Concern about locking certain threads

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Lelling.6795

Lelling.6795

Important: This isn’t a “please unlock <thread>” post. There’s actualy a point… in there somewhere

Far be it from me to dispute a decision done by Anet’s watchful moderators, however, I do have a concern about locking certain threads posted by representatives of some of GW2’s communities (I have a single one in mind but I wont link to a locked thread for obvious reasons)

The reasoning given for the lockdown of those threads is that there wasn’t enough debate and people were just adding “+1” in the comments. But surely you understand why that was the case, right?

Sure, the OPs wrote “This is <community>’s stance on <so and so>”, but we understand how forums work, and how the hottest threads with the largest amounts of comments get most attention from Arenanet. And because of that, we comment simply to let the people who are reading those posts know that it isn’t just a pointless post. And the reason we’re not furthering the debate in the forums is because these posts have been constructed with a lot of debate and consideration done prior to posting. These weren’t just your regular “I’ve had a thought” posts (like this one is), these were thought-through, checked and rechecked and meticulously and concisely constructed posts (unlike this one).

There’s a difference between someone writing “500 people feel like this” and actually seeing those 500 people adding “Yes, I do feel like this”, and I think by locking these threads, the moderators are effectively preventing us from adding our names / voices to those posts. And I think it’s doing more harm than good overall, since these posts still represent large communities of several hundred people, and instead of condensing all our opinions to a single thread (which is the moderators’ reasoning behind most of their thread lockdowns), you’re

a) scattering these posts into a chaotic mess that makes the job of whoever’s analysing the community’s concerns even more difficult, because the opinions of these people do not go away, they’re just expressed through different means
b) creating a wave of negativity spreading out from those who feel silenced / ignored, and causing general disillusionment about the game, the forums, Anet, etc

I’m not saying you should unlock the threads, and I’m not saying you haven’t been taking this in consideration, I just want to make sure you are, and that you understand our motives behind posting in those threads in the way we have been.

P.S.: By this point, you must be aware of the general “police state” opinion people have about your forums, right? I mean, maybe it’s time to consider a new direction? Together for a brighter tomorrow / S2 and all that?

P.P.S.: Wow I did not mean this post to be this long.

Cyan Vei | whole bunch of other alts
[DV] Leader, OpenCommunity admin

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

You may glean more consideration by Moderators should you send your questions and/or concerns to forums@arena.net

Good luck.

(edited by Inculpatus cedo.9234)

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Lelling.6795

Lelling.6795

You may glean more consideration by Moderators should you send your questions and/or concerns to forums@arena.net

Good luck.

Yeah I’m also doing that but I wanted to post here to sort of start off a debate in that area as well, since these are my opinions only and I wanted to see how other people felt about this as well.

Cyan Vei | whole bunch of other alts
[DV] Leader, OpenCommunity admin

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Randulf.7614

Randulf.7614

They have said on numerous occasions it isn’t the biggest threads they listen to – it is the ones with mature, constructive debate. The thread in question had it, but had run out of steam. That doesn’t mean it was being ignored. The devs take what they need for their internal discussions – keeping it bumped serves no additional purpose for them.

As for the single thread merges, it’s for the health of the forums this occurs, but also for ease of the devs to tracks. So much easier to track feedback in one place, rather than the same amount of feedback in various places on the subforum.

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Rauderi.8706

Rauderi.8706

It would help, so much, if the players would just learn to take a step back and not be kittenbags about it. :\ Everything is the end of the world to them.

Don’t change something? They get bored and complain.
Change something? They freak out and complain.
Fix something? They lambaste it wasn’t done fast enough.

There’s quite a few “I’m gonna leave/not spend money” posts, but they seldom actually LEAVE. Funny that.

As it is, if we do want feedback to go through, we need as few actual posts as possible on specific topics, and they need to be cleaved of 90% of the of over-emotional garbage that’s in them.

Many alts; handle it!
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Lelling.6795

Lelling.6795

As for the single thread merges, it’s for the health of the forums this occurs, but also for ease of the devs to tracks. So much easier to track feedback in one place, rather than the same amount of feedback in various places on the subforum.

With that said, do you not feel that locking that community post was counter-productive? What if every single one of the several hundred members posted a thread about that on their own, instead? Adding a +1 to something you’ve possibly even co-written is much easier, and I don’t mean for the people who write these things. Us players have all the time in the world to write posts, the people who most benefit from people only writing "+1" are in fact Arenanet’s <community-related-job-post> people.

As it is, if we do want feedback to go through, we need as few actual posts as possible on specific topics, and they need to be cleaved of 90% of the of over-emotional garbage that’s in them.

Exactly, and the thread that was locked was a very calm & composed post, with clearly expressed opinions and nobody attempting to emotionally blackmail Anet by saying they’ll stop playing.

But the locking of that thread might actually prompt the people who feel silenced by that action to make such counter-productive posts / threads. (There was a lot of negativity in game when we were talking about it and a lot of people feel like they haven’t been listened to).

Obviously, once Anet is aware of these problems and our opinions they have no use for the thread to stick around anymore, but what Anet is bad as is letting us know what they’re thinking and if they’ve actually read those things. To a minority of us, it is clear that they are fixing these issues and attempting to address our concerns (and that it takes a while), but the majority mistakes the silence for Anet not caring.

Their approach makes sense from their side, but I don’t think they’re handling this side very well, because most people aren’t aware how these things work, that they take time, etc.

Again, I’m not saying there were no reasons whatsoever for locking that thread (and possibly some others as well), but that it might do more harm than good in the long run. That thread was not toxic, it was not creating negativity or harming anyone in any way. And while it might have served its direct intent once an Anet dev had read it, it also had a positive effect on the forums in general, since a lot of people would go there, read it, and add a +1 instead of possibly posting a more emotional, less constructive thread of their own.

Cyan Vei | whole bunch of other alts
[DV] Leader, OpenCommunity admin

(edited by Lelling.6795)

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Randulf.7614

Randulf.7614

No, I felt that adding +1 was far more counter productive. The best thing for these forums is continuing in constructive debate until that well runs dry. Whether that’s positive, negative or whatever. Anything else wont help facilitate that.

All I will say (since this thread will be closed soon I suspect). Just think how these forums would look if every one bumped their threads with +1

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

You may glean more consideration by Moderators should you send your questions and/or concerns to forums@arena.net

Good luck.

Yeah I’m also doing that but I wanted to post here to sort of start off a debate in that area as well, since these are my opinions only and I wanted to see how other people felt about this as well.

I think you will find the ultimate answer to any debate in the Forum rules. It is probably best for the Forums if we each abide as much as possible. =)

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Lelling.6795

Lelling.6795

No, I felt that adding +1 was far more counter productive. The best thing for these forums is continuing in constructive debate until that well runs dry. Whether that’s positive, negative or whatever. Anything else wont help facilitate that.

All I will say (since this thread will be closed soon I suspect). Just think how these forums would look if every one bumped their threads with +1

Yes, but these weren’t the same people bumping the threads over and over again. You’re misunderstanding, the point isn’t bumping a thread, the point is that these people are simply adding “+1” instead of creating more (less eloquent / concise) clutter on their own.

Cyan Vei | whole bunch of other alts
[DV] Leader, OpenCommunity admin

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Lelling.6795

Lelling.6795

You may glean more consideration by Moderators should you send your questions and/or concerns to forums@arena.net

Good luck.

Yeah I’m also doing that but I wanted to post here to sort of start off a debate in that area as well, since these are my opinions only and I wanted to see how other people felt about this as well.

I think you will find the ultimate answer to any debate in the Forum rules. It is probably best for the Forums if we each abide as much as possible. =)

I understand the rules that are in place concerning locked posts and also why they exist. The point of this post is not discussing a specific thread / reviving a negative post / speaking out negatively against moderators (although I will not be surprised when it will eventually be locked, as despite my efforts, this post will not look like an opinion but rather a complaint post to a moderator – it would to me).

I just wanted to make sure that the moderators understand why that “+1” bumping was happening (and my concerns have been validated by the people commenting here). It was not bumping to keep a thread up, it wasn’t mindless bumping. It was saying “this post has been made in my name and therefore I want my name to appear in this forum”. It’s sort of a signature of agreement (as explained in the OP of this thread).

EDIT: Anyway, the post was just a thought I had, I’m not trying to make a statement or anything

Cyan Vei | whole bunch of other alts
[DV] Leader, OpenCommunity admin

(edited by Lelling.6795)

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Oranisagu.3706

Oranisagu.3706

the problem isn’t with locking threads and keeping the forums clean – it’s the lack of communication from ANet. in this case, a pretty large community had serious concerns about how some things were handled with the megaservers and spawntimes and there’s been no reaction. if you listen on the teamspeak server, people are extremely frustrated, basically because:

  • ANet made a very significant change, apparently without considering such communities
  • by the time they announced the new feature, it was already developed and no feedback could be given
  • once it went live, the concerns of the communities have come true and instead of everyone creating a forum post, they tried to start one single thread
  • ANet did not acknowledge these problems/concerns
  • ANet gave no indication whether they would think about alternative solutions
  • ANet closed the thread

this has been happening pretty much since launch, and it’s by far the most annoying thing to me as a customer. bugs happen, errors in judgement happen, plans can change – as long as they try to fix stuff, and acknowledge problems (or state them as intended behaviour) I’m satisfied (not always happy, but I can accept a decision). but this constant, unending silence is extremely aggravating.

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Lelling.6795

Lelling.6795

Yes, this is exactly the sort of thing I’m talking about, Oranisagu.

I assume (I originally wrote know but changed my mind) Arenanet considers every single one of the things we’ve talked about on these forums. I believe that they do take everything into consideration, and start planning a fix for these things immediately. And I also understand that these things take a long time and large amounts of information & work to fix, and that there are only so few teams / people working on certain things.

What Anet is bad at is telling us these things. I can assume all I want, but nothing soothes the players more than “we assure you we’re working on <thing>”. Or just teasing stuff like “We’re currently working on a fix for <thing> that we’re super excited about” more often.

In fact, I’m quite sure that if Anet mods posted more frequently, they wouldn’t need to lock as many threads at all. If they said “we are aware of <whatever> and are working on <thing>, thank you for your feedback.” People would stop bumping threads unnecessarily, achieving the same effect but getting a more positive feeling altogether. Nobody feels silenced and everybody feels listened to.

(Same with locking threads to keep all discussion about a single topic in 1 thread. Simply saying “we’re aware of this, come join us in the discussion in <thread>” would work just as well, without people then resorting to raging in-game about how Anet is trying to silence the negative feedback)

Cyan Vei | whole bunch of other alts
[DV] Leader, OpenCommunity admin

(edited by Lelling.6795)

Concern about locking certain threads

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: CC Danicia.1394

CC Danicia.1394

Community Coordinator

You may glean more consideration by Moderators should you send your questions and/or concerns to forums@arena.net

Good luck.

This is correct. Our Forum Code of Conduct and posting guidelines are not up for debate. You can give your feedback to the Community Team about them, but we do not allow discussions of policies and procedures on the forums.