Dear Platinum Studios
You are the worst thing to ever happen to Drunk Duck.
P.S. I hate you.
How can he say that! Platinum Studios is going to like destroy Drunkduck forever! Aaaaaagh! Is this a joke?
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Comic Talk and General Discussion *
Skoolmunkee hates Platinum Studios
Dear Platinum Studios
You are the worst thing to ever happen to Drunk Duck.
P.S. I hate you.
How can he say that!
"She" ;)
Eh, People have said worse. My biggest problem is that there is no line of communication with a coder, and our poor admins have to bear the brunt of complaints that they can do nothing about. So none of the issues on this site (most of which could probably be fixed pretty simply) can be addressed.
DD is the adopted but then disowned child of P.S. – Webcomic child services should come and rescue the poor thing.
Ignoring the original post, yeah, anyone else just a tad bit concerned by that newspost?I was worried that it was made as a newspost – simply due to complete lack of details…
It's more like something you'd expect in the Rant/Vent thread.
Plus… How is that news? Is that news to anyone? Shouldn't you call it "olds"?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kidding aside, my thought when I saw it was that skoolmunkee was trying to get PS attention since they have not replied to her emails. However, I still expected an actual message to them. (Like: Answer my emails! Stop ignoring DrunkDuck!) I guess that shows how upset poor skool is.
I admit, the newspost is a tad concerning, seeing as how we just had Ronson resign his post and I'd imagine losing one of our very few other active admins could be pretty detrimental ( Especially seeing as how I don't know who would be replacing them or how. I'm assuming a mod, but then someone would have to find another mod or two. )
I think some of the current bugs might actually be a result of attempted improvements to the site as just a bit earlier I saw a link I had never seen before under the GD link that said "jump to newest". So I'm just thinking the bugs are a result of moving the server and them trying to get some work done on it while they're doing things anyway, since things always get funky when you move things ( As a person who has moved their home several times in the last couple months I am more than acquainted with this concept. ) I'm trying to stay optimistic here.
I admit, the newspost is a tad concerning, seeing as how we just had Ronson resign his post and I'd imagine losing one of our very few other active admins could be pretty detrimental ( Especially seeing as how I don't know who would be replacing them or how. I'm assuming a mod, but then someone would have to find another mod or two. )Skool is very pro DD… She does more for the site than the rest of us. We couldn't replace her here :)
Heh, if Skool left, the rest of us would to most likely.
But it's not like tha right now, so rest assured in that knowledge. What's happened now is that things have just felt like they're getting on top a bit you know? So many bugs to deal with, the complaints, communicating those to the right people, the people leaving Plat etc, and it's worse for Skool because she does so much more. As you know.
She needs a holiday, which she'll be going on soon ^_^
——————
Skool's post is causing too much consternation, I'm going to remove it. You guys KNOW what it was, so it's not like I'm hiding anything, I just don't want it there depressing people ;)
I actually lol'd at the newspost, i feel sorry Skool's in this position right now.
You all know there's a shit load of aids happening to the site right now, it crashed a few days ago, there's still bugs from the first site layout switch, the coder has resigned, peoples can't upload images on an image hosting site, etc. Yet Skool's working her butt off in 'i found a bug!' and 'help!how do i…' frantically trying to get info to an owner that seems to not care.(or has other matters on the mind)
I have much respect for Skool for doing this much, of course she's getting stressed out.
There was a big long rant here but I don't need to explain any of this stuff to you guys… it's pretty obvious you get it already :) Making a huge grumpy post isn't gonna help anything. Also I'm afraid I'm the cause of yet another 'platinum sucks' thread. :[ Sorry.
Couple things:
I think Plat will have to do a lot to win back most DD users' trust. Not just random one-off improvements. I'm talking a serious effort to tackle the bug list and implement the most-desired features.
Usedbooks- they did finally answer my e-mails (after I sent a third, asking them to at least acknowledge the fact that we are having problems that need fixing)… basically we just have to wait some more until they get around to it. Apparently Platinum is a company full of nice people who do like the site but have no influence over anything.
Ronson didn't quit because of Platinum. He just wanted to work more on his comic.
It's true I'm having a vacation soon, and I will probably have more enthusiasm when I get back, but I'm unlikely to have any more patience for platinum. I could help DD users and do DD stuff all day, if I thought I was actually helping. But knowing that most of the advocating I do gets passed onward to be tossed in a garbage bin can get pretty disheartening.
But I still hang around!:)
the only thing I will say about this is that we're complaining about a false choice here. Before Platinum bought Drunk Duck the expenses were really starting to pile up for a single owner who was doing this as a hobby.
On top of that, Dylan (the original owner) is a supremely talented coder who was itching to move on to bigger and better things… And who can blame him for that?
Platinum has kept the site running, but I just don't think their coders are as good at what they do as Dylan is, and I think Platinum has a habit of de-prioritizing Drunk Duck.
But ultimately Dylan was going to leave Drunk Duck in someone else's hands. And no matter who that ended up being, they just couldn't compare to his quality of work.
But ultimately Dylan was going to leave Drunk Duck in someone else's hands. And no matter who that ended up being, they just couldn't compare to his quality of work.Also (since we're being almost nice to the new coders for a sec!), from the little I know about coding, it seems to be one of those areas where it can be far more difficult to find and fix problems in something built by someone else than it is to find and fix something of your own.
Dylan would have known so much more about the way the parts of DD fit together. The new guys have to find the problem in the existing code before they can even start working on it.
Okay. We can go back to griping now!
;-)
I think the one aspect of all the recent events that annoyed me is that any of the important items/events must be discovered through the admins. Platinum should have given prior notice to the site going down at the beginning of this week for the server change like all other sites that provides a service (as in big bold letters on the front page). That way we can, you know, prepare for the outage and such.
In my opinion, a Platinum representative for DD or the new DD coder needs to play an active role here and be the one taking all the bug requests instead of Skool. They have the power to fix them, she doesn't. I mean, on just about any other site you bring problems directly to the people who can fix it, so why is it such a big issue here?
I'm usually not one to complain and I still like the Duck, it's community, and the friendly environment it encompasses; but if those in charge are content with letting the site slowly decay like this, using my mirror site as the main site keeps sounding more and more tempting.
I agree with BlkKnight. The mysterious ghosts running the site should show themselves! ;) I'm sure they do helpful things. I'm sure they are also busy – but how are we to know any of this? No communication is a BIG part of the "feeling ignored" problem.
For example, the server change was really a good thing. I mean, the site is running fast now, not logging people out, etc. They did good — BUUUUUT, the news we had about it was vague, second-hand from admins who weren't told much to begin with. "DD will be changing servers at some time. They're working on it." Couldn't tell us if it was a matter of days or weeks or months… nothing. Traffic suffered because DD was broken, but if there was a time frame announced, it probably would have picked up again more rapidly. Also, many people lost quite a bit of information, comments, comic pages, forum posts. It was just annoying. (I didn't because I don't update on weekends, but many did.) I've actually never seen a site move to a new server without announcing the move (often right to the minute).
Even if they don't go for a completely two-way communication, they should give us some kind of regular status report. Even just one guy to appear once a month to say "We are aware of the bugs and working on them." (Directly to DD, not just to an admin to "pass it on." )
Users post bug reports in a forum – then an admin takes the bug list to email Platinum – and Platinum at some point (presumably) gives this list to coders. It's completely insane. It's not like the mysterious/invisible coders have no access to the DD forums themselves…
DD might not be a top priority, a big source of income, etc., but it is one of the company's properties. It is their responsibility to maintain it, and when DD looks bad, Platinum looks bad.
Late to this little party, but I agree with almost everything said earlier, especially by Usedbooks.
We need some kind of transparency with Platinum. We get the information the admins can give us, and they do what they can, but without some sort of connection with the people who could pull our plug, we're just swimming around, unsure if any rescue is coming or if they even care.
But this isn't new, we've heard it before and I don't see anything changing.
That newspost wasn't, I must admit, a big surprise to me. Frustrations are running high right now with the new bugs from the server change. I guess the best we, the users, can do is remain as calm as we can and try not to over-burden the admins.
But ultimately Dylan was going to leave Drunk Duck in someone else's hands. And no matter who that ended up being, they just couldn't compare to his quality of work.
It doesn't have anything to do with how great a coder Volte is. How often does anything coding-related happen to Drunk Duck? Once every 3 months or so? Even when he worked for Plat they wouldn't give him time to work on the site, even when there were massive problems like the image loading thing, which went on for months. As you've said, it's their habit to de-prioritise DD (or what I call, "ignoring it"). They can't even maintain the place responsibly, which is pretty galling to us precisely because we have no choice in it and have no influence over the company that owns us. We're just some crummy C-level side project of theirs, like a patio bench you keep meaning to build on the weekend but never do.
I don't blame Volte for selling the site and then moving on, it's amazing he kept up DD on his own as long as he did. However I DO blame Platinum for being a terrible company that doesn't care about our site or the people who use it.
blkknight and usedbooks - I wouldn't mind collecting info on bugs, etc, to pass on, if I thought it did any good. I think the only bug that's been fixed all year was the re-addition of the ability to delete favorites. (The image problems don't count- they just switched to different image hosting, nothing to do with bug coding.) THAT is the kind of thing Volte would have been able to do in about ten minutes, but Plat never gave him time to do, and instead when they finally got someone (contracted? in-house? dunno) it seemed like this monumental improvement. but you know what? We had that BEFORE, so we didn't actually even gain anything. That's what Platinum does- makes messes it doesn't clean up.
If I were a company like Platinum and I had aquired a site like DD, why would I then proceed to ignore such a long term asset? Perhaps if my immediate concern was short term survival?
It's only speculation of course, but the situation we're in suggests to me that Platinum may not be experiencing the best of times.
I wonder where our crumbling edifice will end up next?
Even if they don't go for a completely two-way communication, they should give us some kind of regular status report. Even just one guy to appear once a month to say "We are aware of the bugs and working on them." (Directly to DD, not just to an admin to "pass it on." )
I totally agree.
Honestly, I think Platinum could do a better job representing themselves on a site they own
That makes as much sense as all of us quitting comicking all together.
Which makes absolutely no sense.
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