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Thread: Refocusing the Community work

  1. #241
    Originally posted by Coldstrike
    I find that they more often than not are a way of getting hold of my email address so I can be spammed to death so that they can make a quick buck on running their lousy fansite.
    The Privacy Statement will tell you whether they are able to sell your personal information to advertisers.

    AO Stratics privacy statement was not-suprisingly missing yesterday. I checked today. Its still missing. Yesterday I had requested that Meister post the statement here. But he hasn't gotten around to it yet.

    AOStratics missing statement:
    http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/ao/viewprivacy.php


    As I indicted earlier in this thread, IGN (AO Vault) has stated in their privacy statement that they are able and willing to sell your email address:
    http://www.snowball.com/privacy.html
    ======================

    blix01/spookiepants/stiffwood

  2. #242
    Originally posted by lilnymph
    Well, to use that argument against you, the service has not gone, it has just changed, so we are still recieveing everything as before, so what are you complaining about

    hugs

    lilnymph

    Let me use your argument against you. How would you like it if your cable company turned off their phone support, and you had to drive around to four or five different cable outposts just to get someone to repair your cable? Afterall, they are still providing a "service" by fixing your problem? Right?

    ~Chris

  3. #243
    Sad, very sad. I enjoyed the forums, it was a real pleasure to go /afk and then switch to read some stuff here.

    If you ever launch another game, dont do it in the name of Funcom, somehow I think you burned that name quite good.

    Only my thoughts
    ****************************
    Winterizer lvl 213 Solitus Keeper
    Alien level 14
    Date of registration 2001-06-28
    Played in beta 4
    Unit leader of Ragnarok
    ****************************

  4. #244
    Why 3?

    If the boards are being closed to reduce Cz's workload why not just pick one fansite and make it the "official" AO site.

    If moderating and repling on one board is more work than just replying on three, then surely just replying on one board would be better? That way at least you are not scattering the community to the four winds.

    Personally I think closing them down is a bad bad idea but when did FC ever care what I thought?
    /tell Jakual

    Org Leader 1: Why are our NT's killing each other!?!
    Org Leader 2: They see a smurf and want title rights.
    - JohnMclain

  5. #245
    Originally posted by Jak
    Why 3?

    If the boards are being closed to reduce Cz's workload why not just pick one fansite and make it the "official" AO site.
    Because more than likely, this is a result of not only FC's feeling that something must be done, but also a huge lobbying campaign by the mentioned sites.

    I took some time last night to take a look at the three sites listed and I'm sorry but I just wasn't impressed. The fact that this is being thrown at us with only 2 days notice is just unacceptable.

    I'm sure that the admins of those 3 pages are rabid fans, but that doesn't matter when you know that you will have to deal with:
    1) Email spamming
    2) Lousy servers and load times
    3) Moderation of the sort never seen even here at the official site (read Meisters quote a few pages back about stratics moderation)
    4) A watering down of the player base because you don't need an AO account to register
    5) A loss of community atmosphere because all the people that were coming here will now be spread throughout 3+ fan sites

    I know that FC, through CZ are not doing this because they don't care about the people paying the bills. But I do think that this is a very short-sighted attempt at fixing an internal problem that will now have a huge effect on a large portion of the player base.

    More than likely, and I have already heard talk of this, a few things are going to happen:
    1) A large portion of players will continue to post only on the official site, on forums that don't match their subject matter. Because that is what is there. This will force CZ to read through thousands of posts that he wouldn't normally have to. Also, CZ will have to do even more moderating because frankly, alot of us will post what we have to say, even if it doesn't belong there.
    2) Others will just not post at all

    Do you really think that if someone wants to post about tara, they are going to go and post at 3+ sites to make sure they don't miss anyone? No. They will post in one of the forums that you leave open. And frankly, I don't blame them.

    Part of what I thought I was paying for, was customer service, and a sense of community. If you take the official forums down, you are hurting both of those.

    Please rethink this decision.
    Jellobiafra General of First Order
    First Order-Cleaning clanners since 29210
    Visit our website to join!!

  6. #246
    Originally posted by Megabio
    Let me use your argument against you. How would you like it if your cable company turned off their phone support, and you had to drive around to four or five different cable outposts just to get someone to repair your cable? Afterall, they are still providing a "service" by fixing your problem? Right?

    ~Chris
    grrr, try reading my other posts, I am dead against this whole idea, and have been posting ideas to try and save it, however I HATE false arguments, and, unfortunatly, we are not paying enough for this to be counted as a paid service. Like it or not it is a free service that comes with a paid one (like the free cable guide I get with my cable, its a gimick, I would hardly expect the price of my cable to drop if they stopped sending me it, which they have done twice).

    And your analogy is hardly accurate Chris. Instead of being so confruntational, why dont you try suggesting some alternatives? Funcom obviously feel things can not go on the way they are.

    Hugs

    lilnymph
    Lilnymph - Clan Fixer - RK1
    lilnymph wrote on November 21st, 2003 08:01:01:
    You may take our postcount threads, but you will never take our FREEDOM!!!!!
    Originally posted by Cz
    The post count is mine! All mine! Mwahahahah!

    40.476190476190474% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?
    Style over Substance

  7. #247
    Originally posted by Blix

    AO Stratics privacy statement was not-suprisingly missing yesterday. I checked today. Its still missing. Yesterday I had requested that Meister post the statement here. But he hasn't gotten around to it yet.

    AOStratics missing statement:
    http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/ao/viewprivacy.php
    Stratics is, as always, too lagged to process my request right now, so I'm unable to read this statement..

    Stratics used to be ok about 2 years ago, but now it's slow, filled with too many ads, and not really something I would like to use.

  8. #248
    Originally posted by Coldstrike
    And one more thing, I hate (and I'm sure a lot of us do) registering on all sorts of 3rd party sides. I find that they more often than not are a way of getting hold of my email address so I can be spammed to death so that they can make a quick buck on running their lousy fansite.
    I've pretty much stayed out of this topic so far. Felt the heat coming off it 6 subforums down and said not on my life. But this statement I couldn't pass up.

    I've had a forums account at AOVault and AO Basher for longer than I've had an AO account, since they were operating before AO was. I think I might even have a Stratics account as well. I've never in all that time received a single spam email I can begin to track back to any of those sites. And I'm fairly proficient at backtracking spam email. So if they've sold my email address to someone, they've been extremely subtle about it.

    As for this particular move, well quite frankly it sucks things that would get me banned for repeating

    Moderators on a fansite have 0 liability for their actions. People at an official site have to answer for their actions eventually since they have the official endorsement of the company. If Solarax or Nevver go ape**** one day (not saying they, specifically would but those are mods I can name off the top of my head), there's nothing that can be done about it.

    And there's the whole argument about hopping all over the web for information. I do that enough whenever Funcom gives sneak peaks at stuff, trying to collect all the information. Having to do it for regular stuff just isn't my cup of tea.
    History admires the wise, but it elevates the brave. - Edmund Morris

    The first faults are theirs that commit them, the second theirs that permit them. - Unknown

    Did you ever get the feeling that the world had an abundance of idiots? And that God had arranged for you to meet every single one of them before you died? - Kuroshio

  9. #249
    False argument ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

    For me these forums are a vital part of the Anarchy Online experience, and the game won't be the same if these changes go through. And therefore the product will loose quality.

    When I pay my monthly fee it goes to Funcom, Funcom pays customer service people, they run these boards, how am I not paying for this?

    IMO these forums are included in the money I pay to Funcom and nothing can make me change that opinion, accussing us for false argumentation....bah
    All the ducks are swimming in the water

  10. #250
    ok, I give up, possibly it is included in the price and we are paying for it, but I always saw it as an extra, an extra I am extremly unhappy about losing, not least because it will make my work days even longer (as if 9 - 12 hour days wheren't bad enough), and I feel it will take away from the community feel. Info will become hard to come by, and I dont like the idea of having to join 3 or more other sites to fill the gap left by this one.

    wow, I need to work on shorter sentances.

    Hugs

    lilnymph
    Lilnymph - Clan Fixer - RK1
    lilnymph wrote on November 21st, 2003 08:01:01:
    You may take our postcount threads, but you will never take our FREEDOM!!!!!
    Originally posted by Cz
    The post count is mine! All mine! Mwahahahah!

    40.476190476190474% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?
    Style over Substance

  11. #251
    *HUGS*

    I guess we're all just very upset over this
    All the ducks are swimming in the water

  12. #252
    To cut back on the amount of forums, I would suggest:

    Funcom Official: No need to change. Only time anyone is posting here is in reply to Funcom posts

    Future Anarchy: Cut down to just suggestions. Can cover both next patch, and suggestions. Get rid of 'Booster Pack and Expansion, since you already have a spot for NW.

    Technical Issues: Can be cut down to just one forum.

    Game Play: World of Rubika can be combined to cover it's current subjects, plus tradeskills, pvp, game mechanics and tara. Keep Notum Wars as it is still somewhat new and a place is needed for player feedback on NW related issues. Keep markets.

    Community: Merge Story discussions and Role-playing as RP'ers are the ones following the story lines. Player Polls has a total of 3 replies on the whole first page of posts. Delete this and allow those that want to run a poll, post it in the Off-Topic section. Keep orgs. This cannot be a place you have to spend much time moderating as it's only org advertising. There is rarely any traffic in the 'Bulletin Board' forum. Delete it. Don't touch professions.

    Test Server: This should be set up like the NW test forums were. Only testers can post, read only for others. There is no reason that non-testers should be posting there.

    Off-Topic: Whatever. Can be fun, hate to see it go, but if it saves us from having to visit 3+ sites for all the above info, we will survive.
    Jellobiafra General of First Order
    First Order-Cleaning clanners since 29210
    Visit our website to join!!

  13. #253
    Originally posted by lilnymph


    grrr, try reading my other posts, I am dead against this whole idea, and have been posting ideas to try and save it, however I HATE false arguments, and, unfortunatly, we are not paying enough for this to be counted as a paid service. Like it or not it is a free service that comes with a paid one (like the free cable guide I get with my cable, its a gimick, I would hardly expect the price of my cable to drop if they stopped sending me it, which they have done twice).

    And your analogy is hardly accurate Chris. Instead of being so confruntational, why dont you try suggesting some alternatives? Funcom obviously feel things can not go on the way they are.

    Hugs

    lilnymph
    As someone in the cable industry Lil...*HUGS* No one ever feels that way about the free crud that gets sent to you until it's gone. Then they whine like babies.

    That's not to say I'm still not extrordinarily POed about all this. Whehter they're good sites or the spawn of the devil I don't want to go elsewhere. This is my home >.<

    Originally posted by Cz
    I will take the day to look through it all with the others here, and we'll see whether we can find a good alternative. There are good suggestions in this thread, so maybe we can pile it together, cut on other things, and make everybody happy.
    That's all we can ask of you. Thank you.
    General Hershel "Kasimir" Jurik

    President of Division 9 R.S.G.E

    Fixer
    RK-1

    Braumiester of the Pagan Bartenders, wielder of dual SSo8s

    Stealer of hearts, creds, and anything not nailed down!

  14. #254
    Unfortunatley it looks like its all down to the money, perhaps in richer days you guys at FC will open up the boards again to their former glory.

    I guess some of the factors that play in are the world economy, currently the Norwegian Kroner is really strong against the weakened US dollar, so it doesnt take hard math to find out that FunCom has lost money they tought they would have due to that.

    ohwell I hope this turns out good.

    Another thing I noticed is that most of the msg. board jerks seems to have perished with all the patches.. you guys are good at filtering
    I dont think I have seen a single "Screw you guys im quitting!"
    might be that they dont care much for the board other then telling us that they are quitting
    Operation impending doom 2 seems to have started with patch 15.6.5
    12.6 first contact, 14.6 second attempt, 16.6 Invasion of the gabber bots ?
    Old and bitter player, currently playing: Justincase GA4 wearing phix0r
    Originally posted by Cz
    I already saw this thread, but refrained from answering due to the pleasant show of confidence from Lumin.
    Sing a song for FunCom

  15. #255
    Originally posted by Blix


    The Privacy Statement will tell you whether they are able to sell your personal information to advertisers.

    AO Stratics privacy statement was not-suprisingly missing yesterday. I checked today. Its still missing. Yesterday I had requested that Meister post the statement here. But he hasn't gotten around to it yet.

    AOStratics missing statement:
    http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/ao/viewprivacy.php


    As I indicted earlier in this thread, IGN (AO Vault) has stated in their privacy statement that they are able and willing to sell your email address:
    http://www.snowball.com/privacy.html

    So theres two of the major options for the pick up of the forum load that aren't going to work. Because why should we make some guy running a network site rich for no content and quasi-functional forums to the tune of deleting 70 pieces of spam email a day from my inbox?

    The only other option availible is AO-Basher....and to be completely frank, AO-Basher, while a good site, doesn't have the capacity to handle the entire forum load, nor is it kept regularly updated. Alot of the content ON the site itself is 9 months old or more. The only fresh content on it is recycled news items from the AO Main site.

    I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'll pay 20 bucks a month. Its not that big of a jump for me to do so. I like the game's concept and I've loved its community focus. So if you gotta tack on 7 dollars a month to my subscription fee to finance more help for moderation, if you need 7 more dollars a month to get more programmers and developers into the project and keep the game afloat....I'll pay it. Because I don't want to see AO going into a service "downsizing" to cut costs. I'd rather pay more and keep the same or better content.

  16. #256
    Well bottom line for me is that I am NOT going to register at a fan site to post in their forums. I already am registered at far too many sites and frankly I haven't seen an AO fan site that was worth my time.

    So I guess I either don't post or post in forums that aren't meant for the topic I'm posting on.

    And Meister? As someone connected with one of the fan sites chosen, you are hardly an unbiased observer. So anything you say I'm going to take with a VERY large grain of salt.

  17. #257
    Pardon me.....I just made a connection.

    This is the Connection - This post here says alot but basically the read between the lines message is "Funcom you provide all your content to your customer base as part of their service fee...thusly leaving us...the money grubbing scum of the internet nothing with which to tempt originial hits to our site. Please find a way to give me, Meister, and AO-Stratics.com a way to get our hooks into your customer base so we can turn a profit and justify our sites existance."

    That post by Meister was made about one month ago.

    Then suddenly a month later FC decides to "refocus" their community work by dumping 75% of their forum load to third party fan sites.

    Get everyone together in IRC and make decisions on how the pie was going to get split up did you Cz? Get agreements from two of the major game networks, then draft up a proposition to your management showing them how it can provide the "same level' of customer support while "cutting costs and resources"?

    You'll notice that only Meister and Rosethorn have spoken up here. Was AO-Basher just a 3rd site thrown into the name list to keep it looking fair and non-partisan?

    Whats the catch Cz? Whats FC getting out of this deal? A percentage of the ad returns? A warm fuzzy feeling from proactively supporting fansites that do nothing but plagarize and steal game content in hopes to turn a buck?

    You got mad at me yesterday because I asked the roleplay community to do an email protest. You said this would SPAM your email....which it would, so I deleted the post. But when you came in today and saw the spam email....did you possibly think that thats what myself and all your customers are going are going to feel like every day once we get forced to IGN or Stratics? Every day, 40 - 70 pieces of JUNK mail...because these networks sell personal information. And we'll have to sift through it....to see if any of it is actually NOT spam and something important...just like you had to sift through the email protest just incase someone added some pertinent information in the body text.

    Yes you'll have more time to read our concerns if theres less posting here. Of course...you'll also have less information on hand to draw from. Because half the time some nazi admin at IGN or Stratics will be deleting our concerns before you even get time to see them because in their opinion (which is frankly completely irrelevant...anyone that will work for free has no business telling anyone anything unless its CHARITY work) the material will be "too flammable and negative". So thusly...you'll have plenty of time to read....sure....I hope you got alot of books.

    Ugh. THIS STINKS OF BACK OFFICE DEAL. Stinks Cz....positively STINKS.

  18. #258

    Thumbs up great idea to focus on real work

    i think it's a great idea that the AO team focus on more important stuff like the AO forum. i think it has too many topics either.

  19. #259
    Well, I'm sure you can guess my reaction, Cz. I have said for a long time that you can't run CS (and I know you are not part of the CS department, but bulletin boards are a major form of CS in all MMORPGs) on a shoestring. You can't moderate and help customers on boards with just 1 person, no matter how much you cut them down. Attempts to do so will only help perpetuate Funcom's negative reputation in the industry and among players.

    I have no problem with you guys reorganizing the boards for the...fourth(?) time (though please make back-ups of the archives this time). But trying to run a community operation with one person shows a complete and total lack of commitment to the community (which is essentially what "washing their hands of" means, btw). But I also understand that Funcom is in bad shape over AO (6 months too early!) and that there is an incredible amount of competition coming in the next three months.

    I haven't been playing AO for a good while and my account is only active until the end of the month unless I see some really good info about the 14.8 patch. The only reason I stayed around this long is that it is rumored to give missions a boost. I do enjoy the mission system, I just wish it could have been accompanied by an interactive storyline.

    Scorus

  20. #260

    Re: great idea to focus on real work

    Originally posted by Kenohl
    i think it's a great idea that the AO team focus on more important stuff like the AO forum. i think it has too many topics either.
    Well, you're entitled to your opinion of course. But I don't think that someone who has registered only this month and has posted twice can appreciate how this is going to impact the AO community.
    Vanguard Mharc. Self-equipper extraordinaire no longer. I'm back!

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