What do you want to talk to MGS staff about?

[tony@CIC]

10 hours ago, Kenny B said:

Yeah, I had just completed a reply to someone... hit Submit Reply and that was it.  When I could get back in, I had forgotten who I was replying to and what the topic was.  Still not sure if it made it or it went into the twilight zone.

They say the brain is the first thing to go as one ages........wait....... I think it's something else 

[Kenny B]

3 hours ago, tony@CIC said:

They say the brain is the first thing to go as one ages........wait....... I think it's something else 

What was the third thing to go?  I think I'm at that one!

[PMookie]

Sooooo do MGS HQ folks ever reply to the questions??? 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

3 hours ago, PMookie said:

Sooooo do MGS HQ folks ever reply to the questions??? 

By all the laughing emoji's, I think you have your answer.

[PMookie]

2 hours ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

By all the laughing emoji's, I think you have your answer.

Might as well close this thread… Total farce.

[mynerds]

At the risk of yelling into the void here, something I'd love clarity from MGS staff on in is the nature of the newsletter, new release posts, product reviews, and buying guides. Today's newsletter hyped up a putting training aid:

 

The phrasing of "we found one that actually works" and "It's addicting" made me expect a product review. I was happy to see Puttout in the title, as I've enjoyed using a Puttout set I built piecemeal based on unofficial and official forum reviews. I read commentary of the training aids and which were beneficial to each tester to select the aids which were right for me. I was excited to hear the staff perspective on the various aids, but was disappointed in that none seem to be present.

In fact, the post leaves me with more questions than answers:

• Why is this posted under new releases? None of the aids are new. I don't think any of the packages are new, but I suppose I could be mistaken.
• What information does this post provide that Phillip's review from April doesn't? Not only is no new information presented, there is a wealth of information from April that is just straight up missing from today's post.
• Why are only three of Puttout's five studio sets mentioned? Why exclude the Starter and Academy sets?
• Why is the "better" option the Pro set? Why is the Academy set, at $100 cheaper with the medium mat, training mirror, training gate, and pressure putt trainer not a sufficient middle ground? What benefit do two pressure putt trainers provide over one?
• Why on earth is the "best" option the tour set? I don't understand the benefit of multiple pressure putt trainers, and I certainly don't understand paying 3x the cost for the "platinum" pressure putt trainer.
• Why is the Travel set, which includes the Slim mat, the baseline recommendation? All of the Puttout mats were given poor to mediocre marks in the Best Indoor Putting Greens of 2020, 2021, and 2022, but the Slim was rated lowest of the Puttout mats and low overall in 2022 (16 out of 21):

To me and to many, the most important aspect of MGS is it's independent, unbiased, data-driven content. These values are reflected in three of the four MGS core beliefs. These values are not reflected when a newsletter seemingly endorses a product but points to a "New Release" article about products which are not new, which does not provide arguably any evaluation of the product and certainly not founded "in cold, hard data", which is duplicative to a recent product review, and is inconsistent with data-driven ratings across multi-year buying guides. Instead, it comes across as a pay-to-play product sponsorship, contrary to the stated mission of MGS.

I don't know if I'm making much ado about nothing, or if this is indicative of a new business model. MGS absolutely has the prerogative to do whatever they'd like. If this type of content is going to become the new norm though, I'll just go back to reading Golf and Golf Digest through my Apple News+ subscription. I have enough sources of paid product advertisements in my life already, I don't need another.

[russtopherb]

6 minutes ago, mynerds said:

I don't know if I'm making much ado about nothing, or if this is indicative of a new business model. MGS absolutely has the prerogative to do whatever they'd like. If this type of content is going to become the new norm though, I'll just go back to reading Golf and Golf Digest through my Apple News+ subscription. I have enough sources of paid product advertisements in my life already, I don't need another.

This is why I've unsubscribed from their emails and unfollowed them on Twitter. The whole "truth digest" thing and looking out for the average golfer seems to have gone by the wayside, IMHO. 

In fact, the forum is the only engagement I have with MGS as a whole nowadays. The only exception being articles from Barbajo, which are always incredible reads. Aside from those, though... the forum is the best part of MGS and the only part that I have any interest spending time with.

Nearly 6 pages in and nothing from MGS staff. Tells you all you need to know.

[Tarheelvolvo]

8 hours ago, mynerds said:

 it comes across as a pay-to-play product sponsorship, contrary to the stated mission of MGS

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…

where do you think all the great tests we had in past years went? 
 

Edited August 13, 2022 by Tarheelvolvo

[MattF]

I'd love to talk to them about quite a few things like testing, site direction etc, but Adam and Co seem to have little or no interest at all in having any sort of dialog with the members.

Another site I'm a member of, the owners are fully involved in the forums as well as everything else that they do, that's what an owner should do, not hide and just refuse to interact with the membership.

Piss poor management from the top down. How can anyone support that?

[RickyBobby_PR]

16 hours ago, MattF said:

I'd love to talk to them about quite a few things like testing, site direction etc, but Adam and Co seem to have little or no interest at all in having any sort of dialog with the members.

Another site I'm a member of, the owners are fully involved in the forums as well as everything else that they do, that's what an owner should do, not hide and just refuse to interact with the membership.

Piss poor management from the top down. How can anyone support that?

Having been a member of a site (probably the same one you are talking about) where the owners are involved in everything including posting, I don’t like it and I think several here who left there agree. It removes the unbiased aspect, it creates cliques and favorites. It causes division within the membership.

The owners should be in the background determining the direction of the forum, coordinating with the mods and whatever other staff is on the forum (ie staff writers). They should come on to handle any management related questions or to to handle problems.

 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

3 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

Having been a member of a site (probably the same one you are talking about) where the owners are involved in everything including posting, I don’t like it and I think several here who left there agree. It removes the unbiased aspect, it creates cliques and favorites. It causes division within the membership.

The owners should be in the background determining the direction of the forum, coordinating with the mods and whatever other staff is on the forum (ie staff writers). They should come on to handle any management related questions or to to handle problems.

 

I agree, and there is a time and a place to step in. I think stepping in here to have a voice, even if it was small to say "this is what we are looking at doing and the direction we are looking at taking" would go a mile for the forum. 

I am one for navigating quietly and speaking when needed to, might be time to speak.

[GolfSpy_APH]

I am hopeful that moving forward there will be two things. One more member calls will HQ and their staff to discuss most wanted and more..as well as second be the voice of clarity between hq and membership. I know i won't always have all the answers, but at the very least can be (as i feel i have been to date) open and transparent in what is going on so membership isn't left in the dark. 

 

[tony@CIC]

1 hour ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

I am hopeful that moving forward there will be two things. One more member calls will HQ and their staff to discuss most wanted and more..as well as second be the voice of clarity between hq and membership. I know i won't always have all the answers, but at the very least can be (as i feel i have been to date) open and transparent in what is going on so membership isn't left in the dark. 

 

Jamie, as I've mentioned to you in the past, you are without exception the most responsive and transparent Mod that I've seen in 4 + years. You've kept us informed both good news and when the site has had issues.  Please don't take the previous posters comments personally.  

[GolfSpy_APH]

2 hours ago, tony@CIC said:

Jamie, as I've mentioned to you in the past, you are without exception the most responsive and transparent Mod that I've seen in 4 + years. You've kept us informed both good news and when the site has had issues.  Please don't take the previous posters comments personally.  

Thanks Tony and truly appreciate that comment. Thankfully I don't take any of it personally and am able to recognize that it is truly impossible to please everyone. The forum is great to place to voice opinions on golf and have great discussions and a lot of fun. That being said not everyone will share those views that is okay. In the end our role as mods is simple. Be leaders for the community and aid in growing and working with the community to make it a great spot for any and all golfers to come visit and get involved. 

[ChitownM2]

I know this topic has been mentioned (beaten to death) before but did HQ share any more info on what their plan is for member testing going forward?  I know they took this out of the hands of the forum team, but it's a little disappointing that we managed to get through the entire 2022 season without a single product test from the big 5.  

[GolfSpy_APH]

1 hour ago, ChitownM2 said:

I know this topic has been mentioned (beaten to death) before but did HQ share any more info on what their plan is for member testing going forward?  I know they took this out of the hands of the forum team, but it's a little disappointing that we managed to get through the entire 2022 season without a single product test from the big 5.  

As it is essentially end of season for many we may have one more come November. However not really sure and we are focused on other areas for the time being. We won't really know much more till next March or April. 

I don't personally believe we should expect much from the larger oems, where rather the focus would be on smaller oems in member testing, but that is simply my thoughts.