It is important to note that even if the Community, the News Guides and I all feel that an item is important and needs to be acted upon immediately, WotC may have different priorities. These reports are not intended to be "honey-do" lists for WotC, nor is a lack of response by WotC towards any of the topics on these reports an indication that WotC has read and dismissed (or even worse, is ignoring) the concerns of the community. It simply means that they have other items that have higher priorities, or are more urgent for WotC to deal with.
March 1st to 14th
- The compendium is currently limited, in trial mode, to level 1-3 topics from the core rulebooks only. As more and more books and magazines are released, the likelihood of a potential subscriber seeing, in a search, something that can actually be viewed will shrink. There are a number of possible solutions to this. The first is to make it clear in the search results what is available to non-subscribers, either with a tag or special highlighting, in combination with a clearer announcement on the Compendium Beta page. The second, and more preferred in my mind, is to have the results of the search show up differently if they are subscribed or not subscribed. If they are not subscribed, the search results that they have access to are separate from the results they can't see. Either by moving them to the top of the search results (the easy way), or by modifying the skin of the compendium so that, for non-subscribers, there is a results button, and a button for "If you were a subscriber, here is the results you would get".
- The Penny Arcade podcasts are, as is to be expected, a *huge* success. It would be great if this was a semi-regular feature. Once a quarter, twice a year, that sort of thing.
- There is a recurring problem where people who have upgraded their subscription (say from 3 months to 1 year) are finding themselves without access when the anniversary of their 1st subscription arrives
- The Character Builder update interface still asks for UserID/PW, when it should be asking for e-mail address/Password.
- It would be nice, from inside the Compendium, to be able to get a listing of Dungeon Adventures and their intended levels. It would also be useful to display the intended levels in other places, such as in the intro page for each adventure (i.e. http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/duad/20081217 ) and the adventure index(http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/duarch/ad)
- There continues to be much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the DDI forums over WotC not clearly spelling out their future plans with respect to DDI and the remaining tools. It would calm down a lot of the reasonable people if a senior DDI person (or perhaps The Rouse??) would give a long post explaining *why* nothing can be said or, if possible, what are the plans.
- There appears to be a new mono release that supports .net 3.5 apis. It might be nice if a DDI dev could at least give it a spin. (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1161024)
- There are a couple of fairly vocal posters (2 at last count) who would like to see the Status reports that I provide. See http://forums.gleemax.com/showpost.php?p=18078001&postcount=106 on down.
One question: do you ever get a "reply" to your reports? I'm not asking you to post them or anything, just curious...
Cheers!
Blakey
Of course my recent favorite, the bloody forums working (being told at least twice that I was not allowed to read clearly does not inspire trust).
This is great, thanks for posting this MB.
No problem. I have wanted to do this for a while, but CM has been waiting for *their* situation to be stable. There have been some software changes in how VCLs submit reports to CM and they wanted to make sure that they were fully functional.
One question: do you ever get a "reply" to your reports? I'm not asking you to post them or anything, just curious...
I get a reply from each one I submit. They don't deal with the specifics of the post (which I was not expecting to get), but they thank me for the information. This isn't the brush-off that it sounds like, as I know that CM takes my report (along with reports from other VCLs and comments that users send in) to their meetings with the various brand teams to keep them (the brand teams) up to date on the mood of the community.
Paypal and forced auto renew does keep reoccurring, might not be high on list however I do believe at least Paypal was bumped within the last few weeks.
PayPal and auto-renew are on the list every couple of weeks. Usually when people bring it up. We try to keep from repeating the same list of requests every report. If you see the same thing every report, it starts to become commonplace and is easier to ignore or dismiss. (Note I am not suggesting that WotC does that.)
Of course my recent favorite, the bloody forums working (being told at least twice that I was not allowed to read clearly does not inspire trust).
That is a problem with the forums software. They thought they had it fixed last summer, but it appears to have been only a temporary fix. I know, based on comments at DDXP, that WotC is planning on a fairly major website revamping over the next while.
MB, I just want to echo the others in saying thankyou for providing these reports to the community. It really helps the transparency to know what communication CM and the Brand teams are receiving directly. It's frustrating to discuss a topic on the forums and not know if the people capable of fixing an issue are aware of it's existance. Do the other VCL's turn in reports like this, or is this strictly under the DDI domain?
I don't know. I started doing something like this once I became VCL and Solice was installed as CM for D&D/DDI. I sent them to her after she asked me once to provide her with a list of items to bring up at her meeting with Brand. I started providing (mostly) weekly reports to her.
I don't know if other VCLs do something like weekly reports, or whether they simply provide things as they come up, but I am pretty sure that the information is passed along in some manner.
I can't, of course, speak for other VCLs.
Edit to add - I just saw the thread in this forum where a couple of people say that they don't like the PA podcast. So that makes about 5 or 6 people I have seen.
Mudbunny, what metric is being used to judge the success of the Penny Arcade Podcasts?
i guess they don't have any metric for measuring at all... it's just what they believe is fun gets put in there. i'd really, really, really like to see a content-rating system, for ddi as well as free content.
--
@bunny: to add to your edit - while i dislike those podcasts, they are good entertainment value nevertheless, contrary to the author readings. i wish they'd keep up with the normal dnd podcasts they brought forth the whole last year. "tipps, tricks and inside information" was the tagline. this should be revived. currently, it's ads, ads and useless information. even a mailbag episode answering just 2 questions would be more interesting than book excerpts.
But, Yeah not a big fan of them. Would be better if they were video pod casts, I like the NBC news and a few others like that. but not being able to see whats going on makes audio only pod casts useless for me
Even Rob Salvatore has video pod casts
(to quote Peter Griffen) Come on!i guess they don't have any metric for measuring at all... it's just what they believe is fun gets put in there. i'd really, really, really like to see a content-rating system, for ddi as well as free content.
It's something I've asked for before, and will ask again. What type of rating would you like to see? Would a simple liked it/didn't like it be acceptable, or would you prefer something more in-depth. I don't know if anything we suggest would be put into place right away, or if they would wait and build it into the new website coming out in the next quarter or so.
@bunny: to add to your edit - while i dislike those podcasts, they are good entertainment value nevertheless, contrary to the author readings. i wish they'd keep up with the normal dnd podcasts they brought forth the whole last year. "tipps, tricks and inside information" was the tagline. this should be revived. currently, it's ads, ads and useless information. even a mailbag episode answering just 2 questions would be more interesting than book excerpts.
I will pass that along.
But, Yeah not a big fan of them. Would be better if they were video pod casts, I like the NBC news and a few others like that. but not being able to see whats going on makes audio only pod casts useless for me
Even Rob Salvatore has video pod casts
I will pass this along. I am not sure the number of people that would watch video podcasts though. I think that they get a much larger audience via the audio-only podcasts. I know people who listen to it in the car, or while working out.
There continues to be much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the DDI forums over WotC not clearly spelling out their future plans with respect to DDI and the remaining tools. It would calm down a lot of the reasonable people if a senior DDI person (or perhaps The Rouse??) would give a long post explaining *why* nothing can be said or, if possible, what are the plans.
You realise that "wailing and gnashing of teeth" is putting an entirely negative spin on the opinions of the people you are representing to WotC in this matter?
The order is just the order in which they show up. It has nothing to do with importance or anything like that.
You may see it that way, the higher ups that see the report may not.
You realise that "wailing and gnashing of teeth" is putting an entirely negative spin on the opinions of the people you are representing to WotC in this matter?
I don't think MB is "putting a spin" on anything but is quite simply stating her/his opinion on the mood of the forums.
At least, that's what I'd do in his/her position ;)
And thanks for posting a copy of the report. I don't think you need to do it every time, but it is helpful. I didn't even realise you were making these reports (I thought Scott Rouse or someone who gets a paycheck was).
I don't think MB is "putting a spin" on anything but is quite simply stating her/his opinion on the mood of the forums.
At least, that's what I'd do in his/her position ;)
Aye.. and there are ways of doing that which paint the participants in a positive, negative or neutral light. MB might not have meant to give negative overtones, but the sentance has them regardless of intent.
Aye.. and there are ways of doing that which paint the participants in a positive, negative or neutral light. MB might not have meant to give negative overtones, but the sentance has them regardless of intent.
All of MBs Forum Guides have input on the weekly reports - I'm fairly certain MB didn't write that one.
Regardless - I disagree that it's negative - as it doesn't (IMHO) reflect on the opinion of those posting, but rather it speak to the "volume" with which people are posting. It shows that the community is frustrated (again) at the lack of updates.
Still, it's a worthwhile reminder that a little more scrubbing/sanitizing of the reports may be necessary - it's a fine line to walk, trying to reflect the opinions/attitude/feel of the community, without reflecting too much - so as to keep it "semi-professional" (and even corporation-friendly).
I'm sure MB, and the rest of us will keep a closer eye going forward.
It's something I've asked for before, and will ask again. What type of rating would you like to see? Would a simple liked it/didn't like it be acceptable, or would you prefer something more in-depth. I don't know if anything we suggest would be put into place right away, or if they would wait and build it into the new website coming out in the next quarter or so.
I will pass that along.
I will pass this along. I am not sure the number of people that would watch video podcasts though. I think that they get a much larger audience via the audio-only podcasts. I know people who listen to it in the car, or while working out.
Well you can have both silly MB :D
I appreciate your sharing MB, but....
You realise that "wailing and gnashing of teeth" is putting an entirely negative spin on the opinions of the people you are representing to WotC in this matter?
I'm reminded of the WotC cartoon where there the forum posters were portrayed at Trolls. Some people took great offense. Others were able to laugh at the joke and not take it as it was intended... as comedy, not as an insult.
This is a situation where we are trusting the recipients to take the message in the spirit it was intended. Of course, we weren't going for comedy. Nor were we trying to put a negative spin on the opinions of the people. We were trying to capture the outpouring of emotion that we have seen regarding the lack of information.
Personally, I see part of our job as representing the people to the suits in WotC. To take the desires of the people and present them to the wizards. So for us to put a negative spin on anything that the people want is counterproductive to what our job is. You will never see that in any report from us.
Now, we aren't perfect of course. Its possible that there is an unintentional spin. If you have a suggestion for a better set of wording that captures the mood of the community without leaving any potential for negative 'spin', post it! we'll learn from our mistakes.