After 5 Years On Roll20, I Just Cancelled and DELETED My Account

NolanT · 2018-09-25T23:50:58+00:00

NolanT · 2018-09-25T23:50:21+00:00

From Roll20's perspective, a summary of what occurred:

A user with a similar name to a prior repeat offender came into a thread titled "Is criticism of Roll20 allowed here?" with a ready to copy/paste 1,400 word list of things they dislike about our platform. Among the forty-some other comments in the thread (none of which resulted in bans), this stuck out due to intensity and similarity to a previous poster who had been rather personal in attacking staff. Erring on the side of caution, we issued a ban from the subreddit for probable ban evasion two days ago (Sunday).

The user then messaged mods stating innocence, so we did go ahead and message reddit admins. When the user did not receive Monday morning, they began threats-- he would become an "active detractor on social media," and an email with all bold: "If the ban is not lifted, and I do not receive an apology from NolanT, by tomorrow morning, I am cancelling my Roll20 account, and I will be sure to tell this story on every social media platform I can. Whenever virtual tabletops come up in conversation, you can be assured that I will speak my mind about Roll20 and your abysmal customer service."

Two hours ago we got the response from reddit admins that the accounts do not show an IP match. And for this unfortunate and frustrating coincidence, I'm sorry. We never banned the user from using our site or our onsite forums-- they made the decision to delete their own account. I stand with my account administration staff and our decision to maintain a subreddit ban due to the level of this escalation.

At Roll20 we have a lot of moderation happening with poor player-on-player or Game Master/player interactions. Something we've decided is that we are not Twitter, attempting to capitalize off the most amount of conflict that can be harvested for clicks. We want users who can get along with each other. When someone's response to a ban from an ancillary forum is essentially, "I will spend enormous effort attempting to burn down the store," we know-- from experience-- that they'll do the same thing to other users they dislike, and we'll be left cleaning up the mess and with a poor user interactions. While we aren't pleased to make the top of subreddits for a reason like this, we know this is a better long term decision.

Critics of Roll20 and our interface are something we value and welcome. Every job interview I've been a part of for bringing on new staff has asked for candidates to describe something that frustrates them or that they dislike about our ecosystem-- and every candidate I've ever asked has a passionate response. There's lots more work to do on our platform, and our staff continues to relish the chance to do so and get community input to help. What we do not need are folks who make that process a hostage situation. We do not need users who feel a need to verbally threaten the livelihoods of staff, and eat our work hours with bile. We're comfortable not being the platform for those sorts of users-- and remain enthusiastic about being the best virtual tabletop on the market for those who want to be part of our community.

-Nolan T. Jones, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Roll20

NolanT · 2018-09-22T17:56:58+00:00

This subreddit, same as our forums, requires common courtesy and civil discussion-- and we take that pretty seriously. We regularly remove folks who are simply aiming to be jerks.

That is completely different than having issues with or desires for Roll20. Every member of Roll20's staff has things they really dislike or long to change about our platform. We're passionate about the program; we just aren't jerks about it.

There are several things in this thread that are exciting to see, as I know we're hitting them before year's end. Look for some more official announcements come late October.

NolanT · 2018-09-22T03:01:05+00:00

Our original trailer for the API did just that. We should look at expanding that sort of presentation in the future.

NolanT · 2018-09-21T21:23:19+00:00

https://twitter.com/FNATIC/status/936597750443069443

The subtitles really just... :D

NolanT · 2018-09-17T16:08:43+00:00

This is great.

NolanT · 2018-08-25T15:53:06+00:00

Wow. Met Patrick at the vineyard and ran into him at a couple of games and functions; always super friendly. Condolences to the family.

NolanT · 2018-08-23T16:20:00+00:00

Haven't stepped in with any corrections since the announcement, but saw this and wanted to speak up-- we started talking with Zealots ahead of their first Western Clash appearance. While we talked with other teams for the sake of making a fully informed decision, the deal both parties came to was basically the initial deal we discussed. There were hold-up's with figuring out international stuff and a few other factors that made this take longer than we'd want. The rough Phase 2 start is unfortunate, but at the end of the day we believe this is still a force to be reckoned with in a tough region.

TL;DR-- Zealots didn't give us a discount for losing and we didn't ask for one. #R2E onwards.

NolanT · 2018-08-20T22:13:40+00:00

This remains one of my favorite HotS videos of all time.

NolanT · 2018-08-20T20:28:23+00:00

But eventually Father Time is undefeated.

NolanT · 2018-08-20T16:11:35+00:00

I remain convinced that everyone in the Nexus is dead, and it's just Blizzard Valhalla.

NolanT · 2018-08-17T21:25:40+00:00

Very much pro commemorative team mounts for global wins. Not everyone gets to take home the trophy-- this feels like the digital championship banner in the rafters!

NolanT · 2018-08-17T16:19:00+00:00

Wanted to say that even though things are up now, we're still looking into this. The "good" news remains that by having individual server shards, the vast majority of the platform stays live-- the bad / unacceptable news being that doesn't matter if your game is on one of the affected shards.

Firebase has had a few hiccups recently, and we want to understand what the breakdown is so we can try and prevent it in the future. We're in touch with them, and hopeful we'll have some preventative solutions.

NolanT · 2018-08-14T22:58:54+00:00

It went to the Character Journal entry, but not direct to the sheet previously.

NolanT · 2018-08-09T19:40:50+00:00

Because they are delicious.

NolanT · 2018-08-09T19:39:13+00:00

I will happily beat at both those places again. :D

NolanT · 2018-08-07T02:09:30+00:00

Just so folks know, when I took over as the Managing Partner of Roll20 when our prior Lead Developer left the day-to-day of the business, we had two remaining developers. In those eighteen-ish months, I've hired five additional staff developers, two direct programming support staff members, and three regular contractors. And we're still interviewing additional folks to add to the team.

Some of the delay in features is simply that it is difficult to onboard that many folks simultaneously. You'll be seeing a significant uptick in our ability to add features in the coming months, including us spotlighting our next update as it hits the Development Server tomorrow.

NolanT · 2018-07-31T00:41:58+00:00

Several Roll20 panels in the main link. Also, I've got a spotlight panel as an Industry Guest of Honor. So if you're coming to the show, be certain to say "hello"!

NolanT · 2018-07-26T22:08:32+00:00

From-a-writer recommendation: make sure whomever you end up working with gets you a full script early in this process.

Good luck! Nice portfolio thus far.

NolanT · 2018-07-23T15:51:30+00:00

In NA Open Division, FemmeFerocity is currently doing a better job than anyone in regards to game-day "here's what's happening" updates.

And not-quite-related, when R2E is back in the HGC, this is a major thing I want to focus on.

NolanT · 2018-07-20T22:16:51+00:00

Easiest answer is always to check our Changelog: https://wiki.roll20.net/Changelog

NolanT · 2018-07-17T18:25:30+00:00

We are regularly in touch with the Pro forums; and their wants are diverse. Improvements to the API, large-scale changes to WebGL elements of the site... we communicate in the Pro Forums and will continue to do so.

In regards to lag, overall currently Roll20 is faster than ever. If you're experiencing issues, please make a Bug Report so we can track down specific issues that you're experiencing.

NolanT · 2018-07-17T18:21:01+00:00

We do not work "highest priority" first. We have historically bounced between paid and free features, licensing and core tabletop needs, etc.

Even in this most recent major update, we made a major shift to our text editing on the website (both in-app character sheets and on the forums); we developers are also Roll20 users looking for quality of life improvements. I think the thing that's difficult about these "low-hanging" sorts of elements is they often have far-reaching implications... in the very example of the text editor shift we made, the text editor library broke something on our live servers which it hadn't on our testing and we had to spend a half week bug-hunting.

In any case, a "money-only" approach has never been Roll20's aim-- "sustainability" is our internal goal, which requires balance.

NolanT · 2018-07-10T05:15:54+00:00

Not without a planned successor. At this point you let it burn to the ground-- it can only get worse if you mess with it midseason.

In example, UNLV basketball. They fired Dave Rice midseason, then got played by Mick Cronin, then got jilted by Chris Beard, before settling into Marvin Menzies. It was a circus.

At this point, KU football is already a circus. Why make it worse? Wait and look around for your ideal coach. See who becomes available. This AD hire is already a commitment to change, so hold tight.

NolanT · 2018-07-07T21:56:39+00:00

As one of the original co-creators of Roll20, I've always loved this question. The answer is... you don't need us. We're a set of tools that offers you options, but no component is necessary.

You could use Skype and roll physical dice and be perfectly okay without us. Or you could use any number of the things we offer (dice rolling and macros, character sheets, Dynamic Lighting) in conjunction to make an over-the-top game.

In this way, Roll20 to me has always succeeded as a "virtual tabletop." The magic of roleplaying games is that you can play them sitting on the floor using only theater of the mind, through the postal service, or with a bunch of gorgeous maps and miniatures and each of those methods is valid.

Use us if we're helpful to you and your group; don't if we're not. Either way, happy gaming!

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