PlanetPhillip December 2007 Survey

Both points have been fixed (I hope!)

I admit that I rushed this post but I wanted it to be available for all of December.

Don’t hesistate to informa me of more problems. I’m going to bed now (Local time 2:00AM) so don’t expect any replies or corrections for at least 8 hours from this comment time.

Because of a misunderstanding on my part on how the PollDaddy Surveys worked I have had to use a different system. No responses have been lost and everybody who completed the survey will still be eligible for the prize draw.

The new survey is now hosted on PP but the CSS is a little plain, any volunteers to make it look nice?

Sometime this week I will post some of the responses along with my comments or excuses

UPDATE:
Whilst creating the PlanetPhillip Readers Award, this survey somehow got overwritten. I have all the data but will have to start again I think.

I am going to try and get everything corrected before I have to go out.

I’m sitting he pulling my hair out!

I can’t publish the results because the system I use won’t allow it. Also, I don’t want to give my competitors private information!

I have decided to do a weekly update where I reply to some of the comments made. I’m not doing this so I can argue with any of the respondents, I’m doing this becasue I feel that certain points need discussing.

In fact I may even have a follow-up survey when this one is finished.

I’ll list the question, then the reply and my response.

What’s the worst thing about the site?

“I understand the need to be focused, but I feel you should cover Sci-Fi FPS MP games as well.”
My Reply: The problem is that I don’t play MP games and I don’t want to run a website about games I don’t like and play. If I played them then I would probably add them.

“Design and spelling”
My Reply: I can’t disagree with that. I promise to improve my writing, from grammar, spelling to quality. The design is going to be improved soon, again, I promise!

“That some days there aren’t updates.”
My Reply: Well, I would love to update everyday but sometimes there just isn’t enough time or content to do that. Essentially there is only me (Phillip) running the site and real life often gets in the way. (I should note that I do have a small team who provide help but I do 95% of the work).

“Polls that lead to about 100% of votes on one choice.”
My Reply: Point taken. Although I do admit that I try to polarize the choices to encourage thought and debate.

“Did you have to remove the Doom3 and Quake4 content?”
My Reply: I didn’t. All the Doom 3 and Quake 4 content is still on the site. I just don’t actively update it. Please check along the sidebar for the links.

“It allows betas to be released and played. If the author doesn’t state it’s a beta, then it should be tested/played first.”
My Reply: Well, there are a lot of maps and mods that haven’t been finished that have been added to the site. I’ll try and think of a way to ensure that these are clearly marked.

“having to join file shack to avoid download wait time”
My Reply: I will be copying most of my content to FileFront soon. Hopefully that will make life easier. It’s Filecloud BTW.

“The fact that it seems to be limited to the Sci-Fi Genre.”
My Reply: I can’t be all things to all men and these are the mods I like. I will be removing the reference to Sci-Fi in the new design.

“PP needs a new facelift! :)”
“I have to say the look of the website. In my eyes, it’s pretty boring. It’s just plain text with a dark background. A few pictures here and there, but it’s not enough to spice it up.”
My Reply: Agreed, and one is being completed as we speak.

“The stop of watching any other games than the Half-Life family. That’s kind of sad but I can guess that’s easier this way. Especially because the HL family just has the most mods. But I still feel a bit like missing something.”
My Reply: I didn’t make the content transition because there were more mods for HL, but because those are the only mods and maps I enjoy playing.

“It’s going almost entirely to Half-life 2.”
My Reply: That’s kinda down to the community. If more HL1 amps and mods are made, I’ll play and post them!

How can PlanetPhillip be improved?

“Raising its voluntary personnel and more news editors”
My Reply: I understand what you mean but I don’t want to run a community site. That’s more work and responsibility than I want. Find the right people is incredibly difficult too.

“Walkthroughs should be posted in a few days’ time after their request.”
My Reply: That’s just crazy! We aren’t sitting around waiting for Walkthrough requests. Besides, a good walkthrough takes a while to create.

“A better rating system and layout.”
My Reply: Agreed, it’s being worked on.

“there are also mutiplayer mods that i downloaded as single player”
” -there are wrong mods in game folders (found “serious sam” or something like that in “half-life mods”…)”

My Reply: That’s just an administrative error, and I apologize.

“Offer a selection of faster download servers”
My Reply: I am copying most of my files to FileFront, so that should help.

“Maybe a history for each member of mods we have downloaded already so we don’t download a mod we have played a long time ago and forgot about. A way to look at our profile and see a list of mods we downloaded. NOT sure if this is a possibility”
My Reply: Sounds like a good idea but I would have to pay a coder to do that and to be honest the priority is the improved rating system.

“Buy The Orange Box! I know you oppose episodic gaming, (At least in its current state.) but you’re pretty much contradicting yourself. You show pride over how you have one the biggest and most informed Half-Life archives on the ‘net, but what if those Portal user maps start flushing out? What happens when people start using Episode 2 tech for their maps and mods? You COULD just scour the ‘net for these maps and chuck a post on the main page, but you’ll have to rely exclusively on user input for screenshots and in-depth descriptions. (Otherwise you’ll have to stick with readme text and a picture of Gordon Freeman on a white background on the side, or screenshots from other websites.) Then again, Portal’s popularity may not manifest itself in the form of user content, as with Episode 2’s tech. (Though I highly doubt this outcome.) If you HAVE in fact bought The Orange Box, then that’s brilliant!”
My Reply: Phew, that’s a mouthful! One at a time. I’m not contradicting myslef because adding mods made for the episodes doesn’t mean I have to paly those episodes. As you said I would just have to add the basic details etc. Do you think I have palyed EVERY map and mods listed on my site? Well, I haven’t.

I actually think Portal will be as popular, if not more so, than HL2 for mappers but I am not going to be adding Portal maps for a number of reasons. Firstly, the little I played, I didn’t really love, it’s fun but I prefer shooting. Secondly, there are already a few great Portal map sites doing a great job - See my forum for details.

“an RSS feed of the FPS news from another site”
My Reply: I sued to produced my own FPS News feed but nobody read it.

This last update today has some interesting replies. It seems that there is quite a lot of misconception about what the forum is and for. At least I have some ideas on how I can improve things.

Why do you think the forum is not popular and well-used?

“The website is still young, and as a result not well known. Aside from that, ut still feels like a Blog rather than a typical website, and feels less professional.”
My Reply: Well PP is over 3 years old and some younger site have very active forums. I agree that it does feel like a blog and the new theme may change that.

“I don’t even use the forum Personally I don’t like the type of board.”
My Reply: Okay, fair enough.

“I most commonly frequent UBB boards and Ezboard and prefer their presentation.”
My Reply: I think this is a very valid point. I originally chose the form software because it allows members of the main site to use their details for the forums. I HATE having to register for a forum just to reply and I decided that having both made by the same people might make a difference. In actual fact I think it may have had a negative effect and I am seriosuly considering moving back to phpBB.

“I didn’t realize there was a forum until very recently, and I really don’t understand its format.”
My Reply: It’s clear I need to promote it more and make it easier to use.

“As for me, I just don’t have time to check in 2 places. Besides, the site gives me all I need, I think”
My Reply: I understand your point of view but they provide different types of content.

“people use the postings per mod, not the forum. i think they feel the mod postings are kinda its own forum.”
My Reply: Yes, but on the main site you can’t start a conversation, whereas on the forum you can and it doesn’t have to be about SP FPS mod either!

“Well i think the forum is popular it is the biggest and the best!”
“It *is* popular and well-used, isn’t it?”
My Reply: With all due respect to the people who wrote those comments I think this clearly demonstrates that the difference between the main siet and the forum is not good enough.

“Maybe because there are a lot of forums out there, mostly focused on the same thing as PP (the HL-universe). “
My Reply: Perhaps, but the forum is focused on HL.

“There doesn’t seem to be much reference about the forum on the main site, but ‘Forum’ is clearly labeled at the top. (Though it’s somewhat ‘out of the way.’) The footer also has recent comments and a link to the forum itself. Perhaps advertise the forum visually on the sideline to increase interest? “
My Reply: Perhaps I need to really promote it. The problem is that there is always something that needs promoting. Most website don’t have huge linbks to their forum, just a simple to find and easy to read text link. There are already too many things on the sidebar.

“Maybe it’s just that single player games don’t attract social types.”
My Reply: Maybe, but why do they contribute on the main site?