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Where We Go From Here


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Offline SonicAD

Where We Go From Here
« on: September 07, 2012, 02:34:32 am »
So, naturally, I've seen the thread calling for my head, and consequently Thorn and I went into discussions on the best way to keep TSC moving in a positive direction.

First off, all credit to Thorn; as many have expressed, he's been doing some great things over the last few months, and by all means he should have an increased official role. As I mentioned in the other topic, he's been de facto in charge while my attention has been pulled away, and I have no complaints about him or what he's done. Even if I was more active, I wouldn't have tried to hold him back from getting the marathon going or trying to push more activity in the chat, and his initiative has probably been the brightest spot in the community for the last few months.

With all that said, we don't think there's a need to straight hand the site over to him. I fully support the decisions he's made during my inactivity, and frankly most of the time we're on the same page. So there are changes to be made, and Thorn will get more power, but the more important thing here I think is getting, in general, a more active and interested admin staff, that is prepared to keep the site moving in the positive direction the marathon put it in.

As such, the following will be implemented:
I remain site owner, but Thorn is promoted to lead admin.
Paraxade is promoted to admin.
SpinDashMaster is removed as an admin.

Paraxade gets the nod because I believe he's the kind of interested and motivated person we need to get things back on track. We've had discussions in the past about how to get the community spirit back up; which I hadn't gotten to follow up on but now seems like the right time, and he's the right one for it.

SDM has rarely been around and I can really never be certain of his true level of interest in the site; I can only admit that I was probably mistaken in promoting him.

I think these moves should, in combination, work towards addressing the disappointment some of you've been having with TSC's direction. As inactive as I've been, seeing that there's still some life in TSC after all gives me more motivation to get the site and community back into fighting shape. I hope we can all get the ball rolling on this one!

Offline Luxray

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2012, 02:38:50 am »
Yes, good, let the furry takeover commence >:3
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Offline Thorn

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2012, 02:39:49 am »
Beast admin is still best admin

Thorn 2012

Help me convince SonicAD to change Lead to Beast so that all of your campaign signs are satisfied
« Last Edit: September 07, 2012, 02:45:42 am by Thorn »
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Offline Parax

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2012, 02:40:51 am »
Hey, so apparently I'm an admin now.

I feel TSC has made a big mark on me. I first joined TSC nearly 5 years ago. I had a ton of fun competing and getting to know/doing stuff with the community.  I also feel that TSC helped me grow somewhat as a person. Which is why it's a bit surreal to me to actually be an admin here.

The last few years, in my opinion, TSC has lost a lot of the magic that made it such a great place to me when I first joined. The overall community spirit sort of died. We used to be such a great community; the competition was thriving, and we were pretty tight-knit. That slowly stopped happening and the site's become more dead. My feelings on that are certainly not new and I've brought it up with Thorn and AD several times a while ago. Thorn's marathon is a great first step to getting TSC back on its feet.

While I'm new to this whole admin thing, I'm definitely happy to be a part of making TSC even better than it used to be. If anyone's got any issues that they want to bring up to me feel free to send me a PM or query me on IRC.
« Last Edit: September 07, 2012, 02:51:00 pm by Umbreon »

Offline Werey

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2012, 02:42:02 am »
thorn 4 prez

Championships: Sonic Unleashed DLC.

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2012, 02:42:59 am »
So can SDM's dumb rules revisions be reverted? I'm looking at you, LB1 Score.

Offline DsSaster

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2012, 02:50:52 am »
Beast admin is still best admin

Thorn 2012

Help me convince SonicAD to change Lead to Beast so that all of your campaign signs are satisfied

I would like to point out that Thorn's post was post number 1111.

I am the champion of TSC! >:D 

Championships held:  Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Adventure (DX), Sonic Heroes, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Chaos, Sonic Drift, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic Riders, Sonic the Fighters, Sonic Battle, Sonic Unleashed (ps2/Wii), Sonic Unleashed (ps3/360), Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Sonic Colors (Wii), Sonic Rivals, Sonic Generations.

Zero Point Championships held:  Sonic Drift, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic Chaos, Sonic Battle, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

I like my speed runs like my steaks...UNFINISHED!!!

Offline Taillow

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2012, 03:04:08 am »
Honestly the site just needed some sort of shakeup.  Something to show we're still kicking, while at the same time raising efficiency.  Or... something.

Also oh cool Thorn got the lineup.
Hi

Offline Combo

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #8 on: September 07, 2012, 03:11:42 am »
LETS HAVE SOME RACES, IN SPEEDRUNSLIVE!!!

Also grats Thorn.
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Offline MrSparkle

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #9 on: September 07, 2012, 03:13:51 am »
A great and swift conclusion, in my opinion. To the future!

Doin Good

Offline Werey

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #10 on: September 07, 2012, 03:21:46 am »

thorn 4 prez

Championships: Sonic Unleashed DLC.

Offline Parax

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #11 on: September 07, 2012, 03:38:48 pm »
anyway, in terms of moving TSC forward, now that hopefully this issue with the staff is more or less settled for the time being, I think we should look at what else we can improve?

Two things jump to mind to me. Apologies, this is going to be a long post.

1. Our approach to rules

This is a bit of a tricky one. Typically our approach to rules is "if it can be done without modifications to the game, and it still allows room for competition, then it's allowed". The intent of this approach is to reduce the amount of arbitrariness in the rules and keep everything to a standard. What's great about this is if you find a new glitch, for example, you don't have to wonder whether or not it'd be allowed.

It's not perfect, however:

1. It's not applied consistently. This somewhat ruins the point. The Team Blast Glitch in Heroes, for example, really has absolutely no reason to be banned under this rule (at least, for non-Dark teams; I'll get to that later), yet... it is. There's also tons of instances where we remove charts for having infinite point sources or infinite rings, and other times where we leave them because there's a time over (even when we scrap other charts that also have a time over).

2. This approach focuses more on the actual rules than on how they affect competition. My personal feeling is that there are some glitches that, while they're perfectly fair and legitimate, hurt competition. I know a fair few people here disagree with me on this, but as an example, unbanning the Team Blast Glitch was recently a discussion that didn't go anywhere, and a few people were in favor of unbanning it for all teams, including Dark. While I understand their thinking, I can't see how allowing it for Dark could possibly be good for competition.

Likewise, we have things like the lap skips in ASR and Sonic R. Perfectly fair and legit, but they kinda dumb down the competition a bit. Similarly when scalping infinite rings/score is actually allowed: yes, perfectly legit, but does anyone honestly want to scalp score off the same point source for 8 minutes on every attempt? Does anyone really prefer this to doing a run without the scalp?

However, as a speedrunner with the "anything goes" mindset myself, I don't like the idea of banning things just for being too severe. A solution I have in mind is that we can make more use of the Freestyle charts. Now I'm not actually suggesting we put the glitches in Freestyle; what if we have the glitches on the main charts and have Freestyle for no-glitch competition? It's not a perfect solution, but at least anyone who would rather compete without them have a place to go.

Anyway I'm expecting a lot of people here to disagree with me on that second point, but the first one (consistency) is definitely an issue that has been brought up a number of times and it still hasn't been completely fixed. We can definitely at least look at the current rules and figure out which ones should be changed.

2. The site is outdated

TSC's worked very well for a while, but it's lacking a number of key features that could make it even better:

1. Sub-games. It'd be neat if, say, when you pull up a certain game, you have the option to switch to an alternate set of charts for that game. For example, say you click on Sonic CD, and then you can switch between charts for CD and 2011.

The #1 use for this type of thing would be for DLC. We could have a sub-game so Sonic Unleashed DLC could have its own charts separate from the main ones with its own rankings and championship, but technically still a part of Sonic Unleashed 360-PS3 instead of its own game. Similarly, Sonic 4: Episode Metal could be a sub-game of Sonic 4: Episode 2.

Aside from that, we could use it for organizational purposes, like for example making Sonic CD 2011 a sub-game of Sonic CD. Sega's had a policy of releasing multiple games under the same name, which makes our rankings look like kind of a mess, and there's no indication they're planning to stop. However, I'm not sure on this one because it doesn't seem like it would effectively actually do anything except add an extra click and make it harder to find the right charts.

2. Version difference tracking and customizable rankings. Version differences have always been a kind of prickly subject. Let's say you're trying to compete in Sonic Adventure DX, and you've just done an amazing run of Final Egg and got 0:57. But the record is 7 seconds!

There's a version difference here. In the Dreamcast version, there's an extra capsule out of bounds right at the beginning of the level. But on the Gamecube version, that capsule has been removed, so your only choice is to actually play through the entire level. Right now, this just means you're screwed. TSC has no system in place to distinguish between different versions of the same game, which means if you don't have the Dreamcast version, you just plain can't compete.

So here's my idea: tracking which version of the game a stat was played on, and being able to customize the rankings to suit your own competitive needs.

So you go to submit a stat. On the submit page, you can select a checkbox or drop-down menu or something and select which version of the game you played on. After you submit, the charts will show an extra column, "Version", with (still using SADX as an example) either DC or GC listed. After that, you can go a step further and toggle it to -only- display times from one version or the other. Hell, you can even toggle the overall rankings to only account for stats from one version of the game. This would naturally necessitate allowing players to submit more than one stat for the same chart, using different versions, but I actually think that's a fantastic idea.

We would still have a main rankings with all versions combined into one set of charts, and that would be the "main" charts that would appear by default and count towards Sitewide. (If a stat doesn't have a version assigned to it, it wouldn't appear under either system and would only display under the main, combined rankings.) However, the individual version rankings could still have things like new record/champion/leader announcements, even if they don't count toward sitewide. I really think this would help boost competition in games like Adventure that have significant differences between different versions of the same game.

The only question I can think of is whether we would apply this to games that have some relatively minor version advantages, but are otherwise more or less the same, like Sonic Unleashed 360/PS3. Also, another issue with this is it would probably take a significant amount of effort for Gerbil to implement into the site. I really think it would be worth it though.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. Let's hope everyone doesn't think that entire post was awful. :P

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #12 on: September 07, 2012, 04:19:15 pm »
I'd be up for Freestyle being for no-glitch competition. That is, if the Freestyle charts were actually worth points on the overalls.

Offline yse

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #13 on: September 07, 2012, 04:33:13 pm »
Paraxade mentioning the site is "outdated" is something I agree with, but in a slightly different context...

While I'm not really active in the site any more, I'm still obviously interested in the site prospering, since more people playing Sonic is always a good thing. But me being external to the site for a couple of years now has led to me getting more exposure to an outsider's perspective of TSC. And as far as I can tell, it doesn't hold nearly as much credibility as any of the other major ones we link to on the front page.

It basically comes down to, there's no requirement to prove top times (/rings/scores). Providing proof is easier than ever before, and in this day and age if you're submitting records there's really no excuse. When nobody is aware of the best strategies, and people are simultaneously being removed from the rankings elsewhere, how can you, as an outsider, assume that the rankings have any credibility? Therefore I propose that new record submissions should be accompanied with video proof, whether that be an emulator video or a Youtube video or whatever.

The only thing I'd be unsure about is whether to apply such a change retroactively - I would lean against doing that, but it'd still be nice to see proof of record times in the spirit of friendly competition.
« Last Edit: September 07, 2012, 04:53:48 pm by yse »

<3 Thorn.

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #14 on: September 07, 2012, 04:44:42 pm »
thorn you sexy beast, congrats.

also parax <3 to you too, grats!

2. The site is outdated

1. Sub-games. It'd be neat if, say, when you pull up a certain game, you have the option to switch to an alternate set of charts for that game. For example, say you click on Sonic CD, and then you can switch between charts for CD and 2011.

2. Version difference tracking and customizable rankings. Version differences have always been a kind of prickly subject. Let's say you're trying to compete in Sonic Adventure DX, and you've just done an amazing run of Final Egg and got 0:57. But the record is 7 seconds!

Anyway, that's all I have for now. Let's hope everyone doesn't think that entire post was awful. :P

trimmed the quote for... obvious reasons.

i had nothing to say about the rules because i haven't really gotten too involved in anything involving them, nor have i been here long enough for it to matter. might as well throw in my 2c on the other issues though

as far as your first issue goes, it would be nice to clean up the clutter, but i might be a bit more ocd than most people. from the perspective of someone who is relatively new to the site i think it would be a nice change.

as far as the second issue goes, i think that definitely should be touched on. the example you brought up brings up some pretty extreme disadvantages that makes it really hard to compete in those games. it's kind of off-putting to know that you won't be able to have a competitive time in certain levels because of the version you have. sure you could just go out and get a dreamcast or something if you really cared, but that's a lot to ask of some people. i don't know enough about other games to be able to cite other examples, but if those kinds of version differences exist it really should be taken care of. i don't know if i would say its necessary to go as far as to say that the 360/ps3 versions of games need to have their own, unless of course there are issues like the sonic adventure/dx ones that were brought up.

i should add that i think that sonic 1 gba needs a chart as well, and totally not because i just went full retard and bought a copy and want to upload times or anything, i totally think it would be competetive(not srs). also skypatrol


Offline Parax

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #15 on: September 07, 2012, 04:52:09 pm »
In regards to Unleashed, there's actually only one difference I can think of. In Windmill Isle 3 there's a part where you're supposed to launch off a rail really high into the air, which takes you to a trail of rings you're supposed to light dash. On the PS3 version though, for some reason the game won't launch you up as high, and the rings are impossible to get. That makes it impossible to get the ring max on the PS3 version.

I actually can't think of any other differences though even though I think there were one or two others.

yse: I don't really see a need to change our system in regards to proof. The system we have now has been working very well for the last almost 10 years. Most of the top times either do have proof or the players are well-known to be legit. I'm not entirely sure what you're suggesting we do.

It's also worth noting that the fact that we ask for proof at all sometimes seems to scare off a lot of people who think that if they do well then we'll ban them. Obviously not true but I've noticed a few people who seemed to be under that impression over the years.

Offline yse

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #16 on: September 07, 2012, 04:54:31 pm »
Yeah, sorry, I realised I didn't actually make a suggestion. :P Edited it in.

<3 Thorn.

Offline Parax

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #17 on: September 07, 2012, 04:57:41 pm »
Oh okay. I don't like that idea at all tbh, puts more restrictions on competition and is more of a hassle overall. I don't see a need to change the way we do things. Regardless of what people who don't actually know anything about TSC think, I don't think we actually have a problem with records being fake, and we've always allowed people to keep strats to themselves. It's part of competition.

Especially when you get to consoles that are more difficult to record. It would be a really really bad idea to require video proof of every Generations 3DS record.

Offline SpanielWare

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #18 on: September 07, 2012, 05:09:40 pm »
Since it's become the new awesome fad, here is my campaign image for Thorn 2012! Excuse the crappy MS Paint editing but I think it's quite amusing nonetheless. So here you go lulz!




Also a big congratulations to Umbreon... I mean Paraxade... for making it as an admin! As you guys can see he's already being very proactive and I'm sure he'll help shape TSC into a better place. As for SDM, toooo baaaaad :P

EDIT: Maaaaybe that last part about SDM was a little harsh, but I saw it as an opportunity to make a joke alluding to Spinball <_<
« Last Edit: September 08, 2012, 09:07:24 am by danieldude »
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Offline flying fox

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #19 on: September 07, 2012, 05:12:52 pm »
What about region differences? There is a region difference in Shadow the Hedgehog where PAL can't do the CC glitch but NTSC has no problem in doing it.

Offline yse

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #20 on: September 07, 2012, 05:15:55 pm »
puts more restrictions on competition

Perhaps, but look at all the other major record-keeping sites. They all require proof of record times, and it means that you can trust that those records were legitimately obtained. They also serve as learning tools for new players! Consider also that the top players are typically recording or streaming most of their gameplay anyway. I'm confident the positives outweigh the negatives on this one.

I don't think we actually have a problem with records being fake

This example is admittedly old, but the "system which has worked so well for the last 9 years" allowed one certain smizzla to rise to the top of the rankings before being questioned at all, and subsequently banned. Do you think that's acceptable?

and we've always allowed people to keep strats to themselves. It's part of competition.

Is it really, though? It's part of what TSC has come to know as competition, but I don't see that as competition. Suppose someone claimed to have perfected a new running technique that could shave half a second off the 100m record in athletics, nobody's going to take their word for it, he would have to prove it in competition with other athletes. Kind of a long bow, but you see what I'm getting at.

Especially when you get to consoles that are more difficult to record. It would be a really really bad idea to require video proof of every Generations 3DS record.

Yeah, I'll grant you that one. Requiring it for DS/3DS would be too much.

<3 Thorn.

Offline Parax

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #21 on: September 07, 2012, 05:26:55 pm »
Perhaps, but look at all the other major record-keeping sites. They all require proof of record times, and it means that you can trust that those records were legitimately obtained. They also serve as learning tools for new players! Consider also that the top players are typically recording or streaming most of their gameplay anyway. I'm confident the positives outweigh the negatives on this one.

Maybe. I just don't like the idea of making it more difficult to post stats. Especially when you consider that we don't just track individual levels, but we also have competition on an overall and sitewide basis, so would we have to ask for proof for red times too? I really think this would be a gigantic pain in the ass and discourage competition. Even if we limited it to just records.

If we implemented some form of this I'd say require screenshots at the most. Requring videos for every single record is too much.

Quote
This example is admittedly old, but the "system which has worked so well for the last 9 years" allowed one certain smizzla to rise to the top of the rankings before being questioned at all, and subsequently banned. Do you think that's acceptable?

Of course not, but to be fair, there were plenty of questions as to his legitimacy and part of the reason he wasn't questioned earlier was because he happened to be your brother. :P

Quote
Is it really, though? It's part of what TSC has come to know as competition, but I don't see that as competition. Suppose someone claimed to have perfected a new running technique that could shave half a second off the 100m record in athletics, nobody's going to take their word for it, he would have to prove it in competition with other athletes. Kind of a long bow, but you see what I'm getting at.

It's part of the way we compete here. I see your point here though, but really secret strats don't even happen all that often. Most people here will be willing to tell you exactly how they got their record. When it does happen though it's not necessarily a bad thing, you could make the argument that it forces you to do a little bit of thinking and experimenting to figure out strats for yourself instead of just copying what the record holder did.

Also oh god athletics analogies. Please don't pull out the "cutting across the field" analogy to make an anti-glitch argument. :P

edit: If anything I think we should just make it more clear what we require in terms of proof, under what situations people will be called out and what type of proof will be requested of them. That would hopefully provide clarity so people wouldn't be afraid of being unreasonably banned or so that people know what we do to keep the rankings legitimate.

edit 2:

Quote
What about region differences? There is a region difference in Shadow the Hedgehog where PAL can't do the CC glitch but NTSC has no problem in doing it.

I don't see much of a need to treat regional differences differently than platform differences. To be fair I do see this getting a little messy if we have a game with significant differences between multiple versions, and then significant differences between regions. But then we effectively have 4 versions of the same game anyway, so yeah.

Offline DarkAura

Re: Where We Go from Here
« Reply #22 on: September 07, 2012, 05:31:12 pm »
I just want to add, requiring proof for everything is really tough, expecially from me, because my 360, 3DS, and others are at home, and I play some games on the weekends, so I can't provide proof. I also left my camera at home, so I have no way to really provide proof, other than emailing a photo from my iPad, and I don't think you guys want that. (Besides, my iPad doesn't like to send things from my email.. It freezes and glitches up the photos app). That's just me, but I am capable of setting records, and I don't know if you guys think I'm legit or not. (I will find some way to get proof if I'm called into question... I don't want to face ze pain from ze BANHAMMER.) But, anyways, this isn't about me, but I want to add that requiring proof can be a pain/difficult.


(If any of you are confused why I say "leave it at home", I go to a boarding school)

EDIT: Man. I wish I was an admin. Oh well. I can still help. :)
« Last Edit: September 07, 2012, 10:15:56 pm by DarkAura »
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Offline MK

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #23 on: September 08, 2012, 03:08:32 am »
Just as planned.

Emeralds:

Offline SpanielWare

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #24 on: September 08, 2012, 09:37:42 am »
It's an annoying thing to agree on, but I think that having to provide video proof for every stat that you submit which is a record is just too much to ask of many competitors. Believe it or not some competitors do not have access to any recording equipment (even a video camera), which would mean that, if this idea goes through, they would not be able to break any records on the site. Some users don't even have their own computer (take Romulo the Brazilian for example, who used to submit his stats either at the net cafe or at his aunt's house (correct me if I'm wrong Romulo!)).

Screenshots and photos would definitely be easier, and could be done, but some people may still not have the right equipment to do so :O Also, for people like you and I, submitting photo/video proof is easier than doing up shoelaces, but for some players who don't know a thing about cameras, computers etc. it may be more of a hassle. We have to put ourselves in their shoes (d'oh, bad joke!). And before you say, 'they'd have to know some stuff about computers to submit stats in the first place', you know what I mean!

Anyway, that's all I have to say - I hope you guys come to some sort of fair conclusion on this matter.
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Offline SqwareEcks

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #25 on: September 08, 2012, 01:26:47 pm »
Quickly:

1) Congratulations to Thorn and Paraxade on their promotions. They both seem to care deeply about the site and where it's headed.
2) I agree with pretty much everything Paraxade said about the rules, and I'm not saying that to suck up. Version-separate charts especially is a great idea... I'm certainly competing in a game that has more than its share of missing/extra rings and inconsistently applied non-solid walls and floors ¬_¬
3) I'm always for legitimate proof of stats, but requiring video I think maybe is just a little too onerous and restrictive, especially to those without the financial means to record. It seems like from what I've observed the admins are pretty good at calling out people with suspicious stats already.
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Offline Werey

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Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #26 on: September 08, 2012, 07:17:35 pm »
Although I'm all for supplying proof if and when needed using any means necessary (As long as it's within my ability to do so), having proof for every stat (Lol hyper) would be a gigantic pain in the ass and not necessary imo.

Sure, screenshots can be doctored but I don't see why people would constantly doctor all of their photos just to prove that a somewhat BS is actually legit. As for video proof, great, though this can take up even more time due to upload times and the such. I think the "system" of having proof on request due to the somewhat great (so I've heard) "BS detector" is a perfectly valid way of obtaining it.
thorn 4 prez
Also, Congratz Umbreon.

Championships: Sonic Unleashed DLC.

Offline DarkAura

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #27 on: September 08, 2012, 07:27:35 pm »
Should we demote SprintGod? He hasn't been on for two years and he appears to be an admin. I say we put DsS in his place.
hi my name is izzy and i dye my hair to look like scarlett johansson

Offline Alondite

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #28 on: September 09, 2012, 04:06:18 am »
" SprintGod seems to have disappeared, and the tracking device planted in the back of his skull is giving no clues as to his location; it can only be assumed that he stumbled into an interdimensional portal and landed in a world where Sonic games are still good, and he does not wish to return."
« Last Edit: September 09, 2012, 04:19:58 am by Alondite »

Offline Rolken

Re: Where We Go From Here
« Reply #29 on: September 11, 2012, 02:07:17 am »
Some thoughts on considering the future of TSC-

This site is old. All the foundational ideas came together between fall 2003 and summer 2004. At this point in history, there was no YouTube or Facebook. Wikipedia was a weird new site that thought it could be an encyclopedia for some reason. "Xbox Live" really meant "Halo." Sonic Heroes was an upcoming release that looked like it might be good because it was getting back to Sonic's roots (okay, so some things never change).

Online leaderboards aren't a strange new concept anymore, they're baked into all the game consoles. Throwing videos online is way easier. IRC remains in the hackerish fringe, probably because it requires constant babysitting.

Point is, the tech world is a very different place now. If I were to seriously consider how to revitalize TSC in 2012, I would start by considering what it means to foster a healthy spirit of competition with the tools available in 2012. Preserve the accomplishments that have been made, but leave no sacred cows untouched. Some of our decisions were questionable in 2003, and almost all of them could use revisiting after this much time has passed.

So I'll start with a big one: I think holding leaderboards up as the central focus of the site is an antiquated idea that needs to die for TSC to evolve. Most consoles have their own leaderboards, and our leaderboards would have to require proof and be impossibly narrow or not require proof and be untrustworthy.

And rising in "the leaderboards" in a generic sense was never particularly community-oriented in the first place. All of the big memorable moments I recall were based around rivalry, commentary, and recognition. Why not think of ways to bake that into the site instead of an endless number of boring generic Excel-style lists?

That's my food for thought.
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