In discussion with a couple people, we came upon this issue (some people on AIM, a discussion on #allegro, etc). Allegro.cc seems to have changed.

Even i see a change from when i first signed up here. When i asked dumb, rtfm-y questions (note: X-G, this isn't a bash on you...) i generally got an explination, not "RTFM." We have grown not-newb friendy kindof. Sometimes an RTFM is warranted, other times it simply isn't.

Another thing.. everybody is soooo secretive. "MY SEEKRET PROJACT!" No details, no screenshots, nothing. It is like nobody is doing a God darn thing around here. Not as many people are using Allegro anymore either, it seems.

One more thing, everyone has turned into "NO SCREENSHOT NO DOWNLOAD." Why? Why not just try the game/demo/whatever it is? I download almost everything posted when people ask for reviews on it. It seems unjustified, somebody (esp. newbies) working real hard on something to present it to us, and some say no screenshot, no download. That would just destroy their motivation and slowly drag them down into not wanting to post or announce stuff here anymore.

It just has a different feel and attitued in the forums and such than i remember it being. That being said, i'm not trying to reform or anything, I just had this thought come back to me after reading a couple of threads. Make of it as you will.

yeah i miss good old mondays (or whatever day) when we get "Let's make a supper dupper programming team"

You got it

On the point of asking questions... this is one of the (potentially) strongest communities on the net, and one that I'd like to think all Allegrites should be proud of. And yes, there are certain questions that are asked with alarming frequency, but we should at least point people to the relevant documents/threads that may be helpful. If you don't have anything relevant to post (i.e. a response that actually helps) then perhaps it would be better to stay your hand and move on to another thread.

As for secrecy, I suppose people have been bitten by the shareware bug, and don't want to tip their hands. That's fine; just make sure it gets posted here when you're done with it

I'm rather opposed to this as well, and I don't think it would hold 100% true for most people.

OTOH, I don't like posts like the following:

I'm not going to waste the time to copy and paste the url into the address bar if they're not even going to have the time to post an even vaguely descriptive paragraph or two.

When I post something to be tested by other people, it usually goes something like this:

You also should take into account the lightning-quick accuracy and knowledge of the community. I post a question and BAM!! it's answered. If not then I'm definately pointed in the right direction.

I am sure the following conversation happened between our own spellcaster and your truly will put a few views and ideas expressed in this thread so far into some perspective ( I hope ).

For the sake completeness this happened between 16th Jan and 17th Jan 2003. So you see BAF I was having this feeling a long long time ago.8-) But all is well till now and hopefully it will remain like that in future. AMEN BROTHERS !

BAF : So, don't worry

Sirocco and Mark Oates you both couldnot be more correct !

p.s. Spellcaster I hope you will not mind that I put this conversation in public forum. Sincere apologies if you do so.

Personally, I seldom answer with a plain RTFM. Usually, I try to give a short explanation and point to the docs. It's true that I don't take the time to duplicate the docs in my own words though.
I think giving a short explanation and pointing people to the docs is a good thing - the docs are there for a reason, after all.

Again me personally, I have to split my time between work, Allegro, my games and other interests. This slows development on my main Allegro-related programming projects.
For the record, these are the two games I have listed on the depot, a Crystal Castles clone in early stages of development, a chess program, a Xianqi (Chinese Chess) program and a computer version of the board game Carcassonne. The latter is coming along nicely, but I am hesitant to spread it beyond direct friends and acquintences (being a copyrighted product and all).
I probably use Allegro as much as I ever have, if not more.

I rarely download anything anyway (no time to play test extensively). I do like to get an impression of what people are working on, so I do like a screenshot. But it isn't strongly correlated to me downloading something or not.

Maybe. I don't know, I've seen people say this several times over the past couple of years. I don't know, I think some of the regulars of a while back are posting less and other people are posting more - which certainly affects the feel of the forums. I also read the forums far less closely than I used to now, maybe it's just that.
I don't feel it's particularly better or worse than it used to be though.

The reason I've been doing the "SIKRIT PROJEKT" limbo is that I've been afraid to burst your minds with the coolness of my game before it's completely done - A danger in giving previews and demos too early is that you risk to erode the interest in your project while it's still in its infancy.

My latest (tentatively called "toblos") will be thoroughly tested by Allegroites before being unleashed upon the world - it's way way way cooler than RotoCube - I'm committed to finishing it this autumn, and trying to sell it on my site (extensive demo will be available, of course)

As with regards to the "NS-ND" doctrine, I support it fully - mostly I'm at work when reading this stuff, so I can't try it out, but if a screenshot captures my attention, I try to remember downloading it after working hours - It's NOT that difficult to add a simple screenshot, surely? - Not more than it is for me to download and test the game, right?

Evert: I'm interested in the Carcassone!

In my case though, any secrecy does indeed mean I'm not doing anything interesting. I am doing things, of course. It's just probably not of any interest to anyone on allegro.cc.

I think we're RTFM'ing more because less and less people are R'ingTFM.

As for project secrecy.. personally I tend to keep a low profile concerning all my projects for several reasons. For one, the likelyhood of them seeing the light of day is rather low. A few projects of mine have been released, and I'm sure you've heard of at least one of them, though. Another thing is that I want to be able to surprise people when they see what the project is shaping up to be (which my current one isn't even in a state where I can say "this is my project", because it looks like something it's not supposed to be.. which is point #3). If you watch a project's steady progression from scratch to full-product, you'll have a lot less to be excited over because you'll have seen everything seperately already as it's put in, instead of several chunks at once.

Rest assured though, when there is something to (possibly) be excited about, you'll all know.

I would say the elders around here shouldn't even post if all they are going to post is "RTFM". It's very understandable that you don't want to repeat yourselfs so don't post at all and let the non-elders, non-newbies answer the question, like you were so long ago. It's a cycle. When you hit elite status you don't have to answer those type of questions. Let the ones below you do the dirty work. The elders should be working on helping game design/theory.

for example.

"this" is linked.

X-G, member since 2000, wrote RTFM.
Lenman, member since 2004, gave a link.

X-G, you shouldn't waste your own time with that post. Let people under you help this guy.