Can we make it a rule to post a picture when in the gameplay questions subforum?

[WhiteWeasel]

If not a rule, at least a caption that pops up when you start a new thread there. I don't mean to pick on the less skilled members of ksp, but we have all been there: "My x won't fly, or keeps crashing. Please help my ship work." *Does not post any pictures* And by pictures, I mean a pic with your ship in the SPH/VAB with the COM, COL, and if relevant COT, Markers on. I see multiple threads everyday that could be resolved a lot faster if they posted pictures, and avoid useless "dude show us pics or we can't help you" posts. Even novel level text describing what's wrong with your ship isn't as helpful as actually seeing it. Most issues are rookie mistakes, or engineering issues. Pictures help immensely when trying to figure out what is wrong with your vehicle. For rockets, it might not be enough struts, or unusually shaped payloads, or perhaps your fuel pipes are uneven. For planes, its commonly the COM being behind the COL.

"My plane won't fly. Plz help"

"My plane has trouble taking off and struggles to remain flying, and sometimes landing gear shakes violently."

(one of my first planes, not a real post btw.)

"You can see the COL is too close to the COM which causes flight instability. The landing gear is too far back from the COM, which makes it harder to take off. And having your COT not be inline to your COM must cause some funky flight dynamics."

See, It is instantly faster to see what wrong with a craft. than trying to guess and Q&A with the OP.

Pictures help show issues better than any amount of text.

Edited March 31, 2014 by WhiteWeasel

[Random Tank]

A picture tells a thousand words...

[Specialist290]

Since this is a forum policy question, it really goes in the Forum Forum. I've taken the liberty of moving it there

Making it a hard-and-fast requirement probably isn't the way to go, since there are a lot of more abstract and theoretical questions that get asked in that forum as well (such as "What is this 'delta-v thing everyone keeps talking about?' and 'What is the best engine to use, and why shouldn't I use this other engine?').

Making it an automatic recommendation might be more feasible, but I wouldn't be the guy to talk to about that, since I'm not the one who tinkers with forum code.

[RocketPilot573]

Yea, there should be a picture as long as it's needed.

[Clockwork13]

Not everyone knows how to upload pictures. Thats the only down side.

[SpacedCowboy]

I for one, being a "less skilled member" think that's a great idea! Perhaps an "official instructional thread" as to how to post pics along with questions. I'm not really unskilled as far as ship design goes, but tech challenged when it comes to posting pics! A step by step outline on how to do that would be greatly appreciated by not only me, but many others I'm sure! Here again, I think that's a great idea. It would certainly solve a lot of problems. Hate to sound like Capt. Picard here but, how do we "make it so"?

[vexx32]

While an official thread for how to ask a question might help, there are a fair few users who might be insulted by the suggestion they don't understand how to properly ask a question.

In addition, the number of users who read sticky threads before posting is fairly small -- most of the time, you'd end up just having to tell them to read it. But yes, not a bad idea.

[WhiteWeasel]

Sorry I came off as insulting, but I cannot be the only one who gets mildly frustrated when no pictures are posted when asking help for their craft.

Perhaps a nice tool-tip kinda pop up at the top of the page:

When trying to troubleshoot craft designs please post a picture of it, with the Center of Mass/Lift/Thrust markers on them. It will provide clear information to your peers and prompt for quick solutions.

Edited April 1, 2014 by WhiteWeasel

[SpacedCowboy]

What and where in the hell is the "Forum Forum"? I think this was a very worthy subject of "Discussion", (being the forum that it was originally presented in)

Again, I am one of those "less skilled members" but I think it's a terrific idea!

Edited April 1, 2014 by Vanamonde

[WhiteWeasel]

What and where in the hell is the "Forum Forum"? I think this was a very worthy subject of "Discussion", (being the forum that it was originally presented in)

I actually had to back track from here to find it from the main page.

[SpacedCowboy]

You have no right to intervene into this post! No forum rules were broken! Go away!

[FEichinger]

Now, now, calm down will ya.

Rule of thumb: If you use "No forum rules were broken! Go away!" as your protest, chances are you did break forum rules. (On that note, we do actually have a forum rule against open discussion of moderator actions (3.4, if you'd like to look it up). As such, in the future you should contact a moderator directly if you have such concerns.)

That said, as far as I can tell, you double-posted and these posts were merged. That's simply to prevent unnecessary clutter - we have an Edit function for a reason.

FEichinger

[Vanamonde]

SpacedCowboy, as FEichinger says, I merged a couple of your consecutive posts to keep the thread tidy and prevent it from needlessly running over to additional pages. Sorry if that was confusing for you, but the content of your posts was not altered.

[vexx32]

What and where in the hell is the "Forum Forum"? I think this was a very worthy subject of "Discussion", (being the forum that it was originally presented in)

Again, I am one of those "less skilled members" but I think it's a terrific idea!

The General Discussion forum is for general discussion about KSP itself. It's not the place to discuss the forum. That's what this place is for.

[KasperVld]

We've explored the possibilities of things like this in the past for the Support forum especially. Thing is there really isn't a good solution to the problem. People who realise that their question is hard to explain without an image will already add on, and like was said earlier not every question needs an image to explain it, furthermore the people who put no effort into explaining their question are unlikely to take the time to read a sticky thread...

On top of all that it is not really possible to provide a posting template or a reminder for a specific forum without touching the forum's code, which is not something I'd like to do because of potential issues when updating the forums to new versions.

[Red Iron Crown]

Many players posting their problems don't know how to take a screenshot, let alone host and link to it. While it is certainly easier to help someone who posts a pic, it's not strictly speaking a requirement to offer advice.

So my feeling would be that it shouldn't be a requirement.