Tips on how to make really annoying project threads!!

[boot2490]

[sarcasm]
Rule #1: Never update the first post!
People LOOVE to dig through your thread in order to find the latest update. When I find myself looking at the first post in a project topic, I always enjoy seeing no progress updates, the oldest screenshots, and thinking it has gotten nowhere. The first post is for just announcing the project, and it is the end user's responsibility to dig through page after page of posts to find news.

Rule #2: Put the most important things last!!
Everybody loves to read your rants, old screenshots, musings, and plans for future features before seeing the overview of the info and the download link.

Rule #3: Make the first post really long!!!
Never put change logs in spoilers! Everybody LOOVES to read about every single change you made in the program before seeing the most recent updates. Always put screenshots line by line and outside of spoilers, and the most important screens (i.e.) animated ones at the bottom. I always love to see all of the old screenshots of crappy beta versions before I see a nice animated current screenshots. In fact, NEVER put new screenshots in the first post! Note: lots of unnecessary info and rants make for good first post fluff.

[/sarcasm]

Who am I kidding? Those are the things NOBODY should do!!! First posts are for updating info and having a quick overview of the topic, the rest is for discussion, people.
Feel free to add more anti-rules.

[Eeems]

[sarcasm]
Rule #1: Never update the first post!
People LOOVE to dig through your thread in order to find the latest update. When I find myself looking at the first post in a project topic, I always enjoy seeing no progress updates, the oldest screenshots, and thinking it has gotten nowhere. The first post is for just announcing the project, and it is the end user's responsibility to dig through page after page of posts to find news.

Rule #2: Put the most important things last!!
Everybody loves to read your rants, old screenshots, musings, and plans for future features before seeing the overview of the info and the download link.

Rule #3: Make the first post really long!!!
Never put change logs in spoilers! Everybody LOOVES to read about every single change you made in the program before seeing the most recent updates. Always put screenshots line by line and outside of spoilers, and the most important screens (i.e.) animated ones at the bottom. I always love to see all of the old screenshots of crappy beta versions before I see a nice animated current screenshots. In fact, NEVER put new screenshots in the first post! Note: lots of unnecessary info and rants make for good first post fluff.

[/sarcasm]

Who am I kidding? Those are the things NOBODY should do!!! First posts are for updating info and having a quick overview of the topic, the rest is for discussion, people.
Feel free to add more anti-rules.

Umm....Actually some people don't mind that stuff. It's a matter of personal preference. I myself seldom update my first post because I'd rather spend my time working on my project instead of going back to the first page and adding a little more information to a different post as well as posting a new one. I'd rather just put it in the first post. If people really want to know more about the project they can read back a little.

[ztrumpet]

Yeah, I actually prefer the opposite of what you're describing here.  It's completely up to the author of the project to do what he/she thinks is best, though.

[boot2490]

So if I removed the sarcasm tags, it would be more accurate? that stuff gets on my nerves

[Binder News]

I think the way I would do it would be to just put links in the first post to the update posts. A mix of the 2 sides.

[AngelFish]

Yeah, I actually prefer the opposite of what you're describing here.  It's completely up to the author of the project to do what he/she thinks is best, though.

Ditto to both.

Perhaps better guidelines would be the ti-calc ones?

[DJ Omnimaga]

I agree with eeems there. Also we shouldn,t lash out on people that does the opposite of what we like IMHO. I personally like if the latest update is in the first post, but the problem with that is that some people never actually bump their topic nor tell there is a new download or screenshot. As a result, it goes unnoticed. If you are gonna put the latest updates in the first post, you should still cross-post links to a reply to the thread, so people get notified easily. I saw some people update their first post but never bump the thread saying "New progress, added ladders and finished sprites for enemies. Check first post for download/screenshots", then they complain that they got no reply at all.

One thing I dislike though is when there's a project update that isn't super big, but it's a giant wall of text just explaining it. I prefer that there is a summary or a screenshot going along with it, else I'm less tempted to read and reply.

[BalancedFury]

You should ALWAYS divide your projects in to 5,6,or even 10 pieces!
Everybody loves downloading 10 things at once!

Spoiler For Spoiler:

[parserp]

You should ALWAYS divide your projects in to 5,6,or even 10 pieces!
Everybody loves downloading 10 things at once!

Spoiler For Spoiler:

at first I thought you were giving your real opinion, but then I looked at the spoiler.

[boot2490]

I think the way I would do it would be to just put links in the first post to the update posts. A mix of the 2 sides.

That is actually the best method. Good thinking.

[DJ Omnimaga]

Just as an head up guys, you shoukld be careful how you say things when sharing your views on something.

Your first post might sound like you are attacking specific forum members and they will feel unwelcome afterward.

[Darl181]

Why does this remind me of the old screenshot thread

[boot2490]

That "old screenshot thread" Is where I got the idea for this.
Remember the "newest screenie of my new project"? It was just a blinking cursor

[DJ Omnimaga]

What was the old screenshot thread? I remember one screenshot that was a blinking cursor for several minutes but I forgot which one...

[boot2490]

Nah, it wsa actually a loop of the cursor blinking.
DJ, you actually started "that old screenshot thread". Here:
http://ourl.ca/6245