   NOT AN AD: COMPLAINT
This is directed at the moderators and staff, but is open to everyone's comments and opinions.Not following the rules of this forum has become an advantage and is currently being consciously and strategically used to manipulate the users of gamedev.net. Those who do not follow the template given in the sticky are rewarded for their irresponsibility at the expense of everyone else.  Regardless of intent, those who do not follow the template need to be punished.  The people of Gamedev should not carry the responsible of the careless nor the apathetic.Those who followed the rules are being punished by being out-bumped, which could and often does mean life or death to a project.  The ill-mannered project leaders are having their threads bumped to the top by moderators and the people with friendly reminders to reformat their post.  The rule-abiding posters are being cast aside far too quickly to gather attention because of this.  It has gotten out of hand, and action needs to be taken.My recommendation is that anyone who fails to follow the given template for posting ads should be warned and have their post deleted immediately, as well as for excessive bumps and anything else mentioned in the ***READ BEFORE POSTING*** sticky.   
  Hrm, you raise a good point there, although it's an issue I'm not entirely sure how to deal with appropriately at this point.It is unfair that topics are being bumped above others for not following the rules correctly, especially with the default topics-per-page being quite low and this particular forum having quite a high level of traffic.  It can (and I believe in most cases is) be unintentional however, so I'm unlikely to start handing out warnings (in the official 'warning level system sense) or any disciplinary action unless I catch someone out playing the system on purpose.I do prefer having people use thier current thread rather than reposting, and it tends to make it easier to contact people if it can be just done with a post in thier thread, but deleting the threads and contacting via PM instead could help to alleviate the problem somewhat - could I get the thoughts of more users on this particular option?Another thing that would probably help is making the *** READ BEFORE POSTING *** a bit more visible; it would seem that a lot of people do seem to genuinely miss seeing it.  Keeping in mind that software changes specifically for this purpose are very unlikely, has anyone got any suggestions for improving the visibility of the thread - you lot are the ones who actually have to see it, so what made you notice it/not notice it/would help you to notice it in future?So, just to summarise my questions to everyone:- What are your thoughts on deleting threads which do not conform to the template and contacting the user via PM as opposed to informing them with a post in the thread?- Do you have any suggestions for improving the visibility of the *** READ BEFORE POSTING *** stickyAny other comments are of course welcome.   ;  The current system seems to work pretty okay; it's nice and friendly (which is important since the bulk of the posters that 'mess up' are newbies), and for anyone who takes a look at the help wanted posts a couple of times, you quickly run into a "please format your page LIKE THIS" notice, which is in many ways more usefull than the "please read this before posting" at the top of the forum (when did programmers EVER read the manual for anything?).The teams that do well also 'nurse' their thread, by continously adding value in the form of updates, concept art, new screenshots, links to demos, development diaries, etc. This not only bumps the thread back into limelight, but also gives prospective viewers a real impression of what you're accomplishing. Kaz is also doing a great job by giving the teams that look good their 5 minutes in the sticky-spotlight.If your thread is starving, you might want to ask who's fault is is.. The newbie who's only reply is the moderator telling him to reformat the page, or your own, for not giving it the support it needs ?Allan;  Why not immediately delete threads that don't follow the posting template, PM the offender a copy of his post, and tell him to repost it with the template?EDIT: Heh, see that's already been suggested.  Well, its got my suggestion as well.As for the READ BEFORE POSTING, maybe put it into the Forum's actual name/link... like "Help Wanted- Threads must Use Template"   ;  To be honest, I missed the thread at first, too.  But, when I looked at other posts and nearly half of them on the front page had links to the template....:}When it comes down to it, there's simply no excuse.  Short of posting your help-wanted thread without looking at any others for reference, you can't miss it.  And if you don't look at any other threads, you shouldn't have posted anyway.  It would probably come out hurting you more than helping, so deleting these threads could actually be seen as a service to help everyone.I like the idea of deletion+PM.  If this system is used, I'd suggest:  ***MANDATORY POST TEMPLATE--DELETION WITHOUT USE*** or something along those lines for a thread title.   ;  As this will never happen: it'll be nice if the thread's first post came "pre-formatted" as the template. then all the OP would have to do is fill in the blanks and hit submit.   ;  perhaps give the moderators an option to reply without bumping to the top?this way they could reply "use the template" and the message won't get bumped to the top - hence no "reward" to the offenders.Im pretty sure its easy feature to add - just add a moderator checkbox "dont bump" and add an if statement before bumping up...   ;  what about this,when posting a new topic in the help wanted forum, a message is displayed, such as...before posting a help wanted topic, please take a look at the ***Read Before Posting*** topic.there is then a link to that topic and a "continue posting" button under this message, once you click the continue posting button, you post as normal.this then means that they have had their warning and if they do not use the template their topic is deleted, without warning.another option is to have a completely new structure of posting in this forum. there are several text areas, titled with the template headings, they fill those boxes in, and post the topic.   ;  You could also add a link to the template at the top of the template itself, ie something like:This post created using *clickable*Mandatory Help-Wanted Template**That way you could still give people two ways to spot the template, and delete the offending posts without feeling too bad. :)Daniel   ;  Iftah: What if other people post with those reminders?  Even when the rules stated they weren't to say anything, lots of people did.Maybe if new threads were reviewed by Kazgoroth before they get seen by anyone.  All it would entail is a quick check to make sure that it's formatted correctly.   