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Post by June Scarlet on Feb 3, 2016 18:54:53 GMT -5
www.neopets.com/ul_spotlight.phtmlApparently the stolen premade userlookup is no longer the winner of this week's contest? (Just checked the account and the trophy has also been removed). Good, good. That's a step in the right direction. |
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Post by ♥ Lulu on Feb 3, 2016 19:05:25 GMT -5
www.neopets.com/ul_spotlight.phtmlApparently the stolen premade userlookup is no longer the winner of this week's contest? (Just checked the account and the trophy has also been removed). That is good! I think I must have assumed from it being still up on the News page. |
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Post by Jae on Feb 3, 2016 23:02:21 GMT -5
See, I defended them about the stolen premade on Reddit because I thought "how could they ever know that, and check every single premade site"....until the guy who posted it said he found it through reverse google imaging, which took them about 5 seconds. Seems like something JS could afford to do - maybe not for every entrant, but for every entrant they are putting forward as the bloody winner. Oh, and the fact they don't have a report button for the UL spotlight seems like a pretty major oversight (which I understand isn't their fault, but when I get the time (read: can be bothered), I might send a ticket in about that. I'm surprised there haven't been enough tickets flooding the system by now that they've taken it down. Maybe it's that seeming lack of communication between departments. The fact that the person had five pets and the layout was obviously optimized for only four pets should have been a big red flag, but that's just me. (it also probably should have precluded the UL from winning in the first place, but I doubt JS wants to discourage new Premium subscribers like that) I'm glad they got it sorted out relatively quickly, though. |
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Post by Ryanruff13 on Feb 3, 2016 23:22:07 GMT -5
They even cracked down on it in the news, in addition to removing any trace of the previous winner from yesterday's news:  Eh, I guess this shows that for any incidents that have happened since JumpStart took over...that while it'd still be great if said incidents didn't happen in the first place, the fact that they fix them fairly quickly at least shows that they're still listening and not completely ignoring the fans. It still would have been good for the spotlight manager to check by doing a reverse image search first, nevertheless. But better late then never. |
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Post by Carolyn on Feb 4, 2016 6:50:14 GMT -5
After this incident, I bet the contest judge will be more careful with who they choose. Thank goodness for that.
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Post by Herdy on Feb 4, 2016 8:12:53 GMT -5
I hope so, but we had the same hopes about the art team not stealing art again XD
Good this is fixed, at least.
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Post by Patjade on Feb 4, 2016 8:25:43 GMT -5
Just a word. Maybe if you see something is wrong, instead of grousing about it here and lamenting about how bad a job JS is doing, why not gather the evidence and REPORT the offending item instead? It appears that's just what happened with this user lookup, and as you can see, they took the right action.
Maybe working and helping JS may be a step towards building trust and relations instead of complaining and building mistrust and enmity.
It certainly can't hurt.
Nothing will destroy Neopets faster than JS getting the feeling that no matter what they try to do, they will never get the support of the players that feel betrayed in the first place, so they stop trying and start considering scrapping the whole thing altogether. If they do that we ALL lose.
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Post by Herdy on Feb 4, 2016 9:10:17 GMT -5
Many of us did report it  Half of the problem here was that it appeared nothing was being done about those reports (because in the past, when stolen stuff has won spotlights, it has gotten removed within a couple of hours rather than 24). Maybe we need to adjust our expectations of the time frame JS can act in compared to old TNT, that's fair - but in cases where the system appears to be failing telling us to use the system isn't going to help XD I completely get your point and having this thread up all the time for every little thing must be demoralising for people - but this is one of the few avenues we have to discuss these things, since some of the discussions on this thread have been actively supressed on the Neopets site. |
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Post by Patjade on Feb 4, 2016 10:02:17 GMT -5
The problem is that everyone is comparing JS to TNT. It's obvious they are not, and that because of their structure, the learning curve isn't the same. After all, it's been over a year.
However, there has been noted improvements. I don't think JS was quite prepared the the complexity of a site that had developed over 16 years when they took over, but over the last couple of months, it seems they are starting to get the hang of it.
Meanwhile, I am aware this is basically a rant thread over the foibles and failures of the "new" Neopets, and it does give vent to the frustration. I'm just saying that things may change for the better, faster, if we help JS along like what was done with the site lookup.
While being quick to vent frustration when they get things wrong, don't be stingy with praise if they get things right, OK?
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Post by Duke Pikachu on Feb 4, 2016 10:14:05 GMT -5
I'm just saying that things may change for the better, faster, if we help JS along like what was done with the site lookup. While being quick to vent frustration when they get things wrong, don't be stingy with praise if they get things right, OK? While I agree with your post, I do want to say something to the bit I quoted: First, I myself have over and over again said and displayed willingness to help JS and encouraged everyone to do the same. I always said if JS had any questions or wanted an idea what they could do to improve the site they can ask the players. But they aren't. Aside from CQ who's strictly Neopian Times, JS keeps quiet and to themselves. It feels like they don't want our help for whatever reason, and because of this it feels like they're ignoring us. Yes they fix mistakes, but when has a JS member other than CQ interacted with the players in any form? BTW, do we know who's the staff member who posts the News? And yes we should praise the things JS does good, however at the same time we should not stop giving complaints and criticisms as well. No one can improve themselves on compliments or complaints alone, they need both to know what they should keep on doing and what they need to change. And of course everyone will have different opinions on what is right and what is wrong, however I think as long as we voice both sides of criticism than JS will hopefully be able to find the middle ground which will satisfy most. |
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Post by Patjade on Feb 4, 2016 10:40:11 GMT -5
Aside from CQ who's strictly Neopian Times, JS keeps quiet and to themselves. It feels like they don't want our help for whatever reason, and because of this it feels like they're ignoring us. Yes they fix mistakes, but when has a JS member other than CQ interacted with the players in any form? BTW, do we know who's the staff member who posts the News? Consider this: You take over a site that has a staff that's revered by a very large base, then for financial reasons, you let that staff go and man it with your own staff, which operates under a different structure than the previous one. Many of your employees ae telecommuting from other locations around the world. Now realize there is a very loud, sharp, and vocal backlash against JS because of how they did the handoff. Would you be eager to throw open welcoming arms to a group of people who are angry and bitter, or would you get together internally and try and figure out how to address those issues, perhaps planning on an outreach program once people see the progress you've made? |
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Post by June Scarlet on Feb 4, 2016 15:26:31 GMT -5
(What I dislike most about the state of things is when the players start arguing amongst themselves about what is the proper reaction to how things are on Neopets. Somehow, that is more discouraging than anything else, to me personally.)
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Post by Duke Pikachu on Feb 4, 2016 16:01:30 GMT -5
Aside from CQ who's strictly Neopian Times, JS keeps quiet and to themselves. It feels like they don't want our help for whatever reason, and because of this it feels like they're ignoring us. Yes they fix mistakes, but when has a JS member other than CQ interacted with the players in any form? BTW, do we know who's the staff member who posts the News? Consider this: You take over a site that has a staff that's revered by a very large base, then for financial reasons, you let that staff go and man it with your own staff, which operates under a different structure than the previous one. Many of your employees ae telecommuting from other locations around the world. Now realize there is a very loud, sharp, and vocal backlash against JS because of how they did the handoff. Would you be eager to throw open welcoming arms to a group of people who are angry and bitter, or would you get together internally and try and figure out how to address those issues, perhaps planning on an outreach program once people see the progress you've made? But that's just it, there doesn't seem like there's going to be any "outreach" program. It's been over a year since they took over and they've shown they can run the site and when they put their foot forward can produce content up to par with what we familiarize with TNT's, but now what? According to you this would be the time to have this outreach program, where they start taking in suggestions from users and start focusing their efforts where user's want them, maybe even asking users to ideas and suggestions for new site content. But that doesn't seem like they're going to or even want to do that. |
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Post by Zoey on Feb 4, 2016 16:10:32 GMT -5
Aside from CQ who's strictly Neopian Times, JS keeps quiet and to themselves. It feels like they don't want our help for whatever reason, and because of this it feels like they're ignoring us. Yes they fix mistakes, but when has a JS member other than CQ interacted with the players in any form? BTW, do we know who's the staff member who posts the News? Consider this: You take over a site that has a staff that's revered by a very large base, then for financial reasons, you let that staff go and man it with your own staff, which operates under a different structure than the previous one. Many of your employees ae telecommuting from other locations around the world. Now realize there is a very loud, sharp, and vocal backlash against JS because of how they did the handoff. Would you be eager to throw open welcoming arms to a group of people who are angry and bitter, or would you get together internally and try and figure out how to address those issues, perhaps planning on an outreach program once people see the progress you've made? ^ yup. that's basically how I feel. I mean, maybe I've just played too much MMORPGs in the past, but I feel like the community on Neo tends to be extremely sharp about things that would warrant an interesting thread or two in other online games but wouldn't generate the reaction that it does here. Now, don't get me wrong, these mistakes are still very wrong and I am happy that Neo-users are very vocal about their opinions, but JS is still fairly young to handling the game compared to the old TNT staff, which had over a decade of experience, and even then I'm told that they would have the occasional premade lookup slip through. They didn't handle the Korbatgate thing all too well, as they didn't admit to using fanart or gave credit/got the artist's permission or anything, but they did remove the item, and they removed the premade UL. They also fixed the transparent Peo when there was outcry about how terrible the art was. I also have no clue what went down with the BC picture removals (perhaps it was an automated system where an entry is automatically removed when the number of reports reaches a certain threshold?), but the removals seemed to have stopped when everyone came back in office. The no-advertising offsite thing might seem a bit stingy, and even I have used that method to get votes in the past, but it might make the playing ground more even, as there are many Neo-communities like Jellyneo, Reddit, TDN, and NTWF off-site and there's no way JS can monitor whether or not people are "buying" votes offsite or whatever. Maybe I'm just the most optimistic of the bunch here. I'm by no means a JS fangirl or anything, but I do give them a certain amount of respect for at least listening to their userbase and trying to make amends (in their own JS fashion). They don't have nearly as many people or resources running and monitoring the site, and as Pat said, given the heavy backlash they've got since letting the old team go (rightfully so, as I grew up with the old TNT crew and loved them as well, and if JS wanted to run the site like a well-oiled, experienced machine, well, they completely lost the ability to do so), I'm not surprised that they're not trying to make their team more "visible" and "reachable". Kind of like if you reach out to someone and they keep smacking your hand every time, you're not going to want to reach out again any time soon. Anyway, I'm in no way trying to denounce userbase actions or whatnot; everyone is rightfully speaking out whenever there is stolen content or whatnot, and I am proud that we make conscious efforts to do so, as it improves the site in the long run. But I also feel like we can have a little bit more faith in JS in that things will become smoother as they get more experience running Neo with their new crew. |
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Post by Zoey on Feb 4, 2016 16:17:02 GMT -5
Consider this: You take over a site that has a staff that's revered by a very large base, then for financial reasons, you let that staff go and man it with your own staff, which operates under a different structure than the previous one. Many of your employees ae telecommuting from other locations around the world. Now realize there is a very loud, sharp, and vocal backlash against JS because of how they did the handoff. Would you be eager to throw open welcoming arms to a group of people who are angry and bitter, or would you get together internally and try and figure out how to address those issues, perhaps planning on an outreach program once people see the progress you've made? But that's just it, there doesn't seem like there's going to be any "outreach" program. It's been over a year since they took over and they've shown they can run the site and when they put their foot forward can produce content up to par with what we familiarize with TNT's, but now what? According to you this would be the time to have this outreach program, where they start taking in suggestions from users and start focusing their efforts where user's want them, maybe even asking users to ideas and suggestions for new site content. But that doesn't seem like they're going to or even want to do that. Think we should have patience. ^.^ Of course, I think if this were the general concern among Neopians now, definitely throw the suggestions in the help and ticket section in hoards so that the team gets the idea, but I don't think it's a matter of it "doesn't seem like they're going to or even want to" have an outreach program, but they have stated that all of their resources right now are diverted to 1) creating new content, and 2) fixing problems from the backend. And there are still a LOT of problems (cough cough KeyQuest). They've already done a lot in stabilizing the site, and seem to now be fixing the more content-related problems, ie. BC avatar and all, so I think in due time they'll have more resources to divert to promoting user-staff interaction. Of course, submitting tickets and suggestions and posting on Facebook/Twitter/the boards might help accelerate the process.  |
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Half of the problem here was that it appeared nothing was being done about those reports (because in the past, when stolen stuff has won spotlights, it has gotten removed within a couple of hours rather than 24). Maybe we need to adjust our expectations of the time frame JS can act in compared to old TNT, that's fair - but in cases where the system appears to be failing telling us to use the system isn't going to help XD
