January's Critique-the-Staff-Team

[Delila Castillon]

However, the beatings will continue until morale improves. #tyrannyreigns

Good news for those of us who enjoy the beatings.

 

[Akio Kahoshi]

I like the new order of forums. However, RP discussion might be better placed with the RP forums at the top.

I also approve heavily of the new RPJ. Kara has proven an excellent choice so far.

And there is something I've been wanting to say in one of these for two months, a minor recommendation... and for the second month in a row I've forgotten it now that the thread is here.

 

[Jsc]

Can't ever truly get rid of bias, and I can't demand Staff to sacrifice anymore than I've already demanded of them. I've done quite a lot to appease and make things fair. However, the beatings will continue until morale improves.

Got it. *wink*

Also, the preaching will continue until we secure world peace. #JayJongUn

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Giving bonus fleet numbers and a space station to smaller, less active factions in the Event seems like it's rewarding inactivity.

I'm not even fleeting and will be participating heavily on the Ally side for the ground war with my characters, but I'd prefer a more natural selection nature of the board. The weak die off and the strong survive.

*tosses 2 cents*

Otherwise, all good things.

Shout out to Kara for going full beast mode in the factory and crunching down on those subs.

Possibly it is rewarding inactivity. However, when the 5 largest factions are united I had a choice. Either let the battle be a 4-1 massacre - which you will agree would be hardly worth being part of - or make it 3-2 which it is now. I would have done the exact same in the opposite direction. I consulted numerous people on this and I thought long and hard about it.

Of course I knew that whatever I did would get up someone's tailpipe. I also knew that trying to balance it would immediately open myself to scurrilous comments of 'Oh Tegs is just doing this because she likes OP!'

On the other hand I have constantly revised this, especially now I've tilted it back in favour of the Axis if anyone by moving objectives and adding new restrictions in. My only hope was to get a worthwhile fleet battle, and to be honest I don't care who wins. I'm not part of OP any longer, I'm not a part of any major faction's leadership. Would I like OP to do well? Certainly! Have I gone out of my way to rig this for them or entered into some secret pact with staff to favour OP? No.

I am genuinely sorry if I have inadvertently stopped anyone from participating. I was trying to create something which was fair and balanced for everyone. Only time will tell if I am right....

 

[Domino]

I am going to focus a bit more on the bad than the good just because the good has already been gone over somewhat and that's not what this thread is for.

I've heard from several people (party y) that when they've had a conflict with someone (lets say party x) either over something they've gained through less than favorable means or they did something tricky or clever or really obvious, x then ignores them, god mods/powers out of it or strings them along. The Y party then went to a mod or rpj for help and was then told to either forget about it, move on, or that they just didn't want to deal with it. Their words, not mine. This has to stop. A good friend of mine has left the site because of it. He felt unwanted and "that Chaos has been the worst site experince for me of any board I've ever been on." because of staff/faction heads encouraging or flagrantly participating in this behavior. "I wanted to complain about my Repub experiences but (staff member) threatened me with a warning to shut up, I resisted, someone left and I was told I was being a d*** so..."
This isn't the only instance, just the most recent that I have readily available. I'm sure a lot of people will know who it is and what it was about, but please keep that private, this is about how it was handled.

Teff, I'm calling you out in particular, not for ^ though it's been hinted you were an encouraging force in that particular case. But for what you're doing with the republic. Yes you got them back on track and have potentially stopped that silly stuff in the senate and the faction is back on the upswing, which is all very commendable. But now you are dictating Republic policy and IC direction/actions. You rule the forums, Jack rules the Republic now. You just broke apart the alliance of 'little guys' that was meant to stand up to the Republic and OP and now you've united them and set them on the war path to cleanse the galaxy of evil.
Here's the opinion on that that's been voiced to me: "Black Suns are getting targeted, Empire is getting targeted, Fringe is getting targeted. With Tef and Co running the Pubs, there's going to be a surgence of players because his stamp runs the site. So that said..."
'His stamp runs the site.' You have a lot more sway than you apparently realize and you might be doing more than you think but as a direct result of you telling the Republic what to do I'm looking at very few options. In all likely hood the Black Suns may even cease to exist as a faction in less than three months.

So those are my two big, rambling complaints. Didn't mean to write this much when I started out and I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm ranting but when my friends tell me that the staff killed his muse and anything SW is making him angry and that he just wants to bash the site on Bombad Radio, I get a little disappointed and this has been my only real opprotunity to vent a little.

-"I'm not mad, just disappointed."

 

[Tefka]

The Y party then went to a mod or rpj for help and was then told to either forget about it, move on, or that they just didn't want to deal with it.

Logs, please. Privately PM'd to me only. This is a serious allegation and should be handled seriously.

"I wanted to complain about my Repub experiences but (staff member) threatened me with a warning to shut up, I resisted, someone left and I was told I was being a d*** so..."

Again, logs. This is a serious allegation and should be handled seriously, and privately, to protect all parties involved.

But now you are dictating Republic policy and IC direction/actions.

This was true, for a time. I directly assumed control of the Republic due to Ben Watts leaving without notice after members raised concern to me specifically. Literally only moments ago, likely while you were writing this, I was stepping down and have transferred ownership of the Faction back to it's members. The idea was only to oversee the elections. Did I help some members out in campaigning? Yup. Felt while I was there, I'd do something productive. But at no time did I ever force anyone to do anything they didn't want to do under threat of anything. I've always maintained that members have a choice.

Everything else you just said? My opinion is that you're letting way too much IC flow over into this OOC. If you have an issue with something role-play wise, consult an RPJ.

In all likely hood the Black Suns may even cease to exist as a faction in less than three months.

This pretty much confirms my opinion. Sorry, bro. But just like I can't stop Staff members from role-playing on this website, I won't stop either. We're role-players. I built this place to role-play. And to have fun. I don't feel like you're having fun, I feel like you're taking everything going on way too seriously. If you had this serious of a concern and wanted to really blow a gasket, PM me. You're in the same Skype chat as me right this very moment.

Talk to me. Don't just blow a gasket and rage. No attempt until this rant has been made, for what? Fear of retribution? The only thing I can think of is that you wanted an audience to play witness instead of treating me fairly, like an individual, like an adult. This is a game we all play.

What you're doing is raging. So please, dude. We don't want anyone to leave the site, which is why we post up threads like this to voice concerns like yours without retribution, because we know people are scared to talk privately. I'd like to think that me making this thread every month for the last twelve months kinda hints that maybe I'm not some guy to be feared, but that maybe I understand where people like you are coming from because I've been there before. All I want is the chance to not be the target of accusations, but instead be treated fairly.

Just like you want to. It just takes a PM.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

 

[Domino]

Nice gif Soliael, and yeah, I was a little upset but I'm rather calm IRL. Just looks like I'm raging because it's a long post. Just things I felt needed to be brought to light.

So those are my two big, rambling complaints. Didn't mean to write this much when I started out and I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm ranting but when my friends tell me that the staff killed his muse and anything SW is making him angry and that he just wants to bash the site on Bombad Radio, I get a little disappointed and this has been my only real opprotunity to vent a little.

-"I'm not mad, just disappointed."

I'm not asking anyone to stop roll playing, didn't even mention that. I know that that's all we really want to do, its why we're here. And god knows i don't want to be an rpj for the massive levels of crap yall have to put up with, which yall do and then go right on writing like it's nothing. Major props for that.

"No attempt until this rant has been made, for what? Fear of retribution?"
Kinda? I'll PM you some points in addition to the requested stuff, but you're far from the approachable Teff you were when I drew a Hitler 'stash on your avi as a joke.

"The only thing I can think of is that you wanted an audience to play witness instead of treating me fairly, like an individual, like an adult. This is a game we all play."
Couldn't be more right, I wanted transparency, something out in the open so everyone can see the process. Of course, you couldn't be more wrong either in your second part. This wasn't meant to be an attack on you, though I did call you out by name. You're the great leader, you're under the tightest, most constant scrutiny and I wanted you and everyone else to see that people are noticing and holding you and the other staff accountable.

"we post up threads like this to voice concerns like yours without retribution, because we know people are scared to talk privately."
Why I used it.

 

[Tefka]

I have PM'd you.

 

[Gilamar Skirata]

You redid the factory and made it easy on the judges by giving them stats to judge ships by and giving the writers clearer guidelines on how to get stuff like cortosis (Don't know why you would need the stuff but...) which is a plus!

But then you took away all the neatness of the factory and now its a big glob of everyone's tech and I have to go searching through pages and pages just to find stuff. Also, the faction tech tags don't work like they should if that was your remedy, because they also bring me to faction rps or rps with the faction's name somewhere in it and not all of said faction's tech is even on the pages it brings up. So..a minus for neatness.

I love what you did with the Republic! Plus! Now if only someone could do that for the Mandos...

 

[Tefka]

@[member="Gilamar Skirata"]

What you're saying is, you preferred the faction subforums in the Factory for Tech/Starships?

 

[Akio Kahoshi]

It did make it easier to find tech for specific factions. Though navigating all those sub forums was a pain too.

 

[Vereaux]

Even though I haven't been here all that long, I am very much enjoying my time spent here =) I haven't communicated with a lot of the people here other than through the threads, so who knows what direction that will take.

I do, however, find a few things slightly puzzling and even out right confusing.

I have had a love/hate relationship between the idea of having all characters strictly to one account, or having each character with its own separate account. Personally, the sub accounts was a fantastic idea and I wouldn't mind shaking hands with the person who made the code for it. The problem with it on this board, however, at least in my mind, is that there isn't a clear indication of who is who on the forum when people are posting with their main account as well as sub accounts. I know that people will post with whichever account they like, but is there any way for us, the members, to have a clear distinction for who controls which account? I know I'm new and have not developed the awareness of who is who, but I really can't tell sometimes if I'm talking to the same person on one board as I was on the other board. I'm not asking we change the very way we do things around here, because so far it's working great; I just want to save myself headaches as I try and figure out who is who.

Nevermind about the above paragraph. I am as blind as a bat apparently when it comes to this site and its account features >.>

My next puzzle is something mentioned already that I wanted to comment on that I think is a thorn. We all have characters that are in threads, and some characters are in more than one. The problem I'm seeing in a couple is that there will be occasions where someone does something in one thread and then all of a sudden, it's mentioned in all of them. Someone is in a thread, the person develops a Force ability or tech somewhere else, and then all of a sudden can use it in the same thread, despite clearly not having it before hand. We're human, so we do make mistakes, so I think we, as a site, need at least a linear time consistency. The most trouble I can see this happen in is in official threads for Invasion, Dominion, etc.; I don't know if they've already happened in them, I can't read that fast, but if an Invasion thread lasts more than say three weeks, we tend to forget that we weren't suppose to have something the moment the thread started. At this point, it entirely becomes a matter of honesty, I think. If we stay honest about it and play fair, I don't see any problems coming up.

Other than that, fantastic job =)

 

[Lord Ghoul]

Possibly it is rewarding inactivity. However, when the 5 largest factions are united I had a choice. Either let the battle be a 4-1 massacre - which you will agree would be hardly worth being part of - or make it 3-2 which it is now. I would have done the exact same in the opposite direction. I consulted numerous people on this and I thought long and hard about it.

Of course I knew that whatever I did would get up someone's tailpipe. I also knew that trying to balance it would immediately open myself to scurrilous comments of 'Oh Tegs is just doing this because she likes OP!'

On the other hand I have constantly revised this, especially now I've tilted it back in favour of the Axis if anyone by moving objectives and adding new restrictions in. My only hope was to get a worthwhile fleet battle, and to be honest I don't care who wins. I'm not part of OP any longer, I'm not a part of any major faction's leadership. Would I like OP to do well? Certainly! Have I gone out of my way to rig this for them or entered into some secret pact with staff to favour OP? No.

I am genuinely sorry if I have inadvertently stopped anyone from participating. I was trying to create something which was fair and balanced for everyone. Only time will tell if I am right....

I don't view this at all as a "Tegs <3's OP" thing.

Do I want to see a massacre? Eh. No. I want to see a story. If that story is the triumph of a less powerful faction in the face of adversity against incredible odds; great, fantastic. I love it. If that story is the utter annihilation of that less powerful faction's military, then I'd say such was the course of many opponents of the Roman Empire. Also love it.

I just don't like seeing artificial intervention into the story to balance the scales.

As King Edward III once said when asked to come to the aid of his beleaguered son at the battle of Crecy: "No. Let the boy win his spurs."

 

[Gilamar Skirata]

@[member="Tefka"]
Yes

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

@[member="Vereaux"], we have a fluid timeline here, which means, that characters can be in many threads at once, change thread's location in the timeline and other stuff. But I do agree, that creating a tech thing during an ongoing thread and then using it there should not be allowed...

 

[Helmut Todstern]

I'm uncomfortable talking to moderators after a long history of encountering many...unsavory ones, so typing this is a lot more difficult than you'd expect from a very opinionated gentleman like myself.

Let's get right down to it though. I was the individual Domino was talking about, feeling my muse sucked out of me and such. I will admit that in some of those situations I was raging and in some ways acting "like a d**k", but the stress of everything just culminated into one giant rage moment where I couldn't handle it anymore. So, I'll touch on certain issues I had had brought up in this thread.

something they've gained through less than favorable means or they did something tricky or clever or really obvious, x then ignores them, god mods/powers out of it or strings them along. The Y party then went to a mod or rpj for help and was then told to either forget about it, move on, or that they just didn't want to deal with it.

As Chupa La'Roi I stole a "Republic command ship" that had been mostly abandoned in a legitimate way from a writer who is no longer on the board due to others actions during that roleplay. When I asked that writer what the specific ship was, I was told it was just my bad luck and that they weren't specific on purpose. So, when I went to people who RP as leader for Republic or run the faction, I got the silent treatment until I had to discuss it publicly, and then they got together to discuss it. What I got out of it from friends who were involved in the talks were: either I was going to get a much lesser ship than what I stole, I was going to get a yet-to-even-be-approved ship because it could be mass-produced, or....I wasn't even going to get any ship at all. As if my actions were to be forgetten entirely. And why wouldn't I get one already available? Supposedly, it was due to me owning a minor faction that I would have used the ship for, and if they picked one over the 1000m allowed, I couldn't use it. Not taking into account that maybe my character could sell it and use the credits to buy a better ship? Of course, I wasn't privy to this discussion, so I learned the fate of the decision second-hand. And the details of the discussion as well.

Also on the plate is:

He felt unwanted and "that Chaos has been the worst site experience for me of any board I've ever been on." because of staff/faction heads encouraging or flagrantly participating in this behavior. "I wanted to complain about my Repub experiences but (staff member) threatened me with a warning to shut up, I resisted, someone left and I was told I was being a d*** so..."

If you want the logs I can give them to you on Skype, @[member="Tefka"]. While I admit I was raging at the time over a number of things I felt were going on, including the ship debacle, I felt I had to speak openly to someone about how I was feeling, but due to OOC reasons I can't really have much of an opinion among SWRP Chaos peeps. That being said...

In some ways, Chaos has been both the best and the worst. I've gotten into more stressful situations than I've ever been in anywhere's else in my forum RPing history, but at the same time, I've been involved in some wicked roleplays on here and fleshed out characters I've never had the opportunity to do so elsewhere. However, with this two BIG issues at the moment, my Star Wars muse is being sucked out of my head slowly and surely, and not to worry, I did not bad mouth SWRP Chaos on Bombad Radio. You did get a mention in a good context. I, however, attempted to push aside these issues and focus on the show instead. Now that we're done recording....down to the nitty-gritty.

 

[Ayden Cater]

@[member="Lilith Mae Lancaster"] @[member="Vereaux"]

As a matter of fact, that's not allowed and show be reported. Once a piece of tech is approved, the running stipulation has been that it cannot be used in a thread that was created prior to the tech sub's creation / approval (The exact point of no use varies with interpretation from staff). The end point is that if you see someone in a thread suddenly pull out a new piece of tech that just conveniently gives them an edge/nullifies what you're doing, odds are good that a report on metagaming would not be out of place.

 

[Vereaux]

@[member="Lilith Mae Lancaster"]

I understand people are allowed to be in multiple threads, I'm just pointing out that acquiring something in another thread shouldn't just all of a sudden appear.

Other than that, I don't have any more critique at the moment =)

 

[Sargon Vynea]

@[member="Tefka"] I"ll throw my two cents in there I in a massive way thought the subfolders for factions were better