Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Phobos Sep 04, 2009 14:36:56	I am a daily visitor, or I was till the new community came out.  I'm not going to blow off on how the sky is falling, everyone has a preference, this simpy isn't mine. I agree the old forums had issues, but I guess what I really started to wonder was, "where is Wizards planning|hoping to go with this?" The old forums were exactly that, a place I came to read, discuss and catch up on the up and coming.  I personally treated them as such and used them daily. This is more of a social network, and frankly I have no need for a D&D social network. You're all great people I am sure, but I am doubtful to add you to my group or friends, and likewise in return.  I don't blog, nor twitter, although I do facebook with my personal friends, but all these features simply don't apply to me.   I still struggle to find what I am looking for on this new site, but I guess we'll chalk that up to forum preference. Sadly, for any staff that care, this new format has simply caused me to avoid visiting regurally now, esp on a daily basis, I RSS the new DDI articles, read them and leave.
#2 lokiare Sep 04, 2009 14:42:50	I am a daily visitor, or I was till the new community came out.  I'm not going to blow off on how the sky is falling, everyone has a preference, this simpy isn't mine. I agree the old forums had issues, but I guess what I really started to wonder was, "where is Wizards planning|hoping to go with this?" The old forums were exactly that, a place I came to read, discuss and catch up on the up and coming.  I personally treated them as such and used them daily. This is more of a social network, and frankly I have no need for a D&D social network. You're all great people I am sure, but I am doubtful to add you to my group or friends, and likewise in return.  I don't blog, nor twitter, although I do facebook with my personal friends, but all these features simply don't apply to me.   I still struggle to find what I am looking for on this new site, but I guess we'll chalk that up to forum preference. Sadly, for any staff that care, this new format has simply caused me to avoid visiting regurally now, esp on a daily basis, I RSS the new DDI articles, read them and leave. That may have been their intention. Lower site traffic so they can pay less for a server. Of course this is doubtful.
#3 CoarseDragon Sep 04, 2009 16:39:12	I tend to agree with Phobos here a little bit. I don't Facebook or Twitter and heaven knows I get enough Wiki at work I don't need that on my leisure. I also find navigation within the new layout to be a clunky and not easy to move around in. This layout is not like any other forum I have ever been to.
#4 drnick Sep 04, 2009 18:20:56	I guess I don't understand. The forums are still here... yeah they have room to grow but it's not like you're being forced to use the social networking features. I might be biased though. I love some of this stuff. The fact that I can set up a group for my play group with a calendar, forum, wiki and blog for play recaps got me hooked.
#5 Rustmonster Sep 04, 2009 20:44:55	Why does it seem everyone is complaining that they now have the option to do things? It's just a bit bizzare to me. No one is forcing you to blog or make a wiki or join a group. Isn't it nice that people who want to now can do it? Yes, the direction is obviously for this being a WotC Community Site. That's why it says "Community Beta" over up there. The forums are still there, and they are going to be a part of the community.
#6 Paulon Sep 04, 2009 23:00:13	Why does it seem everyone is complaining that they now have the option to do things? It's just a bit bizzare to me. No one is forcing you to blog or make a wiki or join a group. I wish you were right about that. The word from on high is that the Play By Post Haven forum and all threads therein will be locked, and everyone playing will have to transfer their PbP games into groups. Manually. I don't mind additional options, but unfortunately the statement that we aren't being forced to use them is not correct in all cases. The announcement thread about it is here. Further details are in the group the post links to.
#7 lokiare Sep 04, 2009 23:17:30	Why does it seem everyone is complaining that they now have the option to do things? It's just a bit bizzare to me. No one is forcing you to blog or make a wiki or join a group. Isn't it nice that people who want to now can do it? Yes, the direction is obviously for this being a WotC Community Site. That's why it says "Community Beta" over up there. The forums are still there, and they are going to be a part of the community. I guess I don't understand. The forums are still here... yeah they have room to grow but it's not like you're being forced to use the social networking features. I might be biased though. I love some of this stuff. The fact that I can set up a group for my play group with a calendar, forum, wiki and blog for play recaps got me hooked. The complaints are not that they had added features, it is that they don't want to be linked to those features. They are forced to use some of them like having a custom avatar, or a profile. Most of the complaints are about how the forums have been crippled compared to the previous forums. It would have been great if they just added all the new features to the old forum, but instead they got a whole new forum that doesn't support half the features of the previous one.
#8 Pangur Sep 05, 2009 9:40:01	The word from on high is that the Play By Post Haven forum and all threads therein will be locked, and everyone playing will have to transfer their PbP games into groups. Manually. True. The Game Masters of the PbP forums have for the greater part made the transition by now though, so if you're interested in play-by-post gaming do take a look at the links in my sig.
#9 Webster Sep 05, 2009 10:53:11	The complaints are not that they had added features, it is that they don't want to be linked to those features. They are forced to use some of them like having a custom avatar, or a profile. Most of the complaints are about how the forums have been crippled compared to the previous forums. It would have been great if they just added all the new features to the old forum, but instead they got a whole new forum that doesn't support half the features of the previous one. The problem is, the old software was so full of hacks it might not have been possible to just "add" the features. Having one universal piece of software is much easier to handle than five different ones all hacked and customized by people no longer with the company. As for direction, I don't want to get anyone's hopes up because this is pure out of my hat speculation, but if you look at what IS being built you can see where it all leads to. You've got the character builder and adventure tools. You've got the new forums and groups and so on. My guess, and it's simply a wild guess with no inside info whatsoever, is a gradual build up to the game table everyone keeps wanting. Think about it- what good is a game table if you don't have a place to organize your game? That's NOT something a table would have. It may have a lobby to meet up with other players; perhaps for a pick up game. But a wiki of your game world? A group for your group? A blog to remind your players what happned last week? No, it would have to be something outside the table. The vitual table would be just for playing D&D. You need something else for tracking and displaying your campaign. As for the comparisons of Facebook and other "social network sites", this one isn't trying to replace or be one of those. Do you really think your Aunt Tilly is going to be surfing the web looking for her own Magic the Gathering profile? Doubtful. She would be on one of those other sites, as those are more mainstream. THIS site is for WotC fans/staff/people. Your Aunt Tilly won't care about your barbarian, but your friends here on this site do. (Or probably do. Maybe not. Most likely some random stranger you'll never play with will criticize your feat choices. But that's another story.) Giving us more options is a GOOD thing. It's amazing how quickly people forget about the problems the "old" site had, when all along there was nothing but griping about those problems. Sure, it worked in hindsight, but keep focused on all the "Search is broken!" posts we had. No, not everything is up to speed when the site re-opened, but if you pay attention, you can see improvements happening all the time. And there's more on the way. Don't like the skins? Do you REALLY think we wouldn't get more? Honestly? Your head can't be THAT deep in the sand. We've always had skin upgrades/changes. I say give it time and don't get all foamy at the mouth while waiting. The "old boards" originally did not have sblocks. That hack was added much, much later. They were not a feature that was there "from day one". As for people leaving, there is and always has been a fluctuation in membership as people go away for the weekend, return to school or have life changes. Folks say they're leaving, but in the end they always come back. And what about all those "I'm leaving" posts  by people you've never seen before? How big of an impact is that really? Not much as all I see are maybe ten very vocal and loud people saying they're leaving, (some never actually do,) and that's about all. No mass exodous. No "thousands of people storming off". Just a small handful that would LIKE thousands to leave, but are always disappointed. That's been my experience.