First off Monica21, I did read your post, I am not sure I have anything to add. You made your point across very well. I am fine with criticism, and the type of criticism you posted is one that I welcome. The criticism I do not welcome is things like "You guys are a bunch of liars who don't care about games and only money".
Now even when there is legitimate crticism, I personally do not necessarily have the power to shape things like people expect me to. Also given it is generally my free time that I spend on here, I am not really able to persue things with people during work hours. Because that would be taking away time, from my job description. Which makes all sorts of fun, so while I may be helping people out, I am sacrificing my own performance and career doing so.
OK, you've made some valid points in the other place as to why you prefer Reddit. However Reddit's formatting is not healthy, it is not conductive to long term or productive debates and discussions. How about you take all those features you like about Reddit, and apply them to the BSN? Not you, specifically, but Bioware in general. Add a Dislike button that hides Trolls posts, so the Community can do it's part to hide and censor the hate and vitriol. Don't be afraid to ban people. Don't be afraid of accused of "censorship". if the person is acting like a total douche, or very clearly broke the Forum rules, then the majority of us will understand. However part of the problem is the the Forum rules do not seem to be enforced consistently, they seem to be just vague enough for different Mods to interpret their meaning differently. If this is not the case, this is the perception many fans have. So perhaps re-write them to make it more clear to people.
I understand your professional experience gives us a view and perspective we lack, and that you are more restricted in things you are allowed to say. However, and this is just vibe I'm getting here. It seems like due to the past, the response from your end is to just stop trying altogether. That times have changed and this is just how things are, and there's no point in trying to change that environment. If that is in fact not what you are saying, I apologize. However if it is, then all I have to say to that is, many other communities are more liberal in their communication between Employees and fans. There are still places in the internet where what we suggest happens, and it mostly works. How can at least trying what we suggest we worse than just never trying at all, and just keep letting things go on like this? How is this preferable for anyone? Maybe it's preferable for your bosses, who care more about bottom lines and business than active community engagement. I know it can work BJ, there is proof out there that it can. The only limiter here, would be the willingness of employees on your end, and the Company policies of your place of employment. Chris Roberts and his group talk to the community non-stop, to the point of overload. They go through the design process, show us Bug Fixing, Have weekly Q&As, They make it clear that fan feedback is always secondary to Chris's vision of the final product and mostly everyone is fine with that. As I said, I know this situation is different, because it's Chris's company, and that's how he wants to engage the community. Weather or not people think their business model is ethical or not is irrelevant to my point. Active, Proactive community engagement can still happen in this new modern era. It can still happen. We can still sit down and just talk to each other. There is proof that this can work. It just depends on factors outside of your personal control. But if you truly want to improve the relationship with the community, you and those like-minded could perhaps try to get an internal movement going. To change the policies that prevent you from even trying, if such things existed to begin with.
Alright I have spoken about your initial point long ago (on the old BSN) about how me being in a conversation can change the very nature of the conversation. Yes reddit is not the best for long discussions, but that is not where my personal strength lies. My personal strength lies in coming in stating why I believe something is the way it is, and being done with that. When conversations drag on, people lose my original thoughts and ended up largely going in circles (people probably know a recent example of this happening on these forums). I am also not a fan of long lingering discussions, I like pointed questions and answers. What gets somewhat frustrating is when people think that they have a magic solution to the problem, based on less knowledge than I have, and then I have to go into a very indepth answer of why that solution wont work when internally that kind of thing has already been discussed. I can see plenty going wrong with a dislike button that hides posts on this thread, we already have cliques, now give them some sort of power... I don't have time to investigate voting patterns of people to determine if a report is factual or not.
If I had completely given up, then I sure fail at following my own instructions. But you have to look at examples from all over people are more and more retreating from the public. Your example of Chris Roberts, he is part of a small company that has relied on public perception and money from the community (and continuous money at that currently 87million). My counter argument to that is Phil Fish and Peter Molyneaux.
Edit: Looking at Star Citizen's stretch goals, one of the ones for 2million was "regular community updates" ie someone paid for them to be there. Then for 3million was "increased community updates"
2nd Edit: Regarding your reddit post the statement of "I am curious how many of these mysterious downvotes are fans who don't want to express their reasons, or Bioware members who still refuse to speak to us." comes off as quite standoffish and already puts me at a large disadvantage and sets the tone of how communication will go. You are treating individuals as an entity, but expecting people to act as individuals.
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