Yeah, that's basically what I was getting at yesterday. I may have worded what I said in a way that irked Drule a bit, which wasn't intentional or anything.
I wasn't upset or anything of the sort, just confused and looking for answers. I still am, but I'm just not going to be as vocal about it. I didn't look in the staff forum for a few days (excusable, since nothing ever really goes on in there) so that's why I may have missed whatever was discussed regarding this whole change.
And since I missed it, that's why I would like to be informed
now, along with the rest of GW, because... Hey, it would just be nice to know what's happening to GW in the next few days or whatever. Even just a topic in general that reads something like "Hey guys, today I am doing "this" and "that" to GW! If you have any questions or complaints about the planned changes, voice them in here."
This topic kind of seems to serve as the place to voice our questions and complaints now, but when we don't even know what direction things are really going in and are not allowed to know (apparently) then, well, what is the general userbase of GW supposed to say or do? The userbase is what makes the site what it is and they are the ones who keep the numbers (visits, posts, new members) going up so it just seems silly to alienate the userbase from the changes which are, from what I understand, being discussed in secret.
From my time as GW mod/staffer, I know that things were always discussed in secret
prior[/i] to being implemented and not during the implementation process.
I think that it's a bit messy how things are going because the communication isn't really there (as Hundley said). Things are just sort of happening and being forced onto the community with no explanation.
Things that happened unexpectedly:
- Many old posts were archived but still visible. When a few members found out that they were still visible, they were made unavailable to us. Drule says that he'll bring back any topics we want from those archived forums, but how are we, the readers of GW, supposed to know what is worthy of coming back without viewing the archived forums?
- All moderators and one administrator were removed suddenly. We (the ones removed from our positions) only received a PM basically saying "sit tight dudes, we are discussing forum and site issues and we don't want you to see" and that was that. Well with all of the forum changes, how many moderators will be or won't be coming back? What's even going on with this? I'm not riled up over losing my moderator status or anything because I intend on helping GW however I can even if I don't return as a mod. What concerns me about this point is how it was just very sudden with no PM warning ahead of time. A day's notice or two would have been better, because it would have given us an opportunity to get things out of the forums that are now archived, as well as a few other little maintenance items. This would have also reduced Drule's current work load as well.
- The main site suddenly became a blog again. This is not a bad thing at all and I am interested in seeing how this develops because blog sites are pretty cool, but I think that GW as a whole would benefit from an administrator posting what we can expect to see on the blog and how it will operate. Basically a "What is GW going to be?" sort of topic would be great, I think. It would also be nice if we could just chill out for a bit with introducing new main sites because, hell, even Bart hopes that this is the last one for a while.
- Yet another forum reshuffle confuses the way GW looks. Another reshuffle just hurts GW's identity even more because it seems like every member who gets promoted to administrator feels the need to rearrange how the forum index looks. Sometimes it is necessary, sometimes not. It gives off an image that GW does not know what it wants out of itself, though. This new compact rearrangement isn't too bad and I don't mind it. I'm really hoping that it stays this way for a long while.
Also I just want to reiterate the fact that I'm not trying to negative, because it's just the opposite. I'm not against Drule, not sour over losing my status, I am in favour of change at GW, etc, etc, etc.... These are the things I've observed and, as someone who likes GW and enjoys posting here, feel that it does not hurt to post them. All comments, complaints, and criticisms (which I will refer to as CC&C) on the redesign should be welcomed by the administration. They do not have to be answered or acknowledged by the administration and ASE or Drule can even flat out ignore them if they want, but CC&C should not be discouraged or responded to negatively.
Basically, I'm just hoping for better communication. That's the gist of what my post is about.
(This post actually ended up being MUCH longer than I expected, sorry.)