Market unsuspended (resumed) without notice.

Jenni + 2 (or more ;-)

I feel, absolutely, that you had the best of intentions -- that you and Triath wanted to (and did) create very interesting markets -- and that your wishes to un-suspend the market were done in an attempt to help make things better!

I don't disagree that flags are the desired method to bring something to the attention of an admin/editor -- and I also agree that the level of noise has picked up significantly in some of the comment threads.

There are countless examples when an editor/admin has prefaced a comment in a thread with, "Responding to a flag about this ..." Were that not the case, perhaps, I would have been less astounded to discover that this market had resumed.

And yes, while I, too, have seen the "not sure why this was suspended" notation you referred to -- the latest (praised by users') trend has been for an editor/admin to make an announcement in a market that "I will un-suspend in 24 hours, unless ..." While, as you mentioned, a broadcast email might be even better, at a minimum some communication in the thread is, in my view, required.

In this market, it would have been more helpful had you both posted your flag, and made a comment in the thread. In a similar manner, had I opened a thread here, in this forum, and not posted that information in the "comments" thread -- that, in my view, would be both poor communication on my part, as well as being unfair to the users in the market.

However, please know, none of my/these comments are in any way "finger-pointy" at you (and yours), rather they are directed to HD staff, with the intention of being helpful. Said differently, in my view, the responsibility for the lack of communication is with staff -- as it was their action that un-suspended the market, not yours.

Last, while I cannot speak for Destry, I can add that I haven't found myself disagreeing with what s/he has been saying about "user interaction"... For me, it's not about finding "what's safe" -- rather it's about finding what's effective and appropriate, and developing a core of "best practices".

[As a footnote, I wanna state what many/most folks know -- that electronic communication doesn't convey "tone", "inflection" and feeling. None of this has any intention of offending. Some people have the gift of being able to write "exactly" the way they "sound" in real life -- I'd like to have that gift!]

The downside is that users have been locked in a market at a well communicated point in time -- at a known position.

Without notice, the trading resumes, and those users who happen to "catch" that, can either cash out and/or take more advantageous positions -- to the severe disadvantage of those users who don't know the market was reopened.

This makes it a zero-sum market.

In my case, for disclosure, when I looked at the un-suspended market, my total net worth in the market had dropped by more than 50% from where it was when the market was suspended.

As I mentioned in the market's comments thread, I was prepared to take a loss in this market -- as it involves polling, and when that poll will finally take place is unknown ... this in a very dynamic state (Pennsylvania), and I would expect the results, when they finally come out, to be significantly different than the positions I had when the suspension date was reached.

However, for a user (and I suspect there are many) to take a significant loss because of arbitrary staff procedures is not, in my view, an acceptable result.

It has now been two weeks since the last poll from ARG.

As JenniAndBoys commented in the thread of the market, "No, its not what he intended. It was meant to give us something to do while we wait for the PA vote -- and he thought the ARG poll would be coming out on Monday -- we have both asked Ryan to unsuspend this until the poll comes out. ..."

Restating part of my initial post in this forum:

After making that comment, I noted that the market had "mysteriously" resumed.

One user, jenniandboys, commented yesterday, that "maybe since we don't know when the next poll will come out we could unsuspend this question until then and let it play out?"

Absent that, there was no notification or communication in the comments that this was officially being considered -- much less that such an action was either going to be done -- or had been done!

In my view, this lack of communication, seriously undermines the integrity of this market (and the site as well).

Users in this market can cash out at a profit, or at a loss, and/or take "better" positions, or hedge the market -- IF they happen, by some chance to notice that there was a change. Those users whose attention drifted elsewhere while this market was suspended and awaiting settlement may likely get screwed!

Ryan did leave a comment, above, "I usually leave a comment or clarification but I just rushed through this one.
Apologies for the confusion caused."

In my view this is not "confusion", rather the unannounced resumption of this market, destroyed the integrity of this market. Imagine, if you would, in a real-life trading market, that the market suddenly resumed trading -- and only those who happened to have not left the trading floor for the day knew about it. Indeed, this is why the "opening bell" and "closing bell" ring so loud.

Since the market resumed, the market has fluctuated widely, during the few times I have looked.

We are now coming up on yet another suspension date for this market -- with absolutely no idea of when another poll might be released -- this in a state (Pennsylvania) where significant events are occurring each and every day.

While there have only been two posts from other users on the original request I made in this post, both have, to my read, supported voiding this market.

A response to my original request would be helpful.

Now that this market was finally settled, yesterday, it is my hope to close this topic as well.

I made a specific request in the initial post of this topic, and made a specific follow-up request a few days later: "A response to my original request would be helpful.".

While there were comments left from users, as well as staff, what I anticipated was, after a suitable period of time had elapsed, an official response to my initial, specific request.

Something, perhaps, along the lines of "... after considering ... we don't think ... so we aren't going to void the market...", or, "... after consideration/discussion we think ... so we are going to void the market ...".

Aside from the mild annoyance I experienced, this lack of response heightened my awareness to comments ("complaints") that have been voiced by other users, both in this forum, and in market-comment threads, that have the sentiment of "I posted something in the Get Satisfaction forum ...", or "I asked a question ...", -- and didn't hear anything.

Indeed, a cursory look at just a couple of (somewhat) recent posts in this forum hint at a trend of staff not replying to users' specific questions.

The legend at the top of this Get Satisfaction forum declares "Hubdub is here! 10 employees are listening and participating".

I would cheer-lead for staff to respond, specifically, to user posts, rather than take a dilatory approach and allow the posts to languish into obscurity. To not do so, in my view, is to dilute and diminish the value of this forum, and create user dissatisfaction.

Since the last 7 days at least I noticed the activity to be considerably lesser than before. I thought maybe the guys from hubdub are on Easter-hollidays now ... ?