How can we make this a better resource?

bk1234
bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
Exactly what the title says. What should this board be and how can we make it better? 

Comments

  • Mburn7
    Mburn7 Posts: 3,427 Chairperson of the Boards
    Maybe a permanent link to here in the General forum?  I feel like that's where most new forum-goers end up, and they don't really know about the other threads.  Some sort of banner ad ("Looking for a Coalition?  Click here") would go a long way.

    Same would probably be good for the Bugs thread and the Strategy/Tips thread 
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    Maybe a “Where to go for what” thread? 
  • Aeroplane
    Aeroplane Posts: 314 Mover and Shaker
    Mburn7 said:
    Maybe a permanent link to here in the General forum?  I feel like that's where most new forum-goers end up, and they don't really know about the other threads.  Some sort of banner ad ("Looking for a Coalition?  Click here") would go a long way.

    Same would probably be good for the Bugs thread and the Strategy/Tips thread



    Was thinking the same thing. Should have clean sub categories that contain up to date posts, an edit/delete function for completed posts and links or notifications between pages. A lot of clutter throughout the game, especially , in the in-game coalition page. You'd think they would help out beginners in filtering them to active coalitions. If a coalition has no activity for a set time, a notification could be sent to the leader and if there is no response it could be filtered to the graveyard but not lost.

  • SinisterOne
    SinisterOne Posts: 47 Just Dropped In
    I've noticed that outside of General there isn't a lot of traffic. Some ideas that I think would help:

    1) A "sticky" thread in General with a link to the other forums.. 

    2) Rearranging the order of the forums where Coalition is right under General. The need to scroll down may be responsible at least partly for some players not seeing this forum. 

    3) Allowing players to have a signature on their posts. This could enable leaders of coalitions the ability to link to their recruitment threads as part of their posts. 
  • Kinesia
    Kinesia Posts: 1,621 Chairperson of the Boards
    sjechua said:
    A permanent link to this sub-forum in game, the inbox and coalition search ...

    Especially when people who aren't in a coalition.
  • ShaarkBiite
    ShaarkBiite Posts: 39 Just Dropped In
    I think it might be helpful if there was in-game encouragement to join a coalition. Make it part of the tutorial. Include a sentence about how you can switch coalitions at any time and point them to the forum.

    I think lots of new players don't use coalitions.  And lots of players end up on empty or nearly empty coalitions for a really long time. 
  • Sarahschmara
    Sarahschmara Posts: 554 Critical Contributor
    Perhaps being a bit more lenient in posting rules would help? The threat of docked points for posting ahead-of-schedule discouraged me from posting. Perhaps it discourages others as well. 

    It’s not worth being banned from the forums just because I want a few more players especially since there are other places that aren’t so aggressive. 
  • Brigby
    Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
    Perhaps being a bit more lenient in posting rules would help? The threat of docked points for posting ahead-of-schedule discouraged me from posting. Perhaps it discourages others as well. 

    It’s not worth being banned from the forums just because I want a few more players especially since there are other places that aren’t so aggressive. 
    I'm afraid I'm a bit confused about your statement, as we do not issue warnings for coalitions posting ahead-of-schedule. In fact, I'd say it's more the opposite: we encourage coalitions to maintain active recruitment threads, lest they be removed for inactivity.

    If that doesn't seem to be the case as to what you're experiencing, then please message me, and I'd be happy to discuss it with you in more detail.
  • Sarahschmara
    Sarahschmara Posts: 554 Critical Contributor
    edited October 2018
    Brigby said:
    Perhaps being a bit more lenient in posting rules would help? The threat of docked points for posting ahead-of-schedule discouraged me from posting. Perhaps it discourages others as well. 

    It’s not worth being banned from the forums just because I want a few more players especially since there are other places that aren’t so aggressive. 
    I'm afraid I'm a bit confused about your statement, as we do not issue warnings for coalitions posting ahead-of-schedule. In fact, I'd say it's more the opposite: we encourage coalitions to maintain active recruitment threads, lest they be removed for inactivity.

    If that doesn't seem to be the case as to what you're experiencing, then please message me, and I'd be happy to discuss it with you in more detail.
    Gosh,@brigby I brought this to your attention via private message on March 23-24 of this year. I never received a response. 

    I’d be happy to discuss (privately) it in more detail if you’d prefer to respond to that message. 

    Edited to add: I’m not a monster and won’t make you dig through your inbox, I’ve sent you a new message with photos and you may respond to that if you like. 
  • ShaarkBiite
    ShaarkBiite Posts: 39 Just Dropped In
    Brigby said:
    Perhaps being a bit more lenient in posting rules would help? The threat of docked points for posting ahead-of-schedule discouraged me from posting. Perhaps it discourages others as well. 

    It’s not worth being banned from the forums just because I want a few more players especially since there are other places that aren’t so aggressive. 
    I'm afraid I'm a bit confused about your statement, as we do not issue warnings for coalitions posting ahead-of-schedule. In fact, I'd say it's more the opposite: we encourage coalitions to maintain active recruitment threads, lest they be removed for inactivity.

    If that doesn't seem to be the case as to what you're experiencing, then please message me, and I'd be happy to discuss it with you in more detail.
    @brigby, Let's be real. There are a lot of rules. That alone is daunting. 

    Recently, my coalition was looking for new members, so I started a new thread under coalitions. My coalition didn't/doesn't have a thread, so I thought it would be ok to create a new thread. My post was moved to be a comment under the "Coalitions Looking for Members" thread.

    Part of the rules say that each coalition (and coalition family) can have its own thread. Part of the rules say that if you're looking for new members that you should post under that specific thread. I now have a full coalition, so it doesn't really matter, but I thought I was abiding by the rules. <snark> If you're a coalition what else would you be posting about other than recruitment? </snark> I get that coalition families will basically always be recruiting. 

    (Not to mention that some posts need to be removed or updated within 30 days, while other threads can be inactive for years. What value do most of those posts bring?) 

    I don't know what this section of the forum used to look like or what kind of lawlessness reigned here. I also know moderating is not easy and it's generally a thankless position, so I don't begrudge @bken1234. I didn't mean to make her job harder. 

    In summation: You're right, this section could be a great resource, especially for new players, but no one seems to use it. You've asked why and as both a player looking for a coalition and as a coalition looking for players, I was (and honestly still am) intimidated. 
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    Brigby said:
    Perhaps being a bit more lenient in posting rules would help? The threat of docked points for posting ahead-of-schedule discouraged me from posting. Perhaps it discourages others as well. 

    It’s not worth being banned from the forums just because I want a few more players especially since there are other places that aren’t so aggressive. 
    I'm afraid I'm a bit confused about your statement, as we do not issue warnings for coalitions posting ahead-of-schedule. In fact, I'd say it's more the opposite: we encourage coalitions to maintain active recruitment threads, lest they be removed for inactivity.

    If that doesn't seem to be the case as to what you're experiencing, then please message me, and I'd be happy to discuss it with you in more detail.
    @brigby, Let's be real. There are a lot of rules. That alone is daunting. 

    Recently, my coalition was looking for new members, so I started a new thread under coalitions. My coalition didn't/doesn't have a thread, so I thought it would be ok to create a new thread. My post was moved to be a comment under the "Coalitions Looking for Members" thread.

    Part of the rules say that each coalition (and coalition family) can have its own thread. Part of the rules say that if you're looking for new members that you should post under that specific thread. I now have a full coalition, so it doesn't really matter, but I thought I was abiding by the rules. <snark> If you're a coalition what else would you be posting about other than recruitment? </snark> I get that coalition families will basically always be recruiting. 

    (Not to mention that some posts need to be removed or updated within 30 days, while other threads can be inactive for years. What value do most of those posts bring?) 

    I don't know what this section of the forum used to look like or what kind of lawlessness reigned here. I also know moderating is not easy and it's generally a thankless position, so I don't begrudge @bken1234. I didn't mean to make her job harder. 

    In summation: You're right, this section could be a great resource, especially for new players, but no one seems to use it. You've asked why and as both a player looking for a coalition and as a coalition looking for players, I was (and honestly still am) intimidated. 
    @shaarkbite you make some valid points -- I hoped we could discuss this when I moved your post. 

    The rules do say that each coalition can have one thread -- however they also state that the first post must be a general topic post. Further posts can be recruiting posts. 

    Also I would like to address the time-sensitivity -- posts in the main coalition subforum do not expire -- only posts in the "looking" threads and each of those have a different expiration date.

    Moving posts for both players and coalitions is something I do regularly for several reasons mostly related to the rules, however it also increases your chances of filling your spots faster. When players come to this page they look at the coalitions recruiting thread first. It is my experience that the majority of players in this game do not want to join big groups, thus they look for single coalition posts.

    I merged yours with the recruiting thread because it was simply a recruiting post and I thought it was in the wrong place -- if you would like to work on a post for the general thread and have questions about what should go there, you are free to respond to the message I sent you.

    However you are correct in the fact that a lot of information in our main board is out of date -- however there are a lot of sensitivity issues to talk through before we can remove them -- these posts serve as a history for many teams. 

    Please keep the ideas and feedback coming!
  • Sarahschmara
    Sarahschmara Posts: 554 Critical Contributor
    In defense of @ShaarkBiite ‘s initial post about her team, it makes perfect sense for her to make a new topic and by moving it, it seems as if only certain teams are allowed to make their own personalized main post (which could easily be amended once they were full). 

    Reading through the titles just in the first page, it’s not immediately clear that those posts are not simply recruiting posts. Again, the rules are very confusing and inconsistently enforced. 

    I get what you’re saying about wanting to preserve the history of those groups but... perhaps there’s another way to do that? After all, we’re looking towards the future.
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    In defense of @ShaarkBiite ‘s initial post about her team, it makes perfect sense for her to make a new topic and by moving it, it seems as if only certain teams are allowed to make their own personalized main post (which could easily be amended once they were full). 

    Reading through the titles just in the first page, it’s not immediately clear that those posts are not simply recruiting posts. Again, the rules are very confusing and inconsistently enforced. 

    I get what you’re saying about wanting to preserve the history of those groups but... perhaps there’s another way to do that? After all, we’re looking towards the future.
    I agree with this 100% -- one idea we have had is to remove posts from the main thread that are outdated -- because many of these posts were put up before we migrated to more unified rules across games. 

    Then the question is -- at what point do posts from the main thread get moved? 90 days with no activity? 6 months?

    And regardless, new posts would still be held to the rules, the main subforum is primarily for discussion about coalitions -- so any one off recruiting posts would be moved to the recruiting threads -- whereas coalitions who want a discussion thread would keep those on the main page. 

    Also -- I want to note that these rules have really helped smaller teams find players -- before when everything went in the main subforum, big groups and more competitive teams were drowning out all the independent teams. We aligned our rules with Marvel because they very effectively stopped the same thing from happening there. 

    From the feedback I've received, coalitions who post in the Coalition thread fill up very fast, and same for players, they get snatched up usually within hours. 

    One more question-- In the main subforum is for discussion, what kinds of threads could we add to help coalitions succeed -- or help players get to the coalition level of play where they would like to be?
  • Sarahschmara
    Sarahschmara Posts: 554 Critical Contributor
    edited October 2018
    I think it would be worthwhile to hear from some of the other active groups that no longer post here. I know they’re still out there because they’ve still rocking it out the leaderboards and I know they’re always recruiting because they post in the semi-weekly Reddit generic recruitment threads and I know they are still active in other areas of the forums. 

    Why does this board feel so unwelcoming to groups that aren’t from a mega group? I’ve stated my reason from the standpoint of a long-term recruiter for a successful mega group. You’ve also heard the opinions of a newer arrival with a single, independent coalition. They were both honest answers although I acknowledge they were probably unpleasant to hear.

    //Removed Provocative Comments Towards A Coalition -Brigby
  • Sarahschmara
    Sarahschmara Posts: 554 Critical Contributor
    And what exactly about the above needed flagging? This is exactly the sort of bullying I’m referring to @Brigby
  • ShaarkBiite
    ShaarkBiite Posts: 39 Just Dropped In
    And what exactly about the above needed flagging? This is exactly the sort of bullying I’m referring to @Brigby
    @sarahschmara, I'm hoping that flagging was a mistake, because I don't see it either. Thanks for the backup. You and I know each other through this forum and your slack channel and I would agree that we offer a great range of insight on this topic. I think you would agree that you and I want to have fun with MTGPQ and a good part of that fun is the people we play with. 

    @bken1234, maybe this section seems so intimidating because it is so empty. From my perspective on the outside it seems unused. Is there a way to add a counter/poll, something like the number of people who have found a home through this resource? Idk, just a thought.

    And, I think I repeat myself, but I'd be inclined to say that the biggest problem with coalitions is that new players don't join them. Or they join a random, mostly empty one and stay there way longer than they need to. Most likely, these are also people that don't use the forum.

    And just brainstorming, but if you could get buy-in/caring from oktagon, maybe one thing that would help would be an icon on a coalition name (in game) that shows the players as active (scoring points) in the last event? That could at least point people to active coalitions. Then have recruit week or something with maybe an in game message pointing folks to this section of the forum, followed by a coalition event with bonus points for a full coalition. 
  • Brigby
    Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
    *Please keep all comments civil and do not attack other players. Thank you!

    In addition, please note that the only reason @Sarahschmara was banned was because she had accumulated over 10 warning points as a result of numerous rule infractions. Nothing more, nothing less.

    The goal of our forum is to create a welcoming and constructive environment where players can talk and learn more about Magic: the Gathering - Puzzle Quest, regardless of which Coalition players are or aren't from.
    bken1234, maybe this section seems so intimidating because it is so empty. From my perspective on the outside it seems unused. Is there a way to add a counter/poll, something like the number of people who have found a home through this resource? Idk, just a thought.

    And, I think I repeat myself, but I'd be inclined to say that the biggest problem with coalitions is that new players don't join them. Or they join a random, mostly empty one and stay there way longer than they need to. Most likely, these are also people that don't use the forum.

    And just brainstorming, but if you could get buy-in/caring from oktagon, maybe one thing that would help would be an icon on a coalition name (in game) that shows the players as active (scoring points) in the last event? That could at least point people to active coalitions. Then have recruit week or something with maybe an in game message pointing folks to this section of the forum, followed by a coalition event with bonus points for a full coalition. 
    @ShaarkBiite There are definitely areas that can be improved, when it comes to the in-game Coalition system, which is why that's a topic the team is looking into. We definitely want to make it easier for new players to find active Coalitions, and we also want to find ways to give Coalition leaders more capabilities and functions in-game.

    While I don't have any additional news right now, I'll be sure to update everyone once I can communicate any info.
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited October 2018
    I'll just speak openly what I think.

    The rules and execution of rules for this subforum are a bit confusing, even reading this topic would probably prevent me from posting here if I were new! that's one thing.

    Something that can lead to the assumption that this forum biases new recruits into one specific direction is that all official posts and the most used coalition thread come from the same person, plus (for the same reason) it's indicated as coming from a mod. That are two things that would make me assume that the discord community is the officially blessed way to go. The two things, combined with the rules already led to most groups focusing on other ways to recruit. Facebook, reddit, ingame.. And I can't blame them.

    Is my recruitment threat good or bad? The outcome barely makes up for the effort, in a good week I get more random joiners by just opening some places in tormented than I've got in the time the post is up. Or posting a two liner on reddit.

    Just to be clear, this isn't against you, @bken (if it was something personal, I think you know I'd get directly in touch with you), just how I feel about the situation here.

    If you want to make this place better,  it should be neutral. It doesn't feel so. Archive everything, put it into a new subforum if you want to keep it and make an announcement on general discussions inviting all coalition leaders /family leaders to present themselves here.  No post should be visually imply being official. Maybe even a different subforum for the families, as they're part of the reality of competitive play. Let Brigby start all the stickies. 
    This might bring other coalitions back here.
    My two cents. 


    Edit :
    The most important things would be changes in-game of course. Most players don't know that this place exists, the system in game is a mess;
    I've spent the last week jumping through coalitions. From every ten I saw, only two appeared somehow active, from all dozens I joined, only two actually were. We did some brainstorming how to change that a while ago, in this forum, but as usual there was no reaction.
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    @Laeuftbeidir -- you make some good points. 

    @Brigby perhaps you can copy and repost the stickies for this subforum? 
  • Brigby
    Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
    @Laeuftbeidir Thank you for providing us your perspective. What you're saying certainly makes sense, and I'd be happy to repost the stickies.