#INFORMATION I SHOULD NOTN KNOW!!!!!!!!!!
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G1 Hoarder Revamp and the Mountain of Salt
Can we all just acknowledge how much of a total fuck up the new G1 ping system is? I feel bad because they obviously went through so much work and beta testing for this system but it’s absolutely garbage in practice. This isn’t meant as a huge roast (even though I do think the creators could do with getting knocked down a few pegs given how poorly they’ve treated people through this entire process, oops) but I hope they at least see this and see things that they can work on. Obviously, going to them and sharing this stuff in person isn’t possible since L from arcane is notorious for gossiping and overall not super trustworthy, so anon route we go. I’ll give credit where credit is due: they definitely tried to go on the right path and the coding is good in theory. The big issue here is that they tried to fix something that was not great but worked with something that is not great and barely works. Sure there are some good things about the new ping system: if it’s not busy it’s not longer than six or seven minutes to do all of it for a few dragons, which, compared to the previous method? Pretty good timing. Helps automatically tag some colorgroups without having people confused about if their dragon counts or not, and uh... probably something else. The cons far outweigh the pros though: -sheet can only be used one at a time: terrible in theory, terrible in practice, there’s no queue system either so you’re not even guaranteed to go next even if you’ve been waiting ages. This becomes a nightmare around any holiday, as we’ve seen around notn, since everyone flocks to the ping generator and then quickly abandons after seeing the mess there. This should have been something that they found a way to work with from the start, especially since the previous spreadsheet, despite how long it took to sift through if you were actually assed to do all the specifics, could still be used by multiple people. -userface issues: going into the spreadsheet and it may all just be blank, does this mean someone’s using it? Someone isn’t? If you go ahead and assume not you’re going to get warned that you overrode someone since they get the ID to your dragon, if you don’t assume then you end up waiting for ages like an idiot and someone else swoops up the opportunity. The loading bar on the side doesn’t help give that info either since it constantly reloads due to the poorly planned code. Where users have their cells selected also doesn’t help since that isn’t always accurate. There are many times where the loading bar isn’t seen going, there isn’t any visible text on the screen, no comment in the box, but it’s still in use. This isn’t viable for anyone, especially not people who don’t fully understand how the system works. If you’re going to make it for only one person’s use at a time, you need to ensure it’s easier to see what’s going on for everyone. -laggy as all get out: sure, I don’t have to go through 15 pages of different types of pings on the old G1 pinglist and shovel through all the duplicates and specifics list people, but having more than 13 dragons or even doing a bigger lair sale (or even just anything during notn) means you get to wait for the program to chug away for ages (as well as the easy chance for someone to just cut in halfway through a load and have you start all over again or wait) and hope that the three people behind you don’t get impatient or angry as you have to do three separate input sessions rather than massing them all together as you could with the previous spreadsheet. -poorly designed aesthetically: maybe this may sound petty to some, but the design of the system is pretty terrible in terms of layout and color choice. This isn’t to say it’s just ugly though; after speaking about it with people who aren’t neurotypical, have disordered thinking processes, and/or have generalized issues reading things (autism spectrum, dyslexia, semi-visually impaired, etc.) it’s pretty clear that the entire thing is not accessible whatsoever for anyone who can’t immediately decipher what anything is. Black text on bright red is not a good thing for most people beyond old MySpace edgies. If you, as someone without reading or comprehension difficulties, are having a difficult time focusing on it: maybe consider how difficult it’d be for anyone else. The way the rules or tutorial section is laid out also does not help in terms of accessibility! It’s clunky and hard to read, does not flow well, and doesn’t explain as thoroughly as you may think. If you’re someone who uses coded spreadsheets often? Yeah sure, it might be understood. If you’re not? Welp. Good luck kiddo. -very poor user help: this is on the mods or creators more than the spreadsheet itself. If someone has a problem, the first thing you should do is talk with them to find the difficulty and tackle it from there. I’ve seen, multiple times now, where either N (plague) or L (arcane) straight up tell people that they can’t help them and that they should just read the guide on the front page. Like sure, they read them, but something is tricky for them and they’re asking for help. They can read the rules and guide again but without outside help, guess what? Not gonna help them. If you just keep linking them the forum or telling them to read the first page it won’t actually help anyone! One of your jobs as the creators here is to help the community that you made it for, not just parrot that they need to read. Be better. Add that to a system which is not forgiving of any mistakes whatsoever and it becomes a terrible little cocktail. Also does not help that, despite their sugar attitude about having people test it in discord servers, the creators l and r/p (both arcane) don’t actually help people who need help using it. -wait times/queue: this ties in to an earlier point, but there’s no way to organize who goes next. Sure, it might sound strange, but when you have to wait ages to get access despite you being there ahead of anon llama/drama/dingdong/animal because they can all hop in ahead of you, it becomes frustrating. People don’t always type in that itty bitty box to say what they’re doing, and people easily erase it or write over it, or they just outright ignore it. Obviously not everyone is going to do that, but it’s way too easy for people who are greedy/entitled to step over those who are being polite and patient. -no quick ping options this is also kind of minor, but at least with the old spreadsheet you could just click in and say “okay, I just want to ping XXY general for this because I have a quick sale.” Guess what: nah. You have to go through the entire chugging process and queue and everything else just to get that snippet of information on who to ping. What once took maybe five clicks is now five minutes to thirty depending on how many people are using it. Wanna quick check if a dragon with XYZ colours you hatched is one that someone wants specifically? Nah, fuck you. You have to input all the data and wait instead of just doing what was once a super easy quick search. There is so much other shit wrong with this system and I’m honestly surprised N (plague) allowed them to do this. Sure, the old pinglist could have done with some updating, but that should have been done in the form of clearing redundant double pings, maybe a way to sort through specifics like ‘male only’ and mass copy names there. Quality of life things, not this just... total mess. I understand that L and R/P got it into their heads that they needed to fix it and that they wanted to take over the entire system themselves, but they should have kept their pride out of it for once. The sheet to input what dragons you want is also another entire nightmare. It’s frustrating to go through the google poll a dozen times to say exactly what colors/eyes/gender/pasta-shape/siesta-fiesta under the sun you want rather than have a quick way to input it by drop-downs or even just a text based option like the old one had. It’s so easy to forget what you put in or which one you want to put in this time, so easy to end up making mistakes that you don’t see, etc. It’s just not an effective system. It’s great in theory, and sure, it’s all sparkly and new, but it’s like admiring an aluminum trash can. Shiny and sparkly under the sun, still holding a whole lot of hot garbage though. I understand that some people may find it easier, and that’s great! I’ve used it for a few things and yeah, it’s okay, but I wish the old one was back given all the grief and frustration this one has caused. Obviously I’m not in the place to be like DO THIS OR DO THAT since I’m not the one making the sheet here, but I do feel like the people who use it have every right to give commentary and feedback where possible. Even moreso when the creators and team aren’t actually as welcoming as they try to appear to be. As much as it sucks, a lot of L and R/P’s (primarily L) false niceties have kind of come to the surface lately which makes this whole situation just that much more awkward. If people don’t feel like they can approach you because they know you’ll rip into them here or on the anon site immediately, maybe you shouldn’t be a main creator of something for the user base or a mod for a bigger group. Just some side-thought to all this other stuff. Big post, big rambles, I can’t bring myself to organise it though because I’m pretty fed up and tired. Take from this what you may, but basically fix your shit new G1 Hoarder peeps.
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Negative Review: Bynder#230860 (Art Sales)
Who: Bynder#230860
What: Art Sales/Commission
Why: Very poor communication, untrustworthy, scammed out of valuable/retired items
When: Started on 20th October 2017, didn’t come to a conclusion until 28th January 2018, despite multiple attempts of contact from my behalf throughout the months.
Explain: Firstly, I just want to say that I hope my English isn’t too awful, and I apologise for anything that may read as confusing - I tried to elaborate and word everything as best as I could.
On 20th October 2017, I bought a character from Bynder at the price of Metallurgists Forgetools (http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/art/2302374 / screenshot in case deleted: http://prntscr.com/i6kyb6). I was also interested in purchasing more art from them for the character and they did offer this service to me (a feral version of the design). We began discussing this over PM the same day. We came to the conclusion that I would give them 1370 gems worth of items (300 of that being pure gems) for the full body artwork - Moonglow Thorns (x1), Solar Blades (x1), Runaway Rotclaw (x1), Time-turner’s Sandglass (x1) + 300 gems (http://prntscr.com/i6kr3b). Crossroad receipt: http://prntscr.com/i6krgp
I contacted them on the 5th November 2017 (hadn’t heard from them at all since paying them), inquiring about the current state of my commission (http://prntscr.com/i6ks23). They got back to me on the same day (http://prntscr.com/i6ks8p). I was happy to hear something from them, and I’m very understanding when it comes to life getting in the way of things; I am an artist also. Their polite, quick reply made me hopeful, but things actually just got worse from this point onward.
I didn’t hear from them, so on the 24th November 2017 upon me logging on (I am inactive, I only log on now to buy art with my left over items and currency, and to check how comms are going), I noticed they had opened a new thread in Art Sales, and were taking new commissions (the thread they made at the time: http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/art/2324267 / screenshot in case deleted: http://prntscr.com/i6kyi1). This concerned me greatly, so on the same day I sent them a message (http://prntscr.com/i6ktdo). They responded to me with no explanation, but told me it would be worked on asap. I started to doubt this, but I still had hope that something would be completed and wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt (http://prntscr.com/i6ktvg).
Again, I heard nothing from them as to what was going on with my commission. On the 8th December 2017, I contacted them once more, telling them I was concerned and if they had any WIPs to provide me, considering they had claimed they would work on it weeks before (http://prntscr.com/i6kugu). They were active on the site when I sent the message, but then did not come online for a couple of days after that. They started posting on the forums again a couple of days later (http://prntscr.com/i6kv1y), and did not respond to my message about the artwork. As a result, on the 12th December 2017 I messaged them requesting a refund of my items, or 1370 gems they were worth altogether (http://prntscr.com/i6kvq8) due to the poor communication and failure to show me anything at all to hint that they have started it. They responded to me four days later (16th December 2017), saying they respect my withdrawl and will refund me asap (http://prntscr.com/i6kw6s). Fair enough they needed time to gather the funds, so I was okay with waiting for a little while. NoTN was coming up, which was always a good way to build up funds when I used to actively play Flight Rising. I should have known that the “asap” promise would fall through in this case as well though.
Now it comes down to the final part, on the 27th January 2018, I contacted them as I had heard absolutely nothing and I still had not received a refund. I had noticed when checking their profile that they had created a thread for buying original characters, and had 700+ gems to use to purchase them (http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/art/2367055 / screenshot in case deleted: http://prntscr.com/i6kzs2). This irritated me quite a bit, given that they owed me a pretty hefty refund, and it had been quite some time since it was requested too - nearing two months (http://prntscr.com/i6kwqo). They got back to me, not with a message, but with a crossroad a few hours later (http://prntscr.com/i6kxbl). Two of those items were not part of our initial trade and of are nowhere near the rarity the original items (old, retired fest), but Bynder claimed they “covered the cost of the items” in the message. This was quite annoying, as I have little interest in actually playing the game to turn these items into currency - they’re also not easy items to sell from what I recall besides the Moonglow Thorns, which were originally mine anyway (http://prntscr.com/i6kxt0). Nonetheless, I took the trade because I was tired of the *awful* communication with this user; it was better than the nothing I had been getting since October 2017. My response may have come across as harsh, but at this point I was relatively upset and frustrated about the whole ordeal (http://prntscr.com/i6ky47). It could have been handled so much better.
While this may have been resolved, I had wanted to make a beware for some time. I am a very patient and understanding person, and have commissioned a lot of people in the past on and off of Flight Rising. The communication on Bynder’s behalf was very, very poor to begin with and still is months later. I would had been completely understanding if they had messaged me at any time, to keep me updated with how things were going. A very simple WIP, or just a message letting me know what was going on every now and then, could have prevented how things had to end. I always had to go to them, only to receive a very blunt and non-informative message, or to be ignored. Their way of dealing with things was very unprofessional and often made my anxiety quite bad. I am now out of some valuable, retired items and currency, that could have gone to somebody who would have completed their side of the deal. I won’t let this put me off from commissioning artists on Flight Rising, but I will probably change how I go about things from now on when buying art off of that website. I am pretty certain that if I had not been persistent with my messaging, that Bynder would have never returned anything covering the value for the incomplete commission, and rather they would have walked away with the items and currency from doing absolutely nothing. Please be very careful when working with this user, I really do not recommend doing any art related business with them presently. I can only hope that they will work on their communication and professionalism after this situation for the sake of their future clients, and that no other user has to deal with this.
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