What Poker Sites Need - Community Relations

[KingOtter]

I played EverQuest before I started playing online poker.

I was active in several online forums having to do with my character's classes, guild, etc.

One thing that was very evident in EverQuest is that Sony (who published EQ) was very aware of the online communities.

They had Community Relations Managers that would monitor the forums, and bring concerns and issues into the company. Many issues that could cause ill-will in the community could be addressed before they festered and turned into bad situations.

Why don't more poker sites have these? TruePokerCEO's presence here on 2+2 is an absolute boon to their reputation amongst our community. Party could benefit from having REAL issues taken around the pitiful customer support channel, and get addressed weeks before they start losing customers because of it.

I'm not saying that the Community Relations manager would actually change how the companies do anything, but wouldn't the community like to feel they have some sort of voice? And wouldn't it be nice to get real feedback from a company representative when they start sending out e-mails about banning accounts and seizing funds?

I don't understand why more poker sites don't follow TruePokerCEO's and other online services' example, and get more involved in the online communities.

Think of the issues that could be addressed right now, that it appears that Party has no clue about, or we haven't heard a definitive word from the company about:

- Customer support
- Datamining / observed tables HH
- Connectivity issues
- 'Cheating' programs
- Affiliates / Rakeback

KO

[Voltron87]

party doesnt give a [censored] about you guys and your complaints, you people just need to learn this and deal with them.

theyre going to change their ways when people stop playing at their site, not because you people complain.

[KingOtter]

[ QUOTE ]
party doesnt give a [censored] about you guys and your complaints, you people just need to learn this and deal with them.

theyre going to change their ways when people stop playing at their site, not because you people complain.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for exactly making my point, although my post wasn't only about Party. I think all the poker sites could benefit from it.

I just used the Party issues as an example because of the volume of people that experience the problems. And because I'm familiar with them because that's where I play the most.

KO

[Sciolist]

Lee Jones from PokerStars reads these forums, as do various members of staff under their aliases. You can generally get a reply to anything you want to discuss at their support address too, though I realise it isn't quite the same

[BruinEric]

You are correct.

The biggest sites won't see a measurable "payoff" by hiring a lifelong sales/marketing guy like me to do this so it is less likely for them.

However, the mid-sized sites could do this to stand out from the crowd and the just-starting-up sites could do this to improve the chances of their success.

I'm convinced sites like Absolute, Paradise, Full Tilt, UB, a Prima site, etc. would benefit from participating closely with online forums in answering questions, setting up private freerols, etc.

A person with this role would not have an easy task. Posting on RGP, 2+2, Cardplayer forums, etc. to be responsive to public complaints and to quickly resolve issues in high-profile places like this would be hard. On the one hand, its hard to please fanboys, and on the other, its hard to satisfy anonymous critics, often with an axe to grind.

You'll have posters write..."no matter how much you tell me, I won't believe your site isn't rigged becasue I lost 4 straight AAs there."

I honestly believe that when the TruePokerCEO posts here, that more players are willing to give the site a try.

A site like Absolute did some impressive support of MicroBob, but they've obviously made the decision (or don't have someone with the smooth tongue/keyboard to handle it) not to actively participate and respond to public complaints (people posting about hating the graphics, answering questions about deposit bonus rules, etc.)

I think we have a GamesGrid employee that participates here also.

In theory, this same person could be tasked with co-sponsoring tournaments in local cardrooms. This would also be a tough task because cardrooms often feel threatened by online poker and probably "benefit" from bantered about theories of online poker being rigged and from the couple of poker site shutdowns/ripoffs.