test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Posts about looking for fleets

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited June 2012 in Earth Spacedock
I have noticed a lot of threads asking for a fleet. I understand that a few people do it, but as so many people do it, I wonder:
Do those people actually look through this forum? Or are they just lazy, and want to make a post instead of looking?

I would appreciate feedback on this. I may be totally confused, but I would be interested in other people's thoughts on this.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Folks like being spoonfed.

    Also some folks have the opinion that whatever they;re asking, they're the first to ask for it. (That's usually why the search function doesn't get used that often) Or they like to have a fresh answer. Or an answer directly for themselves and no one else.

    I've been doing tech support for *cough* years and have helped on many of the top level support forums. Millions have been spent on studies on interaction with support and how to make things better and easier.

    Almost always comes down to a single reason.

    People are f'ing lazy.

    It takes two seconds to throw up a post asking to be spoonfed. Takes more than that to do your own research.

    Not everybody is like that of course. And some support forums have 96 pixel text saying that folks are expected to do a search first before posting and could face problems if they don't.

    I worked with a webhost once that charged a $5 fee for submitting a question that was already answered in the forums or as a FAQ. The money was donated to a charity every month and there was a joke thread where folks willingly asked a dumb question just to chip in the five bucks so the webhost didn;t take the money and users learned very quickly what was expected of them. (The fee was never enforced. They also had a 6 month 90%+ retention rate which is unheard of in the industry so they were doing something right.)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    I agree with the spoonfed statement however the Fleet threads are very far down on the forum page, a position where people dont need to scroll down to see the Starbase 1, etc forum would help
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    I agree with the spoonfed statement however the Fleet threads are very far down on the forum page, a position where people dont need to scroll down to see the Starbase 1, etc forum would help

    Maybe I;m a bit confused but those fleet request threads are being posted correctly into the Starbase One subforum.

    I;m not seeing folks being unable to find that subforum as an issue since they are posting to the correct place.

    I thought of another reason. it could be just a fleet trying to drum up support for their fleet. Have a f2p player make a request on what fleet that they should join and have a [deep voice now]responsible and trust worth fleet officer post a suggestion that they should look at their fleet[/deep voice].

    You never know.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    But they have to scroll down! Scrolling is hard! Reading is harder!
    :rolleyes:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    HF_Mudd wrote:
    But they have to scroll down! Scrolling is hard! Reading is harder!
    :rolleyes:

    But they are getting there. That's why I'm asking. I don;t see the issue in this specific case.

    I think any poster who asks a question that's been asked more than five times owes every one on the forums at that time 1m in ecs. :D
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Once you point them in the correct direction it wont be an issue, they will spend the extra time to scroll.

    Why is Fleet recruitment below the Foundry and Support? Personally for a main page the Feedback section looks too large IMHO but at the very least Fleet Recruitment should be above the Foundry. If you eliminate the scrolling aspect then there is no excuse for not being able to find it and any further such posts would more likely be the fake posts to drum up more recruits as you say.

    Im no web designer but I do know that on a main page you want to eliminate scrolling as much as possible.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Im no web designer but I do know that on a main page you want to eliminate scrolling as much as possible.

    Agreed but then you get into the issue of having too much information above the fold. That leads to information overload and that's a mid level nono for design work.

    The big header image and the breadcrumb section don;t help either since that's half of the available screen real estate. At least on my screen.

    When I look at the front of the page, I can see as far down as Release Notes. I have to scroll for everything. I do see thing that the page continues downward. I would hope scrolling (or paging down at least) would be assumed.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    HF_Mudd wrote:
    But they have to scroll down! Scrolling is hard! Reading is harder!
    :rolleyes:

    Sorry, I didn't make it to your post. What was that? ;)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    In my experience, the problem is that no matter how much searching you do, no matter how much time you spend reading posts and researching, you end up - after all that research - discovering that the information you're looking for IS NOT THERE, so, out of frustration and disgust, you post a question that can basically be summed up as "why isn't anyone answering these basic questions that would resolve these problems and reduce the number of people posting 'looking for fleet' posts?" And then, of course, you get insulting, rude, sometimes even hostile responses, often from the very people whose posts forced you to ask the frustrated questions in the first place.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Rule one of tech support

    "turn it off and on again"

    Rule two of tech support

    "is it plugged in"

    Rule three of tech support

    "is the modem switched on"

    (never done the job myself but My Cousin does it for a living for AOL)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    sollvax wrote:
    Rule one of tech support

    That's why I always confirm what process they're doing and/or ask for a walkthru to the steps that they;re doing.

    May not solve 90% of the problems but seems like it's at least 50%.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Whats annoying is when you know what is wrong and you still need to play along with the tech support walkthru's before you can get your laptop sent away for repair
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Whats annoying is when you know what is wrong and you still need to play along with the tech support walkthru's before you can get your laptop sent away for repair

    Been there. I've got the voice prompts for the cable company's automatic troubleshooter memorized. I started unplugging my modem so it has no choice but to send me the a human being.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Whats annoying is when you know what is wrong and you still need to play along with the tech support walkthru's before you can get your laptop sent away for repair

    Then you quickly, calmly, and politely cover what you've done already.

    "I;ve done this specific step. tried this specific step as well. I also did this specific step that I found on your tech support website."

    9 times out of 10 that line comes out with a "I;m not stupid" or whining or something along those lines. (edit: "I tried everything!" Well if you did, then you still wouldn;t be having a problem now. :)

    We just had a thread like that a few days ago here in the forums.....
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Nah, I need to play along, you need to follow the steps with them on the phone. As the solution is to replace the motherboard that is one step I cant do before calling them to get it done under extended warranty!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    There are over 8,000 fleets out there in the STO universe and only about 30 of them post on here regularly. Some of the other fleets may post on a person that starts a thread in here that states something that sums up what there fleet is all about. For example I keep my eye on people in their 40's and older and try to get them to read what we are all about. There are so many fleets and all of them offered different things and some fleet specialize in certain areas of the game like RP or PvP. The one thing that this forum and the in-game database does not tell is how active a fleet is... A fleet with 500 non active members is not as good as 25 active members and so on..
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    In my experience, the problem is that no matter how much searching you do, no matter how much time you spend reading posts and researching, you end up - after all that research - discovering that the information you're looking for IS NOT THERE, so, out of frustration and disgust, you post a question that can basically be summed up as "why isn't anyone answering these basic questions that would resolve these problems and reduce the number of people posting 'looking for fleet' posts?" And then, of course, you get insulting, rude, sometimes even hostile responses, often from the very people whose posts forced you to ask the frustrated questions in the first place.

    Then say that you've searched. That will go a long way with folks answering questions. List the steps that you've done. Show that you've put in a least some effort in finding a solution. Takes two seconds and it'll show that you've at least made the attempt to look for your solution.

    if you do that chances are you'll get a lot better result when you ask a question.

    In your last thread, you at least walked through the situation and showed that yes you did in fact poke around to see what was going on.

    Want to see the exact opposite? Search the forums for mobile and see how many of the first posts in those threads include the statement "Has anyone suggested this previously?"

    edit: The irony of all this is that on the show, the library computer was used for research all the time. :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Something no one has pointed out is sometimes fleet threds are over 30 days old. Replying to a 30 day old thred is a violation of the rules if I am not mistaken?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Elis_Grant wrote:
    Something no one has pointed out is sometimes fleet threds are over 30 days old. Replying to a 30 day old thred is a violation of the rules if I am not mistaken?

    To go along with that, aren't they also removed after 6 months or a year? I remember seeing something about forum threads age from a dev in another thread somewhere. Can't remember which dev or what thread though. Am I correct in that statement?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    Admsim20 wrote: »
    To go along with that, aren't they also removed after 6 months or a year? I remember seeing something about forum threads age from a dev in another thread somewhere. Can't remember which dev or what thread though. Am I correct in that statement?

    Or at least autoclosed.

    I have to admit that I don;t like that rule. I know in all of the "how to get help" stickies, searching is encouraged and well you know my opinion on the matter. It's kind of backwards to suggest to folks to search forst and then ignore what they find. I would rather have them ask a question if they don;t understand in the thread that they find instead of start a new thread, ask a question and the rest of us have no clue as to what they're referencing because they (of course) don't link to the past thread.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    I agree. Its hard to help answer something if they don't say "hey i have a question about this that i found here". Also asking in the thread they found it in to clarify would be much better, but I do see that alot of the threads are either outdated, inactive or just no longer valid due to game changes. So I can see doing it both ways I guess.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2012
    I also agree its a bit of a condratiction. Search for what you want first and if its old dont post there or else!
Sign In or Register to comment.