Bulletin board changes

[cold]

Originally posted by Cz
Why not get more people then?
While more people would mean more time, it would also mean more costs. Community work does not in itself produce income, and is thus not the first team to staff up. I am sure you too would like more designers and coders to improve the game, rather than having one more person telling you we're working on it.

Keeping your customers happy = more customers.
More customers = more income.
Community work = keep customers happy.

People already left over this, this move has cost you money. Keep your community close, don't send them away.

We don't want everyone to go to different fansites for message boards. We don't want to browse 20 different trading forums that use 18 different forum systems to find something. I hate having to go to (sometimes non-english) fansites to find info on upcoming features.

Here, is where the people used to gather, this is where we could find all info... where do we go now ?

And about taking away the trade forums, what alternative is there ? Do you want us to trade on ebay instead ?

These forums were as much part of Anarchy Online as the game itself, why take it away ?

To quote yourself, Cz :
"We have always wanted Anarchy Online to be a social experience.".

[Cz]

RoboKa; Thank you.

Borrace; No. Unmoderated forums is not an option. Period.

Jynne and Lilyflie; One could maybe limit it so only new players could start threads, while experienced ones could only reply? I doubt we can hack that into the software, but it's a suggestion, at least.

Scumbug; Stricter moderation does give less work. Consider it: If I ban you at first offense, you take me 2 minutes of work. If I have to warn you 3 times, suspend you twice, and argue over it all by e-mail for two weeks each time, then ban you, you wasted about two full days of my time. That's two full days I could spend on all the other people in the community.

Lord Tritoch; The AO community is already split up on many places. The users of this bulletin board is not the entire community. Far from it.

Jamespond; The fan site forums will grow over time. This bulletin board drained them of users, and hopefully people will return now.

Kuroshio; Simplified logic: Less work on administrating = more work on other tasks, e.g. communication. That's the basic of the entire change.

And again (6th time now, I think), getting more volunteers wouldn't help.

Cotson; No, this bulletin board is not a service you pay for. And I never said it's about what we need from you, but what is needed - by us and you - on the official bulletin board.

Those working on the game put out patches, boosters and expansions, and thus work directly on the thing generating income. The bulletin board does not do that in the same way.

Non moderatrd forums is not an option, and (7th time?), more moderators is not enough.

Beartwo; I haven't hear any complaints from the sites on their costs. I'll deal with that if they bring it up. So far they have shown support for the idea of getting more activity.

While you are prepared to wait longer for patches and instead have more forums here, I'm afraid that's not my impression of the community as a whole.

Azzazzimon; See my reply to Lord Tritoch - this is not the whole community. My work is to deal with the community as a whole. Because you don't care about the fan sites doesn't mean nobody does.

[Cz]

No need to run this discussion for days. I believe all arguments have been put forward, and going back and forth over them isn't going to solve anything.

I'll let the Market forums stay, though they might be considered again at a later time, depending on their use.

No forums will be reopened, though I will look into whether more of the bulletin board tasks can be moved to moderators at a later time, reducing work on the bulletin board even more.

I'm sorry for those who do not support this decision, and feel this is unfair, but it is necessary. While I understand your concerns and reasoning - and would probably see it the same way did I not know how it is on this side, I have other things to take into account, and must do changes, sometimes changes that I don't like.