Anyone think we need two categories here?

[Foxster]

We get (at least) two main types of craft here:

1. Pretty but (in a practical sense) useless stuff. Things like tanks, replica aircraft, quite a few of the shuttles, sci-fi replicas etc. Basically anything that doesn't actually do anything KSP-like but is still to be admired for the craftsmanship that went into it. 

2. Craft that actually do something. Eve landers, Mun mission rockets, Eeloo ion explorers, stable low-gravity rovers, etc. Stuff that someone might download to either progress their game or to learn something from. 

I am only ever interested in one of these. Its a bit of a pain wading through the other lot. 

Split the sub-forum to cope with this? Yes? No?

 

Edited January 20, 2016 by Foxster

[Azimech]

Maybe the beauty is in the opportunity to be amazed by something you didn't expect. If you're only interested in spaceflight ... don't forget that 99% of the technologies have been invented directly on earth and served a different purpose first. What you see between the "stack a tank to engine and pod" principle are people who wish to see more, be inspired and build for example better spacecraft with it. A nice example is the stock hinges by Majorjim and others. People will use these in the future for let's say ... Mün landers. Another fine example is Bubbadevlin's scanner-driven walker, I remember it walking on the Mün.

My advice is to not limit yourself to whatever you already know and like just in different arrangements. Once you stop being amazed, you'll probably lose interest in the whole game.

And I wish everyone to be amazed for as long they live :-)

[Evanitis]

I totally, deeply agree with you. I'm only interested in the pretty, but useless stuff.

19 minutes ago, Foxster said:

Its a bit of a pain wading through the other lot.

...

though... it would be hellish to separate the existing lot into two categories..

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Not a bad idea, but I think keeping the right stuff in the right area would be a problem.  For example, what about a working apollo replica?  It might be a perfectly useful Mun lander, but it is a replica.  I probably would put it in the "Pretty" area, but someone else could put it somewhere else.  It does seem like there's a lot of craft though, maybe split by something that's less subjective, like modded/unmodded?

[Foxster]

I see what you are saying but quite a few craft posted here really are almost exclusively designed for their appearance. There being little or no mechanics going on. It's kinda these that I'd like filtered out or at least flagged as such in some way. 

I am definitely not saying they are without merit and I do appreciate that a lot of effort and ingenuity went into them but they add nothing to my game. 

If there is something that does something weird and interesting but otherwise achieves little then that's cool. Other things like an almost non-working replica of the Heart of Gold leaves me blah. 

Maybe we just need a choice of tags like the old Stock or Modded choices?

Edited January 20, 2016 by Foxster

[SpaceToad]

I would say split it into two sections.

Spaceplanes and Rockets. From there you can have subsections for useless stuff, modded, whatever.

[YargJay9991]

I like the idea of tags, things like Stock, Modded, Craft Pack, Lander, Rover, Launcher, Orbiter, SSTO, Aircraft, Replica, Request and other things wouldn't hurt. 

Seperating the requests and craft would help to I think. More and more of these simple requests pop up and it takes ages to filter through them to find what you want. A WIP area wouldn't go a miss either.

Happy Flying

YargJay9991

EDIT: Ninja'd you @Fearless Son!

Edited January 20, 2016 by YargJay9991

[Fearless Son]

I think it is okay as a single forum, I like to be surprised.  However, I think what might help is if we get a nice formalized tagging system in place so it is clear whether a given craft is intended to be practical or aesthetic.  

[selfish_meme]

First, I don't think there is enough of anything being produced at the moment to worry. Nothing was posted for almost 24 hours yesterday.

If there was to be a split I would split it at 'meant for Kerbinside', and 'for space/elsewhere'. Heres why, lets imagine you made a replica WW2 bomber, you might take it to Laythe for a silly promo but your not seriously suggesting anyone actually take it there. But if you produce just a plane it might actually be designed to work on Laythe, and does not work that well on Kerbin. So splitting the category up by craft type will lead to confusion. Many people produce boats and planes and cars etc. but they are nearly all for enjoying on Kerbin. Other people produce rockets and landers and rovers that are to be used elsewhere. This takes into account the replica Saturn V above or Soyuz, it's a replica but it also has a purpose outside of Kerbin's atmosphere and could be used in a career or other game save.

[katateochi]

7 minutes ago, Fearless Son said:

I think it is okay as a single forum, I like to be surprised.  However, I think what might help is if we get a nice formalized tagging system in place so it is clear whether a given craft is intended to be practical or aesthetic.  

This. Putting things into categories or sub-folders is an old fashioned way of organising data based on the physical world.  The problem is there will always be something that doesn't quite belong in either category, or maybe it could belong to both. 

Tags are a much more flexible way of organising data and enable easy cross referencing, ie "functional" + "eve-lander" or "stock" + "eve-lander"

The only problem is I'm not sure how capable the forum's search is for this.  It does let you search by tags but doesn't seem to let you limit the search to a sub-forum (at least not that I can see).  It also would require that everyone who posts here adds at least 1 tag to their craft, preferably more, so a tagging culture needs to be encouraged. 

[Foxster]

10 minutes ago, katateochi said:

This. Putting things into categories or sub-folders is an old fashioned way of organising data based on the physical world.  The problem is there will always be something that doesn't quite belong in either category, or maybe it could belong to both. 

Tags are a much more flexible way of organising data and enable easy cross referencing, ie "functional" + "eve-lander" or "stock" + "eve-lander"

The only problem is I'm not sure how capable the forum's search is for this.  It does let you search by tags but doesn't seem to let you limit the search to a sub-forum (at least not that I can see).  It also would require that everyone who posts here adds at least 1 tag to their craft, preferably more, so a tagging culture needs to be encouraged. 

I know a little less than nothing about how this, or any, forum works but couldn't there be some mandatory tag options, without which you couldn't submit your post? Maybe stock v modded, practical v aesthetic, airplane v rocket or whatever was thought best? All the posts then still being in the one subforum but we can see from the tags whether it is something that might interest us?

Edited January 20, 2016 by Foxster

[Bubbadevlin]

1 hour ago, Azimech said:

 Another fine example is Bubbadevlin's scanner-driven walker, I remember it walking on the Mün.

I am honored, and yes, many designs can lead to useful things in space, and many things (like my walker) while being replicas or something for looks or coolness, are still designed to be as functional as possible

 

I am personally in favor of having a better tag system, and definitely not splitting the forum, there is not enough posts here in the first place!

 

[Raptor9]

2 hours ago, katateochi said:

This. Putting things into categories or sub-folders is an old fashioned way of organising data based on the physical world.  The problem is there will always be something that doesn't quite belong in either category, or maybe it could belong to both. 

Tags are a much more flexible way of organising data and enable easy cross referencing, ie "functional" + "eve-lander" or "stock" + "eve-lander"

The only problem is I'm not sure how capable the forum's search is for this.  It does let you search by tags but doesn't seem to let you limit the search to a sub-forum (at least not that I can see).  It also would require that everyone who posts here adds at least 1 tag to their craft, preferably more, so a tagging culture needs to be encouraged. 

I think the tagging system would be an efficient way.  It's a system already in place, and it requires only a few moments to implement into a thread, and thus should be encouraged like you said.  I've already taken the first step and added several more tags to my own thread: "kerbalx" (for links to downloadable craft), "stock", and "practical".  I was going to add one more, "downloads", but apparently three tags is the limit you can assign to a thread.  That seems a bit stingy, but it may keep the thread titles cleaner.