IUENG - 2024 Feedback Results

On January 5th, we asked our subscribers to fill out a short survey, giving feedback to the channel well as gauging the general distribution of the Agent faction and Level split. We have read through every single reply and want to talk about the results, as well as teasing some of the changes we are implementing in the way we run the channel.

If you want to read through a short summary of the answers, you can check out a PDF with the answers here (including the best thing about every presentation: pie charts!): https://ingressupdates.com/feedback_2024_results.pdf

Of all respondents to the feedback form, two thirds are Enlightened, while only about one third belong to the Resistance. While we would love to see this split being evened out, it makes sense to us that more Enlightened may be subscribed as the Resistance already has a great and active news network in place via channels such as the RGNN Ticker or the WIRR World Ingress Resistance Radio which post about both Ingress news as well as calls to action for Anomalies, Skirmishes and other events. On the other hand, news channels for the Enlightened are more sparse, with the most known one, Enlightened Today, "only" posting calls to action, but no general Ingress news. We therefore assume that Enlightened Agents are more numerous on our channel as a way to get other Ingress news as well, while the Resistance Agents have no need to subscribe to multiple channels that post the "same" content.

As suspected, most Agents subscribed are of a very high level. What surprised us was how low the ratio of Level 15 and under was. About 9 of 10 Agents who responded to the form have reached L16 or have recursed, which means that a huge part of our subscribers have "finished" their AP grind. Does that mean there are more hardcore than casual players? We are unsure, but it would explain some of the reactions to news of challenges calling them "too easy".

One of the reasons we have conducted the survey were reports from some Agents that IUENG is being perceived as biased and inaccurate. The results from the survey seem to suggest that the channel is actually seen as quite accurate and impartial, but there is a non-negligible part of Agents that see IUENG as either inaccurate or biased towards a faction, which we will take a note of. We asked people that indicated a bias what faction they believed is being favored over the other: interestingly, this time, the split was pretty even, with a ENL 56% - 44% RES, with most believing that it isn't actually the posts, but rather the comments or the discussion group that is biased.

The feedback on the posts (both via the survey and via private feedback elsewhere) has been heard and more attention will be paid to make sure that posts are impartial and accurate (or fixed as soon as we notice an error).

Regarding the bias in the comments (and the discussion group), it is a difficult thing to act on: of course, the Admins and Moderators can try to keep impartial in their comments, but normal users cannot and should not be forced to be impartial. While we already don't allow attacks on others based on their faction, Agents are still allowed to be proud of their faction's victories, achievements and so on, and we do not want to forbid that. On the other hand, we also cannot force Agents of an underrepresented faction to display their pride so that the group is more "balanced". What we do recognize is that making fun of (a part of) an entire faction is annoying and really doesn't vibe with others, which is something we will act on.

Most of the people do think that having more Agents writing post for the channel could help with impartiality. This follows other private feedback that Agents think there is a perceived Enlightened bias because the main Admins for the channel are Enlightened as well. To address this, we will be opening applications for new writers soon.

The last page was general feedback about the channel about what Agents want to see, what Agents no longer wish to see as well what Agents already like. We have received some interesting suggestions that we want to try out such as interviews with Agents or groups behind projects (think "Behind the Scanner" and the interviews published by MrChics).

One of the most requested posts, however, were SITREPs from Agents for events, field arts and the like while, on the other hand, one of the most requested things to NOT include was, you guessed it, faction specific news and SITREPs.

We have long held the stance to not post faction specific news or SITREPs (exceptions apply) to maintain our neutrality. However, the @IUENG_Extra channel, which was created as a secondary channel to @IUENG, specifically allows those faction specific news and SITREPs to be posted, which means that we at least satisfy the people that don't want to see it on the main channel.

Why aren't we posting those SITREPs on the Extra! channel then? We generally don't want to post stuff without the permission of Agents, so we rely on participants of an event to message us with information instead of looking at other channels and copying their contents, but going forward we will try our best to reach out to Agents whose SITREPs we see online. If you want to see more SITREPs or Faction specific news posted on the Extra! channel, please, do message the @IUENG_submission_bot or ask a participant of an event to do so.

Other things that people wish to see less include random polls (not linked to a post of ours), posts about Scanner updates as well as things that have no relation to Ingress (like a new game announcement from Niantic). All of those are fair suggestions which we will take on board and discuss about.

There has also been some feedback about the moderation of the discussion group as well as a way to handle appeals for people that have been banned from it. We will create a separate feedback form for the group in the near future. In the meantime, you may send a PM to an Admin or to the @IUENG_Submission_bot to if you feel like you have been treated or banned unfairly.

What is changing?

Based on your feedback, we will trial the following changes and confirm them if they receive good feedback:

• We will try to bring more community-driven content on @IUENG, such as Agent interviews at events
• Open applications for new writers to address bias and timezone problems (soon™)
• Move Update Notes, standalone Polls as well as non-Ingress news from Niantic to @IUENG_Extra
• Pay extra attention to keep posts impartial: for example, not declaring a faction as winner of an event/Anomaly before its end, even though mathematically it could already be called
• Create a way for Agents to give anonymous feedback on our posts as well as appealing a ban from the comments/Discussion group via the @IUENG_Submission_bot
• Add rule to the comments/discussion group rules for agents to limit toxic or excessively sarcastic comments to the members of the opposing faction. This will allow Agents to celebrate their faction, comment fairly on the opponents and enjoy a safe environment in the group

These changes will be tested for a bit and feedback will be monitored. You can always either directly message an Admin, the @IUENG_Submission_bot, or leave a comment if you have feedback or something else to say! We thank every Agent that has participated in the survey!