"NBTA Tester" or "5 great reasons I won't be working for your co
by Eric Forhan · in General Discussion · 11/26/2002 (7:21 pm) · 20 replies
I've been trying to stay away from the whole "board improvements" or "comments should be allowed on help wanted ads", but things are just ridiculous. Such 'jobs' like "NBTA Tester" spamming the wanted forum, or most job titles that needlessly end with an exclamation totally take away from any credibility of other serious and professional classifieds. So, here's a few suggestions to potential posters there:
Be professional. I don't care if you are 16 or 66. You may think your job is the coolest out there, but odds are others feel the same of their own projects.
Don't 'spam'. Knocking out other members/companies just to have the top five spots shows a total lack of couth.
Be specific. A job description like "Come be the artist for our really cool game!" just doesn't hack it. If you want to attract professionals, you must be so.
Don't use exclamation marks in the title! It's just plain annoying! It doesn't make others want to work on your title, either!
Plz dnt do thz. ur budz may tlk l1ke th1z, bt I prom1z no 1 else duz.
I'm sure there are more guidelines, and invite others to add them. I would also understand if GG took up a Paid Classifieds section. Would be a great way to weed them.
--Eric Forhan
Art Director
www.trajectoryzone.com
edit: error patrol
Be professional. I don't care if you are 16 or 66. You may think your job is the coolest out there, but odds are others feel the same of their own projects.
Don't 'spam'. Knocking out other members/companies just to have the top five spots shows a total lack of couth.
Be specific. A job description like "Come be the artist for our really cool game!" just doesn't hack it. If you want to attract professionals, you must be so.
Don't use exclamation marks in the title! It's just plain annoying! It doesn't make others want to work on your title, either!
Plz dnt do thz. ur budz may tlk l1ke th1z, bt I prom1z no 1 else duz.
I'm sure there are more guidelines, and invite others to add them. I would also understand if GG took up a Paid Classifieds section. Would be a great way to weed them.
--Eric Forhan
Art Director
www.trajectoryzone.com
edit: error patrol
About the author
#2
Should be an improvement, anyways.
11/26/2002 (7:39 pm)
Maybe just a screened wanteds . . . they submit a wanted ad in a certain special section, and a GG staffer either vetoes it or lets it get posted, based on their whim.Should be an improvement, anyways.
#3
That really is very low. Does anyone really think by spamming to get all top 5 positions people will come scrambling ?
Makes me want to Ban Em ! :D
11/26/2002 (7:41 pm)
Wow just noticed that Spam.That really is very low. Does anyone really think by spamming to get all top 5 positions people will come scrambling ?
Makes me want to Ban Em ! :D
#4
11/26/2002 (7:50 pm)
Completely agree here, that really pissed me off. 
#5
Maybe his/her browser was running slow and clicked send 5 times before the next page loaded but didn't take notice of the spam.
11/26/2002 (7:51 pm)
Gah, you never know.Maybe his/her browser was running slow and clicked send 5 times before the next page loaded but didn't take notice of the spam.
#6
Anyway the want ads really do need some moderation to be useful.
11/26/2002 (7:52 pm)
I think people start their want ad descriptions with an '!' because that appears first in alphabetical order.Anyway the want ads really do need some moderation to be useful.
#7
11/27/2002 (12:49 am)
I totally agree with Eric, nothing more to say.
#8
11/27/2002 (4:19 am)
Amen. Because of the l33t sp34k and unprofessional presentation, I don't even read the classifieds.
#9
Sincerely,
Paul Hutson
11/27/2002 (5:40 am)
It is a real pity that people do abuse the excellent facility that is offered to the community here at Garage Games freely. Other sites require people to pay for the adverts, and I would hate to see this site have to have that to dissuade people from posting ads like the ones we saw yesterday.Sincerely,
Paul Hutson
#10
11/27/2002 (6:51 am)
Maybe we could rate job ads as we rate resources. If something gets rated incredibly low, the scripts would notify a GG associate who could investigate and take any appropriate action.
#11
Then the entire site becomes passively self policeing.
At most I think that there needs to be someone to contact about such idiotcy and the offender can be dealt with in a consistent and professional manner.
11/27/2002 (8:04 am)
the ability to mark a person as "ignored" would be plenty I think. Then the entire site becomes passively self policeing.
At most I think that there needs to be someone to contact about such idiotcy and the offender can be dealt with in a consistent and professional manner.
#12
11/27/2002 (10:47 am)
Jarrod, I like your idea about an "ignore member" option.
#13
I think that excluding bad ads isn't going to be the solution, because people can always register new accounts and post more, or what have you... Better to encourage good ads than to solely punish bad ones.
It might be better to have a limited ability to post jobs (sort of like AIMs rate limiter), or to have a zone where "good ads" go. The ultimate solution is probably a karma system like slashdot, or a trust metric like advogato.
11/28/2002 (8:07 pm)
I agree fully - the classifieds here are... not useful. There needs to be some sort of system in place to filter out the bad ads.I think that excluding bad ads isn't going to be the solution, because people can always register new accounts and post more, or what have you... Better to encourage good ads than to solely punish bad ones.
It might be better to have a limited ability to post jobs (sort of like AIMs rate limiter), or to have a zone where "good ads" go. The ultimate solution is probably a karma system like slashdot, or a trust metric like advogato.
#15
Sorry, rant over.
12/03/2002 (1:43 pm)
I'm getting tired of seeing job ads appear that offer no money ("depends what we make!" or "when we get a distributor!" or "share the profits!") and are written with extremely poor grammar and spelling. I certainly wouldn't want to apply for something like this. I have visions of a 10 year old kid sitting in front of monitor hacking away at the keyboard with visions of world domination. Ok, so world domination visions are ok as we all have those at one time or another.Sorry, rant over.
#16
Hm... well, I make offers like that. Well, except for possibly the poor grammar and spelling. I spel relay good. ;-)
But seriously - that's how I offer projects. Simply put, there's very little way for me to pay for a couple grand in development on models alone, then music, etc. and have a profitable project in the end. I simply don't do that much volume in sales at the moment.
Percent of project is a really good option for Indie developers, IMHO. It gives an opportunity to try and get a project completed and out there that they wouldn't have had if they would have required to pay upfront or completetion fees.
I might be bein' overly sensitive to what you are saying, but, just gonna point out that there's at least one Indie developer who does make money that is doing things that way.
Granted - it still needs to be done in a professional manner, and a spell check wouldn't kill most people ;-)
12/04/2002 (8:05 am)
Quote:
I'm getting tired of seeing job ads appear that offer no money ("depends what we make!" or "when we get a distributor!" or "share the profits!") and are written with extremely poor grammar and spelling. I certainly wouldn't want to apply for something like this. I have visions of a 10 year old kid sitting in front of monitor hacking away at the keyboard with visions of world domination. Ok, so world domination visions are ok as we all have those at one time or another.
Hm... well, I make offers like that. Well, except for possibly the poor grammar and spelling. I spel relay good. ;-)
But seriously - that's how I offer projects. Simply put, there's very little way for me to pay for a couple grand in development on models alone, then music, etc. and have a profitable project in the end. I simply don't do that much volume in sales at the moment.
Percent of project is a really good option for Indie developers, IMHO. It gives an opportunity to try and get a project completed and out there that they wouldn't have had if they would have required to pay upfront or completetion fees.
I might be bein' overly sensitive to what you are saying, but, just gonna point out that there's at least one Indie developer who does make money that is doing things that way.
Granted - it still needs to be done in a professional manner, and a spell check wouldn't kill most people ;-)
#17
I certainly don't have problems with people making ads, including the "royalties" or "pay when we sell" ones, as long as they follow the above 'rules'. I see it just as part of the "paying one's dues" that will hopefully lead to more and better projects. Davis had put out such an ad, and I responded to it--and now we finishing up a game that I think exceeded both our expectations.
Bottom line is that you probably can throw out any suggestions for GG to change. At least, I've never seen them express any interest in doing so. So, all we really can do is wade through the help wanted ads, and make positive suggestions on creating them.
--Eric
12/06/2002 (3:25 pm)
Apparently, this guy missed this thread. =/I certainly don't have problems with people making ads, including the "royalties" or "pay when we sell" ones, as long as they follow the above 'rules'. I see it just as part of the "paying one's dues" that will hopefully lead to more and better projects. Davis had put out such an ad, and I responded to it--and now we finishing up a game that I think exceeded both our expectations.
Bottom line is that you probably can throw out any suggestions for GG to change. At least, I've never seen them express any interest in doing so. So, all we really can do is wade through the help wanted ads, and make positive suggestions on creating them.
--Eric
#18
We would be happy to take this resource down if the community thinks it is not worth the effort to keep it up. Let me know what you guys think.
Jeff Tunnell GG
12/07/2002 (6:36 pm)
I just deleted a couple of job posts, but we are NOT going to patrol or moderate the help wanted section. I have deleted some spammed posts in the past, but do not have time to worry about this.We would be happy to take this resource down if the community thinks it is not worth the effort to keep it up. Let me know what you guys think.
Jeff Tunnell GG
#19
I've made successful use of the help wanteds once so far - I might need it again in the future ;-)
(And - I wouldn't mind helping, if there were a decent number of other people helping out too. Can't take much of my weekly work hours out on volunteer stuff :-/
12/07/2002 (6:49 pm)
Jeff - IMHO, don't kill off the Help Wanteds. Instead, how about a couple o' people from the community be given the rights to patrol it, delete spamming, yank really bad help wanteds, and also (hopefully) help out those people who write sub-par help wanted ads (IE - explain to them why it was pulled, and very carefully explain how they could improve the post, why professionalism in the help wanted ads is important, etc.)I've made successful use of the help wanteds once so far - I might need it again in the future ;-)
(And - I wouldn't mind helping, if there were a decent number of other people helping out too. Can't take much of my weekly work hours out on volunteer stuff :-/
#20
12/07/2002 (7:00 pm)
Rating woudl be bad as you could get kids and morons downgrading good ads nad uprating their posts and such. I think the best idea atm is to have an ignore feature. 
Torque Owner Yacine Salmi