FEEDBACK site abandoned?

[+t4e]

i have browsed through several topics on both sections, Geocaching.com as well as Report a problem

 

i don's see any of the staff replying/acknowledging

so the whole FEEDBACK idea was that it was supposed to be easy for GS to monitor issues as opposed to the forums

 

looks to me like is not working very well and we just have two sites where people express concerns about problems and neither one gets an answer

[knowschad]

Did you perhaps bookmark the old feedback site and are using that bookmark? The old one has indeed been abandoned. Get to the new one by going through the Feedback link on the geocaching site pages.

[knowschad]

You already knew that, didn't you? (I see your suggestion about deleting bots)

[+t4e]

You already knew that, didn't you? (I see your suggestion about deleting bots)

 

yes

 

its a ghost town in there

[+dfx]

the thing is, every user only has 10 votes per section. you're supposed to get the votes back as soon as an item you voted on is marked completed/wontfix/planned/whatever. if that doesn't happen, then it's soon no more voting.

[+niraD]

the thing is, every user only has 10 votes per section. you're supposed to get the votes back as soon as an item you voted on is marked completed/wontfix/planned/whatever. if that doesn't happen, then it's soon no more voting.

It isn't completely true that once you've used your 10 votes, there's no more voting. I've changed my votes several times, so I could reassign my votes to a suggestion that was more worthy than one of the ones I'd already voted for. But there have been several suggestions that I thought were good ideas, but I didn't vote for them because they weren't as important as the 10 I'd already spent my votes on.

[Keystone]

148 happy Hungarians would beg to differ with the OP's premise.

 

Also, those 148 happy Hungarians got their votes back once the idea for a Hungarian forum was marked "completed."

[GOF and Bacall]

i have browsed through several topics on both sections, Geocaching.com as well as Report a problem

 

i don's see any of the staff replying/acknowledging

so the whole FEEDBACK idea was that it was supposed to be easy for GS to monitor issues as opposed to the forums

 

looks to me like is not working very well and we just have two sites where people express concerns about problems and neither one gets an answer

 

Your mistake is expecting GS to give a straight answer to a direct question. Unless you trap Jeremy on the inside seat of a booth at a meet and greet it is highly unlikely that you will get a response from TPTB. And remember, the new toy luster is off the feedback site.

[+t4e]

148 happy Hungarians would beg to differ with the OP's premise.

 

Also, those 148 happy Hungarians got their votes back once the idea for a Hungarian forum was marked "completed."

 

i don't speak hungarian and not relevant to my point

 

how hard is it to make a thread?...not even sure why there wasn't one before anyway

 

the point is that is one subject compared to at least 20-30 that i see have no replies/suggestions/acknowledgment from anyone in the staff

[+t4e]

i have browsed through several topics on both sections, Geocaching.com as well as Report a problem

 

i don's see any of the staff replying/acknowledging

so the whole FEEDBACK idea was that it was supposed to be easy for GS to monitor issues as opposed to the forums

 

looks to me like is not working very well and we just have two sites where people express concerns about problems and neither one gets an answer

 

Your mistake is expecting GS to give a straight answer to a direct question. Unless you trap Jeremy on the inside seat of a booth at a meet and greet it is highly unlikely that you will get a response from TPTB. And remember, the new toy luster is off the feedback site.

 

hmm i must now go find the post where he said it will be much easier for them to keep an eye on issues and to provide an answer/solution in reasonable time

[+Coldgears]

148 happy Hungarians would beg to differ with the OP's premise.

 

Also, those 148 happy Hungarians got their votes back once the idea for a Hungarian forum was marked "completed."

 

i don't speak hungarian and not relevant to my point

 

how hard is it to make a thread?...not even sure why there wasn't one before anyway

 

the point is that is one subject compared to at least 20-30 that i see have no replies/suggestions/acknowledgment from anyone in the staff

 

I bet most of them are either because they are not sure if they want to implement them or not, or if they have plans to do it and they don't want to tell anyone. Groundspeak doesn't like telling anyone anything. It's pretty annoying actually, okay so you tell us you're going to implement virtuals... Maybe how about telling us what you have in store, like what restrictions, or how are they different. Even if what you are planning has a high suspectabiltity to change. Don't wait until the day before you implement them to tell us, (Look at souvenirs) AND NO! It does not make me want them more, what it does is make me hate Groundspeak more and have LESS desirability for souveniers. I want to know if I have to go geocaching on 10-10-10 for one because I have other plans. But NO! Groundspeak has to keep that a secret too. Seriously this is bad buisness sense. I like groundspeaks projects, and will continue to fill there pockets, I just wish they were more open to the community.

[+t4e]

 

I bet most of them are either because they are not sure if they want to implement them or not, or if they have plans to do it and they don't want to tell anyone. Groundspeak doesn't like telling anyone anything. It's pretty annoying actually, okay so you tell us you're going to implement virtuals... Maybe how about telling us what you have in store, like what restrictions, or how are they different. Even if what you are planning has a high suspectabiltity to change. Don't wait until the day before you implement them to tell us, (Look at souvenirs) AND NO! It does not make me want them more, what it does is make me hate Groundspeak more and have LESS desirability for souveniers. I want to know if I have to go geocaching on 10-10-10 for one because I have other plans. But NO! Groundspeak has to keep that a secret too. Seriously this is bad buisness sense. I like groundspeaks projects, and will continue to fill there pockets, I just wish they were more open to the community.

 

i couldn't have said it better myself

 

 

as for keeping things secret and hoping will spur our interest, come on, we're not 5 year old anymore

[Keystone]

148 happy Hungarians would beg to differ with the OP's premise.

 

Also, those 148 happy Hungarians got their votes back once the idea for a Hungarian forum was marked "completed."

 

i don't speak hungarian and not relevant to my point

 

how hard is it to make a thread?...not even sure why there wasn't one before anyway

 

the point is that is one subject compared to at least 20-30 that i see have no replies/suggestions/acknowledgment from anyone in the staff

I think it is highly relevant, which is why I mentioned it.

 

Have you any concept of geocaching's history in Hungary? If you did, you would recognize how truly cool it is that the growing community there has asked for a forum section in the Groundspeak Forums. They did so by demonstrating widespread support in their UserVoice topic. The topic, with its 148 votes, attracted the attention of those responsible for creating new forum sections. It was implemented and the topic was marked "completed."

 

Ask yourself, "why did that topic with 148 votes get implemented, while my duplicate topic about Bots hasn't received a lot of votes or another official response?" That is the benefit of the feedback website concept. Good ideas rise to the top instead of getting lost in the noise that continually stirs in a traditional forum.

[+t4e]

 

Have you any concept of geocaching's history in Hungary? If you did, you would recognize how truly cool it is that the growing community there has asked for a forum section in the Groundspeak Forums. They did so by demonstrating widespread support in their UserVoice topic. The topic, with its 148 votes, attracted the attention of those responsible for creating new forum sections. It was implemented and the topic was marked "completed."

 

Ask yourself, "why did that topic with 148 votes get implemented, while my duplicate topic about Bots hasn't received a lot of votes or another official response?" That is the benefit of the feedback website concept. Good ideas rise to the top instead of getting lost in the noise that continually stirs in a traditional forum.

 

i don't need to have a concept of geocaching in Hungary, you're missing my point...but here it is again...that is one request amongst so many others that don't even have a workable solution, nothing, nada

 

the "bring back virtuals" has 597 votes, more than the 148 hungarians requesting a thread in their language, yet this is only "planned"

 

i'm sure you don;t want me posting here all the threads from there with 0 replies, or 1 or 2 that are totally irelevant and do not help the OP in any way

 

at least here in the forums people were getting help from the rest of the users

 

duplicate topic?

 

please enlighten me, i don't recall starting 2 in there

 

and why hasn't received many votes?...simply because many people find the that service of no use so they stopped visiting it and many have no idea about the issue

and the fact that nobody from GS has bothered to address the problem, instead of sweeping it under the carpet, proves my point all along

 

and as for topics of interest rising to top...just smacking a "Planned" on it doesn't mean anything until is implemented, which we've seen some have been "planned" for quite a while already

Edited October 9, 2010 by t4e

[GOF and Bacall]

Sorry Keystone, but GS is not much for open communication with its members. One thread was locked down tonight because we weren't supposed to know about it yet. Really? Then why is it on the site? If it's on the site why not just come on out and answer a few questions? Locking that thread can't put the gennie back in the bottle. It's just one more case of "we don't answer questions".

[+Coldgears]

Sorry Keystone, but GS is not much for open communication with its members. One thread was locked down tonight because we weren't supposed to know about it yet. Really? Then why is it on the site? If it's on the site why not just come on out and answer a few questions? Locking that thread can't put the gennie back in the bottle. It's just one more case of "we don't answer questions".

Worst part, they even took down the "backdoor" to find all the souvenirs. This is absolutely ridiculous, most everyone that visits these forums knows everyone of the souvenirs anyway (I checked that thread 10+ times a day...) The places where really just what you would expect, such as [Edited by Groundspeak] or all of the [Edited by Groundspeak]. The only one that was out of the ordinary was [Edited by Groundspeak].

[+t4e]

i didn't even notice that thread was closed, i actually gave up on hoping to get a decent answer in there

 

"don't start another thread about it?"...seriously?

 

so people asked for a couple of months now to have the "Bookmarks" link in that top menu and its been ignored, instead there is a link to something that is in testing and expect people to ignore it and not start threads about it?

[+tozainamboku]

Perhaps we can discuss souvenirs on the Feedback site since Groundspeak doesn't read anything there.

[+Semper Questio]

Ask yourself, "why did that topic with 148 votes get implemented, while my duplicate topic about Bots hasn't received a lot of votes or another official response?" That is the benefit of the feedback website concept. Good ideas rise to the top instead of getting lost in the noise that continually stirs in a traditional forum.

 

Sorry, Keystone, but that's incorrect. Or at least not wholly correct.

 

The reason is that there are a LOT of good ideas out there and we only get 10 votes each which are not freed up until some of them are acted upon...and that is not happening with the most popular ideas. If we move our votes to other good ideas, you will think interest is waning then they'll NEVER get done. If we leave our votes there you will (and clearly do) think we don't care about those ideas.

 

And therein lies the flaws in this system which were mentioned when it started.

[+Semper Questio]

Perhaps we can discuss souvenirs on the Feedback site since Groundspeak doesn't read anything there.

 

[+Semper Questio]

148 happy Hungarians would beg to differ with the OP's premise.

 

Also, those 148 happy Hungarians got their votes back once the idea for a Hungarian forum was marked "completed."

 

OK, so why then have not the feedback items asking for a personal notes area been marked completed?

 

Why are there a pile of threads about entering override coordinates to download with PQs not been merged?

 

Why simply no "feedback" on MANY threads?

 

There have been a lot of ideas and a lot of votes - many more than 148 in several - with little or no feedback or response since the initial feedback. If GS really wants our ideas, participation, and active support other than with our credit cards, then this communication needs to go BOTH ways much better than it has, doncha think? The Get Satisfaction and Feedback sites both started off strong, but then it all just kinda died out and is quickly degenerating into just another online gripe session amongst customers.

 

I don't mean this to sound like I'm grilling you. Really, I don't. It's just you are one of the few "officials" we hear from so it just kinda sounds that way. Please don't take it personally. The beef is not with YOU. You just get to read it! Aren't YOU lucky?

 

 

Edit to add: My apologies everyone. I really shoulda thought that out and put it all in one post. I am giving myself a good talking to as soon as I'm done typing.

Edited October 9, 2010 by Semper Questio

[+t4e]

Perhaps we can discuss souvenirs on the Feedback site since Groundspeak doesn't read anything there.

 

sure you can, there's two threads in there

[+Team Taran]

First I'm baffled at the speed with which you expect Groundspeak to move. Jeremy said that they were discussing a way to implement virtuals that would please those who want them and not annoy those that don't. This is not an easy task. Let people know details before it is worked out would be a disaster. The critics would come out of the woodwork and pick it to pieces and be highly offended if every one of their criticisms was not take to heart.

 

Second the limited votes are designed to measure passion as well as numbers. If you really care about an idea use your 3 votes, talk to your friends and campaign for it. Contact posters to similar or duplicate threads and ask them to get behind a single idea. The ideas that have the best chance of being implemented quickly are those that will please a significant number of people, annoy as few as possible and don't require solutions to major technical problems.

 

Third Groundspeak has a relatively small staff. They cannot be expected to respond to every idea especially these that seem to be of little general interest based on comments and votes. I'm not quite sure why so many here seem to feel they have a right to know all about Jeremy's future plans and should have some special access. I expect that Groundspeak wishes they had been more secretive about souvenirs and limited information even more but I for one find it intriguing and am more than willing to sometime be surprised when one or more appears on my profile.

Team Taran

[+t4e]

First I'm baffled at the speed with which you expect Groundspeak to move. Jeremy said that they were discussing a way to implement virtuals

 

 

read the whole thread, the virtuals was randomly chosen for comparison purposes

[+BoMS]

I too am disappointed with the amount of feedback given from Groundspeak on UserVoice. It's almost non-existent as far as I can see.

 

Another major problem is that when an idea is "under review" your votes are not returned to you as they would be if the idea was "planned", "completed" or "declined". So as long as an idea is being reviewed your votes are tied up in limbo for a long time. I know I can unvote, but then it looks like the idea has less support than it really has. This would not be a major issue if ideas "under review" was being marked as something else after a relatively short period of time. For instance this idea currently has 259 votes and it has been "under review" since September 14th. (My request to return votes when an idea is "under review" was declined btw.)

 

Yet another annoyance is that it's impossible to see when an idea is posted. You can only see when the first comment was made. And unless you have put vote(s) on an idea and get mail notification when it's status is changed, then you have no way of knowing when the change happened.

 

I really like the idea of having a feedback system, but when no or very little feedback is given from TPTB then it's just a waste of my time and it feels like Groundspeak is making a fool of everyone participating.

 

If the lack of feedback from Groundspeak is based in a desire to keep things secret, couldn't an idea be marked as "We're not discussing this now" and everybody would get their votes back. If the lack of feedback is a matter of not enough people to give it, then get more people. Or could it be that Groundspeak did not anticipate how much interest a feedback system would get? And now they are stuck with a system they can't or won't use the necessary time on? And it would be too embarrassing to get rid of it again?

 

\Mette

 

Edited to add: Vote here!

Edited October 9, 2010 by BoMS

[+Semper Questio]

Another major problem is that when an idea is "under review" your votes are not returned to you as they would be if the idea was "planned", "completed" or "declined". So as long as an idea is being reviewed your votes are tied up in limbo for a long time. I know I can unvote,

 

If they are supposed to be released when something is marked as planned, it isn't working. The virtuals topic has been marked as planned for some time yet my votes are still allocated.

[+sbell111]

Sorry Keystone, but GS is not much for open communication with its members. One thread was locked down tonight because we weren't supposed to know about it yet. Really? Then why is it on the site? If it's on the site why not just come on out and answer a few questions? Locking that thread can't put the gennie back in the bottle. It's just one more case of "we don't answer questions".

You guys have been along long enough to know that it took years for Jeremy at al to learn the benefit of not discussing everything openly. You call it lack of communication. Others would call it prudence.

[+rob3k]

the thing is, every user only has 10 votes per section. you're supposed to get the votes back as soon as an item you voted on is marked completed/wontfix/planned/whatever. if that doesn't happen, then it's soon no more voting.

It isn't completely true that once you've used your 10 votes, there's no more voting. I've changed my votes several times, so I could reassign my votes to a suggestion that was more worthy than one of the ones I'd already voted for. But there have been several suggestions that I thought were good ideas, but I didn't vote for them because they weren't as important as the 10 I'd already spent my votes on.

 

I quickly grew tired of having to poach votes from one idea to support another. Make it harder for people to give feedback and they won't give you as much feedback...

[tenrapid]

A week went by and nothing happened. Even ideas that were implemented or bugs that have been fixed with the last site update ten days ago are not marked as such.

 

R.I.P. feedback.geocaching.com?

[+TerraViators]

I didn't find it very useful.

[knowschad]

I didn't find it very useful.

Have you posted Feedback on that?

[+BoMS]

I didn't find it very useful.

Have you posted Feedback on that?

I did:

Edited to add: Vote here!

\Mette

[+BoMS]

After 20 days this reply was posted on the feedback site:

Status: declined

 

Hi BoMS,

Thanks for writing to us. The Web developers and the community relations team are monitoring this feedback site. Some things take time, like the non-US dates feedback suggestion, but please trust us that we truly are considering it when we mark it "under review".

 

I'm "declining" this to return all of your votes, but never hesitate to post something here or to write in to contact@geocaching.com

sara_k Admin

[+Ike 13]

20 days = not abandoned just majorly neglected.

[GOF and Bacall]

Only 20 days?

[+LukeTrocity]

The feedback site is basically a ghost town. Very disappointed by it.

[knowschad]

After 20 days this reply was posted on the feedback site:

Status: declined

 

Hi BoMS,

Thanks for writing to us. The Web developers and the community relations team are monitoring this feedback site. Some things take time, like the non-US dates feedback suggestion, but please trust us that we truly are considering it when we mark it "under review".

 

I'm "declining" this to return all of your votes, but never hesitate to post something here or to write in to contact@geocaching.com

sara_k Admin

Thanks for the feedback. Took ya long enough!

[+Labrador Wild Man]

I have an idea for the t/b page BUT how do you but the idea on feedback to get the VOTEs

 

can not find anyway to place it on the page

 

so i e-mail Groundspeak got e-mail back place it on feedback for new ideas

 

great back to square one again

 

not a happy camper

 

LWM

[Keystone]

After 20 days this reply was posted on the feedback site:

Status: declined

 

Hi BoMS,

Thanks for writing to us. The Web developers and the community relations team are monitoring this feedback site. Some things take time, like the non-US dates feedback suggestion, but please trust us that we truly are considering it when we mark it "under review".

 

I'm "declining" this to return all of your votes, but never hesitate to post something here or to write in to contact@geocaching.com

sara_k Admin

Thanks for the feedback. Took ya long enough!

I think Sara's response was a lot more courteous and respectful than your post.

[Keystone]

I have an idea for the t/b page BUT how do you but the idea on feedback to get the VOTEs

 

can not find anyway to place it on the page

 

so i e-mail Groundspeak got e-mail back place it on feedback for new ideas

 

great back to square one again

 

not a happy camper

 

LWM

Please see the Page in the Groundspeak Knowledge Books entitled "I think I just found a bug in your site. How do I report this?".

 

To start a feedback thread, enter a descriptive search term about your idea, like "travel bug page suggestion." Look at the search results and see if an existing topic covers your idea. If not, press the button that says "Create New Idea."

[+Labrador Wild Man]

Sorry to say there is no

 

press the button that says "Create New Idea."

 

where would it be if it was on the page

 

top right?

 

LWM

[GOF and Bacall]

Go to the feedback page linked to from the geocaching.com site. Type your idea in ate the top of the page where it says "type a brief summary".

[+keehotee]

Sorry to say there is no

 

press the button that says "Create New Idea."

 

where would it be if it was on the page

 

top right?

 

LWM

 

[Keystone]

The Feedback feature uses a separate third party website, but your Groundspeak account credentials pass across to the Feedback site pretty easily. That said, you do need to be logged in on the Feedback site before you will see the "Create New Idea" button.

[knowschad]

After 20 days this reply was posted on the feedback site:

Status: declined

 

Hi BoMS,

Thanks for writing to us. The Web developers and the community relations team are monitoring this feedback site. Some things take time, like the non-US dates feedback suggestion, but please trust us that we truly are considering it when we mark it "under review".

 

I'm "declining" this to return all of your votes, but never hesitate to post something here or to write in to contact@geocaching.com

sara_k Admin

Thanks for the feedback. Took ya long enough!

I think Sara's response was a lot more courteous and respectful than your post.

My response was in no way meant to be disrespectful or discourteous. It was intended to be ironic and humorous.

[+Labrador Wild Man]

Sorry to say there is no

 

press the button that says "Create New Idea."

 

where would it be if it was on the page

 

top right?

 

LWM

 

 

well i have tryed with signed in and out and all i am getting is this

 

 

can anybody help me do i need to dowm load a software program

 

LWM

[+keehotee]

Sorry to say there is no

 

press the button that says "Create New Idea."

 

where would it be if it was on the page

 

top right?

 

LWM

 

 

well i have tryed with signed in and out and all i am getting is this

 

 

can anybody help me do i need to dowm load a software program

 

LWM

First you need to type something in where it says "Type a Brief Summary".

The site will then search for a match - make suggestions for similar (to itself) topics - and give you the "Add New Idea" option.

 

And no - you don't need to be logged in before you see the Add New Idea button - but you do have to be logged in to add a new idea