Suggestion: Completed sub-forum in hacks section

I weren't sure whether it would be best to request it here or speak to the moderators of that forum but as admins would be the ones to add new sections, I felt asking here would be more relevant.

What I'd like to suggest is a sub-forum to be added to the Emulation & ROM hacking forum, more specifically Hacks Showcase.
The sub-forum would only include hacks which are 100% complete.

While it clearly doesn't take much effort to read through the OP of a thread and find out its completion status, I feel that a new section would be ideal as it would be a concise list of all those which are completed and would be easily glanceable compared to actually reading through the OP of each thread (or, in some cases, the title).

- James

There aren't much completed hacks out there, unfortunately, so if we did get a whole new section specifically for them, I just don't think it'll wind up being as active as others. It would be a good idea, though, if we could have a thread where we could list all hacks that had been completed. We used to have one right here, but it's been locked couple of years ago. d:

While having an index of such threads in a single (most likely stickied) thread would be the most likely idea, there's already been a few of those threads which have come and gone due to not being updated. The thread you linked, and the one which that continued from, are both proof of that.

That's why I was thinking a separate section would be more prudent. I agree that there's not too many which have actually been completed but it would stop members losing out on a concise list purely because someone stopped updating the thread.

Either idea would be more beneficial that the current system though :)

There's another idea that I thought of, but forgot to mention it. xD" Anyway, it's basically for us to have a new sorting option in Hacks Showcase, which would list hacks depending on if they had been completed or not. The moderator could mark threads either complete or incomplete, and once you select this option, hacks that are actually finished would be shown to you. If you un-select, changes would be reversed.

Peitharchia said:

There's another idea that I thought of, but forgot to mention it. xD" Anyway, it's basically for us to have a new sorting option in Hacks Showcase, which would list hacks depending on if they had been completed or not. The moderator could mark threads either complete or incomplete, and once you select this option, hacks that are actually finished would be shown to you. If you un-select, changes would be reversed.

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Could be done with prefixes, I suppose. When you click on one it should display all threads with the same prefix, I believe. But there's already prefixes in place, so that'd be rather cluttered.

That said, FF&W has a section for completed fics too, and although it too isn't added to all that often it's a neat archive to have imo. But then, that's comparing stories to rom hacks. =p

bobandbill said:

Could be done with prefixes, I suppose. When you click on one it should display all threads with the same prefix, I believe. But there's already prefixes in place, so that'd be rather cluttered.

That said, FF&W has a section for completed fics too, and although it too isn't added to all that often it's a neat archive to have imo. But then, that's comparing stories to rom hacks. =p

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As that little tiny known emulation mod, I think that this is the best course of action. A [Completed] tag of some sort that can be searched for will definitely help, since this question is asked so often.

Having an entirely new sub-forum added is a bit overkill in my opinion. ROM Hacking and Emulation already has the most sub-forums on PC and if it was implemented I doubt it would have many threads considering that only a handful of hacks are actually completed every year.

Personally, I'm in the same mindset as bobandbill in that we already have a ton of prefixes and adding more isn't my preferred option (It would mean that they can't have HotY prefixes etc.). I'm more in favour of having a stickied thread with links to the completed hack threads which can also give a small description/ blurb to anybody who just wants to play. If a hack is completed then the creator can just message the mods to update the thread when needed.

Thanks for the responses everyone. As a thread is the preferred option (rather than a sub-forum which I agree would be an overkill), I don't mind making said thread and keeping it updated. I've been looking for a reason to become more active on this forum anyway so it's a win-win situation ;)

It'll have to wait for a few days though as I'm currently in the middle of moving house :)

I think this is a great idea. While I do not think it should be a "Showcase" as there are not 1000's of hacks or 100's of active developments going on, but definitely a sub forum to categorize custom ROMs in one general area, making navigation simple and relevant to the users search in mind.

A tag system would be a good idea. I don't like using "WIP" for games and such, it is not 'politically correct' as one might say. And I've seen it all over other forums, maybe something like: Alpha, Beta, RC (Release Candidate), and Release. RC is good for those devs that don't like to call their ROM hacks complete and leave it open for change.