Staff Feedback: January 2018

[Brandon Rhea]

Hi everyone. Every once in awhile, we post feedback threads like this where we want to know how you think the staff is doing and what suggestions you have for improvement. This is especially true now that we're nearly a month into the new timeline!

In this thread, you can review the collective staff and give us your suggestions for where we could improve.

We are looking for feedback on:

• Level of site-wide activity
• Level of RP activity
• Effectiveness as a group
• Member relations - do you feel the admins are accessible, nice, fun, etc?
• Suggestions for improvement
• Overall performance
• Anything else you want to comment on

We want your honest and thoughtful feedback on everything we do as staff, whether that's in public or through our interactions with you. We want to know what you think of our performance and what we can do better. We may also choose to respond to your feedback, and we will do so with the same respect and civility we expect of you.

Remember, this is for your benefit as well as ours. We're here to provide you with a great website, so we want your honest assessment of whether we're living up to that. You will never be banned for giving your honest feedback. So, please feel free to post your feedback in this thread. Thanks!

 

[Suede]

Of all the staff, I only really feel comfortable talking to FTL, Dread, Relent, and Arclight. Everyone else I either haven't seen around very much or they don't seem very approachable.

 

[Acedia]

Staff seems active and effective to me. With the work load they've taken on with this system of character approvals, plots, the lore write-ups and npc drawings, tech stuff and all that, I'm grateful.

Shoutout to Sreeya and Deviant for coming across as very polite to me in a couple of my submissions.

 

[Miz]

• Level of site-wide activity - There are always admins online and on the discord server
• Level of RP activity - The admins are very active in the RP and contribute a lot to the story. Due to the sub-account feature it's hard to notice who is who and it's easy to mistake them as ordinary members.
• Effectiveness as a group - N/A
• Member relations - FTL, Relent, Vosrik, Deviant and Arclight are easily the most approachable mods they are very active on the discord and on the site. They have very positive non-threatening attitudes. With the threat of character deaths looming above our heads emotions can run very high and it's good to have someone you can sit down and talk to. Though personally I've never went to them for help.

That's not to say that I haven't had issues with any mods. Phoenix who I secretly admired for being one of the best PvPers on the site that could go toe-to-toe with Sreeya made me feel as though my explanation of vagueness was beneath him. When I explained to him the layout of the battlefield to explain why his action would be impossible he simply edited his post and changed one or two words without actually addressing my criticism. I chalked it up as him being an expert and I kept moving.

I also had issues with Valen Pelora in the past as well. In one of our threads he made an exit post detailing a chain of events I thought to be very anti-climatic and flavorless in my point of view. I would not have had an issue with his action if weren't his last post before exiting the thread. I would have much preferred he continued playing with me to react to the new chain of events. Something I thought could be really funny if he stuck around and roleplayed the incident. I compared it to throwing a grenade into a room and leaving as everyone else left the thread. I asked him to change his post so that someone else could expose my char to be a creep and roleplayed the consequences which he had no intention of doing. Valen refused to work with me.

• Suggestions for improvement - I think this is more of a community criticism than an admin one that I found on discord. When someone makes a mistake or accidentally breaks a rule I don't think sarcasm and witty quips are a very appropriate response from the community. It's cool that everyone jokes around and roasts each other. And in regards to rules and lore there is a ton of stuff to read through. I've been here for a while and I have no issue with admitting that sitting down and reading and comprehending everything can be a pain. Although I believe it's in good spirit responding to an issue with sarcasm can lead to more confusion when not given a clear answer right off the bat. Especially on discord where people may not have a full grasp on the situation. I have not noticed this behavior at the help-desk.
• Overall performance - Good the mod team is the best we've had since I started here.
• Anything else you want to comment on - Nope

 

[Rimrald]

• Level of site-wide activity
• Level of RP activity
• Effectiveness as a group
• Member relations - do you feel the admins are accessible, nice, fun, etc?
• Suggestions for improvement
• Overall performance
• Anything else you want to comment on

______________________________________________________________________

RP activity and site wide activity. I see a small handful of the admins like SUPER active and the majority I see posting pretty regularly but it is to be understood life if life and we all commit our time here by our own will. Sreeya, Insalius, Arc, Malon, Gaba, Deviant, Dread, FTL and AutoFox are the names that come to mind when I think 'active admins' or 'super active' in their roles and RP. I understand theres something like 15 staff? The rest of whom I cant name due to my lack of interaction in general be it my personal interaction or seeing them engaged beyond a random discord message here and there.

Effectiveness as a group, were here aren't we? We've had some events and the timeline is going rather swimmingly from the general poster looking in, as it seems this group is doing quite well with the newly added members to the staff roster and those who've been around for some time. It seems to work as of now, and hopefully it continues that way and any further additions and subtractions from the staff are positive for the group and site.

Member Relations: I personally have had virtually no negative experiences with the staff, during the first week I had a character up in the TL I understand everyone was posting tech like crazy and it was most likely one hell of a burden but dealing with Loco was rather unpleasant I was throwing all of my ideas id been brainstorming for months up on the board and I was only messaged with a 'cease and desist posting' message from him. Not even a chat about this is whats wrong please fix it, just a mass archive and 'try again in a week read the rules'. It rubbed me the wrong way but thats here nor there.

I see a handful of the team as nuetral, unable to contact or generally aloof. Clayton, Raydo, Relent, Pheonix, Valen, Dmtri these six are totally a mystery to me I dont think i've talked to them or seen much from them aside from Valen checking my plots. They seem very disconnected and that just might be because we dont RP in the same circles or my issues dont fit their billet.

Beyond those already stated i've had wonderful interactions with the rest of the staff, getting sucked into killer RP and PVP with Sreeya, Arc, Dev, Dread, FTL and Insalius last TL and this one also their general ability to be contacted and openness to answering questions and having a good chat with gives a positive outlook on the site to myself and i'd assume the newer members.

Improvements & Overall Performance is kinda peppered into the writing so far but id say its not my call to suggest anything, im on the outside and from what I see its working things are happening and nothing has exploded so externally i'd say keep it going the way it is? Maybe do a Staff Peer Review see what you all think of one another and hash out any issues that may be underlying; never know who may have constructive thought on you.

(I just want to say this is purely cut and dry from my interactions and I hope none of the negatives are taken personally.)

 

[Sreeya]

Hey guys - as a reminder. This is a review of the whole team overall. We’re not looking for individual names and call outs. We’re a team, so the reviews need to be addressed to the entire team overall, so no names or individuals please. Thanks.

 

[The Captain]

I think we rely too much on Discord, to be honest. I personally hate the site because its to hectic and hard to start a conversation on there, I prefer to work on this site but it seems like everything requires Discord nowadays.

Also, people just generally seem to be posting slowly. I don't know if they're forgetting about threads or if its IRL issues, but it seems like everything is moving a bit more slowly this timeline.

 

[Black Noise]

Woo. Hot damn have these past few years been a ride. If someone told me five years ago that the staff would be running like the well oiled machine that is it now, I’d have laughed. How things have changed and they have changed for the better. Before I give any feedback, I want to thank all of you for continuing to make this site a better and better place each year. It’s a thankless and unpaid job, but you do it anyway and you do it well. Thank you.

• Level of site-wide activity- Really high, content submissions and requests are handled swiftly, and admins appear to be active in all aspects of the community. High activity translates directly into the admins having a good feel for the pulse of the community, and I believe they’ve got it.

• Level of RP activity- Better than ever before. I don’t think there are any admins themselves who don’t RP, and now that you’re an owner @Brandon Rhea i can’t bitch anymore how you rarely RP. You can do whatever you want hah. But as a whole, the admin team feels very much a part of this world we’re building. Rather than malevolent gods who don’t understand their creation, as they’ve felt like before, I believe each admin has a vested interest in how the site develops personally for their own stories.

• Effectiveness as a group- Very effective, it seems. This has always been a difficult question as the general populace is not privy to the inner workings of the admins community. It’s really a question you should ask yourselves. However, my perception is that you appear to work very effectively as a group, each admins supports each other. Especially with the report system, admins don’t contradict each other nearly as much as in the past(if they even contradict each other at all anymore)

• Member relations - do you feel the admins are accessible, nice, fun, etc? - If only I had the unbiased eyes of a new member. I’ve been on this site long enough that I have admins I like better and admins that aren’t my favorite, as I’m sure some feel about me as well. However, personal biases of the admins do not appear to factor in to their opinions on rulings, therefore I feel they admins have a very professional relationship with their members on the site. Off the site, on discord, they appear to be ‘just like everyone else,’ easily accessed and easily spoken with. It’s heartwarming to see.

• Suggestions for improvement - the only thing I’d suggest is this; please do not get too caught up in the new system that we start losing our free form roots. While the new system is great(I feel like threads and plots can actually matter and have an impact in the world), I don’t want to see a loss of the spontaneousness of free form. I believe there are some things that must be allowed to develop organically at member’s own pace, such as the development of a lightsaber or certain force abilities(remove my person from the equation here, as this is not in reference to me in any way) that shouldn’t always be restricted to a plot. Of course, it’s too early to tell on this subject as the rules are different depending on the level of character, and we don’t have any level threes yet. But this would be the only thing I’d ask to be kept in mind.

• Overall performance - Excellet

• Anything else you want to comment on - I’ve been wordy enough

 

[Wit]

Also, people just generally seem to be posting slowly. I don't know if they're forgetting about threads or if its IRL issues, but it seems like everything is moving a bit more slowly this timeline.

As someone who has been on the site for some time, and having seen a few TLs, I have to disagree here, and strongly. I can say with confidence that this is literally one of the most active starts to a TL I have ever seen. Threads all around, more Opens than I can recall, and multiple events already underway and not even a month has passed since the TL kicked off. There was a thread over the weekend that had over 70 replies in a matter of two days. It could simply be that you're in slow threads and generalizing it to the whole site.

Everything is moving at a breakneck speed IMO, I'm actually finding it hard to keep up, but then I'm a slow lazy poster so I know my limitations and that's on me.

 

[D.C.]

REVISED:

I apologize for editing my entire post but I have noticed something that has me very concerned, and I feel this needs to be looked into and talked about. Seeing as this feedback thread is still open, I have decided to take that opportunity to write this out, and I hope that my message will not go unnoticed. Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that not everyone on the staff team is effectively contributing toward positive members relations, open communication, and, by extension, possibly even what I assume to be the staff's mission/goal: to run the website and make the Role-Playing experience as positive and as fun as possible for site members.

For instance, when a site member asks feedback from (a) certain staffmember(s) in a polite and honest way, this member is then being answered in a rather rude and cold way, and essentially dismissed because for some reason the staff does not feel inclined to help the member understand a situation better, and thereby leaves the member completely in the dark, wondering if they did something wrong or if the staff does not like them for some reason. It almost makes me think that some members of the staff look down on certain members, which, unfortunately, is against the terms of service of the website, as it can be seen as an act of bullying, even if it is passive aggressive. Especially if this type of behavior begins to affect a site member on a personal level to a point that they become hesitant to approach the staff at all. It becomes almost scary to ask for any more genuine feedback, because the idea that they will be dismissed again will linger on their minds for a long time. This I perceive as a very threatening/almost hostile attitude that potentially makes members feel like they are not wanted. This can grow into a strong disliking, and that can cause some major issues further down the line. This is important and needs to be discussed.

In addition, this actually makes me worried about internal communications, because if communication with members can be this negative, then that raises questions as to how internal feedback is handled. In other words: this kind of behavior affects the image of the staff.

What I would like to see is a change in attitude. I feel that everyone on the staff team needs to be approachable and kind toward site members at all times. I mean this within the context of members genuinely being confused about an aspect of the site, a thread ruling, anything at all, and are asking for feedback. If members begin to get the idea that the staff cannot be approached, then that is a very, very big problem that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

That said, this by no means applies to everyone on the staff. There are some real sweethearts on the team who are very near and dear to my heart -- you know who you are <3

Once again apologies for editing my entire message, but I am very honestly concerned.

That is it from me, thank you.

 

[Warwick]

• Level of site-wide activity is very high, couldn't possibly make a complaint there. Only thing I've noticed is despite an incredibly large staff team, reports on messages can take a long time to be resolved unless you mention it tactically in discord to draw their attention to it - but this could be the result of many reports, or things unseen to us, so I won't hold it against anyone.
• Level of RP activity - Very very high, there's plenty of threads and plenty of opportunities to build RP.
• Effectiveness as a group - Honestly, the staff rarely comes across as a group, more so as a collective of individuals who all act differently and with different ideals in mind. Some clearly care about the experience of players, whereas some are quite obviously putting their own experiences first.
• Member relations - Some are great, a few members of staff are very polite, approachable and even fun to have conversations with, whereas others come across as standoffish, and like any request or favour you ask of them is beneath them. I would go as far as to say some of the staff team are condescending and take joy in belittling and mocking others; and I have seen messages that would indicate to me that there are at least two members who enjoy making new players suffer PC deaths, something that's just rather inappropriate, if you ask me.
• Suggestions for improvement - There's a rather significant number of staff that need to learn how to talk to others and be polite, as well as dropping their attitudes and centrism towards killing off characters for little to no reason. Also, the not so subtle humblebragging from certain members of staff really can create an air of uncomfortable awkwardness, where the players can feel accosted and below them. Perhaps talking to the staff team en masse about this would be a good idea.
• Overall performance - Very good staff team in general, most of the good outweighs the bad, that isn't to say I haven't had bad experiences on occasion, but nothing is ever perfect anywhere. The staff team is both highly functional, and the nicer members of staff outshine the unapproachable ones.
• Anything else you want to comment on - There are a large amount of people particularly upset/angry about one particular member of staff and their attitude towards players, particularly their tendency to insult, mock and belittle them in the discord. I won't, for the sake of privacy, name names, but if necessary I can do this in a PM, inviting others who believe this individual needs speaking to.

 

[Gamov]

• Level of Site-Wide Activity: I would say excellent. Things appear to be moving smoothly in the content submissions department, and our resident New Members moderators seem to be engaging with newcomers on a regular basis. Even the Character Profiles board looks to be regularly maintained, which is saying a lot considering the sheer volume of content there. Overall, the staff seems to be very active among the community.
  
  
• Level of RP Activity: I would rate staff performance in the RP as exceptional. When I first came here, I hardly ever saw staff members participating in threads outside a few hand-picked events. And even then it was usually just to act as a DM of sorts. The 6th timeline remedied this shortcoming in a big way, and I'm glad to see that level of enthusiasm and interaction has continued into this timeline. I feel that, almost more than anything, being active in the RP with “regular” members is crucial in helping the staff to stay up to date on where the system is working, and where it needs improvement. We have already seen some tweaks made to the rules (particularly on how the Force operates in the RP), and I feel those came about as a direct result of the staff being “in the trenches” (so to speak) and having their finger close to the pulse of the community.
  
  
• Group Effectiveness: I mean... this site has been around for a good long while now. You must be doing something right as a group to have held it together for over a decade. Like others have mentioned though, we aren't exactly privy to the how the show operates behind the curtains, so it's a bit difficult to gage this from the perspective of the average member. If the social interactions on Discord are any indication though, I would say you all appear to be comfortable with one another, so I can't imagine there is much strife behind the scenes.
  
  
• Member Relations: Overall, I would say this needs improvement.
  
  Setting aside my own clashes I have had with staff in the past, I would tend to agree with the sentiments expressed by others that there are some staff members who are more approachable than others. Without naming names, I will say that there are a couple who seem fairly... intractable when it comes to dealing with OOC disputes. Without getting into any specifics, I remember an OOC debate boiling over not too long ago over (of all things) a PvP thread that resulted in a pair of newcomers parting ways with the site. Doubtless there was blame to be had on all sides (I wasn't involved in the least beyond being an objective observer), but I feel perhaps a bit more finesse could have been taken to politely address the concerns those members had (as opposed to publicly banning one of them).
  
  Granted, this incident may have been the exception rather than the rule, but when OOC disputes involving a staff member(s) get ugly in public, it is incumbent upon the staff member(s) to set the example rather than chum the waters and fan the flames. And I get that it is not always easy to express oneself through text on an RP site (many a time has my sarcasm missed the mark thanks to these limitations), but there is such a thing as tenor, and when a staff member choses to tell a member that they feel “more inspired to attack them in a thread now” based on their reaction to an OOC debate (whether or not they felt that member was overrating is irrelevant), that reflects poorly.
  
  
• Suggestions for Improvement: Nothing I can really think of, to be honest. Other than my above point on member relations, the staff seems to be effective both as a group, and as individuals. I haven't really had a chance to delve into this timeline quite as much as I would like just yet, but everything seems to be running as intended with far fewer hiccups than we saw at this same time in the last timeline.
  
  
• Overall Performance: Excellent.
  
  
• Additional Comments: None

 

[TheWonderousBat]

Level of Site-Wide Activity: Outstanding. Although I am in an different timezone than the majority here, at no point have I waited more than 24 hours for a response to any question or comment given. With Discord also being widely used, comments and questions are much quicker and easier to pose to particular staff members.

Level of RP Activity: Again, outstanding. The majority of staff have full ingratiated themselves in a variety of RP roles. There isn't a faction here without a fair number of staff who are willing to plot and thread at any time.

Group Effectiveness: I shadow some of the comments made above, the staff always appear to be unified and in agreement with each other on a wide variety of topics. I'm unsure if that is because they feel the same, or they have discussed it at length between one another, but it presents a united and fair platform. I'd also like to add that the rare occasion we have trouble-makers (going off the Discord) the staff are always on hand to handle matters appropriately, which ties into the high staff activity.

Member Relations: While the vast majority of the staff are approachable for any means, be it clarification or a serious discussion on rules and suggestions, I feel that some are exceedingly sarcastic and, for want of a better word, sassy. I understand that some things appear obvious to the staff, and I can totally forgive the sarcasm when it's something that has been answered a thousand times (or something that is in black and white in the rules, a few clicks away.) However, there has been some times where the sarcasm and tone I have received from some staff has been utterly unwarranted and out of place, leaving a very sour taste.

Suggestions for Improvement: Drop the sass a notch or two. Honestly though, that is the only thing that I have had issue with.

Overall Performance: Outstanding. Beside comments mentioned above, I honestly feel that the staff here are some of the best I am in contact with. Fair, expressive, patient and responsive to most matters within a very short period of time.

Additional Comments: I'd like to take this opportunity to not only thank the staff for the expansive and elaborate new Timeline, which must have taken a fair while to set up, but for their activity. With the level system working as it should (big fan) I feel that many of the staff have joined threads or roleplayed characters/situations where perhaps they never would have before. This genuinely makes it a more enjoyable experience, and comes across as a very fair environment for all involved.

 

[TWD26]

I'm enjoying the site and the TL as a whole. These are just my general thoughts off the cuff, but these are some of the things that I've noticed good and bad for the site--as is this is just my opinion, and doesn't reflect what others may feel.

1. Activity: There seems to be a great stream of threads and activity within the RP boards, this is a great sign that a site is healthy and stable to new members or visitors looking to join the site. The quality on posts are pretty good, and everyone writes as professionally as they can. This is in credit to the whole staff team, as they have made a TL that really feels fresh this time around. Things don't seem to be the generic sith invading the core worlds and completely demolishing the republic like it was the past two timelines, I like the concept of Jedi, Exiles not exactly at their throat in terms of galactic war--there is a nice emphasis on story this time around instead of pvp, which I personally like.
2. The Tech Boards: I'm loving the tech boards and the tech team. I get along well with everyone on the board and I enjoy creating stuff for the forum. I really love the generitech forum option, as I've been able to create many great products. If I had any criticism, it would be that I think we should turn more emphasis on generic mass use armor, ships, and weapons -- especially armor -- to the generitech forum, that way more people can use the armor instead of being exclusively "player a's armor".
3. Too much reliance on discord: I think as a site we use too much emphasis on planning stories and events in discord. For members such as myself, who don't have much free time, it's very hard to keep up with everything--and I wish that we would do more planning and spit-balling on site -- though this is a minor gripe of mine.
4. Staff Consistency: Overall I've never had drama on the site, and everyone is nice enough when I have talked to them. Though I feel that in RP and OOC that some of the admins are hard to approach and for myself I don't want to seem like I'm interrupting or stepping on the toes of some of the admins and their plots. I don't PvP so I can't really answer to that sort of thing.
5. I feel like an outsider: I'm not going to lie, I've talked to quite a few others who feel the same way as me. It does feel like there is an inner circle of cool stories and plots going on, but it feels almost impossible to approach and join these things. At times it can feel like really important site wide events are happening, and they are open to anyone -- just like the Jedi trial and the convocation, funeral, etc -- but, it seems as if for the most part that it's admin characters and their friends that respond to each other in these threads, while the rest sort of idle post. It's not a major gripe, but a few of us do feel like we're just minor blips in the whole site story--who want to break in and write stories with some cool characters, but there just feels like there's an OOC circle that you gotta get into-- I don't know, I could be overthinking it.
6. Can we get a military faction? I've talked to a few others and have been planning weapons, armors, ships, as well as unit formations and training. I know that we can make our own faction, but it takes a lot of work to get plot approvals, threads, and then ultimately a faction approval process. I know that it's a niche market and really not something that many would like to do--I mean how many people would really want to play just some faceless grunt? But, anyhow it feels like I need to sit and wait for the Sith Empire to rise, as there is no GAR forces right now. I know that there are royal armies on Alderaan and what not, but house wars and fighting isn't really something that interests us.
7. Faction approval: I haven't submitted any factions, but it does seem like it takes a long time for those to get approved.

Overall: I enjoy the site and the stories being told.

 

[Prudence]

I've been here a while, I've seen the staff come and go, and I've done a couple of these. Between Staff Feedbacks I will say that I've seen a lot of change in how things are handled, some of it good, some of it not so good. Here are my observations.

• Level of site-wide activity
  • My old complaints of laziness and never being on the site have been fixed quite a bit which is good. There's almost always an admin or owner online, and a few mods. I feel like things have been addressed relatively quickly, which is a pro, but then again I haven't needed a lot from the staff this timeline so I can't comment too much on that. I will say that profile approvals take a while, but that's probably because there's an unholy amount of them, and I only recently learned we don't need to wait for approval for non faction stuff so that's not so bad.
• Level of RP activity
  • Gotta agree with BN on this one, it's gotten a lot better. Used to be pretty poor levels of RP activity, now pretty much all of you RP so that's good. I would say that it seems like some of the staff always have a central part to the story (I'm not saying all of you do, just some), and that's something I'd love to see moved away from. I could really devil's advocate this from either direction, because you guys deserve to enjoy some writing and get to do stuff, so again not too bad an issue.
• Effectiveness as a group
  • Pretty effective I'd go to say. I know that you guys keep up the outward facing wall from my time on staff, and that Mods -> Owners are encouraged (read instructed) not to disagree with other members of staff publicly so that probably feeds into it a good deal. Honestly I don't feel like that's necessary, because I think seeing that you guys aren't clones of each other would help dissolve some of the "admins r out to get us" mindset. I don't have any illusions that it will actually go anywhere so that's just my two cents on something I don't see changing.
• Member relations - do you feel the admins are accessible, nice, fun, etc?
  • Nah not really. I've gotta agree with part of what BN said here (inb4 I start looking like a BN sockpuppet <3 u BN). There are some of you on staff that I'm personal friends with, and of course those individuals will be accessible, nice, fun because well I don't really choose to be friends with people that aren't lol At the same time I've seen a lot of yelling at members for too much talking in different channels on discord, IE commenting on a meme in the meme channel, or posting a meme as reaction in the general chat. At the end of the day this just feels unnecessary because it's a discord server lol I could understand if it was excessive but for small slip ups it doesn't really seem necessary to say something.
  • I've also seen members of staff snap at members on Discord for things that seem otherwise innocuous. In example (and I'm just trying to quote instances that I've seen happen don't slap me with a language / TOS violation pls)
    I remember seeing a member use some kind of response like "Bitch please" or "Bet bitch" or something stupid like that, a saying people frequently say. A member of staff (that from my time in Staff and leadership positions I know for a fact was never fond of said member) took the comment as personally replying to said member of staff as "bitch" and threatened to permanently ban the member if he did it again.
    
    This just seemed kinda over the top, as I've definitely seen staff or friends of staff make the exact same responses in the public discord and it was pretty clear that he wasn't directing it as a personal insult. >>Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to advocate for any specific member that I feel was treated unfairly, I just happened to be watching chat when I watched that go down and it was excessive and unnecessary. Its a particular instance, but there are plenty of others that I've witnessed, several times a week, of a member getting threatened for something that was plainly innocent but was taken personally. So take that for what you will.
• Suggestions for improvement
  • I'd honestly just suggest chilling out some. The way that Staff are almost expected to walk this fine line and always show some professional front, and the harshness with which I've seen the staff deal with members over inconsequential incidents is unnecessary. At the end of the day, this is a roleplay website where we come to pretend to be Star Wars characters lol it's not that serious, and I'd love to see you guys cut loose a little bit more / not focus so much on slights / power / etc. while still maintaining the efficiency improvements that you've found.
• Overall performance
  • More efficient and higher performing than you've ever been, though not as approachable as you've been before. You're all doing better, but I know things could be done even better with some improvements.
• Anything else you want to comment on
  • It's been a while since you guys have done one of these, but you should do them more. I remember after the last one a prevailing sentiment going through oldtimers was that the head admin at the time (i'm not naming names as you guys have asked us to keep from singling anyone out) only put one out occasionally to make it seem like the staff was actually listening and to calm people down without changing anything. A lot of the changes that you guys have pulled off are pretty positive, hopefully that sentiment won't be what follows this feedback review and we can see even more improvements. :)

 

[Mr.BossMan]

• Level of site-wide activity - There always seems to be an Admin on at all times during the day or night. It is very helpful knowing that whenever you may have a question to ask there is always someone ready with an answer. This is comforting to know, even for someone like me who doesn't ask to much. I'm sure it's also good for newer members of the site seeming how they may have more questions.

• Level of RP activity - Some of the most successful and well remembered threads are those with an Admin involved. I've been a member on the site for a fair amount of time now and I must say I think this is the most active timeline in regards to the staff. It's encouraging to know that the people that enforce the rules are friendly enough to engage members in roleplay. I think it makes them more approachable.

• Effectiveness as a group - I couldn't say for certain but from what I can tell everything seems to be running smoothly. Also I've never seen a disagreement between the staff. I'm sure you probably have had disagreements in the past but it's very professional not to let us as members see them.

• Member relations - do you feel the admins are accessible, nice, fun, etc? - On the discord chat they do seem very friendly. Raydo helped me once on the Site and he was easy enough to converse with.

• Suggestions for improvement - Nothing really, everything seems good.

• Overall performance - 10/10

• Anything else you want to comment on - I won't expand on it very much but I do think the Discord server has severally severed our connection to the Site as a whole. Having a live chat on Discord has made that much more of a viable resource to ask questions, talk ideas, and generally speak to one another. Because of this I've seen less in the OOC boards on the site. This isn't really a problem, but it can be concerning.

 

[Brick]

Well, first off, I want to say, that this is a wonderful site, being introduced to it, I think roughly one month ago, and I already am chugging along with my amazing character, who just goes to bars and gets drunk. Here's what I think of the admins.

• Level of site-wide activity:

I feel good, that there are admins at every time of the day and night. I can always ask questions or tips and the admins are always helpful. As for fellow members, everyone seems active during the day, where ever they live, and less active at night.

• Level of RP activity

I must say, that threads with admins are more active, than those that are not, but I don't know why, other than that, I feel that everyone is active.

• Effectiveness as a group

As a group, and team, everyone puts information together and everyone helps out, everyone posts (so far)

• Member relations - do you feel the admins are accessible, nice, fun, etc?

Personally, I feel lie the admins are very helpful, and like the idea that admins are elected and chosen from by the other admins, so that we are talking to veteran members.

• Suggestions for improvement
• Overall performance

10/10 it's an amazing site, and will continue to RP.

• Anything else you want to comment on

 

[Green Ranger]

Like TWD26 I'm just going to give a few thoughts and observations, since I don't think the criteria list really covers some of the things I'd like to try and point out. These are just my observations from an old timer - take them or leave them as you will.

1. Trust: I don't feel like the admins trust the memberbase as a collective whole anymore - or at least, not as much as maybe they once used to. This timeline is built with a lot of admin oversight and required approval - and while that's okay in small doses, sometimes it feels like you can't so much as sneeze anymore without requiring an admin to okay it. It's stifling, and there is a certain level of anxiety involved in that you can feel like you're walking on eggshells to make sure everything is just so unless you piss off a mod or admin.

2. Conduct: From what I've seen as well (and this may simply be a by-product of the greater workload of this timeline), but it feels like staff members have less time to dedicate to individual cases, or they're less willing to dedicate time to individual cases. There's an impression of 'if it's no good enough, we'll just shut it down,' rather than 'let's work together to see if and how we can make this work.' At other times, staff members almost seem like they're annoyed that they have to be called in to rule on something, and that annoyance can translate into the effort and conduct involved in making decisions and rulings.

I'll simply say - if you find being part of the staff inconvenient, tiresome or a chore, then quit so someone more enthusiastic and driven can take your place. It benefits the entire site to have staff that love what they do. And after all, this is supposed to be a bit of fun, a recreational activity, a hobby. If it's not fun, then why do it?

I've noticed a distinct reduction of discussion happening, and there have been instances where that's translated into staff members going off half-cocked out of impatience. That's not a good look, and it doesn't help foster that relationship of trust between the members and the staff that is vital for site health, either. Being staff doesn't give you a free pass to not explain or justify yourself - in fact by all rights you should be held to even higher standards as an example to the rest of the site.

3. Discord: I'm not on the site's main Discord channels. This is partially due to my own lack of activity in the RP, but mostly it's because I've heard of how bad it is with the shouting matches and arguing and attitudes - from the staff, no less.

Whether or not this is actually the case, I don't know since I'm not on it, but *if* that is the case then that is a major, major problem and staff conduct and professionalism needs to be seriously discussed. Staff set the example of acceptable behaviour for the members, so some professionalism, maturity and level-headedness is crucial.

That being said, way too much happens on Discord now and the site needs to be utilized more for its intended purpose. SWRP has always had a solid 'no chatbox' stance for the main website due to the belief that it will kill the active, site-based community. I would argue that Discord is becoming just as damaging.

5. Community Health: At a glance, login numbers are pretty low. Especially for a relatively new timeline, I'm used to seeing much greater numbers than that. There are also fewer and fewer long-term members sticking around that aren't in staff positions, at least based on my own observations. Now, I don't think the site's necessarily struggling member-wise, but the lack of member retention - and the relatively low login numbers for this time of year - should at least be a prompt to discuss how to open up the site a bit more and maybe be a little more accommodating and less overwhelming for members.

 

[Black Noise]

snip.

Being here for a while does not equate knowledge of the admins relations to the memberbase. You’ve been inactive for longer than even myself, and that’s a statement in and of itself. The relations between admins and users has changed for the better over the course of the last year, time that you’ve spent not around boli. I feel your first point is just an extension of, perhaps, your own personal relationships with the admins and not the memberbase as a whole.

Your second point is ridiculous. As an old timer, you should know that the staff has done nothing but try and work out every little dispute between members in drawn out and extensive manners. Their shortness in recent times is only the result of knowledge that some things, like the death of characters, must simply be resolved quickly and cannot be ‘discussed.’ EDIT: Thinking past this, I really can’t find a situation where the admins have been short or ‘half cocked’ towards members. They’ve given succinct and blunt answers before, but that’s to be expected. They’re admins, not your mother.

Again, everything in this seems like your personal relationship degrading between you and the admin team.

Your third point, before discord we had Skype, before Skype we had msn messenger, and you were on both msn and Skype, highly active. I feel that your complaints about hearsay, as you yourself state you’re not on discord, really have no bearing on the general pulse and feelings of the memberbase. So we can leave this point of yours and ignore it

On your fifth(?) point, there’s no way to put this other than you’re simply wrong. The site is thriving with more active RPs than I’ve seen in years. Admins can not control how many people join this site and they can not control who this site retains, but they can have an influence on activity. With activity being our real measure of success, the admins have done a fantastic job.

I realize this is a staff review thread and an arguement or set of complaints here is not necessary. Which is the exact reason I posted, because everything you’ve written @Boli boils down to either an argument starter because of your personal breakdown of relations or a complaint without merit.

 

[Green Ranger]

snip

I'm not continuing a back and forth with you, but you are completely off base with your assumption. You couldn't be more wrong, so don't speak for me or my motivations. Thanks.