SFML community forums
General => SFML website => Topic started by: Stauricus on December 17, 2020, 10:40:40 pm
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hi
I'd like to know what other members think of having a beginners' board in the 'Help' forum. i've seen lately some questions related mostly to C++, but still pertinet to SFML. which is nice, because it shows that some people are really trying to get the hang of programming, instead of just going for ready game engines like Unity.
- there are so many experienced developers here, and it would be a shame if thet didn't share their knowledge with the new programmers. unfortunately, it seems that not having such board discourages beginner questions, since even 'General' board expects you to have a good knowledge of C++, and then ask only SFML questions.
- altough there are specific forums for plain C++ with beginners' sections, you can't expect people there to know SFML. however, we can expect people in SFML forums to know C++.
- I know that some people would say "first you learn C++, and only then SFML". that's partially right. you can't use SFML if you don't know how to operate a variable. but why not learn both at the same time after the basics? people want to learn how they can make their games, not how to make boring command-line programs that simulate airplanes landing and taking off.
- the questions, as I said, are being made anyway. and will continue to, we having a beginners board or not. ;D
so please, opinions.
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This is just my personal opinion, but I'm not in favor of such a forum.
First, the scope: "Beginners" doesn't specify a technical scope, and since a large part of the members here can be considered as "beginners", it would receive 90% of the messages. In fact it would just be the new "Help > General" forum, but worse ;)
Then what would we get in this new forum? C++ questions, mostly, but then why not posts about other languages where SFML exists? Algorithms? OpenGL? Win32? Physics engines? It would open the door to many new things -- too much.
Would it be a problem to have all this new stuff possibly posted on the SFML forum? Definitely. More work for us (reading all posts, sometimes answering, moderating). And more difficulties to find answers on a specific topic, as everything would get mixed into this generic forum. Inefficient search of existing topics, so more duplicates posted ;)
I really want to focus on SFML here, I think we can be efficient at helping people if we keep the scope limited; I don't intend to create yet another generic game dev forum -- there are already tons of them elsewhere.
But this is just my personal thoughts.
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for beginner questions you probably have better luck on reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/sfml/
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There are enough other places for C++ beginners questions that unrelated to SFML, but as far I understand Help->General is already used for such questions that related to SFML.
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but the idea is not to make a board unrelated to SFML, but something more open to receive questions from new programmers that many times aren't even sure if the problem is based on the language or the library. like they have in Irrlicht forums:
Beginners Help
If you are a new Irrlicht Engine user, and have a newbie-question, this is the forum for you. You may also post general programming questions here.
i'd just change the part about general programming If you are new to SFML or programming in general, and have a newbie question, this is the forum for you.
but well, it doesn't make sense to have it if other members, include beginners themselves, don't endorse the idea
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I'm new on the forum and my comment above isn't against this idea - I was wondering why just not change description for "General" section.
I'm totally endorse your idea, from my point of view much better to give any reasonable enough idea chance and if it goes bad - then close it as unsuccessful experiment.
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I don't see any distinct enough scope that would justify a new section, either. Already now, new users often don't particularly care where they post help/beginner requests (just look at the General Discussions subforum), I don't think adding one more which highly overlaps with the existing ones will help the decision process.
Furthermore, I would not encourage users to ask even more C++-only questions -- there are enough places on the Internet with specialized communities, where more people can answer those quicker. Questions of the form "I'm learning SFML and C++ simultaneously" are already frequently asked and answered, even if their answer is often a pure C++ one and comes with a hint for good C++ resources.