DDI January Content Calendar "Online"

[LightPhoenix]

Starting January 2011, magazine articles will be listed in their appropriate Dragon and Dungeon Table of Contents pages, but articles won’t be pinned to specific dates on the calendar. At the start of each week, we’ll post a news update announcing the magazine content that will appear that week.
This change will allow us greater flexibility to fully develop and edit articles as needed without requiring last-minute changes to the calendar. We will continue to evaluate and organize content across the site as needed in our effort to bring you the best possible Dungeons & Dragons material. As always, we welcome your thoughts and feedback; send them to dndinsider[MENTION=17465]Wizard[/MENTION]s.com.

I get why they are doing this - it's clear they were missing deadlines left and right with the online content. The whole Executioner Assassin debacle is clearly the latest instance of that.


That said, at this point in time, my trust in DDI has waned quite a bit. I can't take it in good faith when they say, "You'll get all these articles this month, we promise!" If they were having problems with deadlines before, this isn't going to change anything. Presumably there are still deadlines behind the scenes, and presumably they haven't changed.



I also don't understand why the month's content can't still be listed on the page, albeit not scheduled. The way it's set up now seems to obfuscate what is being offered each month.



I guess my question is, why even bother spending time on the Content Calendar any more? If it's not going to be an indication of the month's content, why waste resources? It's not as if, at this point, we believe you have resources to spare. Heck, I've long thought that DDI is critically understaffed. Just put out the TOC for Dungeon and Dragon each month, end of story.


I think, going a bit deeper, this just reinforces my thoughts that DDI is being mismanaged at every level.

 

[fanboy2000]

Well, that's one way to solve your missing deadline problem: don't have deadlines! It's like they decided to model their online content release dates on the study habits of college undergrads.

"eh...I still have another 20 hours before the paper's due...."

 

[the Jester]

I hope this isn't a sign that they're going to let the mags slip even further, but I can't help but fear that it is.

Well, here's hoping we at least get the new Monster Builder soon.

 

[Festivus]

Feeling more and more pleased that I decided not to renew because I felt the magazines were circling the drain. This just reinforces that feeling.

 

[Solvarn]

Calendar

One begins to question the purpose of having a calendar at all.

 

[Shroomy]

They're probably doing this because many people kept on disregarding the previous disclaimer, that the Calendar was a living document that was always subject to change and then whipped themselves into a frenzy of complaint over on the WotC boards, kind of like how this thread is likely to degenerate into.

 

[Dice4Hire]

They're probably doing this because many people kept on disregarding the previous disclaimer, that the Calendar was a living document that was always subject to change and then whipped themselves into a frenzy of complaint over on the WotC boards, kind of like how this thread is likely to degenerate into.

A 'living' document is one thing, but this is not a 'living' document. It is more of a whitewash for WOTC.

 

[Obryn]

They're probably doing this because many people kept on disregarding the previous disclaimer, that the Calendar was a living document that was always subject to change and then whipped themselves into a frenzy of complaint over on the WotC boards, kind of like how this thread is likely to degenerate into.

The proper response to, "We're not meeting the deadlines" shouldn't generally be, "Then let's get rid of the deadlines altogether." It should probably be more along the lines of, "Well, let's try to meet them."

Even when those deadlines are mutable, it's important to have a goal.

-O

 

[LightPhoenix]

The proper response to, "We're not meeting the deadlines" shouldn't generally be, "Then let's get rid of the deadlines altogether." It should probably be more along the lines of, "Well, let's try to meet them."

Or rather, "Let's take a look at our back end and determine why those deadlines aren't being met, and if the deadlines we are setting are realistic."

 

[Scribble]

Originally they didn't have a calendar. They only added it after people expressed interest... They had the mutable disclaimer, but despite what people say about proper responses et al- if they moved an article even a week- people generally got angry.

I don't think this is a get rid of deadlines thing, it's just make them easiert to deal with.