Collab Changes? Aid participation?

Blender Courses Blender Collab
#21

I think you pointed out a lot of the flaws the collab and the forums have.

  • No visibility whatsoever.
  • There’s no real incentive to participate in the community.
  • We, as regulars, maybe should try to do a little bit more to keep the community healthy, as Blest did.

Something I truly enjoyed about the Unity 3D course were those chats Ben and Rick had, they also showed some of the work the students did, that truly motivated me to start participating in the community, maybe the instructors should add at least one video per section showing what the forums are for and what they can do in here, that is not just a place to show your progress, but for networking, inspiration, practice and more.

4 Likes
#22

At this point, if you don’t want to break the site’s architecture, the simplest way to promote events would be a carousel/banner. The site seems to be in EmberJS so that wouldn’t be super hard to implement…

gamedevtvmockup
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yeah I made a mockup XD :see_no_evil:

6 Likes
#23

I think @Seblecaribou’s idea about having a banner is a fantastic idea. As many have said already, I didn’t even realise the collab was a thing before seeing this thread. By having a banner at the top of the screen is definitely going to bring a lot more attention from all members- new and old.

1 Like
#24

Hello @Marc_Carlyon (and GameDev people), can you do something with these ideas in this thread?
Not so long ago there were some experiments going, showing more visuals.
It was a good attempt, but it had its drawbacks.

Maybe adding more people to this thread who can change the behaviour (layout) of the forum (threads) in a technical sense for this site. And talk about the possibilities this forum software has to offer.

  • As a student I want to post my homework for a lesson in the same channel as all other students do, so I can see the outcome and compare it with other students.

Pyramid_step_1 in channel “Pyramid_step_1”, Pyramid_step_2 in channel “Pyramid_step_2”, etc.
Then show an image thumbnail overview of all entered Pyramid_step_# solutions.
It solves the problem of seeing all kinds of topics and experience levels on one page.

  • As a student I want to see in which part of the course I am on this site so that I can easily add a showcase or question in the lesson I am currently following.

Solutions to questions and showcases are grouped together, related to the lessons

  • As a moderator I want to promote some students work for a certain time on a top(front) page so I can encourage other students.

Sometimes you see simple but still excellent performed challenges. Or creative out-of-the-box projects. Or High skilled projects. So a way to promote them, show people what you can do at an early stage or at the end of the Blender course.

Maybe you know some other USER stories to improve the Blender community.

Syntax

The who, what, and why are arranged in a sentence like this:

As a < who >, I want < what > so that < why >.

Have fun

4 Likes
#25

I am doing that now. It needs higher attention at this point I agree. There has been some good feedback and commonality in some of the problems.

Still, more input would be valued though.

@Seblecaribou nice mock up of the idea. How hard would it be to use last week’s entries as the images? or is that too much to do easily? Swapping the banner images weekly, or even a slide show of all the lasts, completed, collab entries as a slide show.

Ideally, it needs to be a banner over all the forum pages, or at least all the Blender sections.

1 Like
#26

It may take a while but i’m raising it with the team and see what we can do to get you guys more visibility.
I’m not sure what or if we can do anything but i promise you its been elevated and i have given some suggestions.

This thread is linked so the team can read this for information on what you would like for the collab.
:slight_smile:

EDIT :- It something we are planning to look into but its not a quick fix as it affects other areas of the forums too…
Any suggestions on structure or even other forums that have a better structure for this would be really helpful too.

Thanks guys post them here :slight_smile:

7 Likes
#27

It depends how the entry is uploaded in the first place. If the naming system is consistent it shouldn’t even be a problem to have the thing update automatically, and have the banner swap between different events (I had a similar task at work on a theater festival web app).

Now to be clear, what I mean is in web development, nothing is not doable but you’d have to see how things are kept behind to be sure how to implement it properly. Maybe there’s a weird way things are uploaded that I don’t know about, or how the site loads different pages that would be ruined by the addition of such a feature and I’m talking out of my a** here xD

But from the outside, seeing what I see in the code inspector, it looks like a case of adding a div under the header and slapping three image that load their infos from the database. Looks like two man days for a junior like me and probably less for a senior…

Again grain of salt and all, I don’t want to come up as patronizing at all. Simple task can be super tricky sometimes in web dev :sweat_smile:

2 Likes
#28

The collab sounds interesting, although I would consider it once I finish at least one blender course.

I do have a suggestion though, and this would apply to more than one Course section. Why not have a general gallery section where people can post work they have done. It would not replace the collab, but it would be a nice supplement. There could be one for code, 2d art, blender, etc.

That is, unless you already have one and I do not know where to look?

1 Like
#29

I suggest to give the collab a go, it’s a great learning experience having to do a model or scene entirely on your own and a lot of us have participated without finishing any of the Blender courses.

2 Likes
#30

The collab is all about participation, you do not need to be perfect to throw in a render. A quick simple take on a subject that may be outside your habitual subject areas. Or you may get inspired and make a big work for it.
Some form of gallery, possibly of collab entries has been mentioned.

@Seblecaribou Ah ok thanks it is possible, not sure there is the staff time available but something that could be added at some time.

1 Like
#31

I will have to see about my schedule, it is pretty tight. For now I will keep in mind for consideration.

1 Like
#32

I think also we (as a user) do not use the site options very well. Or the defaults are wrong!?

If you are on the community level (top page, tab ‘Community’).
The ‘Category details’ are shown by default. This is handy for some of us as an index to navigate from. To search for new forum items and questions (ask channel). But there are other views available, overlooked by most of us (including me). Or as a newcomer, overwhelmed by the size of information and navigation (problems). Where to post my first work …

Besides the Yellow button ‘Categories’, there are also the options for ‘Top’, ‘Latest’ and ‘Unread()’. I can imagine that the styles of these options are not inviting people to click on. And if they do they confuse the user. Because the new view is overwhelming, and the active filter (show popular work over a year period) does not help either because it is hard to beat the student with a piece of good work.

Changing the filter is lost by the user (viewer) because they see great work and click on an item, losing context. They will also mark this project as favorite (heart symbol). Which makes it even harder to beat this already top marked project.

A solution could be to change the default filter from a year to a weak, two weeks. (it depends on the flow of new work published). This is a task for the forum ‘disclosure’ system administrator. This will produce a more actual presentation of recent work and giving all students (beginners and advanced) a podium to show their progress.

See for yourself, click on the following link and change the filter.

The latest option shows a different view with a different thumbnail. Which is by default the first image in the thread. This is handy if a forum thread has one topic. Like for example a Work In Progress (WIP). But if students place work in the same thread, only the first poster, gets a thumbnail by default.Other entries will not be seen as a thumb.

As a moderator, I can change the thumbnail, but it is a lot of work and I’m not a gamedev member. Just a student like you. I do this for the Blender Collab.

A solution could be to show the last image posted in a thread or randomize (also not such a great solution, it will confuse people).

https://community.gamedev.tv/latest

My advice would also be

  • to change the appearance of those yellow ‘Catories’, ‘Top’ buttons. Or explain clearly what they can do for the user,
  • Change the default filter from a year to two weeks.
4 Likes
#34

Like a few others on this forum, I try to engage new members regularly and I often inform people about joining the Collab.

I’ve not been super active this week - but twice already I’ve had people reply - how/ where do I find the event?

Clearly many people don’t join in because they have no idea it exists…

Can we create a Come Join in the Weekly Collab and pin it where it has a chance of being seen - in the show section perhaps?

3 Likes
#35

I think the competition is doing well, there are a million different reasons for people’s motivations, xxx jess

#36

I can help, I will knock up a flyer and keep putting it on the main feed - in - the blender show category. can you give me the right info to put on a colourful flyer/ post? loves xxx jess

#37

1§021heart2a
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xxx jess

2 Likes
#38

Preach! :smiley:

#39

I know this topic is old but I want to give my to cents as someone new to both 3d and this platform. I won’t address the problems that were already mentioned here like lack of time, summer and other stuff because yes, it happens but I don’t see that as the main reason and we can’t control it or change it. Also, ppl tend to get very excited about something and forget about it later.

PS: I’m a seasoned UI engineer but I’m no UX designer. When I talk about usability I’m talking from the experience that I have working with the designers not from figuring out how to solve the problems. That said, I can easily see when the UI has a problem but I can’t say for sure how to fix it.

So…
This community is buried under the courses and it’s not inviting to join it. I know it’s on the main menu but this is not the problem, when you join it’s because you bought the course not because of the community.

Under each of the lessons there are topics about it but it’s hard to understand what is going on there. It took me a good while to understand it was actually students posts.

There should be a class, after the basics, explaining why joining the community is important and talking about the weekly challenges. Most ppl here are young and don’t understand the true value about a community or about pushing themselves on those challenges. A lesson about learning, how to use the community and how to proceed with the course would be amazing not just for the community but for the students. Learning how to learn what the most important thing I did in my entire live, now I can quickly learn a new programming language as well as a 3d software. It does not mean that it will be easier, it just removes the learning barrier sonm things have.

A quick thing about the real value of the challenges, in my opinion you should always aim to just a little bit over what you know you can do. Doing what you already know you can do won’t push you as further as having to figure some problem out and then doing it.

Other than that
Forum system have a big problem, they do too much and they are usually very confusing. That’s why reddit is do good. It does only one thing and does it really well.
If we can fix this forum system to not be as bad as others this should make it easier to get new members.

3 Likes
#40

True!

Yes, it looks simple, but users get lost. And the tools (navigating, overviews, etc.) aren’t helping.
Also all 2D art courses are now in the same forum. Also the connection between Discord, Udemy, GameDev is creating confusing.

2 Likes

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