Roll20 users; are my impressions right or wrong on this

[GreyLord]

Just came from Reddit and DnD had a front page posting, but it wasn't really on DnD.

There seems to be an exploding blowup about a recent incident and people going crazy on Roll20.

Of course reddit is it's own thing and perception there can be very....

Reddit biased?

I'm wondering if Roll20 users here have noticed anything crazy going on or any furor over anything.

Anything out of the usual going on?

Just curious as Reddit seems to be all abloom about it in that topic. Reddit is very particular to reddit though, so unsure if it is actually a thing that is happening and effecting many, or just a Reddit thing.

 

[Xaelvaen]

Just went and gave that a look. I poked around with Roll20 a while back, but I've always been more of a Maptools user myself. Far more freedom in the tool, but I can say for sure I'll never use Roll20 now haha.

Thanks for pointing that out, [MENTION=4348]GreyLord[/MENTION]

 

[GMMichael]

Um, hosting a game tonight. If I don't come back and respond here tomorrow, the coast is clear.

They're beta-testing their own RPG with the Pro subscribers there. (And yes, I'm proud of myself for using -ther- correctly three times in one sentence; you're not in Reddit anymore). So maybe that's causing a disturbance, either with users who feel left-out or with publishers who are whining about it?

It might also be a Terms of Service thing, since that's been updated lately. But who gets in an uproar about TOS?

 

[Barantor]

So the uproar is about three things in rather rapid succession.

First is that the Co CEO of roll20 and several employees are moderators of their own subreddit for roll20, something that isn't looked highly upon on reddit (reddiquette) since it doesn't allow for unbiased moderation.

Second is a user was banned because the moderators on the roll20 subreddit thought he was a former user that had been banned, meanwhile he is a 5 year paying customer. User asks what's going on, they lay out their case, he asks for reddit themselves to look into it since they can check IPs and such.

Response is basically, sorry nope. To which user then says they will have to go public with it.

CEO Nolan then doubles down and says that even if they aren't the same banned person, they are now disruptive and would be banned anyway.

According to some sources who track it, that last comment is now the 2nd most downvoted comment on reddit after the whole EA/Lootbox debacle several months ago.

CEO Nolan is on record in the past on reddit saying they don't have an official forum because they lack the means to moderate it... which I find ironic.

Many folks are now unsubscribing to Roll20 in response to over-moderation.

Link to post by banned user: https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/9iya7o/after_5_years_on_roll20_i_just_cancelled_and/

Link to NolanT response: https://www.reddit.com/r/Roll20/comments/9iwjwd/read_this/e6n4bgx

 

[Xaelvaen]

The big uproar I saw was over someone being falsely banned and the mod team of /r/Roll20 not even offering an apology - big PR nightmare going on. A paid subscriber of Roll20, for 5 years, was actually quite polite and adequate in his approach in trying to get it all sorted out, and he was ignored and quite frankly mistreated by one of the staff of Roll20.

So the reddit community is letting Roll20 know how it feels, in it's usual way. One of the Roll20 staffers has a post with thousands of downvotes and it's quite an interesting read, at least what I was capable of reading into the situation.

EDIT :: Barantor nailed it perfectly.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

To err is human. To refuse to fess up is jerkness.

 

[jimmifett]

I personally found roll20 a nightmare to use, even paid, as a GM. I gave them a month paid, wasted money. FG, I used the heck out of that for a variety of games.

roll20 also wanted to ban a paying user for wanting to have a single gender game, whilst allowing other single gender games to exist without any such threat, just bc of differing genders. Wanting a single gender game does not automatically make the players, organizers, or the game itself sexist, but roll20 apparently publicly has double standards. Another reason for them to not get any more of my money.

 

[ERoy]

The big uproar I saw was over someone being falsely banned and the mod team of /r/Roll20 not even offering an apology - big PR nightmare going on. A paid subscriber of Roll20, for 5 years, was actually quite polite and adequate in his approach in trying to get it all sorted out, and he was ignored and quite frankly mistreated by one of the staff of Roll20.

So the reddit community is letting Roll20 know how it feels, in it's usual way. One of the Roll20 staffers has a post with thousands of downvotes and it's quite an interesting read, at least what I was capable of reading into the situation.

It wasn't just an employee -- it was a co-founder and co-CEO of the company.

 

[Gradine]

roll20 also wanted to ban a paying user for wanting to have a single gender game, whilst allowing other single gender games to exist without any such threat, just bc of differing genders. Wanting a single gender game does not automatically make the players, organizers, or the game itself sexist, but roll20 apparently publicly has double standards. Another reason for them to not get any more of my money.

The ban wasn't on having or wanting "single gender games" (which I suspect many Roll20 games are going to be anyway), the ban was on using the Roll20 to advertise games as "No girls allowed".

 

[Xaelvaen]

It wasn't just an employee -- it was a co-founder and co-CEO of the company.

As I continued to read the thread throughout the morning/afternoon, I was seeing that referenced in many of the posts. I'm having a hard time digesting someone with that much invested in the company would have screwed up that badly - banning someone without any concrete evidence when it's not even his own site. Risking his money by enforcing a 'hunch' ban on some other property related to his? Just... man.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely - another example revealed, I suppose.