User surveys

There have been several changes on pokefarm that have been upsetting to some uses but exciting to others. I think I good way for Niet and staff to gauge how the community will take changes before changing them is with user surveys. These surveys could ask players their opinions about certain on site features, allow them to rate them based on how much they enjoy a feature, how hard it is for them to use it, if it's practical to them, etc... Using those surveys, Niet can assess if the community is ready for a change or if they are content with how things actively are. It could also help to pinpoint changes that may need to be made in place of the original idea. While there are users who feel comfortable expressing their opinion, some users do not feel comfortable in doing so. Thus I think anonymous surveys (or surveys only staff can see) could possibly help users who are typically shy or not overly opinionated to express themselves. It could also help reduce some hostility/negative feedback that some users express when they are upset with a change. And even if it doesn't, it can give staff the confidence that it was a decision backed by plenty of users. Of course a way to encourage users to actually take a survey could be by offering a small reward such as a small amount of currency, or an in game item such as a legendary seal, lucky egg, event tokens, z crystal, etc... And possibly bigger rewards for surveys of more importance. Staff sees pokefarm from a different light than some of the users who play the game and I think this could be the fairest way to gather honest and tame opinions about current and future changes/events.

This sounds like a neat idea. And for incentive I think it could be similar to voting for contest. You get a small participation prize for voting. I def don't think it should be something rare or super special like a z-crystal. A lucky egg sounds fun. Or if they really wanna make sure people do it a small amount of ZC. And I mean small. Like 5-10. Not enough so you could buy something but maybe if you had some already it'd top you off to get something (like if you had 15 and we got 10 you could buy a lucky charm). And it's a small enough amount to not really effect the economy.

This would help a lot in my opinion! Now, if there's an update people just randomly voice their support or lack of support on it through the threads, making it all a messy place sometimes. I think it would be a neat and very handy feature to be able to voice your concerns/opinions on a new planned update. Though, I hope it will also be used. I know a lot of surveys aren't really used or only the positive surveys would be used. But that's more a 'what if' concern. Full support!

full support! i know sometimes there are polls, like when hypermode was being changed, but i don’t think there are enough of those polls at all. it’s very important for niet to have clear communication with the player base and there’s no better way to have that than by collecting everyone’s opinions on updates before implementing them. and there are announcement threads about updates, but some people don’t want to write paragraphs of feedback or clutter the thread by just posting “i don’t really like this idea”, “this is great”, etc. plus, a lot of people only post replies when they think an update idea needs changes. people should still be able to give specific feedback, but simply adding a survey along with the announcement posts would be a great way for niet to know what a majority of players think instead of just the ones who don’t fully like the update. i hope this reply even makes sense 😭