Just posting real fast to let you guys know my responses and such will be a little slow for the next few days! I'M STILL HERE! But I have a gramps that needs me for the holidays and well... I've slacked off a bit on some other work I need to get done before the new year :] Don't want you guys thinking we've set a new record for "We're here for you!" and then going dark lol.
I've got to finish compiling all of the concerns and comments into a bite size "developer" friendly pill, too. Here's hoping they let me keep my head when I leave that meeting :]
Don't stop tossing those suggestions and ideas up though. I'm keeping a general tally of which items are most important based on a few bits of criteria. It's not just how many people, but really the specific concerns and how the affect you guys.
We're officially out for Christmas holiday starting tomorrow, and we'll be back in the office Tuesday (US times, not them future dwellers over in the other hemisphere). I'll be in and out before then, of course.
EDIT: Just read through the recent responses - love 'em! There's also some really good global ideas in there - a couple that would make my job easier ;] Always like those suggestions the most.
As for the front page design criticisms, I still stand by my statements that it's good, because personally I like it a lot. But I do want to reiterate that I 100% understand the feelings that it's not the correct fit. Don't misunderstand! I'm by no means saying anyone is wrong - I don't get paid enough to start those kinds of fires :D
Also, don't let my explanations and conversations dissuade you from speaking how you feel. That would be far worse. This is one of the most civil conversations/discussions I've ever had on a forum. Damn impressed and proud of this community.
Still completely fair! I think there's a misunderstanding maybe about the Rewards though. It's not "Awards", it's "Rewards". Once you sign up, you accrue points based on a long list of things that I can't begin to accurately describe here - completely opt in. Once you get enough points to cash in for something you can get a Steam Gift Card, or an Amazon Gift Card, or if eligible a PayPal payout.
It's not really "you da best, here's money!" - it's really more of a very small amount of kick back and gratuity for being a part of Curse.
Like I said, it's new here, but not new for Curse. But I get it. I think I understand now the disconnect there, and I can see how it can be misconstrued given the terminology. The "Rewards" are personal, private, and yours to manage. They in no way have any bearing or affect on the community as a whole, and that's important to understand.
So if it's not your thing, I completely understand! No pressure!
Also I really do appreciate how understanding YOU guys are being with me. Since I'm new here and don't know this community - you guys really have been pretty generous in dealing with me just barging in and talking a lot :D
Now that my friend, was a post I was looking for. Thank you for taking the time to reiterate and explain. Much more helpful for me :D
I can understand those frustrations to an extent, but I also understand that some of that frustration I just cannot understand because I wasn't here for it. While I can in no way speak on behalf of Blizzard, let me explain how I personally see it, and I feel the CurseForge developers do too.
We couldn't fix things before. We just couldn't. The legacy site was running code that was just too much to delve into, had too many heads, too many arms, and was monstrous. Especially for a small team. Sure, moving everything to something simple and straight forward takes the character out of it, but now any of the fixes and benefits we make to any other site in our network, also applies to you guys. That was step one, the most important step. We've not worked on any major features for any other site, SC2Mapster or otherwise since we started migrating legacy sites. It's been a big job and one we needed to get done before any development could continue.
The biggest reason that we get this feedback is because you guys aren't the only ones to say many of these things. We've moved a lot of legacy sites in the last couple of months, and you know - there's a lot of overlap between what you guys want and what other communities want.
The good news is, if a certain majority want something - that becomes priority. There's now more of you, because it's not just SC2Mapster anymore, it's the entire CurseForge community. But we can't know what people want without asking, and of course, when asking we risk looking like we don't know what we're doing. The straight truth is, we know code, we know our core communities that we started with over a decade ago, but communities that we've picked up along the way? You got us. We don't know you the way we should.
Hi! I'm MrFlamegoat :] Your new communication pipeline advocate.
For every negative, there really is a positive. I know patience is thin, and promises have been made before (that's why I only promise to listen :]) but hearts and heads really are in the right place.
So, back to business. I'm going to work on documentation, lots more documentation. Especially on the Rewards system, and see if we can get some of that information updated and moved around to be less... imposing and a bit more true to what it is - a way of helping Authors out.
That's something I know I can do personally over the holidays.
Sorry! I get chatty sometimes. I'm as passionate about what I do as many of you are about this community. I hope that shows :D
We did our best to move things over and convert them accordingly - but a lot of things did get a bit fubar'ed in the process. With broken images, at least, it's fairly easy to fix. Any hardcoded images should be available in your Images tab still, so you can update the URLs.
We weren't sure how widespread that issue would be, but if it's too big of an issue, I can bring it to the devs to see if we can possibly fix that up in bulk. Not sure at the moment.
All of your concerns have already been noted - but I feel you missed a few key points in my post. As well as the same key point in all of my posts. I'm here to communicate the current situation, what we can do right now, what we can do in the future, and what we're willing to do.
Edit: Wanted to add, the concerns about the Rewards system still boggle my mind. It's hard for me to understand. We've been working with Authors for years now with the Rewards Program. I apologize profusely for not understanding, it's just hard for me to wrap my head around that concept that it's in anyway negative :[
If you feel insulted, I'm deeply sorry for that - however, that's a two way street. I think if you re-read my post, you'll note that I'm far from unreasonable :]
"We hear you, but don't plan to do anything, because your forum needs to match everyone else's; and we feel you will learn to accept that."
Believe you me, if that were the case I'd be cracking open a beer right now instead of charging into hour 10 of the work day to make sure I don't miss anything here. The only reason I make it clear that I make no promises on certain issues, is because it's too close to the holidays for me to make promises the dev team might not be able to keep. But because internally, this migration had to happen for security and simplification purposes, I felt it was vital that I reach out and do what I can to help. Even if currently, I don't have all the tools and info.
If you still feel that way, that's okay. I really do understand - it's part of the reason I'm here :D
Heh, I don't expect to make everyone happy - by a long shot. This is a big change, and no matter what we fix, change, update, etc, I'm sure it won't be enough for some. But I hope everyone gives it a chance at least :]
I also hope that we can get new blood coming into this community. I'm an outsider, but there's a lot of passion here, and I dig it. :D
Hey Mr Flamegoat it was nice of you to explain what add-ons were but we aren't asking for more information about the Curse promos, we're asking for changes to the front page. Thanks for answering but the front page feels very much like a cut-and-paste thrown together template. It's clear whoever made it was (a) in a rush, (b) doesn't have an eye for design, and (c) doesn't really understand who the mapster community is and why they come here.
These are the real issues that need to be addressed...
Still swamped, but I want to address this directly.
The design of the front page is good, it's clean, professional, and matches the other sites we have here (check wow.curseforge.com minecraft.curseforge.com wowace.com so on and so forth). Some of which have been up for quite a while now. So it wasn't rushed, nor is it a bad design - in fact, based on modern design practices it nails all of the most essential tasks and exceeds our quality standard here at Curse.
It's different, yes - and I ask that you keep that in mind when judging it. This is coming from someone who has been in the design and development world for well over a decade. Change is definitely scary and can lead to knee jerk reactions very quickly. As an outsider, I think it's great.
Now, that being said you did hit on something that I feel IS important and IS objectively true. It doesn't feel like what this community is all about. I want you to know personally, that we ARE aware of that :]
As for which questions and concerns I answer - it's quite simple. I answer the ones I can, I give the information I can (good or bad) and I do my absolute best to under promise, over communicate, and most importantly - be honest with you guys.
I don't mean to sound harsh - I just want to make sure that while concerns, criticisms, suggestions, ideas, and dislikes are all welcome, you must keep in mind that purely subjective criticisms fueled by a knee jerk reaction won't help.
Don't stop speaking up :] There's good stuff there, and I definitely still want to hear it.
Okay! I've updated the first post with a measly FAQ. Gearing up for the holidays with a lot of youngsters out of school already means BUSY BUSY days for me but I'll do my best to keep updating it as things become more common - and I'm still working on compiling a list of bugs and issues to take to the team.
Please be patient guys! I want to stress again, that just because I file an issue or address it, doesn't mean it will be changed, fixed, etc. It only means that we're looking at it and that at the very least we're aware.
Not to sound like a broken record, but you guys have been amazing. Some of you are very passionate about this community, and as far as I'm concerned that's the most important aspect to a community.
Woo, you guys have been busy! I came into a truck load of work this morning, but I'm making my way through every single post and taking notes. As soon as I get a chance to write something up, I'll address all of the issues that have come about today.
Again, thank you guys for the feedback. I did see at least a couple of things I can address right now - PMs are not lost!
Because of how the new sites are interlocked we had to wait until all of the legacy sites were completed before importing all of the old PMs. This will come a little later - but as mentioned - nothing is lost!
That goes for any data that seems to be missing.
As far as the listing defaults for projects, we're already aware of this and are working on it :]
There's a lot more here - and I promise I'll get to it all!
So here is the final question: It's more of a "Medical Perceptive" as stated by DrSuperEvil. Will the white background be changed back to a more eye-appeasing tone? Even now I squint when I look at the bright screen before me. Perhaps an image of some sort, or just plain dark gray...
Hard subject to approach without ruffling feathers, but it's hard to quantify eye fatigue person to person and the reality is the surrounding ambience is much more critical than the actual text and backgrounds. It's also a large portion of personal preference.
For instance, proper brightness on your monitor, contrast levels, whether your light is on or off in your room, etc. There's a reason why most GPS devices switch between light and dark based on the time of day and how much ambient light is available.
I personally prefer more neutral colors in my IDE's with lower contrast - dark gray background with light gray/light colored text, but whether or not my eyes are strained has far more to do with how long I'm staring at my monitor and the quality of the light emanating from my monitor and my surroundings. I tend to work in a dark room, so this makes sense.
Unfortunately, the massive change was because we moved to this platform. It wasn't a requirement so much as it was "just how it works" in this case. We use the same site structure and backend code for a variety of our properties. This allows us, as a still relatively small team, to keep a much better handle on bugs, security, spam, etc across the entire network. With everything running that same code base, if users on wow.curseforge.com find a bug, you get the benefit.
Of course, that comes with plenty of trade-offs. But internally, we've made the decision that security and bugs come absolute top priority. Because we can't offer a good experience if we can't guarantee that issues will be resolved in a timely manner.
As for the other concerns that have been brought up here - they're all being addressed or will be addressed. We've already made a few changes and will continue tweaking and moving and pushing and prodding until we find a happy balance. Christmas is coming up soon, most people are out of the office, it's a perfect time for me to settle in and get all this feedback together so I can give the developers plenty to do for their New Years Resolutions.
Just a quick recap:
Site design is likely stuck as it is for now - I know the old site seemed more simple because it's what you were used to, but as an outsider I find this site much more simple. Time might help with that (if not, that's okay! We still care how you feel!)
Having a more integrated dynamic front end - that's something I'll definitely review with the team first of the year. I don't know enough about that aspect of the site to give an opinion or an official statement just yet.
5 file attachment limit is something I'm looking into currently. I'll have something definite with a how-to snippet soon to help address how that works, why it works the way it does etc along with any changes I find need to be made on our end.
Not sure about the personal account editor - that's another thing I'll have to sit with the team about.
Phew! I hope that helps. :] Don't get discouraged! Give it a day or so.
Not tried the new search yet but considering how broken the old one was I doubt it will be any worse. All new sites have teething problems. I am sure within a week it will be business as usual.
:D I have zero comments about the old search.
And I hope that's the case - I'm doing my best to make sure I stay involved with this one. Not gonna lie, I'm not an SC2 guy but for some reason this community has grown on me. I'm like the creepy guy that's been watching through the window.
The bit about the forums really makes me happy to hear. I'm hoping that the negative things that have changed are heavily outweighed by the good - because we understand we can't make everyone happy. Though, we'll try are darnedest.
The layout of those pages is pretty stuck the way it is. We share that layout across all the sites - makes it a heckuva lot easier to update and keep things in working order for you guys. As you can imagine, we're heavily focused on functionality over beauty/glamour right now. Hence the sleek and trim site design.
I don't want to make any promises of that changing. That doesn't mean I don't take note of it though. The reality is, it's my job to communicate these things - and I will :]
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Just posting real fast to let you guys know my responses and such will be a little slow for the next few days! I'M STILL HERE! But I have a gramps that needs me for the holidays and well... I've slacked off a bit on some other work I need to get done before the new year :] Don't want you guys thinking we've set a new record for "We're here for you!" and then going dark lol.
I've got to finish compiling all of the concerns and comments into a bite size "developer" friendly pill, too. Here's hoping they let me keep my head when I leave that meeting :]
Don't stop tossing those suggestions and ideas up though. I'm keeping a general tally of which items are most important based on a few bits of criteria. It's not just how many people, but really the specific concerns and how the affect you guys.
We're officially out for Christmas holiday starting tomorrow, and we'll be back in the office Tuesday (US times, not them future dwellers over in the other hemisphere). I'll be in and out before then, of course.
EDIT: Just read through the recent responses - love 'em! There's also some really good global ideas in there - a couple that would make my job easier ;] Always like those suggestions the most.
As for the front page design criticisms, I still stand by my statements that it's good, because personally I like it a lot. But I do want to reiterate that I 100% understand the feelings that it's not the correct fit. Don't misunderstand! I'm by no means saying anyone is wrong - I don't get paid enough to start those kinds of fires :D
Also, don't let my explanations and conversations dissuade you from speaking how you feel. That would be far worse. This is one of the most civil conversations/discussions I've ever had on a forum. Damn impressed and proud of this community.
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@Scbroodsc2
Still completely fair! I think there's a misunderstanding maybe about the Rewards though. It's not "Awards", it's "Rewards". Once you sign up, you accrue points based on a long list of things that I can't begin to accurately describe here - completely opt in. Once you get enough points to cash in for something you can get a Steam Gift Card, or an Amazon Gift Card, or if eligible a PayPal payout.
It's not really "you da best, here's money!" - it's really more of a very small amount of kick back and gratuity for being a part of Curse.
Like I said, it's new here, but not new for Curse. But I get it. I think I understand now the disconnect there, and I can see how it can be misconstrued given the terminology. The "Rewards" are personal, private, and yours to manage. They in no way have any bearing or affect on the community as a whole, and that's important to understand.
So if it's not your thing, I completely understand! No pressure!
Also I really do appreciate how understanding YOU guys are being with me. Since I'm new here and don't know this community - you guys really have been pretty generous in dealing with me just barging in and talking a lot :D
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@GlornII
Now that my friend, was a post I was looking for. Thank you for taking the time to reiterate and explain. Much more helpful for me :D
I can understand those frustrations to an extent, but I also understand that some of that frustration I just cannot understand because I wasn't here for it. While I can in no way speak on behalf of Blizzard, let me explain how I personally see it, and I feel the CurseForge developers do too.
We couldn't fix things before. We just couldn't. The legacy site was running code that was just too much to delve into, had too many heads, too many arms, and was monstrous. Especially for a small team. Sure, moving everything to something simple and straight forward takes the character out of it, but now any of the fixes and benefits we make to any other site in our network, also applies to you guys. That was step one, the most important step. We've not worked on any major features for any other site, SC2Mapster or otherwise since we started migrating legacy sites. It's been a big job and one we needed to get done before any development could continue.
The biggest reason that we get this feedback is because you guys aren't the only ones to say many of these things. We've moved a lot of legacy sites in the last couple of months, and you know - there's a lot of overlap between what you guys want and what other communities want.
The good news is, if a certain majority want something - that becomes priority. There's now more of you, because it's not just SC2Mapster anymore, it's the entire CurseForge community. But we can't know what people want without asking, and of course, when asking we risk looking like we don't know what we're doing. The straight truth is, we know code, we know our core communities that we started with over a decade ago, but communities that we've picked up along the way? You got us. We don't know you the way we should.
Hi! I'm MrFlamegoat :] Your new communication pipeline advocate.
For every negative, there really is a positive. I know patience is thin, and promises have been made before (that's why I only promise to listen :]) but hearts and heads really are in the right place.
So, back to business. I'm going to work on documentation, lots more documentation. Especially on the Rewards system, and see if we can get some of that information updated and moved around to be less... imposing and a bit more true to what it is - a way of helping Authors out.
That's something I know I can do personally over the holidays.
Sorry! I get chatty sometimes. I'm as passionate about what I do as many of you are about this community. I hope that shows :D
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@GlornII
All of your concerns have already been noted - but I feel you missed a few key points in my post. As well as the same key point in all of my posts. I'm here to communicate the current situation, what we can do right now, what we can do in the future, and what we're willing to do.
Edit: Wanted to add, the concerns about the Rewards system still boggle my mind. It's hard for me to understand. We've been working with Authors for years now with the Rewards Program. I apologize profusely for not understanding, it's just hard for me to wrap my head around that concept that it's in anyway negative :[
If you feel insulted, I'm deeply sorry for that - however, that's a two way street. I think if you re-read my post, you'll note that I'm far from unreasonable :]
"We hear you, but don't plan to do anything, because your forum needs to match everyone else's; and we feel you will learn to accept that."
Believe you me, if that were the case I'd be cracking open a beer right now instead of charging into hour 10 of the work day to make sure I don't miss anything here. The only reason I make it clear that I make no promises on certain issues, is because it's too close to the holidays for me to make promises the dev team might not be able to keep. But because internally, this migration had to happen for security and simplification purposes, I felt it was vital that I reach out and do what I can to help. Even if currently, I don't have all the tools and info.
If you still feel that way, that's okay. I really do understand - it's part of the reason I'm here :D
0
@Scbroodsc2
Heh, I don't expect to make everyone happy - by a long shot. This is a big change, and no matter what we fix, change, update, etc, I'm sure it won't be enough for some. But I hope everyone gives it a chance at least :]
I also hope that we can get new blood coming into this community. I'm an outsider, but there's a lot of passion here, and I dig it. :D
0
0
Okay! I've updated the first post with a measly FAQ. Gearing up for the holidays with a lot of youngsters out of school already means BUSY BUSY days for me but I'll do my best to keep updating it as things become more common - and I'm still working on compiling a list of bugs and issues to take to the team.
Please be patient guys! I want to stress again, that just because I file an issue or address it, doesn't mean it will be changed, fixed, etc. It only means that we're looking at it and that at the very least we're aware.
Not to sound like a broken record, but you guys have been amazing. Some of you are very passionate about this community, and as far as I'm concerned that's the most important aspect to a community.
Thanks all!
0
Woo, you guys have been busy! I came into a truck load of work this morning, but I'm making my way through every single post and taking notes. As soon as I get a chance to write something up, I'll address all of the issues that have come about today.
Again, thank you guys for the feedback. I did see at least a couple of things I can address right now - PMs are not lost!
Because of how the new sites are interlocked we had to wait until all of the legacy sites were completed before importing all of the old PMs. This will come a little later - but as mentioned - nothing is lost!
That goes for any data that seems to be missing.
As far as the listing defaults for projects, we're already aware of this and are working on it :]
There's a lot more here - and I promise I'll get to it all!
Thanks again guys!
0
Ah, I understand now!
I don't have any answers at the moment, lol. Sorry :]
I'll see what I can do about figuring all that out and let you know, though.
0
0
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@AlexanderNova
Unfortunately, the massive change was because we moved to this platform. It wasn't a requirement so much as it was "just how it works" in this case. We use the same site structure and backend code for a variety of our properties. This allows us, as a still relatively small team, to keep a much better handle on bugs, security, spam, etc across the entire network. With everything running that same code base, if users on wow.curseforge.com find a bug, you get the benefit.
Of course, that comes with plenty of trade-offs. But internally, we've made the decision that security and bugs come absolute top priority. Because we can't offer a good experience if we can't guarantee that issues will be resolved in a timely manner.
As for the other concerns that have been brought up here - they're all being addressed or will be addressed. We've already made a few changes and will continue tweaking and moving and pushing and prodding until we find a happy balance. Christmas is coming up soon, most people are out of the office, it's a perfect time for me to settle in and get all this feedback together so I can give the developers plenty to do for their New Years Resolutions.
Just a quick recap:
Phew! I hope that helps. :] Don't get discouraged! Give it a day or so.
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0
@3yks
The bit about the forums really makes me happy to hear. I'm hoping that the negative things that have changed are heavily outweighed by the good - because we understand we can't make everyone happy. Though, we'll try are darnedest.
The layout of those pages is pretty stuck the way it is. We share that layout across all the sites - makes it a heckuva lot easier to update and keep things in working order for you guys. As you can imagine, we're heavily focused on functionality over beauty/glamour right now. Hence the sleek and trim site design.
I don't want to make any promises of that changing. That doesn't mean I don't take note of it though. The reality is, it's my job to communicate these things - and I will :]