I was rereading what I wrote and that line
I dont see many here, but if they through, we can make a post on that page for any mods.
should be- I don't see many here(spammers posts), but if they get through we can post a link on the invisible thread for any mods.
It was really late when I wrote all this. For me its usually better to wait till after a nap to make a post, cause I take meds similar to rabbits.
watcher13
Member
Sorry, Txnnok, I saw your post this morning but just started a temporary job that, with the commute, is a 13 hour day and I didn't have time to reply this morning. I'm sorry if you were led to believe that I felt you should apologize to me, but there was no need. I'm sorry, but the easiest way is to quote myself.
"I assure you, I've got no bone to pick with you. This comment isn't addressed to you."
I was just trying to point out the irony of the whole thing, because directly after your comment was a post that criticized that I was criticizing GOTD. I'm afraid that's not a new thing, but that's exactly what I was referring to. I wasn't going to respond, but it also fell into another category that occurs all to often here, people that criticize what other people are posting without carefully reading what other people are posting. (I'm afraid I've done it myself.)
And we've had this happen in a lot of threads. Someone, like Graylox in this case, will post about their surprise and mild frustration over problems with the comment section on the GIVEAWAY page, and someone else will post about how they don't understand why anyway would say that about the forums, since they've never seen it happen in the forums. But NOBODY was talking about the forums.
And regardless of whether my sarcastic comment was too pessimistic, it all boils down to something I've said here dozens of times. Despite what GOTD says on the main page about posting comments on the project in the forums, there's never been much evidence that GOTD actually pays much attention to what's going on over here.
And the bottom line is: there's currently only 7 hours and 45 minutes left in today's giveaway and there's only comments from FIFTEEN posters. Maybe Archangel's right and GOTD will get around to fixing it someday. But will they lose an awful lot of people out of frustration over the time it will take them to get around to fixing it - like the problems with the supposedly "unfixable" email notification issue? I have no way of knowing, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were. The ironic part is that GOTD says they want suggestions and maybe they do - like with the new evaluation system - and maybe they don't - like with all the other frustrations people have posted about in this forum.
Also, don't you find it interesting that someone changed Graylox's title from "Scary Things", unless it was Lady Gray herself?
As to your proposal, it's well thought out, but I'm not sure it's necessary. Hidden complaints from long time members might help some get out their frustrations, but will GOTD read them and change anything, either? And it won't help address the concerns of all the newbies that we drive away by telling them to "sit down and shut up; GOTD is free and everything's fine".
I see I misread your post again. Though I do remember that you meant the front forums, which is one of times I erase my previous posts. Its hard to when your here all the time to think about the other forum, which is probably what happens with the GOATD guys. They don't ever come here, so they don't think or care about this forum.
I was reading the posts from the icepine converter and one of those guys was upset that he clicked on, downloaded, and installed the Advanced System Care Package located right under the giveaway thinking it was the giveaway.
Someone responded harshly saying GOATD supports ASC and that he wasnt hijacked and he should have payed attention to what he was doing.
I was giving it a rough break down. I was thinking about and really though in way he was hijacked. GOATD purposely set up ASC download there so people will screw up and and accidentally install it instead. Why would GOATD do this, because ASC pays them for so many downloads or installs.
People are not going to click on the banner willfully, they would just go the site and download it. I always think any banner or advertisement as a possible virus and stay clear of it.
I'm not sure if see how this fits in with what your saying. Its a little bit different take on a different problem. It popped into my head when I was thinking the site needed fixing as I was reading the post.
--------
You're right about losing people and people will start reporting to google. After enough reports google will put up web page block enter at own risk. Very annoying and very bad for business.
I quit installing their programs a long time ago, so rarely even read the forum, but I will start now and keep an eye out see ones that shouldn't get deleted- get deleted.
I might even take screen shots for awhile, just so I'm not wondering.
Haha yeah I changed the title from "Scary" to "Unusual". I think scary is a kinda strong word and unusual fits more of what's going on here. But yeah I do agree on how interesting this is. This forum topic has already went off topic from the original post. But I see this alot in many posts. Yes the GOTD admin don't really care about us in the forums. They have to many other things to worry about with the main site to check up on us everyday. That's why they leave it to us mods to do the work. Perhaps a mod is drunk with power like you say or maybe they are simply not reading what they delete carefully before deleting it. Whatever the case the forums seem to be alot better now than what they were back in the day. And as for the main site comments, there's nothing we can really do. Only a few admins and official GOTD staff have access to those comments so any complaining for that must be done to GOTD directly because they may never even read this forum topic.
Thanks for the clarification, The post leaving topic is basically my fault. I had been up the whole day and half the night playing games, but I was trying to bring it back in with my last post.
It is interesting which is why it drew me in. It is also easy to criticize when you sit on the sidelines, but if the site was yours what would do. Imagine this, most people are, but a few are griping.
You will never make everyone happy, so why bother.
watcher13
Member
No, no, it's not a big deal, I'm only posting because I don't want to be the cause of people apologizing when they don't need to. My 2 points are: there's still problems with comments on the main page getting through to GOTD, like Lady Grey said in the first place. Maybe it's primarily technical, maybe it's disinterested moderation - when Bubby says there's an occasional problem with moderation I'm inclined to take his word for it. But, in any case, a lot less posts are getting through than before. Whether this is really bad is a gray area. I can see where developers would look at a sparsity of comments and think GOTD isn't reaching enough people. On the other hand, a smart developer would look at the number of downloads, purchases, and hits/downloads from the ads, all of which are more important to a developer's bottom line than a bunch of comments. So, again, the shortage of comments may hurt GOTD, it may not. So they may want to put an emphasis on improving the situation, or maybe not.
The other thing I was saying is an ongoing comment on the irony of this statement on the main page, "Please comment only on the software here. If you have technical problems or suggestions on our project, please leave us a note in our forums." Really? If we post those things, GOTD, will you actually read them? :^,
Edit:
I just realized that there is further irony in that GOTD, instead of using the mediums for feedback it already has, has started using this sticker applet. According to the blog post, this is already starting to get heavily panned, though I suspect this has more to do with GOTD's new partnership with Sticker than actually trying to solicit feedback. Maybe I should post the smirking emoticon again. :^, Personally, I don't understand these services. Why would you encourage people to plaster things all over your page? Can everyone see it, or just you and the website owners? Does this help the owners more than just reading the suggestions from normal sources?
Chip, I'm not a native English speaker; "scary" is the word which verbalises best what I was going to say.
As long as I don't know, if that what happened was intended or a mistake by a "robot moderator", it's not "unusual", but "scary" for me. Well, I could have said "unexplainable" or "mysterious", but I chose "scary", alluding to Halloween.(Though I was/am not frightened to death).
Same thing happened on a later occasion and even today. My "Price" rating of today is gone
Scary!
graylox
Ok ok how about a compromise. I guess they are "unusually scary" lol :p
even my ratings disappeared 2 days ago - on about 2 or 3 categories. As a moderator I cannot even see or approve ratings or comments in that section. (I guess that section is ultra secret).
Just be aware if you do make a scathing comment in your ratings (no swearing, obscenities or personal attacks - just basically saying the software isn't even ready for beta testing and should be sent back to the developer for further work) - don't be surprised if your words vanish into thin air.
Best to say only nice, or "slightly disappointed" things - the sort of things a developer could use on their "testimonials" webpage. After all, GOTD is "promoting" the software.
To be fair though, the last three days giveaways have really been stinkers... or "below the usual standard" of GOTD giveaways.
Good Morning, Mr. Administrator and welcome to the club!
I'll try not to comment about the moderation of the reviews anymore. That seems to become a never ending story.
Looking at the low quality of the Giveaways respectively the dubious appearance of the developers' homepages and the unethical hijacking, it soon could be that no serious user will try and review the GOTDs anymore. Or the next reviews will be published by WOT, with a thick red arrow in front of the rating.
It seems, the darkness and the cold outside made me rather cynical, sorry.
graylox
watcher13
Member
Been out of touch for a couple days. Sorry, I just have to says this. Hmmm. Negative comments that disappear. Even stalwarts of the project starting to see a few chinks in the armor. It makes me feel a little like Cassandra. (Check out your Greek mythology.)
Seriously, I feel I've been misunderstood, here. I'm still an enthusiastic supporter of GOTD. But, what my critics don't get is this: When I say these things I'm simply trying to HELP the project. You know, like kindly suggesting to someone, "You know, if you'd put the car in reverse instead of forward, you wouldn't keep crashing into your garage door." What those who want to shout down any criticism don't understand is that many of us who say these thing are really just trying to help the project, which we still like and appreciate. Of course, it doesn't take too many ignored suggestions to realize they're only half listening, if at all, in GOTD land. And GOTD may think it's paranoid tendency towards secrecy helps it's image, but, if the problems in the comments section are glitches and not censorship, and you don't tell people you're feverishly working on the problem and it might take some time, by the time you fix it you could have lost a LOT of people. Just like the "unfixable" email notification problem that miraculously got fixed. Reminds me of what the World's Worst Director, the now immortal Ed Wood, used to say about some of the INCREDIBLE gaffes that showed up in his films, "The audience will never notice". How prophetic. :) How much more would a simple blog post saying you're working on the comments problem go toward improving the project's image? And, of course, actual censorship of negative comments will go a LONG way towards creating good feelings about the project. LOL!
Yes, I suppose we could all just sit here and say, "It's free! If you say anything you're just spoiled!" I guess complacency is how they put men on the moon. ;) Before, when I criticized, I was just trying to make GOTD aware of some bugs that could be easily smoothed out and would improve the impression the project made on new arrivals. Believe it or not, I was still bullish on it. Now, I'm starting to wonder if we aren't seeing the first signs of things slowly circling down the drain. If you go back and look at the comments section from early 2008 even, you'll see comments from veterans of the comments section who gave up on the project in disgust. Sooner or later, retention may become a problem because the supply of new users may not be inexhaustible. We forum members forget that most GOTD users don't ever join the forums, so our voices may not be representative of the overall feeling people have about the project, good or bad.
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