I can see why some want to see more “social” features at VPDB, and while I won’t exclude that more of it will be added in the future, here are the main reasons why that’s not the case “yet”:
- Tech: Forum tech is boring. It has been done 10,000 times already and I don’t really want to code forum software number 10,001. I’ve checked for existing solutions and there isn’t much going on for the tech stack I’m using, and it needs to be integrated with my DB structure anyway so it might not even be worth the effort. I really love to innovate, and writing forum software isn’t exactly that.
- Existing forums: There is already some fragmentation going on with all the current boards, so I didn’t want to just pop up another one. You guys are doing great here. I don’t think you need yet another board. VPDB lets you comment releases, but that’s more for complimenting the authors and short questions, and it’s not supposed to act like a forum. You do that much better already.
- Cross-Linking: As Tom mentioned, authors can add links to the build threads, so interested users can learn more about the author and the process. While the links are well visible, they probably could be displayed even more prominently. Will think about that a little more.
I’ve given that comparison before, but think about VPDB as Imgur for virtual pinball. You can comment at Imgur, but the real discussion is usually going on at Reddit or the other sites linking to it. It works pretty well, and Reddit isn’t losing users or community spirit because people are linking to a site that exclusively hosts images.
That said, if you have any suggestions how to make it a better social experience in general without driving into forum territory, I’m all ears! :)
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