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Resources Team
Topic Started: Mar 3 2014, 09:52 PM (2,102 Views)
Cory
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Just an FYI, I never have been and I'll never be a staff member of this network. The staff have their reasons why.
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Ferby
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Cory
Mar 30 2014, 08:19 PM
Just an FYI, I never have been and I'll never be a staff member of this network. The staff have their reasons why.
I understand. I wouldn't even be considered because I cause trouble occasionally :smug:
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Stephen
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Twilight is upon me, and soon night must fall.

Ferby
Mar 30 2014, 08:00 PM
I'd like to know that as well. Why doesn't the staff team start a blog or even post regular updates on what is happening in ZB? Would bring the community closer for sure.
This has been discussed. And up until recently, I would have sided with you. Now, with nearly 2 years working for a software developer, I can tell you just how difficult that is. My company attempted to provide monthly updates. We stopped in December after doing it for a little over a year. It's not easy to provide those updates. Sometimes, things fall apart and you don't have anything to show. Sometimes, a lot the work is behind the scenes and you can't show it. With Zetaboards, that's often the case.

The visual is the last thing you'll see. It's the back end that is most time consuming. So what could we say then? Feature X is in development? But we can't show it yet and we don't know when it will be ready. That's not a lot of information. We've found that it is best to simply let him work and when he needs us to test, he'll let us know. And when an update is ready, he'll let us know. If he can give us an update, great. But it may not always be possible each month. As developers, many of you can appreciate that even though something might be ready, it can still fall apart with one good bug.

And we've considered it not being Brandon that releases information, but someone else. Problem is someone still has to get the information from Brandon every month and parse it into something interesting. And some months, it may not be that interesting. A security fix here. A spam prevention method there. A server performance tweak. etc. While development is constantly ongoing, it's not all features and major bug fixes. Sometimes, its the things you don't even notice. And sometimes, it's stuff that can't be shared because of network security.

And then of course, there are features that are announced and don't work out or have to be redesigned. It becomes much harder when you've announced something is in development and it suddenly disappears. Now we could put disclaimers and clarifications up, but the truth is no one would care. If we announce something, it's natural to expect it. This is partly why we don't announce much until we have information. Things can constantly change and priorities can shift radically. If for example, a server is attacked, that takes all priority. Development gets put on hold and it could be some time before it's returned to. But again, no one really wants to read about that.
Lout
Mar 30 2014, 07:42 PM
What's the future for Zetaboards, that's the question that doesn't really get answered in my opinion.
Mobile app. More features. Eventually a completed API toolset and fully functioning Resource Database. I realize that's broad, but those are the main goals.
Edited by Stephen, Mar 30 2014, 08:50 PM.
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Ferby
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I think I speak for both me & Lout in saying that those features have been promised for a while now with no news or announcements of their progress. When I was learning to code, I was looking forward to a ZB API as it would mean a lot more I could do but as I waited and waited, I lost all hope. Here I am stuck using the basic variables put in place and now learning AJAX. Okay, so maybe not regular updates but some news would be nice. Administration is the quietest part of the network when, ideally, it should be the 2nd loudest (1st being the members). I'm not telling Brandon how to do his job as I'm in no position to do so but it does get tiring repeating the same thing again and again and getting the same response again and again. It wouldn't hurt to get a little news out of what's happening as we don't even know if these updates are actually near completion or even in the works at all because we're pretty much blind from what's going on. I could understand if Brandon was having personal trouble but this is something that has been going on for years.

In my 5 years of using ZetaBoards, I have only ever seen 3 major updates. I'm sure more wise members of the Network remember the days where ZB was growing and was great but unfortunately the community moves on and new ones replace them and here I am pretty much begging for some sort of news. Last time I complained I got Brandon's attention but it was short and brief which is disappointing.

I'm not lying when I say I care about the growth of ZetaBoards but is that just going to waste on a lost project? Who knows? I'm not being told a thing. I know this is a bit of a rant but maybe people can see the point I'm trying to make here.
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Pete B
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Stephen
Mar 30 2014, 08:48 PM
Mobile app. More features. Eventually a completed API toolset and fully functioning Resource Database. I realize that's broad, but those are the main goals.
It's been 2.5 years since the RDB was first released to Premium users. That length of time having passed and it not being finished (or having changed much at all) is going to cause people to lose interest in ZB. The API was talked about since then and before IIRC.

You can't expect the community to stay loyal to the service if you provide nothing in return. Why do we think the activity on this board is so low compared to what it was before? That is one of the reasons, I think. Without the volunteer staff, there would be problems...
Edited by Pete B, Mar 31 2014, 12:50 PM.
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Ferby
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Pete B
Mar 31 2014, 12:29 PM
Stephen
Mar 30 2014, 08:48 PM
Mobile app. More features. Eventually a completed API toolset and fully functioning Resource Database. I realize that's broad, but those are the main goals.
It's been 2.5 years since the RDB was first released to Premium users. That length of time having passed and it not being finished (or having changed much at all) is going to cause people to lose interest in ZB. The API was talked about since then and before IIRC.

You can't expect the community to stay loyal to the service if you provide nothing in return. Why do we think the activity on this board is so low compared to what it was before? That is one of the reasons, I think. Without the volunteer staff, there would be problems...
I couldn't agree with you more. It's a miracle we have this community as it is. My thanks go out to the volunteer staff who dedicate themselves to help run things. Especially Stephen who has been loyal enough to stay on board for 10 years. Something obviously needs to be done and no one can deny that. If we continue the course as we are now, ZetaBoards won't have a future. I know this is probably a bit of an extreme way of putting it but :ermm:
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Jason
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It's OK guys, Brandon has just posted a fantastic update!


Which is clearly a poor attempt at an April Fools joke :(
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Helena
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M is for Mod

It has been said that there is some truth hidden in every joke.

Hmmmmm........

:helena:
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Ferby
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Well I'm satisfied with the update (if it is real ;) ). Hopefully Brandon gets this update out soon :D Looking forward to it. But there was no mention of an API being released which is disappointing but, as I said, I'm satisfied with what has been announced.
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flying cat
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In my humble and inexperienced opinion. I joined this forum right before it hit the big boom (I am in the 300,000 member # and now its up to 600,00 something) and I remember it used to be a really cool place. Whenever I had a question, I would PM support members or just people with colorful names (I didn't really know who was authority and who wasn't) and they would answer with the answer to my question or a PM saying who they think would know. Most of these PM's were to Helena and she was very nice about it and answered my questions. But now all we have is a place where we have to make a topic to ask a question, and in my opinion, it is a an excuse made by some staff members so that they didn't have to do the work they were assigned. Almost all of the questions that I have made a topic to have answered have been put down to the second topic just two hours afterwards when someone else askes a question, and same with them.

When I first came regestered, I was pretty active for about four days and then had other things I had to do. During these times, people like Helena and Lothy and Ryan helped me with things. Then, a few months later when I came on and became active, I received no help from any of the staff (Not intentionally of course, it is just that they weren't capable). For the past month or so the only people that I recieve help from are Pizza, Ferby and -The- and other various members...

Also, some of the people on this forum have more then 5,000 posts and have helped me whenever I asked and are very active members yet they are not put on the staff team when there are some staff members that come on every week, answer a PM saying that they cannot help you through PM's, and then leave again...

Thank you,
Flying Cat
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Nicolas
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"PLES RING IF AN RNSER IS REQIRD."

Flying Cat, I don't even know where to begin.
First, the support team's priority is tickets. That's the end of that discussion. They're the only ones who can touch them and so they do. When tickets are slow or something catches their eye they will follow up with public topics, but the public support topics should be helped by the community as much as possible.
The reason why there is absolutely no PM support is because when you submit a ticket or post a topic multiple people can see it and try to help you - and when you get that help people know that, too. There's no risk of you taking 12 people's attention and time and getting the same answer 12 times. Similarly, we're human and we forget about our PMs sometimes - so it's best not to risk that. If we do get a PM for support, we will often respond with help and a friendly reminder not to PM in the future, if it's the first time: if that's ignored and it continues things escalate. The other reason we encourage you to post a public topic (if you don't need a ticket) as opposed to using the PM system is that somebody else probably has the same problem as you, and if you post about it and have it resolved they may find the issue there and not need to post their own topic. PMs do not afford that possibility. What Helena does on her own time is her business, but the policy of this board is, and will remain, that you do not PM staff members for support.

Then comes the point that, all your support topics have been solved. Code requests (etc.) are very different from support.

And once again I will remind everybody that this topic is not for airing complaints. It was about the end of the resource team - if you have something to add about the resource team, maybe an idea about how we can best encourage members to produce and share resources, that's very welcome. If you don't, or if this topic continues down this vein, it will be closed promptly and without further warning.
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flying cat
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OK :P
I suppose we did get kind of off topic :ermm:
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Ferby
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Thank you to whatever staff removed my post, very helpful -.-
Edited by Ferby, Apr 1 2014, 05:22 PM.
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Nicolas
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"PLES RING IF AN RNSER IS REQIRD."

Ferby
Apr 1 2014, 05:17 PM
Thank you to whatever staff removed my post, very helpful -.-
You're welcome that I split it away so this topic can stay on topic.
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flying cat
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If not... There could be rioting in the streets ;)
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