OutLaw_Nynx wrote: »

I want to see @ZOS_Kevin on ESO Live.

That’s a good point, and honestly, I hadn’t thought about it before. I would really appreciate seeing something like this addressed. I don’t know exactly what Zos_Kevin official role on the forums is, but I would greatly value hearing directly from him about why he is often the one responding to the community and helping with issues. It sometimes feels like he is the only person intervening when players need assistance with tickets or when problems arise.

There are many moderators on the forum, and I often see topics created with genuine questions or concerns. However, in some cases, moderators simply close or redirect the thread without offering any guidance to the player, just [snip][snip][snip]. This seems to happen quite frequently. I don’t mean this as criticism, but rather as a question: why is Zos_Kevin the one consistently providing help, while others are less visible in this regard?

I would very much appreciate hearing an explanation of this in a live stream. A live setting would help ensure the answers are transparent, and it would also allow other members of the ZOS team to share their perspective. It would be valuable to know if this is something the whole team is aware of.

SilverBride wrote: »

Last'One wrote: »

There are many moderators on the forum, and I often see topics created with genuine questions or concerns. However, in some cases, moderators simply close or redirect the thread without offering any guidance to the player, just [snip][snip][snip]. This seems to happen quite frequently. I don’t mean this as criticism, but rather as a question: why is Zos_Kevin the one consistently providing help, while others are less visible in this regard?

The ones closing threads and moving threads and snipping are moderators and they are here to keep posts in compliance with the posting guidelines. It says Moderator under their avatars and MOD across them.

Kevin is not a moderator. He is a Community Manager. This is why we see him responding in threads, and offering help, and creating threads asking for our feedback, etc.. He is in communication with the developers as well as us, the players, and I'm sure has a lot of duties we don't even know about. It says Community Manager under his avatar and DEV across it.

I think we can all understand that. What I don’t understand is why most moderators only [snip][snip][snip], even when players are asking fair questions and genuinely need help. Most of the time, it’s only ZOS_Kevin who replies directly to players.

It makes sense to have just one main community representative who communicates between players and developers. However, if we have moderators, I believe their role should include not only moderation but also assisting players whenever possible. No?

Kevin is an out and out good egg as far as I'm concerned.

Last'One wrote: »

But let me ask this in a very clear way: how many times have you seen a topic from a player asking a question or reporting a problem, and instead of a clear answer from a moderator, you only see [snip][snip]? Kevin can’t be everywhere, but [snip][snip] can still show up just to [snip][snip].

Moderators are not expected to answer questions or fix problems. Their only job is to moderate forum posts to keep them in compliance with the forum posting guidelines. There are several moderators and I believe there is always one on duty.

Kevin does have well deserved days off but that doesn't mean that moderators can do his job when he isn't here. These are two separate jobs with two separate sets of responsibilities and skill sets.

Last'One wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Last'One wrote: »

I think we can all understand that. What I don’t understand is why most moderators only [snip][snip][snip], even when players are asking fair questions and genuinely need help. Most of the time, it’s only ZOS_Kevin who replies directly to players.

It makes sense to have just one main community representative who communicates between players and developers. However, if we have moderators, I believe their role should include not only moderation but also assisting players whenever possible. No?

There is no need to give the moderators additional duties when we already have Kevin and some admins that are helping players with their issues.

I’ll finish my comments about the “other moderators,” because I don’t want to step onto burning ground and risk breaking the Code of Conduct.

But let me ask this in a very clear way: how many times have you seen a topic from a player asking a question or reporting a problem, and instead of a clear answer from a moderator, you only see [snip][snip]? Kevin can’t be everywhere, but [snip][snip] can still show up just to [snip][snip].

If this forum were a trendy/fancy social media facing restaurant, the moderators would be security/janitors. It's not their job to answer questions or make food, even if everything is right there. It's their job to keep the place clean. That's what they are there to do. They can answer if they're feeling nice but in such circumstances they are doing you a favor that is outside of their job responsibilities.

There is a team of them. There's only one Kevin..

ETA

Kevin deserves all the praise he is getting in this thread. He's a fantastic community manager. One of the best I have seen and I've seen a lot of them in my days. He's friendly, professional, and adds a human touch to very corporate safe responses. He's able to deliver bad news with sensitivity and to understand the humans behind overly harsh criticism and understand what's really driving it. That is no small feat and can be very difficult. I speak from personal experience that it's very hard not just in having to be careful in how you phrase things but can also be emotionally draining as well.

But Kevin's greatness has no bearing on the quality of the mod team. They're doing an entirely different job. They aren't the same.

I actually think the mod team here deserves praise for being willing to accept criticism about this forum being way too harsh in the past. They could have just closed those threads and banned everyone who spoke up as I have seen so many websites do. Instead they listened and they changed up their strategies and improved. That's a good thing. They don't get enough credit for having done that.

There's a reason this forum is one of the best corporate owned discussion forums in gaming. It is far from perfect and communication absolutely could be and should be improved. But there's a good team of people running this site (as a whole collective group) and that makes a big difference.

Last'One wrote: »

ZoS_Kevin is doing an amazing job.

But everything else you’ve said… well… we clearly have very different points of view! I believe that if a moderator joins a topic just to [snip][snip][snip], they could at least add something to make it feel more “human” or supportive.

The moderator isn't joining the topic. They are working in the background, monitoring posts and taking action if needed. They always post an explanation when closing or moving a thread, or note the reason for a snip in the "edited by" field.

Last'One wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Moderators are not expected to answer questions or fix problems. Their only job is to moderate forum posts to keep them in compliance with the forum posting guidelines. There are several moderators and I believe there is always one on duty.

Kevin does have well deserved days off but that doesn't mean that moderators can do his job when he isn't here. These are two separate jobs with two separate sets of responsibilities and skill sets.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

If this forum were a trendy/fancy social media facing restaurant, the moderators would be security/janitors. It's not their job to answer questions or make food, even if everything is right there. It's their job to keep the place clean. That's what they are there to do. They can answer if they're feeling nice but in such circumstances they are doing you a favor that is outside of their job responsibilities.

There is a team of them. There's only one Kevin..

ETA

Kevin deserves all the praise he is getting in this thread. He's a fantastic community manager. One of the best I have seen and I've seen a lot of them in my days. He's friendly, professional, and adds a human touch to very corporate safe responses. He's able to deliver bad news with sensitivity and to understand the humans behind overly harsh criticism and understand what's really driving it. That is no small feat and can be very difficult. I speak from personal experience that it's very hard not just in having to be careful in how you phrase things but can also be emotionally draining as well.

But Kevin's greatness has no bearing on the quality of the mod team. They're doing an entirely different job. They aren't the same.

I actually think the mod team here deserves praise for being willing to accept criticism about this forum being way too harsh in the past. They could have just closed those threads and banned everyone who spoke up as I have seen so many websites do. Instead they listened and they changed up their strategies and improved. That's a good thing. They don't get enough credit for having done that.

There's a reason this forum is one of the best corporate owned discussion forums in gaming. It is far from perfect and communication absolutely could be and should be improved. But there's a good team of people running this site (as a whole collective group) and that makes a big difference.

ZoS_Kevin is doing an amazing job.

But everything else you’ve said… well… we clearly have very different points of view! I believe that if a moderator joins a topic just to [snip][snip][snip], they could at least add something to make it feel more “human” or supportive.

The mods here post "snip" and "edited for xyz" so people understand when a post was modified and why. Otherwise, the mods could just silently change what you're saying. It should be self-evident why that would be problematic. The snips and edit explanations provide transparency when a post is allowed to remain part of the discussion.

They are not joining the conversation. If they were joining in, they'd say something actually on topic. The rare occasion mods contribute to a thread, they are doing it out of the goodness of their heart. It is not part of their job. It literally isn't part of it. Objectively.

Do you really think the forums have so little interaction with the people in charge that a bunch of paid customer service agents are sitting around refusing to do their jobs for years on end and getting away with it? No. They aren't doing it because their role is keeping the place clean and safe.

Last'One wrote: »

I’ve seen people asking fair questions about the game, quest bugs, or other issues where I believe mods could help. Instead, they chose not to help, but then started [snip][snip].

The moderators don't choose to not help players with their concerns. That is just not what they were hired to do and I doubt they were trained to assist with game bugs and issues anyway. Their job is to moderate posts and that is what they are doing.