Update on mod applications
There have been quite a few shakeups as far as mod applications go. (Sorry that this post is so... tl;dr.)
1) Due to school, lightofeilia won't be able to be an Events mod (or any other mod) after all. There was someone who applied to the Events co-mod position, though, so I'm not sure what we'll do there. Either have two people co-mod together, have that person work alone, or just cancel the big events for the time being? I'll leave the app open for now to see what people like to do with it.
2) I'm going to be stepping down from ff_minigames (so that I can focus on ultima_arena), so we have (at least) two open positions there. I can't edit the comment but I just want to encourage anyone with an interest in minigames to apply.
3) After not getting any neutral mod apps, and after getting some feedback from the mods, I've decided that it's best to allow any neutral mods to send points they earn in FFMG, UA, and MWS to their home team. Neutral mods would still need to have the basic requirements of a good understanding of the rules of FF Land and fairness (i.e. being neutral comes first; being a member of their original team is second), but they don't have to turn their back entirely on their old team. Note that as a neutral mod you'd have admin access to all comms including UA and other team comms, so you'd have to be careful not to abuse this knowledge when talking with other members of your team (for example, not giving away who made an entry in a UA contest).
Also, I thought I should maybe post some more details on what kind of work goes into the neutral mod position and how the work can be split up. Breaking down some of the mod duties by their comm, I realized that many of my current responsibilities could be delegated away to people already on the mod team (I've marked these things with -). That said, there are a core set of responsibilities that require either someone with admin access to all comms or someone in a neutral unbiased position to do, so these duties would need to be shared amongst the neutral mods (I've marked those with •).
• = duties that NEED a neutral mod (can't be delegated away)
- = could potentially be delegated to someone else (the mod of the comm, another mod, etc.)
~ = not sure
Some of the ff_land work I do:
• Making point updates
• Collecting feedback
• Posting announcements and rule changes
• Altering membership (member cuts, alliance coupling/de-coupling)
• Making polls to decide rule changes
• Keeping posts like the FAQ up to date
• Answering suggestions/concerns on the suggestion box
- Making graphics for point updates, winners, etc.
Some of the judge_magisters work I do:
• Posting tally posts for points/gil (they aren't currently but the gil tally posts at least could be delegated)
• Keeping the points spreadsheet up to date; double-checking points (sunflower_mynah does this for the gil sheet)
• Relaying any important information (such as end-of-game info, comm schedule) to the other mods
• Reminding mods if there are any missing tallies
• Writing up proposals for rule changes or asking people for help on deciding a rule change
• Planning and running certain between-game activities and getting mod help with that where applicable
Some of the ff_classchange work I do:
Note: some of these duties are well within the realm of the ff_classchange mod too. I mostly did them because it ended up that way and it just didn't occur to me to delegate.
• Sending out invites and giving newly sorted members a guide to next steps
• Deciding on a regular stamping schedule (needs to be coordinated with the ff_classchange mod who does the actual stamping)
~ Coming up with a re-stamping app between games
~ Deciding on stamping rules (for example, how to award referral points, how to handle ties, etc.)
- Adjusting stamping schedule as needed (such as at the end of the game or beginning of the game or in emergencies like LJ outages)
- Adding stamping-related deadlines to the comm calendar
Some of the ff_minigames work I do:
Note: again, many things here could be delegated to a current FFMG mod (arivess said she'd be willing to take these on)
~ Helping other mods formulate activities and offer suggestions ("Not sure that would work without screening the comments." "The points could be a little higher." etc.)
- Looking at recent activities and make suggestions about what to do next ("Hm... we haven't done a puzzle in a while. Maybe we could do [puzzle idea]?")
- Adding/fixing tags in the ff_minigames comm
- Keeping track of minigame suggestions (both from members and other mods) and compile them into a mega-list. (Admittedly this is something I slack on like whoa.)
- Running a minigame every so often.
- Adding minigames-related deadlines to the comm calendar
Some of the ultima_arena work I do:
~ Getting mods up to speed on all the rules that go into UA (rules! rules everywhere!)
~ Deciding on which challenges to run
~ Okaying the point values awarded by contests if needed
~ Double-checking contest results
- Adding/fixing tags in the ultima_arena comm (not much work here since thedrowned and I tag our own posts and usually don't make mistakes)
- Maintaining a list of challenge ideas (from member and mod suggestions)
- Running a contest or two every so often
- Adding contest-related deadlines to the comm calendar
Some of the moogle_workshop work I do:
• Clearing up grey areas in the rules, and there are QUITE a lot of grey areas ("How should I handle the situation where...")
- Tallying art pieces and other miscellaneous things like crafts and picspams.
Some of the airship_lounge work I do:
- Running an occasional activity in airship_lounge
And... I actually don't do much else here! sunflower_mynah and zerrat did run a airship_lounge rule post by me and I gave my suggestions. But yeah, they mostly take care of everything.
Miscellaneous:
• Fixing layout coding or settings on comms
Hopefully this will help in dividing up the work, and would help people figure out if they'd like to be a neutral mod or a sub-comm mod.
Note: I'm up for doing all point-tallying work and also continuing the scheduling work I do for ultima_arena (since I know that comm will be having a young team and there will need to be an orientation period). The rest of the work I'd ideally like to pass on to other people.
Finally, here's how we stand as far as apps go:
Neutral mod: 4
Contest mod: 4 (same 4 people actually :P)
Minigames mod: 2
Events mod: 1
Dragoon mod: 0
Monk mod: 0
Soldier mod: 0
As you can see, the place where we're hurting is (at least at this moment) with the team mods. The team mod positions are honestly not very intimidating. I highly recommend them if you want to get involved and help boost your team!
1) Due to school, lightofeilia won't be able to be an Events mod (or any other mod) after all. There was someone who applied to the Events co-mod position, though, so I'm not sure what we'll do there. Either have two people co-mod together, have that person work alone, or just cancel the big events for the time being? I'll leave the app open for now to see what people like to do with it.
2) I'm going to be stepping down from ff_minigames (so that I can focus on ultima_arena), so we have (at least) two open positions there. I can't edit the comment but I just want to encourage anyone with an interest in minigames to apply.
3) After not getting any neutral mod apps, and after getting some feedback from the mods, I've decided that it's best to allow any neutral mods to send points they earn in FFMG, UA, and MWS to their home team. Neutral mods would still need to have the basic requirements of a good understanding of the rules of FF Land and fairness (i.e. being neutral comes first; being a member of their original team is second), but they don't have to turn their back entirely on their old team. Note that as a neutral mod you'd have admin access to all comms including UA and other team comms, so you'd have to be careful not to abuse this knowledge when talking with other members of your team (for example, not giving away who made an entry in a UA contest).
Also, I thought I should maybe post some more details on what kind of work goes into the neutral mod position and how the work can be split up. Breaking down some of the mod duties by their comm, I realized that many of my current responsibilities could be delegated away to people already on the mod team (I've marked these things with -). That said, there are a core set of responsibilities that require either someone with admin access to all comms or someone in a neutral unbiased position to do, so these duties would need to be shared amongst the neutral mods (I've marked those with •).
• = duties that NEED a neutral mod (can't be delegated away)
- = could potentially be delegated to someone else (the mod of the comm, another mod, etc.)
~ = not sure
Some of the ff_land work I do:
• Making point updates
• Collecting feedback
• Posting announcements and rule changes
• Altering membership (member cuts, alliance coupling/de-coupling)
• Making polls to decide rule changes
• Keeping posts like the FAQ up to date
• Answering suggestions/concerns on the suggestion box
- Making graphics for point updates, winners, etc.
Some of the judge_magisters work I do:
• Posting tally posts for points/gil (they aren't currently but the gil tally posts at least could be delegated)
• Keeping the points spreadsheet up to date; double-checking points (sunflower_mynah does this for the gil sheet)
• Relaying any important information (such as end-of-game info, comm schedule) to the other mods
• Reminding mods if there are any missing tallies
• Writing up proposals for rule changes or asking people for help on deciding a rule change
• Planning and running certain between-game activities and getting mod help with that where applicable
Some of the ff_classchange work I do:
Note: some of these duties are well within the realm of the ff_classchange mod too. I mostly did them because it ended up that way and it just didn't occur to me to delegate.
• Sending out invites and giving newly sorted members a guide to next steps
• Deciding on a regular stamping schedule (needs to be coordinated with the ff_classchange mod who does the actual stamping)
~ Coming up with a re-stamping app between games
~ Deciding on stamping rules (for example, how to award referral points, how to handle ties, etc.)
- Adjusting stamping schedule as needed (such as at the end of the game or beginning of the game or in emergencies like LJ outages)
- Adding stamping-related deadlines to the comm calendar
Some of the ff_minigames work I do:
Note: again, many things here could be delegated to a current FFMG mod (arivess said she'd be willing to take these on)
~ Helping other mods formulate activities and offer suggestions ("Not sure that would work without screening the comments." "The points could be a little higher." etc.)
- Looking at recent activities and make suggestions about what to do next ("Hm... we haven't done a puzzle in a while. Maybe we could do [puzzle idea]?")
- Adding/fixing tags in the ff_minigames comm
- Keeping track of minigame suggestions (both from members and other mods) and compile them into a mega-list. (Admittedly this is something I slack on like whoa.)
- Running a minigame every so often.
- Adding minigames-related deadlines to the comm calendar
Some of the ultima_arena work I do:
~ Getting mods up to speed on all the rules that go into UA (rules! rules everywhere!)
~ Deciding on which challenges to run
~ Okaying the point values awarded by contests if needed
~ Double-checking contest results
- Adding/fixing tags in the ultima_arena comm (not much work here since thedrowned and I tag our own posts and usually don't make mistakes)
- Maintaining a list of challenge ideas (from member and mod suggestions)
- Running a contest or two every so often
- Adding contest-related deadlines to the comm calendar
Some of the moogle_workshop work I do:
• Clearing up grey areas in the rules, and there are QUITE a lot of grey areas ("How should I handle the situation where...")
- Tallying art pieces and other miscellaneous things like crafts and picspams.
Some of the airship_lounge work I do:
- Running an occasional activity in airship_lounge
And... I actually don't do much else here! sunflower_mynah and zerrat did run a airship_lounge rule post by me and I gave my suggestions. But yeah, they mostly take care of everything.
Miscellaneous:
• Fixing layout coding or settings on comms
Hopefully this will help in dividing up the work, and would help people figure out if they'd like to be a neutral mod or a sub-comm mod.
Note: I'm up for doing all point-tallying work and also continuing the scheduling work I do for ultima_arena (since I know that comm will be having a young team and there will need to be an orientation period). The rest of the work I'd ideally like to pass on to other people.
Finally, here's how we stand as far as apps go:
Neutral mod: 4
Contest mod: 4 (same 4 people actually :P)
Minigames mod: 2
Events mod: 1
Dragoon mod: 0
Monk mod: 0
Soldier mod: 0
As you can see, the place where we're hurting is (at least at this moment) with the team mods. The team mod positions are honestly not very intimidating. I highly recommend them if you want to get involved and help boost your team!