Help - Forum Categories/Fields/Tags - How can we use them?

UPDATE: Please ignore some of the stuff regarding unsolvable levels in this thread. A good suggestion was made that we can make a thread for challenging levels (which is ultimately what I secretly wanted with Unsolvable Levels). In the meantime, this thread turned into a more important discussion regarding Level organization. I hope to get as much feedback as possible. Thanks! P.S. The good stuff starts with post #11 here.

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Hi everyone,

I thought that it would be high time to clean up the Levels section of the forum a little bit. If you find a level that is not solvable, could you please note it below with a link? It is enough if you think or suspect that it is not solvable. We can then go back and ask the designer or collectively prove whether it can or cannot be solved.

Thanks!

 

I'll start us off. For example, I suspect that this level is unsolvable: House Inspection by @Beats.

 

Exactly why I thought to start a thread about it and crowdsource the verdict on whether a level is solvable or not. If no one can solve it, and the owner/designer cannot be reached, then it may be prudent of us to delete the card from the Levels section (or potentially move it).

 

Sorry @trids I did not evidently see your By My Guest level as "clearly a demo." I try not to peek at comments on a level before playing it. Having tried playing it, it was not apparent to me what effect I was supposed to witness. Even after reading the comments on the level I was still confused. Despite you writing in the first comment that it was a demo of game area boundaries being set at design time, I did not immediately understand the reference.

This forum receives a ton of visitors and members who are only looking for a new level to download and play. They do not participate in the discussions in the comments section of a level or in the forums. As such, they are most likely disappointed with going through the exercise of loading a level from this site into their device only to find that it is not playable. In fact, even many of the advanced levels submitted are not intuitive for many and are abandoned in frustration.

With my proposed Noteworthy Levels document I was hoping to find a way to identify what might be a good way to find fun levels to play. Not an easy feat.

Yesterday, though, I may have stumbled on a new solution to sort out some levels using Categories in the Media Gallery (aka Levels section) as opposed to Albums. What we could do is ask that any demos be submitted into a general demo category rather than into a member's personal album. As an administrator I can create Categories and then they would be listed in a section under the Albums section on the Levels listing page.

So far we've been asking - and it has been working for the most part - that any demos are submitted directly into the relevant forum threads (as images embedded in spoilers) and then they are discussed there as part of a greater discussion around the element/effect being demo'd. This way, additional demos pertaining to the topic can also be shared. Linking to a level often splits up the conversation over different areas of the website and makes continuity difficult. So even the suggestion of putting them all into a new Category may not be a good idea (and that is not even mentioning all the education we would have to do around the concept of Categories).

But, ultimately, I still think that we should avoid putting incomplete/unplayable levels in the Levels section as the majority of people are looking for the opposite in that section.

Perhaps you're right. In fact, the first level I linked to above (House Inspection) as potentially not solvable was brought to my attention as solvable by @meko. Admittedly, it has been several months since I tried it last and I don't think @Beats actually intended it to be solvable, but given all the new exploits shared, I was able to solve it as well now.

So not only can a level become solvable over time, it begs the question of what to do with levels submitted simply for their artistic merit. I believe the intention of House Inspection was simply to play it as an "inspection" exercise given its title and the author on the card reading "this cant be." So is this art? Is it fair to include it in with all the levels submitted for general Mekorama enjoyment?

OK, by this statement I presume that you agree that we should do a better job of keeping the forum tidy. I was merely trying to find a way to do so objectively. If a level is not solvable, and we can all clearly agree that it is not, should that not be reason for removal, relocation, or now potentially re-categorization? How could we determine whether a level offers little in the way of satisfaction?

I agree, I would not want to see win blocks inserted into demos just for the sake of it or see any additional red-tape.

This thread has now morphed into a discussion on how to tidy up the levels section - and that's a good thing. I hope many more chime in with thoughts, arguments, and/or suggestions.

 

Excellent idea!

@trids and @Rohit - I just created a new (and this forum's first and only fully visible) Category in the Levels section called "Tutorials." For now, please consider it only a test category and BACK UP anything you post to it. In the case that this doesn't work out and I have to delete the Category, all uploads to it will be deleted too. Have fun and let us know what you think.

EDIT: To see the Tutorials category, you can go to the Levels listing page and see it on the left-hand side menu. Clicking it right now will show this obvious message: "No levels has been added yet. Add Level." Clicking on this link or the Add Level link in the top right will lead you to the familiar upload page with one difference: In the "Add level to..." section you'll have a choice to add the level as normal to a personal album OR to a category such as the current sole entry of Tutorials. Can't wait to hear what you think!

 

@Rohit - I am glad you are asking. Thank you. For now, the Tutorials category is experimental for this website. Categories have never been tried before and since we're all volunteers here, we are all learning as we go along. Please only post in the Tutorials category temporary uploads for now until we can confirm that it is functional, intuitive, and practical.

Absolutely NOT. I would rather that new members don't actually use this new category until well versed with what would constitute a good tutorial. You can take @trids' tutorial 1, 2, and 3 or @retrograde's Descent tutorial for great examples of what was done in the past.

I have seen and completed this level. I will comment on it soon. For now, know that this would not constitute a tutorial. It is a very nice trick level and (like many others have done on this site) it should be posted as a regular level first. In fact, anytime someone finds a new trick/bug/exploit and a nice way to embed it in a playable level, they post it as such first and then see what comments come of it. Some of us are currently working on documenting these discoveries in the Advanced Level Document hinted at here. We hope to recruit designers to make compact and well explained tutorial levels for them as well.

If a new bug/exploit is not consistent or cannot be made into a playable level, then they are simply mentioned in the MEKORAMA EXPLOITS RESEARCH thread along with the card image as a file upload or image within a spoiler so that they can be discussed and improved as a community.

Thanks for your understanding, participation, and enthusiasm!

 

True. :/

The main advantage to the Category over the Album approach is that it is more obvious during the Add Level process on where to place tutorials and the same goes for finding the tutorials from the Levels listing page.

One disadvantage, however, is that levels added to a special Category do not seem to show up in the New Levels listing on the home page. They also do not show up if you specifically search for new levels using the top menu (which leads to this page that applies the "find-new" filter).