Algodoo

So you want to make the users get along with each other, without changing the Algobox. I think the only way to do this is that marble races only get to be uploaded on one day of the week, and no other scenes are allowed to be posted on that day.

To elaborate my previous comment.
Have free viewer version which only has the function to play scenes and use the hand tool.
And a paid version that's able to create scenes.

This way there will be money for server maintenance and stimulates further development. And most important of all keeps those damn kids away whom ruined Algobox for me. I've been here for years even before the name Algodoo was ever mentioned. And it was soooo much better back then.

I dont mind paying another 10 or 15 bucks just to keep the crap of the site...

Sorry for that off topic - but you could see it as an added suggestion that belongs to my first posting:

Algodoo should cost money again! (even 9,99 $ would help)
Then there also would be money for supporting and updating Algodoo/Algobox again.

I know many do agree.

I think you shouldnt just cut the Algobox in two parts (or more) it would destroy the community.
I think it would be better if the User can "enable" something like a filter when he is searching something or even when he is looking at the timeline.
The uploader declares his scene for example as a "Engineering Scene" which he can select in a list and the "downloader" can filter for Engineering Scenes...

To Emanuel,
I would first like to suggest maybe being able to configure the viewing of newcoming scenes that are posted on Algobox. As some others have already described solutions, I would think that we should be able to "choose" what we see and what we don't want to see, maybe by have the uploader choose mandatory tags in which that the viewer could choose if they want to see it in the "New Scenes" area. Another part to it would be, just like Youtube, to maybe get another scene feed in which your "subscribers" posted, so that you can subscribe to people who their scenes you enjoy for easy access.
Another issue would be scene spamming. People upload meaningless scenes that fill up the new feed. I propose a "scene upload cap" that limits the amount of scenes that could be uploaded, for example, maybe one could upload a scene for every 1 hour(maybe also a comment cap... since people spam those too). This ensures a better, less cluttered, Algobox where there are less spammed scenes.

Here is my idea on this, I think that splitting Algodoo in 2 would make this matter worse. We would end up waging war and commenting rude and mean things to the scenes we don't like. My idea is that we learn to respect each others interest. That way we don't turn Algidoo into a civil war over AMR/Algicosathlon and Science!

I agree to "FayTree" in the idea that algobox shoud be divided into to groups. Maybe befor people share each scene, could they state whether or not it is a marble race. I would also like to see the search results sorted by popularity, not date added. I would like to know if my scenes are being liked.

Maby we could add a new tab for the people who want to make the Marble races and random stuff like that, it will keep all of there stuff out of the new and featured page and we can enjoy all of the scenes that had the time put into them.

I agree with s_noonan! It should have a area like youtube that could be called "Reccomendations" and it will show things related to what you usually look/play!

i think there should be a filtering system so you can chose what you want to view so make filters for

Marble races and other stuff
Advanced stuff
Other stuff that does not fit in to any category

I would like so see a tutor-system besides the separation into marble-race, advanced physics-scenes and other scenes. A tutor, who has a decent knowledge of thyme can then advice an other one, until he is skilled in thyme too, and a guru like noonan or xray or The Linkage or ... can promote him to tutor afterwards.
I appreciate also the money-free system as it is right now, if it comes to decision wether or not (change and pay) or (stay like it is) i would strongly vote for money-free, and am very thankful for it. Also i appreciate the work of Xray and others who care for the forum and this algobox.

Well then, I feel the search function is terribly flawed, but categories would be helpful, but, JUST categories isnt enough to fix this. Now to think about it, only a small percentage of the marble race scenes on algodoo are actually marble races, so, subcategories would be helpful, but, it's near imossible for a systen to recognize what scene is what kind. I guess, like normal, rely on the community. I feel there would be a "Category Selection" when you save and share your scene, like Youtube's "Type of Video/Genre Selcetion" when you upload a video. A similar function is needed, but the community should do the rest. The community should not only report innoproprite scenes, and "obscenes" (What I call an obscene scene) like always, but also report scene that are DEFINATELY in the wrong subcategory or category entirely and then put the reason why it's incorrent in a text box, like a comment.

Could we set your personal info to algodoo??
just a suggestion.

Category 1:5-10yrs old
Category 2:11-25yrs ols
Category 3:26-55yrs old
Category 4:>55 yrs old
Category 5:<5yrs old

Dear Emanuel,
I haven't been active for several years, however I feel that divisions of algobox would harshly divide the once flourishing community, and would prevent it from reaching that point again. The Browse, or "new scenes" should be retained just as it is.
However, the solution to the problem of unwanted scenes is already solved through the magical use of tags, a feature which has existed since the conception of Phunbox 2. When users utilize tags properly, one may filter all scenes of which they do not wish to view, and perhaps making tags a required field would be sufficient to reduce this overcrowding of the browse section. In normal state it should remain the same as it is, as new scenes should always be able to be viewed by all, for criticism and praise by older and more experienced users. Along with comments and reviews by younger or inexperienced users. The great thing about this website has always been its community, and its acceptance of new users. Dividing Algobox in this way would remove any sense of developing community, and would prevent from the advancement of overall quality of scenes being uploaded to Algobox.

Dear Emanuel,
(is this over yet? the scene is still here so I might as well put out a cry of help)
Please make it easier to rate scenes, i notice that there are a bunch of
crappy scenes making it to Popular Page,(feels like real life, Obama and stuff[no offence!!!]
I am tiered of jumping from browser to integrated to rate scenes but I am doing this
against spam and promoting good saves!)
I am trying to show the algobox community(ALL of us that we HAVE to rate if we don't want spam. I hope this make it to you...)
please don't slip algodoo, people have already started asking it to be split into THREE parts)
I believe that noobs should learn from the pros![im just an amateur in this crazy community]
FTLOA, I hope you read this.

i think its time that marble camps leave because Failers scene

Dear Emmanual (sorry dont know how to spell,
I have an idea that allows us to subscribe to Whole algobox users so we know when they post scenes and stuff so i dont have to search his name if i wanna go on his
so it will pop up on the top or something like that

Dear Emanuel,
I always disliked that users who are into marble races upload like 50 marble races or similar per day and this way flush all the quality scenes out of the news section. I would like to hear if it's possible to add a Tagging system to the Algobox, and sorting scenes using these Tags, similar to entrys on other forums. This way, people can directly use an advanced search option to look for the tags they like, and see all scenes containing these tags. People could easily find marble races, or mechanical scenes, game, or anything else. It would greatly improve the organisation and help people seeing the scenes they like, and keeping the other scenes for these that like other types of scenes, without flushing away what one could like.

Dear Emanuel
I think that a very simple solution to this would be a scene posting limiter. Like if a user posts a scene and tries to post another right away, it would say that he would have to wait a half hour or two to post another. This would be a great solution to users posting a mass dump of their scenes in like 5 minutes in my opinion... plus it would be simple enough to pull off as well and let everyone post what they what and not get hated on for spamming all the time.

Hi!

Thank you all for the feedback!

After reading through all the comments, it seems most people would like to filter which type of scenes appear on the front page and in the top lists. Splitting Algobox into two would only be a temporary solution, since there will be other new concepts that are only popular within some parts of the community.

Some kind of time limit on some of the top lists also sounds interested, since, at the moment, it seems impossible to push down the top scenes!

Groups already exists on Algobox (kind of like categories), but they are unfortunately not used that much. Tags also exists, but are used even less!

If scenes were filtered into groups or tags automatically (for example, scenes with the word Marble would be placed in the Marble races group or tag), there could be an option to ignore scenes from certain groups or tags on the personal front page. Some scenes would probably be filtered wrong initially, but that would be fine tuned as we go and the group or tags of a scene could always be set manually, like before.

I have to look through the Algobox code to see what would be appropriate to implement.
Since Algodoo is free, I do not have unlimited time for Algobox development and I cannot make any promises as to when this will be finished.

Thank you for understanding!


Kind regards,
Emanuel Dahlberg
Algobox Maintainer
Algoryx Simulation AB

As some people said - it's going to be very useful to have some kind of tag system. But i think that subscribing some tags and authors is going to be very useful in that way. Just thoughts...

Thank you Emanuel.

We apreciate your time on this. Let's just hope this site gets back to the glory it had a couple of years ago.

Also thanks a lot to the people in the backgroound also working on this.

Enmul, I see you referenced my comment. I would like to propose to you how this would work. Essesnsially only reletivly recent saves can get on there (1 month at max before they automaticly get kicked off) And they must keep a reputation going, So a constant flow of likes, views, and comments are required for it to stay on front page for >24 hours. They would also get kicked off if they have been their for a full week. Then the system would kick them off. Shouldnt be too too hard to code.

well,splitting an Algobox is the most good idea!

Emanuel it IS possible to take off scenes from the top page!
If you down-rate it enough the scene will go away!

Hi,
I dont use Algodoo anymore, and I haven't uploaded any scenes recently, but a couple of years ago, I sat glued to algodoo for hours on end!

Ive had to make a new account because I've forgot the details for my old account (Benjii).

This scene is a brilliant idea, but it looks like its already worked too well and Emanuel is getting flooded with responses!!

I think the root of some problems here is the fact that the much more convenient, integrated algobox browser is a far simplified version of the version you'll find it you google algobox in your web browser. In that users here dont have access to features such as tags, rating or favs. So you quite reguarly find scenes in the popular section of the integrated algobox, that have made their way to the top from a single 10 rating. I think that if you were to implemet ratings on this much more convenient version of the algobox, the comminity would be able to police itself, which these spam scens being immedietly votes down, or simply ignored. With creators high quality scenes being rewarded. Obviously a lot has changed on the algobox since I was active, so what I'm saying here may not be relevant anymore, but i think this would be quite a simple change that might be worth a try without making any major modifications.

I dont think kicking well known, older scenes off the map completely, however, while ive benefited from it (>500000 downloads from 2 incredible simple scenes!), the featured section could be put to better use. Especially because the most downloaded page is basically a replication of the featured page! I think it could be used to revive older scenes, perhaps from a year or two, that maybe deserve a bit of recognition. That way you'd avoid scenes completely running away with download totals, and youd expose newer users to the wealth of older scenes from some inactive users. At the same time though, if a scene manages to make i to say a 7.1 rating (from 4 or 5 '10' ratings) it could be revived and put in the featured section after a month of so., along with scenes uploaded a couple of years ago.
I agree that spiltting the algobox is a really good idea though. I prosume its similar now but when I was active there were 2 very distinct communities on th algobox: the adults, students and a few smart kids, and a mass of kids, new to the algobox. And obviously they are making scenes for very different audiences, and the fact that the two mingle into one pool can be frustrating for both sides involved (I've been on both sides of the arugment, having started making scenes when I was 11, however now looking back with a slightly more mature attitude).

I'm giving these suggestions from my point of view, from 2 years ago, and my experience when i first joined the algobox. I joined at just as incredibly talented users from phun were just losing interest (Paradigm29, Dare, Shark, cata, conundrummer etc.), and I know they come back occationally for a scene or two, but I have yet to see anything of the same complexity of that you'll find in the top 5 or 6 pages in the highest rated section. I think more needs to be done to try and attract an older audience (I'm thinking engineering students), which might even have the effect of inspiring younger users to try new things - not just marble races! I really think this is a great piece of software (It is soley responsible for my chosen career path to become an engineer), and I dont think a large proportion of the commnity (including my scenes) is using it to its full caipability.

I dont know if any of what i've just said will be of any use, but theres my input to all of this - I don't know if any of it is still relevant to algodoo today! I just wish I had time now to invest in it. Sorry if I've gone off topic a bit,

Benjii

Emanuel - I have an idea that would not only benefit the community of Algodoo users, but it could also be very profitable for Algoryx. Here's how it would work:

1. Repackage Algodoo so that it "looks" like a different product that is dedicated to marble races and "Algicathlon" (or however it is spelled) events. The new software product might be called "Marbledoo" or "Marble Race-a-thon" or whatever. Include a user manual that young kids could understand.

2. Create another website that is similar to Algobox, but is dedicated to marble races and Algicathlons.

3. The original Algobox will be dedicated to Algodoo and scenes that make use of ALgodoo's amazing simulation features (like it once was).

With a repackaged software product, you would have marble race kids wanting to purchase the software in order to use it on the marble race website. Make the website in such a way that it will only accept scenes that were made with the new marble race software product, and will NOT accept the original Algodoo product. That way, only marble races and Algicathlons made with the new product can be used on the new website, and scenes made with the new marble race product cannot be used on the old Algobox website.

If you did this, you would make everyone happy because the kids who are only interested in marble races and colored stick people will have their own dedicated software product and website, and the older group who are interested mainly in physics simulations will have their own software and website. Based on the huge popularity of marble races, I think that Algoryx will profit from the sales of the new marble race software product.

Hmm, Xray, that's a good idea, but wouldn't you still be able to do marble races with Algodoo? I mean, if you paid for "Marble Simulator" or however you want to call it, you could just go to the free program and everything would be easier.

Emanuel, I wanted to know why Algoryx decided that Algodoo was better free. I mean, by making it free, the only thing you're winning is popularity- why don't keep it paid?
When I saw the forum post ("big day for Algodoo") I thought the contrary

Benjii:

I agree, the goal must be to help new Algobox users improve, which cannot be done without more experienced user inspiring! That is the reason I do not want to split Algobox, instead I would like to make it possible to filter out scenes from separate groups. Experienced users would easily change the option to ignore Marble scenes, and would not have to scroll through a bunch of Marble races to get to the advanced scene, but new users would probably use the default options and would then still see the advanced scenes, and hopefully be inspired!


Xray:

I afraid the reason we see so many Marble races scenes is because Algodoo is free.


The Linkage:

We decided to make Algodoo available for free because it was too hard to get schools interested in the program. Schools most often do not have that much money and the learning curve of Algodoo is a bit steep, but we really see the potential to improve the science education, which has been a goal from the start. The problem has probably been that we are a bit too early with the technology, so we made Algodoo available for free while we wait for a bit younger teachers to step in!


Kind regards,
Emanuel Dahlberg
Algobox Maintainer
Algoryx Simulation AB

Let all of the people play this game. Because mostly I go on Algobox on Algodoo without having to download scenes a long time, and so can you.