Zen and the art of the Project Log

G-gnome’s Top Five Don'ts

To everything, there is a yang (here we go with that Zen again). What goes around, comes around...and all that other stuff. And just like there are things that you should do, there are also things that you should avoid like the proverbial plague. Good posting habits in your own log and in those of others will not only make your logs nicer, they influence the community as a whole.

With that in mind, here are five "Don'ts" to go along with the "Dos"...

1. Don’t Hijack Other People's Project Logs.

Whatever you do, don’t go posting pictures of YOUR mod in someone else’s log. Ever. If you want to show the project logger your mod, PM or email them a link or picture. If you’re that desperate for people to see your work, start your own project log. A project log is for discussion of one mod only. Also, don’t turn someone else’s log into a chat with your mate about unrelated XYZ, use the popularity of another’s log to try to push your own mod.

2. Don’t Post Your Log on Lots of Sites.

Do this and you risk being labelled as a classic Attention Whore – this is the person who posts a carbon copy of their log on every modding forum known to man in an effort to get noticed. Identical logs, identical updates. Look at ME ME ME. This is unnecessary and usually backfires, as the offending modder comes across as a desperate attention seeker; besides now having all the extra work of keeping multiple logs up to date and replying to comments.

I know from experience, having posted my logs on only one site (this one), that you WILL be noticed if your work and log are what people want to see – the ‘uber word-of-mouth’ of the Internet will look after you. Trust me. Have confidence in your work and stick to one or two of your favourite modding sites; you’ll have a lot more time to mod. When choosing a site for your project log, pick one where you hang out, and that has the project logs you admire.

Also consider the people who inhabit the forums there and the staff and moderators: is the community positive, welcoming and helpful, or a bunch of Trolls; do the moderators enforce strict rules against antisocial behaviour and encourage newcomers, or are they the ones rudely dissing your project? Choose wisely, Grasshopper.

3. Don’t Be a Jerk About Other Peoples Work.

Appreciate the work that’s gone into a mod and the effort that someone has made to keep and post a project log for the benefit of the community. If you don’t like a mod, that’s fine, just don’t be rude about it. In fact, the reality is that the community doesn’t really care if you don’t like it, and the modder certainly doesn’t (or he would’ve made something different to please folks like you); so for whose benefit are you announcing your dislike – your own?

The people who like to diss other projects are not the top modders - most haven’t even modded before - so the community really doesn’t give a rats about what they think. Even telling someone they ‘would’ve done it different’ is a pointless statement – the modder has already done it. Their way.


Give constructive, positive criticism. Support and encouragement to new modders or first-time project logs only has a positive effect on the modding community as a whole. If you’re ever a member of a forum and are sitting there complaining about how few new modding projects are being posted, take a step back and look at your community: how are people treated on your forums; what’s the general attitude of your members? If you have obnoxious members on your forum, bring them to heel. For all our sakes.

4. Don’t Use 40 Posts when four will do.

Some people post updates and put 80 pictures in the one post; others will post with 80 pictures in 80 posts. I’m not sure if they’re just working on their post counts, but it makes their logs difficult to read. Likewise one large post can be a drag to load. Try to strike a balance and split your updates up into manageable sizes – say a dozen rows of pictures and text per post.

Think like you’re writing an article and each post is a page. This way you can also use post titles to make each post about a particular component or aspect of the update. Another advantage of using several medium-sized posts is, when the forum page is almost full, to allow an update to split over two pages. Much quicker to load.

5. Sort Your Pictures Out.

Pictures are the key element of a project log. Problems with your pictures are what will get people tuning out of your log and never returning.

In fact, pictures are almost a subject unto themselves, so let's take a look at some common issues.