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Post by theclv24 on Sept 3, 2019 10:37:28 GMT -5
Find it telling that 1-2 weeks ago HB deleted a post of mine in less than 1 minute, but when I requested to delete my account, it sat there for over a week still active before I finally messaged Keith and asked him to take care of it (I was still getting pm's there, so didn't want it sitting open). It must have resonated when I told him that considering they deleted a post of mine in less than 1 minute, I was sure it wasn't a case of not having enough eyes on the forum to take care of it.
I think that being my final interaction with anyone at HB is a fitting reflection of the current state of affairs there.
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Post by mcbogga on Sept 3, 2019 12:34:41 GMT -5
So... Magnolia-flood?
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Post by Brighttail on Sept 3, 2019 13:58:19 GMT -5
Find it telling that 1-2 weeks ago HB deleted a post of mine in less than 1 minute, but when I requested to delete my account, it sat there for over a week still active before I finally messaged Keith and asked him to take care of it (I was still getting pm's there, so didn't want it sitting open). It must have resonated when I told him that considering they deleted a post of mine in less than 1 minute, I was sure it wasn't a case of not having enough eyes on the forum to take care of it. I think that being my final interaction with anyone at HB is a fitting reflection of the current state of affairs there. To be fair, they probably have some scripts running that the moment something is posted, it scans for various words and if found, deletes the post. I highly doubt they have someone there combing over the posts every second of every day to delete things they don't want. That wouldn't make sense when a script is much easier and costs less money. I still believe the forms are being moderated which is why some who have been trying to be cute and post on other, little used topics with posts that are in 'code' are getting deleted too.
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Post by theclv24 on Sept 3, 2019 15:25:25 GMT -5
Find it telling that 1-2 weeks ago HB deleted a post of mine in less than 1 minute, but when I requested to delete my account, it sat there for over a week still active before I finally messaged Keith and asked him to take care of it (I was still getting pm's there, so didn't want it sitting open). It must have resonated when I told him that considering they deleted a post of mine in less than 1 minute, I was sure it wasn't a case of not having enough eyes on the forum to take care of it. I think that being my final interaction with anyone at HB is a fitting reflection of the current state of affairs there. To be fair, they probably have some scripts running that the moment something is posted, it scans for various words and if found, deletes the post. I highly doubt they have someone there combing over the posts every second of every day to delete things they don't want. That wouldn't make sense when a script is much easier and costs less money. I still believe the forms are being moderated which is why some who have been trying to be cute and post on other, little used topics with posts that are in 'code' are getting deleted too. My deleted post was a screenshot. There were some words in the screenshot that of course would be deleted eventually (not my words, in my defense), but I'm assuming any script they have wouldn't be able to decipher images?
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Post by lessangster on Sept 3, 2019 15:31:43 GMT -5
I remember playing the Magnolia Azalea Masters let’s give it a try 😜
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Post by lessangster on Sept 3, 2019 15:59:01 GMT -5
I remember playing the Magnolia Azalea Masters let’s give it a try 😜 It’s still there after 25 minutes don’t think there is a script.
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Post by cephyn on Sept 3, 2019 16:00:47 GMT -5
its manual over there. i had multiple posts deleted in 5 min that didn't have any flagged ANGC terms.
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Post by Brighttail on Sept 3, 2019 21:41:16 GMT -5
To be fair, they probably have some scripts running that the moment something is posted, it scans for various words and if found, deletes the post. I highly doubt they have someone there combing over the posts every second of every day to delete things they don't want. That wouldn't make sense when a script is much easier and costs less money. I still believe the forms are being moderated which is why some who have been trying to be cute and post on other, little used topics with posts that are in 'code' are getting deleted too. My deleted post was a screenshot. There were some words in the screenshot that of course would be deleted eventually (not my words, in my defense), but I'm assuming any script they have wouldn't be able to decipher images? Probably correct here. HB doesn't strike me as the type of company that would invest in a program that could do that. While I get that they don't want to be trolled about the issue and will delete any debate or trolling posts about it, it is disappointing that they never really made an announcement. Of course if they did, then it COULD be setting them up for other legal issues down the road from other golf clubs. By simply doing what they did, not make a public statement, they are doing what is necessary to protect their brand, all without having to make a post admitting that there might be/was an issue which could set them up for other clubs doing the same thing.
It sux but honestly I see the business case for just deleting all the posts and keeping completely mum about it. I also see some of these posts being put out to try and entice HB into responding as trollish. The best answer from a consumer side would be an official statement letting us know the reason behind their decision but I can't fault them for keeping quiet for a whole bunch of other reasons we aren't privvy to. As I said before, the bigger the companies get the more eyes are on them and the more careful they have to be.
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Post by mcbogga on Sept 4, 2019 4:50:39 GMT -5
You dont have a career where you are involved with corporate PR and marketing, do you - BT?
This reasoning is 1970s thinking. Doesnt work at all in today’s world where all your consumers are connected and public reviews of your Product is accessible anytime to anyone.
And HB has shown clearly they are neither large enough or structured enough for the corporate effects you talk about to come into play. Of course, 2K is probably involved somehow in this *** stuff, and could be it’s a move from their playbook - but I doubt that considering earlier HB behaviour. Maybe the directive came from 2K legal but I’m pretty sure the communication handling is all HB.
Im not too surprised by HB here however, being a contract developer trying to bring own Product to Market, it is not that strange that their PR and Marketing is Amateur hour (even though pretty much anyone with some common sense would do it better). I’m guessing the supply of good marketeers in Lunenberg is somewhat limited as well...
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Post by Brighttail on Sept 4, 2019 13:02:08 GMT -5
You dont have a career where you are involved with corporate PR and marketing, do you - BT? This reasoning is 1970s thinking. Doesnt work at all in today’s world where all your consumers are connected and public reviews of your Product is accessible anytime to anyone. And HB has shown clearly they are neither large enough or structured enough for the corporate effects you talk about to come into play. Of course, 2K is probably involved somehow in this *** stuff, and could be it’s a move from their playbook - but I doubt that considering earlier HB behaviour. Maybe the directive came from 2K legal but I’m pretty sure the communication handling is all HB. Im not too surprised by HB here however, being a contract developer trying to bring own Product to Market, it is not that strange that their PR and Marketing is Amateur hour (even though pretty much anyone with some common sense would do it better). I’m guessing the supply of good marketeers in Lunenberg is somewhat limited as well... I'm seeing this from a start up that is growing quickly and attempting to get their name out there so they can get more partners. It makes companies get super cautious about most of their social facing contacts. If they are filing out RFPs to other companies to try and grow, they are going to make anything that is public facing as squeaky clean as possible. Basically I see two options for their actions. The first which I have describe or the second they have decided their corporate line is cracking down on any negative comments/press on any forum they have control over. In short they don't want to have to deal with those that they feel are trolls or negatively impacting their brand.
I mean lets be honest. We know HB could use a better customer facing presence, much like they had when Anthony was personally involved with community events, Q&A sessions and there was even weekly events where you could play with various people working at HB. For whatever reason they have pretty much shut down this important part of the community engagement. At the same time, I also have to say that there are a lot of people out there that will take the opportunity to troll the hell out of HB at any chance they get. These are the people who feel that because they spent there 60 dollars on the game, they are entitled to get every change they demand. As we learned long ago, the TGC community is a very small percentage of HB's overall player base. Anthony told me long ago that they could lose every member of the TGC community and would only lose under 10% of their overall business. On top of that, our little <10% group accounted for over half the posts on the forums. Apparently we were quite vocal and active, which was good when TGC 2 came out as they used nearly every one of us that applied for their beta testing. That experience from what I heard was not an overall positive experience to HB, which is probably why they took at different approach for the 2019 edition.
In short we are a very small part of their overall business and yet we are one of the most vocal. To me it is obvious that somewhere in HB's upper governance, that a decision was made to focus primarily on the other 80-90 % of their customer base. HB has gone from patiently listening to us and taking constructive criticism to not wanting to deal with the majority of us. I'm pretty sure the admin here still have a pretty good relationship with them and it wouldn't surprise me if HB is content on just working with the Admin than dealing with our player base.
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Post by mcbogga on Sept 4, 2019 14:42:38 GMT -5
Maybe not suitable to comment on the HB/TGCT relationship as that is the business of TGCT admin, so I’ll refrain.
And this is no start-up - they have been doing contract work on sport games for a long time, including golf games. That’s what bred TGC - they had a TW team but suddenly no TW contract...
And the HB forum is not good marketing towards potential partners now either despite the “scrubbing” - the tone on there is generally negative towards HB. It that was a real concern to them they would have just shut the board...
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Post by cephyn on Sept 4, 2019 14:45:13 GMT -5
Maybe not suitable to comment on the HB/TGCT relationship as that is the business of TGCT admin, so I’ll refrain. And this is no start-up - they have been doing contract work on sport games for a long time, including golf games. That’s what bred TGC - they had a TW team but suddenly no TW contract... And the HB forum is not good marketing towards potential partners now either despite the “scrubbing” - the tone on there is generally negative towards HB. It that was a real concern to them they would have just shut the board... They're not concerned because all that negativity is contained to their own forum. But if it starts leaking out into spaces 2K and the PGA Tour inhabits - then they'll have a problem. That's why I've done some direct complaining to 2K and the PGA Tour. I've gotten no traction (of course) but if gaming or sports media picked up on the general hatred, well...
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Post by Brighttail on Sept 4, 2019 16:25:22 GMT -5
Maybe not suitable to comment on the HB/TGCT relationship as that is the business of TGCT admin, so I’ll refrain. And this is no start-up - they have been doing contract work on sport games for a long time, including golf games. That’s what bred TGC - they had a TW team but suddenly no TW contract... And the HB forum is not good marketing towards potential partners now either despite the “scrubbing” - the tone on there is generally negative towards HB. It that was a real concern to them they would have just shut the board... They're not concerned because all that negativity is contained to their own forum. But if it starts leaking out into spaces 2K and the PGA Tour inhabits - then they'll have a problem. That's why I've done some direct complaining to 2K and the PGA Tour. I've gotten no traction (of course) but if gaming or sports media picked up on the general hatred, well... So what are you hoping to accomplish by doing this outta curiosity? If 2k looks at this and says, "Damn you are right, we're out" where would that leave the game? Do you want the PGA to slap all sorts of lawsuits on the game? I mean it seems your actions have but one purpose which is to shut down HB.
In the last 3 years many of the podcasts I listen too and general forums I used to peruse have simply shut down their forums or made them where the public can't post because they are tired of dealing with the hassle of moderating.
You are right mcbogga, HB is slowly shutting down their outreach to the community. I would not be surprised if the forums were either closed or severely limited to who can comment and on what. I mean when you got people complaining to the PGA about your video game, why on Earth would you want to engage with them?
To theclv24, I fully agree with you that HB is sorely lacking on the community engagement front but after reading week in and week out the flaming posts we get here on the PGA tour and looking around the forums both on here and on HB, I can honestly understand from a company's point of view, said company throwing in the towel and just making a product and not engaging with the customers anymore. Instead taking the stance that HB will create the product people will either buy it or not, and the people who are the ones who complain the most leave, it won't effect their bottom line. As in most things, the bottom line is the dollars and cents. It sux that amazing creators like you are also throwing in the towel but as you said, I don't think HB cares in the end because there will be another 100 people who will create courses to replace you. They will be shite in comparison but one of them might produce something close, right?
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Post by cephyn on Sept 4, 2019 16:31:15 GMT -5
They're not concerned because all that negativity is contained to their own forum. But if it starts leaking out into spaces 2K and the PGA Tour inhabits - then they'll have a problem. That's why I've done some direct complaining to 2K and the PGA Tour. I've gotten no traction (of course) but if gaming or sports media picked up on the general hatred, well... So what are you hoping to accomplish by doing this outta curiosity? If 2k looks at this and says, "Damn you are right, we're out" where would that leave the game? Do you want the PGA to slap all sorts of lawsuits on the game? I mean it seems your actions have but one purpose which is to shut down HB.
In the last 3 years many of the podcasts I listen too and general forums I used to peruse have simply shut down their forums or made them where the public can't post because they are tired of dealing with the hassle of moderating.
You are right mcbogga , HB is slowly shutting down their outreach to the community. I would not be surprised if the forums were either closed or severely limited to who can comment and on what. I mean when you got people complaining to the PGA about your video game, why on Earth would you want to engage with them?
To theclv24 , I fully agree with you that HB is sorely lacking on the community engagement front but after reading week in and week out the flaming posts we get here on the PGA tour and looking around the forums both on here and on HB, I can honestly understand from a company's point of view, said company throwing in the towel and just making a product and not engaging with the customers anymore. Instead taking the stance that HB will create the product people will either buy it or not, and the people who are the ones who complain the most leave, it won't effect their bottom line. As in most things, the bottom line is the dollars and cents. It sux that amazing creators like you are also throwing in the towel but as you said, I don't think HB cares in the end because there will be another 100 people who will create courses to replace you. They will be shite in comparison but one of them might produce something close, right? What do I hope to accomplish? for 2K and PGA Tour to say hey HB, this is an unacceptable way to run a game franchise. Shape up. Hire an actual community manager. Engage the community. Represent the game and brand positively and appropriately. You know. Like pretty much every other successful game franchise in 2019.
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Post by Rosebowl88 on Sept 4, 2019 17:26:52 GMT -5
how do I stop getting notifications of updated threads?
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