Important - For Users of Direwolf20_1_5 Modpack - Urgent feedback needed.

[Kehaan]

There is already a donations tab on the front page of the FTB site.

Thanks But there i can see its a donation link for every developer. I was just thinking about 1 donation link, to the FTB team for collecting all the Mods etc

 

[Xavrath]

And if this was my job and you were paying me you would have a point. But its not and you're not. You haven't watched me "play" minecraft all day you have watched me sit on a server and play in bouts of 30 mins here and there.

To the community :

If we aren't communicating with you and giving updates its because there is nothing new to add. Frankly its the whole "you owe us your time" thing that is driving mod developers and modpack makers away from the community. Its the 5 year old in the back seat going "are we there yet" every 5 mins. The question was answered in the post. We are testing and will have a version up when its ready. Its in plain English. People are pinging me on teamspeak, irc and the forums almost non-stop and every last questions is "is it done yet" . No. If it was done it would be on the launcher. The fact that its not on the launcher means its not done. And yes I am getting annoyed. This is the reason mod authors vanish. Its the reason mod pack creators give up. We do not owe you anything. Not the modpack team, not the mod devs , not the FTB staff. Most of us do this because its a hobby. The instant it feels like unpaid slave labor is when people quit. You want things done as fast as possible we get that. We aren't sitting here holding completed and tested packs and refusing to give them to you. And no I am not going to spend every waking hour working on modpacks. As a community its not the mod devs and modpack creators that suck at communicating. Its the end user. For every person that says thanks there are a thousand people whining , complaining , attacking and demanding. Its a game people. Its not life or death. Its not a war zone , its a game. You are not going to keel over dead because it takes longer. If you absolutely positively cannot bear to not be able to play, please reassess your priorities in life. Go to the park, read a book, spend some time with family or friends. I will not work myself into a heart attack for people who feel I owe them my time. I am tired of watching mod devs go from friendly and interactive to grumpy, stressed and vanishing because the vocal minority feels they have the right to demand things from a persons hobby.

Try this instead of judging others.

I don't even know where to begin with this post. Let me just start by saying that you have probably managed to lose more supporters with that post than what you gained. While much of what you say is true, you really cannot say it and expect to get a positive response from the user community. You would have been far better advised to simply say nothing and let people continue to speculate.

The first rule of customer service is that you NEVER insult your customer. In fact, it is not only the first rule, it is probably the first three or four rules. You have managed to do exactly that. It does not matter if what you are saying is correct. You decided that making personal remarks on the maturity of your user community was appropriate. it doesn't matter that you were addressing a single person. Every reader who has been critical or asked for an ETA on the fixes will see that and see themselves as the target.

I fully understand that you do not get paid for your efforts, except for the occasional donation. I also understand that people are very demanding and often do not have the right to be. What you need to understand is that people will react according to their expectations. The FTB team does a pretty good job with the launcher and the mod packs. That results in a higher level of expectations from your user community. Success will breed the expectation of more success. So when things go "off the rails" you can predict that people will complain because it is unexpected. Surprises like this are not welcome.

In a very real sense, your team is facing an important moment. How you deal with problems and stress is more important than how you deal with success. Here is some friendly advice from somebody who teaches classes on customer service; you never want to repeat that post again.

- Always post in a positive tone.
- Always emphasize what is being done to address the issue.
- Apologize for it taking longer than some people want (even if you are not doing anything wrong)
- Say that you are doing the best you can.
- Let the user community fight it out and stay out of the fray.

Don't even point out that the team is a group of volunteers that are not being paid. Some people will read that as being unprofessional or unreliable. It is not something you want to emphasize unless you want to limit your potential for future success along with the expectations of your user community.

I can fully understand your frustration, but you just cannot voice it in the manner that you did.

 

[william kanters 1996]

I wish Jaded's last post could be made into an auto response for any time someone even remotely hints at wanting an ETA. I work in an industry where things ARE life or death (medivac mechanic) and even there we don't give out ETAs usually, we have a backup plans. If Minecraft is your only plan for the day/night, your priorities are so messed up that I feel sorry for you.
There is a world outside that window where things are not built with nice square blocks. Go out and explore the real world for yourself, you might even find that there are more interesting environments out there then in Biomes 'O Plenty...

t

I do not understand why everyone is being so demanding with you and other mod creators. They are using your mods. They should be respectful and be happy with the version they have now.

the version we have dose not work just saying

 

[Magnox]

I don't even know where to begin with this post. Let me just start by saying that you have probably managed to lose more supporters with that post than what you gained. While much of what you say is true, you really cannot say it and expect to get a positive response from the user community. You would have been far better advised to simply say nothing and let people continue to speculate.

The first rule of customer service is that you NEVER insult your customer. In fact, it is not only the first rule, it is probably the first three or four rules. You have managed to do exactly that. It does not matter if what you are saying is correct. You decided that making personal remarks on the maturity of your user community was appropriate. it doesn't matter that you were addressing a single person. Every reader who has been critical or asked for an ETA on the fixes will see that and see themselves as the target.

I fully understand that you do not get paid for your efforts, except for the occasional donation. I also understand that people are very demanding and often do not have the right to be. What you need to understand is that people will react according to their expectations. The FTB team does a pretty good job with the launcher and the mod packs. That results in a higher level of expectations from your user community. Success will breed the expectation of more success. So when things go "off the rails" you can predict that people will complain because it is unexpected. Surprises like this are not welcome.

In a very real sense, your team is facing an important moment. How you deal with problems and stress is more important than how you deal with success. Here is some friendly advice from somebody who teaches classes on customer service; you never want to repeat that post again.

- Always post in a positive tone.
- Always emphasize what is being done to address the issue.
- Apologize for it taking longer than some people want (even if you are not doing anything wrong)
- Say that you are doing the best you can.
- Let the user community fight it out and stay out of the fray.

Don't even point out that the team is a group of volunteers that are not being paid. Some people will read that as being unprofessional or unreliable. It is not something you want to emphasize unless you want to limit your potential for future success along with the expectations of your user community.

I can fully understand your frustration, but you just cannot voice it in the manner that you did.

I have be an avid reader of this forum and never signed up till now, I did have a huge post written to reply to this but I had a BSOD so I'm just going to say a few words.

FTB Team Thank you for what you do!

Xavrath,

Working in customer service I can see your arguement here but lets be realistic!

We are not customers, we are either "Donators" or "Users", the FTB owe us nothing and give more than the community gives in return.
Anyone offended by this post will be one of the people, that don't understand how much goes into doing what they do, with normal life commitments.

I read Jadecats post and I knew who he was aiming at, and my conscience was clear. Sometimes a community need to realise there are real people providing their time and giving there "Users" a product for free, and for this it takes time.

Slowpoke and the Team, some people who also have other commitments and understand, it's ready when its ready!

 

[stamgast]

I have be an avid reader of this forum and never signed up till now, I did have a huge post written to reply to this but I had a BSOD so I'm just going to say a few words.

FTB Team Thank you for what you do!

Xavrath,

Working in customer service I can see your arguement here but lets be realistic!

We are not customers, we are either "Donators" or "Users", the FTB owe us nothing and give more than the community gives in return.
Anyone offended by this post will be one of the people that don't understand how much goes into doing what they do, with normal life commitments.

I read Jadecats post and I knew who he was aiming at, and my conscience was clear. Sometimes a community need to realise there are real people providing their time and giving there "Users" a product for free, and for this it takes time.

Slowpoke and the Team, some people who also have other commitments and understand, it's ready when its ready!

nothing more to add to nicly said

 

[sgbadman]

nothing more to add to nicly said

well everything said was true and in fact rite, if you guys are getting impatient you could just switch to another mod pack in the mean time i know i was being a hypocrite earlier.

 

[Nodachi]

The first rule of customer service...

customer
1. one that purchases a commodity or service

You paid how much for this modpack again?

 

[sgbadman]

You paid how much for this modpack again?

some people did donate, so can you try to not be rude?

 

[Alupe]

You paid how much for this modpack again?

Consumer would have been a better word.

 

[Vauthil]

We're getting rather far afield here, folks. While the conversation you're having may well be one worth having, this particular thread is not really the venue for it. This thread is for feedback on the potential change proposed (and it appears, decided upon) for the Direwolf20 pack. If we cannot get back on topic with that, I will have to regretfully close this thread to future replies until slowpoke, Jadedcat, or somebody else from the team has more updates to provide or wishes for it to be open.

Feel free to hold your debate on customer service policy and the like elsewhere, but in starting such please keep in mind our policy on Bullying and Attacks and respect the lines in the sand drawn there.

 

[Xavrath]

We're getting rather far afield here, folks. While the conversation you're having may well be one worth having, this particular thread is not really the venue for it. This thread is for feedback on the potential change proposed (and it appears, decided upon) for the Direwolf20 pack. If we cannot get back on topic with that, I will have to regretfully close this thread to future replies until slowpoke, Jadedcat, or somebody else from the team has more updates to provide or wishes for it to be open.

Feel free to hold your debate on customer service policy and the like elsewhere, but in starting such please keep in mind our policy on Bullying and Attacks and respect the lines in the sand drawn there.

Agreed, and I am done with my posting on the subject. Whether my advice is taken or not is strictly up to Jade and the rest of the FTB team. It is your product to develop and market. I have no dog in the hunt so it is not worth debating the point with those that do not understand that I am not an enemy to those on the team. If anything, I am trying to help. I will say nothing more about this as you have requested.

 

[stamgast]

i got an idee All people Good And Bad Trow Your Keyboard out. and Stop Moaning. until all is sorted. it will keep it nice and Peaceful. And it will keep the Ftb team Happy as well. as they then can work on what they Ar doing . thanks Guys.

 

[TheMason]

My personal opinion the "Its done when its done" approach is that it is rather vague on the time this or other fixes could take. When people ask for an ETA (Whether they have the right to one or not) I believe even something as general as "Within a week", "In the next few days", or "Before the end of the month" is appreciated by everyone.

We know you work hard, of course you must, it is obvious with the quality shown and your success that you are very hard workers, and we, the consumers, appreciate the time and effort you put into these mod packs, and anyone looking for an hour and minute ETA is being self-centered, but just something small like "Probably the next day or two" is always great to see. It prevents people checking back every 5 mins if they have a timescale in mind, but again, thank you for your time and effort!

 

[Richardk2n]

My problem isn't that it is not out right now my problem is not to know how long do I have to wait.
@ FTB-Team: Do not stop testing for answering tons of questions just answer this one:
How long do we have to wait? Not the exect time just if it's a few days or a few weeks.

 

[dazbuzz]

My personal opinion the "Its done when its done" approach is that it is rather vague on the time this or other fixes could take. When people ask for an ETA (Whether they have the right to one or not) I believe even something as general as "Within a week", "In the next few days", or "Before the end of the month" is appreciated by everyone.

We know you work hard, of course you must, it is obvious with the quality shown and your success that you are very hard workers, and we, the consumers, appreciate the time and effort you put into these mod packs, and anyone looking for an hour and minute ETA is being self-centered, but just something small like "Probably the next day or two" is always great to see. It prevents people checking back every 5 mins if they have a timescale in mind, but again, thank you for your time and effort!

This is exactly how i feel. Most of us just want a time frame of some kind. No doubt everyone is getting annoyed here on both sides, but until people have a time estimate, or even better an actual fix to the problem, chances are the FTB team will still get hounded.

 

[Droideka30]

It would take only a minute for the FTB team to put out an ETA. Because they haven't done so, I can assume they have a REASON not to. I'm not sure what this reason is, but it's probably something along the lines of, "We are working our hardest to finish but have no idea how long it will take." Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[DREVL]

i got an idee All people Good And Bad Trow Your Keyboard out. and Stop Moaning. until all is sorted. it will keep it nice and Peaceful. And it will keep the Ftb team Happy as well. as they then can work on what they Ar doing . thanks Guys.

no.

 

[Joey19982]

My personal opinion the "Its done when its done" approach is that it is rather vague on the time this or other fixes could take. When people ask for an ETA (Whether they have the right to one or not) I believe even something as general as "Within a week", "In the next few days", or "Before the end of the month" is appreciated by everyone.

We know you work hard, of course you must, it is obvious with the quality shown and your success that you are very hard workers, and we, the consumers, appreciate the time and effort you put into these mod packs, and anyone looking for an hour and minute ETA is being self-centered, but just something small like "Probably the next day or two" is always great to see. It prevents people checking back every 5 mins if they have a timescale in mind, but again, thank you for your time and effort!

It's not so much an ETA that most of us want rather than what is actually going on. They said that there are more problems than just the map fixing tool, but they never answer what those problems actually are when asked, even though it should be as simple as "There are a few bugs with Powersuits that we need to figure out. Might be a day or two."

Apologies if my posts were one of the ones that came off as rude to you yesterday Jaded, but I hope you get my point.

 

[Vauthil]

It's not so much an ETA that most of us want rather than what is actually going on. They said that there are more problems than just the map fixing tool, but they never answer what those problems actually are when asked, even though it should be as simple as "There are a few bugs with Powersuits that we need to figure out. Might be a day or two."

I've just spoken to why they don't give information that specific in this post. I suggest everybody wondering why there's no ETA reads Jadedcat's original post in that thread and my followup for some understanding on what goes into this and why you don't get the information you want (short answer: the information you want doesn't really exist until the last minute, and the information they have would ultimately cause more problems to release than it would solve).

If you want to have a discussion on the assembly of the mod packs and such, that's the thread, not this one.

 

[Joey19982]

I've just spoken to why they don't give information that specific in this post. I suggest everybody wondering why there's no ETA reads Jadedcat's original post in that thread and my followup for some understanding on what goes into this and why you don't get the information you want (short answer: the information you want doesn't really exist until the last minute, and the information they have would ultimately cause more problems to release than it would solve).

Thank you, that's the kind of response I was looking for.