View Full Version : 5 reasons why i'm never coming back!!
m320au
10-09-2003, 06:23 PM
I'm sorry, but this place has become a joke.
I've clocked up 4 Reviews of the Day over the past 12 months, yet i've decided I won't be coming back ever again. Here are my reasons:
a) I object to having to log in to write a review. I am already providing you with the lifeblood of your site, ie CONTENT, and i object to having to provide you with my personal details in exchange for the 'privilege' of doing so. If I can't remain anonymous, pffft, write your own reviews. Why do you need my name anyway?!
b) I feel like I've arrived at a spammer's sales pitch site rather than a review site. I just counted 9 ads for pinball machines on your main index page. How many do you need?!
Every time I click on what I think is a review, I end up at Amazon.com with something trying to go into my shopping trolley, which brings me to my third point,
c) The graphic design is confusing - there is no clear heirachy of information in your page layouts. Advertisements are confused with content - there's no clear distinction.
I know you've tried to go modern & slick with a predominantly white site, but doing so has removed the ability for users to quickly scan a page and find the information they came for. Useful functions (such as REVIEWS) seem to be tucked away behind tiny HTML text links, while "Click here for Used Pinball Machines!" etc completely dominates the page.
d) My reviews have constantly been showing up with other people's names on them since the changeover.
e) I've noticed a degree of arrogance in the forums from moderators who insist that the new setup is "better", yet .. it doesn't seem to be what your users are saying.
Good luck, I hope you took a backup of the old site.
m
d) My reviews have constantly been showing up with other people's names on them since the changeover.
The only thing I am interested in addressing is this. Please either send me an email or a pm. I would like to know which reviews of yours are coming up with someone elses name on them.
Im confused m320au, you drop a five sided bomb here, & then take off?
How does that work? :confused:
m320au
10-10-2003, 04:10 AM
<div class=\"smallfont\">Im confused m320au, you drop a five sided bomb here, & then take off?
How does that work? :confused:</div>
----------
Heya dude,
I was always taught that a "Customer who complains is a customer worth knowing." The reason for this is that if a customer takes the time to detail their complaints to you, they genuinely want to remain a good customer of yours, staying on good terms with you. If I didn't care about your website whatsoever, i wouldn't even bother complaining. The fact that I have, is a sign that I cared about what you used to provide.
Everyone acknowledges that in order to remain profitable, you need to earn an income from advertising. Pcgamereview.com was neither funky, nor, from what I could guess, profitable. With respect, visually, it could have been improved, but it it did what it did *very* well. Some minor tweaks could have improved it without having to start from scratch.
If I were a new user visiting your site for the first time today, I would assume that the primary purpose of your site is to sell used pinball machines rather than provide independant game reviews. I *know* this site is worth more than that.
I might be wrong. But that's my feedback.. I'm assuming you're confident enough to ignore it. Good Luck.. I wish you well anyway.
Regards,
M.
<div class=\"smallfont\"><div class=\"smallfont\"></div>
----------
Heya dude,
I was always taught that a "Customer who complains is a customer worth knowing." The reason for this is that if a customer takes the time to detail their complaints to you, they genuinely want to remain a good customer of yours, staying on good terms with you. If I didn't care about your website whatsoever, i wouldn't even bother complaining. The fact that I have, is a sign that I cared about what you used to provide.
Everyone acknowledges that in order to remain profitable, you need to earn an income from advertising. Pcgamereview.com was neither funky, nor, from what I could guess, profitable. With respect, visually, it could have been improved, but it it did what it did *very* well. Some minor tweaks could have improved it without having to start from scratch.
If I were a new user visiting your site for the first time today, I would assume that the primary purpose of your site is to sell used pinball machines rather than provide independant game reviews. I *know* this site is worth more than that.
I might be wrong. But that's my feedback.. I'm assuming you're confident enough to ignore it. Good Luck.. I wish you well anyway.
Regards,
M.</div>
If you read through the the feedback http://forums.videogamereview.com/showthread.php?threadid=393
and the updates in New Issues with Design thread http://forums.videogamereview.com/showthread.php?threadid=452
a lot of your questions would have been answered, and you would see that we are doing our best to fix things as we find them.
I found your post a bit too much on the sarcastic side, rather than constructive criticism.
We haven't ignored anyones sincere suggestions or complaints. Perhaps if you hadn't begun your post with "this place is becoming a joke." you might have been taken more seriously.
m320au
10-10-2003, 06:05 AM
<div class=\"smallfont\"><div class=\"smallfont\"></div>
I found your post a bit too much on the sarcastic side, rather than constructive criticism.
We haven't ignored anyones sincere suggestions or complaints. Perhaps if you hadn't begun your post with "this place is becoming a joke." you might have been taken more seriously.</div>
This is EXACTLY what I mean by arrogance.
I'm not going to hold your hand and tell you how to run your site.
Seeya.
Suicides-by-Steve
10-10-2003, 07:09 AM
<div class=\"smallfont\"><div class=\"smallfont\"></div>
Seeya.</div>
LOL Then why are you STILL online then?! :rolleyes:
<div class=\"smallfont\"><div class=\"smallfont\"></div>
----------
Heya dude,
I was always taught that a "Customer who complains is a customer worth knowing." The reason for this is that if a customer takes the time to detail their complaints to you, they genuinely want to remain a good customer of yours, staying on good terms with you.
Regards,
M.</div>
Re: Customer. A "customer" is defined as a regular or frequent buyer.
Apreciated that you realize in order for one to qualify as a customer, one must patronize.
Ironic, talking about what defines a customer has addressed one of the five concerns you listed "advertisement". This is good.
All your concerns can be addressed, a less abrasvie approach would initiate that.
All complaints/suggestions take time. Being a "customer" here, you likely have noticed repiars/improvements made to date.
Just keep in mind repairs are prioritized, & while it seems new site has been up a while; 50 days an eternity does not make!
Be patient, be polite. ;)
E.T.
Chris
10-10-2003, 12:10 PM
<div class=\"smallfont\"><div class=\"smallfont\"></div>
This is EXACTLY what I mean by arrogance.
I'm not going to hold your hand and tell you how to run your site.
Seeya.</div>
M320au,
I am the site manager here - I run the show. I work for a company who runs a total of 11 websites (3 of which I manage). I am the main source of communication between the community and our executives and engineering. I determine what the community sees as the biggest problems and issues (with the help of the moderators) and I relay that information to my boss, with each problem prioritized. I also have several other functions and am responsible for making this "new design" a success.
I did not design this site. It was given to me, and I have to make it work. There is no going back, period. All we can do is work together to make this new site function correctly. I'm trying to help you and other users, but I cannot do that unless people understand this and stop threatening to leave and giving us undetailed accounts of the problems they're experiencing. It also doesn't help when people don't read the updates we've posted. When 5 people complain about the same problem 5 different times, it takes a long time to respond to each user. We've tried to set up a system where people can see that we know the issues, and we are working on them. If you see our responses as arrogant, I apologize, but we're answering things the best we can, for as hammered as we've been. Please don't tell me that you think some peoples' reactions have been appropriate. Warranted, maybe, but appropriate no. And I think we've handled things very well.
Having said all this, let me answer your questions:
a) your issue with logging in to write a review: Now, this I can't understand. I haven't been to a site which doesn't require me to register before I can post content on their site. All forums do this. You will register to post in a forum, but you refuse to register to post a review? We're using the SAME registration system as our forums. The only personal information we ask for is your name, and even that is never given to anyone, including other members. We have to have some level of accountability from the people who are posting content on our site. Without registration, we will never be able to implement features like "Edit Your Review", or "Find All Reviews from This Member", or "Click here to see this Member's Profile". All the stuff that is available here in the forums will be available in the Reviews section someday, BUT not without the use of registration.
b) your issue with ads: What can I say, the site needs to generate money to stay alive. The old site didn't, and instead of just closing it down, we've tried to fix the problem instead of giving up on it. The biggest misconception I've noticed, is that many people think that just because they click around our site it makes us money, or that it makes our site valuable to advertisers. That's completely wrong. The only thing that makes us money, or valuable to advertisers, is when people click on their ads and buy those products. I'll be honest - most executives think like this: "If they're not clicking on the ads, then let's show them more until they do". I don't like this thinking, but they're right. It works, unfortunately. We haven't implemented more ad spots to our homepage, but they are a little bit larger and they're in more prominent spots. And they stand out a little bit more because of our design colors being toned down.
c) confusing navigation: The main navigation of the site shows up at the very top of the site, above all ads, and you should be able to find everything you're looking for in that navigation bar. Anything in the side gutter columns (left or right), may possibly be an ad unit. They are usually labeled Hot Deals or Featured Resources, or have "Ads by Google" in them somewhere. Our large ad at the top of the page is just below our top navigation. You can probably see where it begins and ends. The idea wasn't to confuse people about what is content and what is an ad. The idea is to prevent people from being able to automatically ignore the ads, which people have began to do. If you're here to research games, you're likely doing it because you're planning to buy something. We're just giving people avenues to make their purchase and try to stay in business at the same time.
d) this is a problem we have to look into. Since there was no registration before, it made things difficult to keep track of who actually wrote the reviews.
e) I'm the only one that said this site would be better, so I figure you're pointing me out as the arrogant one. Site changes require patience, adjustment and repair. The users will drive what gets worked on. It also requires users to be flexible to a certain extent. Once we work out all the issues, this site will be better than the old. It will take time, patience, communication, and adjustment (by you AND us). The old site did not make enough money to cover its expenses, and though it was better in the eyes of some, it would have been gone eventually if it was not renovated. The new site is not perfect, but at least it's still here. Please help us improve it.
You can see what we're working on in the thread Lara mentioned above. Thanks.
<div class=\"smallfont\"><div class=\"smallfont\"></div>
M320au,
I am the site manager here - I run the show. I work for a company who runs a total of 11 websites (3 of which I manage). I am the main source of communication between the community and our executives and engineering. I determine what the community sees as the biggest problems and issues (with the help of the moderators) and I relay that information to my boss, with each problem prioritized. I also have several other functions and am responsible for making this "new design" a success.
I did not design this site. It was given to me, and I have to make it work. There is no going back, period. All we can do is work together to make this new site function correctly. I'm trying to help you and other users, but I cannot do that unless people understand this and stop threatening to leave and giving us undetailed accounts of the problems they're experiencing. It also doesn't help when people don't read the updates we've posted. When 5 people complain about the same problem 5 different times, it takes a long time to respond to each user. We've tried to set up a system where people can see that we know the issues, and we are working on them. If you see our responses as arrogant, I apologize, but we're answering things the best we can, for as hammered as we've been. Please don't tell me that you think some peoples' reactions have been appropriate. Warranted, maybe, but appropriate no. And I think we've handled things very well.
Having said all this, let me answer your questions:
a) your issue with logging in to write a review: Now, this I can't understand. I haven't been to a site which doesn't require me to register before I can post content on their site. All forums do this. You will register to post in a forum, but you refuse to register to post a review? We're using the SAME registration system as our forums. The only personal information we ask for is your name, and even that is never given to anyone, including other members. We have to have some level of accountability from the people who are posting content on our site. Without registration, we will never be able to implement features like "Edit Your Review", or "Find All Reviews from This Member", or "Click here to see this Member's Profile". All the stuff that is available here in the forums will be available in the Reviews section someday, BUT not without the use of registration.
b) your issue with ads: What can I say, the site needs to generate money to stay alive. The old site didn't, and instead of just closing it down, we've tried to fix the problem instead of giving up on it. The biggest misconception I've noticed, is that many people think that just because they click around our site it makes us money, or that it makes our site valuable to advertisers. That's completely wrong. The only thing that makes us money, or valuable to advertisers, is when people click on their ads and buy those products. I'll be honest - most executives think like this: "If they're not clicking on the ads, then let's show them more until they do". I don't like this thinking, but they're right. It works, unfortunately. We haven't implemented more ad spots to our homepage, but they are a little bit larger and they're in more prominent spots. And they stand out a little bit more because of our design colors being toned down.
c) confusing navigation: The main navigation of the site shows up at the very top of the site, above all ads, and you should be able to find everything you're looking for in that navigation bar. Anything in the side gutter columns (left or right), may possibly be an ad unit. They are usually labeled Hot Deals or Featured Resources, or have "Ads by Google" in them somewhere. Our large ad at the top of the page is just below our top navigation. You can probably see where it begins and ends. The idea wasn't to confuse people about what is content and what is an ad. The idea is to prevent people from being able to automatically ignore the ads, which people have began to do. If you're here to research games, you're likely doing it because you're planning to buy something. We're just giving people avenues to make their purchase and try to stay in business at the same time.
d) this is a problem we have to look into. Since there was no registration before, it made things difficult to keep track of who actually wrote the reviews.
e) I'm the only one that said this site would be better, so I figure you're pointing me out as the arrogant one. Site changes require patience, adjustment and repair. The users will drive what gets worked on. It also requires users to be flexible to a certain extent. Once we work out all the issues, this site will be better than the old. It will take time, patience, communication, and adjustment (by you AND us). The old site did not make enough money to cover its expenses, and though it was better in the eyes of some, it would have been gone eventually if it was not renovated. The new site is not perfect, but at least it's still here. Please help us improve it.
You can see what we're working on in the thread Lara mentioned above. Thanks.</div>
Informative, concise, & much needed Chris!
Thanks for taking the time to reveal & express; you provided much material for this community to think on.
E.T..
vBulletin v3.5.3, Copyright ©2000-2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.