A simple, but long, explanation from the community point of view
RiotZwill, d'Artagen, Dillion, WookieCookie, and Keyru....
Currently you guys are putting yourselves out there to gauge feedback and opinions of the Boards community to changes you have planned. From the few back and forths that have happened in these discussions I can garner two things: a lot of people from the community have varied but generally similar reactions to these changes and you all are adamant to these changes (less, bigger boards with tagging/filtering) in some form.
Neither of which are an inherently bad thing. However, from the responses in threads such as Silverling's I have to say you all are at a massive disadvantage. Simply, it is obvious that you guys do not use the Boards as often as a lot of community here. Now I don't mean that as a way to discredit you, I don't expect you to have the time to do your job and lurk here as often as certain people here. But I do want to you guys to realize that you do not know how areas of the Boards work here (as far as the people in them are concerned), and you must make the effort to realize when you visit here with a professional, analytical eye you are actively choosing to look at the League Virtual Community like the tip of an iceberg. You only see the immediately apparent stuff as opposed to the full spectrum.
Some examples based on previous decisions:
######Yes, I realize that some of you were not a part of these decisions, but it is still something that affects the community even now.
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The Boards Migration. It was promised that those at vBulletin would be allowed a slow and easy switch over and that the closing of vBulletin would only come when traffic numbers suggested that the Boards Beta >> vBulletin. Naturally I don't have access to the exact numbers, but what I can tell you is that even if the traffic was up in the Boards there were very very few recurring events, well-known posters or any community at all in the Boards. There was very little reason to come to the Boards over vBulletin except for format preference. However, the migration happened anyway and tore apart a lot of the community aspects that was there because a) the time given from announcement to closing was pitifully short and b) members on both sides (Boards, vBulletin) agreed the Boards were not ready when it happened, myself included. Hell, by the 'Beta' tag still being there it seems like you guys agree too.
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General Discussion and GD. When the Boards migration happened GD got their own board, however it was named 'GD' and not 'General Discussion'. A lot of people called for a name change. And it started politely. Simple requests of "hey can we change the name" towards Tamat and others. That quickly changed when such a simple request was met with a surprising amount of resistance. Combined with the previously mentioned forced migration emotions naturally rose very fast.
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Skin & Champion Concepts. I have been pretty consistently vocal about this, but it's truly becoming a problem now. Skins concepts and champion concepts should not be paired together. They're both concepts sure but the similarity stops there. Take a look at that board sometime and tell me how many skin concepts there are to champion concepts. I'll tell you right now there are barely any champion concepts but plenty of one-line skin ideas. Yes, they are both concepts in a broad sense. But it's a very clear example of a decision that massively effects the CC community being made by someone who did not understand the difference between a skin concept and a champion concept. An understandable mix-up but an unacceptable execution.
What these examples have in common is that they are all decisions made with an easily recognizable intent and an obvious misunderstanding of the community they are affecting. Similar to a politician making sweeping decisions for areas he/shes's not familiar with. "Let's tear down this park and build a strip mall to help the area's economy" kinda stuff. Now again, I don't expect you guys to make all the right decisions or know exactly what to do in every place but I want to explain what we see.
What we see on our end is:
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A Board Beta with no visible improvements or changes for almost half a year (very recent header bar change notwithstanding). Even simple formatting requests (full width divider, reactivation of different header sizes, both of which are innately part of Markdown btw) have not happened. Which gives a huge feeling of stagnation. If a lot of under the hood stuff is being done that's fine! However we don't know about them so as far as we're concerned nothing has been happening.
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Lack of communication. Granted recently (as far as Boards talk) has been comparatively good......or, not bad at least.... and I appreciate that. The responses aren't all peaches and plums sure, but communication is happening and I want to thank you all for the effort at the very least. However since very little red-talk happens here....well you've been over that time and again. From our end, though, it's yet another reason not to come here.
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Massive regret from previous decisions. i.e. Migration. There will always be a "it was better back then" crowd with any decisions. However I have yet to find a single person who isn't brand new here that thought the migration was a good idea what with how it was handled. Among other decisions made here. I think the last somewhat agreed with change was the visual change from burning white to too dark, a year ago.
I suggested this earlier in a specific response but I wanted to make it very clear here. What I want you guys to take away from this is to take a stroll through the communities here. And NOT JUST THE ONES YOU CAN IMMEDIATELY SEE. As you are probably aware you can't just stop by for a few minutes and say you know a group of people. Did you know what the MCCC is in champion concepts? How about an 'ok' thread, what's that? What's one of the many recurring jokes GD throws around? Name a relatively popular poster from each major board. Give me one example of a huge community project outside of the Boards. What time is RvC? Which Rioter worked on FEK before being hired? Which Rioters were well-known on vBulletin/Boards before being hired?
Can't answer these questions? Then find a rioter who can! Ask around! Many rioters were active members of huge communities back in vBulletin. Ask them about funny moments, scary moments, hear stories about what happened here and how the community responded. There are plenty I can assure you.
#Use what you find out to refine your approach and better identify areas that can and did have thriving communities and what you can do re-capture that.
Until you do that no matter how well-intended your decisions are they are going to feel very disconnected and more than likely plow over areas that were liked while preserving areas that weren't. Currently, from our point of view, we want parks when you want strip malls.
