adsii1970 Posted January 4, 2023 Share Posted January 4, 2023 The KSP forum moderator's team presents the A Forum User's Guide to the Thread of the Month A brief introduction: As many of you know, since June 2013, the moderation team has been able to bestow the Thread of the Month to deserving threads created by community members. Only recently, within the last few years, have I become involved in creating the thread announcing the monthly Thread of the Month and the annual Thread of the Year. Since my involvement, I will be the first to admit I've gradually made a few changes to both the Thread of the Month and the process used to select them. It is my hope that this guide will answer a few questions about how the moderation team goes about using the nominations we receive from the community for the Thread of the Month, and the expanded categories nominations are filtered into. There are also some other things that I'd like to share with the forum community that goes into the decisions made when the Thread of the Month is prepared. Each major part of the decision making process is explained in this guide. For those of you who strive to create a thread worthy of the Thread of the Month recognition, I hope it helps answer many of the questions I've been asked over the past couple of years. I'll start the guide by explaining the categories and then I'll address the other major points used in turn. The categories explained: One of the changes I wanted to do to the TOTM was to highlight more of what the community was offering each month - and the best way to do that was by creating categories. Currently, here are the categories we use for each Thread of the Month and a brief explanation of what each category is (most of this is copied off the Threads of the Month): Fan-fiction, Mission Reports, and Kerbal Space Program-inspired Creative Works: This category features a thread that, while not directly Kerbal Space Program related, is a creative work, fan-fiction, or other presentation related to the game. If you write fan fiction, do KSP-themed doodles, paint, CGI, or Lego dioramas or craft, or anything else that is creative arts-based and associated with Kerbal Space Program, this is the category where your thread might be featured if it is nominated. Forum Member-Created Challenges and Missions: This category contains missions and challenges created by you, the members of our gaming community. Many excellent missions and challenges threads are created that expand our fun with the game and press our skills, creativity, and sometimes, luck beyond what we get accustomed to. Let’s face it, we all have our go-to design basics and vehicles we like to use. So sometimes, a good challenge can cause us to think of another way to achieve our goals. Ideally, these challenges and missions should be original or older challenges from the forum. Still, they cannot be modifications of official challenges from @SQUAD or @Intercept Games as released on official KSP social media platforms. This category will probably be divided into KSP and KSP2 subcategories. Game Support/Game Mod of the Month: This category features either help with the game (stock or modded) or mods that add quality-of-life gameplay improvements to Kerbal Space Program. This category will probably be divided into KSP and KSP2 subcategories. General community thread of the month: This category features a thread that adds to the community and doesn’t fit the game support/game mod categories. This can be anything. In previous months, we have featured threads involving actual science, suggestions for KSP2, real space missions, and anything else you can think of. Video-based Fan-fiction, Mission Reports, and Kerbal Space Program-inspired Creative Works: This category features a video or other form of cinematography of a Kerbal mission report using in-game video recorded gameplay. In January 2023, I changed this one without warning the moderation team. Most of the more recent cinematic posts have been posted in one thread rather than their creators creating a new thread. And there’s nothing wrong with it; it just meant those creators did not receive the recognition they deserved. A change was made, and for this category only, the TOTM became a Post of the Month (POTM) - with a unique graphic. Honorable Mentions: Just as it says on the TOTM, sometimes it’s a challenge to choose which threads will receive the honor of being selected as the Thread of the Month for our five categories. We get so many good nominations each month to choose from, but we limit it to one for each type. Threads nominated but not selected as a thread of the month become honorable mentions. Honorable mentions will automatically be reconsidered for future TOTMs. After a thread is nominated, it is categorized according to its kind. Any thread that does not fit one of the easy-to-identify ones is put in the General Community Thread of the Month. When we first began the categories, there were times when we would list more than one as a "thread of the month" for that category. Over the past couple of years, we no longer do this. There is now only one thread of the month per category. All other threads nominated for the same type will be listed in the "Honorable Mention" category. What makes a thread a Thread of the Month: In the header of this post, there’s an image containing five points. These five points are important guidelines to determine the difference between an honorable mention and a thread of the month. I want to explain those a bit to give you insight into what we look for in the nominations. The value of the thread to the forum community: Of the five guidelines used, this one is the most important. We consider the value the thread brings to the forum community. Since we have various categories in the TOTM, this becomes easy. The categories allow us to consider nominations of the same kind rather than having to choose just one thread of the month over a variety of threads – even if they were totally different. If a forum game is nominated, it will always be listed as an Honorable Mention. Participation in forum games does not add to a member’s post count. Although forum games are fun and add to our sense of community, they are… fun. Moderator action on a thread does not disqualify it from consideration for TOTM, if nominated. Older threads that have never received recognition as TOTM are eligible to be considered for TOTM if nominated, as they still have value to the forum community. The Original Post (OP) organization/OP design: This is where presentation becomes extremely important. The organization and design of the OP is the second most crucial part of any post we consider for TOTM. A poorly designed OP can distract from the value of the information you're trying to relay to the forum community. Often, this makes a difference in a Thread of the Month and an Honorable Mention (there are other factors, too). If you are trying to design a thread with the hopes of it becoming a TOTM, here are some things about the design and organization to keep in mind. These guidelines are not hard rules or are meant to be strict rules to be enforced or curb your creativity. Basic Original Post (OP) helps: A clean-appearing OP can keep the forum community engaged in your thread. Try to avoid including "clutter" in your OP. These are things that look nice or cute but may not have any real connection to what your thread is about. Use visual organization to help you organize your OP. (Hint - this guide has one, the image at the top of the page. I enjoy making images to help tie things together). Use highlights, such as bold, larger text size, and colored text, to set off headers. Making visual dividers helps to allow the reader to see the divisions in your OP. Be careful with using any font other than the basic fonts (Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman, Lucida Sans Unicode). Those are standard stock fonts. Others, such as Comic Sans MS and Trebuchet Sans MS, may or may not be available to all forum users and may be substituted on some web browsers. Be careful with tables. Apple devices do not like tables and often cut them off if you use preset dimensions. Basic image helps: Use a site that allows you to copy and paste your images with their extensions in place (*.bmp, *.png, *.gif). Otherwise, you'll end up with a URL and no picture. Some sites offer free image hosting, such as Imgur, the most commonly used site on this forum. You are free to set your image dimensions to whatever size you wish. If you use the default size, the device's web browser will auto-size the appropriate images. However, setting hard sizes for your images will create problems for those viewing your thread on mobile devices. Use images that are relevant to your OP. Resist the urge to use images that are off-topic or distract from the information you are trying to relay to the community. Presentation of ideas: This guideline covers how well you explain the purpose of your thread and what it is you hope to do. Some of the best examples on the forum can be found in the mod, challenge, and forum game threads. We are looking at how well you explain the purpose of your thread. Explaining your idea is equally important as your post organization. If your post has a clear purpose and you present your ideas well, your post is probably organized well, too. Here are some suggestions you can use: Use a graphic, image, video, or introduction to explain what the thread is about. Make it easily understandable by the forum audience. Within the introduction, keep it short. You can go into greater detail later on in the OP. Keep the OP structured where the reader can easily follow your progression. The more "cluttered" the presentation, the less likely you will get your idea across. In this thread, I am using a combination of headers, bullet points, and sub-points to relay important information. This is a method I have developed over twenty years of writing academic research and study aids for undergraduate and graduate students. Look around the forum or develop your own style; find what works best for you and use it. Forum community engagement: This one has many different factors and may surprise a lot of you. There have been threads with few responses and many nominations in the past. There have also been threads with many replies and one nomination. But we consider each nomination equally based on community engagement. What kind of engagement did the thread generate from those who participated in it? Did the topic create an opportunity for debate or an exchange of ideas? Did those who nominated it feel it was a good example of what makes a really great forum thread? Nomination: This is probably the least important of all the criteria when we are deciding on which thread becomes a featured TOTM. But because many of you have asked, here's the answer to the questions most commonly asked about thread nomination: Can I nominate a thread again if it was an honorable mention already? Yes, and I encourage you to do so. Since the most recent changes to how we do TOTM, there can only be one per category and we receive a lot of really good nominations. There are some months where we have only a handful of nominations. So, please, yes, renominate honorable mentions you feel are worthy of a second (or more) look - unless they are a forum game. Can I nominate a thread again if it has already received TOTM? No. In the past there have been some mistakes made and threads have earned more than one TOTM. I am working on a side project to track TOTMs so this does not happen again. If you feel a thread is worthy to be considered of additional recognition, you may always nominate it for Thread of the Year (TOTY). I've made this really nice thread. Can I self-nominate it? Sure, you can. However, a self-nomination is given a lower weight than a thread nominated by another forum member. We also ask that forum threads be nominated without "favors" (if you'll nominate mine, I will give you a bunch of likes) as this takes away from the value of the TOTM. Threads of the Month should be meaningful and the nomination should come because someone notices your thread and thinks it has value and NOT because you asked them to nominate it. I've already nominated one thread this month. Can I nominate another one... or three? Yes, you may nominate as many threads as you feel are deserving of the monthly TOTM. Just remember that each thread you nominate should be what you feel represents the best efforts of the forum community. This thread belongs to a user who just joined the forum. Can I nominate them? Yes. There's no better way to encourage a new any forum member than to nominate their thread as a thread of the month contender. Even if they are listed as an honorable mention, it is a great way to bring focus to their efforts! Other related comments about the thread of the month: Future projects for this guide: a guide to the threads of the month listed by year (2016 to the present) Sort-able Google Docs spreadsheet link which will include honorable mentions TO NOMINATE A THREAD FOR CONSIDERATION: If you find a thread you feel should be considered as a thread of the month, then use the “report comment” feature (the three dots on the upper right corner of the comment box) to report the comment. Please put in the text field of the report post “Nomination for thread of the month,” and we will do the rest! You can always nominate more than one thread, too. TO NOMINATE A CINEMATOGRAPHIC POST FOR CONSIDERATION: If you find a cinematographic post you feel should be considered as the cinematographic post of the month, then use the “report comment” feature (the three dots on the upper right corner of the comment box) to report the comment. Please put in the text field of the report post “Nomination for post of the month,” and we will do the rest! IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ABOUT THIS GUIDE, PLEASE MAKE THEM ON THIS THREAD: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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