Wuzzy {l Wrote}:I will not comment, reject or defend the idea itself but instead I comment the way it is discussed here. This thread is remarkable in the sense because the ad hominem fallacy was commited no less than three times.
First of all, I explain what an “ad hominem fallacy” is. It is a kind of fallicious reasoning which goes like this:
“A. There is something bad about person X.
B. Person X states Y.
C. Therefore, Y is wrong.”
Written in this form, it should be obvious that there is something wrong with this reasoning. Because if it were true, it implies that literally everything which is stated by X must be wrong. This is of course absurd.
Hmm - I kind of agree with this, though I am not sure this exact reasoning was applied (esp. "C: Therefore").
Fallacy #1:
I strongly disagree with this one. It suggests that his ideas are automatically worse or “less worth” than ideas from other persons (“Join the queue. At the back.”).
Reformulated it goes like this:
“A. Person X never contributed anything to the project but ideas (which is considered bad).
B. Person X states [some ideas Y].
C. Therefore, Y is wrong/bad/foolish/not worth considering/etc.”
An ad hominem fallacy. Besides: Isn’t a plan also some kind of “idea”?
I admit I don't like showing that picture whenever someone makes a suggestion that doesn't fit, since it prevents brainstorming, which I consider very important.
But to explain this a bit better, put yourself in my shoes; I have many good ideas, and only so much time. Now someone comes up with an idea (which is obviously not as good as mine, right? My ideas are of course the best

) - why should I stop doing the things I want to do, and implement something someone else wants me to do? I mean, if someone pays me to do something (e.g. at work), then sure. But this is hobby.
I don't understand this poster as saying "your ideas are bad" at all. For me it says: it's unlikely to be implemented since the people who can actually do it have other priorities. This statement does not include anything about the validity of the idea itself. I have seen many good ideas, which (atm) we just can't implement. Of course, if I like the idea, or enough people like the idea, we might implement it, that's why I say brainstorming is important.
Also, it is supposed to tell the reader: if would really help if you would try to acquire the right skills to implement something yourself, since then you would be higher up in the queue

Fallacy #2:
So you didn't even play the game, huh....
I wonder why we should take your ideas seriously then, since you don't even bother to see how they would fit with the big picture.
This is a perfect example of an ad hominem fallacy. It perfectly fits the pattern:
“A. Chronomaster never played SuperTuxKart (which is considered bad in this case).
B. Chronomaster states that changing the animations is a good idea.
C. Therefore, changing the animations is not a good idea. (And everything which chronomaster suggests is wrong.)”
I would strongly contradict the 'therefore' in C: I don't like the idea of karts exploding, since imho it does not really fit the game style, so I think it's not a good idea. But of course (see brainstorming above) I kept wondering, what am I missing that someone wants to add 'real' explosions to this game? Perhaps there is a bit of a truth somewhere that we should consider? Is there a new idea that I didn't think of? But reading that Chronomaster hasn't played the game explains to me why this suggestion was made, and I honestly can't see any reason to go in this direction
The initial suggestion of blackening the kart and some smoke is nice (imho), and perhaps even adding a 'shaking fist' animation imho would be a good idea. It's certainly a lot less work than exploding karts

Fallacy #3:
I've long since not liked the current hit / blown up animations but I've not said anything because, well, samuncle's picture describes it best. People are already busy working on ideas of their own.
Charlie indirectly applies the ad hominem fallacy to himself because he uses fallacy #1 as reason.
I understand Charlie's statement more as a sign of trust: the development of STK is going in the right direction, and there are more important things to do at the moment, but at the right time (if the developers should miss that) I might make a suggestion. Also, there are two different things: saying: "I don't like XYZ", or: "What about you do ABC, since XYZ doesn't look good". Training yourself to give more positive feedback is really good imho. There are a lot of things not to like in STK, but getting suggestions that help us improve stk with reasonable amount of work is really valuable.
If one thinks the animations are bad one should feel free to express it, wheather or not one plans to actually change it. It the animations are actually bad, well, they are so, no matter if its expressed by a newbie or a long-term commiter.
Sure, but as I've said - making suggestions for improvements is what really helps us (not to mention a patch

).
To those who commited these fallacies: You should attack the idea and only the idea. Those ideas who are not worthwhile on their own will die off on their own. But attacking the one who came up with the idea is a fallacy. The picture part of Samuncle’s post is fallacious. The second part of this post isn’t.
As I've tried to explain, while I don't like this poster to be posted too often, I don't think it is meant to disregard an idea, just ... to wake people up to reality

But - obviously this discussion has become a bit too heated

Could I recommend everybody to cool down a bit, and wait a day before posting something instead of doing it while still being angry?
Speaking of ideas: Is there somewhere a list of ideas which are considered good/realistic for which just nobody bothered to address them (yet)?
This is a good question

We have a
milestone page, but it's very high level only. Our
todo list on the other hand is really outdated (anyone volunteers to clean this up a bit, e.g. remove things that are already done??). At the moment the best approach for a new idea to be implemented would be to start a discussion here in the forum, and when it appears an agreement was reached, add a ticket to our
trac. We have some people contributing mostly small things by fixing bugs or implementing missing features.
Cheers,
Joerg