*looks at forum title and hopes she can avoid being flamed for providing feedback*

I've had Meeroos since open beta. I used to post quite often in the forums, mostly about breeding techniques, but I got tired of being ridiculed by a few people, so I don't post much very often.

I do, however, participate in the WWOM chat group. What I saw the last couple of days was this: I saw people upset over NOT the stones, NOT the puzzles, NOT the Meeroos, but at the lack of communication by Malevay as to the requirement (or non-requirement) of having Dryads in order for the stones to work, BUT there were still mods in the chat group telling customers that they needed to have the Dryads in order for the stones to work.

Yes, Catherine has since posted a blog explaining why the need for the Dryads' presence was discontinued. I'm not here to talk about her post, I'm here to state in my opinion what happens in the chat group and what my complaint was yesterday.

For one thing, a chat group is not a closed group - there are constantly people entering and leaving the chat. So of course the same issue will be stated by different people over and over and over again. The drama starts when someone who has been sitting in the chat group for hours on end is sick of hearing the same "whining" over and over and over again. Well, to the people who are just coming into the chat, it IS a new topic.

Also, too many people in that group seem to consider themselves moderators and are constantly telling people to shut up or otherwise giving "instructions" that are best left to official moderators. Sure, it's one thing to remind an ad-spammer that ads are not allowed in the group - that's one of those rules. It's quite another to tell a person to "shut the hell up" simply because YOU have been sitting there for two hours hearing the same thing over and over. If you're at a point where you're saying "shut the hell up" then maybe it's time for you to take a break from the chat...

Malevay is a business, and every business has times when customers become unhappy and share their experiences with others. Why is this such a crime in that group? Anytime I see a discussion start where someone has a complaint, it quickly turns into a battle of the "Malevay can do no wrong" group with the "whiners" and 80% of the time, I see the first group gang up on the second group, hurling names and insults like crazy.

I am not a mean person. I make it a point to NOT be a mean person. I was bullied as a child and it's sort of a campaign of mine to avoid doing so at all costs. Last night, I was accused by someone on a soapbox of being a bully. When I asked them to show me where I had bullied anyone, they ignored me.

At that point, I just sat back and watched the chat, and what I saw simply amazed me. I saw some people trying to have a conversation, and others just viciously attacking people. The ones who were just attacking were not even taking the time to read what anyone was saying, they were merely attacking, and ironically enough, the majority of those making the nasty attacks were supporters of Malevay and even more ironically, they were accusing everyone else of being the ones attacking.

So my issue with the chat group is that I think it needs moderation. I know there are moderators, and in fact, there was a moderator online at the time I was in there; but those moderators do not moderate much. I have seen the occasional "enough" or "let's be nice" from them, but yesterday was simply ridiculous.

The chat group fiasco leads me into my feedback about communication. Despite people trying to explain what the complaint was in the chat group, people just were not listening. So here is what the complaint was (and wasn't).

The complaint was NOT about the singing stones (those were great! I enjoyed the puzzle, the gift was cute:).

The complaint was not about the puzzles or lore of the game (those are great!).

The complaint was not about who bought how many Dryads and spent how much L$ (for the record, I bought a LOT...that was MY choice...and I'm fine with it).

The complaint WAS about the lack of communication by Malevay...and not even just regarding the stones. Poor communication has been an issue from the start, even during open beta. I understand that the need for Dryads became a problem while they were trying to release the stones...a notecard would have taken someone just a few seconds to write and could have said the same thing Catherine's blog post said - something like "we're sorry for any confusion, but this is why Dryads are now not required." Sure, a lot of people would not have read it, but that's the customer's fault not the company's at that point.

I remember just a few short months ago what an uproar was caused by confusion over the Mee-Pet option...I also remember that despite numerous complaints by numerous people, it still took weeks for a simple "this option is not yet available" note to be added to the FAQ on this website. Well, you know what? If you go look at that same FAQ page and scroll down to the explanation of the Mee-Pet option...that little note ("this option is not yet available") is still there...even though the honeydipper's been out for how long now? This is an example of poor communication.

There was another post not long ago indicating that Catherine should not be the one answering all the questions. I have to agree with that. I understand why she wants to, but I also think it's too huge of an undertaking, especially with all the other stuff that I'm sure MS needs to have done. You can't answer all the questions everyone has. But what you should do is make sure that all the people who work for you, whether paid members of your team or volunteers, are on the same page with you. If the Dryad requirement was pulled, everyone on the Malevay team should have been notified, because there were still CSR's in the chat group telling people they were needed.

If people are threatening the MS team, those people should be AR'd or legal action should be brought against them, but people complaining about something in a chat group should not be considered hate speech. I'm not saying that's what the blog post says, but being in the chat group at the time the blog came out, there was a lot of "There, crybabies - you happy now? You've ruined the game for us all!" from the very people who were accusing us of being whiners.

I love my Meeroos. I think Malevay has created a wonderful product. However, I think their poor communication has led me to not have a whole lot of confidence in them. Every time I read a product update, I won't know whether it's accurate or not now. That's not my fault, nor is it the fault of other Meeroos customers; it's because there has been so much miscommunication in the past that I just don't know what to believe anymore.

After being called a bully and being accused of saying things I never said yesterday, I finally walked away from the chat group. I'm tired of seeing people being told to "shut the hell up" or "stop whining." I've never done another breedable in SL - mostly because of things like this I'd heard about them - but when I heard that Malevay was striving to be something different than all the other breedables, I piqued my interest. Not so much now:(

TL;DR: Chat group needs moderation; Malevay needs to improve communication and make sure everyone's on the same page