Board Game Arena

Hello,
Currently I am not a premium user but I was considering to be one. And one of the things which stops me - small amount of features given by premium. And particularly - no possibility to create some "exclusive" bug report or any other way of communication to BGA admins for premium users.

I created a bug report, which is more like a suggestion for BGA, some time ago and clearly no one really checked it or did something about it. I see of course there is an option to vote for bug reports but I doubt it is very useful for "suggestions", only for some real bugs which will be noticed by many users. And the whole forum system or bug reporting are quite poorly designed in my opinion for recently increased amount of users after COVID. So even if you buy premium it seems you won't be really heard in case you have something to tell to people whose product you support with money. I am deliberately not saying anything about enjoying the product and supporting only for this purpose. Of course I do enjoy BGA but for money I believe people may ask for something more, at least for possibility to be heard earlier.

Thanks if this can be read somehow by BGA owners. Or maybe I am missing something and there are ways to be heard "exclusively" by having premium - would be happy to learn if from premium users.

I think the premium membership is more like a nice gesture to help contribute to the service that BGA provides. That's certainly the way I see it. It's not that BGA are outwardly trying to get you to pay for a premium service to put more money in their pocket.

If you like that the service that's provided to you and all for free then that's great. If you understand that underneath that service - the servers, bandwidth and people's time aren't free and would like to show your gratitude then that's great too.

Some of the premium games for example are ONLY made available that way, it's more of a decision coming from the board game publishers rather than BGA.

You're right about the suggestions a bit though. I feel that I no longer actively make suggestions knowing that they largely fall on deaf ears. But you have to take the rough with the smooth, nothing is ever perfect.

Personally for someone that rarely digs into his own pocket and bemoans the fact real board games are £60+, paying premium for BGA is an easy decision.

Doing an advanced search for posts you have made returns 1 post -- this thread.

So, you haven't made a suggestion in the Suggestions forum for discussion. The "bugs" forum is actually a link to the bug/suggestion reporting system. (Which, yes, isn't the best system for reporting bugs or suggestions.) Bugs and suggestions there are dealt with based on number of votes.

The better course of action if you have made a suggestion in the reporting system is to recreate it in the Suggestions forum, including a link to the suggestion report. It will gather more attention there, and the link will help; if people want the change, they will upvote the suggestion. It will also help have a place to discuss the change. It may turn out that the community doesn't want the change, or problems can be seen with the change as proposed.

I think as BGA don't have full-time staff (as far as I know), you just have to accept that stuff gets done when it gets done whether you are a premium user or not. A year's membership really isn't much money so I don't think we can expect more from BGA than we are getting.

thanks for feedback, but above I wrote that I don't say anything about paying for premium only for the fact I'm enjoying BGA. I know I can do that and it won't cost that much. Although I would be happy to understand that platform is developing so my money go on that support as well. And current forum system just not good enough in my opinion to hear the audience. So currently paying for premium just to support owners is the only reason I see (which again is a good thing as it is), but would be nice to have smth else - at least this "exclusive" right to be heard.

RicardoRix wrote: ↑24 August 2020, 15:29 I think the premium membership is more like a nice gesture to help contribute to the service that BGA provides. That's certainly the way I see it. It's not that BGA are outwardly trying to get you to pay for a premium service to put more money in their pocket.

If you like that the service that's provided to you and all for free then that's great. If you understand that underneath that service - the servers, bandwidth and people's time aren't free and would like to show your gratitude then that's great too.

Some of the premium games for example are ONLY made available that way, it's more of a decision coming from the board game publishers rather than BGA.

You're right about the suggestions a bit though. I feel that I no longer actively make suggestions knowing that they largely fall on deaf ears. But you have to take the rough with the smooth, nothing is ever perfect.

Personally for someone that rarely digs into his own pocket and bemoans the fact real board games are £60+, paying premium for BGA is an easy decision.

Well it is of course totally up to you, and will have your own justifications no doubt.

no-face wrote: ↑25 August 2020, 21:27 at least this "exclusive" right to be heard.

How exactly does that work... As a premium member they need to do exactly what you ask?

They will answer, if you ask, that they do listen to you already, premium or not.

not quite sure about the reason of your comment to be honest. basically you list things I already know and some of them I described shortly when speaking about bugs and suggestions (I posted couple of bug reports, that's it if you ask about other posts of mine). About "Suggestions" forum - yes, you are right, I could have used it, but in general I am pointing that the whole forum system seems to be outdated for increased amount of users. And my main "suggestion" is to have some better way to hear premium users (having some ticket system for example)

Jest Phulin wrote: ↑24 August 2020, 16:26 Doing an advanced search for posts you have made returns 1 post -- this thread.

So, you haven't made a suggestion in the Suggestions forum for discussion. The "bugs" forum is actually a link to the bug/suggestion reporting system. (Which, yes, isn't the best system for reporting bugs or suggestions.) Bugs and suggestions there are dealt with based on number of votes.

The better course of action if you have made a suggestion in the reporting system is to recreate it in the Suggestions forum, including a link to the suggestion report. It will gather more attention there, and the link will help; if people want the change, they will upvote the suggestion. It will also help have a place to discuss the change. It may turn out that the community doesn't want the change, or problems can be seen with the change as proposed.

Of course not, but just having some possibility to create a ticket which would have a priority would be nice.
I don't know if it's clear, I just have some kind of example of Microsoft Power BI community. If you are paid pro user - you can create a ticket which must be solved (which means - it will be 100% answered, of course there could be situation where there is no bug, so nothing needs to be solved). And for free users there are something similar to forum where people help each other. Of course not premium users can also create posts and describe their bugs or post ideas which can be voted.

Also I have in mind UserVoice experience. Where people also post ideas and vote for them, but more importantly - you can see if product owner answered the idea and accepted it (marked as "in progress" or smth similar) or rejected. Hope it's more clear this way.

RicardoRix wrote: ↑25 August 2020, 21:34 How exactly does that work... As a premium member they need to do exactly what you ask?

no-face wrote: ↑25 August 2020, 21:54 having some possibility to create a ticket which would have a priority would be nice.

The 'suggestions' section in the bugs section is a ticketing system of sorts. It is maintained by BGA staff.
https://boardgamearena.com/bugs

But it's accessible to all not just premium members.

I know about bugs section, I wrote several times in this tread that I did created couple of tickets there. I believe you are missing the keyword "priority" in my sentence about creating a ticket. I think this is what needed for premium users as well - some prioritization in bug solving and paying more attention to their suggestions. I honestly don't feel current bug system works fine with increased amount of users. that's it

RicardoRix wrote: ↑25 August 2020, 22:03

no-face wrote: ↑25 August 2020, 21:54 having some possibility to create a ticket which would have a priority would be nice.

The 'suggestions' section in the bugs section is a ticketing system of sorts. It is maintained by BGA staff.
https://boardgamearena.com/bugs

But it's accessible to all not just premium members.