Does anyone have a painfully slow forum experiance? Say hello to Discourage mode.

Very awkward indeed.

Since the first year of AC1 we created this forum and learned and we decided to never use the discourage option because it's not ethical and predictably it creates more problems than it "maybe solves". Back then some users that were properly trolling have been left in discourage but also banned and since then we decided to never use the discord option of the forum again.

So some days ago, user @martcerv contacted me in PM with a quite aggressive tone, complaining heavily about how we don't understand his feedback and how we put him in discourage mode etc.
Personally I put aside the aggressive tone because it was understandable if he was put in discourage mode. I apologized right away and searched the admin panel to find and disable the discourage mode that had wrongly been enabled. You can see my personal NON PUBLIC reply in PM that he has quoted in the above comment. I have nothing to hide, but if I write in a private message, well... it is supposed to be private and not published.

After that, user @martcerv continued to write another PM complaining about how we deal with customers and how we don't listen to him in features of the game and that his servers never appear in the lobby on purpose (which is down right conspiracy theory honestly) and that he will abandon KUNOS products forever etc. I understand, he is not happy with our product, or with how we evolved it or with how we replied or not in his requests. Fine he has every right to do so, and I didn't even replied as I believe that everybody can think whatever he wants about us and after I have gave an explanation it's up to him to believe me or not.

I have to underline and remind once again that our job is not changing our development schedule and features of the game to fit the request of users. Our work is create a product we designed and are happy with. If the product makes the users happy, then we have succeeded. If not, then we have ****ed up, happens. But we certainly do not work on request, this should be clear and it is even a forum rule so that wishlists are not allowed.

So, after 7 days of the above private exchange he is coming back here to announce that he will abandon KUNOS products and making a new thread by posting personal messages public, complaining that we don't listen to his feedback, implying that we actively blocking your servers etc etc. Well this is a big no no. You can stay disgusted, you had your 5 mins of fame, wish you all the luck in your war against KUNOS in other forums.

Thread closed.

 

The entitled, (passive) aggressive, cynical, paranoid, customer-is-god-and-devs-are-either-stupid-or-lazy-but-most-certainly-after-me postings will be duly missed.

As for your community contributions, albeit surely appreciated by those who benefitted from it, that's no excuse for intolerable behaviour just because your personal requests and expectations are not met.

Reports are always welcome (when presented appropriately both in format and manner), as that's what the forum is primarily for, but what certain people fail to understand is that community involvement from developers does not equal community-assisted product development, and no report is born more equal than any other.