Well, then. He apparently didn’t read the job description very well.

Then again, perhaps one of his tasks is “cause forums to explode and die”.

More seriously, is there any way to make official forums more useful? Those things are always a hive of scum and villiany. Perhaps a limit of one post per day would encourage posters to use their posts more wisely. Maybe even one post per day with a 255 character limit to make it even more interesting.

Guns don’t kill people, CMs do.

@Raad
Now now, SWG isn’t a dead end game, it’s a… what do you a horrible patchwork of impossible-to-meet fan expectations leading to a stitched together Frankenstein horror whose sheer logical fallacy is overlooked through harvesting the lifeblood siphoned out of the slavish devotion from a captive base of true believers… an unorthodox religion?

TPRJones :Maybe even one post per day with a 255 character limit to make it even more interesting.

A restriction like that would make my head explode.

SOE could probably care less at this point since SW:TOR is looming like a 100ft tsunami. Even if TOR doesn’t meet all the expectations, it will still eviscerate whats left of the SWG player base.

Let this be a lesson to employers everywhere. Check the applicant’s math skills! If 1000 people post in a thread and the thread is 1000 posts long, what is the average post per person?

I cannot understand why so many people can’t figure that one out and instead insist that it’s everyone else who won’t drop it.

There are enough SWG players to warrant a community manager? Can you make a community out of two?

I cannot help, but ALL community managers I have known so far were just terrible. There is also never clear what they are actually supposed to do. It differs a lot and depends on the employer. Some companies see them as part of PR, others as a suggestion box, others as chit-chat moderators and whatever.

In other news, SWG is looking for a new CM. Send in those applications.

I assumed they’ed poached someone from the Darkfall forum.

I do feel for the guy a bit though. Community managers need the patience of Job.

He does seem quite similar. Surely no-one would have rehired him as a community manager though?

Actually, no. Tseric came over as much more intelligent than this.

Speechless.

Perhaps the goal was to make us fondly recall the days of Abashi. Not the strategy I would have chosen.

Or maybe on the scale of universal karma, the discipline of community management was due to receive a massive black eye. Thanks, karma!

“If 1000 people post in a thread and the thread is 1000 posts long, what is the average post per person?”

That all depends on how many posts have been deleted by the CM prior to observation of the postcount, no?

Tseric’s breakdown was gradual and beautiful like a delicate flower. This dude is just a whiny pissant.

Breaking down on day 3 does seem to be something of a record. Maybe the users have gotten meaner.

Oh dear, yes. Though I’d have thought most people playing SWG are post-NGE arrivals, but then again, perhaps many people are more forgiving than me.

Hmm, that would suggest to me that this was a community he hadn’t interacted with before. Just parachuted in, without taking the time to learn its mysterious ways.

Thanks for the link…

Now if I ever write a book about community management, I’ll have something good to put in it.

He was a dev and saw what people thought of the product. Or he found out that SWG was going to close shop and its pissed because he is LFG in secret. Or he posted drunk and/or high. Or he is just an idiot. I dont know, but if he wasnt LFG then, now it is.

Actually there are those of us on those forums rooting for him. What is being missed is the satirical nature of his posts. Those forums have been ruled by the trolls for too long and that really degrades the usefulness of them. There seems to be no one more vitriolic than a Star Wars Fanboy. I notice even these posts bring up the NGE, which at this point is getting to be ancient history (in terms of MMO time anyway). Anyway, he was calling the idiots out and trying to show them just stupid they make themselves look as well as establishing his alpha dog status. I think he is trying to reestablish a real community where people actually participate. Most post from people trying to make suggestions or ask questions have some form of statement asking people to troll elsewhere or don’t flame. I know, not a unique situation, but I say go Draakul go!

MMO players are personally insulting a community manager in his first week on the job?

SAY IT AIN’T SO!

Good God. The first thing you learn as a forum moderator/administrator is to grow a thick skin and learn to be adept at handling the usual forum trolls. You can still be professional yet be able to be, well, direct with players in terms of how they’re acting.

At Warhammer Alliance I have a strict policy on professionalism – the forums are not a plaything nor your sandbox, and people can and will be shitty to you. It’s just not kosher to lash back at them unless that is what the site promotes in terms of style.

And to think this guy gets paid for this. Where can I sign up for a job like this? I must be doing it wrong.

A company representative may lose their temper and insult customers when job frustrations build up with no outlet, and a direct insult suddenly triggers feedback that’s unfairly based on how the rep’s day went. Controlling this is all part of being a professional.

That said, let me just go ahead and use my anonymity to say that customers, in general, including myself (ouch), are a bunch of touchy, whiny babies that fail to take the time to think things through before jumping to a worst-case conclusion and then posting their sad drama of storied deceit and betrayal on the Internet, which I happen to like.

Wow.. two abashi references.. don’t continue to evoke Teh Gordon (or ds or prokof).

Anyway I didn’t click through to see the other side of the story here.. I’m sure it wasn’t pretty just knowing the scenario. And make no mistake.. Sony has gone a little effing crazy over the whole collectible card thing. I don’t mind that they have it I just don’t want it shoved into my face every 10s.

No real excuse for the meltdown though. Sorry but I don’t think CM is as hard as having to deal with morons in person or even on the phone and lots of people (including myself) have done that professionally in tough circumstances for years (not a few days).