Should we split the skins section?

Deric · 08-18-2009, 03:14 AM

Still being a skin newbie I wonder if it would be beneficial to split the skins section into two? Say a Troubleshooting section and a Skin Showcase section? I know thunderstick already has a thread on available skins but this would be more like the Worklog/Showoff your project part of the site. Thoughts?

Sonicxtacy02 · 08-18-2009, 09:12 AM

the idea has been discussed between the higher ups but i dont remember the result of that. I'll bring this thread to there attention though.

toyotatyrant · 08-21-2009, 03:51 AM

Deric, my feelings on this are...

I absolutely think it would be better split between a General Skinning Techniques area and Skin Showcaseing area.

Why?
Because It becomes down right irritating when trying to search for technical skin command usage info and solutions when search results constantly yield overbloated, and unrelated, threads of 1000's of replies from people marking-out over pretty photoshopping. In my opionion, those threads belong in a Skin showcase area. They don't really benefit people like me who hardly ever use other people's skins, and elects to make his own skins for his own personal use. I am much more interested in How-to techniques, and I've learned far far more from the little on-subject threads.

I would like to see a general skinning area that has a strong "How to" theme. No "jock-ride" threads. Just an area where people ask, discuss, and share how to do X, Y, and Z. I think this is overdue. A nice after effect is that it would probably cool down on the same questions being posted over and over because of bloated and unrelated search results.

JohnWPB · 08-21-2009, 10:00 AM

Deric, excellent post! This is something that has been needed for somet time now. ThunderStick's thread was an attempt to do something like this quite some time ago when this topic came up. It was kind of a "band-aid" for the problem. I for one have wanted something like this for a long time, and many attempts have been made to try to incorporate something like this.

Here is how I think it should be handled, and was the consensus of what everyone thought the last time this came up:

My thoughts are not to name it "trouble shooting" and "Showcase", but however a "Skins in progress and support" and a "Completed Skins" sections.

ALL new skins would start out in the would be in the "Skins in progress and support" section. When a skin is completed, and ready for release, the author can request that it be moved. It would then be moved to the "Completed skins" section. Much like, as you mentioned, the way the project sections works now.

The skin thread would need to be moved by a moderator, the same as the show off your project section, and no new threads would be able to be created in the show off section. This would prevent cluttering up the released skins section with posts like "How do I put a button in my skin". These questions would need to be made in the support section.

Replies to the moved threads would of course be aloud, just no user created threads would be aloud. In fact, all posts pertaining to the skin will still be in the same thread as the released skin. Having two separate threads, one for the release, and one for questions and comments would be far to confusing trying to search each one for an answer.

However, to be moved to the "Completed" section, the skin would in fact need to be in a completed / releasable state. It would need the basics, and be functional. This means it should at least have the very basics, Main Menu, Audio, Video ect.

Secondly, the first post of the thread would need to follow some some mandatory guidelines:

- Name of the skin
- at least one or two screen captures showing what the skin looks like
- what features the skin supports (EA: XM, Sirius, Traffic Cams, RRMedia database ect ect)
- any support files such as fonts, scripts ect need to be included
- Suggested but not mandatory, the 2nd (or 3rd, 4th post ect, if need be allowing for features, and photo's in the first posts) post in the skin thread should contain a FAQ that can be updated as issues and questions arise covering the most asked questions to help users of the skin find answers easily.

If a skin is requested to be moved, and the above guidelines have not been followed, the skin author will be informed to correct this before the skin is moved to the completed section.

Just to reiterate:

There should be two skin sub forums under the main RR forums:

RR Skins in progress and support
RR Completed Skins

This would entail renaming the current RR Skins section to "RR Skins in progress and support", and a new sub forum "RR Completed Skins". The completed skins section would be fairly empty to begin with, until skin authors begin requesting their skin be moved to the completed section. No new threads could be started by users in the completed skins section, simply replies to the skin threads would be aloud.

Does this sound about right? I want as much feedback as possible, as I am going to push this through the powers that be, and hopefully come up with a solution here soon. This has been talked about over and over, and I think it is a good time to try to put it into practice.

ThunderStick · 08-21-2009, 08:15 PM

I agree with John,
100%.. The skins section is definitely a hectic mess of Q&A along with release unfiinished, half baked or just plain puked out skins. I have been a contributer to the problem in the past, as have many of us. But to help clean it up would take some serious work, at least at startup.
But it would be worth it, I would even mind doing it. Had I had the priviledges

theBeachBoy · 08-21-2009, 09:29 PM

aside from "in progress" and "released", should there be a "technical" section?

I'm thinking more for the ones that want to discuss commands, etc that are not related to a design, but to functions.

Deric · 08-21-2009, 10:08 PM

John - I really like what you have planned out. I understand this is going to be a great deal of work and on-going maintenance. I would also like to see some guidelines specified for the troubleshooting threads so that the issue is clearly defined in the title (something I've been guilty of not doing myself). I know there are other activities taking place to bring the documentation up-to-date and I expect this will only help things as we go along.

reece146 · 08-22-2009, 11:21 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by theBeachBoy

aside from "in progress" and "released", should there be a "technical" section?

I'm thinking more for the ones that want to discuss commands, etc that are not related to a design, but to functions.

x2

I don't post here much because I've pretty much found everything I've come searching for... but man, what a mess to search through. I'd like a separate, distinct technical section.

$0.02

carputer1 · 08-22-2009, 11:24 AM

i think this is to be done about time this got sorted out

Enforcer · 08-22-2009, 12:48 PM

Also would need a 'No Longer Supported' for skins where the Authors have abandoned or appear to have abandoned them.

Also to add to Johns list of things for the first post.

Versions of RoadRunner/RideRunner, skin has been tested for/requires as a minimum.

Wayne613 · 08-23-2009, 06:44 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Enforcer

Also would need a 'No Longer Supported' for skins where the Authors have abandoned or appear to have abandoned them.

Yeah, I'm personally searching endlessly it seems for functioning ones, as I have no interest other than perhaps down the road altering or adding pictures/backgrounds of existing skins.

To be honest, this applies to the plugins section as well. Many are outdated, defunct, or otherwise if I understand correctly won't work right in the newer RR release(s). And the stickied listings usually don't end up with a functioning download site/link. The actual downloads section here only has a handful of them entered, the newest of which are near a year old now.

It's like combing threw a hobo's hair.

blk02si · 08-23-2009, 11:39 PM

There's a sticky on this forum sub-section that is for completed skins. I'm not sure if thunderstick is still moderating it, but it is there.

JohnWPB · 08-25-2009, 09:31 PM

Yes, that sub forum is there, but it is just a list and links to the skins. It was a great attempt for sure to put that list together, and a LOT of work to say the least.

The problem is updating that list, and keeping it current as skins are released. This is almost an impossible task. Also, it tells nothing of the skin, in any way as far as usage.

With a sub forum, the skins will be sorted out automatically, based on posts in the skin thread. For the mentioned defunct skins, there are probably not going to be many new posts in those threads, so they will work their way to the bottom of the skin section. For newer skins with a lot of support, questions and posts in the thread, they will work their way to the top. The same way the entire forum works now, but will ONLY be released skins in the sub forum.

I have posted a link to this thread in the moderators forum, and am waiting on suggestions and options from the higher up's. Even super mod's can not create completely new sub forums

meddler · 08-26-2009, 02:24 AM

If super mods could create and edit forums, it may be easier to the admin staff. I see this as being quite a bit of work initially, but once sorted, it shouldn't be that hard to maintain.

Deric · 09-21-2009, 05:10 PM

Thanks everyone who voted.

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