First Round Advocacy Complete

[Neil]

Hello everyone!

A few months ago, we launched an incentive to award members who went above and beyond with our MTBS advocacy efforts. While our advocacy is not reward motivated, we thought we'd give this a try to add some fun to the site.

In the end, I think there was a disconnect between our advocacy program and our incentive program. Members would be happy to discuss MTBS certification and S-3D on game developer sites and forums, but the incentive program participation was relatively low.

This was the first time we tried something like this, so I would value any feedback you have on the program. I'd like to hear what worked and what would work better. Did you know about the program? Did you like the incentives? What incentives would work better? Do you have some new ideas on adding some excitement to our advocacy efforts?

All feedback is valued.

Regards,
Neil

[Denaris]

Folks,

Spreading the word about stereoscopic 3D has been a real learning experience. I have always wondered why the technology is not more widespread--maybe it was something to do with nausea or inability to see the effect. But life itself is in 3D, after all. Perhaps it really is just a technology that is not yet fully mature. MTBS is about people trying to move things along out of a genuine interest in cool technology.

About advocacy: it is important to always be polite, respectful, and conscious of the wishes of others. I will admit to not knowing much about online ettiquette, and this experience was a real eye-opener for me. After posting about MTBS in game forums, I found that some people thought the messages were a form of spam. What I realized was that online forums are not truly public. Many of them are funded by the generosity of their respective communities through donations. I approached these places much like I would approach face to face verbal conversations. Perhaps I should not have been surprised that it is much easier to willfully misunderstand people through the online medium. Certainly it is easier to be rude behind the mask of anonymity. So it becomes doubly important for us to be a good model for courteous behavior, whether online or in person.

What are the obstacles? People want to believe what they currently believe. Getting people to see something in a new way is never easy. Very often the people who are interested in learning about S-3D already had that inclination within them, and finding out about MTBS was just an opportunity to spark that interest. I discovered it helps me not to see the task as trying to persuade people, but rather providing an opportunity to inform those who are already interested in it. Imagine those people interested in new things are mixed in among the people who aren't interested, and you are helping folks from that first group find what they were looking for.

Cheers,
Denaris

[Freke1]

Thanks for the discount Neil .
I enjoy the pleasure of 3D gaming every day and I'm going to buy that monitor soon 8) YAH.
I've played in 3D at LAN parties and at clan meetings and ppl always go "Wow" and are impressed. "You gotta see this" thay say, and hopefully one day they take the step to start playing in 3D.

Joining a new game forum, posting a S-3D certification thread with the old MTBS3D signature very easily came across as advertising or spam although it wasn't. Better to email the game support team directly because there's a million thread in a game forum and the game programmers don't read them.

I'm a long time member of the bf2s.com forum, and I've tried to show the concept of S-3D on a PC monitor:
http://forums.bf2s.com/viewtopic.php?pi ... 2#p1221282
http://forums.bf2s.com/viewtopic.php?pi ... 5#p1312195
http://forums.bf2s.com/viewtopic.php?pi ... 7#p1477737
hopefully getting ppl interested.

I think now 3D for most ppl is in 1. step:
1. Wow. 3D - You can play in 3D?
2. Yeah, I've heard about it. No idea how it works.
3. That's pretty kool, I'm gonna check it out.
4. I'm gonna buy that 3D gear now.
5. Playing in S-3D.
and I think the ultimate 3D site should support all 5 "stages". Although Nvidia is a big blocking stone, it looks like 3D in cinema is getting big. That will help a lot I think.

Again many thanks for the reward.

[Silversurfer]

I'm not sure it is in the right place to register this issue but I'm trying to buy the iZ 3-D 22 inch monitor but I want the full members discounts plus the discount for recommending five friends so I went to the relevant section and added the e-mail addresses of my five friends but my friends are complaining that they haven't received a registration form over the weekend? It is something that I'm doing wrong or is it a weekend thing, will they be receiving their forms early this week?

Thank you Silver surfer

[Neil]

Sorry about that!

When we did the upgrade to the registration system, some of the old programming stopped working because it is in a completely different language. We have a lot to do with this website.

That said, PM me the names of your friends, and we will work to honor the discounts. Make sure they register with accurate information.

Regards,
Neil

[Abydos]

I'd like to prod a few people! But Abydos is dumb.. I prod in the direction of the game certification section and programming guide? The guide doesn't load for me atm though.. as well as anything under the membership section.

Also how do I change my password, I can't see the option.

Thanks, Abs.