Proposal: Developing alternatives to post count requirements

[Raziel]

What's taking a lot of our time is dev negotiations.

People are frequently posting subs far more powerful than the norm and asking "How much dev for this?"

Then they try and haggle. Then the sub gets archived. Then most of the time they come back and say "Sorry couldn't be bothered to do the dev, now let's haggle over the quality of the sub".

All of this is made a lot easier if the Judge sticks to the simple template of "with X dev you can have... With 0 dev you can have..." and then stick to it. If they disagree they have second chance, which is generally less work for us than posting back and forth with an argumentative submitter.

So yeah, perhaps some challenges in advance might make things more smooth? Maybe that's optimistic.

 

[Quietus]

Providing challenges similar to what we do with RM might be a fun new way to look at Dev.


What I've told the CJ's before is that the post count doesn't matter if there's nothing within it to support the dev (the beloved dev 10 post dev thread with two-liners in every post that develops absolutely nothing). But then you have more experienced writers capable of getting all the dev they need in with just a handful of posts.

We tend to give a range of posts instead, 10-20 posts for example. For the veteran subbers/members that know how to dev, that's about all we have to say and they go do their job. For members newer to submitting or just new to writing in general, I've recommended to the CJs to give topics they wish to see covered in the thread.

So, for instance, in a ship dev you might say:

"I want to see dev on where you get the materials, how the new technology works, and a test flight of the ship in question where you encounter a major problem with the design."


In a way it's almost like offering a writing challenge and gives the submitter a more defined goal.

 

[Raziel]

I'd probably characterise some challenges into the relatively straightforward, through to the very difficult. Some of the restricted mat ones are devilishly tricky and a proper test. I'd personally rather ask for more like that than "Please write 50 posts on the development of this space station where you zZzZzzz..."

Bit more fun

 

[Quietus]

Oh naturally. With how many ships / tech you guys have that come through here on a daily basis, livening up the dev is really something to be desired.


Though personally I've always failed to see the point in some of the RM challenges as some of them have nothing to do with the actual material you're after, I've definitely read through some very fun threads where others have done them.

 

[Cira]

I like the challenges ideas, but then it ends up feeling very constricted in terms of storytelling

A bulk of my dev threads did not begin as such, instead they were a story where something happened and the opportunity to create tech or mod a ship happened along the way.

I don't want to get rid of that.

If challenges are placed, i'd like to see the option of doing twice or three times the dev in post counts be kept instead of the challenges.

I'm more than willing to write 200 to 300 posts of a story that just came to be than a 10 post challenge that i have to be arsed to write that has no true character development for me.

 

[Raziel]

Wheel of Dev

If your submission doesn't have enough development for the quality of item, or the FJ just thinks it's too boring to read you'll be given two options.

Reduce the quality of the item to the stated amount or X spins on the wheel of dev. You'll have to complete each writing challenge spun. No respins.

If the factory judge found your dev thread a particularly interesting or well written story, then you get bonus spins on the restricted material list. Each spin nets a random restricted material.




Okay, perhaps I went a bit silly there. Would probably be a good laugh to do on a holiday or something

 

[Cira]

Any ideas that look favorable?

 

[Allyson Locke]

[member="Cira"]

Catching up on this in the next couple of days and I'll post my thoughts. If nothing is posted by mondayish poke me.