TA Doesn't Accept Feedback

Discussion in 'Site Feedback and News' started by Royce, Jul 8, 2013.

  1. Royce

    Royce Well-Known Member

    Mar 22, 2011
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    Then why have a forum for it? The thread that was just deleted had a number of good points about conflict of interest and ways to improve information given to front page readers. If you disagree, that's fine, but to just delete the thread seems highly shady to say the least, and shows a total disregard for member opinions...
     
  2. Eli

    Eli ᕕ┌◕ᗜ◕┐ᕗ
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    The thread was totally out of control. We're open to feedback, but not in a highly accusatory and aggressive manner. Our editorial policies haven't changed, and, as it mentions, maintaining our integrity is paramount. Our freelance writers are thoroughly vetted, and the people who make it to be a part of our team are among the 1% of the applications we get. If I even had any suspicion that Karl had any ulterior movies for anything he was doing for us, he wouldn't be writing for us.

    If you don't trust me, or my staff, don't read TouchArcade. It's really that simple. I hate to say it, but much like highly conspiratorial comments we get on front page reviews, people who believe these things have already made up their minds and no amount of rational discussion will change that.
     
  3. Royce

    Royce Well-Known Member

    Mar 22, 2011
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    It was already locked, and honestly I'm not sure there was anything particularly conspiratorial. No one was (at least most posters were not) saying that the review was affected by a conflict of interest. People were just questioning whether it was fair to say such a conflict existed, and personally I think it was.

    Anyway, any thoughts about mini-bios for review authors under their reviews so we can learn a bit more about them? It would be nice for more reasons than just what was discussed in that other thread.
     
  4. Eli

    Eli ᕕ┌◕ᗜ◕┐ᕗ
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    The new TouchArcade redesign which is launching soon will have author bios. I deleted it because people who are in to "TouchArcade more like TouchArePaid"-style conspiracy theories never forgive and never forget... SooOooOOoo... No real reason to dwell on it. If I thought Karl was a problem, I would solve that problem before someone posted a thread about it.
     
  5. saansilt

    saansilt 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Mar 23, 2013
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    Thank you for taking the mini bio idea.
     
  6. Vovin

    Vovin 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    #6 Vovin, Jul 8, 2013
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2013

    touchArePaid? Hey, that's a new one! :)

    And that sean.99-guy. He smell like Defred. It WAS Defred, amirite?
     
  7. Eli

    Eli ᕕ┌◕ᗜ◕┐ᕗ
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    Wouldn't surprise me.
     
  8. MasterChief3624

    MasterChief3624 Well-Known Member

    Oct 11, 2009
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    I will restrain myself, but I'm in agreement with the OP. I personally feel that if the feedback isn't something the site agrees with, they delete the thread in two shakes of a lamb's tail. :\

    I've made a few topics about stuff... while I may have written them in an "aggressive" manner, as Eli puts it, I thought I made some great points. I was shot down in every single suggestion and passed off as a red-flagged troll probably. Hopefully that red flag is gone now, but it is bizarre to me that the suggestions forum is a thing when most suggestions get shot down if they're not universally agreed upon by the admins.

    I don't know. It's just a thing.

    While I definitely didn't agree with that topic about the "conflict of interest", I respect the OP's right to make such a topic, in any manner he pleases that doesn't threaten the well-being of any member. I think it's silly to delete suggestion topics that have a sinister/sarcastic/aggressive edge, because that really hurts the credibility of this being a system where our feedback is even wanted.

    Some of us just write abrasively. It's not something we can help. It was never my intention to offend anyone with the topics I made. I was legitimately voicing my concerns for many issues... that's it. But the way I wrote them, apparently I came off as abrasive and I "caused more work for the mods."

    It's just dumb. It's also dumb that I am writing this much about it, I realize. But I write a lot. It's what I do. You want me to write an essay on how to open a banana? I can do it! :D

    I agree with the OP here. I think this forum should be less of a suggestions forum and more described as purely a bugs and glitches one... because those are the only topics I've ever seen that actually have positive feedback. I've never seen a suggestion make it past the concept period. The glitches and bugs topics, though? Of course they care about those more. Functionality over opinion is always more important... but at the cost of the users feeling they have no freedom or control or voice with regards to possible improvements they've brought up? That's not fair.
     
  9. metalcasket

    metalcasket Moderator
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    Please do.
     
  10. MasterChief3624

    MasterChief3624 Well-Known Member

    Oct 11, 2009
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    Okay. You will have to give me a little while. But I will try!

    Admittedly that might have been a bad example, though... I'm not really sure if I could make an essay describing opening a banana. Unless I take the erotic route... Yeah. 50 Peels of Banana.

    I like the sound of this. :)
     
  11. JBRUU

    JBRUU Well-Known Member

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    #11 JBRUU, Jul 8, 2013
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2013
    I will say that the whole CMR thread did sound a little fishy. I didn't read the entire thing or too closely, but come on: A developer of a racing game reviewing another racer, which is in direct competition (so what if his is top-down) with his own? And there's not even a disclosure of this fact in the review? That would be in the same vein as having Sony write a review of the Xbox One, or the developers of Saints Row IV review GTA V.

    I'm not calling conspiracy, I'm just saying that as a consumer and a very frequent reader of your reviews, I'd just like to know that this guy might have something to gain by a negative review. A brief paragraph in italics or a bold postscript a at the bottom would've made this a total non-issue :)


    Come to think of it, yeah, he did sound pretty familiar. Especially with his defense of piracy.
     
  12. The math concludes a 75% chance of it being Defred, though there is the possibility that a 20 foot intergalactic dolphin messed the math up somewhere
     
  13. Harpgliss

    Harpgliss Well-Known Member

    Nov 8, 2009
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    Hi,

    The only thing I saw wrong with the review was the person did not divulge he was a developer within the text of the review.

    He voiced an opinion that did not sit well with some, oops.

    I would have liked seeing the reviewer do the review from the point of view of a developer and how he might have done things to improve the porting to ios. This was a big opportunity missed and could have avoided some of the fallout.

    Was nice to see some of the staff express their opinions on this in the original thread, kudos to those who did.

    The thread deleted and the points expressed by the administrator here is not surprising except for the fact the thread did not get deleted sooner.

    Just my opinion here and not meant to further anything more than a discussion.
     
  14. Eli

    Eli ᕕ┌◕ᗜ◕┐ᕗ
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    Here's the thing, and admittedly, I'm painting things with broad strokes here, but this has been the case the overwhelming majority of the time in my five years here at TouchArcade and every other online community I've managed over the years: People who have actual suggestions, 99 times out of 100, will send them to you in an eloquent email. We get loads of feedback, and we've implemented some of it, but that feedback (again almost always) comes in the form of a well-reasoned calm-headed suggestion.

    This wasn't the case with this particular drama.

    This started because a guy wanted to out us as being the review marionette of a scam artist developer whose pepperoni greased tendrils were wrapped tightly around TouchArcade to ensure the success of the game he is working on which is in no way related to the game he reviewed short of the fact that they both include cars. It wasn't a suggestion, it was an attack. Granted, it didn't help that Karl hopped in to vigorously defend himself, but, still.

    This sort of thing is practically the calling card of a few very dedicated trolls who all seem absolutely obsessed with attacking the credibility of TouchArcade in any strange way they can string together. We've been dealing with this for years, and nearly every time something like this pops up it's from one of the usual suspects who may have been lying dormant for a while but are always there watching.

    Anyway, there's a way to do things and there's a way to not do things. If this was an actual suggestion, it would've come in another form that wasn't essentially trollish internet peacocking. Believe me, we love suggestions, this just wasn't one.
     
  15. menom

    menom Well-Known Member

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    Goodbye

    What a shame.

    I've been here since the start of the app store. (In the UK) and found it great resource and also liked the style and humour of the founding members / reviewers.

    The review of Colin McRae along with the glowing reviews of Real Racing and other examples of the antithesis of pure gaming was bad enough - but a Stalin-esque purge of the complainers? Wow!

    Where is this site based? 1940s Russia? Modern day North Korea? I'm outa here.

    I used to recommend this site to friends and acquaintances looking for advice on good games to get. I sadly cannot do that any more.

    eg. I let an Android phone-owning friend play Colin McRae on my iPhone 5 the other night and I ended-up having to wrench the phone back out of his hands - he was so keen on it and desperate for it to be launched on Android. He said it handles exactly as he remembers from playing it on PC and loved the physics of the game.

    Yet here it's reviewed as... 'meh.'

    The reviewer himself seems a decent chap - sorry Karl - no offence to you - but in relation to this site's standards the review score is way off the mark.

    I sincerely wish all of the TA crew the best. No hard feelings and all that. Thanks for all the heads-ups over the years! But this place isn't for me any more as the reviews seem to be the opposite of what I experience.
     
  16. Eli

    Eli ᕕ┌◕ᗜ◕┐ᕗ
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    This isn't what is happening at all. The person stirring up trouble this time was actually previously banned (several times) for... prolific amounts of piracy promotion and other general trolling/harassment, if I recall correctly.
     
  17. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    As I remember the dearly departed thread, the issue was mostly about disclosure -- which is a standard journalistic practice, not an accusation of dishonesty. If anyone was striking a strident tone, it was the people defending the review.

    But, of course, now that the thread is gone, you are free to characterize it in any way you want. (Now, how's that for a conspiracy theory? ;)).
     
  18. saansilt

    saansilt 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    #18 saansilt, Jul 9, 2013
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2013
    Challenge accepted.

    [​IMG]
    ahem.
    The government is behind this controversy!
    Defred is a tool use by the government to brainwash people towards government monitoring of the internet and get the supporters of government violation of rights re elected to depower the common ios gamer from seeing the veil!
    They use Eli and TA as a target so we don't see the trap here! But I know!
    And now you know! And knowing is half the battle!



    Well, the mini biography thing should prevent the disclosure issuse from happening again.
     
  19. Vovin

    Vovin 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    #19 Vovin, Jul 9, 2013
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2013

    I smell a Defred, when I... well, smell one.
    I am with you with your opinions but I daresay that Eli has a point, too.
    I should refer to it as "different interests".
    The opening post in the thread now gone was not trolling, insulting or rude, by reading it several times you could see what the writer intended to do. Felt like some sort of mild brain wash. He basically used some rhetoric tricks. Still it should... must be allowed to use journalistic tools like disclosure. My feelings about this are mixed. Can't decide which's side has the stronger interest. But I always go with the peasants.
     
  20. MidianGTX

    MidianGTX Well-Known Member

    Jun 16, 2009
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    I've often thought I could type up a well-worded post on improvements that could be made to the forum, but I don't, 'cause I think I'm more likely to get banned than listened to. It doesn't matter how reasonable you're being if people don't like what you're writing.
     

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