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Thee MC
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Update Details and Response to Feedback

Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:35 pm

Dear Fellow Wheelmen,

We made changes, and you have feedback. This is something that we expected. Please understand that we are new to this and are learning as we go. As we transition into our roles, and as the community transitions into having us in these roles, there are going to be growing pains. We have a vision for growing this community, and please understand that this community has significantly grown from its roots since it first started. While this is great in so many ways, it does present a significant challenge: allowing the community to have their own discussion areas within Discord while still keeping the community together.

This community was built using our forums. The website serves as a foundation for this community and as a repository of ideas that can be shared with the community. Many of us have abandoned the website and with reason. That shit got hacked. However, the website is back up and we have been working very hard to bring forth a (working) and renewed experience. With the website live and running again, it’s important that we make a distinction between the purpose of our website and of Discord. The website is the perfect place to post information about specific subjects that you don’t want to be drowned out. It encourages discussion about a specific topic, as people can click it if it interests them and respond at their own timely convenience without it becoming buried. The purpose of Discord is for active discussions. Topics intended for wider commentary should not be posted in Discord. Anything shared should either spark or be part of an active discussion.

The changes made to the channels in Discord were not for the sake of change. We approached the Discord from the perspective of a newcomer into the community. Upon logging in, there is an overwhelming number of channels within the server, some of which were very niche or specific. Others were filled with bots posting updates, and some hadn’t been actively used for a long time. After discussing ways that we could address this, we came up with the idea of consolidating channels into broader categories. We believed that this would not only tidy up the channel list but would also help to achieve one of our main goals: to bring activity back to the website and forums and to find a way to keep larger parts of the community interacting through active discussions on Discord. We felt this change would allow people who may have interests in a genre or category to pick up a new game or activity to try out with fellow wheelmen. We’ve heard some feedback and recognize that some channels served more specific purposes for active discussion and consolidation created unneeded confusion.

We realize that the changes are sudden. And while we have publically shared our plan for the community at large, the changes that we have made thus far to achieve that goal haven’t been detailed to explain how they fit that vision. We promise to be better about explaining the changes we make and being more transparent about them moving forward. While we experiment with changes, please be open-minded and provide us with constructive feedback to help us.

We are all Wheelmen, we are a community, and most importantly we are friends. No decisions are intended to cause rifts in any of these three domains, and that is the last thing we would ever want. As we move forward and get better with communicating our ideas it is equally important, if not more so, for you to communicate your ideas with us. We have spent hours collaborating and working hard to brainstorm ideas that will help make this community flourish, and we would appreciate that all feedback be directed solely at us in a respectable manner. Any comments, concerns, or general feedback can be placed in appropriate forum threads, or through direct communication with Jon, MC, or Monster.

Kindest Regards,
~The Staff:
HWM Jon
HWM MC
HWM Monster
 
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Laughlyn
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Re: Update Details and Response to Feedback

Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:53 pm

Man, I know I'm not often around yall - but my support is always here for the Wheelmen. Many of you are just actually family in my family's eyes already. So as far as this topic goes:

Personally i love this. It is actually impossible for me to keep up with most discord channels in general at work. And there have been things I have missed (mainly in the summer, no offense but after 16-18 hour days for a while I only want sleep) more static convos and info are much easier to check up on in a forum thread. The fluidity that discord gives is amazing and perfect for the active and ATM stuff. And the fact that literally anyone can C/P from discord to the site in real time is just a bonus. Potentially archiving the ideas without every bit of the 'fluff' is superior to making so. Many. Pins.
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WatchGrassGrow
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Re: Update Details and Response to Feedback

Thu Jun 13, 2019 7:26 am

I personally dislike a great deal about what has changed. I don't use the discord as often as I should but I feel that the condensing of the channels didn't mean anything to you, the admins, but it meant a lot to the people using those channels.
At the very least there should be a Nintendo channel.
When we have people asking "What channel should we talk about X game in?" To me, that's a problem.

Beyond that we know Looter shooters is the Destiny channel and Shooters is Halo. We know that, you know that.

Why do we need condensed channels like this?

Stop acting like we have 20k people in the Discord.
You just read this incredibly tiny text for no good reason, and have nothing to show for it.
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joefro
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Re: Update Details and Response to Feedback

Thu Jun 13, 2019 9:25 am

As a newcomer to the community, I personally liked seeing all of the specific game channels and other topics on the discord. I understood that I could mute and hide channels of games that I wasn't interested in and they would never show up for me from that point forward. If I was interested in a game later, I could just unhide the channel and participate in that conversation. What happens later in the year in the looting shooter channel when Borderlands 3 and Destiny 2: Shadowkeep release within a week of each other? It's going to piss off people trying to discuss both games including people like myself that intend to play both games.

Most games are moving to a service model these days. We're expected to stop playing these games for a while and come back when an update hits. A few times with Fallout 76, for example, I'd see a patch bot update and decide to load up the game again. I don't believe that an inactive channel means that a game or a discussion is over.

It feels like these updates were intended to bring in more people into channels and discussions, but honestly it just pissed off the people that were actually using them. I personally haven't seen any of the people asking for changes engage in different ways than before. We may have shitposted in #anthem, but there were genuine discussions in that channel.

I understand you want people to use the forums and that there is a long history with this clan and these forums. However, discord is more convenient and readily available, with push notifications and a simpler interface, integration with Xbox Live, Steam, etc. My suggestion would be to pivot there instead of trying to force the conversations unnaturally to the forums.
 
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Sarge
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Re: Update Details and Response to Feedback

Thu Jun 13, 2019 9:43 am

For some historical context, the ongoing problem with glorified chat apps like Discord is noise.

Discord, Skype, AIM, Slack, and anything that has come before or comes after them consistently reward people who can check in with the chat all day while punishing those who don't have that luxury. Reddit's endurance testifies to this.

The other issue with posting things in Discord exclusively, despite its convenience, is the impermanence of the service. We own our database here and back it up regularly. Any ideas we have as a community can be easily accessed here and preserved.

Running channels in a chat server compares to granting club space in a school. You create channels as needed to cut down on the noise, and then when things die down, you reduce space.
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Chaos
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Re: Update Details and Response to Feedback

Thu Jun 13, 2019 10:35 am

Glad to have the forums back up!
Anyway I'll weigh in on my opinion of the discord changes;
Personally I preferred the old system rather than this new approach of shoving 5 games into one channel. The looter shooter channel I can see being especially problematic considering we have a lot of members who play Destiny 2 and a lot who are planning to play Borderlands 3 along with smaller groups that play games like Fallout 76. This will make discussion difficult down the road when everyone's trying to talk about a different game.

The compressed channels work fine for some genres though, Battle Royale for example works great.

I think keeping a few merged channels but going back to specific game channels for the most popular titles within the community like Destiny 2 & Halo along with removing inactive channels could work.
 
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Monster
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Re: Update Details and Response to Feedback

Thu Jun 13, 2019 11:44 am

Feedback on the decision has been great, and I appreciate all the views expressed at this point. If you have further ideas on how to best mold our discord, please post them in this thread here.

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