The four of us generally don't reply to these kinds of things, because unlike what some people tend to pin them as, they're
not actually "important" or "essential" or "imperative" when put in context of the larger website. However, the continued responses make it a little difficult to ignore.
First thing's first: anyone who's providing the excuse of "they have lives, leave them alone!"... while that's appreciated, these people don't know us, don't work for the website, and don't speak for any of the four of us that do. We take our work on
the website as a whole very seriously, hopefully in an appropriate balance with the rest of our lives.
Asura wrote:Why, again, is asking for an update on a months-long problem a childish and entitled thing to do?
It's not the request itself; rather, it's the
tone of these requests, prominently on display here. Rather than "Hey, any status updates on this thing that doesn't really affect anything but I'm just kinda curious about?" it's "God those lazy people can't be bothered to work on this tiny website?!" This one in particular is a giant tirade with screen shots and circled elements, not written as genuine suggestions, but as... well, a tirade, as I just said. Why pay something like that any mind?
It's a bit frustrating to see little regard for the "problem" (if you want to call it that?) and actual thought put into why it may be that way. There was some derpy user-error on our side, we lost some data, and we'll fix it when we can. It involves some database work, something that none of the four of us actually do for a living and therefore have to spend a little extra time working and consulting on. We haven't adjusted the layout and categorization of that sub-forum because it's far easier for us to leave well enough alone and keep as many database tables identical as possible for when we get a chance to properly restore what we can (and compromise on anything else we need to). I'm
flabbergasted that no-one's tossed that out there as a possibility. I feel like this is something so reasonable and logical that it doesn't even need to be said... which is why we haven't bothered to say it.
And this is all over
episode discussion threads, something entirely unimportant in context of the on-going mission of the website. As some folks have rightfully pointed out, it's had no effect whatsoever on the continued amount of traffic and posts in each thread in that particular sub-forum.
Could maybe we adjust some sticky threads? Sure! We're open to that. We've had lots of suggestions about that over the years that we've accommodated. The thing is, when we accommodate requests, it's generally in response to
polite and friendly requests, not someone barging in with, "No, no, you're doing it all wrong." And sure enough, all the other sections and their stickies are the ones being cited as reference points... which again leads me to wonder why
no-one else is wondering why we might have left well enough alone in the meantime.
I also can't for the life of me, and in slight contrast against that "let them have their lives!" excuse from before, believe that someone can honestly and with a straight face report that on New Year's Eve they didn't get a response from a forum moderator in the last 24 hours and this is somehow unacceptable. See: entitlement.
So let me be clear: no, the categorization and reinstatement of certain episode discussion threads in a sub-forum
is not actually that important and is being prioritized appropriately as such.
This all ultimately leads me to the usual semi-exasperated response of: "There's a site, too?!" I
do still find it frustrating when people equate the forum as the website itself. It's but one portion. Forum ≠ Website.
I honestly, truly do apologize for being a little testy in my response here, but I'm a little bit agitated that our own community haven't posited more logical and reasonable responses from time to time on this stuff.