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Pastimes : SI Beta Site Launch - 7/01/99 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jbe who wrote (343)	7/8/1999 8:19:00 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2340

Joan, this entire Beta launch has me concerned about SI and the way the site is now being run.... 1. I have sent in 5 suggestions and not received one acknowledgement whether they even received any. Before the Go2net buyout, Brad or Jeff would personally acknowledge suggestions and thank the customers for them. TWO PEOPLE! Now they have a team of probably dozens and can't seem to interact with the customer in a meaningful way. The least they could do is write a simple email program acknowledging receipt of suggestions. 2. What is the vision of this new Beta Site? Why are we changing what is obviously the most successful bulletin board on the internet? The only concrete explanation I can see is that the new site offers more room for links to other sites, which will generate advertising revenue. After using the new beta for more than a week on and off, I have yet to find a new value added feature we didn't readily have available before. 3. So here we are, at the crossroad and defining moment of Go2Net's business. How will the management team handle "differentiation" and "control". Will they lose the focus on the most important element of SI, its customers? Or will they delay the release of this beta and engage the customers in meaningful dialogue to describe the purpose behind this change? I sure hope those cognitive engineering wizards Brad and Jeff are somewhere around helping the new blood understand what this beta site is all about, and how important the customers are toward SI's continued success. Michael

To: jbe who wrote (343)	7/8/1999 8:42:00 PM
From: BryanB	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 2340

jbe: Let me comment on a few of the items that you raised. First of all, regarding "help" and FAQs on the site, we will definitely be adding to those components. In fact, one of the goals in the beta process is to identify components that are confusing, and either re-design them or explain them better. With respect to your other questions... 1. Search this subject and Search this poster will go back into the new site before the old site goes away. 2. Regarding member preferences between old vs. new. I find it difficult to respond to this in any way that won't sound either self-serving or argumentative, and I certainly don't want to come across that way. So, let me just say that we have, in fact, tallied the general feedback, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive, i.e. better than 90% fall into the "like it" category. This is especially encouraging to us since generally people are much more likely to voice an opinion if they don't like something than if they do. We have also received a number of constructive criticisms, as well as great ideas for future enhancements. Many of those have, in fact, come from this thread. We are grateful for that kind of feedback, especially since it is apparent that you all care very deeply about SI. Which leads me to... 3. A launch date. We will launch the new SI when it's ready to be launched - and not before. We are working aggressively to make that happen as quickly as possible. I did not give a specific date because I will never make a promise unless I am absolutely sure that we can deliver. As I indicated in an earlier post, July 14th, is, in fact, my birthday. And although I think we should all celebrate on that day for that reason <grin>, it has nothing to do with the launch of SI. I apologize if I created any confusion. One additional item I want to make clear about the Launch of the New SI. This re-launch is a beginning, not an end. We have made several "behind the curtains" improvements to the SI infrastructure that will allow us to integrate new features and components on a regular basis, as well as more rapidly respond to user input. So, I hope that the dialog that has initiated on this thread will not end. 4. Finally, as far as posting on this thread vs. the feedback database. We will continue to read and monitor this thread for feedback on the new SI. If you find something that is specifically a bug, it would be most efficient to use the beta feedback mechanism, since those messages go directly into our bug database and create an audit trail for tracking purposes. Thanks, Bryan