 |
welcome, guest |
| General Forum | ||||
 |
| |||
 Tea Queen Laura    |
In the seven years it's been online, the Ask Laura archive has got HUMONGOUS. With a whopping 72 pages and 1080 questions answered, I'm starting to wonder if it's gotten too big. When the column started it was meant to be the successor to Helen's Ask Trish column. Instead, Ask Laura quickly became the place to ask technical/help-style questions, other than the help forum. It's only since very recently that just humorous questions are allowed. My question to you all, the people who use Ask Laura, is: Do any of you actually use the column's search feature to find gameplay or technical information to aid you with your games? Would you feel miffed if I was to delete all such entries from the archive? Would you be shocked, or even saddened, to see the number of pages go down so rapidly? Do you think that these technical/help entries are useful enough to stay, or do the community's help forums and the Creatures Wiki provide enough resources? If I had my way, I'd want to just keep the humorous stuff and delete everything else, because I really wish that Ask Laura was just what it was intended to be. It's from about page 13 where people stopped asking me help questions, and trying to find any humorous entries after that is like trying to find a piece of hay in a stack of needles.  They are there though, just interspersed between the technical/help junk.I wanted to get some opinions first, to make sure I don't upset or annoy anybody, or act too rashly. Thanks  |
|||
 Deskman |
Since Ask Laura was intended to be a humorous column, IMO you should keep the humorous questions and deleted the tech ones, since that is what the Help forum is for |
|||
 LuciaInFurs |
To be honest, I wouldn't miss any technical questions disappearing from the achieve. Perhaps, for the sake of future clarity, we could get someone else to handle the tech questions? Though like you say, with the help forum and the creatures wiki, that may be a little redundant. The Electric Angels (my blog) http://luciainfurs.wordpress.com/ ~*~*~*~*~*~ "Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk"  |
|||
Tea Queen Laura |
Ask Laura doesn't even receive any help/tech questions now. |
|||
 Sanely Insane RisenAngel Manager |
Like everyone else, I primarily read the column for the sake of the humor, not the technical stuff. In fact, I got rather annoyed by the motherlode of technical questions when browsing through the earliest sections. So yeah. On this half at least, the technical mumbo-jumbo won't be missed. Risen Angel's Creatures Blog |
|||
 Malkin Manager |
I use the technical stuff as a reference to help others and myself.  Over the seven years you've been writing Ask Laura (congratulations!) some of the technical help answers have become dated, ('where do I get...' being the most obvious example) so those could definitely go, as they could be confusing. My TCR Norns |
|||
 Moe |
I think everyone's pretty much unanimous. It's time for some really late Spring Cleaning in the Column to take out the rubbish technical stuff. |
|||
 Liam |
Yes please. - Liam / K'aeloree Spellhold Studios, a Baldur's Gate II, Neverwinter Nights and Oblivion Modding Community |
|||
 Jessica |
I agree with everyone: I really love the humor in Ask Laura, and have never used it for any technical help. Searching the forums or using the Creatures Wiki are the ways in which I try to find answers. This reminds me that I haven't read many of the latest witty answers... I'll definitely have to get around to that soon! |
|||
 Razgriz |
I too am in full agreement about the techie stuff. The humorous stuff should be kept. |
|||
 silvak |
To be honest, I got confused a while back if it was a Tech support thing or for a laugh and so I haven't really read any of it. Knowing now that it's a humorous column I think I'll need to take a look again!! Lost Content, help find it a home! |
|||
 xan |
Nuke the tech, or archive everything older than the last tech question. |
|||
 Prodigal Sock Ghosthande |
I also find it annoying to see technical questions there when it's supposed to be humorous, but as Malkin pointed out those questions and their replies are a good reference. Perhaps the tech questions could be preserved in a separate archive, or even reformatted into a more FAQ-style layout, organized by topic? Aside from Gameware's site there aren't really any do-it-yourself troubleshooting resources out there, so it could be quite helpful.  |
|||
 Don |
Anyone who wants to save any of the technical information and/or post any of the helpful tips to the Creatures Wiki please do so asap as Laura will be tidying her column shortly to ensure it's clear that its a fun feature and not for actual game support Spring cleaning here we come You can File, Save Page As, and choose .mht format ('Web Page Complete') (FF version) to grab each page in turn, unless Rascii fancies adding a &perpage= feature to view more results per page and there is also webarchive. Don AmberCreatures  |
|||
Tea Queen Laura |
That's a brilliant idea, Don - much better than my lame idea of me copying and pasting any useful tech/help questions into a Word document which, now I think about it, would be a lot of added effort that I'd rather do without. There'll be enough donkey work to be done when I start tidying up the archive. I can't wait to get this cleanout underway, I've wanted to do this for so long. |
|||
Don |
What day are you going to start? So everyone knows how long they have to grab any info they want to keep Don AmberCreatures |
|||
Tea Queen Laura |
I think a week should be enough time for everyone, no? Come next Monday (19th) I am going to start deleting all of the tech questions, and those who want to should've backed up the archive by then. Don wrote: |
|||
Malkin Manager |
Don, if Laura linked to a download in her answer, will this tool save it as part of the archive? My TCR Norns |
|||
 AquaShee |
It wouldn't be right to just download stuff and archive it without permission, especially not if it's done automatically. Besides, it's an archive, links going out of date is normal. Archives aren't supposed to be kept up to date. It's not like anyone ever worried about the links still working before the archive idea. The Community Scribble: make (y)our own metaroom! |
|||
Don |
The archive edits links to link to an archived copy of the page (where the original intended link is easy to find). There's a couple of link examples here: http://web.archive.org/web/20080213125201/... In most cases anywhere it finds a link it added that page to its to-archive list, so it should be there. Some of the pages may have moved/closed over the years anyway so these archive sites are quite handy. Don AmberCreatures |
|||
Malkin Manager |
I'm not sure I explained myself properly, AquaShee. :/ Sometimes, Laura would get someone to make a file explaining such-and-such a concept, and host it on her own webspace. Pictures and stuff would still be on imageshack, but things like zip files wouldn't be. My TCR Norns |
|||
AquaShee |
I can't really recall any Ask Laura answers like that from the top of my head, but if they exist, the same still applies. The web.archive.org solution is the best option in any case, but an archive is an archive and I don't think anyone should go through heaps of trouble just to keep a really old link to a file or page outside the archive itself available. It's a Spring Cleaning, dare to throw stuff out! The Community Scribble: make (y)our own metaroom! |
|||
Don |
I can't see any cases of that looking through the posts. Any zip files linked to in Ask Laura would remain in the same location as there are in now, as downloads aren't hosted on Ask Laura and she doesn't currently have any webspace. If any of files no longer exist online you can always look the URLs up on www.archive.org Edit: Snap again AquaShee  Don AmberCreatures |
|||
Moe |
My belated "spring cleaning" metaphor caught on. I feel special. |
|||
 Small Birb Pann |
I enjoy the funny questions! Small bird who lives here sometimes, and wanders other times. Got Creatures related content to share? Submit to Heck Yeah, Creatures! Icon by gettehld on twitter! |
|||
Tea Queen Laura |
That's because it is spring cleaning, Moe! |
|||
 Geek Ettin eprillios |
I do not like that the older (tech) questions get lost, it took effort and they're still a good reference. Maybe you could make a page for such questions instead of having them at Ask Laura? Of course the tech questions page may not be open for new entries.  Geek Ettin's Lab (New!) Bill Gates: "Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one."  |
|||
Tea Queen Laura |
I have given people a week to back up the column's pages. The technical questions won't get lost for those who still refer to them. Once someone makes a back up they can share it however they please. |
|||
 LoverIan |
I enjoy the humorous ones, but I don't mind the OCCASIONAL tech related one, or one that mixes both humor, and tech stuff! beep |
|||
Tea Queen Laura |
I just want to remind everyone that tomorrow is Sunday 18th, and that Monday 19th is creeping up now. I hope that people have started, or have finished, backing up any pages they want, or have bookmarked Ask Laura on Archive.org. |
|||
Tea Queen Laura |
Today is D-Day... Deletion Day! Thank you for everyone's input. |
|||
Don |
Woo! Spring cleaning time Don AmberCreatures |
|||
Tea Queen Laura |
Drumroll please... CLEANUP COMPLETED. All of the help forum-style and technical questions have gone, with 325 humorous questions left to browse through and enjoy. Plus, this means that there's now even more room for creatures, and hands alike, to write in with their daily dilemmas and tales of woe. Please do, because Ask Laura looks really small after all that tidying up.  |
|||
Prodigal Sock Ghosthande |
Wow, 50 pages gone! That's some serious spring cleaning. |
|||
Tea Queen Laura |
It took quite a while, but I think the column is so much better for it now. Also, I've come to the conclusion that my earlier replies are rubbish. |
|||
| downloads cobs adoptions creaturelink metarooms breeds gallery art wallpaper screenshots graphics promos sprites |
dev hack shack script reservations dev resources active projects dev forum community links advice chat polls resources |
creatchi forum bookmarks general news help development strangeo survivor |
mycaves log in register lost pw |
0 online |
| creatures caves is your #1 resource for the creatures artificial life game series: creatures, creatures 2, creatures 3, docking station, and the upcoming creatures family. contact help privacy policy terms & conditions rules donate wiki |
||||