Latest Blog update: 05/12
Latest News post: 05/11
Latest Monster added: 05/17
Today's Date: 05/30
Unless I'm not looking in the right area, how is this creatureDAILY.com?
You see, they're on a planet where the days are longer.
...man coming up with a new monster each day is tough...
The funny thing is, I personally thought the idea of Xdaily.com was a bit optimistic. Meaning, the reality of pushing out an actual, decently built monster, including art, EVERY DAY, was going to become too much. I'm hoping there's just a glitch in the system or something and that there are actually about 13 monsters backed up in the queue but I'm skeptical. If it ends up being the case that actually getting 28+ new monsters every month just isn't really going to happen I suppose I'll be looking for a refund on the remainder of my subscription term.
Again though, I'm just hoping I'm wrong and that there are temporary technical issues holding things up and not the greater issue of "it's just really not going to happen"-type issues.
So what you're saying is I shouldn't be signing up for this website because I'm not actually getting my money's worth? Maybe there is a punctuation missing problem. Maybe the name of the website is actually Creatured (as in you've been turned into a creature) Ail (as in the root word for ailment, which is a sickness) Y (text speak for the word "why"). Not sure exactly how that works out, but if I think about it for awhile I'm sure I can come up with something.
So what you're saying is I shouldn't be signing up for this website because I'm not actually getting my money's worth? Maybe there is a punctuation missing problem. Maybe the name of the website is actually Creatured (as in you've been turned into a creature) Ail (as in the root word for ailment, which is a sickness) Y (text speak for the word "why"). Not sure exactly how that works out, but if I think about it for awhile I'm sure I can come up with something.
Heh. Well right now I'm not advising anything. All I'm saying is that I personally haven't seen (or can't find) any monsters added in about the last 2 weeks (placing us about 10-14 monsters behind at this point.)
Perhaps I am just not looking in the right area (seems unlikely) or perhaps they're having technical issues (possible but seems unlikely) or possibly, they're just not able to keep up the pace of a new monster every day (which to me seems the most likely answer.)
Edit Also, I replied to MendedWall12's post but for some reason it's not appearing in the thread. Not sure what's up with that.
Edit Also, I replied to MendedWall12's post but for some reason it's not appearing in the thread. Not sure what's up with that.
It was most likely deleted (not sure if by the poster or Paizo staff).
It certainly wasn't by me. O.o
Back on May 11th someone asked on their forum what was going on and there was an answer that breaks down to "labour-intensive technical problems, you should see new creatures later today". No further feedback.
So I dunno.
I failed to get hooked when the first themed month was clockwork creatures, which is about as niche as it gets.
We are having problems with the system on the site, and the host company out of australia has not been very helpful.
They updated their system for how memberships work and some other back end items involving auto-updates, which caused problems with memberships being cancelled earlier this month and then having to be renewed again.
In all honesty, if we can't get this fixed (which it has been trying to since about the 17th) we are just going to close the site and refund.
Creatures are all done for the month, but might end up just seeing a pdf release if we can't get these issues worked out.
I do love the fact, instead of emailing us, sending a message on here, FB or any other means you could to contact us and just ask - making a public post about the issue and then questioning what we are doing and the reason for delays was the best option for you.
I handle all the art and the website, and I wouldn't of had any problem telling you the issues and what the delays have been caused by, and the headache of fixing them has been.
I had hoped to hear news from the host company today so I could send out a newsletter and inform everyone.
And we are not behind on creating a monster or art- we are always a month a head of schedule. . . because we are not stupid.
I do love the fact, instead of emailing us, sending a message on here,
I'm supposed to remember your Paizo ID's or go dig for them to find them?
FB
I'm at work and my employer blocks Facebook. I probably would have forgotten all about this by the time I get home tonight when I would have FB access.
...or any other means you could to contact us and just ask - making a public post about the issue and then questioning what we are doing and the reason for delays was the best option for you.
Well it certainly was the easiest. Sorry if how I asked bothers you but as a paying customer, I didn't know I had to do anything in any particular way other than to pay you to provide me what I paid for.
I don't think the customer should have to bend over backwards to try to find out where the product they paid for is. I'm of the opinion that you guys should have already posted here and any and everywhere else you think your customers might visit, a note profusely apologizing for the issues and regularly (not like every 2 weeks regularly) updating us.
I wouldn't of had any problem telling you the issues and what the delays have been caused by, and the headache of fixing them has been.
Umm, no offense, but... that's not really my problem.
And we are not behind on creating a monster or art- we are always a month a head of schedule. . . because we are not stupid.
I don't think I said anyone was stupid did I?
In jreyst's defense, he did say he hoped it was just technical stuff. Which it apparently turns out that it is. I don't think he started the thread to be malicious (I've never noticed him to be the malicious type), just as a way to see if anybody in the community knew something he didn't. Now that we all know what it is that's causing the hold up, I'm sure the community will be very forgiving of the technical problems, and the exposure may actually garner you more subscribers. :D
Edit: Ninja'd by the man himself.
You don't have to do anything a particular way, it bothers me that posting publicly and hinting at various reasons you "think" might be the problem was easier then just asking us. And I'm sorry if emailing us to ask is bending over backwards for you - compared to making forum posts.
We haven't announced anything or sent messages to anyone about the site because we are still trying to work something out with the host company. We didn't want to discuss it until we hard firm responses from the host. Which would determine our next step, which would be to continue with the site (if the host manages to repair the site issues) or cancel the site if they cannot.
I'm sorry for being abrasive, the situation has been frustrating and we've been working hard to fix it (which is not really your problem). I just find this to be an odd approach to get answers for your question, and find it bothersome that assumptions are made on our ability to deliver content wise when dealing with technical problems beyond our control.
The sad fact is that I'm on the Paizo boards all day, virtually every day. As there are a ton of other users on here who are probably also customers of creaturedaily.com, AND as many other publishers post here frequently, it didn't seem out of line to post something here. I figured I'd get information pretty quickly here.
I think a note on the front page of creaturedaily.com or a post every few days in the creaturedaily.com forums or a post here saying something like...
"Hey! Yeah, we know we're behind, but really, it's technical issues and we're working to get them resolved as fast as possible, please bear with us!"
...wouldn't have been too much to ask. Would have sure prevented this if when I went to log into creaturedaily.com today I saw a note on the main page, or something popped up as soon as I logged in alerting me to the issues.
fair enough, creaturedaily.com has been updated with the most recent information I have on delays.
Ok I just checked the site. I thought you guys were going to give it a bit longer before calling it quits? Why'd you decide to go ahead and do it now?
Now that we all know what it is that's causing the hold up, I'm sure the community will be very forgiving of the technical problems, and the exposure may actually garner you more subscribers. :D
Or not... Hard to get new subscribers now that you've shut it down.
Also, I kind of agree with ShadowcatX.
Honestly, because we can't resolve the issues with the host, and they have not been stellar on getting back with us to fix anything. I would rather close the site down then continue to drag on with delays. It's not fair to our members, and I honestly can't report if/when the site will be fixed.
The issues with the membership renewal at the start of this month (caused by the host company) cost us a large faction of our members not signing back up. Since then, membership sign-up has been low. We figured we could continue building up membership, but with all the additional problems the site is having, we can't even confidently advertise the site for new membership.
Additionally, both our pdf and paper mini sales have surpassed membership sales by double. Meaning, it's more profitable at this time to sell those items, then to offer membership to the site (even if the site membership is a lot cheaper)
Right now, the majority of our members consist of other 3rd party publishers, not gamers.
Bottom line, as much as we had high hopes for the site, we can't weather the time needed to build a strong membership with continuous difficulties with the site (which we pay for monthly ourselves) and we are offering a diservice to our members by not being able to deliver the content we promised, content that is more profitable for us to release at the moment in other forms.
I do love the fact, instead of emailing us, sending a message on here, FB or any other means you could to contact us and just ask - making a public post about the issue and then questioning what we are doing and the reason for delays was the best option for you.IMO if you can't fulfill your part of the bargain, for any reason, you should contact your customers. Not expect them to contact you. And certainly not publicly complain that they chose to contact you in a way that you do not approve of. Customer service epic fail.
Customers knew we were having difficulties with the site, it was posted on our private forums and discussed in a newsletter that was sent out.
No further updates were given because we didn't have concrete information on what we could do or was being done with our host.
But as always, thanks for your opinion ShadowcatX
well, they know now, thanks for the lesson. We will strive to work harder on dealing with issues involving our customers in the future and try not epically fail again.
Oh, so sorry to hear this, Rick! I was hoping for the best for you guys. Still, it sounds like you've got plenty of things in the pipeline.
FYI I am a subscriber and am not a 3PP but a gamer. I would welcome a return to having the site back up on another hosting company. As far as customer service goes, I would much rather have the company wait until they had concrete information than to pass out speculation or guesses.
Just my 2 cp.
jreyst - Sorry for coming at you earlier and making a big deal about all this. It's just been very frustrating and costly on our end trying to fix the site. I wasn't trying to leave anyone in the cold about the site, just waiting for more details. Again, sorry for being aggressive in my responses.
ShadowcatX - truce. I agree with you, under the circumstances, I wanted a hard decision to offer the members, not speculation. In an industry where I see years go by before some companies offer explanations, refunds, updates. I didn't think 2 weeks to have solid info was pushing it.
ChristinaStiles - thanks, and we do. Hopefully we can get some other projects finished up and out while we figure out what, if anything, we can do about the site.
silverhair2008 - thanks, that's how we felt about it. I didn't want to say for sure what was going to happen until I had concrete info. I really didn't want to lead people on if we were going to have to close anyways.
We are going to continue to look for ways to make the site run on a different host, be maintained more efficiently, and reach a larger membership base, but it's most likely going to take time.
Guys, this sucks. Am sorry to see you close the doors this early, but I understand the decision. I am both a gamer, and work with a 3PP publisher, and will miss you on both fronts. Hopefully you still intend to release PDF's compilations to at least release what you have already put together.
If you decide to fire it back up and open the doors, I, as a customer, will not hesitate to resubscribe.
As a suggestion you might want to check out SubHub for your service. It is the same company that Malhavoc Games & Super Genius Games used for DungeonADay.com. They might be exactly what you are looking for. Hope this helps.
Hey there guys over at Creature Daily!
I know you have already shut down, but if you need ANY assistance or advice I have a good amount of experience under my belt running websites and managing secure membership software.
Please feel free to contact me anytime should you need help or advice.
-Jonathan
Adventureaweek.com