no consensus.... of course not.
there are two groups here (possibly more) one that, having made its £35 'investment', feels the need for continual updates on all aspects of progress. the other group (including me, and it was a lot more than £35) who are saying 'let me know when something interesting happens'
there is no bridge there that i can see....
@op given that you had such a bad experience all those years ago why did you back this project?
hey, if a dog bites me i sure as **** ain't going to try and stroke it again.
Hi jedt.
Again, just my 2ps worth, but in my experience happy backers/customers/stakeholders etc result from communication that:
(A) Sets up an expectation - "It's Friday, must be nearly time for my weekly from FD... can't wait!"
-and then-
(B) Meets that expectation - "There it is in my inbox - look at that concept art...
cooooool!" etc.
The problem begins when you set up an expectation but then start to not deliver for whatever reason. People begin to feel excluded or make up "conspiracy theories" - it hurts the relationship between a brand and its customers and people feel like an implicit code of trust has been broken.
All very melodramatic, I know! And not totally rational, if truth be told.
But that's just what people are like.
Also, if FD want to grow/leverage their community base, they do need to be a bit more forthcoming - you don't call your friends only when you've got something earth-shattering to say, sometimes it's just good to chat! And the more you chat the better friends you become. If they just want to disappear and only reconnect when there's something massive to say, that's fine - but there's a penalty to that approach in terms of customer involvement/advocacy that they need to be aware of.
It'd be very easy for FD to address these issues - it wouldn't be more than their currently doing - just with a bit more structure and regularity to it. I'm confident they will do so once the early, tricky stages of Alpha are nailed down.