Guild Wars 2

This thread is for discussion on this locked thread, without repeating the problem that got it locked:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Buried-Anet-responses-less-than-2-weeks-old/first

The trouble with the dev tracker is that we still must sift through pages of posts to try to find an older reply. If it was answered more than a month ago (see today’s thread asking about the GvG CDI), the dev tracker is not a useful way to find an answer.

I’ve proposed a solution in the past (see link below), and would love to hear some pros / cons on it from the ArenaNet side of things. From what I can see, it would be a great way to index answered questions, while only adding a single sticky:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestion-Sticky-for-FAQ-type-topics/first

Once a redpost answers a question, it gets added to the list. I suggest adding other common topics that crop up frequently, but that’s less important. Having a central, easily searchable (which the dev tracker is not) location for answered questions would be a godsend for those of us who do try to answer the questions of others.

Currently, we have to either:

1) Try to remember which dev answered a question and search through their posts for the thread.
2) Search through potentially dozens of pages in the dev tracker

in order to find the answer.

With this sticky, we could just open it, hit ctrl+f, and type (e.g.) GvG and BOOM — we’d locate the answered question in seconds. The people reasking the questions might also be able to find answers without having to rely on someone hopefully remember that the question was asked, and how to find the answer.

I’d love to hear why this would or wouldn’t work. I’ve brought this up repeatedly and it gets ignored, despite being a low-effort solution to a very real problem in this forum.

Basically it all boils down to the lack of the ability to search within the forums, My mistake was thinking I could help the veiwers find recent posts, by creating that above mentioned thread. It is clear to me now that Anet does not want the users of this forum to beable to find information, but for some reason unbeknownst to me, wants to continue to play this thread deletion/repetition game.

Seems that way, doesn’t // it? (// to ward off misguided felines)

Trouble with your post is that it will be buried within a day also

The solution of “use the dev tracker” works for questions that were answered yesterday, but given the rate at which ArenaNet develops content and implements bugfixes, we often have to answer the same questions for months on end.

All we’re looking for is an easy way to find answers for folks.

Taking it upon onesself in a “shame Anet kind of way” is not the answer. All one needs to do is look at signatures and posts to see an antagonistic type of approach to things.

CMM.6712:

Taking it upon onesself in a “shame Anet kind of way” is not the answer. All one needs to do is look at signatures and posts to see an antagonistic type of approach to things.

but CMM, you don’t have a signature.

My issues are….

… the broken search function,

…As well as the fact that the dev tracker is flooded with Anet responses about tech support and account issues, something no one cares about 99 out of 100 times until they are the one with those issues. Often, the responses you are looking for are buried by the end of a single day, let alone two weeks.

If there is a specific response I’m looking for, for a specific issue, it can take awhile.

Reanne.5462:

CMM.6712:

Taking it upon onesself in a “shame Anet kind of way” is not the answer. All one needs to do is look at signatures and posts to see an antagonistic type of approach to things.

but CMM, you don’t have a signature.

I don’t have really have anything to say in a signature at this point, if I do I will put one up.

I never understood why they consolidated the forums in the first place. Sites for dedicated, constructive discussions on a narrow set of topics. Swept into the general forums and now, gone with the winds,

Want to discuss some subject that has value but people only post a couple of times a day. Forget it. The threads are dropping off the front page between a day and a couple of hours, to be quickly forgotten.

Considering that the Devs don’t have a better search method than we do then I don’t see how this is a benefit to them. Before they had forums for their areas of interest. Now they have to wade through pages of threads irrelevant to their specialty.

I have yet to see that this new forum is better than the old. From what I’ve seen it’s worse, much worse.

I can’t see how this is something we can fix. Save links to topics you want to refer to on your computer is my suggestion. I save selected posts from Devs with a link for commonly asked questions. Saves time searching that way.

Reanne.5462:

It is clear to me now that Anet does not want the users of this forum to beable to find information

If you’re referring to the broken search feature, you need to be aware that Anet did not build these forums, and is therefore not capable of correcting the problems by themselves. So their options are either a) spend more money hiring contractors to fix it, or b) let people use the mostly functional forums without paying any more money.

It doesn’t take a prophet to tell you which of those is the better business decision.

Andred.1087:

Reanne.5462:

It is clear to me now that Anet does not want the users of this forum to beable to find information

If you’re referring to the broken search feature, you need to be aware that Anet did not build these forums, and is therefore not capable of correcting the problems by themselves. So their options are either a) spend more money hiring contractors to fix it, or b) let people use the mostly functional forums without paying any more money.

It doesn’t take a prophet to tell you which of those is the better business decision.

But people could look at their lack of getting the forums fixed as their view on glitches. As long as it doesn’t make the game unplayable, there’s no need to fix bugs.

The broken search function could create a perception problem. If they don’t care enough about their forum to fix it, what’s to say they care enough about their game to fix it?

I’m not saying that’s the case, but perception greatly affects peoples’ willingness to spend money. Whether it’s to buy a game or not or to spend money on gems or not.

Edit: It’s like if you own a business keeping the outside of the store area looking neat. While outside appearance doesn’t have a direct relationship between quality or prices of goods, would your potential customers be more willing to go into a store whose outside looks well kept or in shambles?

Most will choose the store with a well kept outside. So you spend money to keep it looking good. Even though the outside appearance doesn’t affect what goes on inside of the store.

Wait, did you start a thread on the same topic of a thread that got locked to discuss why it got locked? So you are asking for a thread with Dev responses to be stickied to make searching for things easier? Which is what the locked thread was about, and closed because we already have that. I am so confused….

Do not post about locked, deleted, or otherwise moderated threads or posts. Moderation happens for a reason. A staff member or moderator may lock a thread before posting in order to promptly curtail continued comments. If you have yet to see a comment by a staff member on a locked thread, please wait for the comment to appear and do not post a new thread on the subject. If you have questions regarding forum moderation, send an email to forums@arena.net.

No this post is not about why that other post was locked. It is about hashing out ideas on a solution to finding important posts that are difficult to find throughout this site, and the ramifications of ignoring a problem that many people are already talking about.

Reanne.5462:

No this post is not about why that other post was locked. It is about hashing out ideas on a solution to finding important posts that are difficult to find throughout this site, and the ramifications of ignoring a problem that many people are already talking about.

“This thread is for discussion on this locked thread”

from the very first sentence…

Conspiracy theories aside, forums need a search function that works for them to be effective. There are many times I’ve wanted a search function for these forums. Google works some times but not always.

pdavis.8031:

Wait, did you start a thread on the same topic of a thread that got locked to discuss why it got locked? So you are asking for a thread with Dev responses to be stickied to make searching for things easier? Which is what the locked thread was about, and closed because we already have that. I am so confused….

lordkrall.7241:

Do not post about locked, deleted, or otherwise moderated threads or posts. Moderation happens for a reason. A staff member or moderator may lock a thread before posting in order to promptly curtail continued comments. If you have yet to see a comment by a staff member on a locked thread, please wait for the comment to appear and do not post a new thread on the subject. If you have questions regarding forum moderation, send an email to forums@arena.net.

See Reanne’s post — they get it.

This is about coming up with a solution to the problem that the other thread was trying to solve. If you would have read past the first sentence (or even finished reading the first sentence…), I believe that would have been made clear. At no point do I dispute whether or not that thread should have been locked, try to contest the decision, or attempt to duplicate the reason it was locked. The content of my OP is quite different from the locked thread, I suggest you compare them directly before making assumptions.

Information is hard to find on these forums. I’m merely suggesting a solution to that problem — the only reason I reference the locked thread is because of Mark’s claim that the Dev Tracker is a suitable means of finding answered questions — my point is that it is not, and I suggest a solution that would require very little effort from ArenaNet, uses existing forum functionality, and would be an immense help for forum readers.

Thanks for understanding :-)

dlonie.6547:

pdavis.8031:

Wait, did you start a thread on the same topic of a thread that got locked to discuss why it got locked? So you are asking for a thread with Dev responses to be stickied to make searching for things easier? Which is what the locked thread was about, and closed because we already have that. I am so confused….

lordkrall.7241:

Do not post about locked, deleted, or otherwise moderated threads or posts. Moderation happens for a reason. A staff member or moderator may lock a thread before posting in order to promptly curtail continued comments. If you have yet to see a comment by a staff member on a locked thread, please wait for the comment to appear and do not post a new thread on the subject. If you have questions regarding forum moderation, send an email to forums@arena.net.

See Reanne’s post — they get it.

This is about coming up with a solution to the problem that the other thread was trying to solve. If you would have read past the first sentence (or even finished reading the first sentence…), I believe that would have been made clear. At no point do I dispute whether or not that thread should have been locked, try to contest the decision, or attempt to duplicate the reason it was locked. The content of my OP is quite different from the locked thread, I suggest you compare them directly before making assumptions.

Information is hard to find on these forums. I’m merely suggesting a solution to that problem — the only reason I reference the locked thread is because of Mark’s claim that the Dev Tracker is a suitable means of finding answered questions — my point is that it is not, and I suggest a solution that would require very little effort from ArenaNet, uses existing forum functionality, and would be an immense help for forum readers.

Thanks for understanding :-)

^

Maybe to Mark, the Dev tracker is a suitable means of finding answers but it’s not possible to use it on the forum and if you don’t remember the Dev’s name or the exact words or the time, then it’s difficult to impossible to find by google.

Even knowing the name it can be very difficult to find old quotes.

Andred.1087:

Reanne.5462:

It is clear to me now that Anet does not want the users of this forum to beable to find information

If you’re referring to the broken search feature, you need to be aware that Anet did not build these forums, and is therefore not capable of correcting the problems by themselves. So their options are either a) spend more money hiring contractors to fix it, or b) let people use the mostly functional forums without paying any more money.

It doesn’t take a prophet to tell you which of those is the better business decision.

Yes!!!! Making it easier for customers to access information when they need to by paying to provide fully functional forums would be the better business decision. BTW, no they need contractors to piece together the current software. They need to replace it.

FYI: I’ve edited the thread title to prevent future knee-jerk backseat moderation attempts.

Apologies for any confusion.

I personally save on my IPad, links to old threads as well as selected responses to commonly asked questions.

This helps but a sticked thread where links and answers could be saved would also be useful, as long as people don’t post nonsense or get into arguments on it.

As an example:
Let’s say a thread comes up about race changes. I have these 3 links saved where I can go to and pull out answers.
Race change:
1) http://www.guildwars2guru.com/arenanet-tracker/topic/243694-race-change-option/
2) http://www.guildwars2guru.com/arenanet-tracker/topic/258544-race-change/
3) https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Race-Change/first

If this was posted on a stickied thread with other similar posts, it would be easier for people to find the Dev responses.

Essentially sounds like you’re asking them to use the “news and announcements” thread.

Basically asking them to post big ticket topics in a way that we can reference if we’re ever curious to see if there have been any changes.

You know, like “what happened to precursor crafting?” well they answered it in an obscure area and left it at that, would be nice if they posted it in an area that was easier to see and reference… isnt’ that the “News and Announcements” area? I mean they could do a massive thread sticked at the top of general but yeah…

Jerus.4350:

Essentially sounds like you’re asking them to use the “news and announcements” thread.

Basically asking them to post big ticket topics in a way that we can reference if we’re ever curious to see if there have been any changes.

You know, like “what happened to precursor crafting?” well they answered it in an obscure area and left it at that, would be nice if they posted it in an area that was easier to see and reference… isnt’ that the “News and Announcements” area? I mean they could do a massive thread sticked at the top of general but yeah…

Close, but smaller issues (like Astral’s example of changing races) are too minor to warrant a thread in News and Announcements, IMO. This would be more of an FAQ that indexes responses to questions, even the more trivial ones. Perhaps the sticky could reside in N&A, but I feel that threads in the News and Announcements subforum should be reserved for major announcements and changes to the game.

In my vision, the sticky would have categories similar to the existing subforums (Race, Profession, Dungeons, BLTC, General, etc) or perhaps each subforum could have its own FAQ sticky. We did something similar in the Dungeon subforum, and it was a major help to be able to answer question X for the 4 zillionth time by referring them to a section of the FAQ. That one didn’t have links to red posts (mainly because we didn’t see any official answers for a long, long time), but the idea is similar.