What happened?

What happened? by ejahnke

August 5, 2008, 5:33 pm
Filed under: Beckett Media | Tags: Beckett Beta, complaints, grumpy blogger, Happy days ahead, long hours, Lots of traffic, meltdown, National, no sleep, Oooops, search bar, server, traffic, Ugh

Things went wrong.  Things went right.  Mostly things went wrong because things went so right.

Everyone take a second, take a deep breath, relax…..ahhhhhhhhh…..

Don’t we all feel better?

No?  Then I guess I will need to do some explaining.  The majority of this is not aimed at anyone here, as this place has been civil for the most part.  Over on the site…things have been “four-lettered” quite a bit.

We expected a huge spike in traffic, but not as huge as it was.  Yes, there are angry/upset/puzzled/confused people out there right now…and boy do we know it!

To spin this as positive as possible, we had no idea that so many people would log on to the new site.  None.  We did not anticipate that many collections being moved at once.  We did not, and we could not have ever predicted it.

That is a good thing, but it’s obviously seen as a bad thing.  To prevent me from sounding like I know what I am talking about, and then having to answer technical questions about it, everything overloaded from the huge traffic spike and simply froze itself up (crashed.)

If you are wondering how that can possibly be a good thing–I told you I am spinning it–that means there are a ton more people out there in the hobby than predicted.  The worst of the doom and gloom about the slow death of the hobby that has been going on for years, for whatever reasons, can be lifted somewhat by the simple fact that there are that many people out there with that much interest.  That is something to keep in mind once this is all ironed out.

Now, with Pollyanna and spin done, let’s get down to some specifics–and I will be blunt, but don’t take it as me being a jerk or anything like that, it’s the simple truth.

1.  Way too many people just got on the new site and started doing things without using the tutorials.

This new site is a totally new CONCEPT, and it works, but you have to understand HOW to use it.

This is not a revamped Beckett.com, and this is probably not like anything you have used before…anywhere.

This new site is not hard to understand, but you can’t just start “fooling around” trying to use it and expect to be able to get anywhere.  It’s not like anywhere people have ever been before (most of them).

Throw away all the methods you used to use.  Stop asking where this or that is.  Don’t look for a page of links anywhere.  The “message boards” are gone.  This is a new type of message board, one that is not exclusive…it is all-inclusive.

It’s all gone.  It’s all different.  It’s all new.  Asking where things are from the old site are pointless now, they are gone.  You have to change your entire thinking process, and thankfully, adopting the new one is not hard–it is just different.

Just think that this is your very first time on Beckett.com, this is your very first time for everything here (well, there I mean).

Take the time to learn what it is, and how to do it, before you make a, “This sucks!” post.

Having said that, and this is terribly important, we understand completely that many people were not able to even do what I just said yesterday.  There were issues nobody could have predicted that snowballed…a vicious cycle started.

How is one supposed to learn how to do something when there is no way to get to the teacher?

Our complete apologies on that, we know it was a mess!  We are not hiding from it.  It stunk (or “sucked” since we read that 200+ times), but it is at very least a good sign there are more folks in the hobby than anyone thought.  (yes, that is 100% spin).

2.  The price guides-  they are there, they are everywhere.

Everything has it’s own page–from top-level general pages (Baseball, Upper Deck, Football, Topps–on and on) all the way down to an individual player.

The pricing is there.  Take the time to watch the videos, ask the right questions, and you will “get it.”

It is not at all a hard concept, if I can understand it, then a 3 year old can.  After all, I am not known as the sharpest pencil in the box, but at least I am sharp enough to know that I am not.

Slow down and take the time to figure it out.  Don’t just say something “sucks” because you don’t instantly understand it.  I am probably the worst person in the world about that.  When my daughter was coming, and right after she was born, I had to put together 453 things, and not once did I use the directions.

This web site is not like that.  You have to slow down long enough to grasp the concept, and once you do I swear you will understand it.

With that, there is no way in heck I can say you will LIKE it.

That would be terribly arrogant and big-government-ish.  However, understanding it is the key to explaining what it is you don’t like…not a post of “This sucks.”

Again, there is much I am writing today that may not apply directly to you.  You may be one of the many who has given us rational feedback, and we are listening and sincerely thank you for it.  However, I have to address everyone, and it’s often the “squeaky wheel” you have to aim at, and hope that the level-headed ones in the crowd don’t get offended.

We know about yesterday, no need to deny it, or hide it.  It was quite confusing, even to some of us.

Everything on the site is integrated.  You may only want to come to Beckett.com for one thing, but that entire concept is dead and gone.  This is the wave of the future…eventually that is.  :)

Everything fits together.  Once people grasp that they will grasp everything.  Long rows of links do not exist anymore.

The search bar is everything on the new Beckett.com.   It’s too bad it “broke” yesterday, because when all that happened…chaos ensued amongst some folks.  Some people were not bothered, they understood.  For every “you suck,” (OK, maybe for every 5 of those) there was a note from another person about how they understood because they had been there (in another company obviously) before in a site launch and seen what can happen when something breaks.

The site works…but it sure didn’t yesterday afternoon.  Making up your mind on a broken product is not helping anyone.  It broke, we’re sorry, and we are fixing it.

3.  Rumors: half-truths, spam and false information…trade fees.

Rumors are great.  There is an entire industry devoted to rumors and half-truths–it’s called the mass media…not Beckett Media.

We dropped the ball on something and did not realize we were doing it due to all of the madness, messages and crashing.

Beckett Media is not in the business of the bait-and-switch.  Eventually there will be fees to trade, we are not hiding that.  We want you to try the trade tools while they are free.  We want you to like them, and we want feedback on how to improve them.

Trading has long been confined to the message boards.  Many people, for whatever reason, are hesitant to join a message board due to the often clannish behavior on them.  It’s often hard for a “newb” (forgive me if that is not the current term, I am soooo 2005) to start up on message boards, and some people flat out hate talking (writing) at all.

That is not to say our boards were rough places at all.  They were pretty darn civilized, and do not fit the overwhelming stereotype that so many message boards have.  Also, older folks are still collectors, you darn kids out there cannot forget that.  You may have grown up with that concept, but other people didn’t and are not comfortable with it.

We wanted everyone to trade, not just the message board people…everyone.  Does that increase our revenue…you bet it does!  More traders = more trades = more revenue –pretty simple concept.

The thing we missed, and not intentionally, was to say, “Trading is free UNTIL AT LEAST THE END OF 2008, please go try it out.”

Again, it was taken as a bait and switch, or a scam, or a trick…which it was not.  We had no intention of starting to charge next week, or next month.  To be completely honest, we are not sure it will happen Jan 1, 2009.  It very well may not happen then, but for sure it will not happen before then.

We need the feedback.  We want to improve on the trade function.  We want to make it better.  We cannot charge someone for something new if it does not work.  We cannot have a certain group of members trading and nobody else.

So, go play with it, see what could be done better, and let us know about it.  Please don’t say, “it sucks,” unless you can tell us WHY it sucks.

Message board traders, we know you don’t like the change…but try to look on the bright side…more people to trade with now…more interest = potential to grow the entire hobby…

*Gasp!*  Does that mean more money for Beckett?  Of course it does.  This is a business.  If you people could see my paycheck you would wonder why I’d work here–it’s called love.  Plain and simple.  The vast majority of the people here are here for that same reason.

That is the same reason many of YOU came to the boards on Beckett.com, you love the hobby.  We love the hobby, too.  I promise you that.

4.  Deleted posts (goes with the #3 the rumors)

Has anyone noticed the same messages being repeated in all of our discussion boards?  There are a few spammers from other forums trying to capture traffic–ignore them as you would any other spammer. Spammers are roughly the same people that try to sell you something during your dinner, or flood your email inbox with junk mail.

They are not helping the situation, and if everyone took the time to understand all of this new stuff, they would be driven out just as they are anywhere else.  With that, we need to make sure that WE let people know that we are aware that not everyone talking about other sites is spamming, and we are not deleting peoples posts because they are saying things we don’t like, but we are deleting the spammers.

I say that because it would be impossible to deny that we are/have been/will be deleting posts.  We are.

If there is cursing (another thing that broke was our cursing filter)-DELETED.  If a post is spam-DELETED.

If a legit person makes a real and clean statement and got deleted, that was a mistake and sorry.  However, I would venture to say 99.9% of it fit one of those two things.  We are not here to hide things.  If people hide things, then eventually they are found out and the problem is WAY worse than it would have been had the truth been told in the first place.

5.  Collection Queue- It should not have taken this long.

You are right.  It should not have.  It’s taking a long time, and it’s not going to be fixed “right now.”  The system is working through them, and will continue to do so, and we will keep doing all we can to help the process along.  Be patient.  If your stuff is not there (all of it) AND you show the transfer is done, then let us know.  Flooding us with “how long” questions is only going to make you madder, and us more exhausted.

The information is there, it is just not moving very fast right now.  Things just broke.  This is a hardware issue, not a problem of the site, and we are doing all we can to get it hammered back into place.

There was just a bunch more than we were ready for.  That is good, now we know.

I have another list of 5 things to cover tonight or tomorrow–but eating is as important to me as collecting.  Without eating, I will eventually not be able to collect.  That goes for everyone at Beckett.

We know what happened was a mess.  All we can do is say that, and say we are fixing it.  It’s up to each person out there to take it upon themselves to learn (and many people have) what to do on the new site.

The tools are there (yes, we know you couldn’t get to them at some points), we are here for questions…and above all, we need your feedback.

Again, if I sound like I am being mean to anyone new here, I’m not…I am probably just too tired from the National and the last two days, I usually have a pretty dry wit anyway.  (some say smart a–, but in a gentle way).

TO BE CONTINUED–

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