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Community / A Treatise on: How to get things done within the community; Also how not to
« on: February 12, 2013, 01:01:47 am »
I am writing this, for those who have been living under a rock on the forums, to address the mess that is what has happened.
What the cause was, is not important, rather the effects it has had:
The Community has been dissatisfied - to use an understated word - with the Development team of the FSE and have taken to various forms of action, to try and get changes made to the way in which the Dev team operates within and around the community. Several changes have been put forward to address this matter, in the hope it is enough to keep the peace between the community and the Dev team.
Now, while the measures put forward into the public sphere already can be debated as to whether they are enough or not(which is not what I am here to discuss, and neither shall you).
Different opinions from thereon in, having the need felt to express them, were expressed, continually, fervently and of course with little regard to personal self preservation, humility or sometimes sanity. The logic of peoples complaints could be called into question, not of the basis of the complaint; its merits; its advantages and disadvantages; its strength when scrutinised... but rather, the manner and nature of how these complaints were aired.
Hekko would be a prime example of a well thought-out post, on what was wrong - in his opinion - with the relationship between the Dev's and the Community. What followed was not a debate, discussion or a coming together of minds. Instead what followed was personal grievances; personal goals, aspirations and desires; and in general, a Clusterfuck of poorly aimed white noise which unless targeted by several specific individuals would just do damage to the community, and give no improvements at all.
The above, simply put is what this community never should do again, and cease doing currently, for the following reasons:
- Any valid points that Hekko put forward, were largely lost to the majority of the community due to, self interest, or childish simplifications of what was said. Any impact he could have had, would have been diluted, and misconstrued by some, and by the end of the thread, apparently a damn Revolution had been called for. A great opportunity for debate and possible pressure being put on the Dev team... scuppered by the very community who it would have aided the most.
- If there is an absence of an answer, one will be provided for you. In the thread and others, when people were asked their oh so high and mighty opinions, about a Solution none were given. No possible solution. Quite frankly this is shocking and shameful as a perfect opportunity was at hand. A direct line to the Developers, while under pressure to change in some way shape or form. No one stepped forward with any solutions, who was involved in this the discussion, neither any of those asked. If there was more of a debate then solution may have been discussed but, as alluded to earlier, this was scuppered. The result was, for better or worse, chosen for you, by the very Developers you sought to change. From their position it was all they could do, in the vacuum of anything helpful from the community.
- Greed. I think its clear who I am addressing here, though I won't shame him by mentioning his name. Grabbing more power for yourself at everyone else expense, damages the community. Therefore the community shouldn't allow it, nor should have this person have the audacity to turn a fragile situation into his own personal Revolution and Crusade in an attempt to benefit from it. You managed to harm the community more during this period, than any other single individual, due to the attention you focused on yourself, as well as the hijacking of every topic possible to slander the Dev team, for the sake of slander, rather than resorting to constructive criticism. Every action you took had an Opportunity Cost for the rest of the community. I hope you learn a lesson from this.
So, with this in mind, you may be asking: Well what is your solution, your recommendation? I haven't seen you around trying to help.
That's the point.
The best way to help this community is to have genuine and meaningful communication between everyone.
- No rants, about the wrongs, without actual solutions to the problems as well. You may moan as much as you like but nothing will change until a solution can be worked out. As opposed to popular belief the Dev team are not some power hungry entity who seek to control every aspect of the community, rather steer it intact so that: Bottom line: Money is made, when games are sold. Acting as Dictators is not in their best interests unless it is the only option to deal with the current situation from their point of view. Their point of view, as with all humans is limited, and likely in some way flawed. Therefore, making suggestions, clearly, seriously, and in a presentable fashion will have a much greater impact than 100 whines on a thread.
- Its about the system stupid. OK, personal bias entering in here. The FSE structure, is pretty poor in terms of Scrutiny/Oversight. Actions taken are hard to validate, and it is rare for a member of the community to call out an admin action, and for their statement to be beyond all doubt, be proven incorrect. An example of this is, conspiracy theories, centring around events, which are not helped by poor communication afterwards, due to pure laughable strength of the claim, yet as it is left un-addressed, rumour can take hold and develop unnecessarily. A community needs to be able to see what happens and why in order to function without turning into a hate filled flame war. There needs to be a more transparent system in which the admins carry out their role, which is not Authoritarian, but necessary. More transparency would also avoid the possibility of any abuses of power, going on unjustly.
- They say a Picture is worth 1,000 words. Something similar applies when dealing with this community. A half an hour teamspeak conversation can result in a more fruitful result than an entire months effort on the forums. If you have a serious point to make; a well thought-out, a well planned and potentially beneficial improvement or suggestion then, ignore the forums. Go strait to those with the ability, and the desire to improve the community. I am talking about the Developers who, want this community to keep going and thriving. Some want it strong as they love and enjoy it. Others want it to stay, just as strong, and even more thriving than it currently is, so they can make more money, when release day comes. Lets not kid ourselves here, that's reality. But the point stands. Talk.
----------------------------------
To summarise:
The forums are a mess. The community on the forums is atrocious at times and can be very unhelpful. This needs to change.
The community needs to have less tit for tat rivalries, and more in-depth, longer posts. That is a good first step.
Finally people need to keep in mind, love them or hate them: Without the community this game is dead. Don't weaken it.
You should criticise the FSE, but you need to criticise it constructively! No complain should be made, about the system, without suggesting how to try and fix it!
The role of admins is important, but with such power, there needs to be checks upon their power for the community to see. An increase in the FSE's site transparency should be of paramount importance in the upcoming weeks.
Make use of all methods of communication like TeamSpeak, as talking directly to people, bypasses the bullshit of the forums. More progress can be made that way.
Ultimately the community needs to grow up. And I hope it does, as I want this game to go on for as long as it can! There are many good people in the community and by and large everyone has positive merits, but people need to step up, and work positively when it comes to the larger scale community.
I have no faith in humanity.
I have faith in individuals.
Become those individuals.
What the cause was, is not important, rather the effects it has had:
The Community has been dissatisfied - to use an understated word - with the Development team of the FSE and have taken to various forms of action, to try and get changes made to the way in which the Dev team operates within and around the community. Several changes have been put forward to address this matter, in the hope it is enough to keep the peace between the community and the Dev team.
Now, while the measures put forward into the public sphere already can be debated as to whether they are enough or not(which is not what I am here to discuss, and neither shall you).
Different opinions from thereon in, having the need felt to express them, were expressed, continually, fervently and of course with little regard to personal self preservation, humility or sometimes sanity. The logic of peoples complaints could be called into question, not of the basis of the complaint; its merits; its advantages and disadvantages; its strength when scrutinised... but rather, the manner and nature of how these complaints were aired.
Hekko would be a prime example of a well thought-out post, on what was wrong - in his opinion - with the relationship between the Dev's and the Community. What followed was not a debate, discussion or a coming together of minds. Instead what followed was personal grievances; personal goals, aspirations and desires; and in general, a Clusterfuck of poorly aimed white noise which unless targeted by several specific individuals would just do damage to the community, and give no improvements at all.
The above, simply put is what this community never should do again, and cease doing currently, for the following reasons:
- Any valid points that Hekko put forward, were largely lost to the majority of the community due to, self interest, or childish simplifications of what was said. Any impact he could have had, would have been diluted, and misconstrued by some, and by the end of the thread, apparently a damn Revolution had been called for. A great opportunity for debate and possible pressure being put on the Dev team... scuppered by the very community who it would have aided the most.
- If there is an absence of an answer, one will be provided for you. In the thread and others, when people were asked their oh so high and mighty opinions, about a Solution none were given. No possible solution. Quite frankly this is shocking and shameful as a perfect opportunity was at hand. A direct line to the Developers, while under pressure to change in some way shape or form. No one stepped forward with any solutions, who was involved in this the discussion, neither any of those asked. If there was more of a debate then solution may have been discussed but, as alluded to earlier, this was scuppered. The result was, for better or worse, chosen for you, by the very Developers you sought to change. From their position it was all they could do, in the vacuum of anything helpful from the community.
- Greed. I think its clear who I am addressing here, though I won't shame him by mentioning his name. Grabbing more power for yourself at everyone else expense, damages the community. Therefore the community shouldn't allow it, nor should have this person have the audacity to turn a fragile situation into his own personal Revolution and Crusade in an attempt to benefit from it. You managed to harm the community more during this period, than any other single individual, due to the attention you focused on yourself, as well as the hijacking of every topic possible to slander the Dev team, for the sake of slander, rather than resorting to constructive criticism. Every action you took had an Opportunity Cost for the rest of the community. I hope you learn a lesson from this.
So, with this in mind, you may be asking: Well what is your solution, your recommendation? I haven't seen you around trying to help.
That's the point.
The best way to help this community is to have genuine and meaningful communication between everyone.
- No rants, about the wrongs, without actual solutions to the problems as well. You may moan as much as you like but nothing will change until a solution can be worked out. As opposed to popular belief the Dev team are not some power hungry entity who seek to control every aspect of the community, rather steer it intact so that: Bottom line: Money is made, when games are sold. Acting as Dictators is not in their best interests unless it is the only option to deal with the current situation from their point of view. Their point of view, as with all humans is limited, and likely in some way flawed. Therefore, making suggestions, clearly, seriously, and in a presentable fashion will have a much greater impact than 100 whines on a thread.
- Its about the system stupid. OK, personal bias entering in here. The FSE structure, is pretty poor in terms of Scrutiny/Oversight. Actions taken are hard to validate, and it is rare for a member of the community to call out an admin action, and for their statement to be beyond all doubt, be proven incorrect. An example of this is, conspiracy theories, centring around events, which are not helped by poor communication afterwards, due to pure laughable strength of the claim, yet as it is left un-addressed, rumour can take hold and develop unnecessarily. A community needs to be able to see what happens and why in order to function without turning into a hate filled flame war. There needs to be a more transparent system in which the admins carry out their role, which is not Authoritarian, but necessary. More transparency would also avoid the possibility of any abuses of power, going on unjustly.
- They say a Picture is worth 1,000 words. Something similar applies when dealing with this community. A half an hour teamspeak conversation can result in a more fruitful result than an entire months effort on the forums. If you have a serious point to make; a well thought-out, a well planned and potentially beneficial improvement or suggestion then, ignore the forums. Go strait to those with the ability, and the desire to improve the community. I am talking about the Developers who, want this community to keep going and thriving. Some want it strong as they love and enjoy it. Others want it to stay, just as strong, and even more thriving than it currently is, so they can make more money, when release day comes. Lets not kid ourselves here, that's reality. But the point stands. Talk.
----------------------------------
To summarise:
The forums are a mess. The community on the forums is atrocious at times and can be very unhelpful. This needs to change.
The community needs to have less tit for tat rivalries, and more in-depth, longer posts. That is a good first step.
Finally people need to keep in mind, love them or hate them: Without the community this game is dead. Don't weaken it.
You should criticise the FSE, but you need to criticise it constructively! No complain should be made, about the system, without suggesting how to try and fix it!
The role of admins is important, but with such power, there needs to be checks upon their power for the community to see. An increase in the FSE's site transparency should be of paramount importance in the upcoming weeks.
Make use of all methods of communication like TeamSpeak, as talking directly to people, bypasses the bullshit of the forums. More progress can be made that way.
Ultimately the community needs to grow up. And I hope it does, as I want this game to go on for as long as it can! There are many good people in the community and by and large everyone has positive merits, but people need to step up, and work positively when it comes to the larger scale community.
I have no faith in humanity.
I have faith in individuals.
Become those individuals.