Let's Hear From You!
So, you know how a game will be around for a while, attract players, set up processes, get things into a groove and all is hunky with a side dish of dory? Don’t you just wish it could stay that way forever and ever? To which some people may respond, “Things change and what used to work doesn’t,” and “We asked for the sneakers, but now that we’ve tried them on, they’re giving us blisters and wtf were we thinking platform sneakers?!!!?.”
We want to hear from you. What’s chafing? What fits like a glove and you'd get in more colors if you could? Where should we be looking to change things and how? Are there things that you think make Poly great and we should keep, keep, keep? Everything’s on the table right now, BUT there are caveats to offer up and expectations to manage and some organization we’d like you to observe:
ORGANIZATION:
1. Going by past experience of posts in which we solicit players to express their desires for change, and what works best in those posts, we will be keeping mostly hands off for this phase of this process. This should be a discussion between players. If you want a mod to respond to something, please put MOD QUESTION in your header. One of us will respond to the question.
2. We will step in to clarify instances where there is a misunderstanding of current policy. We don’t want a misreading of the rules or the way we implement them to become a sort of fanon that people buy into without knowing the canon, as it were.
3. Ideally, and this is an ideal, if you have a complaint about part of the process, we’d love to also see you propose a remedy. We recognize that it’s absolutely possible to see that something is FUBARed and not have a clue how to fix it, but we sure would love some constructive suggestions when you have them.
4. Do not turn this into a flamefest. Ad hominim attacks will be shut down.
EXPECTATIONS MANAGEMENT: (aka “What do we get out of it?”)
1. We will not be making immediate changes. Major policy changes are put up to community vote and we will continue to follow that procedure. What this means for this post is that we will be distilling major requests for change down into themes or specific policy requests and we will put them up to community vote. Any changes voted on and approved should be expected to be implemented later this year.
Why bother? See item 2.
2. It has been our experience that in these community-wide discussions there are players who prefer not to engage in the public discussion for a variety of reasons - whether it is because someone else has said it better, because they feel they will be shouted down, because they are temperamentally unsuited to engage in debate, because they were afk for the majority of the real post activity, etc. They will not and should not be marginalized for any of those reasons. While polling is no more perfect than any other means of gathering consensus, it does allow the less vocal majority to make their opinions count in the community that they are valued members of.
3. But along with that "majority rule," we, the moderators, will also consider what will be best for the game, given what we know and can see from our perspective. We will never crush or silence player opinions, but not all ideas are feasible or functional for the game, even if they are supported by the majority. We really do believe that you are the most important part of the game and we want to serve the greatest majority of you to the best of our abilities.
4. When we put up polls on policy changes, we will be making the identities of the voters non-viewable to the community at large. While we prefer the greatest amount of transparency possible, we have had some players express concern about harassment based on not voting with their friends/cliques. We want our players to vote their conscience and preference, not feel compelled to vote along with the crowd.
5. NOT EVERYONE IS GOING TO GET WHAT THEY WANT. Sad, but true. This falls very firmly under expectations management. If the majority disagrees with your opinion, no matter how certain you are that you’re right, the majority vote is the vote we will implement.
WHAT’S UP FOR DISCUSSION:
•Everything.
Okay, that's kind of a lot of things. How about:
•Applications
•Peer Reviews
•Organization
•Friends Lists
•Cake
•Backdating
•Communication
•Curses
•Everything
•Taken List
•Hiatuses
•Logging
•Activity
•Complaints Process
•Transparency
•Major Plots
•Waffles
•Inter-player Difficulties (no specifics please, just procedures and resolution)
•The Setting of the Game (such as the carousel and the clock)
And pretty much anything else that pertains to the administration and organization of the game. We want to hear your thoughts and suggestions. As we have said before, we really do believe that you are the most important part of the game and we want to serve the greatest majority of you to the best of our abilities.
And, to the best of my own ability, I will be keeping a "stalker-pin" list of links here at the end of this post for conversations in the threads so that it's easier to find different topics. Feel free to ping me at Cateyed Crow on AIM if you would like a link added to a discussion and I seem to have missed it.
For your stalking pleasure~
• AU!City Curses
• Grab-Bag Curses: 1, 2, 3
•Big Plots and Curses: 1, 2
• Taken List
• Activity
• NPC Presence in the City
•Character Interactions: 1, 2
•Game Atmosphere: 1, 2, 3
• Applications
• Player-Run Plots
• Planning and Communication
• Moderator Communication
• Death Penalties
• Character Powers
• Game Organization Generally
• Stalkers Have Waffles~!!♥
We want to hear from you. What’s chafing? What fits like a glove and you'd get in more colors if you could? Where should we be looking to change things and how? Are there things that you think make Poly great and we should keep, keep, keep? Everything’s on the table right now, BUT there are caveats to offer up and expectations to manage and some organization we’d like you to observe:
ORGANIZATION:
1. Going by past experience of posts in which we solicit players to express their desires for change, and what works best in those posts, we will be keeping mostly hands off for this phase of this process. This should be a discussion between players. If you want a mod to respond to something, please put MOD QUESTION in your header. One of us will respond to the question.
2. We will step in to clarify instances where there is a misunderstanding of current policy. We don’t want a misreading of the rules or the way we implement them to become a sort of fanon that people buy into without knowing the canon, as it were.
3. Ideally, and this is an ideal, if you have a complaint about part of the process, we’d love to also see you propose a remedy. We recognize that it’s absolutely possible to see that something is FUBARed and not have a clue how to fix it, but we sure would love some constructive suggestions when you have them.
4. Do not turn this into a flamefest. Ad hominim attacks will be shut down.
EXPECTATIONS MANAGEMENT: (aka “What do we get out of it?”)
1. We will not be making immediate changes. Major policy changes are put up to community vote and we will continue to follow that procedure. What this means for this post is that we will be distilling major requests for change down into themes or specific policy requests and we will put them up to community vote. Any changes voted on and approved should be expected to be implemented later this year.
Why bother? See item 2.
2. It has been our experience that in these community-wide discussions there are players who prefer not to engage in the public discussion for a variety of reasons - whether it is because someone else has said it better, because they feel they will be shouted down, because they are temperamentally unsuited to engage in debate, because they were afk for the majority of the real post activity, etc. They will not and should not be marginalized for any of those reasons. While polling is no more perfect than any other means of gathering consensus, it does allow the less vocal majority to make their opinions count in the community that they are valued members of.
3. But along with that "majority rule," we, the moderators, will also consider what will be best for the game, given what we know and can see from our perspective. We will never crush or silence player opinions, but not all ideas are feasible or functional for the game, even if they are supported by the majority. We really do believe that you are the most important part of the game and we want to serve the greatest majority of you to the best of our abilities.
4. When we put up polls on policy changes, we will be making the identities of the voters non-viewable to the community at large. While we prefer the greatest amount of transparency possible, we have had some players express concern about harassment based on not voting with their friends/cliques. We want our players to vote their conscience and preference, not feel compelled to vote along with the crowd.
5. NOT EVERYONE IS GOING TO GET WHAT THEY WANT. Sad, but true. This falls very firmly under expectations management. If the majority disagrees with your opinion, no matter how certain you are that you’re right, the majority vote is the vote we will implement.
WHAT’S UP FOR DISCUSSION:
•Everything.
Okay, that's kind of a lot of things. How about:
•Applications
•Peer Reviews
•Organization
•Friends Lists
•Cake
•Backdating
•Communication
•Curses
•Everything
•Taken List
•Hiatuses
•Logging
•Activity
•Complaints Process
•Transparency
•Major Plots
•Waffles
•Inter-player Difficulties (no specifics please, just procedures and resolution)
•The Setting of the Game (such as the carousel and the clock)
And pretty much anything else that pertains to the administration and organization of the game. We want to hear your thoughts and suggestions. As we have said before, we really do believe that you are the most important part of the game and we want to serve the greatest majority of you to the best of our abilities.
And, to the best of my own ability, I will be keeping a "stalker-pin" list of links here at the end of this post for conversations in the threads so that it's easier to find different topics. Feel free to ping me at Cateyed Crow on AIM if you would like a link added to a discussion and I seem to have missed it.
For your stalking pleasure~
• AU!City Curses
• Grab-Bag Curses: 1, 2, 3
•Big Plots and Curses: 1, 2
• Taken List
• Activity
• NPC Presence in the City
•Character Interactions: 1, 2
•Game Atmosphere: 1, 2, 3
• Applications
• Player-Run Plots
• Planning and Communication
• Moderator Communication
• Death Penalties
• Character Powers
• Game Organization Generally
• Stalkers Have Waffles~!!♥