New Forum Style Changes

[mtgrares]

Adding a stack when it didn't exist would have been a major change to twist your head around. I understand the stack completely since it is a common programming idiom (I always picture those stacked plates at the buffet. )

Even though I know Wizards says that the stack confuses many players, I would love them to print a card that says "This card can only be played if there is a spell or ability already on the stack", it is the opposite of split second, lol.

[frwololo]

My program wasn't designed by a committee but was designed solely for my entertainment. Very little feedback that I get about MTG Forge is actually useful.

p.s.
Thanks again for giving MTG Forge a forum.

How to not win friends and to negatively influence people...
My point being...Oh really? not useful? I beg to differ. You might not like what people say but a) It is attention to something you did. Good for you for doing. and b) A lot of improvement in MTGForge has been through user feedback even if you weren't hands-on involved in those improvements.

Criticism is what it is. You can take it or leave it. As an artist I have to be open to comments if I am interested in showing my works to people with an eye towards improvement.

That's why he said "very little" instead of "none".
Being a programmer and being an artist are two different things.
It is true in the end that you should end up doing what pleases you the most.
But being a programmer is getting sh#t done. Most the feedback we receive looks like:
"when will you add this card?"
or "the AI is crappy, if I were you, I would do this or that for this card when the AI plays it"
Feedback in which people clearly have no idea how much effort is required, feedback to which the first thing you want to reply is "well the code is open source, so why don't you do it yourself?" is not good feedback.

As an artist, if you received a comment that said "wow, I like your crayon drawings, but couldn't you add an effect so that the head of the dragon appears in 3D to people wearing special glasses? That'd be great!", you would be closer to the feedback a programmer receives on a regular basis. Oh, and if MTGForge was a drawing, the original photoshop file would be provided with it (open source). That's a huge difference. To me, open sourcing your code is another way of saying: "stop with the feedback guys, time to get your hands dirty!"

I truly believe in the usefulness of feedback (most of Wagic's recent development is based 90% of what users ask for and 10% of what I personally want to do), but I understand where MTGRares is coming from when he says that very little feedback is useful.

People on this forum, such as yourself, are "educated" in that they know the developer, and are involved personally with the game creation process. But this forum probably represents 10% of the whole MTGForge feedback. I do receive lots of emails for Wagic (and I love it), but unfortunately lots of them are crappy as far as "feedback value" is concerned.

SlightlyMagic is probably the "good" part of the Iceberg in terms of feedback for MTG Forge is what I'm saying

[GandoTheBard]

I think Willow that you missed the metaphor but that.s ok...it might an experiential thing that happens as you get older. Explaining it to someone who doesn't get it might be more trouble than it is worth.

However, it is my contention that good programming is an art-form. And like a visual artist the programmer makes their art and then submits it (or not) to the public for scrutiny. If you don't want feedback don't submit it.

Yes there are differences. Visual art tends to be fire and forget as individual pieces. However as a whole they become a body of work. The artist who does not improve as you view their body of work is not working on their art but is merely producing.

Now I agree that "That sucks!" is not valid feedback because it only gives the programmer a wish to beat someone down. On the other hand a mature person just disregards messages like that entirely (I hope) and concentrates on what is valuable.

As far as the quality of feedback on here for MTGForge goes, perhaps it would have been wiser of Rares if he differentiated this from what he gets as say "Fan Mail." Because as you said here it is mostly very directly useful information. Posting a complaint here about fan mail imho was the least useful feedback since it is directed to the wrong people.

I stick by what I said: if it don't apply let it fly. Sometimes you can do nothing else. If I am lacking in sympathy it is because I have been there and I consider it foolish to rail against the stupidity of the masses. (Not that magic players are stupid but people have foibles no matter their education and level of common sense.)

[Goblin Hero]

Hm...I'm not sure how to put this politely but I really don't like how these forums look now.

My site was created long ago but I've always wanted it to look good. After Joomla installation I was searching for a good theme and found a good site: rockettheme.com. It's the only site that makes similar themes for both joomla and phpbb. Themes are not free and it took some time to make a decision. Yes, I've paid for them because I do really like them. There will be same looking theme for wiki. I like then my site looks like a one solid thing but not like a pile of php scripts.
You don't like this theme? Every man to his taste. But I'm ready to tweak and improve current themes.

Oh, one more thing: that horrible little dweep of a sorcerer in the top left corner.
Seriously, get rid of it. It's appearance is childish, at best.

Have a better logo? Think that "phpbb creating communities" was better? Besides it's not just a random picture. It has it's meaning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slightly_Magic

GH could have saved the money he spent out of his own pocket for the new theme. I'm sure he would have preferred not to be bothered with it.

It was my decision to pay. And I've wanted to bother with it.
P.S. I've enabled prosilver. You can go to your profile and change back. But:
- It will never be supported (if I decide to change something I won't bother to upgrade it).
- Do not ask for another themes.
- Default theme for new users will stay solarsentinel.

[GandoTheBard]

Very cool GH. I like having the choice. I also think it is a good idea to make the Theme YOU like best as the default as long as players come to realize they have a choice. Choices rock!

[frwololo]

I think Willow that you missed the metaphor but that.s ok...it might an experiential thing that happens as you get older. Explaining it to someone who doesn't get it might be more trouble than it is worth.

However, it is my contention that good programming is an art-form. And like a visual artist the programmer makes their art and then submits it (or not) to the public for scrutiny. If you don't want feedback don't submit it.

Point taken