General / Off-Topic One CMDR's perspective on the current state of the ED forums

[Ralph Vargr]

Note to the OP: This thread has been moved to Off Topic.

We will leave you with the exercise for the student.

Hint: it's not the free updates that have people upset. Nor is it the awesome trade tools, nor the Chieftain, nor does it have anything to do with anything art and sound related.

It's the reliance on grind fests as gameplay which Frontier continues to implement. It's the bugs which continue to come back and be introduced then left live for a long time. It's adding a great feature like Mat Traders but then making them so difficult and cumbersome to even find. It's adding a long requested feature like wing missions but doing it in such a way that next to no one wants to bother with them.

Let's not blame the wrong things for the negativity please, especially when free QoL improvements are such a good thing.

Sensors are now detecting bad horse breath, from the general direction of the gift horse.

 

[Stigbob]

If I get food poisoning from a restaurant, the county health department and my attorney are not going to be empathetic. They will at least want my emergency room visit paid for. Plus legal costs and consequences.

They are not going to get a very nice Google review, either.

Games are not on that level, but the principle is the same.

I'd spin the restaurant analogy another way.

You are in a restaurant enjoying a meal and the people at the table next to you order food they don't like through not reading the menu properly, then they have a tantrum about being served exactly what they ordered and sit there screaming abuse at the restaurant staff and other customers whilst refusing to leave.

Would you expect the staff the kick them out, or maybe even help kick them out ?.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

I'd spin the restaurant analogy another way.

You are in a restaurant enjoying a meal and the people at the table next to you order food they don't like through not reading the menu properly, then they have a tantrum about being served exactly what they ordered and sit there screaming abuse at the restaurant staff and other customers whilst refusing to leave.

Would you expect the staff the kick them out, or maybe even help kick them out ?.

Seems to me you're suggesting banning the "OMG I got ganked!" crowd.

Interesting.

 

[Stigbob]

Seems to me you're suggesting banning the "OMG I got ganked!" crowd.

Interesting.

Seriously we could do with a whinge and whingers purge. Maybe a containment thread or at least an if your OP is not constructive the mods lock it policy which would kill whinging for the sake of whinging threads. Good information and useful feedback is being constantly swept away on a sea of tears. It can be hard to find things like how do you fight a thargoid, it's easy to find "why do we have thargoids" or "thargoids don't pay enough" or "I'm bored of thargoids".

After the forum reshuffle with more sub-forums non-whinging is being moved away and lost in forgotten corners and dangerous discussion has already become the moan-zone in all but name and frequently contains nothing else have a look at the front page the ratio never falls below 3 whinge to 1 normal thread. I'm suggesting we do it the other way round.

The only people who need banning are the offensive obsessives who constantly go on about DBOBE/Sandro/M Brookes in a less than pleasant manner some of them have even mentioned things like home addresses and features of those homes in the past in this forum. That's well beyond game fan and getting into stalker territory. It also explains why the dev's don't like to talk to us.

 

[verminstar]

Another classic example of why the forums are boring...the thread discussing it got dumped into off topic to die...

Absolutely priceless...predictable but priceless ^

 

[Stigbob]

Another classic example of why the forums are boring...the thread discussing it got dumped into off topic to die...

Absolutely priceless...predictable but priceless ^

There is a certain delicious irony in the only sensible suggestion that's appeared in dangerous discussion recently getting dumped while the flood of tears continues.

 

[lokvette]

i did wonder why a discussion about the current state of the forums got moved from the very place discussions are meant to take place. Was it because its not about the game and more about the forums and its users.

 

[verminstar]

There is a certain delicious irony in the only sensible suggestion that's appeared in dangerous discussion recently getting dumped while the flood of tears continues.

I tried to make this point on this very thread couple pages back...washed away like tears in the rain...

My problem is that I actually blame the new forum rules and the mods fer some of this...the rules facilitate this and the mods enforce the rules leaving salt farms to fester and closing harmless fun threads or just moving them to die a slow death into one the subs.

And thats why I need to just walk away cos last time this happened, I ended up with a 3 month suspension...Im not very enthusiastic on finding out what comes next so they can destroy their own forum if they want...they will get no help or hindrance from me no sireee.

This is someone elses fight and this thread which could have been constructive, will now wither and die just like all the other useful threads that get dumped into the sub graveyard ^

 

[Stigbob]

i did wonder why a discussion about the current state of the forums got moved from the very place discussions are meant to take place. Was it because its not about the game and more about the forums and its users.

I think they've given up on trying to control the screaming itself and just hide positive idea's from the screamers as they just get triggered even more by it. Brett C did mention elsewhere they are looking for some new mods, but none of the existing forum members qualify as we all fight like a bag of weasel's (which is sort of the point of forums) so the poor mods may just be getting overrun.

 

[ZeroAi]

I spend time on the forums for a few reasons:
* It is the place where I can communicate feedback to Frontier
* Frontier communicates with us here
* I love talking about ship outfitting for different roles with excellent and experienced CMDR's
* There is a ton of information on here that helps me play the game
* It can be a really interesting/fun/amusing place to be at times
* I dislike foul language so I feel more comfortable on here than the mindless cursing that happens a lot on reddit.

However, I find that especially recently the forums are being dominated by an endless stream of Frontier bashing. It is getting to the point where it is almost demotivating being here. It certainly reduces the signal to noise ratio of these forums considerably!

Instead of being a resource to help CMDR's enjoy the game more, or provide constructive feedback, it is devolving into a place to complain about Frontier endlessly. If I read these threads it just makes me feel angry and sad for no good reason. I also feel sorry for the Frontier employees who read these posts because they do work hard on the game. People are so quick to assign bad motives just because Frontier doesn't always get it right.

I wish that the moderators could be empowered to create a complaints sub-forum and all the threads that are dominated by Frontier bashing or angst or salt could just be moved there. I get it that silencing these threads comes at a cost, but it puzzles me that discussions about different ships gets shuttled away in buried sub-forums like Ships of Elite whereas threads like Frontier don't play their own game and don't care about ED anymore threads stay in the main forum and proliferate. We get it, some of you are really unhappy, but we don't have to let this place burn because some people feel that the game doesn't meet their expectations.

It sure would be nice if Dangerous Discussion could be more focused on either constructive feedback or discussions about interesting aspects of the game. I think those who manage the forums could do more to promote a healthier atmosphere and I hope that does happen.

+Rep

You make a great point.

In my opinion two things are happening:

1 - People don't like the C&P changes, but they haven't been an issue for me since I don't do illegal missions or PVP

2 - There are a lot of bugs in 3.0. It's been so bad that on our livestream had to stay away from some of the things we love to do (SRVs, Gaurdians) because the game either crashes or missions keep disappearing.

But I do agree - it would be great if everyone posted positive or constructive comments. But I'd never found a forum like that, anywhere :-(

 

[verminstar]

I think they've given up on trying to control the screaming itself and just hide positive idea's from the screamers as they just get triggered even more by it. Brett C did mention elsewhere they are looking for some new mods, but none of the existing forum members qualify as we all fight like a bag of weasel's (which is sort of the point of forums) so the poor mods may just be getting overrun.

Is oft said that those who want power and go seeking it are the least qualified to have it. Believe it or not, I had actually thought about it but with my infraction history, I fear the mods might laugh till they fainted from lack of oxygen and besides...it means giving them the pleasure of seeing me wanting something...so the thought died a death from a thousand cuts sorta deal. Too much bad history fer me...is what it is and apart from yerself and maybe the odd curious soul who wanders in here by accident...or boredom...aint nobody gonna even read that admission from me ^

 

[Ralph Vargr]

i did wonder why a discussion about the current state of the forums got moved from the very place discussions are meant to take place. Was it because its not about the game and more about the forums and its users.

Hmmm. Have you ever worked in politics, or PR?

 

[Ralph Vargr]

When a game forum has trouble finding mods, it's like a tell in poker that tells you the hand they are playing is a losing one.

 

[lokvette]

Hmmm. Have you ever worked in politics, or PR?

Lol, no I dont tell lies.

 

[verminstar]

Lol, no I dont tell lies.

Without meaning to cause offence as none is intended I assure ye...but almost everyone lies...some to everyone else and some to themselves. To me in the world I come from, genuine bona fide honesty is as rare as hens teeth. Its just some are better at it than others ^

 

[Stigbob]

When a game forum has trouble finding mods, it's like a tell in poker that tells you the hand they are playing is a losing one.

With the moan-zone the OP proposed their job would be easier.

 

[Chris Simon]

With the moan-zone the OP proposed their job would be easier.

I'm not sure it would.
Unless Brett would come up with a function to auto-lock every thread there at the end of page 2.

 

[verminstar]

With the moan-zone the OP proposed their job would be easier.

Creating it is one thing, convincing those who think they should be taken seriously when they are having a moan to actually use the maon zone is something else entirely. It might be a moan, but really...when someones writing it out, are they thinking they moaning or bestowing upon the world the truth as they see it?

 

[Necronaught]

What is shocking to me is the number of people that take the opinions of people they will never meet to heart. The forums are a place to express opinion. Put your dung filter on and scroll past. Or get off the internet and seek help. It's just text on a screen, it has no power, except for what you give it. Offense is taken. Grow a
pair

 

[Jenner]

i did wonder why a discussion about the current state of the forums got moved from the very place discussions are meant to take place. Was it because its not about the game and more about the forums and its users.

It was moved because it is not about Elite Dangerous per-se, but rather a meta topic of the forum in general. Dangerous Discussion is a place to discuss the game in general. At least that's how it is configured at present. The mods enforce this division of subject matter but the overall configuration of the forum is FDev's call. We are asked our opinion on it from time to time when changes are afoot, but it is not we who are ultimately setting categories.

Creating it is one thing, convincing those who think they should be taken seriously when they are having a moan to actually use the maon zone is something else entirely. It might be a moan, but really...when someones writing it out, are they thinking they moaning or bestowing upon the world the truth as they see it?

99% of time it's the latter. That's the rub, really - the mods are accused already of blatant bias so imagine how it would be if we were making calls about what was 'just a moan' and what was a legit topic?