So-called Community SpotlightNow you might think I need to just shut up and be grateful for this community, to which I would tell you that you obviously haven't been watching me long. There's nothing to be gained by not speaking ones mind, but don't worry, I know when to keep my mouth shut too. If you haven't been watching me long you may not know I don't particularly like the recent decisions RT has made for it's community and how it interacts with itself. I just plain think they don't understand what an online community is and what it requires to grow. There most definitely is an ecology to an online community and it's carrying capacity is stymied by it's current feature se...
So-called Community SpotlightNow you might think I need to just shut up and be grateful for this community, to which I would tell you that you obviously haven't been watching me long. There's nothing to be gained by not speaking ones mind, but don't worry, I know when to keep my mouth shut too. If you haven't been watching me long you may not know I don't particularly like the recent decisions RT has made for it's community and how it interacts with itself. I just plain think they don't understand what an online community is and what it requires to grow. There most definitely is an ecology to an online community and it's carrying capacity is stymied by it's current feature set and it's very frustrating to see. I'm very happy that RT is so successful on YouTube because their content is great... but their continuing increase in subscribers and views is occurring in spite of seemingly decreased use of their site.
When I say decreased use I'm not necessarily speaking of the members on the site logging in less or posting journals and in the forums less (tho the contingent of people I watch on the site definitely have slowed in their use of the site). I am talking about the Rooster Teeth Staff not using their own site much any longer, most the time they only post journals to push on the front page to point us to some content. Not all are guilty of this,
@Miles still posts real genuine journals for the purpose of sharing and interacting with the people that are interested in him. The frequency of his journals has dropped undoubtedly because he's hard at work helping to bring us RWBY but regardless, the dude's still awesome and I enjoy his journal posts. But I made a twitter account last year because I was interested in what the Rooster Teeth cast and crew were doing, I repeat, I had to make a twitter account to interact with the people for which this site exists. I do enjoy using twitter it turns out but I HATE that I have to use it to participate in the Rooster Teeth Community. This actually isn't the main gripe for this journal, that would be that new ineffectual page they've created on the site dubbed "Community Spotlight."
I can appreciate the community management's efforts to try and manage the community, but once again it's not going to do anything but distract away from real change. Allow me to pick apart this new page in that special way only I can (full disclosure: it's not that special anyone can do it).
1. Latest NewsHere you'll find news about what's going on in the community, both for Achievement Hunter and Rooster Teeth. Regular news can still be found on the main RoosterTeeth.c
om homepage.
Well if there's still the usual posts on the homepage, what exactly is going to be unique about any auxiliary news that's brought to us essentially on page 2 (to use a newspaper metaphor)? If it's not on the homepage, what is this news that wasn't included on the front page post and why wasn't it? Couldn't this secondary tidbit be just as easily made available to us by having those involved post a journal to elaborate? I don't need extra help finding out what Rooster Teeth is doing, I watch the people that interest me and read their journals and the front page posts are in my feed regardless.
2. CalendarThe calendar is exactly what you think it is- a calendar! Here you'll find out when events are- and you can view it by month, week, or day!
This is great, I like this idea... BUT... why is this on this page and not on the already existing "Events" page? It's a great idea that's in the wrong place on the site.
3. EventsOur events section has changed to help promote community events- now, our events are broken up by Rooster Teeth, Achievement Hunter, and Community. Rooster Teeth includes events such as Conventions (PAX, Comic Con, etc) and any other event Rooster Teeth puts on (e.g. special live streams); Achievement Hunter includes any special AH event, live stream, and so on; and Community is community events hosted by you guys that you can submit yourself!
Community events are subject to approval. You must have a solid event in the works with a date and location. These include fan events or even just city meet-ups.
Again, this is a good addition, being able to submit for your own event is a fine way to promote the idea of community. Not much to say that's negative about this except maybe there should be a way for personal events like livestreams by community members, tournaments or straight up playdates hosted entirely by community members to be submitted for the calendar.4. Featured User and GroupYou've seen featured user on the front page, and now it's also on the Community Spotlight page along with Featured Group!
Okay... Featured User can now be seen in not one but TWO places. Nothing different with how Featured User is handled, no meaningful change to it, you've just essentially Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V it to a second page. If it needs to be duplicated anywhere on the site why not where that pointless ad space is below the "Watching"¯ section on the member homepage. Also why is Featured User random at this point? The significance of it is way diminished when the pool of users to select from is everyone, a veritable lottery of sorts. Featured User should be selected from a list of users nominated by other users (with an explanation why you nominate them). You would have to limit the number of nominations with a cap but FU should be an honor, It should last a week (because of the infrequency that people log into the site, one day as FU is all the more trivial) and it would be very cool if the FU was mentioned on something like the recap, the podcast or AHWU. As for Featured Group, I really don't see the point.(Continued in the comments)
Watch
Add Friend
Invite to Group
