The new store layout is definitely showing some signs of improvement and I'd like to say thanks to Renderosity for listening to our suggestions and implementing them.

You know, I think so much of the upheaval could easily have been avoided if we, the members, had just felt like we were made partners in the process beforehand. If the owners/admins would have made a major effort to tell us a few weeks ago the DETAILS of the change, WHY it'll be better than what we had, ADMIT that there would be alot of rough edges & kinks, and ASK our help in finding them, most of us would have felt invested in it's success. Heck, it would have been a game to see who could find the things that needed to be fixed or improved, and there would have been little of the outrage & animosity we've seen during the past two days.

I don't really know much about PHP websites versus EZ websites, but I'm guessing that it was probably a big accomplishment just to get the site transferred over, warts and all. So congrats for that.

Now, I don't know ANYTHING about carpentry or plumbing, so if I were build a whole house all by myself from the ground up, it would really be quite an accomplishment (a miracle, actually! LOL). But I'm guessing that a few floors would probably be slanted, some of the doors & windows wouldn't open and close quite right, and a couple light switches would actually turn on lights in a totally different room. THOSE are the details that people would actually notice, not that I built the house in the first place. So, it's natural that the members here are complaining about what doesn't work right.

It doesn't have to be this way. I don't know why we seem to regularly fall into these situations...I hope it not just arrogance on the part of the owners/admins..."We know all, just be patient" and "Here it is, like it or not." The members are your customers, but we're by-and-large nice people, too. And we're only complaining because we care about the site.

One final thought, I don't know what the internal process was to roll out the new store layout. I'd only suggest that the admins, moderators & coordinators be involved more in testing in the future...they understand how everything should work and should/could have found many of the problems. And to them I would say that this: it is very hard to stand up to authority and insist that something isn't ready to be released...anyone who had done so in this instance would probably be recognized just about now as a bit of a hero.

Best wishes to all...Jen

Like herds of animals or flocks of birds- many eyes makes for a longer life- lol When ever I make a web site I allways have me Dad check it first before it goes live. lolol I guarentee he'll find many ways to crash it- ways I could NEVER have thought of :P Idealy, they should have posted a dummy version and let the merchants beta it. It'd have been debugged quite nicely. But all to often we're treated like employees instead of partners with skills and talents in exactly this area. But (say-la-vee).. It's just a guess, but I suspect there was a bit of a time constraint. I know they've been working on this for months. Probably with a target deadline for this January. Because January is the slowest month for sales.

It's more along the lines of thick headedness than arrogance. Haven't you ever worked with an engineer before? They're absolutely fantastic at creating things that work on paper in a mystical fantasy world in a galaxy far, far away. But don't work under real world conditions until one of us "morons" comes along and fixes it. ;-)

I think we have seen this quite a few times in the past, and not just with server upgrades, but contests, TOS rules, and other interesting inflictions that affect everyone globally. They don't ask for any community input, they simply leap ahead and do what they are going to do regardless. They start listening when the entire community is shouting complaints and dislikes, then things start falling into place and making sense. I think it would have been a great service to have community input on all this prior to the upgrade, and I have seen quite a few mention the fact that the MarketPlace is shared by the merchants, as well. They should have had more input as they are directly affected by sales, and the customers and users could also offer suggestions thrown upon the pile to help round out the list. It's in the admin's best interest to make things as smooth as possible for everyone and create a better environment to peruse, it just would have been nice to initially take those steps together as a community. The MaketPlace was a good target starting point because I can't even imagine the disarray that is ahead for the Gallery section; I cringe even thinking about that aspect already. It will work itself out eventually, but it will be some rough sailing at the start. And as a carpenter, the metaphorical remarks are quite well stated and very much relative. There is also a degree of improvisation due to faulty engineering as ScottA points out, and the 'looks great on paper' theorem is always in effect and is where planning gives way to realistic conditions and cause and effect. I think it's fair to say that we do voice our opinions about this site because we do love it here and it's our home to share, grow, and learn together as a community. And when the flow is hampered by change or things that completely elude our logic, we are here to voice our concerns to help steer the ship in the right direction. After all, if the system goes the way of the hula hoop and the majority of the users and vendors leave out of disgust, it really won't matter what the MarketPlace looks like as it will be covered in cobwebs. I believe there is a great deal to be learned already from this endeavor, and let's hope next time that the events leading up to the planning of change include input from the community to arrive at a happy medium for everyone.

at a happy medium for everyone

That's a great ideal. If anyone ever finds such a condition prevailing wherever human beings are involved in something......then please post a link.

Personally, I'm happy to let the site owners run their site. Whether or not they choose to seriously consider my input occurs at their option. Likewise -- whether or not I choose to participate in the rough 'n tumble of this website occurs at MY option.

I've got enough to do in my own workaday world. I neither need nor do I desire the job of running Renderosity for its owners -- anymore than I want to tell the manager at a local restaurant how to do his job. I don't have to tell him which cooks to hire, or which recipes to use. My own part of the business is far less complicated than that: I merely make a decision over whether or not to eat there.

And that's the true measure of customer satisfaction -- Are They Buying Things......? And in what amounts.......? That represents solid, empirical evidence.

All the rest is pure personal opinion.

As much as some might like to think otherwise: individual members don't run the site. The site owners run the site. And so long as this business is a highly successful one (which it is) -- then they'll most likely keep right on doing what they are doing. In the same manner as they have always done it.

We should all feel free to express ourselves in the forums as we like -- and many do. But the management is under no obligations whatsoever to follow our 'constructive suggestions' (read: Orders).

Perhaps it's a self-flattering illusion for us to convince ourselves that we exercise a significant degree of control over how things are done around here. Sure, the management takes what we have to say into consideration -- to a point. But only to a point.

shrug The Marketplace is doing very well. So......I'm inclined to think that somebody at the top knows at least a little bit about what they are doing here.

Nothing succeeds like success. And Renderosity is a success.

If others feel that they can do it better in a different way -- then please open up a website, and start selling things. If the store/site culture is good enough, then people might buy something from you. Message edited on: 01/19/2006 17:36

That's true: and if Rendo doesn't please enough of their customer base -- then it'll fail.

Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be a problem. Quite the opposite, in fact. Judging by the numbers, anyway.

BTW - merely being 'big' isn't a guarantee of success. As in the case of General Motors. So there's more to account for Rendo's success than sheer weight.

"Judging by the numbers, anyway." Ah, but any site with lots of pictures of pretty girls disrobed (real ones or otherwise) is going to get lots of attention. That's not to invalidate your point, just to make another one :)

Ah, but any site with lots of pictures of pretty girls disrobed (real ones or otherwise) is going to get lots of attention.

True. I just wish that we could get a big government grant to try and figure out why that's so.

It's a great mystery.........

But even THAT aspect of things doesn't account for the entire phenomenon. After all, other (much smaller) websites have pretty girls on them, too.

Very interesting and logical conversation. As with any business, the bottom line is profit. That's the measure of every decision made here. Good decisions, and whatever that entails, have been made at Renderosity. You can't argue with success. I think they are as responsive as possible to their customers. "You can't please all of the people all of the time".