By "full well formatted description" I didn't mean that you would need to describe the whole thing in detail, I only meant it to be a good enough description so whoever downloads it, is fully aware of what is being downloaded there.Chamberly wrote:I'll disagree for requiring this:
I don't want a full page flooded with stuff that made it required to do so. Anything simple that can be easily described in a TL;DR format will be easier, IMO.Any project which does not (mod/mutator/code in general), should instead have either a video or a full well formatted description of what it's supposed to do.
Otherwise, anything I'd like to post that required this... I'll decide not to post it here because I wouldn't be able to explain every single thing. Bugs are bound to be found and reported too, so it's in a grey area of finding unexpected things.
For example, if you made a simple mutator which all it did was to double the size of the pickups around the map, all you would have to say about it is exactly that:
"This is a mutator which doubles the size of the pickups in a map."
perhaps with instructions on how activate the mutator itself, such as:
"Copy the contents to System, and then in the game activate the "Double Pickups" mutator."
And if you make something complex enough that would require a huge post to explain, you can simply summarize it into the most important things it does and what it consists off, you don't need to talk about every single detail, but doing so in a way that it's easier to read, like:
"This mod does the following:
- Doubles the pickups in a map.
- Makes ammo explosive.
- Removes headshots.
- ...
"
Because generally those who release stuff have a tendency to not explain anything, or to explain everything in a single line with no punctuation or anything, making it very hard to read, hence the "full" and "well formatted" parts.
Some places like ModDB even have bare minimum requirements whenever you want to post an addon or a mod there, and they will review and approve the mod if all requirements are met, and this thus far ensured at least a minimum of quality of the site overall, so you know that when you open a mod page, there's at least a minimum amount of substance to it.
Sure, it's in the developer's best interest to make a good presentation on what he/she's offering to the community, but if many developers do not care to do so, it doesn't take long before the real good mods where the developers cared to present well, get sunk within all the sludge which are the other mods which are painful to even open the page to check out given that they lack even the most fundamental things to pick anyone's interest at all.
Regardless however, a forum is meant for discussions only, and the only reason why so much content is released here in the first place through topics and whatnot is that there's currently no better format or place to do so, not yet at least.