did anyone else not that there are less mods now that there are 3 community mods. was the idea not to bring on more help not replace it? if you check most every sub form there is now one cryptic employee and the 3 new ones now. where as before most sub-forums had more or less 4 to 6 cryptic developers that would mod as they came across anything (mostly passing it up the chin much as we do)
note please note that im not saying that the new mods are not doing there job right, in fact that they seam to be doing rather well. and all things considered we Trekkies are mature and capable of handling ourselves in a professorial manner.
days when the survors are down/slow/full excluded. hew everyone is intitled to be mad, like when your stuck in traffic or someone did not start a fresh pot of coffie after finnishing the last of the one before. but we are all human
All those Mod names have been on the forum since launch, but most of them haven't been STO forum Mods for a long, long, long time. Technically those names should have been taken off, but it hasn't really been a priority.
did anyone else not that there are less mods now that there are 3 community mods. was the idea not to bring on more help not replace it? if you check most every sub form there is now one cryptic employee and the 3 new ones now. where as before most sub-forums had more or less 4 to 6 cryptic developers that would mod as they came across anything (mostly passing it up the chin much as we do)
note please note that im not saying that the new mods are not doing there job right, in fact that they seam to be doing rather well. and all things considered we Trekkies are mature and capable of handling ourselves in a professorial manner.
days when the survors are down/slow/full excluded. hew everyone is intitled to be mad, like when your stuck in traffic or someone did not start a fresh pot of coffie after finnishing the last of the one before. but we are all human
just pointing out the things i see.
I have no offical responce on this, since I am just a volunteer, however, from what I remember, a few of the people with moderation rights in some of the subsections were either regular devs or GM's. Infact I felt a few of them were defunct, ie, Dstahl rarely actually moderated stuff, even thoguh he was listed as having moderation rights.
That said, I'm assumng that the GM's that used to help moderate the forums now have enough time freed up to maybe assist with the tickets system? I know I spend about 1-2 hours a day going though the forum report logs and the other 2 guys probably spend even more time than that daily. so I can only imagine how much time this has freed up for the GM's to actually spend time on other issues. Same for Brandon, now he can focus much more on addressing issues on the forums and making reports for the devs, rather than having to spend hours sifting though report logs.
i have not filed a ticket since say, Sep '11. and those i did file were almost never followed up on.
i don't know what its like now, but ive come to view the ticket system "we thank you for you input and it will be looked into as soon(TM) as possible" but there are tens of hundreds of tickets filed daily so odds of mine coming across a employ's desk is remote.
-- Please enjoy the music as your clame is processed -- :rolleyes:
The general purpose of community mods would be so that there were people to police the forums and keep them from getting out of hand while the GMs and devs would then be freed up to perform the duties for which they were hired.
I've seen what happens when a CM (read: community manager) gets overwhelmed due to lack of forum moderation. Either (a) the forum devolves into near anarchy or (b) the CM devotes so much time to regulating the forums that they don't have time to do the job they're supposed to do (provide feedback to the devs and help with the creation of new community content).
I have a problem. The ticket system gets ignored, so it doesn't really work very well for offering feedback. However, I feel the need to offer feedback on the current state of this program as I'm witnessing far too many discussions which haven't violated any rules getting shut down this weekend.
Is that the goal of this program? To obstruct discussion? If so, bang up job! Top notch and all that!
But before I get into specifics, I'd really like someone to walk me through the process of taking out these tickets, because I've never seen them actually work. They just get sent off into a queue where they're ignored. Unless, of coruse, that's also the goal?
My experience with customer service, especially the ticket process, has been consistent. But consistently ignored. It makes me leery about filing any further tickets as I don't see how they get looked at or responded to?
So... from what I understand... it was once us, the Gold Member investor keeping each other in check... Now the government is going to do it for us? Well... that explains why we're getting censored
If you are issued a warning on the STO forums, there is currently a bug in the system where the message you receive to your in-game/ forum mail box may be blank -- some users get blank messages and some have been getting the intended messages. Again, this is a bug and the web team is trying to track down why this may be happening.
Regardless of this, you should still be getting an email to the email address you used during registration for STO with the full warning reason/ info. You can also check your account profile here on the site to see the thread/ post that you have been issued a warning on.
Lastly, if your message is blank and you did not get an email to the email address you registered with, please file a community support ticket so we can send you the warning text manually.
Is that the goal of this program? To obstruct discussion? If so, bang up job! Top notch and all that!
But before I get into specifics, I'd really like someone to walk me through the process of taking out these tickets, because I've never seen them actually work. They just get sent off into a queue where they're ignored. Unless, of coruse, that's also the goal?
SSSSSHHHHHH!!!! even figuring out the point of the system is considered crimethink!
I supposedly got a warning. Blank message. I've checked my e-mail. No e-mail. And your support ticket system doesn't work. So there you have it. The natural hat trick. Your system's completely broken. This whole thing is just a messy and still very bad idea.
Good luck with fixing it. My advice is to get it straightened out first and have only employees moderate things while the system's broken. People are getting blank messages and have no idea what it's all about.
The nuts and bolts of how this thing is working is just ... I mean really think about how it works with these bugs right now.
I Too am concerned with this system now, it doesn't seem to be working, well, tickets are vaporizing into nothingness and I never hear anything, couple this with the problem that the ticket system in game, wont/doesn't show all your tickets and hasn't for a while it gets problematic. Add in that those of us who have cryptic only accounts have to go a back way to get support now, and it gets worse.
Honestly Branflakes if you are willing to take some serious feed back this is what I would give you
1 fix the ticket display issues, ASAP, make it KNOWN that it is buggy too.
2 Reinstate and link the cryptic only support system. I realize and don't like the fact I have to accept substandard support due to my only having a cryptic account, but being nearly locked out of support because of it, is unacceptable.
I Too am concerned with this system now, it doesn't seem to be working, well, tickets are vaporizing into nothingness and I never hear anything, couple this with the problem that the ticket system in game, wont/doesn't show all your tickets and hasn't for a while it gets problematic. Add in that those of us who have cryptic only accounts have to go a back way to get support now, and it gets worse.
Honestly Branflakes if you are willing to take some serious feed back this is what I would give you
1 fix the ticket display issues, ASAP, make it KNOWN that it is buggy too.
2 Reinstate and link the cryptic only support system. I realize and don't like the fact I have to accept substandard support due to my only having a cryptic account, but being nearly locked out of support because of it, is unacceptable.
just some feedback from me, for what it is worth
Just to clarify, the community moderators have no access to the ticket system, we only have access to the reported post log's. We don't respond to the people that report posts though, if we had to respond to every person that reports a post we'd be swamped and not actually have times to even moderate the forums! I can assure you that 'every' report get read though, action won't always get taken though since some reported posts are sometimes not breaking any rules and sometimes (since we are volunteers) there might be a time lapse in a moderator been able to go though the report log, so inaction can simply be because a moderator simply isn't online at the time! (On average I spend 2 hours a day just going though the report logs and I'm sure the other 2 guys easily spend just as much time as well).
I think the issues which you are having above though are not really directly related to the community moderation system, but rather the ticket system and the way the GM's address them. (Which the community mod's have no control over).
Who oversees the Community Moderators anyway? Like, if you have a Community Moderator that has a habit of being a total d-bag and abusing their authority, who do you report that to? Do you have to file a ticket that Cryptic will immediately flush down the commode? Or is there a more effective way of getting the issue addressed?
As was stated in the thread you posted that in, you'd need to submit a ticket. To do so, you'd place it under "communtiy/forum issues" and label it "community moderator issues", that way the relevant staff memeber would get it and be able to handle it.
As was stated in the thread you posted that in, you'd need to submit a ticket. To do so, you'd place it under "communtiy/forum issues" and label it "community moderator issues", that way the relevant staff memeber would get it and be able to handle it.
Do those then go straight back to the mods, as was formerly the case, or do they get routed to someone actually empowered to address the issue?
I got a warning a while back. No idea why. Blank message, saying I got a warning.
I also do not appreciate my posts that I make being moved into a different post with my original post being deleted.
Cryptic employees should moderate the forums. This is ridiculous.
The empty warning issue is something Branflakes addressed earlier in this thread, it's a bug, infact I've heard instances of this happening way before this moderation program came about. Eitherway it's actually got nothing to do with the moderators themselves.
Threads getting merged is very common practice when there is a popular subject to debate (and one thats been present on many forums for many years). Usually what happens is the thread with the most decriptive title, or thread with most constructive discussion gets chosen and all threads get merged into it. Original posts are not deleted when a thread is merged, they just appear where the relevent date stamp place it. This is actually quite important because it places all the feedback in one place, making it easier for the developers to read about and address the issue.
Question for a Moderator:
Is my current signatue "legal"?
Signature/Avatar Rule Violation
Signatures are limited to five lines of text, including blank lines, and/or an image. The total signature size must be no larger than 500x150 pixels and 50Kb in size if it contains an image. Images must be in .jpg format.
Is it that my total signature size, image +plus text, is not to exceed the 500x150 limit, OR, image can not be more than 500x150 AND text canot be more than 5 lines +plus blank lines?
Question for a Moderator:
Is my current signatue "legal"?
/Snip
As far as I'm aware from past experience it's been that you are allowed either 5 line text (including blanks) with no image or a 500x150 image with no text or a smaller than 500x150 image with some text...
I will however seek clarification for us, might take a while so bare with me.
What happens when you can't do that because of a separate bug/issue with the ticketing system?
I don't honestly believe we (the comm mods) can give you an answer to this, are you experiencing an bug/issue with the ticketing system atm or have you in the past that you can use as an example?
I don't honestly believe we (the comm mods) can give you an answer to this, are you experiencing an bug/issue with the ticketing system atm or have you in the past that you can use as an example?
Last month when I got the blank warning I did experience a bug with it. I essentially got a blank warning, then got the second bug -- no e-mail, and then couldn't even submit a ticket.
Since it was just a warning, I was curious as to what the warning was for, but wasn't really worried about it too much.
I haven't tried since. And currently don't have any "issues" that would require me to try using it right now.
But yeah, I did sort of get the "natural hat trick" of things that could go wrong. Heh.
Some moderator moved my thread to a place it has no business, which upset me. Posting the above link would have, on the other hand rather than upsetting me, told me that Cryptic was "on top of things" and made me feel quite good.
Rather than whine and complain and be negative, I'd like to be a positive person where I can be.
Therefore I'd like to apply to become a moderator myself as I feel that I can help bring forum moderation to a high(er) standard.
Hey folks, due to real life commitments (I'm currently on vacation in Japan, as well as undertaking my final exams in Internation Multimedia Design and Communication). I've decided to step down as a community moderator of the forums at this time, since I can not dedicate the time required. It usually takes about 1-2 hours a day to read though the reported post logs and write up actions if any are taken and that is along with the other guys in the team (to give you an idea of the workload).
I wish the rest of the team the best of luck continueing the moderate the forums, it's been a blast working with you guys, for now though, I need to knuckle down with my exams and paid vfx projects!
Hey folks, due to real life commitments (I'm currently on vacation in Japan, as well as undertaking my final exams in Internation Multimedia Design and Communication). I've decided to step down as a community moderator of the forums at this time, since I can not dedicate the time required. It usually takes about 1-2 hours a day to read though the reported post logs and write up actions if any are taken and that is along with the other guys in the team (to give you an idea of the workload).
I wish the rest of the team the best of luck continueing the moderate the forums, it's been a blast working with you guys, for now though, I need to knuckle down with my exams and paid vfx projects!
Thank you for everything you have done for this community, Suricata. I look forward to seeing you in-game and around the boards. Good luck on your exams and enjoy your vacation!
Well,that's the thing I don't get....wasn't it against California state law to have volunteers do work they would normally pay someone for?Or is forum moderation not a real job anymore?
Comments
note please note that im not saying that the new mods are not doing there job right, in fact that they seam to be doing rather well.
days when the survors are down/slow/full excluded. hew everyone is intitled to be mad, like when your stuck in traffic or someone did not start a fresh pot of coffie after finnishing the last of the one before. but we are all human
just pointing out the things i see.
I have no offical responce on this, since I am just a volunteer, however, from what I remember, a few of the people with moderation rights in some of the subsections were either regular devs or GM's. Infact I felt a few of them were defunct, ie, Dstahl rarely actually moderated stuff, even thoguh he was listed as having moderation rights.
That said, I'm assumng that the GM's that used to help moderate the forums now have enough time freed up to maybe assist with the tickets system? I know I spend about 1-2 hours a day going though the forum report logs and the other 2 guys probably spend even more time than that daily. so I can only imagine how much time this has freed up for the GM's to actually spend time on other issues. Same for Brandon, now he can focus much more on addressing issues on the forums and making reports for the devs, rather than having to spend hours sifting though report logs.
i have not filed a ticket since say, Sep '11. and those i did file were almost never followed up on.
i don't know what its like now, but ive come to view the ticket system "we thank you for you input and it will be looked into as soon(TM) as possible" but there are tens of hundreds of tickets filed daily so odds of mine coming across a employ's desk is remote.
-- Please enjoy the music as your clame is processed -- :rolleyes:
I've seen what happens when a CM (read: community manager) gets overwhelmed due to lack of forum moderation. Either (a) the forum devolves into near anarchy or (b) the CM devotes so much time to regulating the forums that they don't have time to do the job they're supposed to do (provide feedback to the devs and help with the creation of new community content).
Is that the goal of this program? To obstruct discussion? If so, bang up job! Top notch and all that!
But before I get into specifics, I'd really like someone to walk me through the process of taking out these tickets, because I've never seen them actually work. They just get sent off into a queue where they're ignored. Unless, of coruse, that's also the goal?
My experience with customer service, especially the ticket process, has been consistent. But consistently ignored. It makes me leery about filing any further tickets as I don't see how they get looked at or responded to?
If you are issued a warning on the STO forums, there is currently a bug in the system where the message you receive to your in-game/ forum mail box may be blank -- some users get blank messages and some have been getting the intended messages. Again, this is a bug and the web team is trying to track down why this may be happening.
Regardless of this, you should still be getting an email to the email address you used during registration for STO with the full warning reason/ info. You can also check your account profile here on the site to see the thread/ post that you have been issued a warning on.
Lastly, if your message is blank and you did not get an email to the email address you registered with, please file a community support ticket so we can send you the warning text manually.
Thanks for your understanding and patience!
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
SSSSSHHHHHH!!!! even figuring out the point of the system is considered crimethink!
Good luck with fixing it. My advice is to get it straightened out first and have only employees moderate things while the system's broken. People are getting blank messages and have no idea what it's all about.
The nuts and bolts of how this thing is working is just ... I mean really think about how it works with these bugs right now.
/sigh
Honestly Branflakes if you are willing to take some serious feed back this is what I would give you
1 fix the ticket display issues, ASAP, make it KNOWN that it is buggy too.
2 Reinstate and link the cryptic only support system. I realize and don't like the fact I have to accept substandard support due to my only having a cryptic account, but being nearly locked out of support because of it, is unacceptable.
just some feedback from me, for what it is worth
Just to clarify, the community moderators have no access to the ticket system, we only have access to the reported post log's. We don't respond to the people that report posts though, if we had to respond to every person that reports a post we'd be swamped and not actually have times to even moderate the forums! I can assure you that 'every' report get read though, action won't always get taken though since some reported posts are sometimes not breaking any rules and sometimes (since we are volunteers) there might be a time lapse in a moderator been able to go though the report log, so inaction can simply be because a moderator simply isn't online at the time! (On average I spend 2 hours a day just going though the report logs and I'm sure the other 2 guys easily spend just as much time as well).
I think the issues which you are having above though are not really directly related to the community moderation system, but rather the ticket system and the way the GM's address them. (Which the community mod's have no control over).
Do those then go straight back to the mods, as was formerly the case, or do they get routed to someone actually empowered to address the issue?
Moderators have never had access to the support ticket system Ben.
To answer your original question, though, Branflakes oversees the community mods, as Community Manager of STO.
EDIT: To clarify, the CM would be their immediate overseer, they actually answer to any of the gold-titled staff.
I also do not appreciate my posts that I make being moved into a different post with my original post being deleted.
Cryptic employees should moderate the forums. This is ridiculous.
The empty warning issue is something Branflakes addressed earlier in this thread, it's a bug, infact I've heard instances of this happening way before this moderation program came about. Eitherway it's actually got nothing to do with the moderators themselves.
Threads getting merged is very common practice when there is a popular subject to debate (and one thats been present on many forums for many years). Usually what happens is the thread with the most decriptive title, or thread with most constructive discussion gets chosen and all threads get merged into it. Original posts are not deleted when a thread is merged, they just appear where the relevent date stamp place it. This is actually quite important because it places all the feedback in one place, making it easier for the developers to read about and address the issue.
Is my current signatue "legal"?
Signature/Avatar Rule Violation
Signatures are limited to five lines of text, including blank lines, and/or an image. The total signature size must be no larger than 500x150 pixels and 50Kb in size if it contains an image. Images must be in .jpg format.
Is it that my total signature size, image +plus text, is not to exceed the 500x150 limit, OR, image can not be more than 500x150 AND text canot be more than 5 lines +plus blank lines?
What happens when you can't do that because of a separate bug/issue with the ticketing system?
As far as I'm aware from past experience it's been that you are allowed either 5 line text (including blanks) with no image or a 500x150 image with no text or a smaller than 500x150 image with some text...
I will however seek clarification for us, might take a while so bare with me.
I don't honestly believe we (the comm mods) can give you an answer to this, are you experiencing an bug/issue with the ticketing system atm or have you in the past that you can use as an example?
Last month when I got the blank warning I did experience a bug with it. I essentially got a blank warning, then got the second bug -- no e-mail, and then couldn't even submit a ticket.
Since it was just a warning, I was curious as to what the warning was for, but wasn't really worried about it too much.
I haven't tried since. And currently don't have any "issues" that would require me to try using it right now.
But yeah, I did sort of get the "natural hat trick" of things that could go wrong. Heh.
I've got confirmation that this means if an image is used the total contents of the signature, including lines of text must be no larger than 500x150.
Ok, i'll get my signature fix shortly. Thank you to the wonderful Moderator team.
Side note: Aren't png images illegal? *looks at Alecto's signature...*
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=259623&page=2#20
thread.
Some moderator moved my thread to a place it has no business, which upset me. Posting the above link would have, on the other hand rather than upsetting me, told me that Cryptic was "on top of things" and made me feel quite good.
Rather than whine and complain and be negative, I'd like to be a positive person where I can be.
Therefore I'd like to apply to become a moderator myself as I feel that I can help bring forum moderation to a high(er) standard.
I wish the rest of the team the best of luck continueing the moderate the forums, it's been a blast working with you guys, for now though, I need to knuckle down with my exams and paid vfx projects!
Thank you for everything you have done for this community, Suricata. I look forward to seeing you in-game and around the boards. Good luck on your exams and enjoy your vacation!
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
Well,that's the thing I don't get....wasn't it against California state law to have volunteers do work they would normally pay someone for?Or is forum moderation not a real job anymore?