Community

I have to agree with a lot of what Baalzephone said (but with significantly less anger).

My Thoughts:
1. Decide whether it is one magazine or two.
- If one, call it Dungeon/Dragon and set things up accordingly. If not...
- Divide the forums again into separate magazines (maybe include general discussion and news in the same forum- e.g. Dragon General/Article Discussion)
- Create a release schedule that is not an either/or for Dungeon and Dragon.


2. The Release Schedule
-Make it regular and reliable. Have it done a month in advance. All print magazines need to do this. The move to the web is not an excuse for procrastination.
-Release Dungeon adventures on Mondays (so DMs can read it before the weekend).
-Release special Dungeon adventures prior to the event (e.g. don't release the Halloween one on Halloween or two days before, as was done in 2007) We want to play it on the event (or prior to it). We don't want to read it then. Playing a Halloween adventure in early November sucks a lot of the potential enjoyment out of it.
-Release Dragon stuff on the Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule.
-Set up a pattern for Dragon releases. I like this one:
Monday-Fluff (because dms are reading the adventure and players need fun too)
Wednesday-Crunch (so players and dm's can discuss it)
Friday-Editorials, Cartoons, Confessions (Mazzanoble) (because people are gearing up for games and this is when we don't need new game related material as much)
-Automate releases. Release them at midnight on the beginning of the day they should be released. It should be someone's job to check that this worked upon arriving at work that day. then, if there is a SNAFU, the article can be put up early in the west coast work day at worst.
-Don't release everything as a huge chunk at the end of the month. A good magazine has one of two release schedules, each with pros and cons. One option is the "all at once" release...this leads to more of a "magazine feel" but less of an ability or interest in reading it all, as it is harder to read on screen. The other option is to spread it out across the month. This leads to less of a magazine feel, but readers don't get bogged down with too much content all at once. The problem is that you've elected to do option 3. historically and this month, which is to put out a huge chunk at the end. This results in none of the benefits of option one or two, but all of the pitfalls.


3. Table of Contents
- The main page of the magazine should have the ToC for that issue and links to other issues' ToCs. It should not include links to the other articles.
- The ToC should be the main means of navigating the magazine.
- If you follow my above advice regarding the releases, (and why wouldn't you, it's great advice! :D ) , have the ToC tell us which articles go live when (i.e. have this posted at the beginning of the month, like "editorial - 9/26"). This would both enhance anticipation and decrease dissapointment. Right now the ToC teases. However, teasing is only fun when the content is then delivered. Teasing and then taking it away (I'm lookin' at you barbarian) is not fun but perceived as mean.


4. Understand your customers
- People are frustrated and confused because of a lack of reliability at this point. Consider what a person does on a daily basis who enjoys/wants to read your product. I need to go to the site on MWF multiple times to read the article (Sure I could just wait until TThSat, but that's not the expectation). I go multiple times, and I might or might not get it, it may come out after I have gone to bed, and I have to wait until the next day to read it.
- When I finally get the article, it could be a huge dissapointment to me. It might be something I was really hoping to get. It might be something I hate reading (there are a few of those) or it might be something I consider filler (there are a number of those). Suppose I really, really want just one particular article. What if it was the barbarian one? I check every MWF a few times, and then on TTh for those days that I went to bed before the article comes out. Each time, I roll the dice and it's not the one I really wanted, but maybe next time, right? Then it gets pushed to the following month because "it's not ready yet". Reliability and clearly set expectations that are consistently met would resolve all of this. (By the way, applause on making the Barbarian article free next month.)

The fact that I was greeted with this



after just reading the new digital insider, in which the question "what can we do better?" was asked.

Step one. Don't bring down your forums in the middle of the day.

My main concern is with the release schedule with the magazines. Seeing the TOC in advance is great - gives me an idea of what to look forward to in the month. The timing of content actually dropping could be improved.

Dungeon is August was the offender with this. The Feature material is the meat of the thing, the portion I look forward the most with either magazine. Last feature for July went up on 07/30 - first feature for the new issue went up 28 days later. Little bit of a gap there, and one that, had I been a paying customer, would have been even more annoyed with.

It's not even as if the columns padded out the month properly. 9 days from that last feature we had the month's editorial. which was followed by 2 pieces on the same day, almost 2 weeks later.

For free content it's annoying. For what will be transitioning to a paid service in the next 30 - 40 days, it's enough to make a person consider, well, not subscribing.

AsmodeusLore wrote:

Don't worry, Kyros. You and me can feel like doofuses (doofusi?) together!

I think the term might be "doofi" for a plural doofus. But yeah! Totally! Go doofi!

Thanks for throwing the door open for some feedback (not that you wouldn't have gotten it anyway - )

The table of contents is a great idea and you should continue to publish it at the beginning of the month.

I think the frustration is that it doesn't seem like new content is always posted on Mon-Wed-Fri, and sometimes there will be a gap and then the only new content to be posted is an editorial or a column... not too exciting when everyone is keyed up for the latest SOW installment or some coolness from Dragon, like the Barbarian playtest. I agree, arguing whether that has or hasn't been the case isn't productive, but that's the perception.

The months also tend to feel a little backloaded (a glut of articles get posted right at the end of the month).

I don't know if its feasible to print the publish date at the same time as the TOC; it would probably mean adjusting your timelines for receiving submissions - but then people would know exactly when articles are scheduled to appear. That should make everyone happy. I check the site frequently, I feel like one of those lab rats in the psych experiments that randomly gets rewarded with a food pellet by clicking the refresh button on my browser. "Shhhh, if we don't tell anyone *exactly* when the articles are coming out, they have to check our site multiple times every Mon, Wed, Friday. Muhahaha."

If you don't set any expectations higher than - 'On the last day of the month, all of the articles will be posted' - I don't know you can avoid the fans acting like button-clicking mice looking for their random reinforcement... "I see something new, something new, what is it, what is it, Oh No! It's just a column... I guess I'll be back in a few days looking for game content..."

I've been in the camp that the articles have been high quality and I've been happy with both Dungeon and Dragon... maybe the only question I'd have is whether it'd be possible for subscribers to vote on future article topics or submit ideas for articles (as opposed to submitting manuscripts).

crashbeedo wrote:

Maybe the only question I'd have is whether it'd be possible for subscribers to vote on future article topics or submit ideas for articles (as opposed to submitting manuscripts).

Great idea in theory. Poor in practice.

"Baker" was a voted on concept that took approximately a year to be published on the web after it was finalized. This was a single monster.

"Cross city chase" was the "best adventure I never wrote". It was done being voted on months before fourth edition mags came out. It was supposed to come out in third edition rules (I hoped for it to do just that). It was submitted with sufficient time to come out for this according to a poster who claims to have written it. It didn't and hasn't yet come out for fourth edition either.

I think that steering clear of all "vote driven content" might be wise for the forseeable future.