All it is doing is making it easier for people to just copy games and claim their work as their own.
It is annoying me to the extreme.
I think the forking ability should be taken away, yes it is a nice tool, but the costs are greater than the need.
Forked games are clearly marked as a fork, and you can click to see the original. If we removed it then people could just copy+paste code, and there would be no marking that it's a fork.
We believe the problem is with the way that games are currently displayed in the play section. We are thinking up new ways to display the played games, and one aspect that will help is with voting. Your then free to express your opinion through voting up or down (or choosing not to vote so only good stuff goes up).
Ultimately, we want people to learning from each other, using each others code, and adding things to that. There is nothing wrong with using someone else's code. I would also encourage any new users to fork my code, and add to it.
I like how people can fork projects and as Joe said - it needs to stay.
It would be nice if forked projects ended up in a new category of "Forked" rather than "Brand New". Then maybe when voting appears, up-votes could promote it to other categories.
At least then, original projects wouldn't get lost behind a lot of forked projects in the Brand New section.
I assume that coding games here will be aimed at a wider audience than your avarage web developer. Most people have never used a version control system, and probably have no idea what 'forking' means. The word "copy" could be used instead, but this gets the negative connotation of copying someone else's work. I don't know a better sollution at the moment, but I still think it's a problem worth looking into.
I do mind people copying others work.
Its good that we can look at other peoples code and learn from it. But I hate the fact that lots of new coders are just copying code exactly and not even trying to mod it.
"Play" section could list the "original" games only, but underneath each one something like "4 forked projects...", which when clicked expands into a threaded list of titles of forks and sub-forks, sorted by a popularity/rating/hot measure. A fork could be promoted to an "original" game if it was substantial.
but it would make forks less visible, since someone needs to have seen the actual game before seeing the fork. This gives a disadvantage to people who want to fork a game to use some components, but make a totally different game, for example if I fork a mario-style platformer to use it's platforming engine in a 2D portal game, we're making totally different games. I would just make it very clear that the game is a fork.
SD
Forking ability taken away
All it is doing is making it easier for people to just copy games and claim their work as their own. It is annoying me to the extreme. I think the forking ability should be taken away, yes it is a nice tool, but the costs are greater than the need.
Thu Apr 5, 0:48
Joe
Forking will not be removed
Forked games are clearly marked as a fork, and you can click to see the original. If we removed it then people could just copy+paste code, and there would be no marking that it's a fork. We believe the problem is with the way that games are currently displayed in the play section. We are thinking up new ways to display the played games, and one aspect that will help is with voting. Your then free to express your opinion through voting up or down (or choosing not to vote so only good stuff goes up). Ultimately, we want people to learning from each other, using each others code, and adding things to that. There is nothing wrong with using someone else's code. I would also encourage any new users to fork my code, and add to it.
Thu Apr 5, 1:08
krakatomato
I like how people can fork projects and as Joe said - it needs to stay. It would be nice if forked projects ended up in a new category of "Forked" rather than "Brand New". Then maybe when voting appears, up-votes could promote it to other categories. At least then, original projects wouldn't get lost behind a lot of forked projects in the Brand New section.
Thu Apr 5, 8:14
bigblind
Normal people don't know forking.
I assume that coding games here will be aimed at a wider audience than your avarage web developer. Most people have never used a version control system, and probably have no idea what 'forking' means. The word "copy" could be used instead, but this gets the negative connotation of copying someone else's work. I don't know a better sollution at the moment, but I still think it's a problem worth looking into.
Thu Apr 5, 10:35
SD
I dont mind forking
I do mind people copying others work. Its good that we can look at other peoples code and learn from it. But I hate the fact that lots of new coders are just copying code exactly and not even trying to mod it.
Fri Apr 6, 16:27
TopHatStuff
How about threaded fork lists?
"Play" section could list the "original" games only, but underneath each one something like "4 forked projects...", which when clicked expands into a threaded list of titles of forks and sub-forks, sorted by a popularity/rating/hot measure. A fork could be promoted to an "original" game if it was substantial.
Sun Apr 15, 13:00
bigblind
That would be cool
but it would make forks less visible, since someone needs to have seen the actual game before seeing the fork. This gives a disadvantage to people who want to fork a game to use some components, but make a totally different game, for example if I fork a mario-style platformer to use it's platforming engine in a 2D portal game, we're making totally different games. I would just make it very clear that the game is a fork.
Sun Apr 15, 22:11