doubts as to whether or not they will be finished, not to mention the fact that playing maps of any kind takes more time, focus, and concentration than slapping a weapon mod onto maps you already know and typing 'give all' in the console to see all of the creative things the author did. (Which is a small peeve, considering some of us develop against long romps, but you see the problem I'm getting at here?) This effect of lack of feedback also keeps it from always being on the front page, which people are probably not going to see past unless they are looking for a specific thread. This is not your fault, and you shouldn't feel as if it is your fault and thusly spend your already dedicated efforts whining about it. Spend your time better developing that megawad so that you can see it satisfactorily take its special place amongst the stars on /idgames and maybe even receive its due compensation in both posts and reviews like every other (mega)wad on Earth, as well as grant you the sense of accomplishment in getting shit done.

tl;dr:

Pillowblaster: welcome to 21st century of zdoom modding, mate - where shitty gameplay mods are running rampant and no one maps anymore, and I am perpetuating the problem
Pillowblaster: and people can't research their bugs or read past download link

[Nevander]

There actually was an idea a while back to separate projects into Weapon/Monster Modifications and Map Projects so that you can better distinguish between the kind of projects you want to look at which would certainly help with exposure. I know my own megawad thread got buried pretty fast and only came back to page one when I'd post an update. There's much less map projects these days so odds are yours will stay on the front page if it's good and regularly updated. I think this should be thing still.

[DoomRater]

Whoa, something that separates reskin mods from actual maps? I'd love that distinction.

[Nash]

ZDoom modding is like pop music in 2016 - only Brutal-likes are selling these days. Kiddies love EDGY BLOOD 'N GORE FX!!!!!11

Also aesthetical/visual standards have gone up waaaay past 11. Texture quality, mapping design-wise, new actors/monsters/weapons, new gameplay ideas, how technically impressive your DECORATE or ACS is, etc. Have a look at the recently popular projects (that aren't Brutal Doom) and from both classic/BOOM-compatible and ZDoom communities to gauge the expected quality in 2016

[Freaklore1]

Like the guys above me said,either...

1-peoples are busy with their own mods/stuffs

2- maps megawads arent made as often anymore,except the Dump Series since that one is a collaboration with the concept of encouraging modders or newbies in mapping.

3-peoples are more focused on releasing gameplay/weapons/textures mods lately.

[Tormentor667]

I did my duty on June, 5th:
http://realm667.com/index.php/en/

[ibm5155]

to be honest I just check for projects that aren't just map only, textures/skin/guns changes ( I belive I already counted 100 types of the same doom guy shotgun but with different colours or sounds ) ,but yes something totally different (like a tc).
and also there's the other point that most wads tend to go to the second page quite fast, and people dont usualy check the lower pages

[Lexus Alyus]

I guess having low self esteem all my life isn't helping here

Everything that everyone has posted makes sense, and thanks Tormentor for spreading the word

[wildweasel]

There actually was an idea a while back to separate projects into Weapon/Monster Modifications and Map Projects so that you can better distinguish between the kind of projects you want to look at which would certainly help with exposure. I know my own megawad thread got buried pretty fast and only came back to page one when I'd post an update. There's much less map projects these days so odds are yours will stay on the front page if it's good and regularly updated. I think this should be thing still.

I suppose I'm starting to see the appeal of this.

[Scripten]

There actually was an idea a while back to separate projects into Weapon/Monster Modifications and Map Projects so that you can better distinguish between the kind of projects you want to look at which would certainly help with exposure. I know my own megawad thread got buried pretty fast and only came back to page one when I'd post an update. There's much less map projects these days so odds are yours will stay on the front page if it's good and regularly updated. I think this should be thing still.

I suppose I'm starting to see the appeal of this.

As both a modder and a voracious consumer of others' mods, I definitely support this idea. Ideally, it'd be great to see a phpBB2 mod that let modders post topics with a brief abstract of the project, but that would likely be a lot of work for little payoff.

[Freaklore1]

As much the idea of making different forum sections to separate the mods by types (maps,weapons,textures,gameplay and music/sounds)would be nice ,it would take quite a lot of work and time for WildWeasel and the other moderators with all the topics they will have to look at,wich will probably put the forum site on a hiatus for a while.

[Hisymak]

As much the idea of making different forum sections to separate the mods by types (maps,weapons,textures,gameplay and music/sounds)would be nice ,it would take quite a lot of work and time for WildWeasel and the other moderators with all the topics they will have to look at,wich will probably put the forum site on a hiatus for a while.

I created a new thread in Feature suggestions forum: http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=52696 . So let's discuss it there