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    Your Elvenar Team

One Last Plea to Save the Forums!!!

FaunWillow

Active Member
Hey everyone.

I wanted to give one last, end of year (possible end of the forums) plea to the decision makers at Inno and Elvenar to
please consider keeping our Forums moving forward along with having Discord.

Here's why:
-People have very diverse preferences when it comes to technology and what they like to use and/or what they are able to use.

-In the past, the Forums have been fairly easy to access, with no log in required.
*Anyone could previously click on the forum link in-game to see news on release notes, announcements, discussions on events and new features.
*If a player wanted to join in the discussion, they could create a login pretty easily. If they had trouble creating an account because they didn’t verify their email or whatever, they could contact support for assistance.

-That is not the case with Discord. Elvenar mods are not Discord support. They are moderators for specific Elvenar channels, not for the site itself. They cannot efficiently support Elvenar players with anything to do with Discord technical issues.

-We now no longer have access to the forum in-game. You really have to dig around the internet to find the forum you want to view (if you haven't saved the web address).

*The pop up news in-game is only temporary and does not and cannot work for everyone.
(Meaning, you should only be using Discord on a saved browser or mobile app where you are already signed in)

*A lot of people using Safari on a tablet are out of luck. Good luck clicking that link on certain mobile devices.

*If you accidentally click on the invite link twice (in-game), the invite becomes invalid. Then what are you suppose to do? Wait around and hope it works later on?

*If you have an account on Discord already and accept the invite from the in-game invitation, it takes you to the Rules Page. It does not take you to whatever was announced in-game.

*It’s not possible to link to the announcement, so players are lost already, once they actually get into Discord, and now have the job to try and find what was announced in-game. With three English servers all shared together, good luck!

-Which brings me to the next problem. Now that the discussion have solely moved to Discord, nothing much is being discussed with new features like events or release notes.

-Bug reports are not being sent in as they used to. More and more bugs that haven’t even been reported are now just a part of the game until someone notices and decides to mention it. It's a pain to create a bug report on discord, IMO (in my opinion).

-If you have been on Elvenar Discord, you may have noticed the significant amount of spam/porn that is posted on both Beta and English channels at least once a week. I am not playing Elvenar to be a part of a community where I have to view inappropriate content that is posted on Discord. That is not what I signed up for.
*It is also not fair to the Moderators and staff to have to be ready at any moment to get in there and delete those spam posts.

-The feel of the Elvenar Community has dwindled significantly since the announcement to move to Discord.

-There are many (thousands) of players who have logged in at least once to Discord (some possibly accidentally created two or more accounts with the wonky sign in system).
However, of that number, there are still only a small handful of regulars interacting there... and the new players who come in to ask questions once or twice are never seen again.
*That is no different than what they used as an excuse to drop the forums. That same amount of players used the forums too, I’m sure.
Same amount of regulars on both platforms, same amount of viewers on both platforms (who prefer not to sign in and interact).
*The engagement is the same now with Discord and in some situations, worse because they are not productive with discussing new features.
*Discord is productive in that someone is always around to answer player questions. That has been nice to see.

*Discord is not a bad place for quick chats and questions. The contests seem to work well for tech-friendly folks on the US side.

*The EN side, Beta and many other server channels are not receiving the same kind of engagement because that group of players are simply not interested in using Discord for contests, discussions, etc.
***It’s very obvious and clear that there is a strong stance from many players on multiple servers that they simply will not use Discord. What are they suppose to do, should the forums close down? Be excluded because no one is willing to compromise with keeping both platforms? What's the point in that? Isn't it better/more productive and healthy to include every player in discussions and information?

*Contests and engagement can and should be available on the Forum and Discord.
*They are already on Instagram and Facebook so why not implement the idea of having two forum platforms moving forward? One for folks who use the regular forums and one for those who like to use a quick glance platform like Discord?

***Discord It is not the place for important things to be posted and left to the wind for many to not even see because they don’t use Discord. That doesn’t seem like a productive model for Elvenar engagement.

-Announcements, release notes, events and anything else that is new to the game should be kept on the Forums and also sent to Discord.
Important game news needs their own Forum space for permanent discussion access and archival (which is not really possible on Discord).


***Please consider using both platforms moving forward. What one likes or prefers does not overrule or outweigh what is good for everyone else. Let’s use both from now on! Players are willing to pass along information from each site and it really would be the best outcome for all parties: players, staff, mods, in-house and everyone else. It’s a win-win to cater to all parties in this situation and it will bring back that special community feeling that players treasure and miss. :diamond::diamond::diamond:

Happy New Year to all!
 
Last edited:

Darielle

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, and Buddy Fan Club Member
Amen, Faun. I hope they do. I already find myself checking here less, just because they've put a hammer to the forum. I'm hoping they announce that they're keeping it, so that we can feel good about Inno again. Right now I'm less connected to the company than I ever was before. I've been here since 2019 and I know a lot of people have been here longer, but it always felt like home until this past year. The corporate takeover of Inno and the quest for the almighty dollar has changed the face of the company, and it's a crying shame.

In America, we have had so many venture capitalists take a company, run it into the ground, and then sell it off as a mere shell of what it once was. I can't help but feel that is happening to Inno. It makes me so sad. Saving the forum and saying they're going to actually LISTEN to us would make me feel like I'm wrong, and that would sure be a good thing.

I see the numbers dwindle here, and dwindling numbers were exactly what they were hoping for in order to justify their decisions. Right now there are 44 on. Before the announcement, I've never seen it that low. Taking the button away in game was the hammer I speak of ... they wanted to kill this and that was the best way to do it. I'm really sorry to be so negative but I'm just so angry with them, and frustrated. :( Companies don't realize that we are a family of sorts ... maybe not real, but we have a sense of community and family, I think. They're tearing that apart. I guess maybe they do realize it; they just don't give a you know what. I really hope to be wrong.
 

Deleted User - 848894468

Guest
Thank you FaunWillow!! Beautifully written covering several unique examples etc!!! I for one, enjoy the Forums through the browsers for easy access, not so much on Discord because of the login process -- has been extremely irritating in the past (I also do not use my phone except for emergency calls, nothing else) and now, well, it's been months since trying again.

I really hope the Forumns are kept for those of use to whom would like to use them, to see updated information etc...
 

BrinDarby

Well-Known Member
In America, we have had so many venture capitalists take a company, run it into the ground, and then sell it off as a mere shell of what it once was. I can't help but feel that is happening to Inno. It makes me so sad. Saving the forum and saying they're going to actually LISTEN to us would make me feel like I'm wrong, and that would sure be a good thing.
Listning is a subject in-of itself, mis/new mgmt tho is different.

Each game has its own communities that evolve, and and thru
natural attrition, only those who want to play..... stay and play.
I have heard of a couple games where the playerbase had a
vibrant interaction with mgmt, but usually the best you can get
is actual truth about where a game might be heading. Too often
the playerbase is used more like cattle..... they are prodded and
milk'd with no reguard for the players themselves.

The issues around discord could actually help Elvenar, if staff
would open thier ears a little bit. What we are seeing is the
exact opposite, and what appears to be a continuance of the
previous mgmt's style of "non-listening". 1 way to interpret this
would be a new mgmt team thats hostile to the current players,
yet I fear thats too simplistic for the current state of affairs.

TheForum and Elvenar evolved together, and while the players
have ask'd for live chat to be add'd..... it never was, therefore the
Forum/Elvenar evolved to be efficient in its own ways and the
players evolved right along with it.
Discord, cannot replace
TheForum for/with some of its core functions, nor do many
gamers want to deal with 3rd/4th party vendors integrated into
the game they are playing.

TheForum is part of the game, having it ripp'd from us is just
as traumatic as were the CH 1-5 chgs. Discord cannot replace
TheForum for many things, so only time will tell if without those
things Elvenar will flourish.:confused:.
 

Yavimaya

Scroll-Keeper
I really hope our forums will be saved along with keeping discord. That would be the best New Years change I feel the company could do. I understand everybody's feelings about this. I've been using discord and run into some issues still, but at least was able to mostly learn how to use it. It just isn't capable of what the forum is capable of, but it is useful for other things. That's why I feel having both (just like they kept the forums with all their other social media) would be the perfect option. Best of both worlds kind of thing.
 

Yavimaya

Scroll-Keeper
I will say this though. Anytime I've reached out for help on discord (several times so far) and tagged someone if needed, I've always gotten timely answers or at least responses. (They get 1 brownie point there.)
 

Yogi Dave

Well-Known Member
A big tell on the forum is the lack of new threads in the question and answers section. The last asking about the Moon Bear was started Dec. 16. "Is anyone still using the forum" was started Dec. 15. There were only 2 others from Dec. If people aren't asking questions what is there to do here? I can't believe Ideas and Suggestions has much meaning here since there aren't enough people on here to get a real discussion about them and there has only been 3 placed during Dec. 2 of them have had a total of 7 replies. The other one has 24, but it's name is "Yea or Nay for Forum or Discord". General discussion has about the same problem. Not much is new in it. In fact, the most active thread is "New from Discord - May Contain Info". It's had 126 replies and 6k visits since it was started Sept. 20. However, back then more people were still visiting then. There were often more that 200 with the forum open. This morning only 53 people have the forum open and only 3 of them are members.

While the points @FaunWillow makes are good, they won't mean anything if Inno doesn't start posting info on both this forum and Discord and they've made it pretty clear that won't happen. So, the forum just becomes a place of archived info and a place for a few of us hangers-on to make comments which seem to be mainly about how we dislike discord.

Having both the forum and Discord active won't work very well since information on one won't be on the other. They could bring the announcements and release notes over, but the discussions from Discord and here can't be mirrored in both places. The structures are just too different. Sad, but true in my opinion.

*It’s not possible to link to the announcement, so players are lost already, once they actually get into Discord, and now have the job to try and find what was announced in-game. With three English servers all shared together, good luck!
I've also noticed on Discord that the links from release-notes which are posted by staff and give a link to discussion point to discussions about another release or no longer work. Without a link, the discussion is just gone.
 

Deleted User - 849411552

Guest
That was a brilliant presentation, FaunWillow. Thank you!

What you said resonated with me on many levels. I hope Inno will reverse their decision about closing the forum. The game itself is just not the same without active forum support - and the sense of a wider community the forum provided.
 

BreeCe

New Member
Wow ... I hope those in management are listening and seeing this crucial point in the future of this game. Most of your users do not appreciate change in mid stream. Dropping the forum and changing to Discord is a huge change for most because it's not an easy task. I have tried to enter Discord and was unsuccessful, I will try again but I'm already not in love with this system. Please at least, try keeping the forum up along with your Discord so that those who are use to the forum can still get the info that they want. Thank you!
 

BrinDarby

Well-Known Member
We need to organize a Walkout.
and we can't be namby pamby about it ....
its gotta be enough ppl, that Inno takes notice.
Lets face it, if everyone took a 2day break, its
not gonna kill anyone or have lasting efects,
but it will show Inno we're serious.
 
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