Shian wrote:~snip snop the first part~
They're not coming. We've been holding out and waiting. Hoping. For YEARS.
The last time Tess actually posted some sort of feedback in the Suggestions board was in
2013.
Tess wrote:this is a great idea, and I passed on the suggestion to Nick, but he is not sure that it will be possible because there isn't an efficient way to group them by rarity (meaning that it would slow everything down whenever people tried to sort by rarity)
The post after that was in 2012, so one post, one year.
2013. What year is it now?
(lmao you know how I said it was late like an hour and a half ago? i have Opinions and no self control, send help)
So! This is interesting, because I've actually been doing some research over the past few days on how staff has interacted with the suggestions forum for a different suggestion I was planning on writing, which might as well be added to this one now because it goes on similar lines.
The thing is this: we don't actually know much about how suggestions work. There are no posts about things suggestions should have, what they should be about, or how they're handled (except for the fact that they must have a descriptive title). Here are a few things we do know about the suggestions forum:
Simon is by far the most active staff member on the suggestion forums right now, having made three posts in the last three years. The last two of these, both made in April, were actually implementations of user suggestions! (
click clack). Both of these were implemented on the 23rd of April.
Now here's a question:
how were users supposed to know about this? These updates were not in the
news nor in the
announcements. (I was briefly on hiatus during this period, so I don't know if they were in the daily tips/announcements, but if they were there's no way for a returning player to know about them or search them.)
But that's good news, right? It means that there are updates! In fact,
it was pointed out that there have been several user-suggested updates in the past year or so!
Except in my opinion that's not the issue. There are updates, but there is no communication.
A good example is the
suggestion that lead to store pets having special tags. This thread started out as something else, but turned to the issue of marking store pets in February 2017 (
post). Simon posted on this thread at that time, but after this there was no staff interaction as far as I could tell. The thread remained active, with regular posts and +200 supporters, until December 2018, at which point
it was announced that "store pets have received new tags".
Note the interesting verb in that sentence. Have. Not will, or shall, or any other future-tense verbs. Have.
I remember reading somewhere (not sure where, if anyone has a post link lmk) that it was a very time-intensive process to add the store tags, as every single store pet image had to be manually edited to add the tag (CS pets aren't procedurally generated but rather drawn by artists, so you can't just get a computer to do it). This means that staff knew probably months in advance that this suggestion would be implemented.
However, this was not communicated to users. Supporters of the thread continued posting up to two days before the update, having no idea that it was about to be implemented. Good communication would have been to let people know that the suggestion was being considered! Good communication would have been to let people know that the suggestion was being implemented! Good communication would have been to
involve players in the process.The C$ tag update was such a universally useful thing that the lack of communication had no negative consequences. However, it points to a deeper problem with CS' suggestion system: there is no communication. Users essentially throw suggestions into an endless, gaping void, and it's anyone's guess as to whether the void will talk back.
And the void is random.
There is no good predictor as to what suggestions will be implemented. It's not supporters, because
implement pings has +300 supporters and no response. It's not age or activity, because
multiple custom wishlist has existed since
2011 and has no response. It might be ease of implementation or "harmlessness" (has no big impact), but
move your partner's wishlist to the top is about the most harmless thing I can think of and still has no response.
On the other hand,
resize the signature preview (one of the Simon posts from April 2020) was implemented. While it was widely supported (+100), at the time it was implemented the last post was from August 2019. This thread saw seven months of complete radio silence, before it was randomly implemented in an otherwise unannounced patch. Meanwhile,
make the block button actually do things (200 supporters) lingers in suggestion limbo.
As it stands, the suggestions forum is not a constructive place. Communication is insufficient. There is no notice given as to what suggestions are considered or implemented until everything is said and done. There is very limited staff interaction.
The result of this is, effectively, that there is no useful bottom-up communication stream for users to report their suggestions, ideas, and concerns about the site, and know that they will be heard in a meaningful way. This is reflected in the plentiful amount of threads where users discuss their frustrations, but hear nothing (small sample!
x x x.
That is the problem. Not the lack of updates. Not the lack of growth in site numbers.
The lack of communication.For the specific case of the suggestions forum (which is not the only area of the site where this is an issue, but eh) I have written up suggestions on communication before
here. In short, they are this:
boo
1. Tell us how the system for dealing with suggestions and user feedback works; if there isn't one, make one
2. Let us know how you're planning to acknowledge well-supported suggestions
3. Provide appropriate feedback for well-supported suggestions
4. Let us know what's happening with suggestions, especially if implementation is considered or actively being worked upon
5. Keep up the good work!
Number 5 refers to the fact that there is a heck of a footnote to this entire section, which is the Oekaki forum update. For some reason, this update included actual stages of user consultation, testing, feedback, and feedback implementation. For some reason, it happened and it was great!! That is how communication between staff and users should happen!! If the Powers That Be would like to make it happen again I would personally like it a lot.
Ok, this got out of hand and slightly off topic, but I felt it was important to address, and it touches on some things people have commented since I started writing this post (again, apologies: I haven't read them all so I don't know if someone's stated this before). If people would prefer for me to move this somewhere else (e.g. to its own post) let me know here or in PM!
Also hiiiii it is now Later Than Sensible(TM) here so I am going to bed, if you reply I will see u tomorrow morning after coffee. Again, staff & mods ur great!!! ty for all the hard work you do to keep the site running as is! i just have an Issue with this particular System
