Disappointed in Strat...

As much as I really like this game (use to love it) Strat makes it more difficult every day...I sent an email yesterday letting them know I would really like to buy some teams but was reluctant to do so since I was hacked twice (no word back but maybe they will respond).

I remember Garcia's blog that use to advise us of the 5 winners of monthly lottery. Last one on Feb 2nd 2018...just stopped with no warning

I remember the timeliness of new card additions. Not sure if they were ever timely

I remember the monthly challenges...last in November.

My biggest disappointment is of not communicating...They just don't seem to really care.

Am I wrong...should I just sit on the sidelines and not complain? Well I am not sure...but until I get a warm fuzzy on this credit card fiasco...I am on hold buying anymore credits

That they do not care is evident with the half efforts and the dismal CC fiasco. They are content to let a computer program run that brings in what the loyal aging following provides. There is not enough money made to worry about this system, it is an pocketbook extraction mechanism for older baseball fans.

Maybe we can start a Go Fund Me page or something similar,

and we, the community, can buy it from Hal.

Hello,

I hear you DrFreeze. SOM is certainly not like other companies that we are use to dealing with. Whether its business acumen, apathy, wind down phase (just let it run its course), infighting over direction, lack of resources to address issues, tied down by technology debt, focus shifting away from digital, or some combination of them, it certainly appears something is wrong at SOM. I am have great empathy for small business (I was in one for 20y) and that constraints and missteps occur. But in this case, it feels different. A long lag after disclosure lead to the optics of hiding something and the void of communication in any follow up of what they have done to address can easily lead to speculation or assumptions from its customers. It's very hard to control the messaging that you want customer to hear if you put up this wall in front of them. When you have a security issue, you disclose, outline your plan to prevent and what remedies actions will occur and followup with progress on what you committed too. Restoring trust is extremely difficult but doable. A phase of 'immediately took steps to stop any further abuse' just doesn't cut it.

I am retiring in about 2 weeks - lots of free time ahead of me and was really considering volunteering my programming skills to help with the site but I don't get a warm fuzzy feeling about SOM that the time would be effective. So little momentum on their end to move things forward. They are sitting on a national treasure (a bit overboard here but there is some truth in that) and it feels like they are running out the clock or just going through the motions without any plan. I only say this as their was the post of about a go-fund-me campaign - would any dollar raised move the needle in the right direction if you have no idea which direction leads you forward? hence why I am hesitant to contribute time.

I don't mean to poo-poo on SOM. I love baseball and really enjoying this game however you have to put up with a lot of noise (and brutally old tech) in the process of doing so. Again, in the absence of communication, it all to easy to fill in the gaps and walk away with ill feelings.

kev

Well said Kev

Maybe we can start a Go Fund Me page or something similar,

and we, the community, can buy it from Hal.

This would be the best option if it were available.
There are just so many things that require small amounts of effort that arent being made-
It ends up becoming a mountain when you let it pile up for years.

they could easily market this great game to the next generation.

Increase their profile by taking advantage of "celebrity" involvement. As we know many broadcaster and players embrace STRAT and sprinkle it into game action. Why not have a roving Strat reporter with their own YouTube channel? How about live coverage of a game and announce it in Strat terms? Acuna leads off for ATL. Swings at the first pitch and its a GBA to SS. Albies up next and he hits one off the handle for a popup off of the pitchers card. Etc.. etc.

Why won't we see this?

THEY HAVE A BS EXCUSE FOR EVERYTHING.(Covid/Holiday season/Short handed/The price of rice in China...etc)

This is like a bad episode of Bar Rescue or a Gordon Ramsey show.

We have recommendations to make the game better and at each turn, there is resistance.

they could easily market this great game to the next generation.

Increase their profile by taking advantage of "celebrity" involvement. As we know many broadcaster and players embrace STRAT and sprinkle it into game action. Why not have a roving Strat reporter with their own YouTube channel? How about live coverage of a game and announce it in Strat terms? Acuna leads off for ATL. Swings at the first pitch and its a GBA to SS. Albies up next and he hits one off the handle for a popup off of the pitchers card. Etc.. etc.

I too think think there are many opportunities to build the user base here. but if the underlying service is weak - those new people will not stay long. Its clear they are a small company and dealing with constraints. So this one will feel like a chicken and egg thing - new user could increase rev to help with investment or build it and they will come approach (love that movie) are both avenue but hard to say, from an outsider perspective, what SOM is dealing with on a day-to-day basis. So its hard to place criticism or judgement here.

If you scroll back to the 1st posts in this forum (2012), its funny seeing some of the same issues raised then as of today. They have not cracked the nut in how to deliver the service - let alone scale. My hunch, and it's just a guess, is that they are too stretched in the multiple avenues that budgets are in full maintenance mode vs growth efforts where redirecting funds or alerting the business model risks losing revenue further compounding the budget issue. Again, been in small business before and this dynamic is real - but it's only my guess.

In the mean time.... will keep buying credits and try to support this community!

I too have been running a small business for over 20 years.

My approach is to find out what people want, what is most important to them, and then try and deliver that.

That being said, when they do make small changes here and there, it seems to be what THEY want NOT what their customer base wants.
ie. Last year, I think, they came out with an Enemies Edition of Strat. Rivals teams playing against each other.

I never saw anyone asking for that.

The Titanic is sinking, but lets move the deck chairs around.

Another example... I asked years ago for a better search feature. Make it player based. It's a simple database query. Click on Mike Trout, and see what teams you used Trout on.

Members also like that idea.

What did Strat do?

Useless team graphs on the standings page. NOBODY asked for this.