"Reds Don't Post" --> We need a Better Red Tracker

Hyrum Graff·Jan 1, 2015·7 votes·1,136 views

One thing I've noticed is that people often complain about Reds not commenting on things that Reds have actually commented on. The issue is that Reds don't -- and can't, and shouldn't -- post in every Lee Sin thread, for example. They should post in one Lee thread, and not have to copy-paste the same response into every single other Lee post; that's just a waste of their time, and I'd rather see them spend that same time responding to a Zed or Fizz thread.

I'm NOT saying that Rioters are doing this right now (they're not, they only responded to one Lee thread), but there WERE still Lee threads popping up after that response.

One area that this would be particularly nice in is Boards Feedback.

I've inhabited this board for a LONG time. Back in the day (before the old forums were closed), everybody who posted, had been a community member for a long time. So, we all knew what had been discussed and what hadn't. This meant that there was only a new thread every couple days, but each new thread was discussing something really new, that we hadn't thought of before. And we had Riot replies in probably 1/2 to 2/3 of our posts.

Nowadays, we're lucky to see Rioter replies in 1/10 posts. But what isn't obvious, is that 9/10 of the topics have already been discussed. That's part of the reason there are fewer Riot posts -- there's not much new feedback. But newcomers don't know this. How could they? We can't reasonably expect them to go back and read posts that are months old.

If we had a Red Tracker that was better-organized and more easily search-able, people could find responses that have already been given to posts they want to write.

Edit: just wanted to add that I know Red tracker improvements are on the radar. Reds: think of this as a 'Please consider this in the scope of your improvements' -type post.

5 Comments

ZielmannJan 1, 20151 votes

This is a problem on any high-traffic forum. And it definitely existed on the old forums, too. People are too lazy to search around to see if their question has been answered. It's faster and easier to just post the same thing over again and hope it gets a reply this time. To get to what would be truly ideal, it would require a large turnaround in behaviors of everybody in the community. I think it would also help if people would actually change the sorting they look at now and again. Many threads with Riot participation grow to be popular threads, and will last on the Hot list for a while.

That's not to say a few new or changed features on the boards wouldn't possibly work to help that along. Letting people search Red posts only could help. Perhaps having a filter available for any of the sub-boards to show only threads containing a Red post in that section would be nice. It would make it pretty easy to, say, look through the last month of Red posts in Gameplay and Balance to see if there has been any somewhat recent discussion on the issue you were wanting to bring up.

disregardableJan 1, 20153 votes

You are ridiculously wrong. Look back at the forum archives. I do all the time. Boards that were YEARS OLD would get added to every couple of months, because people actually looked up their issue, found the most popular post talking about it, and jumped in.

This boards is purposefully designed to prevent that, because "no one wants to see posts after a few days". Even if you look at a red's account, you can't see what their comments were after around a month, just that they made comments. It's the least helpful design they could implement, and they did it BECAUSE they wanted 10,000 posts on lee sin.

Hyrum GraffJan 2, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=The AFK Farmer,realm=NA,application-id=bzRrPGQO,discussion-id=HKREMdQz,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2015-01-01T19:54:36.118+0000)

You are ridiculously wrong. Look back at the forum archives. I do all the time. Boards that were YEARS OLD would get added to every couple of months, because people actually looked up their issue, found the most popular post talking about it, and jumped in.

Yes and no.

Posts that are really old get bumped on both platforms {example}. However, here, since most people use Hot view, bumping or adding to a post doesn't bring it back to the front page, so it doesn't get necro'd.

Whether losing the ability to necro posts is a good thing or a bad thing, is a different discussion, and I'm planning on making a post about it once I've thought through the issue and made a mockup or two ;) However, It's not a discussion I really want to have here, before I've sorted out my own thoughts on it (although it is a related discussion). Here, I'd prefer just to talk about the narrower set of posts -- those made explicitly to get Riot responses.

This boards is purposefully designed to prevent that, because "no one wants to see posts after a few days".

I think it's less, "no one wants to see posts after a few days" and more "after a few days, all the points in a discussion have been made, so there's nothing left to discuss." Since the point of forums is supposed to be, to have discussion, I think this mindset kind of makes sense. But, the problem is that if there's no resolution, people just make another thread and have the same damn discussion all over again. -.-

Even if you look at a red's account, you can't see what their comments were after around a month, just that they made comments.

I've always thought this is a bug, because the text is actually there, but invisible. You can do a Ctrl-F search, and it'll search through the contents of the posts that you can't see what they say.

They did it BECAUSE they wanted 10,000 posts on lee sin.

I don't think this is true. I think they wanted people to make a Lee post, and have it get really popular, then have it die away as people post about other things. The thing is, they didn't count on people still feeling strongly about Lee Sin, on Lee Sin threads continuing to get upvotes even though they're just saying the same thing over and over again. My proposal is ONE way I think we can help that not to happen. I've got another idea I'm still thinking through, related to necroing, that I'll post about in a couple of days.

disregardableJan 2, 20151 votes

since most people use Hot view, bumping or adding to a post doesn't bring it back to the front page, so it doesn't get necro'd.

That's actually true of all the view pages. Believe me, I've tried.

Whether losing the ability to necro posts is a good thing or a bad thing, is a different discussion

I don't really see how. Your main issue is the visibility of Red posts, and Red posts would be 100% more visible if ALL posts were easy to search, regardless of age. You're right in saying that the Red Tracker could be improved, but why make that improvement when we could also expand that to the thousands of useful things other players have said? Unfortunately Riot hates necroing and showing anything useful to the community that they forgot. "We tend to think that bumping is bad and manipulative as a function (worse so than voting)"-Pendragon

after a few days, all the points in a discussion have been made, so there's nothing left to discuss

Nope. Pendragon also said the justification is "Most people who are going to discover the discussion have already discovered it after a couple of days of activity". That effect still happened though. :D Because, shocker, most people that wanted to find that discussion don't find it in 3 coincidental days or so.

I think they wanted people to make a Lee post, and have it get really popular, then have it die away as people post about other things.

I can actually see them wanting this. The stupid fluff they post "These birds are not Azir", "Poro Cookies", etc all fall in line with that. No one has engaged with any of the boards hating posts in 10 months. Really I think they just stopped coming to boards feedback, other than to just say "we don't hate you".

It's not entirely from lack of anything new to say, either. See the board post right below yours. Asking about why there is poor communication when the servers are down in light of that 8 hour nightmare 2 weeks ago. "The servers are almost never down. We're working on our communication. Don't hate us". They could've actually answered that.

Maybe they just want 2 day fluff and trying to make up for their copy/paste customer service on these boards. I'm not sure. All I am sure of is that it's not getting better any time soon, if ever.