Bungie, I understand you hate everyone here and are taking revenge for years of bitter and toxic complaints about Destiny (though most are fairly warranted) but this forum has been stagnant for almost 10 years. Nothing has changed outside of the promotional materials you splash all over the front page, advertisements for user research, and some really vague rules in the Code of Conduct. A 30 year legacy and you can't even update the format? I joked about wondering when the Marathon forum was going up; but honestly, it would be great to just see something other than this same old tired website. Grievances for this format are many but I'm going to outline a few just to show what I've learned from people I've talked to along with my own thoughts 1. The upvote/downvote system- big mistake implementing this back in the day imo; why were you trying to look more like reddit? If threads receiving engagement is what drove the top of Trending, why did you adding a second algorithm to overrule that one. Do you want to know why the folks in Offtopic call #D2 the Salt mine? Because; only your saltiest users get attention, and they are the ones using b.net like reddit. You used to have to pin twab announcements, because they'd get so many downvotes they would have fallen off the front page, the day it was posted. [i]As an aside: barely see pinned posts from the community managers anymore. If I was your community manager I'd hate the job.[/i] 2. Name change restrictions- Yea ok, queue the crying; I get why you did it- we silly ones got a little carried away with changing our names every 5 days, but seriously, you stuck countless players with a generic GuardianXXXXX name and it blows. If they entered something inappropriate, that's on them. If your systems, (that are perfect, and never break, and never wet the bed, and nevers;ldkgfngqv ERROR CODE: SQUIRREL) screwed up; foreshame. Bungie took on this attitude of customer service nightmare years back and it shows, just try looking for a way to contact them (bet you can't) Here's an Idea Bungie: charge money. 1 free name change and then after that- you gotta cough up 5 bucks, you already charge for the dang dungeon keys, why not the ability to change your name. 3. Moderation- [i]It's totally inconsistent[/i] Love and respect to the Ninja's; they do their darndest. But the Code of Conduct is (seemingly) [i]intentionally[/i] nebulous, and often times users get [redacted] for reasons that do not align with the offense. For example: criticizing Bungie's games or dumping on Marathon being a [redacted] rip off and cash grab of old Bungie's excellent IP that began in 1994, is not Forum Disruption. Forum disruption would be a flame war breaking out after the fact, and that happens all the time in #D2 over [i]Fusion Rifles[/i] or [i]PvP balancing[/i] don't often see those comments disappearing. 4. Most users here respect Trans/LGBT, and it would be truly Bold- if, along with Pride month, we could have some acknowledgement of Men's Mental Health Month. [b]I see you Ninja's[/b] I can sense your fingers hovering over the Ban button for this, but please hear me out. [i]This whole argument is going to get a bad rap because of the small element of bigotry that is loud and still here.[/i] When we are excluded, we begin to resent; all folks who are lgbt know this, and know what that's like. Ignoring other things, while paying special attention to Pride does not bring us together as people, it further divides us and further militarizes our mindset, (us being all humans not just lgbt not just their opposition) advertising your inclusivity to the world is good, but ignoring what came before is a short-sighted practice. You have community managers who could do these things; work to bring the community back together; but for some reason they don't. I can only think of two reasons and I wish they were more flattering... Either [i]A.) they're afraid to[/i], or [i]B.) they don't care[/i]. We need more than ever something to bring us together, not something that drives us apart. Pride deserves its place, rightfully, but throwing a bone to the rest of us schlubs would be nice, and it would show us that it's not just about commercializing a movement for your own gain. It would be as simple as keeping a calendar and just making a post once in a while. No need for a pin or a special in game banner, just a "hey; we see you, too" a little goes a long way. 5. Bring back Titles; what the heck were you thinking getting rid of those? Ok- so Halo is over, big whoop, where are the Destiny Forum Titles? Achronos- why? [i]Queue the trolls who are about to break this down for me like I'm an idiot [/i] 10 years ago you sucked all of the fun out; why? I know the old users are looking at this one and rolling their eyes like "Speaker, we've been asking for this for years, why are you just now doing this" because- Bungie, you're trying to launch a new IP and there's some serious room for improvement in the way you reward your community- you have die-hard fans, and even though they won't come out and say all this, they deserve way better than what you're giving them- Not me; I'm a butt-head. 6. Interact with us more, block the jerk bags and talk to the community. The separation needs to be repaired somehow, corporate Bungie is proving to be everything that Halo era Bungie was quoted as saying they never wanted to be. One way to fix that is come back to us, remove this barrier between us, ignore the hate, and talk to the folks who do love your games, more. Community Managers are great, but this community was built on the interaction of developers and fans. [i]And that's all I have to say about that... [/i] -Forrest Gump