eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
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I think that generic hint topics (i.e. ones not tied to specific rooms) should be disallowed. People are already abusing them by creating generic topics dedicated to specific rooms. A generic help topic - such as something about a specific strategy - would be on-topic for the general board 99% of the time.

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Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
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Yeah, I already IM'ed Schik about it. It was something we discussed when first talking about the current system, and we figured it wouldn't be abused. Guess we underestimated...

Game on,

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"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5416
Registered: 02-04-2003
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In at least some of the cases, I believe the "abuse" is because of a bug in my code - I just checked, and if you preview your post, it's losing the room association.

I'll fix that bug ASAP.

Edit: Okay, it's fixed.

[Edited by Schik on 09-07-2004 at 01:37 AM GMT]

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
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Is there perhaps still a bug? Because quite a few new help posts still use generic hints. Including ones that really shouldn't (such as the "help!" thread)

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5416
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I don't believe there are any bugs left, at least not bugs that would lose the room association. If anyone can disprove this and let me know how to reproduce it, I'd be more than happy to fix the bug.


____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

I think the easiest first approximation at a "solution" would be to move the generic hint topic to the bottom of the page; at the top it's just the first thing people click on. Also, if you do search for a room and find some links to it, you also have this big prominent and shiny "Create a new topic for this room" button. It's just too much of a temptation for the average person to click it, I think. Make that just a normal text link so you actually have to read the text, and maybe we won't have these annoyances.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5416
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Oneiromancer wrote:
I think the easiest first approximation at a "solution" would be to move the generic hint topic to the bottom of the page; at the top it's just the first thing people click on. Also, if you do search for a room and find some links to it, you also have this big prominent and shiny "Create a new topic for this room" button. It's just too much of a temptation for the average person to click it, I think. Make that just a normal text link so you actually have to read the text, and maybe we won't have these annoyances.

I agree with these things and thus I've changed it to be pretty much what you described. Before the Generic Hint link, I also put a link to the Monster Description page to try to help with "Hey, how do you kill a serpent?" type posts.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

wackhead_uk
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 352
Registered: 06-21-2004
IP: Logged

Good. That was annoying before.