Two stars and a wish for The Escapist

[Aerosteam]

Back in my Primary School years (so that's school at the age of around 6-12 years old for those of you outside the UK), whenever someone finishes a project or presentation either in a group or individually, all the other classmates wrote on a small piece of paper their "Two stars and a wish".

Simply put, two things you liked about what the student(s) have done, and one thing they can improve on for next time.

I think this can be applicable to pretty much anything, so I ask you, fellow users, what are your two stars and a wish for The Escapist? (This goes for the entire site, so the journalist stuff, videos, forums and community are included)

star - The schedule for the video content is really useful (even though there hasn't been many Podcats lately)

star - The news feed isn't entirely comprised of video game news and includes anything a geek like myself would like to read about.

wish - Not here to put Marter on the spot, I'm sure he's working on it, but the Community and Review Spotlight needs to continue

 

[Fappy]

wish - Not here to put Marter on the spot, I'm sure he's working on it, but the Community and Review Spotlight needs to continue

The hiatus is due to the staff, not Marter.

OT:

star - More Jim Sterling.

star - More Miniature Fantasy Willem Dafoe.

wish - More Jim Sterling.

 

[JoJo]

Star - The moderation here may not be perfect but it's damn close, haven't found a better moderated forum than here yet

Star - The community here is roughly the right size, large enough that the forums are fairly active but not so large that it's hard to be get known

Wish - The forum rules were rewritten be to clearer about how they are applied, and a couple of misleading sentences removed

 

[tippy2k2]

BRILLIANT!

Star - While I agree with JoJo that a few rewrites for clarity sake would be nice (especially since necroing is not "technically" in the rules but people get hit for it), I absolutely adore the way this site handles moderation. Mods, you guys rock so keep it up

Star - The community in general. Though there are some bad apples, they generally get turned into applesauce pretty quickly by the Mods. Now maybe I'm wrong since this is the only one I go to but how many other communities could pull something like the PubClub Christmas off?

Wish - Enough copycat threads people! Please! I get that when you see X thread get 5 kajillion views and that sweet sweet On Fire badge gets earned by someone but we really don't need twenty threads on the same thing.

 

[Aerosteam]

wish - Not here to put Marter on the spot, I'm sure he's working on it, but the Community and Review Spotlight needs to continue

The hiatus is due to the staff, not Marter.

I know it's up to the staff mainly, but I remember him saying he'll talk to them about it soon.

 

[shrekfan246]

wish - Not here to put Marter on the spot, I'm sure he's working on it, but the Community and Review Spotlight needs to continue

The hiatus is due to the staff, not Marter.

I know it's up to the staff mainly, but I remember him saying he'll talk to them about it soon.

He has, and hasn't received a response so far as we're aware. EDIT: Or it was explained as being put off due to restructuring for a time. I don't remember exactly. (Apologies if that's giving away too much information. )

OT: Star -
General cleanness and ease-of-use of the forums. Seriously, much as they've changed over the years, there are few other forums I've seen that have been as aesthetically pleasing to actually read as The Escapist.

Star -
For the mods. Their work isn't easy, especially when the forum rules direly need updating, but they perform valiantly all the same.

Wish -
I really only wish the Code of Conduct would be updated. I don't know all of the bureaucracy behind the scenes, but I feel like a lot of the "problems" we're currently experiencing in the wake of management-changing could be assuaged by an updated Code of Conduct that actually covers all of the newly-enforced rules and slightly-altered existing ones.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Star - The staff guest appearance in the Pub Club video. That wasn't necessary but it was AWESOME you guys did it!

Star - Jim Stirling joining the site for reviews as well as Jimquisition.

Wish - I would like to see a "Saved" or "Favorite" folder in the PM system so that I could save messages I like on the Escapist without having to fish for them. I've brought this up before but I really would like it.

Here's to another year!

 

[FalloutJack]

Star - To be fair, I get alot of decent, interesting (or at least funny and weird) news here.

Star - There's a number of shows that I watch here.

Wish - Dude, your ads should be way less intrusive. According to the Escapist itself, the ads only need to be viewable on the page somewhere for them to make money off of it, not in the way or talking or blocking any part of the pages and this also includes the annoying captcha ads.

 

[Marter]

wish - Not here to put Marter on the spot, I'm sure he's working on it, but the Community and Review Spotlight needs to continue

I never got to pick the Review Spotlight and I'm still waiting on a response. I'm thinking at this point my email might have gotten lost in the probably loaded inboxes or something. Or they're getting to it. I dunno.

 

[Sassafrass]

Wish - Enough copycat threads people! Please! I get that when you see X thread get 5 kajillion views and that sweet sweet On Fire badge gets earned by someone but we really don't need twenty threads on the same thing.

But Tippy, I want to find out if people would rather save a carrot or a parsnip from drowning in a whirlpool within a whilrpool. D:

OT: Star - My friends list.
Star - The people who I speak to daily/aren't on my friends list/who I haven't expressed a desire to punch yet. Which is most of you. So yay, you. Yes, you. [http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x310/The_Ultimate_Wrestling_Gallery/Hulk%20Hogan/HulkHogan028.jpg]
Wish - A more active User Review section.

 

[Tanis]

Star:
The forums actually, function, and there are no sigs.

Star:
The really nasty trolls are quickly dealt with; no reddit level of acceptance.

Wish:
The whole warning system needs a big fixing.
You should be able to access the list of warnings you've gotten in the past, and recently, so you know.
The 'green to red bar' thing just isn't working.

 

[Generalissimo]

Star - polite and punctual members
Star - best damn mods I've ever seen
Wish - less obtrusive captchas

Of all the forums I've been on that are basically troll hives, this place stamps angry idiots like that out no trouble, combined with a population of lovely people and benevolent moderators, the scariest gets a big fat tick in my book, and should I ever have the privalige of meeting any of you, I owe you a beverage of your choice for being the best damn community I ever did see.

I love all of you

 

[Fappy]

Wish - Enough copycat threads people! Please! I get that when you see X thread get 5 kajillion views and that sweet sweet On Fire badge gets earned by someone but we really don't need twenty threads on the same thing.

But Tippy, I want to find out if people would rather save a carrot or a parsnip from drowning in a whirlpool within a whilrpool. D:

OT: Star - My friends list.
Star - The people who I speak to daily/aren't on my friends list/who I haven't expressed a desire to punch yet. Which is most of you. So yay, you. Yes, you. [http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x310/The_Ultimate_Wrestling_Gallery/Hulk%20Hogan/HulkHogan028.jpg]
Wish - A more active User Review section.

Yeah, User Reviews section is a ghost town T^T

I haven't written a review in a really long time. Not since SMT IV came out this past summer >.<

 

[IceForce]

Doing my wish first, because why not.

Wish: As others have said, the rules really do need a rewrite and clarification. And the moderation could be a bit more consistent across the board.

Star: Despite what I said above though, I'm impressed at how quickly spambots are killed, and how clean the forums are from spam. So that's really good to see.

Star: I liked the forums layout here, as soon as I saw it. The clean, uncluttered design. The lack of forum signatures, etc, makes this forum very pleasant on the eyes and easy to use.

 

[FPLOON]

Star - Video schedules...

Star - The best form of a regular comment system... disguised as a forum... (Or is it the other way around, in terms of video content?)

Wish - Why do you keep reminding me that there's an anime review section that hasn't had a single recent review in said section since 2011? If these wishes came true in some way, my wish would be for that section to have some major updating... (unless I'm REALLY missing something here...)

 

[BQE]

Star - I agree with the others regarding the ironclad moderation, it sets a good standard.

Wish - I wish the facebook comment system would go far away forever.

Star - Bringing Jim Sterling over as Reviews Editor. Well done!

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Star - Also putting in my vote for one of the better moderated sites I've been part of.
Star - Active community even if I don't always agree with them, still nice to be part of it
Wish - Content seems to have thinned a bit since I started, not sure whats missing but I do feel we could have more site-original content and less filler news or reposted news. Just a thought.

EDIT: I miss Stolen Pixels...

 

[Legion]

Star - I like the forums layout. It is clean, nicely designed and isn't unnecessarily cluttered.

Star - It is difficult to describe, but I like the way this site feels like it is run by people who actually like games. Rather than simply looking at them as products. It feels like it is run by gamers, not a corporation.

Wish - I would like a new forum titled 'Community Content'. It would have the User Review section in a sub forum as well as others. For example a place for fan art/fiction, competitions (run by users not staff), Let's Plays, game guides and give-aways.

Basically a place for all of those kind of things, so it doesn't take up the off-topic and doesn't need to abide by rules such as low content/discussion value.

 

[Ipsen]

Cool idea, Aerostream.

Star: Jim Sterling's growing presence on the site, among a variety of geek media mainstays; it actually pans out to a neat media hub.

Star: I've always stated that the staff is awesome. There's been changes, but this has been a constant.

Wish: More articles again. More Featured, and more frequent Critical Intel & Stolen Pixels. More mainstays, even. I think the 'This is NEWS?!?' comments on some of the news releases are dumb, and it might just be a change in times for the site to shift away from articles, but it would sort of solidify the site better as a 'News' website. But just an opinion.

 

[major_chaos]

Star: getting Jim as reviews editor was brilliant

Star: The community at this point feels like its just the right size

Wish: Moderation needs work in three big ways
1. Code of Conduct needs a rewrite big time, both for clarity and to fix some of the more asinine elements.
2. R&P needs to be more heavily policed so it isn't a wasteland of thinly veiled hate and smug condescension.
3. IMHO some of the mods could stand to simply not interact with the community.