Sciere (930799) on 6/26/2010 9:12 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

This post was originally part of another thread, but was bound to get lost in a number of other discussions. It bundles a large number of gripes, nuisances and recommendations from the MG community as a whole and it has also been sent to the founders. Since the problems have been going on for so long without actions, their response (or lack of it) will for me determine whether it's worth spending any more time on this project or if it has been buried for a long time already.

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I would have preferred to do this through mail, but because the questions seem to get dodged with the same arguments from the past, just to maintain a status quo, I'll paste the recommendations I wrote in the mail to the founders and let the community weigh in. The founders/owners do no contribute any more, they do not approve items, they're not present in the forums and hardly anything changes on the site over time. So where does all that hard work behind the scenes lead to then? If a lot gets done, then there is a lot of inefficiency or a terrible form of communication, which made many people sign off already.

1. The project needs a leader. Someone with the authority and power to make drastic changes when needed, with open communication to the users about the fundamental elements and policies of the site. This goes along with regular presence in the forums. There is no one now to defend old policies that have been set before many approvers and administrators joined the site. We abide by them, but there is no one to explain why. There is a complete lack of communication from anyone at the top and that is the source of most of the problems. There are rules, but nobody's talking or showing any interest. None of the founders would be able to do a proper game submission these days that is according to the policies, there is no connection with the user base any more.

2. MobyGames should publish a social contract similar to Discogs (http://www.discogs.com/help/social-contract.html) with the promise not to sell user data or make people pay to access the site, and a vow to make all the content available freely for someone else to continue the project in the case that the site under current leadership comes to a halt. MobyGames needs copyright to protect its content, but the exclusive ownership of everything submitted is not fair to the group of contributors that build the site. In this regard the MobyGames Pro trademark (http://www.trademarkia.com/mobygames-pro-78749667.html) should be clarified openly.

3. Who is the owner of MobyGames? Is it Berk & Hirt Consulting? Who are all these people and what is their stake in the project? The founders should come clean and be open about this. Who really holds the strings in this project?

4. There should be more regular updates to improve usability of the site, and the contribution and approval process. People like the fast and minimal-looking infrastructure and do not demand a Giant Bomb-like redesign, just the updates to improve the site's usability. Many areas such as credits, most submission forms and the approval process are tiresome and outdated. People have even been making custom browser plug-ins to make certain processes clearer and less tedious. Most of the site's workings is very much outdated.

5. Brian does not seem have enough time to work on the project regularly. Nobody blames him, he has done an incredible amount of work in the past, but it has been made this way that he is the only one who can work on the backend. Why should it be this way, why can't the community weigh in? I'm sure there are other programmers who would love to help out if they had the chance. Why can't the test server be opened up for additions introduced by knowledgeable contributors? Can't a part of the revenue generated by advertising be used to outsource work to another programmer if no other solution is possible? Why not take the risk to make the site open source for a number of people so they can work on a deployment at home, submit code to the test server and then have Brian approve it before it goes into production? Aren't we all working towards the same goal?

6. A redesign of the homepage is in order to make the MobyGames project clear. Most people do not realize we do not sell games but are an encyclopedia. The goals and the contribution process should be clarified on the homepage with a much more modern look and different items. People would also like more tools to search the database (more operators to combine genres, specs, etc.). In the past a css redesign has been suggested (along with the need to make the site fixed width), but nothing has come of that. Again, communication is completely absent. Many other small changes are needed, such as the reorganization of related links, a way to source information contributed to the site, revisions of trivia items, and more.

7. All text on the site in contribution and approval screens should be editable by administrators. Some pages are hilariously outdated with recommendations to use Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher or Netscape 6.0 as a "modern" browser. That makes the project look ridiculous. Just put that in the hands of the community and we will get it updated. We just don't have the chance to do it now. Almost anything should be made editable so Brian doesn't have to be bothered by it.