Priority of Social Media over official forums

Including me. I used facebook years ago. Actually kind of liked it. And then I found out my now ex was cheating on me,, my niece was an alcoholic, my sister was getting divorced and that a lot of people just suck...all through the site. Maybe I should be thanking facebook for that. Nonetheless, I created a "fake" account to only use to follow EQ2 in which case I don't have to see all the other crap goin on

Is it possible to add a FB/Twitter share button from just the OP (or just devs' posts perhaps?)? I could see this being easier to where you can share it here first and then sharing it to social sites. I know my guild (well most anyhow) all check up on facebook for the game/live updates with it being re-shared again from the EQ2 page on FB.

Not sure if the idea is possible but just wondering. Would be easier to post it here and please the community here and would be easier clicking a share button to sites instead of having to post links yourself.

So I hesitated to wade into this thread, but here we go...

It Takes a Silo

First up, unless someone scours the forums almost daily, they will miss things. The Dev Tracker helps, but still people miss things. And unless someone directly visits the forums, they're just not aware of what's going on here. It's very easy to "turn off and tune out" the forums. Of course the flipside of this is, it gives me something to do. For going on 7 years, most of what I have done on EQ2Wire is monitor the Forums, the Dev Tracker, and more recently Twitter, and find things that my readers would be interested in and post it all in one place, with added context (and commentary).

But again, the issue here is, unless someone makes the EQ2 Forums a part of their daily website rotation, they'll be out of the loop. Contrast that with social media like Facebook (which I barely use) and Twitter, everything that gets swept up in a stream of information. Information from all that person's friends and companies they follow just arrives in a single stream without them having to actively seek it out. Scroll through your Facebook or Twitter timeline and it's all there.

It's also a LOT easier to post to social media than to these forums. Why does Holly post stuff to Twitter instead of here? Because it takes 15 seconds to fire up Twitter or Facebook and post something. The user experience for those sites on a mobile device is 10 times better than these forums. Why?

The Software!

After years of SOE's in-house developed forums limping along and struggling to keep up, the Powers that Be made a smart choice -- they switched to XenForo 1.1. It's one of the best forum softwares in the world. Unfortunately, they then NEVER updated it. Since this time, XenForo 1.2 was introduced 18 months ago and introduced a totally new awesome post editor, a new Responsive theme which looks FANTASTIC on a mobile phone or tablet, better moderation and spam management tools, and so forth. XenForo 1.3 added more goodies, including stuff for forum management that makes their job easier. XenForo 1.4 has just been announced and features have been demonstrated, and yet, we're still stuck on XenForo 1.1 and I'm pretty sure we'll still be running it years from now.

The whole point of us switching from the in-house developed forum software to an off-the-shelf product was so that it could be kept updated.

Also as mentioned, we are not allowed to edit posts after 30 minutes. This makes it all but impossible to maintain Class Guides. While it is true that posters will sometimes post a really aggressive, inflammatory post, wait until people take the bait, and then go back and edit their post to be less hostile, there's a solution to that -- XenForo 1.2 has Post Edit History and Logging. If someone posts something really nasty and then changes it later, it's just 2 clicks for a moderator to roll back and see if their original post was trollbait.

Tapatalk

Although it's not a perfect solution, there is a free mobile app for iOS, Android, etc. called Tapatalk which allows people to read and post on forums easily from their mobile phone, and get push notifications/popups when people they are following post something. All that would have to happen is for the Tapatalk plugin to be installed here, and then anyone who has the Tapatalk app on their phone would be able to link the two together.

The Tools

While social media is great, I am a firm believer that the best source of information about a company's products should be that company's website. Yet SOE's web team probably has 1/3 the staff it should given the number of websites that SOE maintains. As a result, it's often quite a bit harder for the Community reps for each of SOE's games to update the websites compared to firing off an update on Facebook or Twitter. I know how long it takes to prepare a nice article and get it posted and tweeted and facebooked everywhere. Sometimes it takes me days to post an article on EQ2Wire, so I fully understand how much time it takes to format and post news articles.


Finally, I will just say that Luperza (Margaret Krohn) has engaged and communicated with the EQ2 community more in the last six months than we got in the last 4 years. There were times over those last 4 years where the only thing the EQ2 Community rep seemed to do is post the StationCash item sales and Downtime notices. When you look at EQ2 Insider, all the contests, all the different threads she's jumped into and tried to help people, it's really awesome to see.

We're a jaded bunch (ok not as jaded as EQ lifers), so for us to be impressed is saying something!! If we seem rabid, well, some of us are, but mostly it's because for years, we felt a certain apathy from the other side of the Community desk, and so to have someone so engaged has got us riled up a bit.

You start this part with "it takes a silo" and at the end you are talking about three different sources of information. What I would like to see is one source for my information from SOE on Everquest II not three or more.

The problem with "everything that gets swept up in a stream of information. Information from all that person's friends and companies they follow just arrives in a single stream" is just that everything gets swept up in a single stream that is impossible to follow or refer back to.

Back in the day I used to receive around a 1,000 emails a day. If I had just kept that as one in box I would never have found anything and missed a great deal. So I used folders and the "Message Rules" function in Outlook to sort them into those folders as they arrived. The great flaw with Twitter and Facebook is that those sorting options are not available (or at least not visible to me) so what I see is an unsorted stream of consciousness that I just turn off and go somewhere else for my information.

What ever the silo is, it is not Facebook, Twitter or Reddit. Nor should it be EQ2Wire as great as your site is. SOE needs a Silo and they have one on these forums. It does need tweaking and a software update sounds like a great idea, but this should be the SIlo, Source of Record or Prime source for all things EQ2.

True very true. Full credit to Luperza for all her effort and commitment.

For things like the request for feedback on AA posts, I agree with those that say that really should have been a forum post, first and foremost. A tweet sending people to that post, that people might well reply to with other tweets? That's great as well. But for something like that, a forum post should have happened first.

Indeed. I tried to go to these forums first, and then went to Twitter and Facebook for information, the latter of which led me to EQ2Wire.

Speaking of that event though, what I did find on Twitter and Facebook was lacking. The initial "something is wrong; we're looking" was fine. It acknowledged you guys knew there was a problem and were working on it. Beyond that point though? I found it rather disappointing. The information on the cause I found buried in replies on Facebook, rather than as a new post that would be front and center on the page, easy for people looking for information to find. How to work around it I found on EQ2Wire, not in an SoE thing.

And even now, in the News and Announcements forum, there's nothing to explain to people just able to come back to the forums what went wrong. There are two related posts, one saying the issue had been resolved and that it could take a couple of days for some people to be able to get back on and other about the two days tacked on for All Access Members. The actual cause isn't described at all. Why it might take a couple of days, also not mentioned. So ultimately, pretty much all useful information I got (including the actual problem, why it might take a couple of days, and how to work around that) came from non-SoE sources, and while I got led there through use of SoE social media, it wasn't SoE posts that did that leading. That's the type of thing that insures that the next time I want useful and relevant information, it won't be the official SoE locations I'm going to look to.

i really do understand that when the forums are down there should be another way to communicate with us. not sure what that should be. however, not facebook or twitter. there has to be a way to get information to us when everything is down. and it is true that recent events showed that the use of social media was sorely lacking. maybe soe needs to appoint someone as the pr person? or department? someone who would be the final word on what is going on and someone who monitors all communication coming from soe to make sure it ends up where it should. at this time, you have several individuals posting to the public and the entire pr thing looks haphazard at best.

that is not to say you aren't trying Luperza. in fact, if i had a vote i would vote for you to be the one in charge of communication. but whoever is chosen, it needs to be someone fluent with the written communication forms and who will be willing to say "the buck stops here". there needs to be more information in a timely manner and no we don't need to be going on a goose chase every time we need information. If you really need a third party site for whatever reason, maybe you should look at those like feldon who have given such great support in the past and make him or someone similar your official outlet when all forums are down.

the reason i suggest that is because you have sites, eq2u, zam, and others who have been a great source of information in the past and are quite reliable. but depending on facebook and twitter to reach us is not the best option. personally, i don't use a smart phone or any phone to surf the net with. i use my computer. so all of those little apps won't benefit me at all.

i am sure that i am not among the minority when it comes to not using social media for whatever reason.

I think Facebook and Twitter are the best backup choices. Both are popular social mediums. They are also places SOE has control over what they publish, not reliant on some outsider who might not get to it immediately. If the average person asks themselves, "Where can I go to get official info when the official site isn't working?", Facebook and Twitter are likely to be two of the top answers (with an internet search probably being the third). Even if you don't like them, don't have an account with them, and/or rarely look at them, you're still likely to check there if you want official info and the main site is down. So I'd have to say those two are required choices if you want people to be able to easily find you. Not using them is not an option.

Worth noting that neither site requires a smart phone or any sort of app. Like you, no smart phone. I visit them using my browser on my computer. Now, I rarely check Twitter, and I limit what I like/follow on Facebook, so I wouldn't want official stuff posted there and not on the forums (100% with you there), but for situations like we just had, when I'm actively looking for information, those sites are great choices, because they are the first places I and many others will check.

Maybe the following might give some insight as to why:

SOCIAL MEDIA

Sony participates in social media to listen, learn and share stories of the passionate people who help bring Sony to life.
With tens of thousands of discussions mentioning Sony each day, we strive to take advantage of the global conversation to better service our customers, to learn from their experiences and to create better products and services, and, ultimately, a better company.
We love connecting with our customers and are always here to share and discuss all things Sony. Please find us below on your favorite social network, or search by your favorite Sony company or division.



http://www.sony.com/SCA/company-news/social-media.shtml

Better games are not made in 140 characters.

A lot of the same SOE level information was posted on the Landmark website. Duplication like that is one of the things that makes me irate in my professional life.

Should the root page be used more for SOE level information as well as tying into the new and improved All-Access? If I was writing the checks I would be pretty miffed at having multiple community managers relaying the same information to two company websites. Is there a way to have a forum section that shows up in multiple games sub sections? i.e. global SoE news posts are all in the same place in the database but may appear and be updated from multiple communities. Maybe that's how it is now and we just don't notice.

Are all the forums the same except with a different style sheets and images? If that is the case wouldn't part of the forum maintenance cost be at the foot of new hotness (aka Next/H1Z1/Landmark), and not solely dependent on old n' busted (aka EQ/EQ2/DCUO)

Where's the list/links on the SOE page to all the twitter accounts we should be interested in following? That's probably the most annoying thing to me about trying to get started using twitter to follow EQ people.

I would like to go somewhere on this site and get lists of twitter accounts for EQ2, H1Z1, DCUO, EQL, and EQN.

LOL, that is a link to Sony the company not SOE. Yes Sony own SOE but that is a general site for the company and includes Sony Pictures, Sony Xperia and Sony Playstation with no mention of SOE at all.

The other thing those divisions have in common is no Forums, and no defined community. Everquest II has both of those.

Sony has a pretty big selection of forums: http://community.sony.com/

In regards to the linked page, SOE is clearly included.

There are two tabs on that page I linked. One is [Social Network] which lists the names of the networks, and the other is [Sony US Company]. Under [Sony US Company] SOE is listed. SOE is included in the statement about social media.

SOE is also clearly included under the "Who We Are" (found on the menu bar's drop down menu under the same name) > Overview > Games.

SOE is also clearly included on the main Home page, under entertainment > gaming > PC Games (direct link to SOE's home page).

The topic is: Priority of Social Media over official forums.

The topic also includes a "Why" factor.

All I did was provided a link where an official statement is made about social media because of the "Why" factor.

It is reasonable to believe that the statement is the driving force behind the use of social media by SOE.

A few random comments...

After some discussion (and a PM), it would appear the aspiration from Luperza is for parallel postings on these forums and social media. To that end, I not only say OK, but hell yes. The only angle I would suggest from this point, is posting on the official forums first, then relay it to social media. Sometimes, stuff may happen on social media first, but if our community manager is all over getting that information passed on, all is good.

I would also encourage people to apply some empathy toward each other. Some users will be social media butterflies, and absolutely love the availability of communication and interaction through external websites. However, some users will avoid social media for any reason they deem fit (and they have ever right to do so). Either way, I still believe these forums should be the THE place to go to get 99% of EQ2 info, as this is the official EQ2 forums.

I did not create this thread to attack any of the SOE staff, directly or indirectly. I would encourage anyone who continues to post in this thread to keep that in mind when phrasing their comments. I also did not create this thread to proclaim social media is the devil, the reality is far from it. I understand that in several ways, a presence in social media is a great thing. All I want is to encourage the staff at SOE to make better use of the official forums, which can be done at the same time as increasing social media presence. One does not have to happen at the expense of the other.

Perhaps the best tactic would be to release information through the in-game mail (although that would likely mean either that players would need to clean out their mailboxes once in a while - not necessarily removing all mail from them, but at least going through it to see which mail needs to be saved - or that players would need mails that originate from the EQ2 dev team to override the mail capacity limits) and then posting things to the sites external to the game (including the forums). That way, people that are actually playing the game will have first dibs on the information, then people that have forum accounts (even those that no longer actively play), follow Twitter, use Facebook, and utilize Reddit can get the info at essentially the same time (within a few hours of each other). That would reduce some of the grumbling about which had priority, because only the internal source (in-game mail) would have primacy.

Additionally, the in-game mail could be used to cross promote the other media. For example, if there is an enhanced XP period coming up, an in-game mail to this effect could be sent, with the following appended to that message:

Don't forget to visit one (or more) of these sites to see discussions about this subject (and others) -

• The EverQuest II forums @ https://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/index.php
• The EverQuest II Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/EverQuest2
• The EverQuest II Twitter feed @ https://twitter.com/everquestii
• The EverQuest II Reddit @ http://www.reddit.com/r/EQ2/

I understand why each of those are used, but to me, the most important group of people (to EQ2's continued viability) are those that are currently helping to keep the game from shutting down (via subscriptions and/or marketplace purchases), followed by those that are likely to return or try the game. I'm not saying that the forums, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit aren't important, just that the primary source of information should be within the game itself.

I really like the in game mail idea Rotherian has proposed. Thumbs up.

great idea but to really work, they need to be able to put the actual links into ingame mail- feasible because there is an ingame browser.

and please note - this thread was not so much as where do we get information when the forums and game are down but rather where do we get current information first.

I addressed the part about the medium that should be the primary source of information. Re-read the parts above and below the bullet points. (The part with the bullet points is of secondary value to the main point of that post.)

i wasn't arguing with you. i agreed with you. i simply pointed out to those who are bringing up the dns problem that we are more concerned with the information that goes to other sites first that could and should be read in the forums or ingame first. if the forums and the game are down, naturally there has to be another way to get information. but not if it is a usual post- like the one where they wanted our input in the appearance of the aa window layout.

I have interacted with the FB page and liked and followed it but I don't get any posts from EQII. I do get lots of posts from people I don't know and companies. To get any information from the FB page I have to actually go to that page.

I just thought you should know that I could interact with your page from now until doomsday and probably never get one of your posts as FB decides what posts I will see. For that reason, I am with the players who would like all news posted on this forum first or along with FB and what ever other social media you chose.

Although I have a Twitter account I have no idea how to use it so I don't. It is a good thing Feldon reposts news from Twitter, etc, as I find FB is all I can handle without devoting my life to social media.

It seems to me that both Feldon and Luperza are due huge thanks for their efforts to keep us informed. I think they have done a great job and I'm looking forward to meeting them at Live 2014 to thank them in person.

This may be a dumb suggestion....

But how about adding an in game rss reader for official info from SoE?