Nice picture, Marinus, even though the apple in the front left looks like a coily snuck in
!
Putting links doesn't make it easy to download levels, (and that would also be a lot of work for me), but the big downside is that people then don't pop into the forum to comment on levels. I don't know if they would anyway, but there's an argument to be made there!
Part of the reason I put in 'news and announcements' was to gin up interest in the forum itself. A contest, a level-number milestone, a returning level maker, etc. struck me as kind of fun and interesting. I could always add things: a link to Billy Bob's 200th level topic, for example, to encourage people to add a comment saying thanks, might result in some people staying around. A more prominent link to the forum generally encouraging people to pop in and say 'hi'. I don't know; I'm open to suggestions.
When I first started this in May I put a post in the General Discussion group saying I'd do this for a while, and would happily cede to anyone else who was in the process of re-working what Mette did. People had expressed different ideas, but (partly for my own selfish reasons of not wanting to miss levels!) I figured I'd just do it. Liz and I had a PM conversation when she put up her levels, I said I didn't want to duplicate any else's efforts, but she said she didn't really think she'd be consistent, so she encouraged me to continue. Still the offer stands: I like getting the levels any way I can. I don't feel any need to be in charge!
That said, it's been fun delving through the forum, looking for solutions for levels that have vexed me for a long time, seeing the new contests, finding levels that I've missed. I've always had mixed feelings about participating in forums. Things come up, I disappear for a while, I'm not faithful about checking for posts or answers to posts. I can't be the only one who feels that way! I've never posted a level I've made, but I used to make stuff for the Sims and put them up for download and post notices on the busy Sims forums. At least half of the fun (and making Sims stuff was a LOT of work!) was reading the comments people left. It kind of keeps you clicking, even when you really enjoy making the things you make.
Long post here. To sum up: suggestions welcomed, but I'm not convinced the separate link thing will be easy for anyone. Maybe someone else could try that approach!
And at the risk of redundancy, thank you again, all who make these levels. I've praised and recommended RTW on other game forums, calling it 'the game that never ends', because of those who make levels, and Patrick's forum to enable sharing them. I've sometimes wished that more games would do that.
