WotC forums down for a week or two?

[doctorhook]

I have to say, I'm pretty excited about this notion of some kind of wikis on the official D&D boards. Why? Because "wikis" and "character optimization handbooks" go together like the internet and porn -- they're interesting by themselves, but they're spectacular when combined! Seriously, the wiki format is perfect for handbooks (which are arguably the most useful things on those or any other D&D board).

Check out the link in my sig. A few of us tried to build a CharOp wiki at Wikia.com, but despite our best efforts, we just couldn't do it. Our biggest problem was that there was hardly anyone contributing to trying to build the thing in the first place -- but having it as an official part of the forum will take all that work out of it!

 

[Nifft]

I have to say, I'm pretty excited about this notion of some kind of wikis on the official D&D boards. Why? Because "wikis" and "character optimization handbooks" go together like the internet and porn -- they're interesting by themselves, but they're spectacular when combined! Seriously, the wiki format is perfect for handbooks (which are arguably the most useful things on those or any other D&D board).

IMHO the most useful thing about optimization threads are the discussions that follow the stuff at the top.

Wikis are great to index stable content, and they're great for versioning shared resources, but for discussions? I dunno.

Cheers, -- N

 

[ki11erDM]

Does reading this thread make anyone else think of WOW patch days? hehe

 

[LFK]

IMHO the most useful thing about optimization threads are the discussions that follow the stuff at the top.

Wikis are great to index stable content, and they're great for versioning shared resources, but for discussions? I dunno.

Cheers, -- N

Yeah, but when a Handbook has been around for a while the discussion at the back end slowly becomes irrelevant, or else just hugely divorced in terms of the progression of content from page 1 to page 20. Eventually discussion stops for one reason or another and the guide slips from view, only referenced by those who look for it or know it's there.

The discussion threads will still exist in a Wki environment, but just in a more contained way, i.e. a discussion of new content being appended to the guide, rather than a situation where the two are locked together and strangely co-dependent (since exposure requires new posts in the thread which require exposure to draw in which stop when the content becomes stable due to lack of new content applicable to the subject.)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The discussion threads will still exist in a Wki environment, but just in a more contained way, i.e. a discussion of new content being appended to the guide, rather than a situation where the two are locked together and strangely co-dependent (since exposure requires new posts in the thread which require exposure to draw in which stop when the content becomes stable due to lack of new content applicable to the subject.)

yea, instead of holding 4 or 5 posts the op can link tot he wiki, then put a small post, discuss there, then updat the wiki...

 

[Shemeska]

As for the timeframe, yeah, a week to just upgrade the software and possibly the hardware seems a bit much. To me, this indicates that either WotC lacks IT manpower and/or

My guess is a combination of lack of manpower and budget (as a direct result of the hiring freeze and lingering budget problems due to Gleemax) and incompatabilities between various bits of the old and new system structure that's probably a nightmare, and who knows if the people still on staff after the various rounds of layoffs have tons of experience with it.

I could probably find out more directly, but I'm not super inclined to ask people to break NDA again.

 

[Nifft]

Yeah, but when a Handbook has been around for a while the discussion at the back end slowly becomes irrelevant, or else just hugely divorced in terms of the progression of content from page 1 to page 20. Eventually discussion stops for one reason or another and the guide slips from view, only referenced by those who look for it or know it's there.

Well, there is a sticky index at the top of the forum which has links to all the handbooks & guides.

But threads also see activity when new content appears which is relevant to them. Then those threads should see some activity, and should be more visible than similarly old threads which don't have any new relevant content.

IMHO a wiki could do the indexing better, and might be a better way to display the finished product, but how could it handle the flow of attention for contributors?

In other words, as a work environment for contributors seeking interesting things to help build, how is a Wiki better than a forum?

(since exposure requires new posts in the thread which require exposure to draw in which stop when the content becomes stable due to lack of new content applicable to the subject.)

See sticky index thread. It's not hard to find old threads.

Cheers, -- N

 

[GMforPowergamers]

In other words, as a work environment for contributors seeking interesting things to help build, how is a Wiki better than a forum?

it isn't better by itself...it is better togather...

normaly if I put up an assasin handbook we all talk in the post, and I update the first 3-5 posts...in this the first post has a link to the wikii, and we discuss in the thread and I update the wiki...the benfit is then two ways of finding the info, can direct a PC in my games to the wiki, and they can read it and never go tot he board, or they could go to the thread and talk about it...

 

[dvorak]

*disclaimer* Not poking fun at anyone or any organization. Image related to those tech savvy comments.

Gosh darnit they are cute.

 

[Stuntman]

From a customer of WotC, I have no problem with the site being taken down for maintenance or upgrades. My expectation is that the site would only be down for hours or perhaps days. For this service to down for over a week is something I would not consider to be acceptible.

Now from an IT point of view, my personal feeling is that it probably should be possible to do whatever upgrades they are doing in a few days time at most. The time frame would be dependent on resources available (people and money). I've been involved in a project that moved an office and all equipment from one location to another. The whole thing was done in about a day. It required more resources (money for OT and staff) to do it quickly. We probably could have taken our time and save money (no OT) and took a number of days to complete.

From a management point of view, I suspect that they looked at how much it would cost to do it in one day, a few days and a week or two and decided they don't want to spend more resources to do the upgrade more quickly. DDI and the main sites most likely make them the most money (or causes them to lose the most if down) are still up. The forums likely are not as critical, so less resources are spent trying to keep it up or minimise the down time. I think that WotC made the best business decision with regard to how they proceed with the upgrade.

As a paying DDI customer who buys D&D and Magic products, I'm upset that the forums are down. I would be more upset if DDI were down for a week or two and likely ask for some refund. With the forums, I'm not paying anything for it as it is free. I'm simply not getting anything that I'm not paying for in the first place. At least I'm getting what I have paid for which is DDI and it seems to be working fine for me. I doubt that the forums generate a lot of revenue for WotC or cause them to lose a lot of revenue due to it being down. The main sites are more critical, so they remain up. I'm not so upset that I'm going to stop buying their products or cancel my DDI subscription. When the forums come back up, I'll be all well and good.