Kida Masaomi [Bolt!] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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asgarddawning2012-08-02 08:01 pm
concretejungles) wrote in asgarddawning2012-08-02 08:01 pm
Entry tags:
MOD POST: A FEW CHANGES AND A POLL
Hello everyone! Tosshi here using this journal again for its paid account, so we can poll you!
Its a little later than initially said, but we have a very important post here, so please read every single thing! This covers our responses to all of the issues brought up in the mod feedback thread on the last HMD. Since this is important we aren't cutting it, so sorry to your flists! We'd just like to make sure people don't scroll past so easily. So here we go!
FIRST, apps. We realize they are still being done slower than you like and slower than we'd like. We're trying to up efficiency a bit with our own process, but additionally we would like to add two more members to the app team. If you're interested and have time, please ping tosshi on plurk. Her plurk is![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
titzilla. Why plurk? Because a lot of mod discussions and notifications are done through clique plurks that I make. You'll need to have a plurk to be on the team, so that I can add you if I don't already have you on my timeline. Preferably you'll also have private plurk pings turned on, but if not we'll just ask you to keep an eye out for them. It's a little inconvenient if you're not already a plurk user, but it's the quickest way for us to keep in touch as a group, so that's how it goes.
Also, please be aware that as a member of the app team you would be asked to judge things you are not canon familiar with. It's impossible for the team to know every canon, and one of the issues we've had to date is the time it takes us to get things processed that we're canonblind on. You'll have to be willing to read wikis or even take in excerpts of canons to help us process these apps faster. If you're up to that, do contact us! We'll pick the volunteers we feel most comfortable with and who we think will be on the same page as the rest of us for standards.
SECOND, events. There's definitely been a problem with the lack of downtime in the game. Between app cycle, AC, and events, there's very little breathing room for mods or players. While we've discussed making app cycles every two months to help with this, last time it was brought up people felt very strongly against it, so we're having to look at other ways to manage the calendar.
Our decision right now is that from now on, the mods will only be running overarcing plot events. We'll be allowing one major player plot (like the Darkness plot in August) each month if someone comes to us with one, and we'll run overarcing plot events on the months they're scheduled, but special events and house contests are going to be much rarer now. We're likely to run one or the other during months with no overarcing plot, but never at the same time. This means major events will be down to one or two per month, which should help. If things are still overwhelming after that, well have to revisit the bi-monthly app cycle option.
One thing that is not changing at the moment, however, is the pace of the overarcing plot. While we understand concerns with it, and we can't really reassure without spoiling everything, don't worry! The plot arcs are not so grand that they need every possible thing explored or explained within them. We won't need to squash a ton of development into two months, as the game is meant to last indefinitely. If we did everything in the first year there'd be nothing left for the next arcs, so it's not as scary as it might seem. :) We'll revisit this in December when the second arc is beginning, and see if it really was too much, in which case we'll slow it down, but for this arc we're on track and everything is fine!
THIRD, businesses. Right now player businesses are in a kind of back-burner, vague place, and that's not good. We're going to be upping business app efficiency, but there are other things to take into account as well. Soon we'll be going through all the existing businesses and seeing which ones have been abandoned and which ones have applied, been appoved, and not put themselves on the comm. We'll figure out who the abandoned ones have gone to or open them up for being taken over, and after that we'll be adding a business list to the business page. This will make it much easier to see what's there and get involved. We'll also be adding a reminder for business owners to the drop page, so we know when someone's leaving and passing something on.
AND LASTLY, activity issues. Asgard seems to be suffering from a serious case of posting-to-make AC. What this means is that we're getting rashes of posts that are very similar in content, lack much subtance, and don't get many tags. People are making posts and using them for AC proofs, but not coming back and playing in them. This is ending in a lot of characters being inactive but making AC on technicalities. Thus, we'll be changing the way AC requirements work. Please read the following options very carefully, and consider discussing in the post before you vote on the poll. Also, please note that the final decision is up to the mods. We'll take both raw poll numbers and discussion points into account and make the changes we feel are fairest and best suited to the game based on both. Thus, it's important to weigh in on the discussion. If option 1 gets the most votes but also has the most compelling and valid arguments against it, it is less likely to be chosen, etc. Now for the options:
Regardless of which option above is chosen, we will be increasing activity requirements somewhat. With options 1 and 2, we'd be asking for three proofs instead of two. That would be asking only for one tag per day, tops, for each character over a month, which we think is more than a fair expectation especially in a relatively large and quickly moving game that does not tend to rely on large prose tagging.
EDIT: you might want to check out this comment to understand the differences between Options 1 & 2!
Additionally, it's been suggested that we consider looking at the characters being tagged. Since cross-canon tagging is required for leveling up, we could begin requiring diverse tagging to make AC at all. This would be asking a lot of some players, but would also be encouraging people to tag obscure characters, OCs, newbies, and just all around people they don't tag every day.
If we implemented a tagging diversity rule, it would be a requirement that asks each AC proof to be with a different character, at least one of which would have to be cross-canon. If we end up still counting posts, they'd count for every character you tagged inside them. This means that if Character A made a post and tagged Character B (canonmate), Character C (cross-canon), and Character D (canonmate) inside it, they could submit threads with any of those three characters for their other proofs. However, if Character A made a post and only tagged Character B and Character C in it, they'd need to provide a thread with Character D in order prove they tagged 3 different characters.
Please be sure you've read everything clearly! If there are questions, please reply to the mod questions thread below. Happy polling!
ANOTHER IMPORTANT EDIT: please see this comment with regards to plotting and getting involved ICly!
Its a little later than initially said, but we have a very important post here, so please read every single thing! This covers our responses to all of the issues brought up in the mod feedback thread on the last HMD. Since this is important we aren't cutting it, so sorry to your flists! We'd just like to make sure people don't scroll past so easily. So here we go!
FIRST, apps. We realize they are still being done slower than you like and slower than we'd like. We're trying to up efficiency a bit with our own process, but additionally we would like to add two more members to the app team. If you're interested and have time, please ping tosshi on plurk. Her plurk is
Also, please be aware that as a member of the app team you would be asked to judge things you are not canon familiar with. It's impossible for the team to know every canon, and one of the issues we've had to date is the time it takes us to get things processed that we're canonblind on. You'll have to be willing to read wikis or even take in excerpts of canons to help us process these apps faster. If you're up to that, do contact us! We'll pick the volunteers we feel most comfortable with and who we think will be on the same page as the rest of us for standards.
SECOND, events. There's definitely been a problem with the lack of downtime in the game. Between app cycle, AC, and events, there's very little breathing room for mods or players. While we've discussed making app cycles every two months to help with this, last time it was brought up people felt very strongly against it, so we're having to look at other ways to manage the calendar.
Our decision right now is that from now on, the mods will only be running overarcing plot events. We'll be allowing one major player plot (like the Darkness plot in August) each month if someone comes to us with one, and we'll run overarcing plot events on the months they're scheduled, but special events and house contests are going to be much rarer now. We're likely to run one or the other during months with no overarcing plot, but never at the same time. This means major events will be down to one or two per month, which should help. If things are still overwhelming after that, well have to revisit the bi-monthly app cycle option.
One thing that is not changing at the moment, however, is the pace of the overarcing plot. While we understand concerns with it, and we can't really reassure without spoiling everything, don't worry! The plot arcs are not so grand that they need every possible thing explored or explained within them. We won't need to squash a ton of development into two months, as the game is meant to last indefinitely. If we did everything in the first year there'd be nothing left for the next arcs, so it's not as scary as it might seem. :) We'll revisit this in December when the second arc is beginning, and see if it really was too much, in which case we'll slow it down, but for this arc we're on track and everything is fine!
THIRD, businesses. Right now player businesses are in a kind of back-burner, vague place, and that's not good. We're going to be upping business app efficiency, but there are other things to take into account as well. Soon we'll be going through all the existing businesses and seeing which ones have been abandoned and which ones have applied, been appoved, and not put themselves on the comm. We'll figure out who the abandoned ones have gone to or open them up for being taken over, and after that we'll be adding a business list to the business page. This will make it much easier to see what's there and get involved. We'll also be adding a reminder for business owners to the drop page, so we know when someone's leaving and passing something on.
AND LASTLY, activity issues. Asgard seems to be suffering from a serious case of posting-to-make AC. What this means is that we're getting rashes of posts that are very similar in content, lack much subtance, and don't get many tags. People are making posts and using them for AC proofs, but not coming back and playing in them. This is ending in a lot of characters being inactive but making AC on technicalities. Thus, we'll be changing the way AC requirements work. Please read the following options very carefully, and consider discussing in the post before you vote on the poll. Also, please note that the final decision is up to the mods. We'll take both raw poll numbers and discussion points into account and make the changes we feel are fairest and best suited to the game based on both. Thus, it's important to weigh in on the discussion. If option 1 gets the most votes but also has the most compelling and valid arguments against it, it is less likely to be chosen, etc. Now for the options:
- OPTION 1: Posts themselves do not count for AC at all. Only threads count, so even if you post, you need to have threads inside the post to make AC. Threads in a post you made and threads in a post you tagged count equally. The way we count threads (a proof being one ten-comment thread or at least three shorter threads adding up to 10) will not change. The way we count logs also will not change.
- OPTION 2: Posts do count for AC, but they have a comment count requirement. For a post to count, it would have to have at least 10 comments from you in it. The number of threads won't matter, just a flat comment requirement for the poster. The way we count threads and logs will not change.
- OPTION 3: Eliminating different kinds of AC proofs entirely. The AC requirements would change to 30 comments of any kind (network/inbox/log) across at least 3 different posts. Three network posts, two network and an inbox, a network and two logs, any combo would be fine, it would just be a simple comment count for the character's activity. The vast majority of log tags in this game are not significantly longer than the tags being made on network posts, so this would make everything count evenly so that people who primarily play on the network and people who play primarily in log posts have the same about of activity asked of them.
Regardless of which option above is chosen, we will be increasing activity requirements somewhat. With options 1 and 2, we'd be asking for three proofs instead of two. That would be asking only for one tag per day, tops, for each character over a month, which we think is more than a fair expectation especially in a relatively large and quickly moving game that does not tend to rely on large prose tagging.
EDIT: you might want to check out this comment to understand the differences between Options 1 & 2!
Additionally, it's been suggested that we consider looking at the characters being tagged. Since cross-canon tagging is required for leveling up, we could begin requiring diverse tagging to make AC at all. This would be asking a lot of some players, but would also be encouraging people to tag obscure characters, OCs, newbies, and just all around people they don't tag every day.
If we implemented a tagging diversity rule, it would be a requirement that asks each AC proof to be with a different character, at least one of which would have to be cross-canon. If we end up still counting posts, they'd count for every character you tagged inside them. This means that if Character A made a post and tagged Character B (canonmate), Character C (cross-canon), and Character D (canonmate) inside it, they could submit threads with any of those three characters for their other proofs. However, if Character A made a post and only tagged Character B and Character C in it, they'd need to provide a thread with Character D in order prove they tagged 3 different characters.
Please be sure you've read everything clearly! If there are questions, please reply to the mod questions thread below. Happy polling!
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 95
Which AC option should we take?
View Answers
Option 1 - no posts
7 (7.4%)
Option 2 - comment count for posts
41 (43.2%)
Option 3 - flat comment requirement
47 (49.5%)
Should we require tagging diversity?
ANOTHER IMPORTANT EDIT: please see this comment with regards to plotting and getting involved ICly!
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It really depends on the player behind it, I suppose.
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The thing about panfandom games is that tagging is a big deal. No one is going to get on your back about bending IC limits so you can get more CR for your character. Tagging one new person a month isn't exactly groundbreaking. Apping anti-social characters into a game that's foundation is on socialness and CR, you should be prepared to bend the limits of IC even just a tiny bit.
It's honestly not a big deal unless you make it one. Otherwise, how the heck are you going to get new CR?
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Both sides have good arguments.
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I'm not saying it's a big deal - I've got one character who would tag everyone ever just for the sake of being able to be in charge or get her opinion across to every person she ever spoke to. But there are other characters for whom it would simply be blatantly OOC and holding a requirement that doesn't cover every character type is a little bit steep if that person is consistently tagging regardless of who it's with. I'm not saying the rule is bad on the whole, either. Wanting at least one piece of cross-canon activity per month is perfectly reasonable. The part I find unreasonable and far too subjective toward social characters would be requiring that it be different cross-canon activity every single month.
And it may be that the rule itself doesn't require new cross-canon CR activity every month, either. Still waiting on an answer from a mod on that one.
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+1
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+1
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Something I do like about this as a rule is that it actually encourages me to think "Oh yeah, gotta tag new people." I mean, that's only a personal opinion, and I already do tag different types of characters, but with it as a rule? I can feel it more so. Like I said, I understand that's just me and it definitely depends on the character(s).
If any antisocial characters need a bit of pushing, both of mine can (literally) help with that. I just hope this new A/C system ends up working out for as many people as possible in the months to come.