I don't think that this is a good idea. A central thread consolidates the little routines in one place and an updated index of what's in the thread put in the first post would be the best solution. If you separate out the threads, you bloat the Research and Development subforum with tons of mostly tiny and not all that groundbreaking ASM routines and bury the big and useful stuff that's already there that
should be on top (such as the research threads that make actual discoveries and need more attention to attract contributers). We don't need a thread for colored stats on the status screen, or recalculating an entire party's stats, or the ability capsule (just as examples from the last page); and I certainly do not want the Research and Development subforum to turn into the ASM Beginner's Lounge (though that would be a nice idea for a subforum of its own. With the merger of Fangames and ROMHacks and the amount of real estate we take up compared to the useless sections of PokeCommunity, I find that an unlikely possibility).
Help and feedback for the routines should be funneled to an ASM Help Thread or something similar (or perhaps their own Beginner's Lounge threads, as it
is about asking for help), with the person asking the question directly quoting the post with the routine in it to notify the original poster. If the entire problem is a perceived difficulty in receiving help with the routines, I think it is overkill to basically trash the Research and Development subforum to help the minority of users who are asking questions in the ASM Resource Thread. Better to separate out the questions and provide some protocol for asking them rather than convert the most interesting and contributive subforum into a free-for-all. If someone improves the routine or updates it, they can put it in the ASM Resource Thread and quote the post with the routine they've improved.
This approach accomplishes two things. One, it keeps the ASM Resource Thread intact and dedicated to individual routines made by the community, as it should be. Once the change has solidified in the users' minds and we're used to the questions being separate, the thread will be pared down and less bloated with tangents and side conversations that are useless for the average reader (presumably the one off questions sitting in the thread now that do not contribute or are general noob "how do I ASM" would be deleted by the mods or moved). An index post on the first page would hopefully be updated every time the thread reaches a new page. Perhaps volunteers can post an updated index for the page before last which would be later merged into the first post (deleting it from the last page in the process).
Two, there will be an appropriate place for people to ask questions that do not derail the intent of the ASM Resource Thread and the Research and Development subforum as a whole. I frequented the ASM Resource and Quick R&D Threads religiously over the past few years, and it seems to me like a vast majority of the questions being asked are very general questions about how to make the ASM work and not problems with the specific routine or research. These queries need to be answered, no question about that, but the 100th time over the life a thread dedicated to posting community-made routines is not the place for them. The Research and Development subforum at large is also not the place for them. Separating the questions out into another thread (heck, sticky it at the top of the R&D subforum so people actually see and use it) avoids both of those problems, and allows us to consolidate the answers to those common ASM questions that have nothing to do with specific routines into the first post, while giving people the ability to ask targeted questions about specific routines without creating bloat in the ASM Resource Thread itself or burying the R&D subforum in a torrent of useless threads. It'd even be the perfect place to ask questions like, "Why did you do it this way as opposed to doing it this way?" which are the types of questions that are immensely helpful for raising the general ASM literacy in our community; sparks discussion about best implementation, practices, and optimization; but definitely had no place in the ASM Resource Thread as it stands today.
It would also increase searchability due to the key words in titles.
I just wanted to address this point specifically. PokeCommunity's search is laughably bad. But the index in the first post of the ASM Resource Thread completely sidesteps this problem. The searchability of the thread has been a nonissue since the index post format was adopted (or would be if it was consistently updated, which is why I think the volunteers doing it every page is the answer). A person can Ctrl + F keywords on the first page of the ASM Resource Thread much more easily than plugging them into the forum's search and hoping for the best. Why we don't encourage our users to use Google with the site:pokecommunity.com specifier I will never know.
Also, thank you for at least telegraphing the plans for this change and looking for feedback. Let's spark a discussion on this!
EDIT:
Research & Development has traditionally been the routine sharing subforum, so related posts will be separated into threads there. Some posts would obviously be better suited to a different section (some would fit in better as a Resource, for example) and can be moved as well.
While it was the routine sharing subforum in the past, I feel that it has morphed into something very different. The era of the ASM hackers keeping us in the dark and sharing their (laughable by today's standards) routines amongst themselves while the rest of us look on is long over. It doesn't make sense, with so many of us able to make the tiny routines now, to revert the R&D subforum to that model. My hope is for the R&D subforum's content to be more like these threads which are decently
sized engine
changes or
genuinely interesting
research into game
mechanics and
features. I think that most of these threads are exemplary posts to the R&D subforum and that is the kind of content that we should be encouraging there. Separating the ASM Resource Thread out into the wider subforum will ruin the direction that it has evolved toward and we will all be worse off for it.
I hope I'm making sense here. I'm very tired and may not be articulating myself as well as I (hopefully) normally do. Sorry for blowing up your notifications too, I'm noticing a lot of typos as I read back over this.
