Reason game Deleted\Removed from Find Games to Join.

One of the most annoying things for me and some of my friends is to see a game we are interested in get deleted (usually by the GM) and not know why. You see a game you like; you post an interest in the Listing Discussion and maybe you even messaged the GM directly, only never to get a response, and the next thing you know the game is gone.   My suggestion : When a GM deletes their game listing, they MUST specify why they are removing it and then this ‘reason’ will be posted with the game for at least 2 weeks before the game is deleted. Perhaps it is a simple drop-down with reasons like:                 The game is full.                  The game was canceled due to lack of interest.                  The game was canceled as GM was unable to host.                  The game has been delayed and will be reposted when the GM is able.                  The game is being revised and will be reposted.                  The game was deleted by Roll20.                  The game was a duplicate.

This is needed as the last 3 games I was trying to get in just disappeared and I never heard a word from the GM. It would also be nice that when the game is deleted that is auto DMs anyone who has posted in the discussion of the game, +1 for sure!

All-around better communication tools for Scheduling games, confirming attendance, sending reminders, adding to calendar, choosing Notifications to get, would be good and popular, and useful, and could help Roll20 stand apart from other sites/VTT's.

Would definitely be interested in seeing something along this line.  Can feel like a job applicant waiting for a return call, never to hear back, otherwise.

Friends, this is completely normal. Games are generally delisted from LFG because the GM has finished recruiting. If a game is delisted, you can generally assume the game has filled and you did not get selected. For many systems, including 5e, competition is fierce to get into a game. Most of the time that you apply to play, you will not get in. 99% of GMs also will not get back to you if you have not been selected. That's just the way it is, GMs have no obligation to let applicants know.

As a GM if I could down vote this I would.  First off if a game has no next session scheduled it is automatically delisted.  So when my weekly game time comes up my game gets delisted until I get around to scheduling the next game.  It would be awesome if roll20 let you schedule multiple games in advance or even better set it to the same time weekly (yes I know this has been a requested feature for awhile). If a game of mine has had all it's available slots filled, I also do not want to keep getting bugged by people trying to get in.  Sure you might lock the threads for it, but not everyone applies in the threads and I receive DMs from people on roll20 wanting to get in. I have enough on my hands dealing with interviewing applicants, writing material for stories and NPCs, making sure I know the rules, setting it up on roll20 and I don't need to worry about providing why a game I run is no longer being listed.  Like others have said it's also completely normal not to get a reply.  The top reason I don't bother replying to applicants is a failure to follow instructions or pitching something that completely does not match the story or group.  I require an application to be filled out with specific questions and some of the answers people have given raise immediate red flags that tell me this person is not a good fit.  Like I said I've got enough on my hands wrangling everyone's schedules and writing everything so having to reply or list specific reasons for delisting is more stuff I don't need stacked on top of running a game.

All due respect, I'm a bit puzzled that "that's the way it's always been done" is a proper response to this or other Roll20 Suggestion threads.  That's the purpose of suggestions.  The OP is not asking GMs to individually respond to each responder in the thread.  Simply that the GM have a dropdown picklist to select from when manually delisting a game posting that would make the deletion reason visible to those who had posted in the thread for a week or two prior to removal.  This is just one additional step that would have great value to potential players that were looking to join a posted game.   In the case where the game was delisted by the Roll20 system itself, the Roll20 programmers could potentially code an automated alert to the posting players that "The game was deleted by Roll20".  No GM interaction needed. Potential players that insist on DMing the GM directly, in opposition to the GMs instructions, would not benefit from the alert.  This, to me, is an entirely understandable case where the GM is completely free to ignore directed status change alerts.  That would be extremely onerous. I understand  and greatly appreciate the extensive work that GMs put into creating and maintaining a game campaign and believe the OP will agree that we wouldn't want to impose any draconian procedures that would make running the game more difficult.  Again, just the addition of this one step that should put the potential player community at more ease after requesting to join a game.

Well said. Raymond G. said: All due respect, I'm a bit puzzled that "that's the way it's always been done" is a proper response to this or other Roll20 Suggestion threads.  That's the purpose of suggestions.  The OP is not asking GMs to individually respond to each responder in the thread.  Simply that the GM have a dropdown picklist to select from when manually delisting a game posting that would make the deletion reason visible to those who had posted in the thread for a week or two prior to removal.  This is just one additional step that would have great value to potential players that were looking to join a posted game.   In the case where the game was delisted by the Roll20 system itself, the Roll20 programmers could potentially code an automated alert to the posting players that "The game was deleted by Roll20".  No GM interaction needed. Potential players that insist on DMing the GM directly, in opposition to the GMs instructions, would not benefit from the alert.  This, to me, is an entirely understandable case where the GM is completely free to ignore directed status change alerts.  That would be extremely onerous. I understand  and greatly appreciate the extensive work that GMs put into creating and maintaining a game campaign and believe the OP will agree that we wouldn't want to impose any draconian procedures that would make running the game more difficult.  Again, just the addition of this one step that should put the potential player community at more ease after requesting to join a game.

I don't think anyone here is against change, but it needs to be actually useful change and not change just because a UX designer has to justify their job and keep making changes even when they're not improvments as well as being anti-user to the GMs.  They may not be asking for a response to every post, but they are asking for more info that people may not want to give out and leaving games up after they're delisted causes more clutter and nagging when a game is closed.  While they did not ask for GMs to respond to every post, they did not consider that the change would cause more messages by forcing listings to be up for 2 weeks after the game has been delisted.  GMs also do not need to explain why a game is delisted and it's extremely entitled to expect to force them to explain themselves just to delist a game. Of course a GM is free to ignore messages, but just ignore something is terrible UX.  The more useless messages and notifications that show up, the less useful messaging becomes. Literally the only way I could get behind anything mentioned here is if there were an automated message that may say something like "All slots have been filled" or the "The Game Was Delisted."  No extra effort on the GMs side and no need to explain themselves. Raymond G. said: All due respect, I'm a bit puzzled that "that's the way it's always been done" is a proper response to this or other Roll20 Suggestion threads.  That's the purpose of suggestions.  The OP is not asking GMs to individually respond to each responder in the thread.  Simply that the GM have a dropdown picklist to select from when manually delisting a game posting that would make the deletion reason visible to those who had posted in the thread for a week or two prior to removal.  This is just one additional step that would have great value to potential players that were looking to join a posted game.   In the case where the game was delisted by the Roll20 system itself, the Roll20 programmers could potentially code an automated alert to the posting players that "The game was deleted by Roll20".  No GM interaction needed. Potential players that insist on DMing the GM directly, in opposition to the GMs instructions, would not benefit from the alert.  This, to me, is an entirely understandable case where the GM is completely free to ignore directed status change alerts.  That would be extremely onerous. I understand  and greatly appreciate the extensive work that GMs put into creating and maintaining a game campaign and believe the OP will agree that we wouldn't want to impose any draconian procedures that would make running the game more difficult.  Again, just the addition of this one step that should put the potential player community at more ease after requesting to join a game.

I think we're just going to be a bit at loggerheads on this one.  What you call Entitlement to me is simply Consideration and Empathy for the pool of players that are not chosen for a game.    Perhaps a compromise would be a dropdown box with a variety of informative options that defaults to one of your suggestions when the GM flags the listing for deletion.  A GM could then ignore it if desired or provide a more relevant selection if they have time and feel more informative.  If the system delisted the entry, the default could be overridden to the " The game was deleted by Roll20" reason.   The system could then either alert those responding to/following the post and then remove the post directly or not send an alert and automatically delete the post after a short time where potential players could look at the closure reason prior to its disappearance into the Aether.  Dependent, of course, upon how Roll20's programmers would want to handle this suggestion if approved. DrHappyAngry said: I don't think anyone here is against change, but it needs to be actually useful change and not change just because a UX designer has to justify their job and keep making changes even when they're not improvments as well as being anti-user to the GMs.  They may not be asking for a response to every post, but they are asking for more info that people may not want to give out and leaving games up after they're delisted causes more clutter and nagging when a game is closed.  While they did not ask for GMs to respond to every post, they did not consider that the change would cause more messages by forcing listings to be up for 2 weeks after the game has been delisted.  GMs also do not need to explain why a game is delisted and it's extremely entitled to expect to force them to explain themselves just to delist a game. Of course a GM is free to ignore messages, but just ignore something is terrible UX.  The more useless messages and notifications that show up, the less useful messaging becomes. Literally the only way I could get behind anything mentioned here is if there were an automated message that may say something like "All slots have been filled" or the "The Game Was Delisted."  No extra effort on the GMs side and no need to explain themselves.

How about some empathy for the GMs?  Maybe somebody needs to cancel the game for health reasons, a death in the family or other major life event.  Somebody in that position doesn't need this and it is definitely entitled to demand a reason somebody delisted a game, even if the reason is they just did not like any of the people that applied for a game they do not owe anyone explanation.  A lot of us are out here running games for free and it is absolutely entitled to demand that someone explain why something they're giving away for nothing isn't listed anymore. Like I said before, literally the only thing I can get behind in this thread is an automatic notification the game was delisted, no reasons, no dropdowns.  That by itself is something I wouldn't mind seeing. Raymond G. said: I think we're just going to be a bit at loggerheads on this one.  What you call Entitlement to me is simply Consideration and Empathy for the pool of players that are not chosen for a game.    Perhaps a compromise would be a dropdown box with a variety of informative options that defaults to one of your suggestions when the GM flags the listing for deletion.  A GM could then ignore it if desired or provide a more relevant selection if they have time and feel more informative.  If the system delisted the entry, the default could be overridden to the " The game was deleted by Roll20" reason.   The system could then either alert those responding to/following the post and then remove the post directly or not send an alert and automatically delete the post after a short time where potential players could look at the closure reason prior to its disappearance into the Aether.  Dependent, of course, upon how Roll20's programmers would want to handle this suggestion if approved. DrHappyAngry said: I don't think anyone here is against change, but it needs to be actually useful change and not change just because a UX designer has to justify their job and keep making changes even when they're not improvments as well as being anti-user to the GMs.  They may not be asking for a response to every post, but they are asking for more info that people may not want to give out and leaving games up after they're delisted causes more clutter and nagging when a game is closed.  While they did not ask for GMs to respond to every post, they did not consider that the change would cause more messages by forcing listings to be up for 2 weeks after the game has been delisted.  GMs also do not need to explain why a game is delisted and it's extremely entitled to expect to force them to explain themselves just to delist a game. Of course a GM is free to ignore messages, but just ignore something is terrible UX.  The more useless messages and notifications that show up, the less useful messaging becomes. Literally the only way I could get behind anything mentioned here is if there were an automated message that may say something like "All slots have been filled" or the "The Game Was Delisted."  No extra effort on the GMs side and no need to explain themselves.

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