So i have been apart of this community for sometime now and have been very fortunate to make a great group of friends. I have posted, downloaded, commented and followed various threads and one common theme in this community that i want to address is something i find oddly disheartening to be frank. I am sure many of you are familiar with the abomination that was Fictional Yorkshire 1.0 (later re-branded to Yorkshire Counties). My map was heavily criticized and i took that away and worked on it and came back with a better piece of content. In those early stages it was difficult to find the motivation to work on something that was so heavily shot down but i took positive feedback, negative feedback and tried to work something out that thankfully has become a popular piece of content in the community. Whilst i know its not for everyone and some people to this day don't like the map i continue to work on it because people mention things that could be improved, might make it better or simply would like to see. I understand that people have a right to an opinion and i for one i'm not slamming that down. All i will say is there are better ways to encourage content creators to take work away and improve it. There is a major lack of content in the community because people are either put off by, lose motivation for or are deterred from making it.
One of the main reasons for this is in my opinion is simply the manner in which content is shot down before any feedback is even given or thought to how comments might make creators feel. You need to remember we are all human at the end of the day and we make what we love for a community we love being apart of and its honestly a shame that i see post after post of comments such as "its sh*t"..."it will never be as good as x map" or even "Why do you even bother". I'm by no stretch a content master nor do i profess to be better than any member of this community just because i have a map on the forum, i started somewhere and have been lucky to be guided and taught a hell of a lot as well as learn a hell of a lot from community project members and content creators. I think its about high time some people got of their high horse, stepped down and had a long hard think about why they say the things they say. I'm actually appalled at some of the levels of disrespect from people who have never used the editor, made content or even so much as considered giving anything back to the community. Fact is this people there's a lot (and i mean a lot because i do browse this forum frequently) of people who complain day in and day out there's a dry spell of content or not enough mods out and even people sick of waiting for various projects due to the lack of content available. If you require me to be blunt here it is, YOU ARE TO BLAME if you make snarky comments, disrespectful attitudes or don't contribute anything constructive when new upcoming content creators try to make it onto the scene.
You cannot expect high level content from every member in a short space of time. Content takes time to make, time to plan and effort to build around personal lives. Its a hobby at the end of the day that offers no financial gain to most of the community (Payware excluded). Not too say payware is a bad thing by any means because its not, but fact is there's a majority that release free content to the community and that content takes time....that they freely give up. Patience is something that goes along way in this community and some people need to learn that as well.
This is a forum NOT a competition, nobody (certainly not me) is in competition with other map makers. We are all here to get the best content we can to improve our simulation experiences. Maybe bare that in mind the next time you think "There's nothing new" or "Why is this project taking so long?" I am not singling out any particular members of this community because in short you genuinely know who you are. If people spent/put half as much time into learning to create content as they did in putting down the content of others we'd probably have more buses, maps and repaints than we already do. I feel this post and thread have quite honestly been long overdue and whilst people will take this as they take it i am hoping people do see it as a bit of friendly advice that might go along way in improving the attitudes towards content and subsequently help in getting more creators to feel confident that they can release content without feeling like they will be belittled and shot down for it. If you dislike somebody's content then simply don't download it and move on, there's plenty of content out there i dislike for personal reasons but i wouldn't dream of shooting down the effort and confidence it took to make it. Disliking content doesn't mean i don't respect the effort, passion and time it took to create something. I am a content creator and as such promote the use of fair criticism and respectful attitudes towards each member of the community. This post doesn't apply to everyone as there are so many great community members and creators already encouraging and helping people make the best use of the forum and helping those who ask respectfully for it. I cannot guarantee i can help every time someone asks as i have a hectic personal life but i always do my best to do so as and when i can.
Thanks for taking the time to read this thread and i hope it makes sense to some people who can take something away from it and perhaps we see more opportunities in the future to increase content the community wants.
One of the main reasons for this is in my opinion is simply the manner in which content is shot down before any feedback is even given or thought to how comments might make creators feel. You need to remember we are all human at the end of the day and we make what we love for a community we love being apart of and its honestly a shame that i see post after post of comments such as "its sh*t"..."it will never be as good as x map" or even "Why do you even bother". I'm by no stretch a content master nor do i profess to be better than any member of this community just because i have a map on the forum, i started somewhere and have been lucky to be guided and taught a hell of a lot as well as learn a hell of a lot from community project members and content creators. I think its about high time some people got of their high horse, stepped down and had a long hard think about why they say the things they say. I'm actually appalled at some of the levels of disrespect from people who have never used the editor, made content or even so much as considered giving anything back to the community. Fact is this people there's a lot (and i mean a lot because i do browse this forum frequently) of people who complain day in and day out there's a dry spell of content or not enough mods out and even people sick of waiting for various projects due to the lack of content available. If you require me to be blunt here it is, YOU ARE TO BLAME if you make snarky comments, disrespectful attitudes or don't contribute anything constructive when new upcoming content creators try to make it onto the scene.
You cannot expect high level content from every member in a short space of time. Content takes time to make, time to plan and effort to build around personal lives. Its a hobby at the end of the day that offers no financial gain to most of the community (Payware excluded). Not too say payware is a bad thing by any means because its not, but fact is there's a majority that release free content to the community and that content takes time....that they freely give up. Patience is something that goes along way in this community and some people need to learn that as well.
This is a forum NOT a competition, nobody (certainly not me) is in competition with other map makers. We are all here to get the best content we can to improve our simulation experiences. Maybe bare that in mind the next time you think "There's nothing new" or "Why is this project taking so long?" I am not singling out any particular members of this community because in short you genuinely know who you are. If people spent/put half as much time into learning to create content as they did in putting down the content of others we'd probably have more buses, maps and repaints than we already do. I feel this post and thread have quite honestly been long overdue and whilst people will take this as they take it i am hoping people do see it as a bit of friendly advice that might go along way in improving the attitudes towards content and subsequently help in getting more creators to feel confident that they can release content without feeling like they will be belittled and shot down for it. If you dislike somebody's content then simply don't download it and move on, there's plenty of content out there i dislike for personal reasons but i wouldn't dream of shooting down the effort and confidence it took to make it. Disliking content doesn't mean i don't respect the effort, passion and time it took to create something. I am a content creator and as such promote the use of fair criticism and respectful attitudes towards each member of the community. This post doesn't apply to everyone as there are so many great community members and creators already encouraging and helping people make the best use of the forum and helping those who ask respectfully for it. I cannot guarantee i can help every time someone asks as i have a hectic personal life but i always do my best to do so as and when i can.
Thanks for taking the time to read this thread and i hope it makes sense to some people who can take something away from it and perhaps we see more opportunities in the future to increase content the community wants.