2009-10-29, 09:24 PM
I think the term 'abrasive' is probably the best way to describe some of the posts that get people all worked up and offensive/defensive.
Now..please don't take this as an attack, but I just want to give some examples of where part of the break down in communications go.
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As stated in the past, many people respond more openly to a more humble way of presenting ideas and opinions that may not coincide with their own. I don't think its necessarily what youre asking of folks, in this case John, but how youre asking it.
For example, remember when you started working on DOM09 and basically just stated something to the effect of wanting more musical tracks from Tom? I am not going to sift through the posts to find it, but from what I recall, the post basically just assumed Tom would be onboard to revamp his game, provide you with new music tracks and npc/gear names etc.
A humbler person would likely have said something to the effect of "DOM is a great project, one that I want to expand. I have a couple of awesome maps planned for an expanded version of the game, and maybe if I am lucky, Tom will have a couple tracks I could add to the game to finish up these maps in the same theme. Tom, do you have any leftover tracks I can use, and or would it be difficult to churn out a couple more quick toons to put into these maps?"
Instead of the above, I do remember a nearly exact quote that DOM was pretty much slapped together half assed and didn't take any serious time. No one in there right mind is going to respond kindly to that...that is criticism any way you slice it.
..........fast forward 6 months, and the same thing is happening with the SOM translation.
You have a good idea, you want to clarify some possibly ambiguous words within the SOM translation to help people out in the long run...but instead of saying "There may be some terms worth rewording or clarifying within the original SOM translation. John, you have done a fantastic job with translating this in the first place, would you be interested in assisting me in the project to help clean up some ambiguous terms? If so, we can probably get a list going and get everyone's opinion on what some of the terms in question should be."
Instead, we get something more along the lines of "I really hate non-computer terminology. I don't like the term counter or leaf, why did you pick that? You need to change these to X and Y so everyone can understand it."
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Anyways, thats all I have to say about it. I think you mean well enough, and I think you have the betterment of SOM as the right goal in your mind, I just think you really approach other people with your ideas in a very abrasive manner that causes people to be quickly turned off the whole idea, even if it was a good one.
Now..please don't take this as an attack, but I just want to give some examples of where part of the break down in communications go.
============
As stated in the past, many people respond more openly to a more humble way of presenting ideas and opinions that may not coincide with their own. I don't think its necessarily what youre asking of folks, in this case John, but how youre asking it.
For example, remember when you started working on DOM09 and basically just stated something to the effect of wanting more musical tracks from Tom? I am not going to sift through the posts to find it, but from what I recall, the post basically just assumed Tom would be onboard to revamp his game, provide you with new music tracks and npc/gear names etc.
A humbler person would likely have said something to the effect of "DOM is a great project, one that I want to expand. I have a couple of awesome maps planned for an expanded version of the game, and maybe if I am lucky, Tom will have a couple tracks I could add to the game to finish up these maps in the same theme. Tom, do you have any leftover tracks I can use, and or would it be difficult to churn out a couple more quick toons to put into these maps?"
Instead of the above, I do remember a nearly exact quote that DOM was pretty much slapped together half assed and didn't take any serious time. No one in there right mind is going to respond kindly to that...that is criticism any way you slice it.
..........fast forward 6 months, and the same thing is happening with the SOM translation.
You have a good idea, you want to clarify some possibly ambiguous words within the SOM translation to help people out in the long run...but instead of saying "There may be some terms worth rewording or clarifying within the original SOM translation. John, you have done a fantastic job with translating this in the first place, would you be interested in assisting me in the project to help clean up some ambiguous terms? If so, we can probably get a list going and get everyone's opinion on what some of the terms in question should be."
Instead, we get something more along the lines of "I really hate non-computer terminology. I don't like the term counter or leaf, why did you pick that? You need to change these to X and Y so everyone can understand it."
----------
Anyways, thats all I have to say about it. I think you mean well enough, and I think you have the betterment of SOM as the right goal in your mind, I just think you really approach other people with your ideas in a very abrasive manner that causes people to be quickly turned off the whole idea, even if it was a good one.
- Todd DuFore (DMPDesign)
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