I'm just glad you do what you do! I think the boards are a better place with your influence :)
Sure I can definitely elaborate!
On Player perception:
As a player and a frequent participant on the boards, I don't feel like Rioters see the best posts in gameplay. And there's never indication that Rioters are aware of the concerns raised in those posts unless they get mentioned in Meddler's gameplay thoughts.
I've seen some really good discussions, where players debate and analyze a problem (such as queue health, toxicity, player fun vs enemy frustration with certain mechanics, or cool concepts and ideas for reworks, ability designs, or new mechanics). The thing is we rarely (if ever) see a Rioter response on these sorts of discussions. And sometimes these discussions or ideas get buried in downvotes simply because they are unpopular or because the first few people to vote were biased and didn't want the changes proposed in said discussions.
What might be the problem:
The boards are often a place of controversy, and with that comes the usual batch of posts that raise an issue but do nothing to solve it (and sometimes are even downright toxic towards Riot). Given that environment, it's no wonder that Rioters never respond to discussions in gameplay. The sheer toxicity they could face from overzealous players would be overwhelming.
In addition to that, Rioters are very careful about what they say directly to the community for fear of the community taking it out of context and running with it, thus accidentally creating false hype trains and dashing hopes and dreams. Since they don't want that, they stick to radio silence for the most part (except for Meddler's Gameplay Thoughts posts).
This makes me sad though, as a player I want to feel like Rioters can discuss things with us. When they can't or won't I'm left wondering if our concerns or ideas even matter - and with some of the more serious issues, if Rioters are even aware of them or care about them. I don't think it's just me, I've seen lots of people who comment on things saying stuff like, "Who cares Riot never sees this sht anyway," sometimes even as an excuse to not put more effort into the content that they create.
What I'm envisioning is this:
A group of volunteers would flag (or link) certain posts and comments that contain valuable (subjective I know, maybe just well reasoned and worded concerns?) analyses and concerns. Rioters could then view a list of the identified posts and comments for a 'cliffnotes' of the comunity's most reasonable concerns. This would help Rioters sift through the content of the boards for the most useful information. Maybe such concerns could even be addressed in a post similar to how Meddler does his Gameplay Thoughts posts.
Possible benefits:
- Faster awareness brought to balance issues (particularly the kinds that cause high player frustration).
- Rioters could more easily find interesting and well reasoned content on the boards
- The boards community might feel less ignored, and they might be driven to produce more high quality content
