The doom and gloom here is just amazing. They acknowledged they made mistakes. They promised to implement a solution. Maybe give them a chance instead of continuing to beat them over the head.
2 Likes
If the culture these days has shown us anything it is that to some, patience and sensibility are now viewed as a weakness or something. They want an Oompa Lompah and they want it now.
That perfectly described Plex and how they introduced this featureset. Well done.
2 Likes
I was all behind that, they were doing the best they could with what they were working with… Or so we thought because they lied to make us think that. Until we learned that it wasn’t the best they could do because they were NO Obligations that prevented them from undoing it & fixing it in Beta.
There’s no reason they couldn’t have, IMMEDIATELY put out a fix backtracking the feature until it was fixed.
2 Likes
Ok now, can you forgive? So in your eyes Plex F…ked up. Ok, I do agree but when is enough? All this analysis without consensus data to subscribers, is now become a woke moment.
You have all done your job and voiced your opinion, some make sense but now all your doing is killing evolution of the software you all dearly love. I myself can turn off at all the terrible mess in this world, hoping it will always work out though come sense. That is what’s needed here now, guys it’s time to stop the back seat driving and entrust the message has been received.
3 Likes
But we know the message hasn’t been received, if anything we now know that they saw they made a mistake, then decided to just keep doing it, but grind down & fix the biggest problems fast rather than think about the users.
The mistake? Sure, Easily forgiven
The surprising us with it with no warning, no beta, or rather beta forced on all? That harder, but forgiven, but not forgotten
Leaving some serious bugs that were causing serious issues for days as they fixed it when they could have just retconned it? Now, over a month later there are still problems, albeit smaller ones, that are unfixed with just a promise of them being worked on? That’s where there’s a line in the sand. That’s not okay.
If there was something where there wasn’t a way for them to implement it to just beta users I can understand that, but it was a barely held together Alpha when it came out, & they didn’t tell us about it beforehand. A simple “Hey we didn’t realize this was going to effect everyone, now that it’s out we can’t really put it back, bear with us while we get it fixed as quickly as we can” would have done a lot. Better would be a “This next server update is going to contain some changes that are rough, we’ve trying to get it together but if you don’t want to deal with that turn off auto updates” or if it was already in the code a “Here’s a copy of the last server release & releases for each client that won’t be affected by this, {easily accessible & not needing to be downloaded from questionable sources} if you want to downgrade to keep the old system.”
Sorry. I’m done.
1 Like
Misunderstanding? The users at least did not misunderstand anything.
This forum is Plex’ Official way of giving support. If it were true that Plex employee statements in this forum are nowhere near the top of Plex’s agenda (diting you), then their user base has no more support they can count on.
On this official support channel, this request shows one of TOP TEN ever “Me too”'s that I’ve seen.
I do not even know why @BigWheel is talking about other users who are not showing up to voice their concerns (or tell about their joy of using a feature). He’s just guessing from “click numbers”.
Talking about “millions of happy users” just shows that @BigWheel did not yet understand these concerns fully. It’s like “ah… who cares, who needs an opt-out that really is worth the name. You are just few.” I did not even vote for it yet because my votes are blocked in other requests that did not get implemented yet. And my complete household can be added to list of votes. They do not even have a login at Plex or in this forum.
All this hassle about an opt-out switch… just implement it. This should have been standard from the beginning.
I am not a user of streaming services. Please stop bullying me and my partner, my mother and my kid by showing advertisements (ie. streaming services results) as a result of any of my actions on my local server. I could not care less, if others find it useful… then just use it. I don’t want to be bothered. Please respect that: let me FULLY DISABLE DISCOVER & SEARCH RESULTS FROM STREAMING SERVICES in a user-friendly and easy way.
Statements about other “happy users” are neither constructive nor showing respect over user concerns.
5 Likes
I am really sad with this supposition, because :
1- it’s not possible to know if some users who click on an add are happy or not (i clicked on it, as thousands, maybe millions (i can suppose too) being not happy with it) .
So, at best it’s a supposition from you, at worst it’s a lie (that i don’t suppose it is)
2- Very easy statement when you impose to millions of users a feature without the option to turn it off.
Of course there are millions of clicks, who can doubt that ?
This statement of yours is very subjectif, and it doesn’t help at all to be confident in you/plex.
What we need in this thread from plex / plex employes is objectives statement with infos we can trust or beleive we can trust, like what and when about turning off this feature.
3 Likes
It’s no worse a supposition then the claim that the number of votes on this thread have any relevance to the wider Plex userbase…
2 Likes
+1 for this statement. I saw a Plex employee make that post as well about contractual obligations.
Now we are being told it wasn’t for money? I’m sorry but no venture capitalist put up $50 million not to make a profit.
3 Likes
As I said previously I can’t control what anyone chooses to believe. That part time employee was mistaken. And some folks are going to believe it because it probably suits what they already chose to believe.
Getting more users to use and know about the product, including those who don’t use their own media files, by being a starting place where they can search for mostly anything. Which gets them here even if they temporarily leave by keeping track of things they watch in all places in the watchlist in one place when they come back. Just like adding free player apps to devices like TVs gets folks to try it out. More different types of users = more growth by the potential that they might stay if they see options available on our own services.
2 Likes
I(we) appreciate the explanation, thanks for taking the time @BigWheel
But, for me, it does not matter why it is there. Stuff like this should be Opt-In in the first place. Everything you put on the ‘Home Screen’ gets clicks, that is why companies pay lotsa money to have their bloatware on the home screen of mobile phones or preinstalled on windows pcs. Have you ever met a person who liked that?
Now we have more and more of that kinda bloat on our Plex home screens.
The calls I get from ppl, I shared my server with, are increasing, confused about the services and ads they get, asking question I don’t have answers to. I am not sharing my server with new ppl anymore, just too much of a hassle.
I am disappointed with the direction Plex has been taking the past few years. I hope you guys get back to your roots at some point and refocus your priorities even though I know chances are slim.
5 Likes
BigWheel, I apologize for sounding condescending here but calling out another employee as being “part time” appears that you are saying they are thus somehow subordinate, raises some flags. This “part time” employee was the only employee at Plex who took the time to gather our concerns and present them to higher ups at Plex. It appeared to all of us he was the one who got the ball rolling to get fixes for the issues.
Are we not to trust this employee? What makes you more trustworthy? Being full-time? Why wasn’t the part-time employee’s incorrect comments corrected? We were told that this thread was being monitored by Plex employees, and none of them saw this incorrect information? It was talked about a bit on here, not just the one post.
Not saying we can’t trust you, but you must understand what we are seeing from our viewpoint. You might not be able to control what we believe, but you can control the facts that we are given.
If I may, I think all of us would really appreciate someone on C-Line coming on here and definitively telling us what the mission of Plex truly is going forward. It shouldn’t be a problem if that mission is in the best interest of Plex and its users. It should be a mission that fully explains all the recent changes at Plex that include a lot of time and energy being put into providing streaming from outside sources instead of focusing on our local content. It should also explain how $50 million is being used to make it a better product for us, the admins, if we are really still the goal of Plex.
I just want to know what is the clear truth, so I can believe in it.
EDIT: grammar and spelling corrections.
8 Likes
ok. I do not mean to judge anyone’s opinion about that.
I was totally on board with your comment on the matter of incorrect information from a Plex employee (part of full time is irrelevant) until this latest comment of yours.
It was unnecessary.
As most on here have said, the functionality is not the issue, it is how it was forced out as a beta.
2 Likes
Many employees past along info to those who ultimately decide
He said things here ,which he took out of context when he was talking with someone about things in general and make a mistake. I have made mistakes too being human and all.
That same employee closed this thread at one point because he felt some of you were out of line but elan and others said that was not a right thing to do and reopened it.
When this topic made roughly 700 votes in the first couple days I was the one who told the project managers and convinced them to add the options to remove them the first of which I confirmed was the option to remove them from search and when I got info I posted in this topic.
Another employee was the first to post when it was decided to give you more granular options to disable these feature.
1 Like
I was not trying to argue about that.
I was speaking about the belief some have repeated that we are under some contractual obligation with some outside company (-ies). If we were then the ability to turn them off would not be coming. I understand you will not believe it is coming until it does.
3 Likes
Many of us have no idea what to believe given the chain of events (enforced beta, mixed messages from Plex).
So yes, it is wait and see and hope that the original question of this thread is answered. This could of and should of been handled much better and even now we are still seeing attacks on users by some Plex employees or innuendos.
I realise that some users go too far with conspiracy etc but that is largely fed by mixed messaging going out. Maybe I went too far at times but checking my posts I don’t think so.
What users say and what Plex say are separate matters.
Edit - anyway, thanks for participating in the thread and clearing up some incorrect messaging. It is appreciated. I’ve said enough so will wait and see.
2 Likes
Understandable and acceptable.
This is more of a questionable issue (to me at least). If Plex Upper Management is aware of the (at times heated) debates being batted back and forth (me being one of those people) A lot of which where arguments over “Plex’s intentions and intrusions” into what some consider “Our” servers and “Plex’s” app environment as a whole. Why wouldn’t any of them jump in and squash the spot fires?
If @elan (and others) are aware enough to say “this thread should remain open” why allow the “mis-information” to remain? Why not just come in here (to the companies ONLY way of communication) with it’s actual user base? (When I say “actual user base” it’s because, as paying customers we actually care about this product, we are not just here for the “free” stuff plex is throwing out in the hopes to gain another customer).
I mean I get the attitude of “let those who are defending us battle for us” mentality, every battle needs some fodder and the generals don’t have to join the battle and can admonish anything said by a user because they are not a Plex employee.
But I think that’s a bad way to run a business.
I thank you @BigWheel for coming in, speaking with us and trying to put a positive spin on the debacle this “beta” is proving to be, but at this point until we actually see the changes made to the server side (not the use our free services side) I think it’s going to take one of those generals to walk onto the battle field to speak to the masses before we can actually feel this is being addressed. For that reason I feel really bad for those of you (even the possibly mis-informed) Plex Employees.
On a positive end to my little rant, the count keeps rising 
here’s to hoping it means something.
1 Like
@BigWheel : So if this wasn’t a contractual thing, than why wasn’t it just turned off as quickly as it was turned on (via. plex.tv I assume) as soon as it became known to plex that so many people disliked it or didn’t like an Alpha(beta) forced on them. (or the porn for kids error)
So you say a lot of people like this (a lot of people really liked that a 64bit windows version was available, but that was quickly retracted as a MISTAKE).
So let the ones that like this sign-up for a beta…
But to throw “That part time employee” under the bus so much later instead of correcting the statement promptly makes it seem that plex wanted this thread to become irrelevant. Also that part-timer probably spends more time helping/supporting/packaging plex then 95% of plex’s full-time employees.
Deleting posts (no foul language) from someone finding a plex employee’s post offensive, Not Cool! (perhaps it probably shouldn’t have been in all caps… …but )
2 Likes
