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TWIN GALAXIES
04-12-2017 at 12:07 AM

As you may have noticed, the Twin Galaxies website just underwent a significant upgrade. :)

We recommend that if you have visited the Twin Galaxies site prior to April 11th, that you please clear your web browser's cache and refresh the site a couple times to clear out all the old TG webcode and replace it with the new stuff. Not doing this may result in some website display issues.

A tremendous amount of work and changes are currently being activated and as they come online there will likely be some initial problems to correct. We appreciate your patience as we discover and sort out these lingering issues.

The changes are extensive, however there are some notable items:

Site is a bit easier to see and navigate on mobile. Yay!

Search system has been upgraded! In the upper right corner of the site is a search magnifying glass. This is the new search function and the site will now return much better and useful results that it had previously.

Upload system has been upgraded! We believe that we have successfully solved the issue that some members with slower connections were having when uploading large files. Additionally, members can now choose multiple files at once to upload. Give it a try! :)

Premium Tracks (track filtering)
We have implemented the first stage of our leaderboard (track) filtering system. This directly addresses member's ongoing concerns regarding database track dilution through ongoing user track creation.

There are only 2 types of Tracks in our system. PREMIUM and NOT PREMIUM.

Premium Tracks are what all users will see by default.

Premium Tracks are tracks that are considered by Twin Galaxies to have at least one (1) of these attributes:

High Quality (as determined by Twin Galaxies Administration)
Sufficiently Competed On
Promotional of Twin Galaxies' Goals as an Organization

Starting in May 2017, only records held on Premium Tracks will be eligible for entry into the Guinness Book of World Records.

User created tracks are not Premium by default.

In order for a user created track to become Premium, it must either be made premium by Twin Galaxies Administration, or the track must have at least 10 adjudicated records on it.

When a user created track contains 10 adjudicated records, it will automatically become Premium as it will have reached the minimum participation standard. It will then become eligible to be submitted to Guinness World Records.

The current Premium tracks that are established and viewable are all of the tracks that were acquired from the previous era of Twin Galaxies (prior to April 2014.) This effectively removes any and all new era user created track dilution from the system default view (unless a user created track has more than 10 records - then it is now premium as well.)

User created tracks that may not ever be able to achieve the 10 participant minimum, but are high quality and have some competitors that would like the track to become premium can have the original track founders submit a request for TG admin to review and consider.

We hope that you like the upgrades and appreciate your patience as we work out all the kinks!

More info soon!

User comments (291)

Unregistered's Avatar

It seems to me this all comes down to how hard it will be to get your track approved premium. If TG only turns down requests that are absurd or have bad rules, then the only downside is that you have to go through an additional step of PMing TG to get your track premium. But if they start turning down people for setting up a hundred new tracks for the newest racing game, then I think there'll be a problem because there are already many other games set up the same way that will become premium automatically. I don't think this will be as bad as people are thinking. Time will tell.
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Quote Originally Posted by D.B. Cooper
I don't think this is true. Track dilution has been an ongoing issue at TG since the first day I joined. In fact one of the biggest issues was when a ref would add a new game with a bunch of tracks and then pad their WR count by submitting scores to all of them. This is hardly a new issue but I do admit that it's been taken to entirely new level now that everyone can do this.
and think all those crap tracks are now premium. 20+ year old tracks that noone ever competed on and ever will because they're such crap get premium status
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Thank you Jace Hall for clearing up some of the points I was missing.

As long as someone has the authority to change the status of a "junk" track from premium to standard it seems it could be a good idea to have it automated.
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Quote Originally Posted by Snowflake
and think all those crap tracks are now premium. 20+ year old tracks that noone ever competed on and ever will because they're such crap get premium status
Going through the historic tracks and making the appropriate ones non-premium will also happen rest assured. All tracks are reviewed equally in the new era. We just have to start somewhere.
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Quote Originally Posted by Jace Hall
Going through the historic tracks and making the appropriate ones non-premium will also happen rest assured. All tracks are reviewed equally in the new era. We just have to start somewhere.
Hot damn, i was just being snippy and venting. Awesome answer though Jace.

something was corrupted and colluded in galaxies and Jace is here to take out the trash
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Quote Originally Posted by Jace Hall
No games have been removed. If you do not see them can you please identify what you have found to be missing and we will investigate.
@Jace Hall As stated above, lots of iOS and Android tracks are missing. Not just the tracks but the titles themselves. Also Rodrigo mentioned some 3DS things missing.

IMPORTANT: User-founded tracks such as PinOut for iOS/Android and my recently founded Caveman Games for NES appear in the drop down menu when you go to the platforms page and type in Search By Game. But when you click them, NO RESULTS FOUND.

They're all still in there as my most recent post about my understanding indicates. I don't think anything has been removed from the database but there is clearly an issue with accessing them on the site.

It would be an ENORMOUS effort for TG members to PM you every single title and track that is not accessible on the website. Please consider addressing this issue by regarding the differences between Twin Galaxies founded tracks and user-founded tracks. That appears to be the glaring common thread. Thanks.
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Making a track premium or junk. Wasn't that something that the "rate this track" was for. Why not also allow the community to do some of the work with that feature again. Yeah there are some junk tracks out there that should not be allowed, but if they get moved to the junk category and I don't have to look at them then I'm fine with that. I think that the community should be able to vote a track into premium though. Setup an adjudication of tracks that people can submit the track that they think is premium and allow the users to vote on it. Give points for participation just like on a regular track.
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Quote Originally Posted by bensweeneyonbass
@Jace Hall As stated above, lots of iOS and Android tracks are missing. Not just the tracks but the titles themselves. Also Rodrigo mentioned some 3DS things missing.

IMPORTANT: User-founded tracks such as PinOut for iOS/Android and my recently founded Caveman Games for NES appear in the drop down menu when you go to the platforms page and type in Search By Game. But when you click them, NO RESULTS FOUND.

They're all still in there as my most recent post about my understanding indicates. I don't think anything has been removed from the database but there is clearly an issue with accessing them on the site.

It would be an ENORMOUS effort for TG members to PM you every single title and track that is not accessible on the website. Please consider addressing this issue by regarding the differences between Twin Galaxies founded tracks and user-founded tracks. That appears to be the glaring common thread. Thanks.
Yes this is a systemic bug. We will fix it.

I believe it relates to any user created track/game that doesnt have 10+ records being culled from the display - since the system defaults to only showing premium listings.
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@Siliconian do you think the tracks you're looking for to submit to are all user-founded tracks?

As it stands now the only ones I can't personally find on the website are user-founded.

Even Kung-Fu for NES appears but only shows the TG founded NTSC and PAL points tracks not the NTSC Difficulty B track. So it's split not by title or platform but by founder.
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Quote Originally Posted by redelf
Making a track premium or junk. Wasn't that something that the "rate this track" was for. Why not also allow the community to do some of the work with that feature again. Yeah there are some junk tracks out there that should not be allowed, but if they get moved to the junk category and I don't have to look at them then I'm fine with that. I think that the community should be able to vote a track into premium though. Setup an adjudication of tracks that people can submit the track that they think is premium and allow the users to vote on it. Give points for participation just like on a regular track.
The community can vote a track into premium by competing on it and putting ten entries on the leaderboard. Its that simple. :) No need for all the additional complexity above.
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Quote Originally Posted by Jace Hall
Yes this is a systemic bug. We will fix it.

I believe it relates to any user created track/game that doesnt have 10+ records being culled from the display - since the system defaults to only showing premium listings.
Ok thank you for this insight.

I'll see if I can't toy with my defaults and get non-premium tracks to display. But for the record - TG founded tracks that don't meet the 10+ records to be Premium are still displaying. Example = Bart vs The Space Mutants for NES. Only two records on both Points and Fastest Completion tracks and they both appear.

Again thank you I know this is a MASSIVE undertaking. Your poise and candor is much appreciated.
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LOL at the community "voting" a track into premium. Okay guys who wants to submit on NBA 2K17 on Xbox ONE!? To all three of you that have submitted an attempt on Xbox ONE!
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Quote Originally Posted by bensweeneyonbass
Ok thank you for this insight.

I'll see if I can't toy with my defaults and get non-premium tracks to display. But for the record - TG founded tracks that don't meet the 10+ records to be Premium are still displaying. Example = Bart vs The Space Mutants for NES. Only two records on both Points and Fastest Completion tracks and they both appear.

Again thank you I know this is a MASSIVE undertaking. Your poise and candor is much appreciated.
Yes. If TG is a founder on a track it is automatically considered premium. Number of records on the track won't matter. Thats how the system basically works.

So, if a user created track founder requests premium status and it is granted, what happens is that Twin Galaxies gets added as an additional track founder and then the system recognizes the user track as premium. I hope that made sense.

Greatly appreciate the kind words, but not necessary as I do understand the shock of something new like this being pushed out into the system and so I just want to help everyone understand the changes and rationale so that they can digest and help improve it.

Sudden changes can be alarming and frustrating. Totally get it.
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Quote Originally Posted by Tristen Geren
LOL at the community "voting" a track into premium. Okay guys who wants to submit on NBA 2K17 on Xbox ONE!? To all three of you that have submitted an attempt on Xbox ONE!
As mentioned previously there is always the alternative option of just submitting a premium track request if there are not enough competitors to support an auto-upgrade at this time.
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Quote Originally Posted by Jace Hall
As mentioned previously there is always the alternative option of just submitting a premium track request if there are not enough competitors to support an auto-upgrade at this time.
I did PM @TWIN GALAXIES with all of my user-created tracks which was time consuming and tedious. I don't understand this site. You have this golden opportunity with GWR promoting you and the televised tournament coming up and you make your site even more difficult than it already is! Every single H1Z1 player I spoke to said that this site is way too confusing and way too much work. I agree with every single one of them. Then this update just adds another tier of unnecessary effort in order to get the simplest of tasks through!
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Is there a way to set a default preference for the premium track check box? I would like to see both, all the time, with out having to uncheck the box on each game's page.
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No way enough people will compete on the Vectrex tracks I started to make them premium, and is sad-I didn't start them so I would have a record, I started them so the very few others with a Vectrex may play along. Struggling, site glitchy, very, very odd changes in procedure...
I hope it isn't like today much longer, spent too much time trying to see if is the site or my PC with problems, hasn't been fun.
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Quote Originally Posted by sdwyer138
Is there a way to set a default preference for the premium track check box? I would like to see both, all the time, with out having to uncheck the box on each game's page.
Ya-I want the option to see all the tracks on every system with one permanent setting change.
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Quote Originally Posted by Tristen Geren
I did PM @TWIN GALAXIES with all of my user-created tracks which was time consuming and tedious. I don't understand this site. You have this golden opportunity with GWR promoting you and the televised tournament coming up and you make your site even more difficult than it already is! Every single H1Z1 player I spoke to said that this site is way too confusing and way too much work. I agree with every single one of them. Then this update just adds another tier of unnecessary effort in order to get the simplest of tasks through!
This site must perform a number of different complex tasks from submission, community adjudication, and etc.

Since it does so many things, invariably it must have some complexity in order to serve all the different areas of interest and needs.

We try to make it as simple and straightforward as possible and this recent update in design is part of that effort, as the site is now much more useable on mobile platforms for instance.

I've tried my best to explain these changes and the rationale behind them. It is unfortunate that it does not meet your needs.
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Quote Originally Posted by sdwyer138
Is there a way to set a default preference for the premium track check box? I would like to see both, all the time, with out having to uncheck the box on each game's page.
Not yet, however we will be adding that.
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