While playing ANR for more than a year, what I’m missing is a central hub for the game. I’m reading on stimhack which is a great forum and I love the articles! On top I visit the Reddit page.
I don’t use FB so I might be blind on this eye.
But what I’m missing is a central hub for the game and not only a place for discussions like Reddit and Stimhack.
I would like to get a summery of @Elusive ban list without following the discussion. I would like to know which web pages are important, which podcasts, where the videos from worlds are.
Would like to know that in Germany there is the HDS forum which is important, that 1.1.1.1 exists and where I get more info and who is responsible for it and perhaps that there was a Big boys 45 cards ban list.
And so on…
I think discussion platforms are not a good place for summarizing information. They are good for discussions, but not to collect information and present them I a easy to access way.
It should help me if I want to get into a new topic but would help newbies very much as it would be a place for orientation.
After surfing the net for ANR for over a year I have the feeling I know what I need, but sometimes it’s hard to find Infos becsuse they are buried in the 25 post of a thread. Same regarding the current approach of a ban list. Would like to know when the discussion is finished and just like to use it. But don’t have the time and interest to follow it in detail. The big point is, we have good discussions but we need a place beside this where information is easier accessible.
I might be the only one feeling this. But I think this would also be a part to encourage new players and lower the entrance burden.
I would like if others feel this would help in general and them.
And on top as my time is limited, but I would be able to provide a technical infrastructure such as domains web space to contribute.
Having several communities is healthy. What I think the game is missing and this have been talked about in the MWL thread, is that there aren’t regular communications from FFG about the game. There are a lot of marketing posts, but nothing that tries to engage with the community.
I was considering doing some kind of central hub. Possibly on GitHub pages, where it would be easy to accept contributions from other people, but with more central control and less ads than a wiki.
I think it might be helpful to consider what update frequency you’re looking for. I was mainly planning to try to put together a list of links to websites and other resources that would only need updating when a new resource is created or an old one goes offline. A hub that updates every time someone holds a discussion about a new ban list would be substantially more work. That’s not to say that new formats wouldn’t go into the less-frequently-updated resource, just that they might not get there until they’re more established than Elusive’s ban list is now.
I think Reddit and Stimhack are sufficient for discussion, but you’re right that discussion platforms don’t excel in summarizing information. There’s ANCUR for rules questions though.
Stimhack is actually far more of a ‘central hub’ for Netrunner than anything the A Game of Thrones card game has. It’s not perfect, but it helps a lot.
Something like Elusive’s ban list is best placed in a forum, because it’s one community member’s opinion on a way to improve the game. Having a special page for it would make it seem like it’s an official or at least commonly used alt format, which isn’t true (we’re all hoping for an official FFG update that will make it unnecessary). That being said, if someone wanted to write a tourney report for a tourney that used the format and then put that article on Stimhack, I would definitely read it!
Re: podcasts, perhaps Stimhack’s ‘video and podcast’ page could have a list of all the Netrunner podcasts at the top of it? They don’t change that much, so this wouldn’t take much work to maintain.
I don’t think a GitHub page could act like a central hub this is more IT nerds than typical users. And I actually think more frequent updates would be nice. Something like a wiki without ads.
Regarding Agot is worse. Great so let’s stay as it is? I don’t say stop discussion which is great and should happen here. But a real post somewhere would be great.
To be a bit more explorative:
would like to see an article about worlds including links to the articles posted like Dave Hoylands, videos available and things like that. This is just not available. If you would like to get it you have to search and every other week someone is asking for it on Reddit.
As said explaining what 1.1.1.1 is how to use it on NRDB with a link to the webpage and telling that it is a fan initiative. Having this in a forum means, as long as there is no post you won’t find it, and this makes sense in a forum. But is a different requirement.
Seeing a summary for world’s such as side events or Euros would be perfect too.
Try to find @TheBigBoy last version of his 45 cards ban list which it somewhere in the thread. From my point of view it can all remain where it is, but a kind of entry point would be nice. Is @Elusive van must still active? Is it still his list?
But this is my opinion and I just have the feeling something is missing that is not a discussion forum.
I should have been a bit clearer - GitHub Pages is a system where you put some text files in a GitHub repository, and GitHub turns them into a webpage. The resulting webpage isn’t nerdy. This is what I use for my (in-need-of-updates) beginner’s collection plan. That has a github URL, but there is an option for using your own domain. The main advantage is that GitHub provides a way to manage versions and contributions. Plus, the source files are Markdown (like the comment syntax here), so it’s easier to deal with than HTML, though of course there are many other options for turning Markdown into HTML.
I think we could probably use both a relatively static list of links (to forums, blogs, deckbuilders, podcasts, the 1.1.1.1 site, etc), and regular summaries of what’s happening in the online Netrunner communities (World’s posts roundups, formats people are trying, and so on). I take it that you’re mostly interested in the latter; I’d be more interested in helping with the former.
For the specific issue of finding out about new community banlists and such, it might be helpful if the Stimhack forums had an “Alternate Formats” category. Perhaps the drafting category could be renamed and expanded to include alternate formats, since drafting is itself an alternate format and the category in its current form is pretty quiet. That wouldn’t do all of what you’re looking for, of course.
It’s kind of difficult since a site like that would require maintenance from an active user. There is no guarantee that person or persons will keep doing it.
This does not mean it’s a bad idea, but makes it different from a discussion-hub. Look at the reddit ‘buying guide’ as an example, it is difficult to keep it updated.
NetrunnerDB on the other hand is almost automated. It mostly works from community input.
@Absotively: Wasn’t aware of GitHub Pages and this sounds fun! I think I’m looking forward to both! Central hub should be exactly this.
@Elusive: Agree with you, you need “someone” who is taking care of it and in the best case someone is a group of people. I was hoping that other people would see a need for this too, but this might be the wrong place as stimhacker are very deep in the meta and don’t require this kind of a tool.
I was thinking this when I proposed a Wiki a few months back. Basically the idea would have been to provide a central hub for decks, decktypes, strategies, etc… I even started working on it, but life has slowed my work.
Here it is, and the most complete page is probably the HB one:
I’m actually considering using the very similar GitLab Pages instead now. GitHub Pages is ok for simple sites, but looking at it again has reminded me that its theme support has issues. If you’re looking to use one for your hub, you might want to consider GitLab.
Or you might just want to use a blogging site, which would probably be simpler if you want to focus on the latest news.
I think the root problem may be that the maintainers would pretty much need to be people who “are very deep in the meta and don’t require this kind of a tool.” The split between people who would like to use it and people who could usefully create it seems likely to make it very hard to recruit volunteers.
this is more IT nerds than typical users. And I actually think more frequent updates would be nice. Something like a wiki without ads.