Community Beta vs. General Discussion and my analysis and predictions

General Elephant·Oct 7, 2013·8 votes·1,156 views

Since the Community Beta release, I have been comparing and contrasting these two discussion platforms and I have done a small experiment to see player reactions of a thread in both areas. Below are both posts, I tailored the names and slight wording, but the content is the same. The name differences are because I felt GD wouldn't be as reactive to my thread and it would just drop.

Below are links to both for your own conclusions to be drawn:

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=3918566

http://community.na.leagueoflegends.com/c/gameplay/RBq4z5gQ-ever-wanted-to-get-just-a-little-bit-better-at-everything-you-do-in-league

I have found given a semi-serious, semi-silly thread, which allowed for open ended responses that ranged from serious to silly, GD gave a higher what I'm calling the SS ratio (silly over total posts) 2.0 (20 silly/ 30 total), where Community Beta ( CB ) gave a much lower, and even got a red post. (0.0 SS, 0 silly, 12 serious) obviously my definition of silly and serious is subjective, however looking over the raw data it is pretty obvious there is a trend.

As far as a legitimate experiment goes, this falls very flat, because the OPs are slightly different, and first posters usually dictate the direction of a thread (though my GD post actually turned around, which made me happy, and a little more hopeful that GD isn't just full of trolls, but has some seriousness mixed in.

My theory as to why GD and CB had very different responses is that GD, due to mass amount of people and lacking the ability to maintain a serious, sustained discussion, was only looking to make jokes about threads, and was less concerned with actually discussing ideas.

CB was much more receptive, and though they had a smaller amount of total responses, I believe it had a higher post to view ratio (riot could add in total views on CB, that'd be nice) and a much more genuine response as a whole. I think this is because of the "filtering" of the community that has happened due to CB's creation. People sick of GD were looking for a more serious platform, while trolls and BSers were content roaming GD and making smart ^%# responses. Thus a divide in te community.

I think this is a good thing. GD and CB are seperate worlds for seperate people, with seperate goals and reasons for posting. I feel if both remain, an equilibrium will be reached, and there will be a much happier community, with a much more organized platform for serious discussions, but only if GD remains active in tandem with CB.

11 Comments

RiotjmccaffreyOct 7, 20136 votes

This is a really good idea, one thing to look out for though is a potential population bias. Since the CB system is fairly young, we have not done much to drive people here yet. This means that the current early adopter player-base of the CB, including myself, are probably biased differently in how they operate than a more general and diverse population.

Thats just my opinion though, what do you think?

General ElephantOct 7, 20132 votes

I tried to address this by saying it will reach an equilibrium. Since this is a newer discussion platform, i feel people only seem to leave GD if they don't like the lack of serious discussion, and only stay if they like it more here in CB. Over time I feel like these differences will become muttled, which is why data collection is vital now to define the highest contrasting cohort/population segment to use as a bench mark in the future as a way to analze the CB population from a poster's intent standpoint.

What I'm going to call the P.I. (Poster's Intent) Index (SS forX platform/median SS) is valuable to prove the higher concern and seriousness of posters on CB for you guys in Riot games to consider to weigh public opinion more accurately.

This can be defined through comments or simply by whole posts. I feel like it could be a tool to cut through bulk complaints (ahri/ kassadin OP pls nerf!) and evaluate public opinion more based on support/rejection of cogent arguments.

Not Colonel JOct 8, 20132 votes

How exactly does population bias there differ from population bias here? It's obvious the people who frequent either layout like the one they visit more.

Some have reasoned out thoughtfully why they don't like this new design in Pendragon's announcement.

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=3871203

Just MidOct 9, 20131 votes

Damn you're on here too? Small world.

FizzleShakeOct 8, 20132 votes

Cool experiment, although I think that soon community beta will be filled with elitist 12 year olds sooner or later, but maybe if we are lucky they wont!

RiotMontagOct 8, 20133 votes

Even if we do start to get content that's not desirable, it's on us to enable you guys to be your own editors via the voting system. The goal is that we've made you feel that we value your time through connecting you with valuable content quickly and easily. If we're successful, posts made by "elitist 12 year olds" won't be that prominent and will die out quickly.

General ElephantOct 8, 20131 votes

I can only hope that even with reduced popularity (most people just want to BS on forums.. not actually discuss things seriously) CB will remain a prominent, and earnest feature in the LOL community.

Kira OnimeOct 7, 20131 votes

I would honestly like for this experiement to be held again once the population of both platforms even out.

So far, I feel the people on the CB are those leaning towards the more "serious" side of things.

General ElephantOct 7, 20131 votes

I was thinking about doing it, though I feel 6 and 12 months down the road I may have forgotten by then In all honesty :). I will if I remember. I'll make it a bit more elabroate and well done.

P0PC0RN87Oct 8, 20131 votes

Excellent discussion! I sure hope you remember to do another experiment down the road to see if any of your initial findings and assessments remain true.

Cheers!

My Pet DinosaurOct 9, 20131 votes

This makes a lot of sense, although I don't see why changing to a Reddit-style discussion platform didn't have a good share of less-productive members migrating over for the hell of it. I prefer forum posts over this method of communicating any day, but if the community shifts to being more serious/involved/etc. on this end of things, I'll most likely reluctantly switch simply due to the more "professional" (for the lack of a better word) atmosphere of CB.