Creatures Caves

So now that I have a proper keyboard to type on again...

Thanks for the specific ideas, Malkin! I do have a short guide bookmarked on how to write nicer agents, but I'm not sure if it's even been linked from CCaves (it has from the wiki).

I think there are some interesting ideas in the suggestions for decentralizing the CCSF a bit - I remember the idea of having a blog carnival or similar come up at least once in past CCSF surveys. (For those who don't know: a blog carnival is basically an event where someone writes up a topic or list of topics for people to write on, and each day participants send the link to their post to the host. The host publishes a list of all the links. Sometimes participants include links to other participants' blogs or posts as well. I think this could be fun for creatures bloggers if there was a good list of questions.)

Also, as mentioned before, I remember that a couple of years ago, there was an official thread for finding collaborations and beta-testers and so on leading up to the CCSF. Having something like this again - with links to (updated, if need be) lists of resources and tutorials - could help address concerns that people expressed with needing help with making things. It could maybe also (to address another concern) have some suggestions for what sort of things one can make, along with links to the Wiki wishlist and the Ideas thread, or even the survey results (where a few people put specific requests down). If we're having a theme again this year, a solid or specific theme might help, rather than a vague one like we've had in some past years. Or even several different themes that people can submit to? Just throwing out ideas here.

Overall, I got the feeling that people want the CCSF to be more than a list of downloads with the occasional piece of art or poetry and a wolfling run or two. Not everybody wants the same thing out of the CCSF, of course - in this and past surveys people have noted that they're bored by fanfic and art, while others want wiki-editing activity and coloring pages. Several people mentioned wanting a lot of different activities and ways to participate even for those who don't code (whoever suggested it: I would definitely be up for a fanfic round-robin!).

A lot of people wanted to see something for the C1 anniversary, but multiple people also wanted love for all three games. Maybe we could have themed days - a C1 day, a C2 day, and a C3/DS day? Besides downloads and art, they could have articles on how to x in the game, how x thing works in the game, what the heck x thing within the game is for, ideas on how to shake up x game, recommended downloads for x game, etc.

Also, given how late planning is starting this year, we could consider having the CCSF later in November than usual - maybe the last week, to give people more time before finals and holidays hit. Along with reminders that it's okay to submit late - thanks to losing most of my code, Desert Ruins got in late last year and that worked out okay

Any other thoughts? Any other volunteers to help mod or co-mod or otherwise help run the CCSF? Or should I throw up the usual 'what themes and contests should we have' kind of survey?