Social Groups are Going Away - Grab your Info

CheapyD

CheapyD

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This 3rd party add-on is causing a lot of problems with new functionality we want to bring online.

I think most some of the functionality can be replaced by the new Messenger system, which allows you to maintain a private message and invite people to it, which is basically a simplified version of a private forum thread. 

The person who creates the message can add and remove people as they see fit.

Your thoughts?

UPDATE:

There aren't very many active groups, so I've decided these are going away.

Please go ahead and get any information you need out of these ASAP.

 
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wouldnt that affect such groups as the game library in a negative way as each person creates a thread for their particular game being lent?

 
The new conversation system definitely would not suffice for the Gamesharing Library that currently exists. However, I am sure an alternative can be found, it just might need to be hosted off of CAG.

 
Yanksfan said:
The new conversation system definitely would not suffice for the Gamesharing Library that currently exists. However, I am sure an alternative can be found, it just might need to be hosted off of CAG.
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Would seemingly need to be off site and password protected. Making the site itself shouldn't be hard at all, hosting it is the problem. Maybe we can set something up through AIM? Have private friends lists or something with our game lists in our profiles, people would be able to see it if we're offline and i think there's a way to leave messages for when they get online or something

 
Yanksfan said:
The new conversation system definitely would not suffice for the Gamesharing Library that currently exists. However, I am sure an alternative can be found, it just might need to be hosted off of CAG.
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Why not?

Never mind, I took a look at your groups and see why messaging would not be sufficient. I do not think a lot of members are actively using the groups feature, but I will double check with John to see if that is true.

 
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CheapyD said:
Why not?

Never mind, I took a look at your groups and see why messaging would not be sufficient. I do not think a lot of members are actively using the groups feature, but I will double check with John to see if that is true.
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I think we all understand that progress can't be held up at the expense of the site because of our library. Our community itself would still exist on CAG, the thread we maintain is the lifeblood of what we do. The library is just an offshoot of it for proven members to share games with one another.

 
Well if you guys gonna kill that social group then I'll be damn. First of all its still active, secondly its about people handing out their games to group's other members, so they don't have to pay for them which is great as the idea of CAG.
 
kingcz said:
Well if you guys gonna kill that social group then I'll be damn. First of all its still active, secondly its about people handing out their games to group's other members, so they don't have to pay for them which is great as the idea of CAG.
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I understand the (potential) disappointment. Lets keep in mind though its not like anyone administering the site is making these changes with the intent of stopping our community. A major site upgrade (only the 2nd since the site first launched 10 years ago) is taking the website to new places, making it easier to better and grow the overall community on CAG. That benefits everyone. It is not always easy to move into the future if you have to build it trying to hold onto the past.

 
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I would definitely like their to be some a custom group feature on CAG, but this current solution is just not working out at all.

I'm sure there will be some way we can do this (or something closer to it than Messenger) in the future, but I'm pretty sure John is going to come on here and say why we need to remove this social groups add-on.

If there is a way we can make a temporary solution within our existing forum and permissions system, I'm definitely open to that.

 
I've looked into it and there aren't only 30 groups that received a post this year, so I've decided these are going away as soon as we can reasonably do so.

Please go ahead and get any information you need out of these ASAP.

 
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Yanksfan said:
Is there any alternatives that can be done on CAG?
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Not from what I can see.

I guess someone should back up the user list / queue's for games, and we'll have clone send a mass PM saying we're working something out

In the meantime I'll see what I can find. We need to find a forum that will let us create a private board or something

 
Pravado said:
Not from what I can see.

I guess someone should back up the user list / queue's for games, and we'll have clone send a mass PM saying we're working something out

In the meantime I'll see what I can find. We need to find a forum that will let us create a private board or something
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I put a suggestion in the thread.

 
I'll make a spreadsheet of all the games / queue's / memberlist tonight. I think if I do that we should still have all the information necessary to keep this running properly somewhere else

 
One thing we did on HCrealms was to create a special section of the forum for certain people to be able to access.

Example:

I was a member, then wanted to start writing articles, so I got access to the "Writers" forum, the I got added to "Contributors" in addition to the normal forum. I am just guessing the mod forum here is divided out the same way. It's mostly just a subforum that requires granted access to get in.

 
It would be cool and Cheapy said they would look at alternatives, so perhaps that was what he was considering. The only problem would be adding new members access to it. Even if they were willing to give us a sub-forum, someone would have to have rights to add and remove members. I doubt they want a solution that would require them to update our list periodically and I doubt they want to give us the power to do so. But perhaps they will have more flexibility with CAG 3.0. We shall see.

 
It has been about 5 or 6 years since I was in the community, and the main guy is gone these days, but if I remember correctly any mod was able to give out the rights.

It could be an idea worth exploring though. I think the biggest issue would be would each group get a sub, or would each group get a thread in the sub.

 
Worst case scenario we find someone in the library who wants to maintain the data, create a google spreadsheet that we can all see (but not edit) and then have ppl PM them to update it as new users rent games / new games get added

Library doesn't seem to move too fast so it shouldn't be too much work. (No, I'm not volunteering lol)

 
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Just a heads up, I actually won't be able to copy data tonight, missed my ride home and now I gotta sleep at a friends house. If someone else could do it that would be great, if not I'll get to it tomorrow when I get home.

 
Pravado said:
Worst case scenario we find someone in the library who wants to maintain the data, create a google spreadsheet that we can all see (but not edit) and then have ppl PM them to update it as new users rent games / new games get added

Library doesn't seem to move too fast so it shouldn't be too much work. (No, I'm not volunteering lol)
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We should all be able to edit. We won't have any acct info itself in the spreadsheet, so everyone can just maintain their tab(s) with their game and its queue on their own. Plus, the only people that will be able to access the sheet will be invited users, so you have to be in the library to even see the sheet. No random people will be able to go in and mess it up.

I won't be able to grab the info tonight either myself..going to bed soon. Taking the family to Universal Studios tomorrow morning, so I should try to get a few hours sleep here.

 
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Hopefully in the future we have a solution that doesn't break a bunch of stuff on the site.  Really sorry about this!

 
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Well that sux but cant be helped then, Im thinking of an idea adding the realtime chat-box feature so we can save a lot of time instead of sending PM.
Btw CheapyD can you please activate the server on Tapatalk so we can start the convos at ease?
 
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Expect the random OT chatter in threads all over the site to increase with the death of the social groups.

Guess we can't say "go take it to a social group and not do it in here" any longer.

 
Horseshit. =\

Instead of making them go away altogether can't you just have somebody moderate the groups, and oversee things, and delete groups that have been inactive for so-so amount of time?

And can't there be a process where instead of letting people just up and make new groups and have it go through, make it go through some sort of an approval process before the group gets created?

It seems sort of crappy to get rid of groups for those who actually have active groups.

 
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Squarehard said:
Horseshit. =\

Instead of making them go away altogether can't you just have somebody moderate the groups, and oversee things, and delete groups that have been inactive for so-so amount of time?

And can't there be a process where instead of letting people just up and make new groups and have it go through, make it go through some sort of an approval process before the group gets created?

It seems sort of crappy to get rid of groups for those who actually have active groups.
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What? The groups aren't going away because of people's behaviors in them. Read the posts from Cheapy for an explanation as to why. It is purely technical issues with the site upgrade.

 
Yanksfan said:
What? The groups aren't going away because of people's behaviors in them. Read the posts from Cheapy for an explanation as to why. It is purely technical issues with the site upgrade.
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"There aren't very many active groups, so I've decided these are going away."

My main gripe is that when there are usually issues with these kinds of functionality issues you try to fix them, or at least try to find another solution.

This solution is lazy, and not even a solution.

"We can't figure it out so we're just going to give up."

 
That was added to his OP, and the topic was changed, after the fact. If you read through the thread, you can see discussion that would indicate that.

Since it is causing so many issues, at some point a business decision has to be made. Is it worth the man hours, the money and possibly holding the site back for a handful of active groups? I think a reasonable person would say no, especially if it was your business.

I believe if there was an easy solution, the admins would provide it. No business wants to remove features and potentially alienate users. It is bad for business. That leads me to believe they have investigated it and determined it is not feasible to provide a solution right now. When you are managing a huge project such as a site upgrade, you have to manage your hours and investment into each area. At some point, you put in so much and if it is not working, you cannot mortgage the overall completion for the sake of a subsection.

Hopefully, when this project has been completed and other fires have been put out, it can be put back on the table. Of course, you can just insult people though without trying to put anything in perspective though..

 
I know my flipping group isn't that big or active, but expect the flip chatter to be in the main threads more so, even tho it is already there anyway. It was just convenient to delete those posts and direct them to me for a flipping thread.

If my flipping group is gonna be deleted, I would believe you would stop the mods from deleting the gamestop to bestbuy vice versa threads since there would be no other place for them to discuss it? or could we have our own flipping thread in the bragging forums?

Thanks for the heads up either way rather than just deleting the groups and telling them to deal with it  ;)

 The needs of the many outweigh the few.

 
Squarehard said:
"There aren't very many active groups, so I've decided these are going away."

My main gripe is that when there are usually issues with these kinds of functionality issues you try to fix them, or at least try to find another solution.

This solution is lazy, and not even a solution.

"We can't figure it out so we're just going to give up."
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yea i agree this solution seems really really lazy. it seems CAG 2.0 has been nothing but one giant walking headache from start to finish.

plenty of forums are capable of making sub forums and not breaking the system. heck look at gamespot.com. theyve had essentially social groups(unions) for years and the forums have never broken has a result and that site receives if i had to guess a whole lot more traffic than this site.

the it isnt popular so lets axe is a terrible philosophy for a business. its not popular if i had to guess because not many people know about it and like much of CAG 2.0 its somewhat broken. its like Fox TV....oh this new show that we didnt advertise and changed the times its on on a weekly basis didnt out do american idol? the show must be bad lets cancel it. thats whats happening here this feature wasnt advertised(not as active as it could be) and is half way broken to start with so it therefore must be bad.

how about instead of removing stuff that could gain steam you folks fix it? instead of creating a half hearted feature how about go all out and make it work? take pride in your work guys.

it really seems like a solution hasnt been made and the whole of CAG 2.0 was poorly thought out from the beginning.

 
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U DO realize u are comparing CAG forums to that of a site forum owned by a media house right? remember these guys are doing this on their own time and to criticize their hard work is nothing short of selfish. i think alot of features are handy now especially private messaging where before your inbox would be filled in no time. You can see what lurkers/scammers are up to if they read your pm everything is cool thus far it may not be perfect but hey what is?

 
because 

1. they make no money off the ads or traffick of this site?

2. just because its done in ones spare time does not excuse it being poorly done especially when said spare time affects millions of people.

3. shoddy work is shoddy work and worth criticizing and no "then go do it yourself" is not a valid comeback. your offer a service and its shoddy people have every right to tell that to you.

4. my point was ultimately do a better job and improve it rather than axe it all together and i explained why. if this was a groups version 1.0 with improvements to be made down then line i would have 0 issue here as the first implementation of nearly anything is usually somewhat bad but its apparently not.

 
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Your arguments are ridiculous. I am sure the people working on the project would love to hear how to 'do it better'. I am assuming you have actual solutions in mind rather than just stating to do it better.

 
It's a depressing turn of events - groups like gameshare library were one of the key things that kept me coming here on a regular basis.  Even if I lent out more than I borrowed, it was the participation that made me feel like I was a part of something that meant something.  Now that they're going away, it's truly a sad day.  I know our one group has decided to go off site - a move that no one really wanted,

This will probably be the thing that causes me (and others) to go from a "log in every day" status to a "log in once in a blue moon - if at all" status. 

Damned shame to see things work out like this

 
Yanksfan said:
Your arguments are ridiculous. I am sure the people working on the project would love to hear how to 'do it better'. I am assuming you have actual solutions in mind rather than just stating to do it better.
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sure let me get out the old Java and HTML book. ill get right on that because

1. i run this site

2. im getting paid for this

3. herp derp if i cant do i should settle for a shoddy product /herp derp

4. i hope you never complain about buying something and it not working right because WE CANT CRITICIZE THEIR HARD WORK. GO BUILT IT YOURSELF

 
kayne2000 said:
sure let me get out the old Java and HTML book. ill get right on that because

1. i run this site
2. im getting paid for this
3. herp derp if i cant do i should settle for a shoddy product /herp derp
4. i hope you never complain about buying something and it not working right because WE CANT CRITICIZE THEIR HARD WORK. GO BUILT IT YOURSELF
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When you get any real world experience, come back to finish the conversation.
 
WhiskeyCrazy said:
It's a depressing turn of events - groups like gameshare library were one of the key things that kept me coming here on a regular basis. Even if I lent out more than I borrowed, it was the participation that made me feel like I was a part of something that meant something. Now that they're going away, it's truly a sad day. I know our one group has decided to go off site - a move that no one really wanted,

This will probably be the thing that causes me (and others) to go from a "log in every day" status to a "log in once in a blue moon - if at all" status.

Damned shame to see things work out like this
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Well said Whiskey, though I hope you still stick around the thread and join us in the new library. We are testing out a forum option as we speak.

 
Yanksfan said:
When you get any real world experience, come back to finish the conversation.
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how about stop trolling and tell me a real reason they shouldnt of realized a finished product instead of a half way done one that they now want to axe? go on ill wait...; but ill probably be waiting forever.

you cant counter my argument so you resort to essentially calling me a child with no real life experience which is usually what someone that is outwitted resorts too.

 
CheapyD said:
I would definitely like their to be some a custom group feature on CAG, but this current solution is just not working out at all.

I'm sure there will be some way we can do this (or something closer to it than Messenger) in the future, but I'm pretty sure John is going to come on here and say why we need to remove this social groups add-on.

If there is a way we can make a temporary solution within our existing forum and permissions system, I'm definitely open to that.
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Another commenter said lazy and that was my opinion as well. John has never shown up to explain anything. So it might be lazy, might be incompetent, might cost 10s of thousands of dollars to do, who knows. But it seems like a cop out from the outside. The messenger double posts easily, doesnt update all the time, etc.

 
WhiskeyCrazy said:
It's a depressing turn of events - groups like gameshare library were one of the key things that kept me coming here on a regular basis. Even if I lent out more than I borrowed, it was the participation that made me feel like I was a part of something that meant something. Now that they're going away, it's truly a sad day. I know our one group has decided to go off site - a move that no one really wanted,

This will probably be the thing that causes me (and others) to go from a "log in every day" status to a "log in once in a blue moon - if at all" status.

Damned shame to see things work out like this
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Completely understand. Unfortunately, in IPB, the Social Groups system is a 3rd party add-on and is inherently broken and causing other issues on the site. There are so few active users of the Social Groups system (only 10 of you posted in this thread), it just doesn't make any sense to have it causing problems when 99.9% of CAGs don't use it.

If an official Groups add-on comes, or one that isn't broken. We can add it back.

 
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So does anyone need more time getting information from their groups?  Would like to cast off from this Social Groups mod ASAP.  Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. 

 
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messed up cheapy. and even though 10 of us posted here there are alot more guys who take part that are too busy with work or other issues to check here heck i found out about this by accident and made a post about it on the GS THREAD thats how the other GS guys found out. but i guess you know whats best for the site. You brought us this far. I hope you keep your word on returning it if their is a proper add on later.

 
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