Guide to making informative and helpful suggestions and replies

[Nemrav]

Okay, I simply have found many threads that get shot down, because of one reason or another, weather good or not, so I thought (in the hopes a sticky or a mod version to get stickied) of posting a simple, short point form guide for making your suggestions and replies to suggestions....

for suggestors ...

1: Make sure your title clearly states the topic, we don't want "be generic to attract clicks" around.

2: Get down all the points for the suggestion that differ from previous suggestions close to the same topic (aerodynamics for example)

3: Be sure to Read some guide to already planned features, The WNTS and already suggested threads are good, but not always up to date, only bother with first post/page.. I find a personal preference is the Planned features page on the KSP wiki. Get the general topics familiar.. You could also do a search on the web on results should turn up.

4: Don't make an essay, people will simply not read it, no matter how wonderful that idea is.... 1 paragraph should be your max length before you will get ignored.

5:Be sure to make your topic non-inflammatory, think out if a major controversy might happen, the topic itself is okay, but please make sure it stays peaceful (don't force your ideas on others and diffuse arguments FAST)

6: Don't bump for the sake of it....

for those who reply ...

1: Don't simply say, "there's a mod for that, here", make the point available, but give other feed-back aswell, if someone has already suggested a mod, suggest an alternate or leave it there.

2: Just like suggestors, please be weary of controversies and heated topics, try and keep the flame grenades diffused.

3: If you see something that doesn't seem quite right, don't shoot them down, state the flaw, and say how it might be fixed.

4: Don't flame if someone suggests a WNTS thing, make the person aware, be polite and give encouragement.

5: Don't derail the topic, and if you see someone start to derail the topic, state your responce to them and then address the topic in question. If this has already been done by someone else, just continue with the main topic.

6: check the post date on the last post (should be above the username) before posting, for the most part, the older the thread, the less likely its relevance.

Well, I guess follow the suggestions and suggest your own, if this stays up for long enough, I might consider even editing this thread to include new ideas (ie this gets longer than 3 pages).

Edited October 1, 2014 by Nemrav
added things suggested after my post and grammar

[Xaiier]

This is a good idea! The suggestions forum tends to be rather unruly at times, a guide for those new to it would be a step in the right direction.

I have a couple critiques:

First off, a good addition to the "for suggestors" section would be to always do some research for other suggestions or mods that do what you are suggesting, BEFORE posting. Often times, a quick google search for "KSP *SUGGESTION*" leads to numerous good results.

Second off,

1: Don't simply say, "there's a mod for that, here", you can make the point available, but the point of these suggestions is for stock implementation.

Often when someone suggests a mod that does what the suggestion asks it is because either a mod already exists which does exactly that, or because said feature is extremely unlikely to be added to stock, or both. There are a lot of great ideas that have been made into mods because they are great ideas. There are also a lot of great ideas that most assuredly won't be added to stock for various reasons. This forum section isn't SQUAD's personal to-do list, its a place for discussion about potential improvements to the game, whether that may be through a mod or in stock, so it is perfectly valid to point someone to a mod that fulfills their suggestion.

[Joonatan1998]

I think mentioning that there is a mod for some feature is ok but:

-Check if someone already mentioned the mod, threads where 80% of the posts are just telling the OP about the same mod are stupid. (Telling about an alternative mod is ok)

-Try to say something else about the suggestion too, do you think it should be added to stock or stay in mods only?

-If the OP suggests something, make sure that the mods you mention have close to the same implementation that has been suggested.

-Don't use the existence of the mod as an argument against the suggestion, if squad never added anything that is already in mods the development would be very hard. (And the mod implementations are sometimes buggy and inefficient)

Edited October 1, 2014 by Joonatan1998

[Red Iron Crown]

Great thread idea!

For suggestors, I would add:

- One suggestion or group of related suggestions per thread. Combining unrelated suggestions in a single thread makes the conversation that follows more difficult to follow or can result in one suggestion being ignored in favor of another.

- Don't bump your thread for the sake of bumping.

- Try to avoid making it an open letter to Squad. If your post includes the phrase "Dear Squad" or "Squad please answer this" it likely makes you sound like an entitled prat. If one of those phrases is the topic title, see Nemrav's rule 1. Squad has people who read this section of the forum to glean good suggestions from the bad, but they are unlikely to respond in the thread.

- Making a thread a "Discussion" rather than a "Suggestion" does not exempt the thread from the WNTS list.

For discussion participants:

- Mods are great, but not everyone uses them. A suggestion for a change to stock should be treated as such. If you're going to recommend a mod, please also try to comment on whether the suggestion is a good idea for stock.

- The often used arguments of "Don't like it? Don't use it or modify the cfg files" and "You're trying to impose your style of play on others" are not productive, they are just noise. Discuss the merit of the suggestion itself.

[Nemrav]

K I updated the points, thanks for the positive feedback.

-- also Reserving this spot for later.