Why has the Community Manager virtually abandoned the forums?

IndigoWyrd · Jul 11, 2017

@Zac and @Ed:

I believe THIS is exactly what has been asked for - some actual feedback. Mission Successful.

But I completely get it too - more than the average poster - there's far, far more that goes on "behind the scenes" than most actually get, and it's pretty rare to actually have a staff member who is only doing one, singular task - like making forum posts. Time spent here is time spent away from a dozen other things, but not everyone gets that - so here's a Special Thanks for taking the extra time to set things straight!

Keep up the great work!

yodajedifishmaster · Jul 11, 2017

someone else mentioned about youtube and so on... i think they have separate community managers who specialise in different roles - that would make sense from where i sit just above this icy ring hoping my next site in it will have the methanol monohydrate crystals im after...er but i digress.

like someone else mentioned, some of us do not 'twitch' or do youtube or social media. personally i think youtube is barely acceptable but think all other social media is nothing more than a frenzy of look-at-me-mommy-didnt-love-me chimps and we would be better off without twitter and facebook and so on. so im never going to be on those. but they still need people with an even higher tolerance of idiocy than those who manage the forums to manage Frontier presence on those other... 'platforms'... although zoo cages would be more apt.

i dont see the point of facebook and twitter. then again i like my privacy and i didnt grow up with the concept everyone in the world needs to see that im going to the loo.

verminstar · Jul 11, 2017

Brett C said:
Just adding a post from me here, simply because i've read this thread (and i've lost count of i don't know how many other threads today).

Just because we don't post in every thread, doesn't mean we don't care. Many times, we don't post as it is allowing for feedback from multiple points of view without getting a modified response due to us replying to a discussion.

And the multiple mega threads that go fer months without so much as a line or two...how many points of view does it take to trigger a response? Not knowing anything is worse than knowing something even if it's not the answer we wanna see...at least we would know something which is more than we know now ^

Agony_Aunt · Jul 11, 2017

KING5TON said:
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

No no, you don't wriggle out of it that easily. You said ALWAYS. It was a key word within your statement.

yodajedifishmaster · Jul 11, 2017

verminstar said:
And the multiple mega threads that go fer months without so much as a line or two...how many points of view does it take to trigger a response? Not knowing anything is worse than knowing something even if it's not the answer we wanna see...at least we would know something which is more than we know now ^

i think what he is getting at is that it might have the effect of STIFLING player discussion if they jump in too much. i am a CSR in a virtual world for a game only playable in that world; and we have to make a judgement on whether to jump in when someone asks a question. if they ask specifically for help from a CSR then we answer of course - thats like someone reporting a bug or making a support ticket here. but otherwise, we try to let our community handle answers - and they love to help in that game. it then keeps the community friendly.

im not saying its exactly the same here - but that must also be a part of it.

babelfisch · Jul 11, 2017

verminstar said:
And the multiple mega threads that go fer months without so much as a line or two...how many points of view does it take to trigger a response? Not knowing anything is worse than knowing something even if it's not the answer we wanna see...at least we would know something which is more than we know now ^

As someone else pointed out above... The most recent example is one of the beige threads. Current information is that they are working on it. They said it will not be in 2.3 and it wasn't. So it's likely that they are aiming for 2.4. Now they could tell us that they are aiming for 2.4, but if they don't manage to implement it people will be disappointed. So they are waiting until they are finished to tell you when it's going to be implemented, it obviously isn't ready yet. What else do you want to know?

Winterwalker · Jul 11, 2017

Surely the success - or were it otherwise - of a Community team is measured in the quality of the Community at large? You guys .. !

I imagine Ed sat in his new penthouse office, combing posh bourbon crumbs off his beard and contemplating 'owning' The Edge (Clayton, Bono and the drummer) in Asteria Point Deathmatch. Classic ..

[video=youtube;rJONY9FndlU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJONY9FndlU[/video]

Ian Phillips · Jul 11, 2017

Edward Lewis said:
You see that top floor? Yeah... that's for me.

Exiled already?

yodajedifishmaster · Jul 11, 2017

Mohrgan said:
Not wanting to see Bono, and U2 perform is a mistake from any perspective. I've seen them a number of times, from Boy, to recently. It is a show one shouldn't miss.

they are one of the better ones i hear. its like richard hammond of top gear said once - u2 release a new album and you want to hate it but you cant... because its good.

Knightshark · Jul 11, 2017

babelfisch said:
As someone else pointed out above... The most recent example is one of the beige threads. Current information is that they are working on it. They said it will not be in 2.3 and it wasn't. So it's likely that they are aiming for 2.4. Now they could tell us that they are aiming for 2.4, but if they don't manage to implement it people will be disappointed. So they are waiting until they are finished to tell you when it's going to be implemented, it obviously isn't yet. What else do you want to know?

Well, i can only speak for myself, but i'd really appreciate some sort of ETA on that matter. The post by Michael are six months old now. The issue even older. You just don't expect that fixing something that was better before would take a year. So, more communication would be welcome, if only to manage expectations.

Brett C · Jul 11, 2017

verminstar said:
And the multiple mega threads that go fer months without so much as a line or two...how many points of view does it take to trigger a response? Not knowing anything is worse than knowing something even if it's not the answer we wanna see...at least we would know something which is more than we know now ^

Some of those mega threads are due to mass-thread merges at one point or another in the forums history. Some of those large threads were based off of a previous discussion that did have a developer response - ended up lost in translation over time.

Threads like the Alien archeology and other mysteries: Thread 10 - The Canonn are best left for us to not reply to it. Same goes for How could player-owned outposts / bases work? or Is this a nerd game?. The latter two threads are best left for community debate, not up to us developers to come in and waving our fingers and sledge hammers at some folks opinions (no matter how asinine, good, bad, awesome, normal the ideas and debates are).

Red Anders · Jul 11, 2017

Dakron Nova said:
Unfortunately and Ive seen this before he was put in place to fire fight but wasnt given any water.

Post of the thread that, 10/10.

For me it's really simple - youtube streams as the primary way of communicating is bunk. It requires a time commitment from the player, time during which they can't do anything else and for that reason alone they exclude a lot of players. For me, they are almost always on whilst I'm travelling home from work or have just arrived home and am occupied with things like having a shower and eating.

I don't have any problem at all with the fact that they are provided but they shouldn't in any way be the major source of communication. Also to be honest I don't require communication to be an interactive entertainment experience - that's what I bought the game for. If a stream was one solid hour of straight-up answers to player's questions without loads of space loach shenanigans and so on, I'd probably make an effort to watch it. As things are, last time I caught one I spent it trying to glean the minuscule scraps of information that were tossed in around what looked at times like a low-rent episode of Rainbow.

verminstar · Jul 11, 2017

babelfisch said:
As someone else pointed out above... The most recent example is one of the beige threads. Current information is that they are working on it. They said it will not be in 2.3 and it wasn't. So it's likely that they are aiming for 2.4. Now they could tell us that they are aiming for 2.4, but if they don't manage to implement it people will be disappointed. So they are waiting until they are finished to tell you when it's going to be implemented, it obviously isn't ready yet. What else do you want to know?

A bit more than a guess that reads "likely in 2.4" from a player would be cool. That statement was 5 months ago and only came after multiple threads over 4 months and that 5 month old statement really is all we have...how does that even begin to qualify as effective communication?

How difficult is a simple yes or no answer? From a player such as yerself, any answer is a guess unless you know something the rest of us don't. If it came from a dev, well then that's different ^

Winterwalker · Jul 11, 2017

Knightshark said:
Well, i can only speak for myself, but i'd really appreciate some sort of ETA on that matter.

Can't though, because it's a tech question. ETA's all depend on .. tech team, and tech.

verminstar · Jul 11, 2017

Brett C said:
Some of those mega threads are due to mass-thread merges at one point or another in the forums history. Some of those large threads were based off of a previous discussion that did have a developer response - ended up lost in translation over time.

Threads like the Alien archeology and other mysteries: Thread 10 - The Canonn are best left for us to not reply to it. Same goes for How could player-owned outposts / bases work? or Is this a nerd game?. The latter two threads are best left for community debate, not up to us developers to come in and waving our fingers and sledge hammers at some folks opinions (no matter how asinine, good, bad, awesome, normal the ideas and debates are).

And the beigeification? Those examples are cool but I have no idea if you guys answered any of them because I don't follow them at all past the odd comment. They represent aspects of the game I have zero interest in ergo I don't take part in them at all. Why would I?

That aside, the beigeification issue has been ongoing fer nearly a year with only a 5 month old comment from someone who doesn't even do the same job...either quit, fired I really don't know...that's not relevant but the topic which has remained unanswered isn't gonna go away. So why no response?

Brett C · Jul 11, 2017

yodajedifishmaster said:
someone else mentioned about youtube and so on... i think they have separate community managers who specialise in different roles - that would make sense from where i sit just above this icy ring hoping my next site in it will have the methanol monohydrate crystals im after...er but i digress.

like someone else mentioned, some of us do not 'twitch' or do youtube or social media. personally i think youtube is barely acceptable but think all other social media is nothing more than a frenzy of look-at-me-mommy-didnt-love-me chimps and we would be better off without twitter and facebook and so on. so im never going to be on those. but they still need people with an even higher tolerance of idiocy than those who manage the forums to manage Frontier presence on those other... 'platforms'... although zoo cages would be more apt.

i dont see the point of facebook and twitter. then again i like my privacy and i didnt grow up with the concept everyone in the world needs to see that im going to the loo.

Correct, while all of us CM's can 'bleed-over' into another CM's core-field-of-work, we all have a core focus to each portion of our communities. For myself, it's the forums, reddit (to an extent), and some Discord servers. For Dale, he recently shifted roles and is more centered into the same realm as I - with a somewhat more heavy focus on the forums. For Ed and Bo, they focus on media relations... such as live streams, in-person events, reddit, forums, and so forth. Paige is our recent transfer from Customer Support to the CM team, she deals with most of the social leg work (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc).

Remember, we have Planet Coaster and Elite Dangerous - both are active communities be it forums, social, media.

GG7 · Jul 11, 2017

Maybe some kind of Marker FDEV can drop in that makes it clear that they are actually reading/listening and monitoring a particular thread/discussion.

Obviously, getting some updated info would be much preferred, but knowing that the powers at be are actually reading what is being posted would be something we don't have at the moment.

Mengy · Jul 11, 2017

babelfisch said:
As someone else pointed out above... The most recent example is one of the beige threads. Current information is that they are working on it.

No, the only information we truly have, from Michael, is that they know about the beige problem and have a plan to fix it. We do not actually know for certain that anyone at Frontier is actively working on it, nor do we know about any kind of ETA. For over six months we have hoped Frontier is working on the beige issue, but hope is in reality all the community has.

Hence the threads asking for an update on the situation.

Brett C · Jul 11, 2017

Ian Phillips said:
Exiled already?

Nah, that's the roof - with a worn out lounging chair.

GG7 · Jul 11, 2017

Mengy said:
No, the only information we truly have, from Michael, is that they know about the beige problem and have a plan to fix it. We do not actually know for certain that anyone at Frontier is actively working on it, nor do we know about any kind of ETA. For over six months we have hoped Frontier is working on the beige issue, but hope is in reality all the community has.

Hence the threads asking for an update on the situation.

^^ THIS ^^

I think a lot of the community is under the false premise that FDEV have provided more info on this topic than they actually have. As you have said Mengy, the last "tidbit" we got on this particular issue was over 5 Months ago.