Killervp, that's not the issue that I am complaining about. I am complaining about the continued assumption that it's fine to have official notifications (like the one that Mae mentioned) only coming across Twitter or Facebook and not getting communicated in the actual forums. You know, the communication tool actually connected to the product, and where the community actually discusses stuff related to the product...
* The help videos have been broken since the Reforge. Now they aren't. It also added a potential new community of users by going to Youtube.
* The name generator has begun to be implemented, and it will be updated again soon, so that's an improvement.
* Haste is a big one...while it may be going away, once that's done the focus can be shifted to other projects.
* File storage improvements are continuing, and we will likely see those within the next few months (ideally).
And this is most important and relevant, the forums are being reconsidered. The way they work now, most of the information is difficult to sift through unless it's on the front page, tagging and search are a bit of a mess, and many of the threads are entirely irrelevant, especially the ones from Preforge. A new forum will (hopefully) be better integrated and designed, and allow for community subforums and likely (push) notifications.
IMO, that's why the forums aren't typically being used to state much, save for by request or occasional check-in update; besides the fact that they aren't well-designed for it, there aren't nearly as many people active on them -- not that we can even see who's online or watching, which is another issue with the existing forums. At least with Twitter and Facebook (and now potentially Youtube), people can receive notifications more directly, because that's what the programs and software allow.
I do agree that it's inconvenient to have to go off-site for most progress and "what's going on" info, that's just what might work better for now. I also agree that it would be nice to have reliable regular (weekly) update posts, but I'm just glad that we know things are being worked on, especially things that are being checked off the list. And now more than before, they are tangible, visible updates, even if they're not necessarily the ones some people may be looking for.
Finally, we all must admit, we lost a lot of people from Reforge outcry, and we need to rebuild our numbers, maybe even draw back some of those older users once they see the site meeting goals and updating. Hopefully this will begin to have some positive impact.
@Mae- The problem for me, and many others, and where they lost folks, is that they still have produced very few actual results on the "new" things that they promised to deliver 2 years ago now. On top of that, they continue to either ignore or give "we will get to it" to help tickets- many about legitimate issues.
There are 60 tickets since the June 16th "We will just close all tickets". Only 4 tickets have any response, and only one is resolved. That is almost 2 months ago.
This is the kind of communication (sans details) I would get from people running projects that were struggling.
I'm all for hope and optimism, and I appreciate DreadGazebo's efforts, but if I was critical eye'ing this impartially...I would start throwing warning flags to my boss.
Like I've said before, I'm staying, partially so I can support them. And let them know.
Example...we were told upthread;
@schwing Jun 21st 2015
Hey everyone!
Sorry I've been away for a bit but I've been hard at work on the file storage locker and natural editing and they're getting so close!
Looking at the end of this week for a push of the storage locker and end of next for the natural editing(fingers crossed, it is a little tricky).@
They don't owe us updates, and keeping coms flowing is hard when there may be difficulties or no good news, but its important to manage customer expectations.
This is an important page.
It is right that many of us keep up our interest here.
It is true to say that communication could be better but it has at least improved since THE GREAT WALL OF SILENCE.
I look forward to further improvements and am hopeful these can be implemented relatively smoothly,
but......regardless of all this.....even with the way things are at the moment, my Role Playing Life is much enriched by Obsidian Portal and will continue to be so long as the platform exists.
Please have a read of Alex Redeye's "review":https://da-requiem.obsidianportal.com/posts/obsidian-portal-review and remember what wealth we have.
Surely, it can ONLY get better......
twiggyleaf
CURRENT CAMPAIGN: "Mysteria":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/mysteria - set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: "Shimring":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shimring
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
bq. And this is most important and relevant, the forums are being reconsidered. The way they work now, most of the information is difficult to sift through unless it’s on the front page, tagging and search are a bit of a mess, and many of the threads are entirely irrelevant, especially the ones from Preforge. A new forum will (hopefully) be better integrated and designed, and allow for community subforums and likely (push) notifications.
Most of these problems have to do with the 'age' of this forum software. There are other forum software options which provide better search, integration and tagging capability.
I would suggest that you be very careful in deciding which threads are not relevant. Many of the older threads do have information on how to setup and format an OP site using CSS.
bq. IMO, that’s why the forums aren’t typically being used to state much, save for by request or occasional check-in update; besides the fact that they aren’t well-designed for it, there aren’t nearly as many people active on them — not that we can even see who’s online or watching, which is another issue with the existing forums. At least with Twitter and Facebook (and now potentially Youtube), people can receive notifications more directly, because that’s what the programs and software allow.
I use Facebook almost exclusively for friends/family stuff. I try hard not to mix in things like OP because that would make it even more 'noisy'.
I have a Twitter account which I set up many years ago. I rarely look at it.
When I want information I want to go to a specific site to get that information. I don't want to have to sort thru a noisy newsfeed.
I agree with Twiggy- I literally owe my gaming to OP, and that is why I have not left, and still try and push it publicly.
Great to hear from you again Jerry- happy that you are still involved!
I hope I didn't put across the thought that I believe all of the Preforge threads weren't relevant; the CSS ones are especially still useful, and I'm sure there are others. I mostly meant the old LFG, random complaints, and time-sensitive threads. There's just many years of threads that went nowhere, or are buried so deep in the forum history that I can't see them being all worth keeping.
Also, I'm with you when it comes to FB&T, and I do the same with site news. Unfortunately, the way society works now is to just throw news up on social media and hope/assume people are looking.
No offense, but here we are a day later with nothing. Very hard to rebuild trust when such a simple promise is not kept. You'd have been better not making the promise.
Hey now Bortas, I never said promise! Secondly, I opted to carefully construct a statement, because the line I'm walking right now is a very precarious one. Those things take time, and I do work 10 hour days at a day job that I can rarely pull myself from to peruse our forums, toss in family and other obligations and my post wasn't made on time. Sorry about that. I made the initial post because I was feeling very passionately and I basically wanted to let you guys know that I was here. Absorbing the feedback. I always am, but I rarely chime in.
So, speaking of our forums, and to touch on the social media disdain, I understand where you guys are coming from. These channels are easy to broadcast to, and while we have a lot of fans and community there, there's not a lot of overlap here for the official forums. I'd really like to change that. For the past 6 months I've been pushing for a forum upgrade here so that our forums are less...well...awful, and reminiscent of something from 10 years ago. So far, development efforts have been elsewhere though. Currently file storage and elvent name generators are being worked on. I will make better efforts in the future, regardless of the state of the forums.
Do know that I'm in your corner, I'm pushing for all the things you're pushing for. Don't ever forget that I'm one of you guys too.
By the way, "chiming in" for myself, I don't do TWITTER and like to keep FACEBOOK for social interaction outside of gaming and I therefore support the NEED for an improvement on these forums, and a prioritization in terms of this being the main platform for OP communication. However, I totally "get" the expansion into the aforementioned social media and have nothing against that. The New Video Tutorials are good. Perhaps a permanent link to the YouTube site from the OP Blog or something would be a good idea.
Still using Obsidian Portal effectively and always willing to accept improvements,
Your ardent follower,
twigs
Post edited by twiggyleaf on
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Thanks for the update. I kinda figured that you (like most of us) have a lot on your plate.
Is there anything we the community can do to help with any of this? I'm no programmer or developer, but if there were some way I can help I'd gladly do so.
For myself, I'm glad to know that things are progressing with file storage (excellent!) and an elven name generator.
Is there any kind of timeline on when these are expected to be complete?
Do we know what the next improvements/upgrades will be?
Would community requests be considered for which tasks should be next on the improvements list?
"Please pay attention very carefully, because this is the truest thing a stranger will ever say to you: In the face of such hopelessness as our eventual, unavoidable death, there is little sense in not at least TRYING to accomplish all your wildest dreams in life." - - Kevin Smith
*Another update I'm now cleared to give:* I should have you guys know that Travis will be departing from Obsidian Portal by the end of the month if not sooner, we are actively looking to recruit someone to fill his place. I have had people reach out to me already and I have passed them on to the Kaleidoscope team.
Also please know that Travis will be making his own post/statement in the future explaining things, I don't want to speak for him but I am cleared to give you guys that info now. Many support tickets Travis was unable to respond to are pending on development resources to fix, please know that he's not just ignoring any of you. He's been genuinely been busting his butt for some time now to try and get us the fixes we need for the site. We will get the resources, I promise that, as soon as I have a time table for you guys - I will give it to you. ASAP.
Thanks Jerry! You have been great throughout, and I know that you are frustrated as well.
OP is going to be my home for as long as it is around, as it is still the best tool for what I need.
It just has been a rather frustrating couple of years with the lack of communication, and very (to be kind) spotty follow through on developments that were promised through the Kickstarter.
Still a fan, still using the site often, just hoping that help tickets are taken care of in a timely manner, and the promised updates from the Kickstarter are seen soon.
Ladies & Gents, it is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that I am no longer part of the Obsidian Portal team. It's been a great 5 years and I want to thank you all from the bottom of my being for sticking with me, and us, throughout all the good and the bad. If you'd like to keep in touch, feel free to hit me up on "twitter":http://twitter.com/dreadgazeebo, "facebook":https://www.facebook.com/DreadGazebo, or stop by "the blog":http://dreadgazebo.net/ or one of my "live streams":http://beam.pro/dreadgazeebo sometime. You can also drop me a line whenever at [email protected]
I'll still be around these parts, but just as your average user moving forward.
Didn't really know where else to put this message, but I think the largest number of folks who care the most are in this thread anyway, I just don't want you guys to think I'm trying to de-rail the conversation.
Thanks for your long-standing work and efforts to do what you could (communication-wise) within the limits you were given. Enjoy the additional freedom while you can...
Hey everyone, may I please direct your attention to "this thread":http://forums.obsidianportal.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=4019&page=1 for some additional details and updates on the Community Management. Thanks very much.
Ahh, don't get the wrong impression Skid, I don't think that is what was meant by that in any way. Jerry put in a lot of work, effort, and time (read years) with OP and has been the beacon of insight around here for some time. It is more the way things have generally gone recently, and leaps and bounds are being done to sure this ship up in regards to communication and working through outstanding issues (my prime focus right now).
@DreadGazebo- Jerry, you were always the shining light for this site. I appreciated your professionalism, even when we disagreed. Please let us know where you land, as there are many here that are big fans!
Comments
* The help videos have been broken since the Reforge. Now they aren't. It also added a potential new community of users by going to Youtube.
* The name generator has begun to be implemented, and it will be updated again soon, so that's an improvement.
* Haste is a big one...while it may be going away, once that's done the focus can be shifted to other projects.
* File storage improvements are continuing, and we will likely see those within the next few months (ideally).
And this is most important and relevant, the forums are being reconsidered. The way they work now, most of the information is difficult to sift through unless it's on the front page, tagging and search are a bit of a mess, and many of the threads are entirely irrelevant, especially the ones from Preforge. A new forum will (hopefully) be better integrated and designed, and allow for community subforums and likely (push) notifications.
IMO, that's why the forums aren't typically being used to state much, save for by request or occasional check-in update; besides the fact that they aren't well-designed for it, there aren't nearly as many people active on them -- not that we can even see who's online or watching, which is another issue with the existing forums. At least with Twitter and Facebook (and now potentially Youtube), people can receive notifications more directly, because that's what the programs and software allow.
I do agree that it's inconvenient to have to go off-site for most progress and "what's going on" info, that's just what might work better for now. I also agree that it would be nice to have reliable regular (weekly) update posts, but I'm just glad that we know things are being worked on, especially things that are being checked off the list. And now more than before, they are tangible, visible updates, even if they're not necessarily the ones some people may be looking for.
Finally, we all must admit, we lost a lot of people from Reforge outcry, and we need to rebuild our numbers, maybe even draw back some of those older users once they see the site meeting goals and updating. Hopefully this will begin to have some positive impact.
_~Mae_
~Mae
CotM Selection Committee
There are 60 tickets since the June 16th "We will just close all tickets". Only 4 tickets have any response, and only one is resolved. That is almost 2 months ago.
Just trying to help out.
This is the kind of communication (sans details) I would get from people running projects that were struggling.
I'm all for hope and optimism, and I appreciate DreadGazebo's efforts, but if I was critical eye'ing this impartially...I would start throwing warning flags to my boss.
Like I've said before, I'm staying, partially so I can support them. And let them know.
Example...we were told upthread;
@schwing Jun 21st 2015
Hey everyone!
Sorry I've been away for a bit but I've been hard at work on the file storage locker and natural editing and they're getting so close!
Looking at the end of this week for a push of the storage locker and end of next for the natural editing(fingers crossed, it is a little tricky).@
They don't owe us updates, and keeping coms flowing is hard when there may be difficulties or no good news, but its important to manage customer expectations.
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
It is right that many of us keep up our interest here.
It is true to say that communication could be better but it has at least improved since THE GREAT WALL OF SILENCE.
I look forward to further improvements and am hopeful these can be implemented relatively smoothly,
but......regardless of all this.....even with the way things are at the moment, my Role Playing Life is much enriched by Obsidian Portal and will continue to be so long as the platform exists.
Please have a read of Alex Redeye's "review":https://da-requiem.obsidianportal.com/posts/obsidian-portal-review and remember what wealth we have.
Surely, it can ONLY get better......
twiggyleaf
CURRENT CAMPAIGN: "Mysteria":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/mysteria - set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: "Shimring":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shimring
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
Most of these problems have to do with the 'age' of this forum software. There are other forum software options which provide better search, integration and tagging capability.
I would suggest that you be very careful in deciding which threads are not relevant. Many of the older threads do have information on how to setup and format an OP site using CSS.
bq. IMO, that’s why the forums aren’t typically being used to state much, save for by request or occasional check-in update; besides the fact that they aren’t well-designed for it, there aren’t nearly as many people active on them — not that we can even see who’s online or watching, which is another issue with the existing forums. At least with Twitter and Facebook (and now potentially Youtube), people can receive notifications more directly, because that’s what the programs and software allow.
I use Facebook almost exclusively for friends/family stuff. I try hard not to mix in things like OP because that would make it even more 'noisy'.
I have a Twitter account which I set up many years ago. I rarely look at it.
When I want information I want to go to a specific site to get that information. I don't want to have to sort thru a noisy newsfeed.
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
Great to hear from you again Jerry- happy that you are still involved!
Just trying to help out.
I hope I didn't put across the thought that I believe all of the Preforge threads weren't relevant; the CSS ones are especially still useful, and I'm sure there are others. I mostly meant the old LFG, random complaints, and time-sensitive threads. There's just many years of threads that went nowhere, or are buried so deep in the forum history that I can't see them being all worth keeping.
Also, I'm with you when it comes to FB&T, and I do the same with site news. Unfortunately, the way society works now is to just throw news up on social media and hope/assume people are looking.
~Mae
CotM Selection Committee
-bort
"Morwindl":https:morwindl.obsidianportal.com
Campaign of the Year - 2018
So, speaking of our forums, and to touch on the social media disdain, I understand where you guys are coming from. These channels are easy to broadcast to, and while we have a lot of fans and community there, there's not a lot of overlap here for the official forums. I'd really like to change that. For the past 6 months I've been pushing for a forum upgrade here so that our forums are less...well...awful, and reminiscent of something from 10 years ago. So far, development efforts have been elsewhere though. Currently file storage and elvent name generators are being worked on. I will make better efforts in the future, regardless of the state of the forums.
Do know that I'm in your corner, I'm pushing for all the things you're pushing for. Don't ever forget that I'm one of you guys too.
By the way, "chiming in" for myself, I don't do TWITTER and like to keep FACEBOOK for social interaction outside of gaming and I therefore support the NEED for an improvement on these forums, and a prioritization in terms of this being the main platform for OP communication. However, I totally "get" the expansion into the aforementioned social media and have nothing against that. The New Video Tutorials are good. Perhaps a permanent link to the YouTube site from the OP Blog or something would be a good idea.
Still using Obsidian Portal effectively and always willing to accept improvements,
Your ardent follower,
twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
Thanks for the update. I kinda figured that you (like most of us) have a lot on your plate.
Is there anything we the community can do to help with any of this? I'm no programmer or developer, but if there were some way I can help I'd gladly do so.
For myself, I'm glad to know that things are progressing with file storage (excellent!) and an elven name generator.
Is there any kind of timeline on when these are expected to be complete?
Do we know what the next improvements/upgrades will be?
Would community requests be considered for which tasks should be next on the improvements list?
Thank you for being in our corner.
-UTM
Ptolus, City by the Spire - 2016 Campaign of the Year
"Please pay attention very carefully, because this is the truest thing a stranger will ever say to you: In the face of such hopelessness as our eventual, unavoidable death, there is little sense in not at least TRYING to accomplish all your wildest dreams in life." - - Kevin Smith
Also please know that Travis will be making his own post/statement in the future explaining things, I don't want to speak for him but I am cleared to give you guys that info now. Many support tickets Travis was unable to respond to are pending on development resources to fix, please know that he's not just ignoring any of you. He's been genuinely been busting his butt for some time now to try and get us the fixes we need for the site. We will get the resources, I promise that, as soon as I have a time table for you guys - I will give it to you. ASAP.
OP is going to be my home for as long as it is around, as it is still the best tool for what I need.
It just has been a rather frustrating couple of years with the lack of communication, and very (to be kind) spotty follow through on developments that were promised through the Kickstarter.
Still a fan, still using the site often, just hoping that help tickets are taken care of in a timely manner, and the promised updates from the Kickstarter are seen soon.
Just trying to help out.
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
Time to vote for shirts!
"http://forums.obsidianportal.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=4018:http"://forums.obsidianportal.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=4018
I'll still be around these parts, but just as your average user moving forward.
Didn't really know where else to put this message, but I think the largest number of folks who care the most are in this thread anyway, I just don't want you guys to think I'm trying to de-rail the conversation.
Until next time!
Edit: I really should say more. Jerry, thanks for doing what you could with what you had.
GM of Rise of the Durnskald: Wrath of the Fallen Goddess - February 2016 CotM
GM of Core: The Ashes of Alcarna - April 2020 CotM
GM of Stream of Kairos
Need CSS Help? It may be covered here: Abersade's CSS Hub
--
Alex
Community Manager
I will be joining your FB and Twitter, as you have always seemed a straight up person. Shame to have you go...
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
On a separate note (after reading the other thread), I never felt Jerry was rude in any fashion.
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
Just trying to help out.