WotC board crash? [They're back up - M. Morris]

[MerricB]

Small maybe, but certainly enough to keep me busy on two sites

We keep changing wigs.

Cheers!

 

[IronWolf]

I also suspect they have far more dead accounts then we do too.

I know my account over there is nearly a dead account. I rarely post over there, heck I rarely even browse the forums over there. The community here just seems so much more friendly and a lot of cases more open minded to various products on the market.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I know my account over there is nearly a dead account. I rarely post over there, heck I rarely even browse the forums over there. The community here just seems so much more friendly and a lot of cases more open minded to various products on the market.

My goodness yes, I much prefer the atmosphere here.

The Auld Grump

 

[Michael Morris]

Russ didn't believe me when I said the Nitros Oxide hack was a good idea. I put it in anyway. Results speak a thousand words.

 

[MerricB]

I know my account over there is nearly a dead account. I rarely post over there, heck I rarely even browse the forums over there. The community here just seems so much more friendly and a lot of cases more open minded to various products on the market.

Since ENworld got blocked as a pornographic site by my work (No, I don't understand it, either), I've spent a lot of time on the Wizards boards.

It's really a lot of different communities. (The same applies here).

The people who post to Future Releases are different than those on General, those on the Miniatures forums, and those on the Character Optimisation boards. The tone can be very different, depending on where you are. There's some overlap, of course, but you do tend to find the areas where you're comfortable.

The Miniatures board is fascinating because the designers (esp. Mike Donais, Stephen Schubert and Rob Heinsoo) are often around.

And, on Maxminis, we occasionally get people saying, "It's much nicer here than the Wizards boards." Hey, I've also seen the occasional post "It's much nicer here than ENworld", though I forget which site I was on at the time...

Cheers!

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

After just a few moments thought it occurs to me that the disparity between the two sites can be attributed almost entirely to ENworld being far more user-driven and WotC's site being company-driven. ENworld starts to choke on its traffic load, there is a donation drive to secure a new and better server. The users know the value of the site to them, and upon simply being asked actually end up donating MORE than was asked for. On the other hand, WotC chokes on its traffic load and... they try to just make do. And making do isn't going to FIX that problem, only limit the severity of the symptoms at best. But are COMPANY admins going to ask THIER members to donate money to finance upgrading their equipment when the company itself won't?

For whatever reasons, WotC quite demonstrably just does NOT consider their website to be of much real importance. They never have. They treat it more like a necessary, but undesired burden than a truly useful business tool that is in their interests to make the BEST of for their members. They probably couldn't be convinced to actually make capital improvements to it unless they were shown how failure to do so will COST them potential customers. But it's extremely difficult to show a lost potential sale or customer when they simply quietly abandon the site as useless for someplace superior like ENworld.

Even aside from traffic issues, virtually from Day 1 that WotC ran up their site people complained about being unable to actually FIND anything on their site. Maybe they've gotten better, but I stopped bothering to look for anything at WotC ages ago. Just for example, I would happily point people to the link for the 2E-3E conversion manual as people do still occasionally ask for that information, except it's not FINDABLE. 'Tseems to me they would want their site to be the GO-TO site for virtually EVERYTHING to do with D&D. Penny wise and pound foolish I guess.

 

[IronWolf]

The people who post to Future Releases are different than those on General, those on the Miniatures forums, and those on the Character Optimisation boards. The tone can be very different, depending on where you are. There's some overlap, of course, but you do tend to find the areas where you're comfortable.

Quite true, I wasn't trying to disparage the WotC boards with my comments on the difference in community. I have limited time to actively participate in message boards on a day to day basis, so I sort of choose one that fits my style the best. I've been pretty happy with my virtual EN World home so far.

 

[MerricB]

For whatever reasons, WotC quite demonstrably just does NOT consider their website to be of much real importance. They never have. They treat it more like a necessary, but undesired burden than a truly useful business tool that is in their interests to make the BEST of for their members.

Ah, well. So be it.

Their Forum site or their main website?

In the last year or so, their main website has really started giving us a lot of previews and excerpts, as well as other new original material. Unfortunately, the D&D side of things doesn't have Mark Rosewater writing for it.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

Quite true, I wasn't trying to disparage the WotC boards with my comments on the difference in community. I have limited time to actively participate in message boards on a day to day basis, so I sort of choose one that fits my style the best. I've been pretty happy with my virtual EN World home so far.

Oh, indeed. You find the community you like, and you stick to it. (Annoying work! Why did you block ENworld?!?!) Along the way, you build up a real devotion to that community.

Cheers!

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Their Forum site or their main website?

In the last year or so, their main website has really started giving us a lot of previews and excerpts, as well as other new original material. Unfortunately, the D&D side of things doesn't have Mark Rosewater writing for it.

Well, like I was saying I really don't visit the main D&D page. I stopped because when I wanted to find something that I KNEW was there I found that you almost had to simply get someone to give you a direct link because it couldn't be gotten to any other practical way. Well that and because I had no need for the content they were regularly providing which didn't necessarily mean that nobody else did. But I always have fairly regularly visited the D&D forum (and actually even more so when ENworld got bogged down).

Nowadays I don't need/want/buy enough new D&D (written) product to make previews and excerpts terribly useful (I've spent vastly more on their miniatures since they started the plastic, and it's a whole other topic that my desire for obtaining minis for ROLEPLAYING purposes is frustrated by the "collectibility" factor). For deeper coverage of rules, etc. the forums are faster and better. Part of that goes to my perception that they place an undesireable emphasis on Rules and correct interpretation thereof as being the heart of the game. And of course my perception of the reason for that is that its simply much easier to pontificate Rules.

I don't mean to be sounding as if I'm ranting (though I suppose I am) but I think these are issues that are linked together. JMHO.