Category: the Rant Board
i was rereading some of the past post on several other board topics when i was struck with the obvious. where in the hell are the admin's? what are they? when do they come on? lastley, what do they do?
you encourage me to become a paid member. you advertise a name change for cash. you give me some point system i should achieve nervna. however, where in the hell are you? when do you log in? when shit hits the celing, where u b? so, i say. why not offer this juke joint for sale? why not go public like some private buss and sell stock? this way the members and cl's can have the say so. not we waite for you to piss down on us like zues or some god. maybe if the community and the cl's had more of a say so more cl's would logg on?perhaps we might increas membership?
Uh, how do you really feel about this? <lol>.
Totally agree, but with less harshness.
Bob
When you are logged on in the mornings, do you notice the site updates?
Do you understand the site requires a server, and that server requires a human hand to keep it running?
You see the adds. How did they get there?
Ever notice when the site has technical glitches, it gets fixed?
If you pay your money, where does it go?
Now and then, you see a message that talks about changes.
When you use FaceBook, and other sites, do you wonder where the admins are, or do you think more in terms about is Facebook up and can I post my stuff, talk to my friends and such thing?
Shop on Amazon? Google a question? Read your emails?
Where are the Admins. Smile.
In all Fairness, let me make one distinction here. Yes, Chris N is an admin, and yes, he's not around a whole hell of a lot. But when you stop to think about it, he's a volunteer, just like us cl's are. JJ isn't around to give much guidance or direction, so I can fully understand why Chris N doesn't make this place a top priority. I'm not trying to speak ill of JJ here. I'm simply pointing out that if the owner doesn't care, why should anyone else?
unlike the big top companies this place doesnt have a paid staff nor do they have shareholders, nor an it department. on occasion adds get sold, the news file gets updated. even sounds get added but, and a big ass but! you need to be front and center or at least invest time in what is still a growing place. after all we are not millions nor thousands. ever wonder why? wonder what the rep of this place is around the small chatty blind community?
I don't think it is a matter of carring. His business, or site runs pretty smoothly from the prospective of a business. People use it, and it serves them well.
If he is not interested in joining his customers, why is that such a big deal?
What if he decided he doesn't want the business anymore? We'd have to find another place to play.
Same with any website or business for that matter. The owners close the doors, and the customers are out.
Do you think the guy that is a millionaire because of Facebook gets on regularly so he can be seen?
How about the owners of Amazon?
Twitter? MSN?
Ever chat with Bill Gates on messenger or Skype?
Yes, but the point is, things like facebook are being updated. This place is not. It's not that the owner should be expected to chat with us, but what about that updated terms of service board that was posted back in April. In two weeks, we were supposed to get together and rewrite it. Should it all be up to the staff, with no input from the owner?
Ok, I hear a lot of people whining and complaining about how the admin isn't on here, or this isn't done, or that isn't done, and I agree with them. The admin should take better care of this place. But to those who complain, I have to wonder just how empty their whining is. I don't see any of them saying "Fine, off to another site I go". This place doesn't offer you anything you couldn't get anywhere else, so why are you still here if it dissatisfies you so much/ If its such a proble, maybe the admin would notice when they no longer have people buying premium, or they notice that the website is getting a fraction of the hits it usually does.
I'm all for complaining and getting good service, but at some point you have to vote with your feet.
Honestly, I could care less if this site is updated or not, because I don't come on here as much as I used to. That being said, I am definitely of the opinion that the owner needs to stick to his word about updating the site, getting together with the community leaders to work out what needs to be worked out. I believe in taking responsibility for what needs to be done, but I also believe that if someone doesn't like this site, then just leave it. It's not like you're obligated to get on here.
No,we don't have to use the un updated Zone. We don't have to buy premiums. We are still buying the product, because it works well enough.
It even helps in many ways.
Yes, looking at it from the owner's point of view, it's working and memberships are still being bought. No need to fix what is seemingly unbroken.
From a business management point of view, it is a very poor manage business. If business owner itself can't bother to get involve, and rely on volunteers to run the business, without giving any fitback or input to the fellow volunteers. No changes no strategy plan for volunteers and or staffs , it will not sustain in a long term. So, it is wrong to say that The Zone is a well run business from a general business point of view.
And to compare the zone to Amazon or facebook, it is just purely rediculous. Amazon's customer service is first class, facebook got a very strong team of "paid" admin support that work behind the seen. And more so, i believe both facebook and amazon and those structure of business would have a very strong involvement from top level management, (the owners and business directors) to the front line management (those that you get in touch for support and customer service people).
However, JJ is extremely smart. I give him that much of a credit. He set up the zone, appoint a team of volunteer community leaders and he can go about with his other stuff. For members that is desperet enough to get premium membership, well, well, it helps him to pay some bills. But, i'm very interested to see those premium membership statistic, from when it started till say now, how sustainable it is. As long as there are people desperet enough to pay $25 per year, and honestly, if you do the sums, he only need 100 out of say 10,000 members that pay premium, that is $2500 easy money for him. I don't know how much it cost for the Zone's hosting and so on, but $2500 will be more than enough to cover those expenses a year.
Lets be conservertive here. Even if there are 2000 members complain about the zone, but as long as there are 5% of those 2000 members continue to pay him premium membership for $25 per year, and perhaps another 5% desperet members that will pay for user name change fee for $7 ones a year, that's already $3000+ for him free of charge. there is no reason why he should bother and care of what the rest of the community think or not think.
What i trying to say is, The Zone is a simple, easy, ravenew for JJ. He no need to do anything, or have any customer service at all, there are always free income for him as long as there are members that will pay $25 a year to support him.
If all the CLs and Chris resign tomorrow, the Zone will keeps going, unless less than 100 zoners have the sudden relization that their beloved Zone is not worth $25 a year.
More so, there are always zoners that will be too ready to take on the job as community leader, for better or worse.
I wouldn't call peple who purchase premium memberships desperate. I think that is unfair. I haven't bought one but that is because there isn't anything there that I want. Advertisers is another matter.
However, it's just supply and demand: they have something people want and those people buy it. That is not desperate.
People enjoy the benefits, so the 25 is worth the paying.
I'm not comparing the Zone to the other sites on a business level, I was using them as an example, or sites you use daily, and don't think about where the admins are. The site works for what you want it to do, and that is all you want.
I believe the Zone works just fine for what most users want it to do.
Lets see.
Log on to the Zone requires my password. Then I read a little boards, write down some of my opinions, get told I'm wrong or right, or whatever. Argue my point even if I'm wrong, but I can.
Do a bit of chatting in publics, flirt some, give away a few points. Entertaining, enjoyable.
Sometimes I play a few hands of cards, but not often. I learn a few things that help me out, and I post a few things I hope help others out.
I don't need a terms of service, really, because I have no use to disrupt any community at all, and can deal with these that do.
Admins back up the technical issues caused by hackers. Met a couple nice girls even, dated in the real world one, was really a nice time spent.
Gave away a few premiums, made somebody happy that didn't have the money.
Log off, no viruses on my computer at all.
Yep, works for me.
Agreed, Wayne. We use what we like. And I like the simplicity of this site. I do use the Facebook and all because of family but sometimes on there it's hard to remember where Facebook put things and then stuff gets moved. lol not a complaint just an observation.
Everyone has their preferred walking or driving way to work, even the bicyclists do this, and so it is online also I think. This site is really quite nice for all of us.
Don't have a Facebook, Twitter, Ling thangs, smooth talk, or the rest of it. JK. Just got the Zone! Smile.
Lol Wayne. Now the daughter and her friends use this SnapChat thing since all us parents are on Facebook.
It's mainly a picture thing and doesn't store past entries I guess. She tried to explain it to me once.
yep, its the young peoples sexting app of choice. Because pictures are only stored for 10 seconds, and the person sending knows if someone tried to take a screen shot, or anything.
there is a hack to get them off the phone, of corse, with out the other party knowing though.
People don't just use it for dirty messages, but that is what it has a reputation for, because the pictures have a limited life.
You think we could get that on the Zone? Instead of pictures, it could be dirty sound bites?
I wouldn't count on it!
I can see the headlines now: "thirteen year old caught with porn on her computer. Jay has been arrested."
Actually, I don't blame the admins, I took a year off the zone after my stent as a cl.
But, I like the zone, it's fun and educational. My life doesn't depend on it.
I'll occasionally try to nudge the staff to do something like open up old board topics, but I'll come on here when I choose, why shouldn't they.
Bob (rambleing on and on and ...)
People can complain all they want, and I think the fact is, nothing is going to change. JJ runs a full-time business. Chris N works full-time and I believe has other side projects of his own outside of that. A few years back, four CL's (myself included) resigned in an attempt to get the admins to pay attention to the site. We were tired of being able to do nothing about the suggestions and/or complaints of the users, so we figured the majority of the CL team resigning would get their attention. They asked us to come back with promises that more would be done. Maybe we should have known better and not come back, but we did, and more was done...for about two weeks, and then things went back to the status quo, and we accepted that's how it would be. The same applies today. Frustrating maybe, but reality that I don't see changing.
okay, i admit that my early post was rather dramatic. What i was trying to point out is that, as long as there are people who willing to pay to get on the Zone, and as long as there are CLS that willing to volunteer for the Zone, this site will stay active forever. Now, thats the good news for all, but the bad news is, there will be very minor changes that will change. As long as there are good free money coming in for JJ, i don't see why he would like to spend a couple of days or a week the most to fix the problems for the zone.
Now, if the whole community stand out and say, enough is enough, we aint going to pay any premium untill the problems got fix, that will be totally different story. No premium means no free income for JJ. The hand full of adverts on the Zone simply can't cover it well enough.
agree with Jo and Alecia. Even when I was a community leader, back in the very early days, it was a bit of a struggle to get the admins to fix things.I'm not wanting that to sound mean at all.
As someone pointed out earlier, why keep coming back if you're not happy? There's other sites who have paid staff and therefore, they will be updated to be new and interesting.