Yeah, hi, Google? Yeah, I'm looking for a Charlie. Looks like he's got something to do with a place called "Candy Mountain." What's that? There's a YouTube link just above my post? Oh, silly me. Thanks, Google!
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Very nice explanation, there's no doubt that you spend a lot of time on the community (SteamSales, StreamTrades and SteamGifts) always aiming higher, ans it is cool to know that one way or another you enjoy doing this.
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Thanks for the update, cg. If there's anything we can do to help, just let us know.
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Glad that you cleared up the misunderstandings. Yeah managing all these websites really burn you out so I hope you'll get some administrators to help you soon.
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Thanks for the post, I hope users will read it whole. It clears up a few things that were floating around.
Really appreciate all the work you've put into the site but don't overwork yourself!
If you need help with something just ask, I bet a lot of people would respond if you asked on the forums!
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I'm happy that you cleared things for us. Hopefully this will help dissolve some misunderstandings and, perhaps, open some constructive discussions that will guide you in a better direction. Most of us were missing the "big picture" and we weren't able to see where this site was heading at.
I have to be honest with you. I was one of those who believed that the chat, even though it was a nice addition, was more of a burden for the mods; forcing them to monitor its activity 24/7 to avoid any spam or, worse yet, scams to occur. However, I see what you're trying to achieve and it seems like an enormous load of work, which requires a great deal of passion.
This thread makes me appreciate all the work you guys (admins, mods and support alike) put into it even more. Keep up the great work, cg.
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There is still the problem, that Raiden & Jade can't run the support alone. I would apply, if there is a need and I think there are lots of people here, who would like to help out, too.
Thanks for the update & don't overstrain yourself!
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Thanks for clearing the air on this, cg. Obviously we didn't have the "big picture" of things before, when the ex-support folks were kicking up dirt (and perhaps they didn't, either). I applaud you for keeping a clear head throughout.
This site is indeed a wonderful thing.
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Hey SG, it's been an interesting few days, and I feel it's a good time to clear up some of the recent changes, and misunderstandings.
1. Where did the moderators from support go?
Everyone was removed from support the other day. It was no longer fair to the community and moderators. In short, there were too many tickets, which they did not have the ability to address. As a result, we ended up with angry users, and overwhelmed moderators. Due to this frustration, we've had moderators lose their temper at times when dealing with users in support, and complaints started to roll in about people being treated unfairly, suspensions being given for invalid reasons or personal disputes, name calling, etc. That's not the way the support section should be run, and therefore everyone was removed until it's back on course.
Yesterday there was an update to better organize user tickets, so they're easier for users to follow, and easier for moderators to organize. It's a step in the right direction, but there are still a lot of improvements to be made.
I'll be looking after all the support tickets until we're up-to-date. The next week I'll be working on them fulltime, and hopefully that'll reduce some of the backlog.
2. Why couldn't the moderators perform certain actions?
If it was that easy, and I could allow all moderators to delete and reroll giveaways, it would have happened long ago. Right now giveaways cannot be undeleted. If a giveaway is removed, it's gone, unless we get into restoring available database backups. Call it a poor judgement in coding when I first started on the site, because that's exactly what it is. The method in which giveaways are handled and removed needs to be recoded. We also need a log of all actions performed by moderators. If we have a handful of users moderating the site, and we have no idea who deleted a giveaway, why a winner was rerolled, etc, we get even more headaches. Dropping those privileges in front of an overworked and stressed group of moderators, when the above isn't setup would be a giant security risk. I wouldn't be able to sleep knowing the entire site could be deleted overnight, and it doesn't make sense to risk years of work and the trust of the community by releasing updates a couple of months prematurely.
3. Why are you focusing on browser chat and the TF2 server? The priorities for SteamGifts are in the wrong place.
The 32 player TF2 server is running on autopilot, and it's set to either renew or expire on the 10th depending on user interest. We have two 16 player servers setup for the TF2 tournament, and those are entirely managed by some of our fellow members. I've spent 3 hours working on the browser chat in the past month. You have to realize I get burnt out working day and night developing these sites, and maintaining the server. Occasionally, I need a break. Instead of watching a movie for a couple of hours, I'll code something completely unrelated, like the chat room, since it clears my mind, and it's educational. We might not need a browser chat, but it was a fun experiment to learn some new techniques, performance limitations for different methods of data retrieval, and it has a lot of potential for other Steam related projects I'm developing. We might even be able to revamp it to become real-time support, where users help users, to reduce the number of tickets we receive. If you think the chat and TF2 server is where the time is going, you're misunderstood. The site has been live for just over a year, and I do my best to listen to all the feedback from the community. Let's take a look at some of the public announcements throughout the year.
The site has come a long way this year, and the next year will be even busier, with some of the largest updates yet. I think the time was managed well, and we're heading in the right direction. However, things take a while with a development team of one, and you can't expect changes to happen overnight. The community has been amazing with all the suggestions, and some of our best features have originated from the forum. We've reached 1.2 million dollars in gifts received, 170,000 users, and 25,000 contributors. We've had the pleasure to work with a number of game developers, received tons of support from the users of Reddit, GOG, GiantBomb, Penny Arcade, Facepunch, CheapAssGamer, SomethingAwful, and NeoGAF, and our group of moderators have invested countless hours. I think we've worked together to create something incredible, and although the site has a few rough edges, I don't think that's reason to lose focus on the achievement we've reached as a community.
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