I want to recognize the Plex team (leadership, employees, members, ninjas, and any others I’ve missed) for their recent work. This forum has been a tough read for a while, so let’s look at a bit of what has been done:
Defects fixes are getting turned around quickly. Specifically a defect in the Roku app is fixed in a preview release 8 days after it was reported. It’s the fastest report/fix I’ve experienced so far. It’s just one example, but I’m seeing defect fixes coming out frequently now.
HTPC users have been heard. I’ve got no skin in the game on this one, but it is evident that there is a lot of passion here. Plex heard you and changed course.
Before you flame me, and someone certainly will, I know there are still issues that are significantly impactful. I hope your issue is the next addressed. The diversity of both the platform and the user community is significant and challenging.
In the midst of advocating for our needs, let’s take a moment to also show appreciation.
Every 3 to 6 months or so I come back to Plex to see if there is any improvement. I used it (on and off) for about 2 weeks on my FireTV and now it just crashes. Delete, reboot, re-download … crash. I guess I’ll try again in 6 months, but with a year of the same bugs and now no Aussie guide data, there’s no chance of ever buying a plexpass again.
@hokierulz I’ve been around Plex for 4 or 5 years. Initially it was great but what you’re talking about happens about every 6 months: bugs bugs bugs followed by terrible decisions till the forums get too hot, @elan comes on and promises change, the worst bugs get fixed decisions come to a compromise, forum cools off, then change never stays long and bugs bugs bugs bugs bugs bugs. Repeat.
Plex’s reason for squashing bugs isn’t to make a great platform but to keep customers. @Elan will argue that those are the same objectives, but that’s only partially true. If the focus is to make a great platform then bug squashing will happen as part of the routine. If bug squashing is about keeping customers then it’ll only happen when customers leave. Plex’s bug fixing falls squarely in the latter.
Always good to be positive, but celebrating a yet to be fixed dvr, a borked and fixed roku app and almost depreciated HTPC might be a bit much (imo). I don’t agree with a lot of the garbage/whining that gets posted by users, but I guess I’m not ready to throw confetti yet. But probably doesn’t hurt to see those as positives either I guess.
I was applauding the speed of the fix of the Roku app, but not the break, so point taken. Here’s the thing on DVR and Live TV (start from beginning): Despite some seeming to question it, this is working for me right now except for some minor issues. I keep testing it because I almost don’t believe it. I tried to break it this evening. I might yet, and will certainly report if I do.
With regards to HTPC, the point was that Plex did a 180 based on user feedback which seemed to surprise people. Encourage what we want. Discourage what we don’t want. Frankly the actual topic of the decision didn’t matter to me since I don’t use a HTPC.
They also did a 180 on the old ROKU interface in December '18 when everyone screamed and then eliminated it about 6 months later.
I don’t remember the exact timeframe but I believe we’re about 2 years into PLEX LiveTV/DVR and all that time has been on DVR101. There has been basically NO discussion nor advancement of features found n most of our other favorite DVRs. ALL THE FOCUS has been on DVR101 and it still does not work. as well as a cable box let alone a proper DVR.
I’ve been using Plex for a year on my synology device and haven’t had 1 single problem. Thank you so much for this wonderful software that makes it so easy for me and my family to enjoy movies and TV together.
Thanks hokierulz - I tried to do the same thing a few days ago (Shout out to the Plex team! Thanks!) but it quickly got taken over by the haters. I guess some people want to watch the world burn.
The biggest problem is, the Plex team’s desire to make the “Best media management & delivery system possible” can be slowly eroded in the onslaught of what appears like overwhelmingly negative attitudes and I would be really sad to see Plex disbanded or lose the passionate team that currently develops and supports the product. It’s possible to have a civil and constructive conversation about a problem without it devolving into the dev team being called stupid (maybe they should go and try to build a Plex competitor with the $200 they invested in a Plex Pass?), or being accused of trying to run a business (you took my moneez, now gimme my feature!).
Elan has always been helpful to me (we’ve had a few conversations about the Windows Phone App in the distant past), but I can certainly understand why he might want to stay away from the noise currently being generated on these forums…
I actually think Plex could address a lot of the noise/hate/destructive behaviour by communicating better and running/moderating these Forums a whole lot more cleverly.
It seems to me to almost totally random as to whether Topics here actually get an official answer, and then totally random as to who actually answers from the Plex team.
My suggestion would be to allocate specific areas to specific people, so that there is continuity and follow-through for ongoing issues. The beta areas in particular need a dedicated small team whose Forum presence is visible, ongoing and reliable. They need to be the “front people” who are monitoring/answering every day, regardless of what is going on in the background.
I think something like this could do a lot to address the frustration and lead to some positive outcomes and arrest the apparent spiralling reputational damage.
I want to see Plex thrive, I’ve supported them with a Lifetime Plex Pass and sincerely wish them well.
I don’t disagree with you, but it’s a practical matter of resources. We just don’t have the people to monitor 100% of the forums and make sure everything gets followup.
We do have different people monitoring different parts of the forum, reporting things up and filing issues as needed, however, we unfortunately can’t reply to every thread.
Sure, I appreciate that but maybe there is a compromise solution possible where at least we have a more focused and regular 2/3/4 or whatever people triaging the forum entries, concentrating on the beta areas or whatever and being more of a regular reliable more visible “presence” than seems to happen now. A lot of it is about perception and “mouth feel” IMHO. Sometimes a quick acknowledgement is all people are after, to know they are not alone. Often we don’t even get that, which is a lot of the frustration.
Cheers,
StephenH
P.S. If you had a moment I’d love you to look at my current “mystery”
I agree with that. It also makes sense that they have limited Mods/resources to address every single issue.
That said, they have a pretty good track record answering the lay-up’s/new user questions. Example- “I can’t get remote access to work” I’m speaking specifically to the posts where it’s pretty obvious they didn’t do much to help themselves. Like here: Remote access doesn't work
A lot of times these get answered quickly but the ones where people have worked to correct it themselves, post logs can linger or not be addressed at all. The plex pass section was a great idea and it eliminated some of the chaos/noise but made it tougher to cherry pick some topics.
So I was really hoping this would be the cure for world hunger. Sadly start from beginning did NOT work for me with an Ubuntu 8 core server and a Plex Nvidia Shield client (it just started live despite asking it to play from beginning). It did however work from the Samsung TV app. So 1 for 2. The problem with Samsung is it doesn’t Direct play so there is some heavy transcoding going on. Hoping this starts working on the Shield soon.
We’re tough because we care!
