@team building competition thread: I think that's it's a nice idea and all but I would kinda prefer it if we didn't vote on it and rather had someone who didn't enter the competition decide who the winner is and explain why the team they picked is the best of the ones submitted. Half the reason for the thing is for everyone to get better at team building and I feel like that's not happening. Usually when it's time to vote everyone (including myself) just kinda votes for whoever without giving any sort of reason and I think that basically defeats the whole purpose of the competition.
This seems very fair. I'll talk to wolf about it since he is running it now.
@replay critique thread: It's great that we have that since improving your in-battle skills is a major part of getting better. I suppose my only gripe is that I wish that more people would offer critiques/advice. If you look at the thread 95% of the work is done by Anti and I kinda don't think it's fair for him to do basically all the work. Though there's probably not much to be done about it since BTB's community is a little on the small side.
I don't mind pulling the weight of the thread at all.
That said, I would like to see other people contribute. I can already anticipate the "but I might say something wrong" reply, but I think replay advice can be just as helpful for the helper as the helped. When you think about others' mistakes, you naturally improve your own thought process. And if you say something "wrong," it's not some huge deal. Like, really. I am kind of uncomfortable with what I have perceived from the community as an impulse to leave critique and advice only to people who are "qualified" to do it, when a huge part of my personal growth as a player was giving
bad advice and gradually improving it. (This isn't in reply to you--it just seemed relevant and I wanted to mention it.)
@producing other content: Ya know, that could be part of this big social media overhaul/PC expansion thing we're gonna do eventually. At least more people would read the things that way than if it was just kept to BTB. Idk
This sounds interesting though I can't say I grasp any of the specifics of what you mean. X)
All I can assure for now is that it will be linked in several stickies (specifically the resources thread and the simple questions thread) and the forum splash. There's already a clutter of stickied threads and adding a sticky that only applies to a certain portion of players seems arbitrary. Although, if wolf thinks otherwise then I'll gladly oblige!
That's fine.
This is something that I've been thinking of starting once the semester ends, actually. I think a couple of readable content is always nice, especially if it involves actual helpful stuff. I know you mentioned that you didn't want to approach the webzine format but what you defined here is basically a stripped-down form of it. :p I still think it's worth a try!
Just to be clear though, I was thinking of more like "BTB's Content thread" where, basically, it's just one giant archive of good stuff, like an RMT archive but for warstories, analysis, comedic content, whatever...just something to encourage people to actually post that stuff. :( I feel like anything where we were working at deadlines or trying to produce a more holistic product would be too ambitious and ultimately not a lot of fun, though.
I'm curious what you had in mind though since my idea was pretty nebulous, and what I just described above is all kinds of tentative so if yours is more developed (as I assume it is) I'd kinda like to hear about it if you don't mind. :o
If wolf is okay with it, we can unstick the Battle Replays, Logs, & Videos thread and replace it with the arguably superior replay critique thread. That way, the thread is still available for users to post their smashing victories but at the same time there's another replay-posting thread that is actually helpful.
This is just my view, but I would prefer mine isn't stickied either. I just think the current one is terrible. I don't want to be a snob about the quality of the battles, but when turn 3 forfeits and blind 6-0s are posted, it's just not a pleasant, entertaining, or informative thread. You could also keep it but with some sort of minimum quality standard, like "don't post noob battles, don't post early forfeits, don't post troll battles, don't post 15-turn 6-0s." Etc.