Peeks of the week in the past would be endlessly criticized and tore apart before even be released.
The negativity would scare off PeeWee Herman, let alone FDev.
Why has the Community Manager virtually abandoned the forums?
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Peeks of the week in the past would be endlessly criticized and tore apart before even be released.
The negativity would scare off PeeWee Herman, let alone FDev.
No, you are STILL imagining things - I NEVER said it was something *I* wanted an answer for. You are imagining motivations that never existed.
You will note that I said "important issueS". That's plural.
I intended the link as an example, although I will grant it was not clear cut, which is why I have edited my first post.
Which is exactly why I did not ask FDev to stop the YouTube streams. I fully understand why they are there... it just seems they have become the focus, almost to the exclusion of any other form of contact with the community. I merely would like to see a bit more balance.
OK, that's my mistake. I thought most of them were probably (unpaid?) forum moderators. I don't keep a track of who does what at Frontier, except for the well known developers.
But what is their job description? Apart from Ed, are they mainly involved in handling posts in the "Elite Dangerous Bug Reporting" forum? Or is their role more general?
And if we have so many people paid to communicate with us, why the lack of communication from FDev about genuine issues? Is it FDev policy that no-one is allowed to talk about future releases, even to the extent that you aren't allowed to say what is being worked on? (With the caveat of "no promises, no ETAs"!)
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Thanks. Finally someone who understands the point I was trying to make (was it really so hard to understand?).
Yes, we do get a FEW posts from FDev employees, but it is rarely about anything important:
e.g. Out of the 35 posts (in the last month) that I mentioned, 5 were about problems or future plans (1 was about a released hotfix, 1 was about being in talks with Thrustmaster, 1 was about 3.0 being about improving core gameplay experiences, 2 were about the return of the Thargoids in 2.4), and 3 more were stickied threads aimed at helping new players. The rest were casual chats/comments, or YouTube community stuff. So that's 5-8 posts in a month that might be classed as "important" and/or directly about the game itself.
P.S. I don't mean to pick on Ed, since it has become clear that there are a few others with similar responsibilities. But it's easier to pick SOMEONE as an example, rather than wade through every single employee. I expect that the general pattern would be the same (i.e. a lack of replies about important issues).
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There are plenty of people from FDev who interact with these forums on a very regular basis. Considerably more than with any other franchise I am involved with. Dale, Dominic, MoM, Zac, Brett & Sandro all turn up here quite often.
Ed does turn up a lot in most of the Stickied threads, & in the Patch release forum threads.
Look up! The sky is fallin'!
Nonsense. FD just bought a bigger building and are working on a huge new game for a major IP.
Elite D and Coaster paid for that.
There's no other game that compares IMO
Because for a community manager to work he has to be provided with answers and feedback from the devs and managers.
If the devs & managers were able to do this they would have done so directly.
Unfortunately and Ive seen this before he was put in place to fire fight but wasnt given any water. Unsurprisingly he got fed up of taking the heat and is keeping his head down.
If the devs & managers were able to do this they would have done so directly.
Unfortunately and Ive seen this before he was put in place to fire fight but wasnt given any water. Unsurprisingly he got fed up of taking the heat and is keeping his head down.
That's what community management is for though: fostering a positive attitude and keeping people informed to avoid things devolving into constant mud slinging. Of course usually that is done by giving the community the correct answers, and I guess the CMs have little to work with there.
Well, communication, it's a two way street. If members of our community police down the village idiots the more likely that FD will do more stuff like QAs.
That is of course if there are answers that they CAN give to those questions. And the community needs to understand that. There are going to be things that they can't answer simply do to business related reasons or them trying to keep some stuff secret like 2.4 and other things. The community also needs to realize that FD are normal people and being rude and carping to them constantly.
At least they do communicate I mean they are light years ahead of Games Workshop.
You know what, ChrisH is winning me over. Despite my gut reaction to leap to Ed's defence (because he is truly awesome at what he does) Chris makes a good case here (has the balance between what the Community Manager does and what he should be doing been lost somewhere along the way or should someone else at FD be fulfilling the original role perhaps?). Breaking a long tradition of ignoring negative threads (cos hey, you know, they just bring everyone down) I've featured this in my sticky Best of Forum thread. 
[yesnod]
(wellll, there's nowt else Trending atm apart from the usual whinges about what's NOT in the new update)
[yesnod](wellll, there's nowt else Trending atm apart from the usual whinges about what's NOT in the new update)
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That someone who's job it is to engage with the community about a game would not engage with the community because they said negative things about the game is crazy talk.
According to some posters here it's always the players fault (and only players that complain) and never FD's fault for everything.
Makes you think what other tripe their slinging if that's their mindset. Sad really.
You know what, ChrisH is winning me over. Despite my gut reaction to leap to Ed's defence (because he is truly awesome at what he does) Chris makes a good case here (has the balance between what the Community Manager does and what he should be doing been lost somewhere along the way or should someone else at FD be fulfilling the original role perhaps?). Breaking a long tradition of ignoring negative threads (cos hey, you know, they just bring everyone down) I've featured this in my sticky Best of Forum thread.
(wellll, there's nowt else Trending atm apart from the usual whinges about what's NOT in the new update)
And when I jumped to defend him ,it wasn't because I dislike FD,I have already posted that I am an FD fanboy. I genuinely have seen less and less communication since 2014.
After the debacle that was the E3 livestreams, I believe that FD have taken steps to improve their community relations. Dale previously was responsible for handling the social media side but recently has been much more prevalent on the forums and has been doing a good job IMO. Seems that Paige Harvey has taken on his old role (moving from the support team).
What I'd like to see is a "meet the team" about the community team. What does an average day look like for them? What activities take up most of their time, that sort of thing. From my perspective: Brett struggles with the forum software and is overwhelmed with PMF and Powerplay data, Ed does ED livestreams, Bo does PC livestreams, Dale/Brett/Ed post patch notes. That doesn't sound like full-time stuff for 6 people, so it would be interesting to know what else they are responsible for during the working week.
What I'd like to see is a "meet the team" about the community team. What does an average day look like for them? What activities take up most of their time, that sort of thing. From my perspective: Brett struggles with the forum software and is overwhelmed with PMF and Powerplay data, Ed does ED livestreams, Bo does PC livestreams, Dale/Brett/Ed post patch notes. That doesn't sound like full-time stuff for 6 people, so it would be interesting to know what else they are responsible for during the working week.
You know, i don't know a single person on these forums who thinks like that. But strawman arguments, always easy to make.
I'd love to get more info on, well, everything. I also perfectly understand why we dont get it. Still, in the end I think they are currently a bit too far towards the 'silent' side, with pretty much nothing known about anything, and I would like to know what we can roughly expect in the coming year. No need for story spoilers, but gameplay and feature wise.
I imagine Ed has his hands pretty full with all the various media channels and helping direct whoever else FD have to help with those things rather than just the forums, he is the 'manager' after all.
He might be the primary contact but not necessarily the main contributor.
Also that post was from several years ago.. Roles change.
As long as we are getting information from FD I'm happy enough and its hardly like they've abandoned the forums or any other channel - I note several posts here by FD staff over the last few days including feedback on the docking computer, mission rewards and even a comment on their office..
He might be the primary contact but not necessarily the main contributor.
Also that post was from several years ago.. Roles change.
As long as we are getting information from FD I'm happy enough and its hardly like they've abandoned the forums or any other channel - I note several posts here by FD staff over the last few days including feedback on the docking computer, mission rewards and even a comment on their office..
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You know, i don't know a single person on these forums who thinks like that. But strawman arguments, always easy to make.
You must be new here then...because that's all I've seen from a great many. That frontier not communicating because of the salt they get every time they do. Some seem to argue it's all the players fault because we don't ask nicely enough or frontier don't like the negativity.
One would assume that a community manager is supposed to manage this very thing and stop the salt from spiralling outta control. But that's not what's happening and more often than not, questions remain unanswered and the forum community behaves like a pack of rabid dogs at each other's throats.
So where's the managing happening if not within the community? Not wanting to have a pop at the guy, I'm sure he's very nice, but what is his job if not managing the community?
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sorry i dont recognise any of this. maybe i read too many of the threads or see the icons in them where others dont but i see brett in particular posting a lot. not as much as thousands of players can do of course and that means responded to threads disappear up the page numbers rapidly - but maybe thats what happens to the 'unasnwered' questions sometimes. question asked. lots read it. gets answered, the poster is happy and sees answer because bookmarked the post, nobody else replies, post goes to page 100 in hours and nobody else who remembers next day can be bothered to look for it further than 10 pages back.
and funnily enough i see on bretts posts the words 'community manager' so its like there are more than 1 of those... maybe they all manage different aspects.
and funnily enough i see on bretts posts the words 'community manager' so its like there are more than 1 of those... maybe they all manage different aspects.
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I think over the last couple of weeks or so we've seen a dramatic uptick in the number of Official Fdev'ers in the forums, and I thoroughly support this!
Please FDev, keep this up.
You know, i don't know a single person on these forums who thinks like that. But strawman arguments, always easy to make.
Come on, if you really believe that then you're being dishonest with yourself never mind us.
Here's one FROM THIS VERY THREAD
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...d-the-forums?p=5716439&viewfull=1#post5716439
Yeah agreed!
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