Forums → Support Forum → On comments.

Zophia is cleaning out a little, as I know off, but well, there is always a way around the rules.

I really don't see that as a problem unless another player wants to dig it up. It's written for the game developer and not the player so it doesn't matter if another player can't see it. The game developer will surely go through all of the comments if they're going to go through the omments at all. It's heck of a lot better to have it unseen and read than seen and unread. It's a nice surprise to have a game developer leave a comment on your profile. Other people will read it if they want to look for something worth reading. It gets a hassle, but they'll look anyway. Other than that, I don't think a majority of the users particularly care, except for "Oh noes! Let's stops the spamz!"

I used to have a good idea about having two comment boxes, one for comments and one for reviews only, but apparently, no one liked the idea. That HAD to be one of my best ideas yet too. It's really not that hard to find a lengthy review, though; most of them are just one-word comments, like you said, so just quickly scroll down until you find something longer than 10 words.

The thing is, I registered myself on this site, and not on newgrounds or any other flash games site because it looked like this one was aiming at being more than just a chat box in the form of comments.
It soon appeared to me that it's not that far from newgrounds, in the end.
What'd I'd like is not to have to open an other page to see all the comments, scroll through all of them, to read one or two godd ones, but to have just the good ones. the ones that are worth reading.
Maybe that sounds a bit elitist, but that's the kind of site I'd be happy to go to on a regular basis.

Just message me if you see some games where it is really terrible, I'll delete the spam when I have time.

But yes, this has indeed been suggested before, and even though I like the idea it is definitely possible to get around... If they really want those 2 AP, they'll write 'ok' and copy/paste it numerous times.

@Gantic:
I care. I rarely get to see other users good posts because they drown in ten pages of spam. It makes me a little sad... If they're merit worthy, they're most often worth reading, also to get a good idea of what the game is like before you play.

And Narushima, it has been suggested a few times to make a box where only merits appear, or a 'show random merit every time the game loads' kind of thing.

Heck, even Sonny only had 37 merits last time I checked. I'd love a box like that implemented...
Oh, and as Shintetsu said... It's not difficult to scoot through the pages to look for the merited comments. Took me an hour to search through 222 pages when I counted the merits on Sonny. But it would be nice if it was just right there...

Carlie believes it is not necessary, that it won't make a difference either way. All I want is for merits to be RIGHT THERE, so I can see them, not having to search through the trash can trying to find them. I don't care if the merit standards are raised, it would still make life for the mods a lot easier.

Delete that last post. It doesn't show up properly in Firefox with the improperly closed link. And I'm surprised the word I typed counted as an expletive.

Aiming at being the operative words. Theory and practice do not apply here and I doubt it ever will given the target audience of flash games. The idea of separating the better comments from the less than desirable is a common idea recently, but they don't generate much response.

Shintetsu's idea is a little different. Users can submit to that box for the purpose of making it easier on the mods for merits. Without clear restriction other than mods going through that box too and deleting the less than desirable comments adds upon the work the mods don't do given the amount of time the mods spend per game.

A recent suggestion from a little over a day ago (plus the topic I made little over a week ago) generated very little response. These ideas are a little different from Shintetsu's in that the comment must get chosen to be put into the new box by being merited first and not putting it into the box and waiting for a merit. IqAndreas suggestion had a picture too.

Note how the suggestions are made by those who are 18+ and the age of the responders here. (You might have to follow the chain from IqAndreas thread to mine to Shintetsu's, but Shintetsu and I have already posted here.) That is a small minority. Additionally, given that the majority of users (I estimate somewhere above 99.9%, maybe even above 99.99%, or even 99.999% if you count the people who don't post much at all. Tell me that isn't elitist Doesn't make a merit feel all that special.) don't leave more constructive and thoughtful comments, I doubt many will care.

I care. I rarely get to see other users good posts because they drown in ten pages of spam. It makes me a little sad... If they're merit worthy, they're most often worth reading, also to get a good idea of what the game is like before you play.

I don't understand the first thing you said about my idea. How hard is it to take 3 seconds to change from the merit comments to the regular comments to delete spam? And I do remember from the time I created the idea that the merit box comments are 0 AP, so it would be the user's fault if he/she commented there instead of in the right area. I mean, the two boxes are in two separate sides of the website; it's seriously not that hard to figure out which box is which. Which box have you known forever to be in? The right side. Which box holds the merits in? The one on the left side, that has a different shade of color.

If so, then this has been constantly suggested before. People could then write things like "good good good good good good good good" and then that is still spam.

From what I understand of it, a comparative viewpoint:

Let
0 = Current system
1 = Two comment boxes
2 = Merit only box

0. Mods have one box to check.
1. Mods have two boxes to check.
2. Mods have one box to check. Maybe two if they want to look for duplicates.

0. Merits are mixed with non-merits.
1. Merits are mixed with non-merits of better quality that those in 0.
2. Merits only in the merits box.

0. Users choose what goes in the box.
1. Users choose what goes in the either box.
2. Mods choose what goes in the merit box.

0. Mods check for spam and merits in the same box.
1. Mods check for spam on one box and merits and spam in the other.
2. Mods check for spam and merits in the same box. Maybe two boxes for duplicates.

Maybe I'm not understanding it the way you mean it.

I don't see the purpose of the other box if it's nothing more than a thread in the Flash Games forum. "Do you like such and such game?"

I mean, the two boxes are in two separate sides of the website; it's seriously not that hard to figure out which box is which. Which box have you known forever to be in? The right side. Which box holds the merits in? The one on the left side, that has a different shade of color.

Then how about having the boxes labeled? Comment box to the right, Merit box (no AP) to the left. That solves the confusion problem. The - AP sign scares spammers, so they will reply in comment box. Reviewers will see that their review will actually get noticed for a change, so they will reply in the Merit box.

Maybe not two boxes, but at least keep the merits comments automatically above the others. The problem with that is that new comments would not easily catch attention, even if they're good.

An other idea : why not penalize severely spam comments ? Like substracting 50 points for each spam.

And also, I agree with thoadthetoad, we could also ban people spamming. Maybe not for good, but forbid them to comment for a few days.

Its really not that hard to scan through the comments to find good ones. Merited comments are in bold. They jump out when you are quickly scanning through. Seriously, it takes 5 seconds to find a merited comment.

I think the real issue you are getting at is the fact that people spam for points. And you don't like that. A system that requires each comment to be unique would cut down on this. As I've stated before, xkcd webcomic has a similar system and it has worked swimmingly.

When people found that 'good' wsn't a good enough comment, maybe they'll put some thought in it.

An other idea : why not penalize severely spam comments ? Like substracting 50 points for each spam.

Seriously, it takes 5 seconds to find a merited comment.

Maybe not for good, but forbid them to comment for a few days.

To find 1 Merited Comment. Wouldn't it be easier for a hopefully-busy game designer or a confuzzled newbee to take 1 second to view all of the merits in one wee list?