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  • TheGreenMist said...

    Paying customers have a right to complain, free members get what they pay for (myself included now). I paid for Spartan Tailage a long time but I grew very frustrated with the issues, so I'm holding off until things are a bit more stable.

    Whether people feel as though they're paying for the content or the message board features, Spartan Tailgate is a single product and people will always expect for it to work when they would like to use it. Paying members are completely justified to complain when the site breaks, which it does often. If those complaints deter potential paying members, then that's too bad. If Trevor and the 247 owners don't like people making threads about things not working, then they need to do a better job of QA and UAT. I mean, it's pretty bad when your error page gets so many hits that it's worth putting ads on it.

    It really sucks for Trevor. He's the one losing the revenue but he's not responsible for the quality of the software that 247 puts out.

    There's actually more subscribers here than there ever were at tOldRCMB. People laughed at the notion that anyone would pay for that site as well. Now they beg daily for it to come back lol

    F Michigan

    AASpartan ●

  • AASpartan said...

    There's actually more subscribers here than there ever were at tOldRCMB. People laughed at the notion that anyone would pay for that site as well. Now they beg daily for it to come back lol

    The grass is always greener lol. Comparing the old site to the new site is apples to oranges. The two sites don't have the same focus. The old site focused on the message board, the new site focuses on the college sports intelligence. I think, though, the biggest source of the complaints, which is also my biggest issue, is things just not working. Especially things that have been functioning just fine and then all of the sudden not working. Those things give people low hanging fruit for things to be upset about and once the snowball starts it just grows and grows.

    signature image

    TheGreenMist

  • TheGreenMist said...

    It really sucks for Trevor. He's the one losing the revenue but he's not responsible for the quality of the software that 247 puts out.

    Don't worry about me. I'll be fine either way.

    Trevor Barnes

  • Trevor Barnes said...

    Don't worry about me. I'll be fine either way.

    such indifference!

    signature image signature image

    L.G.R.W.

    beal99

  • TheGreenMist said...

    The grass is always greener lol. Comparing the old site to the new site is apples to oranges. The two sites don't have the same focus. The old site focused on the message board, the new site focuses on the college sports intelligence. I think, though, the biggest source of the complaints, which is also my biggest issue, is things just not working. Especially things that have been functioning just fine and then all of the sudden not working. Those things give people low hanging fruit for things to be upset about and once the snowball starts it just grows and grows.

    I'd disagree that the focus is different. The way I see it, the focus of the RCMB is exactly the same as it's ever been, we just have more MSU sports content now.

    Trevor Barnes

  • Just1Spartan said...

    Unfortunately, none of us can go back to the old board to pull up the conversation. My memory is, before the move, there was a very lengthy thread started by T. Barnes in which he laid out what was happening and then fielded everyone's specific questions and concerns as they were posted. Obviously many people had a lot of concern over a major change in their favorite online community.

    Search function, polls, vbookie, mod tools, avatars, emoticons, posting pics, etc. etc. were brought up and the response to each was consistently more or less "Make no mistake, there will be growing pains as we figure this all out and ramp it up to where we want it to be, and there will be changes, but everything you know and love will either be there on day 1 or soon after, as rest assured, we have top men working on it. Top. Men."

    Polls is one where I specifically feel like over the last 18 months we have gone from "we're working on it", to "it's on the list, we'll get there soon", to "listen, the list now has 2,000 things and polls is #2,001 so get off our backs and stop asking about it already."

    In summary, I don't think people are upset that there have been changes, we all knew they were coming & understood there would be some growing pains. I think people are upset because we're now this far down the line, and next to nothing has been done to implement the features they feel they were lead to believe would be in place by now.

    See, that's my point. My recollection of the conversation wasn't that those enumerated things would be specifically provided on Day 1 or soon thereafter, but that the overall spirit of the board would remain unchanged (i.e., no corporate mods nuking your RCMB OT posts). I guess there's no way to verify what exactly was promised.

    I don't know what to tell you guys, and no, I don't expect you to just keep "taking" things as they are. The mods are just posters who volunteer their time; we don't have any say in the development, other than to PM Barnes. I do freelance writing for the site and the guy who's my editor is not a 247 staff member. I don't know where to tell you to direct your ire, which is frustrating.

    It gets annoying to see the same people complaining about the same things over and over (not you) as a mod, but the bigger issue is that the underlying complaints do not seem to be addressed. I wish I had the power to take care of them, because I'd love for this site to run as smoothly as you all wish it would.

    Michigan State does not and will not run the 3-4 defense.

    SpartanRocky ●

  • beal99 said...

    such indifference!

    Not indifference, just the truth. I like providing a place for MSU fans to discuss things online, but I'd also be fine being just an average fan. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth the hassle. This isn't a full time job for me. I think Jack, Dan, Bill, Rock, and Sean have a quality product to offer though that is worth supporting.

    This post has been edited 2 times, most recently by Trevor Barnes on 5/9/2012 at 12:20 PM

    Trevor Barnes

  • SpartanRocky said...

    See, that's my point. My recollection of the conversation wasn't that those enumerated things would be specifically provided on Day 1 or soon thereafter, but that the overall spirit of the board would remain unchanged (i.e., no corporate mods nuking your RCMB OT posts). I guess there's no way to verify what exactly was promised.

    I don't know what to tell you guys, and no, I don't expect you to just keep "taking" things as they are. The mods are just posters who volunteer their time; we don't have any say in the development, other than to PM Barnes. I do freelance writing for the site and the guy who's my editor is not a 247 staff member. I don't know where to tell you to direct your ire, which is frustrating.

    It gets annoying to see the same people complaining about the same things over and over (not you) as a mod, but the bigger issue is that the underlying complaints do not seem to be addressed. I wish I had the power to take care of them, because I'd love for this site to run as smoothly as you all wish it would.

    My memory is that before the move, Trevor asked for a list of things from posters that they would love to have on the new board. Then he'd take that list to 247 so they could mull it over. Things like vBookie were nixed right away because it was an old. unstable, user built mod for vBulletin to begin with. Forum Spy was one of them on the "not exactly forum spy, but maybe something like it down the line". I don't think anyone ever said "please make sure that we can post in-line pics/gifs" before the move. I think the biggest concerns at launch were the look and feel of the site...like the color green was weird...what are these share to facebook/twitter buttons?...ooooh! downvotes!... there were basic things like quoting and the like that were tied up shortly after launch though. It wasn't until living on the board for a short while that there were people complaining about pictures. Now in the memory of some, that was a promised feature on Day One.

    I can understand frustrations, but I honestly don't remember it the way that a few people on here do. I don't remember any promises that everything was going to be the same. The only "promises" that I remember were that the site was going to be better connected to social media and that at launch there would be 33% of what was going to be there a year from then. I think everyone here agrees that they would do more development on the message board side. The fact is that is was never as high of a priority to them like it was to us. tRCMB views updates and feature enhancements as "multi-quote" or "in-line gifs". 247 views improvements as Timeline, Basketball Recruiting database, or trending twitter announcements.

    F Michigan

    AASpartan ●

  • Trevor Barnes said...

    Don't worry about me. I'll be fine either way.

    I want to reiterate. The OP was not meant to be a huge critique. I appreciate the work you and others put in and I appreciate my free membership.

    Great job, guys. thumbsupspartan2

    I must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this.

    RP McMurphy

  • Trevor Barnes said...

    Not indifference, just the truth. I like providing a place for MSU fans to discuss things online, but I'd also be fine being just an average fan. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth the hassle. This isn't a full time job for me. I think Jack, Dan, Bill, Rock, and Sean have a quality product to offer though that is worth supporting.

    I thought that was the whole point of the move, so you don't have to be the guy behind the curtain anymore

    signature image signature image

    L.G.R.W.

    beal99

  • Buffalo Spartan said...

    "We're working on it."

    Please do not speculate.

    CivilEGR

  • R.P. McMurphy said...

    lol

    Would love to log in here someday and not see some kind of glitch. How often does that happen?

    Ah well, I'm not paying, so who am I to complain?

    You sound just like the teenage girls who work themselves up into a tizzy when Facebook makes some innocuous change.

    Fletch ●

  • spartan10 said...

    I'm thinking the same thing. I don't read much of the recruiting stuff. I wish I could just pay for Ebeling and rumblings minus recruit info. One of the main reasons I donated to the old board was for when it went donor only, vbookie, and the arcade. Just getting the arcade and vbookie back would make it more likely to keep paying. Oh and a search function on mobile would be great.

    I floated that very idea out there last week, but was shot down because too much of the rumblings is about recruiting. I would gladly pay 1/2 price for the stuff from Jack and inside news about the teams and CURRENT players.

    I don't care about recruiting or kids who may or may not be interested in visiting MSU, waffling for a year before verballing their intentions or stringing long the recruiting gurus. Become a Spartan and then I'll care.

    Join Date: 06-12-2001 RCMB vBull #32 # Total Posts: 35,866

    Floyd Robertson ●

  • beal99 said...

    I thought that was the whole point of the move, so you don't have to be the guy behind the curtain anymore

    That was most definitely a part of it.

    Trevor Barnes

  • R.P. McMurphy said...

    I qualified my thread to show that while I will voice my concerns, I don't expect anyone to give a shit. thumbsup

    That disclaimed wasn't necessary - everyone does that anyway when we see your name next to a post.

    Fletch ●

  • Floyd Robertson said...

    I floated that very idea out there last week, but was shot down because too much of the rumblings is about recruiting. I would gladly pay 1/2 price for the stuff from Jack and inside news about the teams and CURRENT players.

    I don't care about recruiting or kids who may or may not be interested in visiting MSU, waffling for a year before verballing their intentions or stringing long the recruiting gurus. Become a Spartan and then I'll care.

    I understand where you're coming from, that's just not the business model. A business model that has far exceeded goals and expectations I might add.

    Trevor Barnes

  • 1.5 years removed from the move and look at how much the board functionality has improved...oh wait. I get it that the 247 owners want to have "the best recruiting site and database" and frankly I am not here for that. Numerous times we have been told "after the recruit database is fixed message boards will be worked on" and that before the upcoming football season we are supposed to see board improvements.

    I will not be surprised at all if they get pushed back yet again, hell isn't the summer a huge time for football recruiting? Why would lowly board improvements be put ahead of recruiting at that time? The other thing to consider is that 90% or more of the users from the other sites had crappy(and I mean giant turds) of message boards before the move. They view these boards as "a massive upgrade" when in fact they are still average to sub-par to all of us who know better.

    You would think that the fanbase/board with THE highest traffic of the entire network would carry some clout but it does not. All the owners care about are donate. Their idea of customer service is a damn joke no matter what Trevor says. Trying to deal with any of the official 247 people is a damn customer service disgrace.

    35,600 posts and counting since 09-09-2002. tRCMB Dead Pool Commissioner.

    pulling69 ●

  • This thread is lol and boring at the same time!

    LoneWolfSparty

  • pulling69 said...

    1.5 years removed from the move and look at how much the board functionality has improved...oh wait. I get it that the 247 owners want to have "the best recruiting site and database" and frankly I am not here for that. Numerous times we have been told "after the recruit database is fixed message boards will be worked on" and that before the upcoming football season we are supposed to see board improvements.

    I will not be surprised at all if they get pushed back yet again, hell isn't the summer a huge time for football recruiting? Why would lowly board improvements be put ahead of recruiting at that time? The other thing to consider is that 90% or more of the users from the other sites had crappy(and I mean giant turds) of message boards before the move. They view these boards as "a massive upgrade" when in fact they are still average to sub-par to all of us who know better.

    You would think that the fanbase/board with THE highest traffic of the entire network would carry some clout but it does not. All the owners care about are donate. Their idea of customer service is a damn joke no matter what Trevor says. Trying to deal with any of the official 247 people is a damn customer service disgrace.

    Another thing to keep in mind, which probably actually supports your position pulling, is that the 247Sports business model has far exceeded their expectations so far. The network has been a huge success in a much shorter time than was expected. It's doing quite well. If anything, that might reinforce though that the decisions made to put a priority on certain projects over others has paid off.

    Trevor Barnes

  • Trevor Barnes said...

    I understand where you're coming from, that's just not the business model. A business model that has far exceeded goals and expectations I might add.

    As long as we understand each other, then. wink_msu

    Join Date: 06-12-2001 RCMB vBull #32 # Total Posts: 35,866

    Floyd Robertson ●

  • We still have to type [i] and [b] to have italics or bold. We had to figure this out ourselves and were never told. Hell, it would be nice to have a little info bar at the bottom of the reply box. I'd ask for a button to italicize or bold, but I know I would be asking a lot.

    There is a difference between making this system perfect and at least pretending to update basic user requests. The over lords seem to not even care about the message board functionality.

    Io Triumphe ●

  • Incidentally from 10 minutes ago...

    Shannon B. Terry @sbterry247
    Incredibly productive product roadmap meetings this morning for #247Sports. Users are in store for some treats.

    This post was edited by Trevor Barnes on 5/9/2012 at 12:57 PM

    Trevor Barnes

  • Fletch ●

  • Trevor Barnes said...

    Incidentally from 10 minutes ago...

    Shannon B. Terry @sbterry247 Incredibly productive product roadmap meetings this morning for #247Sports. Users are in store for some treats.

    Well that explains the "What is your favorite candy bar" thread on tBB . . .

    Michigan State does not and will not run the 3-4 defense.

    SpartanRocky ●

  • Io Triumphe said...

    We still have to type [i] and [b] to have italics or bold. We had to figure this out ourselves and were never told. Hell, it would be nice to have a little info bar at the bottom of the reply box. I'd ask for a button to italicize or bold, but I know I would be asking a lot.

    There is a difference between making this system perfect and at least pretending to update basic user requests. The over lords seem to not even care about the message board functionality.

    Actually, there was a post/thread on the limited text formatting that there is when it was introduced. Obviously not everyone read it and obviously there's no button to push.

    F Michigan

    AASpartan ●

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