Gary

moo moo moo moo

I didn't mean to kill the conversation - oops! :D

I've seen your deck and replied on it.

Hmm, not the "create new deck" option as I always want people to be able to use the site/tools for themselves for free, BUT... maybe the "make this deck public" or "ask for help (unloved)" features could be exchanged for "good guy internet points". Interesting idea.

Ah, great thank you for the explanation! I will keep the add card button thing in mind when I get there on the redesign. :)

Exactly what I'm thinking @ClockworkCopper. Push formats first and let the user filter/sort how they please after that, be it new, active, hot, unloved (help needed), etc.

This one caught my eye. When you say "there just isn't any incentive for someone like me to participate in this community", what do you mean? What sort of "incentive" do you normally look for to participate in a community? I would absolutely love to fix this, I just don't know how yet.

Until now this has been a hobby project that takes week nights and weekend days to run, that makes it REALLY hard to do big changes like redesigns and new features, BUT... BIG NEWS, as of October 1, I will have dedicated days during the week to work on the site and I intend to do just that. First, I am going to finish (yes, I started) working on a new mobile-friendly redesign and then we can start thinking about the big new features.

I don't like new & active, I don't like hot decks and I don't like unloved decks, I think they are in fact quite negative for anybody trying and failing to get there and I don't like that. I'm thinking of switching to a format-based split for the main pages. Thoughts?

I really like the idea of letting people ask for help with decks, this is what we *tried* to do with "unloved decks" but the problem is that too many people mark their decks as unloved. So you end up with this MASSIVE list of decks and still not enough people willing (or with the time) to help, so we end up with a second version of the homepage, with just as many decks not getting any love, which is a negative experience to the people trying to get, and ultimately not managing to get the help they're looking for.

Maybe we should only allow decks to be made public if they have proper descriptions. This could help the public listed content be better, but still allow people to just store their decks privately without descriptions if they want to.

100% agree. People want attention and they don't want to give it back. This has ALWAYS been the problem and I simply don't know how to fix it. So instead I'm going to focus on the tooling wer offer for deck builders and collectors. Keep the social stuff in there, but try and reduce its importance/value.

Welcome aboard! :)

Thank you. We're not going anywhere! :)

Absolutely. We've seen it over and over again. People want feedback/attention of their decks but are unwilling to provide that feedback/attention to others. This is ultimately the fault of the tool we've built here and I will be looking to fix that over the coming months.

We tried to make the site work like Reddit, requiring a combination upvotes and comments to get to the magical homepage. I feel like this has given everybody a false sense of "Oh, I'll post my deck, get to the homepage and get feedback", but unfortunately, for most people, that simply doesn't happen because, well... we're not Reddit!

I absolutely built the site originally to do just that, keep track of my decks and allow me to share lists with people. The idea of getting other people to help build was well intentioned, but ultimately failed because there are so many more decks being made every day than there are people willing to comment/help on them. I don't like the negative impact this has on people.

I totally understand that it can be disheartening when you post a get and get no feedback, but I don't believe there is an easy fix for that, instead we need to make the tools better and not have people wanting/needing this magical feedback that will, more than likely, never come.

Thanks very much for posting this. I'm Gary, I built and own mtgvault and when I see decks like this, it gives me a small glimmer of hope and inspiration going forwards. I loved reading through this thread, learning thoughts on what is good, what is bad and what it totally broken and NEEDS to be fixed.

I know that I have neglected this place in the last few years and I'm sorry for that, life (and lack of spare time) has a way of... getting in the way of hobby projects like this and ultimately the site suffers as a result, BUT... I have good news!

I have renegotiated my work contract, and starting October 1, I I will have dedicated days every week to work on this site and our Vault X gaming supplies & accesories business. Changes are coming, a redesign is coming, mobile-friendly is coming. I want to get rid of that negative feeling of posting a deck and not having anybody reply, honestly I'm not entirely sure how to do that yet, but I think that focusing on the tools available to deck builders and collectors alike and not making people feel like they need to get to the homepage would be a good place to start.

Hey, this is a great write-up, thanks a lot for taking the time to write it! :)

Haha, check out Ian bigging himself up. :D

Hi, I don't get as much spare time as I would like to work on the site, but I am still here and I am listening!