#11 - July 29, 2010, 9:21 p.m.
If a troll comes into a thread trying to get it derailed and locked it's usually pretty transparent and we can just deal with that person.
In the class forums, we sometimes lock threads that have gotten overly whiny. These are the threads that go on for pages asking why they haven't gotten a blue response or why the developers are so out of touch with the changes that the poster advocates. I used to post in these explaining why we would lock them, but that usually just lead to "We finally got a blue response, and it wasn't even on topic." So now we just lock them.
We read all the posts, even the ones I would qualify as garbage, so you don't have to worry that your feedback somehow got lost because a couple of hot heads later turned the thread into their own private argument and got it locked.
We will also lock threads that are off-topic. We're fairly tolerant of the occasional off-topic discussion, but if say we see lots of threads on say MMR or Arena map design or how Dungeon Finder queues are long, then we lock those to make an example that they aren't appropriate topics for the class role forums.
If you are making a post, my suggestions for having the best chances of getting that information taken seriously by a developer are as follows:
1) Be brief. You don't need to make your text so brief that nobody will understand the topic, but it's just a fact of life that long text tends to turn people off.
2) Focus. It's much easier for us to consider an idea, or even respond to it, if you try and distill down the fundamental issues. Something like "Warriors lack proper defensive cooldowns in PvP" (with some detail obviously) is more valuable than what I often call "the manifesto" where you go on for pages listing all the nitpicks you have with the class to the extent that what you're really doing is designing a new class and asking us to implement it.
3) Don't argue. This is a tricky one. Players will often disagree with your ideas, which we view as a healthy thing. Try and debate things rationally. Don't stoop to insulting their posting avatar because you disagree with their point of view. Try and debate with someone the way you would with a coworker with whom you disagreed. Name-calling etc. is just juvenile and doesn't do anything to make your point stronger.
4) Don't self bump. If someone doesn't think your post is interesting or worthy of comment, there might very well be a reason for that.
5) Don't fist bump. This is what I call the reply that does nothing but agree with a previous post (often a manifesto) without adding anything yourself. This seems to be particularly common when the response is something like "I've never seen another player who really gets warriors so well. Blizzard, hire this person." Then we go and read the post to which they are referring and essentially see "Warriors are underpowered, please buff." If you see a particularly well-reasoned point or a new idea, by all means, feel free to compliment that player on it. But once a thread turns into pages of "I agree," then you're just adding pages onto a thread.
6) Don't worry about us. If you make a post, we'll read it. If you make an excellent post, then chances are good that we will discuss it. That's the end of the cycle. You don't need us to come back and tell you what we thought of your idea. You don't need us to share our vision of the class with you. You certainly don't need to turn the entire forum into a discussion of how Blizzard designs (or how we don't design the way you would design.) This system works best when most of the communication comes from you guys.
