I like the discussion that has been going around about the rating system and incentivising feedback and all that. I don't have anything real meaningful to add to those conversations. I love the Ludum Dare community and think it is a great, friendly and open place on the web that is often not great, open or friendly. Here's what I believe about Ludum Dare.

Ludum Dare is primarily about community

We have an awesome community. It is great interacting with you folks on here and I've met people I now consider friends here. There are no prizes. Just a large group of passionate people. I love that.

Ludum Dare is all about contributing to the community

The entire site and jam is based around it. Want people to play your game? Play other peoples! Give them good feedback! You can easily follow other people and keep up to date on their work. Joining teams is easy and the site supports it. I love reading people's post mortems and hearing about their journey. I like to see updates on what people are working on and how they are solving problems. I like to see all the eye candy where people create cool things and we get to respond with hearts. All that contributes to the community and makes it a great place. Which leads me to my next point...

Self promotion hurts the community

Note that I'm not saying self promotion is * bad *. It isn't. If you want to make it in the game industry you have to do it. But you don't have to do it * here *. It seemed that this jam the entire front page was always filled with "Play My Game!" advertisements. They don't add to the community. There are lots of other places where self promotion is accepted and welcome. I don't think that the Ludum Dare main feed is one of those places.

Here's my plan

1. I'm going to make sure that every post I make contributes to the community in some way. A way I solved a problem. A decision that I made. Sure I'll link to my game, but I'm going to make sure that I'm at least contributing to everyone when I do.
2. I'm going to respond honestly to everyone who rates my game.
3. If I see someone self promoting on the main page, I'm not going to play or rate unless I see they are at positive coolness. I may also politely and respectfully explain how the system works (maybe they just don't know!). Advertising only works because we keep buying the stuff. So I'll just spend my money (votes) elsewhere. Maybe if enough of us do it the behavior will change?
4. As I play and rate games, I am going to post about the cool things I find so that others can find them too. This might even help towards getting the entries that are in the running for the top spots extra votes, which may make others happy about the low rating count for winning entries.

See you all in Ludum Dare 42!