RESOLVED: Cheers and Taunts now provide Step Differences

[BLLingg]

This morning, I cheered my 55 Active FitFriends. I got back some weird replies. In order of appearance, they included the following:

 
#1) FitFriend Cheer: "cheered you! You're only 150,174 steps behind!"
#2) FitFriend Message: lol..yep that's will be easy to get to 😂
#3) FitFriend Cheer: "cheered you! You're 38,563 steps ahead!
I was getting very confused untll
#4) FitFriend Message: "When did Fitbit add, # of steps ahead, to cheers from others? I haven't gotten any cheers from one ahead of me yet. Is it motivating in your opinion?"

Later on, after several Messages, FitFriend #1 messaged back: "Brunetta, I seriously have no clue what you are talking about. I didn’t say anything to you other than clicking on cheers😳"
After several more Messages, he messaged back: "Hmm! It doesn’t say that on mine. Must be an Android thing then"

Those 150,174 Steps that were, I presume, intended to motivate me did not! Right now, I'm at 165,436 for the past SEVEN DAYS! How motivating is it to be told that you have to do almost as many Steps in presumably a few hours that it took you to get in an entire Week?

Worse yet, among those I cheered is one who is already insecure and if she has Android or uses her PC, she was told that she is only 156,515 Steps behind me.

I am mad. I am embarrassed. I feel guilty of having likely offended some of my FitFriends by appearing to brag. I am disgusted. I am not a braggart. I am neither a Sadist or a Masochist. I have never even intentionally taunted anyone. Until this is fixed, I can no longer cheer anyone. Friend #4 says that he feels ok cheering those who are ahead of him or very close behind him, but I would feel almost as guilty if I cheered only a few of my FitFriends!!!

Moderator edit: format

[WendyB]

Hopefully  it will be changed

[sandycrochet]

I'll bump up your bump up as well.  We need lots of folks to respond to this.  I sent a message out to 130 on my friends list.  They were shocked.  They didn't know.  Most agreed it's not a cheer, much more like taunt.  I got one this am from someone telling me I was only 52,000 steps behind.  No, that's not the least bit encouraging.  This is a person who regularly cheers me, but makes me wonder if he didn't read or understand my note.  He's not computer savy.

[CarlosCFitbit]

@sandycrochet Thanks for chiming in. I appreciate your insight regarding the new notifications for cheering and taunting friends. This update was not intended to be offensive nor implemented to belittle anyone. We value customers who are keen to share their honest thoughts with us. Your feedback regarding this feature has already been passed along to our team.

[Valkyrienz]

The cheer function has gone through a change recently(Nov 16) on the Fitbit and I find it annoying and makes me not want to use it which is really sad. I noticed on Nov 15 the typical cheer is like : (I\ll use my name) "Marie .cheered you."  And that is all well and good and is a good motivator for your friends, but now it goes like this... "Marie .cheered you! You're only 188,806 steps behind! " I find this a little demotivating to the person you're sending to, if they are doing their best but not up to the senders pace. Is there somewhere you can turn that off so you can still cheer people but not have the .. only so many steps behind, bit. I realize it is meant to be motivation for people to move more and try to catch up or overtake them, but for those who do way more than others it's a little demotivating, like those who do 40,000 steps a day and those who do 10,000 to 15,000 steps a day. I mean everyone is doing well, but it can make you feel like your not doing well when it comes up with how much you are behind the one who is doing very well... Can you turn that bit off while still being able to cheer people on without making them feel bad at the same time???

Cheers

Marie

[BLLingg]

Thank you for that Tiny URL, Colin! (The URL itself but even more so, the concept!!) I never knew that was possible!! You've expanded my Knowledge enormously with such a tiny thing!!!

Moderator edit: format

[BLLingg]

Thank you for telling us that our Feedback has been passed on to the Team, @CarlosCFitbit. I presume you are referring to the Program Development Team and not just a Team of Moderators who prioritize what Feedback to pass on to Programming?

I found it a little nerve wracking that @SilviaFitbit made no mention of passing it on. Granted we could have assumed that. But I don't trust assumptions.

As you have seen, most of us (all of us?) have no objections to a limited application of this type of Cheer. But not applied to every Cheer to every Friend. Maybe an additional Cheer Icon so we could choose which Cheer to send - just a Cheer or a Cheer + Steps Differential. There's room if y'all remove the unnecessary Steps Icon that appears on "me" between the Cheer Icon and my 7 Days of Steps. Just use the Cheer Icon with a "+" Sign. Or do it with the Taunt Icon since that's what it is in a way.

Moderator edit: format

[sandycrochet]

Thanks for passing along our comments.  I must say though, I am floored they didn't realize this would be viewed offensively.  Truly to me that is very surprising.  Why would anyone not think that when you get a note from someone saying you're only 85,000 steps behind me!

I have communicated with 130 people on my active friends list, and have received lots of communication back from them....95% were shocked a cheer did that, unhappy with it, indicted they wouldn't be cheering people anymore because of it.  They went on to say it's nasty, it's bragging and very bad sportmanship.  It does not encourage anyone.  Those who's step count was higher than mine thought I was nuts for sending them a cheer telling them how far behind I was.  Only 3 of those people I've heard back from said they thought it was encouraging.  That it made them won't to work harder.  3 out of 130...pretty poor odds to my way of thinking.  

Competition can be a good thing when used properly, but sticking out your tongue at someone telling them how much better you're doing than they are is not using it properly.  People on your friends list are not in competition with you.  Those that you choose/or they choose to do a daily or weekly competition perhaps are competing against you.  But, considering that's only 9 other people at a time, the wide spread use of taunting, a second taunt (disguised as a cheer) is simply NOT appropriate.

The next thought/question is, why would a change like this be made without letting anyone know?  If the designers truly didn't think it was offensive, why not announce it to the general fitbit population?

[sandycrochet]

Typo's and auto corrects.  Wish we had the ability to edit.  appalled not applaud

[BLLingg]

@sandycrochet, you CAN edit your own Replies in here!

Upper right hand corner, the ellipsis (...). Click on them and a Menu will appear with "Edit Reply" as the first item.

They also allow you to see "Who voted for this post" IF anyone has. It's the last item on the list. You can do that with ALL of them, not just yours. For Airhead me, this is VERY helpful. Until I discovered it, I'd Vote only to discover that I had Voted previously and the count dropped so I had to Vote again!!! LOL

Moderator edit: format

[WendyB]

@Valkyrienz  Moved your post here to where is is being discussed so you could follow it.

It doesn't have anything to do with the device but it is a Dashboard problem

Hopefully it will get resolved soon

[Bosco253]

Yes, please go back to the way it was. The step differential is extremely insulting to many people. What used to be a motivator now serves to be an irritation.

[sandycrochet]

Good to know, guess I just assumed we couldn't edit here, since we can't in any of the groups forums.  Also, something that needs to be changed.  That would be a real improvement, but know it's been requested many times over the years I've been a member.

[Sandy0611]

WHAT WAS FITIBIT THINKING .... when implementing this change?  How could you possibly think that telling a Fitibit Friend that they are soooo far behind you is encouraging?   I used to only Cheer friends as a way of saying "Hi there, thinking of you!"   Now, Fitbit is making every Cheer an actual Taunt, and I never sent out Taunts before.  They are hurtful and show you up as a braggart.  Does a friend, who is sick or not capable of doing the amount of steps you are, need to be reminded about how few steps they are taking?  I am totally disgusted with this new change.  PLEASE CHANGE OUR CHEERS BACK TO THE WAY THEY WERE... FRIENDLY HELLO'S .. or ... make an option (with a check box) for us to NOT use them.  In the meantime ... I will NOT be sending out any more Cheers.  I value my many Fitibit friends and do NOT want to hurt them or be seen as teasing them. 

[BLLingg]

@AlvaroFitbit, I would like to know why you removed the Comic Sans MS Font formats from my Comments in the "Cheers and Taunts now provide Step Differences" Topic. 

If y'all don't want us to manifest a personality, then remove the means from the Menu first.  But don't taunt us by making us think that y'all are offering us the means to do it then punishing us by changing it behind our backs without even saying a word to us. 

Until it is removed from the Menu, I will continue to use it.

[CityLion]

I don't think the web message notifications are showing when I pass friends or they pass me as it had in the past.  I enjoyed that step relationship note that was from Fitbit to me.  That form of notice was encouraging, because it was based on those close and trading rankings.  Clearly a diverse friend base is helpful to community, but sending slow text message compared to new rude cheer/taunt with this change has a measurable chilling effect on my formerly warm encouraging friendships.

[CityLion]

You are way off base Silvia.  Every friend can see relative positon from the friend rankings without cheer/taunt. If competition is their motivator they need not wait for cheer/taunt they see the score board. I have competed in many sports and cheer in many sports, and "cheering comparatively" has been no part of any of them for my experience.  Adding a button for "compare us" to message, cheer taunt is a feature, while this change is a waste of system development effort, ongoing processing, bandwidth and cultivated relationships.  Good of you to look at the bright side of what it might accomplish. Sad you will not acknowledge the cumulative effect falls short of improvement.    

[CityLion]

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@BLLingg wrote:

@AlvaroFitbit, I would like to know why you removed the Comic Sans MS Font formats from my Comments in the "Cheers and Taunts now provide Step Differences" Topic. 

If y'all don't want us to manifest a personality, then remove the means from the Menu first.  But don't taunt us by making us think that y'all are offering us the means to do it then punishing us by changing it behind our backs without even saying a word to us. 

Until it is removed from the Menu, I will continue to use it.

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Hahaha! Thanks BLLingg! I had no idea you could do this 

[CityLion]

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BLLingg, did you notice
@BLLingg did you notice this about odd projection from @Alvaro? The caption is mine.

Who Will Moderate the Moderators?@BLLingg wrote:

@AlvaroFitbit, I would like to know why you removed the Comic Sans MS Font formats from my Comments in the "Cheers and Taunts now provide Step Differences" Topic. 

If y'all don't want us to manifest a personality, then remove the means from the Menu first.  But don't taunt us by making us think that y'all are offering us the means to do it then punishing us by changing it behind our backs without even saying a word to us. 

Until it is removed from the Menu, I will continue to use it.

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[BLLingg]

The Passed / Passed by Messages (Message# 35, Page 2) are definitely NOT appearing any more, @CityLion!  I noted their disappearance before the Step Differences began appearing.  And I agree completely, they WERE encouraging as well as motivating!

[BLLingg]

I saw it, @CityLion.   From it, I also inferred the same thing you did.    At least I'm willing to bet I did!    Your caption sure seems appropriate to me!   Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?