Explicitly Prohibit Minor Progression Topics as Spam

Greetings,

As a developer, over the past few months, I’ve seen tens of #help-and-feedback:cool-creations “progression topics” in a series that fall under a common game, but each individual one is for each individual step of the game.

Here’s a related topic

Example: game/project “Willow”
(I honestly do not want to post the real topics I’ve seen, even with a no-witch-hunt disclaimer.)

  • Willow #1 - Made tree trunk
  • Willow #2 - Added leaves to trunk
  • Willow #3 - Added vines
  • etc.

However, this “step” has gotten so minor, that it seems like spam to post as multiple topics instead of merging them into one. This allows for unnecessary cluttering, in which I’d be forced to mute entire categories against my will so that the important topics don’t get drowned out. I mean, in the above example you might as well post #1 and #2 together because getting feedback on a trunk and some leaves is too minor to have individual, dedicated topics. (I mean come on, what the heck is there to talk about a simple trunk other than the color and shape. If the focus is too much on that, then completing a game will take a hundred years.)

I’ve seen that these multiple topics usually contain the same users posting, and giving likes. This can mean, although pure speculation by me, people can post multiple topics to get multiple likes from the same user. I have not seen any obvious attempts at this, but this is very possible.

Now, Global Rule 7 talks about spam. It mentions that, for replies, it is much better to reply using @ in a single post rather than multiple. But it doesn’t necessarily outlaw any “minor” topics that can easily be merged into one; it only prohibits exact repeated topics, which is too narrow. It’s like not allowing people to write “hell,” but the word “he11” is allowed. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Therefore, for the aforementioned reasons, I propose that the rule should add something along the lines, but not exactly:

“Progression topics with insignificant tweaks will count as spam. [Definition of a progression topic]”

Obviously, if it’s major additions to the game such as creating an entirely new building of sufficient detail, then it can be a separate post in order to not overwhelm readers.

Of course, the wording could be better, but if this were added, it would improve my forum experience because explicitly including this will at least discourage people from “tweeting” on the DevForum, causing unnecessary clutter.

Thank you.

15 Likes

Personally, I’ve never seen any topics like this. Do development logs count as spam?

Depends on how much each log entry adds to the previous. If it’s just a single object such as a tree, then it’s not worth it to post an entire new topic. If it’s an ornate building with detailed objects (e.g. water bottles, cups, etc.), then maybe. But even then, I personally prefer using one topic, and using replies + solutions to keep everyone updated.

As long as it’s a major change, then it’s not really spam.

2 Likes

Unless the topic has no replies, any edits will go unseen (except if someone flagged your post for some reason). It’d be better to reply to revive the topic meaningfully.

DM me if you have more questions.

2 Likes

Additionally, I’m seeing many topics that really belong in #waywoc as some users are posting just one picture and a few words every few hours about the same game. It’s a little hard to explain but if you want the link DM me. This needs to be enforced, too.

2 Likes

I completely agree with this; I have seen many topics similar to your “Willow” example. I personally started one of these topics, but instead of posting minor updates, I posted at very long and sporadic intervals. Here is how I posted my updates.

Update Pictures and Intervals

Original Post


1 week later


More than a month later


As you can see, the updates are major, at very long and sporadic intervals, and are not spam or a “bump” to the OP.

Sorry for the bump, just found this topic again!

I think this is also becoming a problem in #waywoc. There are certain users, just a couple, who now have some of the most posts in the entire thread, because every 3 hours or so, they post a new updates. If you are going to post updates that frequently, please do not put them in #waywoc. It should explicitly be prohibited from doing this in replies, too.

(I will share via DMs if needed.)

4 Likes