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My Opinion on the Current Beta

coffeeman9·2/28/2014, 5:59:07 PM·1 votes·951 views

Hi, me again. Figured I'd throw in my two cents about the Beta since everyone is still making a big deal about it; before I begin I would like to ask you the community a favor: if this is deserving of Riot's attention then by all means upvote; however, if all you see is "Someone stickin' it to the Man!" then just move along. I am trying to make an intellectual argument here. Also, if you are one of those people who downvotes just because what I say doesn't go with what you think then gtfo now and save me the trouble.

Firstly, I don't use the Community Beta; my first real use of it was when Iron Stylus goofed up and said a few things he shouldn't have. I made a few remarks on it, but it's been lost in the clutter. Whatever, I don't care. What I do care about though is if this does go live and replaces the old system, what will happen to the posts over the last few years? Most of you wouldn't think much of it, but I have a legitimate concern. You see, I'm not part of the General Discussion forum, I'm with the FanFic forum. If this does hit and all other forums are deleted then hundreds (if not that then a few thousand) of hours of work and writing will be lost. And my concern isn't limited to FanFic. Though I don't care much for it, all roleplay threads on that forum will be deleted, and I'm quite sure it would be a pain in the ass to revive those stories. Riot may not care much for the lore anymore, or so I assume; they are leaving a lot of questions for everyone out there and holes that are left unfilled without legit story based outlets, and it leaves us wanting more. The FF threads give a sense of creativity for those people who want to try and connect the dots and to fill in the lines to try and make it all make sense. Though I only have one incomplete story on there I don't want to see everything get wiped out.

Secondly, I don't like the format. Everyone says it looks like reddit; for the most part, they're right. Though I have a reddit I rarely use it, only going there to see a thread from here and there and to possibly say something about it before leaving. The comment system they have is atrocious; I've seen tumblr blogs that have been reblogged to hell and back with hundreds of comments (needless to say it was still easier to understand than reddit). From what I've seen this system here in Beta is similar to reddit. First of all, isn't that copyright infringment? Don't they have a patent or something over that? And second of all, why in the wide world of sports would you want a clusterf@&# of a comment system for your forums? The current format is perfectly fine. Could use a little bit of a touch-up, but it doesn't need a reddit-makeover. If you made the system similar to facebook it would be simpiler in design and easier to follow instead of clust f@&#. (Be advised I deleted my facebook, so I only remember what it was like in the 2012 version).

Lastly, the whole "popularity" system. From what I've heard, reddit has been called a "circlejerk" with the inhabitants called a "hivemind". I would not know this because, again, I don't use reddit, but if there is a hivemind circlejerk mentality over there then that could be a serious issue over here. Before you call me out on that listen to this: everyone is an idiot. You, me, everyone on the forums, there is no discrimination on that. When social interactions lessen to the least common denominator (or to that of a five year old) it gets to the point where the unintelligible and irrelevant posts are lifted up and the ones with something meaningful or relevant are buried under piles of, for lack of a better term, sh1t. You then have to sift through piles of sh1t just to find what you're looking for, whether it be feedback or server issues or a champion concept you want to ripe off of some poor chump, it's still there. And yes, there are the filters, but what if something slips through? In the past few months I've noticed more and more threads on the FF forums that are not relevant to FF or anything of that sort. Granted, it's about one in every 10-15 new threads, but concerning there is not a lot of movement or activity on that forum it's quite irritating.

I know that the people I'm trying to speak to, the Riot employee's, will possibly never see this, but I can at least make the effort; however, the everyday posters, the forum wanders, I ask you; if you for one once wrote a thread that did not b1tch about how the Beta sucks and how it should be removed and actually wrote feedback telling them how to fix this and/or why this system is bad for reasons XYZ we would be in a better position and Riot would for once listen to us.

11 Comments

MXXIV2/28/2014, 6:39:43 PM1 votes

Also, if you are one of those people who downvotes just because what I say doesn't go with what you think then gtfo now and save me the trouble.

Could you please explain what do you think that the Downvote function is for? And try to keep it "intelectual".

MXXIV2/28/2014, 6:54:05 PM1 votes

everyone is an idiot. You, me, everyone on the forums, there is no discrimination on that. When social interactions lessen to the least common denominator (or to that of a five year old) it gets to the point where the unintelligible and irrelevant posts are lifted up and the ones with something meaningful or relevant are buried under piles of, for lack of a better term, sh1t.

This is something I agree with, however: It's a sad thing that in the big society, you must not only have a good idea, but you also must make it attractive.

I'll give you an example, though I fear that in america, that's something you're not familiar with: In the eastern europe, there's currently a crisis (almost civil war) in Ukraine. I'm reading many news, so I took it everyone knows about this. Soon I'll explain this wasn't true.
Later on, there appeared a "This must become viral!" video. A beautiful girl was talking about the crisis and asking for help. This video wouldn't give you neutral stance on the situation - but it did it's job: everyone started talking about the crisis, that was actually happening since christmas.
The point here is not that you must add picture of pretty girl to every post, but it's very similar to that. And that this is what you should get used to.

In fact, people as a sum are not idiots, but they are shallow.

First of all, isn't that copyright infringment? Don't they have a patent or something over that?

Patent on what? You better think these things over before you start blaming like this. By the way, stackexchange.com uses similar system of votes. Youtube has also amost the same system.

Sir ArmaMalum2/28/2014, 7:56:30 PM1 votes

This is your opinion, and as such, an opinion is never wrong, one can only disagree with it. That being said I actually agree with you on most of your points. This format is similar to Reddit, I do very much worry about the not copy pasta-ble content on the old forums like roleplay, and the popularity mechanic can be abused.

All that being said I also support the CB over vBulletin for a few reasons. Chief among them being I actually prefer the comment sysyem as it is now, in other wordds a more dynamic system that doesn't screw over a viewer coming in late to the party, the vBulletin system gave out 20+ pages of comments that I have bo desire to go past 5. But I have to to see anyone responding to anything, and to see the individual conversations develop. As well as the fact that the different ordering options gives individual preference. This platform also allows Riot to adjust it themselves from the ground up instead of working with a 3rd party platform, allowing things like the toolbar w/ champ/item/spell icons and soon(tm) champ abilities. Not to mention the real-time preview and the profile tool. I also prefer the formatting, but that's more of this format being new than anything else. The CB has many strengths as well.

Does this mean it's better? No, not necessarily, I just individually refer it. In fact I've done exactly as you said and suggested what I feel can be improvements, addressing the concerns of circle-jerk voting and easy content burial. Catagory tags voting system and Personal Profile front pages respectively.