Welcome New ESO Community Team Member: ZOS_Kevin – Forum Manager

ZOS_Kevin

Thanks for the added info, @OutLaw_Nynx . I'll include that as we investigate.

VaranisArano

Welcome!

I'd like to express my appreciation for all the Mods do to keep our community having constructive and productive conversations. As much as I joke about the late-night drama threads that get nuked as soon as the Mods log on in the mornings, one only has to read a few of those threads to figure out what the forums might be like if we didn't have moderators. It's never fun to be disciplined, but it's necessary for the good of the community. So thank you!

ZOS_Kevin

Hey @Destai , thanks for the welcome message. Appreciate your thoughts and feedback. Our goal with my position is to have more time focused on the forums overall. We aim to have a healthy balance of moderation and user engagement. We want to make sure more of the fun discussions are being had, and also ensure we're listening to and addressing direct feedback to make the ESO experience even better for everyone. And we rely on your constructive feedback to do that.

I also got my start in TES with Morrowind! I've been a fan since. I remember saving up money to buy an Xbox for Oblivion and Halo. And you're an "expert", not an addict!

Looking forward to engaging with you more!

GenjiraX

Hello @ZOS_Kevin and welcome

Could you please look into this play-breaking issue as a matter of urgency and give us an update on where we stand regarding the integrity and security of our game data?

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/578152/7-years-gone-in-a-moment#latest

Thank you much!

Varana

Welcome! And have fun.

Best famous Kevin:

VaranisArano

Also, thank you for listening to the reports on the issue with reporting forums posts on mobile. I'm on Chrome for Android, and haven't been able to properly report posts since at least 2019, the earliest I see I posted about it. I know I've commented on the problem here on the forums several times, and it's a pleasure to see that it's finally being investigated. I look forward to seeing progress as well.

I hope that this will be illustrative, in some ways, of why players crave real interaction with the Community Managers and Forum Mods. Compared to us players, you are the people with the power to get things done. When you actually engage with us, we feel like our long-standing concerns are heard and that bugs which have been around for years are seen and then hopefully being addressed by the appropriate teams.


If the investigating team needs more details, here's a more detailed description of my problem with reporting posts on the Mobile version:

On Mobile (I'm on Android, google Chrome) its very hard to report posts that violate the forum rules. When I go to report a post, I'm unable to scroll downward. If there are nested comments or lengthy comments, I can barely get to the box where I'm supposed to type my reasoning for the report. Then, once I've typed my reason, I cannot scroll down to the Report button. I simply can't send in Reports. Flipping the phone sideways doesn't help. Neither does trying to zoom in or out.

If I want to report something for real on mobile, I have to swap to the desktop version on my phone just so I can see the [Report] button to send in my report. This is a royal pain to do. Its why I almost never report a forum post that I judge to be breaking the rules unless its an egregious slur.

I don't know if anything ever came of a past investigation, but @ZOS_Nith did say this would be looked at back in 2019 when I brought it up to them. https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/6494738#Comment_6494738

ZOS_Kevin

Thanks @VaranisArano . Making a note of this as well. Much appreciated.

ZOS_Kevin

Thanks for the welcome, @Varana ! And I'll take your word on it! He could most definitely run circles around me. I'll gladly give him title of best Kevin at the next Kevin-Con!

Sylvermynx

Welcome @ZOS_Kevin, and I hope you are having a good "first day" or two! I hope you will find a nice "home" here; this is one of the only two fora I visit any more - the other one is a small forum I run for friends from several TES and Bethesda games over the years (including ESO). Nothing better than long time gaming friends!

Elsonso

Welcome aboard @ZOS_Kevin! This is why exercise is so important. When you run from @ZOS_JessicaFolsom you can't be the slowest one or you get caught and forced to monitor the zoo forum.

Skullstachio

Welcome aboard @ZOS_Kevin, your gonna have an un”bear”lievable time here that’s for sure.

(Fortunately, we have plenty of unbearishable snacks.)

Tandor

Hello @ZOS_Kevin, and welcome to the forum community.

I hope your appointment will herald the long-promised improvement in official communication here. Picking up on player suggestions for "QoL" improvements has been mentioned, but please note that one person's improvement is often another person's trivialisation or game-breaking change so these things aren't always quite as straightforward and unanimously supported as their proponents would like to believe! However, there's certainly a lot of scope for focusing on communicating what the development team is planning and why, and then providing regular updates on implementation and any delays or resulting bugs etc.

I think ZOS have done a reasonable job in the past so far as listening to people on the forum is concerned - some may laugh at that but various well-received changes to the game were first advocated here such as being able to reposition characters on the character selection screen - and it's in providing a response that ZOS have failed so badly in my view over the years. I think ZOS do listen, but they don't give any clear indication that they do so in terms of following up on what they've heard. Hopefully that will change with the appointment of a Forum Manager.

I also support the call for providing a different icon on the forum for moderators so we don't get drawn into a thread expecting a developer or community manager's input only to find the usual "we've had to remove some posts" comments which, more often than not, raise the forum temperature rather than lowering it as intended.

Welcome anyway, and I hope this does truly represent a major and permanent step forward in forum management!

NoireJin the Witchking

I hope this means we'll finally have communication from Devs and actually take things onboard of what player want, realistically ofc. But there are many hot button issues that have been prevalent for a while that many players want/need. But the commination between player and studio has been close to non-existent. but welcome none the less.

LalMirchi

Welcome @ZOS_Kevin

relentless_turnip

Welcome @ZOS_Kevin ! I hope you do improve communication. There is a lot of noise on the forums, but also some pretty great observations that get missed amoungst that noise.

OutLaw_Nynx

Tandor wrote: »

“”I also support the call for providing a different icon on the forum for moderators so we don't get drawn into a thread expecting a developer or community manager's input only to find the usual "we've had to remove some posts" comments which, more often than not, raise the forum temperature rather than lowering it as intended.

Welcome anyway, and I hope this does truly represent a major and permanent step forward in forum management!

Yeah. This needs to be done. No one cares about post being removed. This should honestly just be something mods message to people. We want interaction with the community managers… not a mod telling us they removed a post. Icons difference is needed.

Elsonso

OutLaw_Nynx wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

“”I also support the call for providing a different icon on the forum for moderators so we don't get drawn into a thread expecting a developer or community manager's input only to find the usual "we've had to remove some posts" comments which, more often than not, raise the forum temperature rather than lowering it as intended.

Welcome anyway, and I hope this does truly represent a major and permanent step forward in forum management!

Yeah. This needs to be done. No one cares about post being removed. This should honestly just be something mods message to people. We want interaction with the community managers… not a mod telling us they removed a post. Icons difference is needed.

Maybe all they need to do is stop flagging moderation postings with the Z icon and only use it for the important stuff that people care about.

Tandor

Elsonso wrote: »

OutLaw_Nynx wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

“”I also support the call for providing a different icon on the forum for moderators so we don't get drawn into a thread expecting a developer or community manager's input only to find the usual "we've had to remove some posts" comments which, more often than not, raise the forum temperature rather than lowering it as intended.

Welcome anyway, and I hope this does truly represent a major and permanent step forward in forum management!

Yeah. This needs to be done. No one cares about post being removed. This should honestly just be something mods message to people. We want interaction with the community managers… not a mod telling us they removed a post. Icons difference is needed.

Maybe all they need to do is stop flagging moderation postings with the Z icon and only use it for the important stuff that people care about.

The problem then would be that any warning they give about the direction of the thread would be buried and anyone then disciplined would say they didn't see the warning. Attention does need to be drawn to moderation in some circumstances and that needs to be highlighted - just not in the same way as official contributions of a non-moderation nature. They do already just remove some posts without saying anything, I've had a few of mine disappear in that way.

Elsonso

Tandor wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

OutLaw_Nynx wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

“”I also support the call for providing a different icon on the forum for moderators so we don't get drawn into a thread expecting a developer or community manager's input only to find the usual "we've had to remove some posts" comments which, more often than not, raise the forum temperature rather than lowering it as intended.

Welcome anyway, and I hope this does truly represent a major and permanent step forward in forum management!

Yeah. This needs to be done. No one cares about post being removed. This should honestly just be something mods message to people. We want interaction with the community managers… not a mod telling us they removed a post. Icons difference is needed.

Maybe all they need to do is stop flagging moderation postings with the Z icon and only use it for the important stuff that people care about.

The problem then would be that any warning they give about the direction of the thread would be buried and anyone then disciplined would say they didn't see the warning. Attention does need to be drawn to moderation in some circumstances and that needs to be highlighted - just not in the same way as official contributions of a non-moderation nature. They do already just remove some posts without saying anything, I've had a few of mine disappear in that way.

I think that people following the thread will probably see the comment from the moderators. The forum software does a decent job of returning to threads where you left off. While there may be comments missing above that point, a new moderator comment is almost always below that point. As for silently editing or removing comments, if it was bad enough that we should know, I have faith that they will tell us. No news means you were only brushed by Death... a chill in the room, so to speak.

AgaTheGreat

As if another team member is going to improve the state of the game. But whatever. Welcome.

Tommy_The_Gun

I erect a spine of greetings, welcome Beeko !

If I may ask, ZOS_JessicaFolsom said you are a Forum Manager. Is there any specific difference between Community Manager and Forum Manager ?

VerboseQuips

Welcome !

I wish you a great time here. I hope you'll make good memories here, and won't be affected too much by the occasional tides of bitterness and salt.

Elsonso

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

I erect a spine of greetings, welcome Beeko !

If I may ask, ZOS_JessicaFolsom said you are a Forum Manager. Is there any specific difference between Community Manager and Forum Manager ?

The Forum is a smaller, but noisy, part of a larger Community.

Casul

Hello Kevin, happy to have you here with us.

xv1_me

@ZOS_Kevin as forum manager please crack down on all these unnecessary bans. And please give everyone you guys banned in game their accounts back! (In game)

xv1_me

Recremen wrote: »

Oh cool, welcome! It's great to see new community team members, I really think the expanded staff will make the daunting task of managing community relations for a a 20-million-ish playerbase a little easier and help deliver on ZOS goals of better communication with the players.

20 million bro?

Don’t think a mil play this tbh.

Elsonso

xv1_me wrote: »

Recremen wrote: »

Oh cool, welcome! It's great to see new community team members, I really think the expanded staff will make the daunting task of managing community relations for a a 20-million-ish playerbase a little easier and help deliver on ZOS goals of better communication with the players.

20 million bro?

Don’t think a mil play this tbh.

Probably more than a million, given the rather prominent position in Bethesda's lineup. I saw an article just the other day where ESO was the top Bethesda game for more than a couple years. You can take that, and the 18 million number floating around how ever you want, but to me it says that this game is still doing well. It's not yet time to start talking cemetery plots.

Yeah, part of me is amazed that they got to where they are.

spartaxoxo

xv1_me wrote: »

Recremen wrote: »

Oh cool, welcome! It's great to see new community team members, I really think the expanded staff will make the daunting task of managing community relations for a a 20-million-ish playerbase a little easier and help deliver on ZOS goals of better communication with the players.

20 million bro?

Don’t think a mil play this tbh.

It's on many platforms and is one of the biggest mmos, no way it's doing less than a million.

Chaos2088

Love the meme responses.

Hotdog_23

Welcome to the family, glad to have you here 😊