Hello, world:

I have a request to the community, a rather serious one, but a request nonetheless...

I think personally that many projects are not getting the wanted and/or constructive feedback that they deserve.  I know that many programmers here like to make programs to appeal to the public, which is fine and rather nice for the patrons awaiting the release.  However, other programmers make programs that maybe get a bit of recognition at first, but are later either mostly ignored or get little construction feedback due to the author making programs or games that fill in their personal interest.  Yeah, maybe every now and then you don't really care if another Mario or tetris clone or formula program is in the works -- but is it your business to discourage the developer to stop making it by either being negative, giving no good feedback at all, or simply ignoring it?  I personally think not.  Here are some things that the community could improve on to encourage people about their projects more:

- first off, actually post in their topic!  Maybe it's a newbish idea or poorly made game, but it still should be supported by YOU showing interest!  Please post in neglected project's threads, it really means a lot to the author when you show interest in their masterpiece that they worked hard to make.

- secondly, when you do post in the topic, try to be constructive if possible.  If you know that something looks like it needs work, or you have an idea to make it better, please express it!

- thirdly, when you do try to be constructive, please be nice about it!  Rule number 2 of this site's rule page states that you should not be negative towards a topic or project -- it undermines the whole "effort" thing if you discourage them!

- lastly, don't tell the developer that they have it all wrong or they are not experienced enough to make something!  If they can't make something, the best idea is to slightly warn them politely, but allow them to learn the hard way!  The hard way is the best way for someone to learn to consider advice, and size the scene when starting something new.  And, do NOT tell someone that another language should be used to make their project, unless you do so politely and give examples of why it would be better in something else, don't just blindly say "this is stupid in BASIC, try axe!!!11!" or "ASM is dead try C+++_OxJavabeans instead!!!11!" -- that's very discouraging if said like that!

I hope that you all process my request in your heads, and make an attempt to encourage those neglected threads -- it makes the community a more productive, and happy place! 

RET

Thank you for this. I have posted a few projects here and gotten a little feedback in the first day or two but after that unless I get people from IRC to go to it no one says anything about it even if I post that I need some advice. This should not jsut be for programs I have seen other projets die from people not encouraging them. I know I will try my best to do this for all projects I see.

I just have one thing that is kind of off. I think everyone should try to encourage all topics but if you have no idea what the topic is talking about you should only post there with questions and requests. Just having a lot of encouragement with little to no application to the project does not help the people making the project very much and can make it hard to find the helpful comments. I will try to help encourage all projects but I will try to stay with topics in math/Python/C/Nspires because that is what I know and can help with or use.

Normally this is what I do for most projects I understand the goal of (if it's a chemistry suite with very long and complex vocabulary, I might not understand anything so I might be unable to give feedback), and when I do I usually try to suggest improvements on things. If the project seems way too huge for the person skills, I will suggest to not start too big at first while not discouraging him, and if it's a redundant project, I will try to suggest alternate features if I can find any, to make it different. This is why I think it can be good for people to announce their projects (not too early of course) before completion, because then the person can get feedback before its release. If the person works hard on something, releases it but nobody likes some features and the person has to remove them, this is a lot of time wasted.

However, currently my interest is lower due to what happened a month ago (I will not go in public details unless it continued, but certain people including the entire staff know what I am talking about), so as a result, I haven't been keeping up with the many updates that occurs. Also, spring break started, meaning that several people have no more internet access, then they'll be busy with finals, meaning even less time to devote to Omnimaga and keep up with project updates. This also means less time for staff to post news articles, so this is more myself that'll have to do the latter.

I agree, however, that people need to continue encouraging authors and help them make their programs better (nicely, of course), same for people who need help on programming, and point programmers in the right direction.

I understand your position DJ, you're one person who doesn't need a push to be more encouraging, I find anything you post in a topic to be encouraging since you take time out of your busy life to help us be happy and motivated about our projects when you don't have to. 

I know that many people are already doing what I requested to the best of their ability, and that makes me very happy

I hope to get motivation again, though. I checked recently and I think my post rate for this month is like 10% of all forum posts, while it was 18 around October/November and 15 in Jan/Feb

Thanks, Ashbad. That was well said.
I should help more by encouraging projects!