Poll: Small contributions to reduce ST workload

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Poll: Small contributions to reduce ST workload

Postby Sayana on January 29th, 2015, 7:30 pm

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When I say "contribute" it could refer to city development (NPCs and locations), creation of prompts (ideas for calendars, seasonal challenges, prompts, quests), guest moderation (though this may take more than 4 hours), grading (you guys contribute a lot), OOC guides for new characters in the city, etc.

I'm trying to think of alternative ways to alleviate the burdens of work on STs. I'm curious as to whether people are more inclined to help if it only means small portions of work. I'm also wondering if there are barriers stopping people from helping (not knowing how to help, not feeling appreciated, not gaining rewards) or whether people simply don't have the time or desire to help.

I'm also wondering if people are already helping in small ways (and therefore my ideas wouldn't benefit Mizahar since they are already implemented).
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Poll: Small contributions to reduce ST workload

Postby Gossamer on January 29th, 2015, 10:33 pm

The problem is.... one to four hours in three months isn't even going to make any kind of impact at all on an ST's duties or burdens.
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Poll: Small contributions to reduce ST workload

Postby Sayana on January 29th, 2015, 11:56 pm

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If one or two people spend 1-4 hours in a season then no, it will not make a difference. However, in a city like Syliras there are over 50 people in the character registry. Maybe on average half of them might be inclined to do one small project each (some might do 2 some might do none). And more importantly, if they do a targeted project - one that is useful and productive to the ST then they won't be developing 'fluff'. This will result with 25-100 hours of work being done during the season that the ST doesn't need to do. Yes, they still have to coordinate (unless they delegate that to someone else) and they have to check it and read it over but it would still be less work.

I'm mostly checking if there are people willing to help but don't know how to do it productively and are not willing to invest large amounts of time. This is not about solving the problem of cities that don't have STs, this is about relieving the work in cities that already have STs and focusing efforts of people who would like to help rather than hoping that they might develop useful things.

I realize that reward systems have been implemented before. And I've heard that they haven't necessarily worked. I don't know if in the past there were explicit tasks or development projects specified. Just saying "Develop NPCs" is too vague and I doubt people would know where to begin. But if there was a list of NPC names or shops that need NPCs (just sticking to the NPC example), then people would have a better idea of where to focus their development.

However, if a more specific tasked based way of organizing development has already been tried and didn't work, then maybe my ideas aren't useful here. I just figure that there are still people showing up in the World Development forum asking "How can I help?" and often I find myself wondering how I can help a busy ST. But these people may not be willing to spend the time that a ST position requires and I just thought there might be a spot for these people too.
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Poll: Small contributions to reduce ST workload

Postby Gossamer on January 30th, 2015, 1:22 am

I think you overestimate the amount of active people in the game currently. For example... Syliras has 36 active threads right now, half of which if not more are posted by the same people... so say out of 36 active players there's only actually 10-18 people really doing most of that posting or less. Then remove those pcs that have staff alts... your down to 5-10 people at the most. At that rate, you aren't going to make a dent.

And its one of the most active places.

We have plenty of volunteer opportunities. The problem is, all the graders are not actively grading (just a very few select hard working ones), no one is volunteering for mentors, and there's very little really ACTIVE development going on despite the new Scribe program.

We are yanking all the 'bribery' functionality of say the perk point systems into one universal place because as I expected, moderators changed points amounts, started a point arms race as to who could offer more points for developing the same thing in their city, and basically abused the system that should have been really streamlined. THATS why its going into one system eventually under the world development forum. This has been an announcement for a while and people know this transition is happening when higher ups get time.

So... while its great you are conducting a poll... 1-4 hrs every three months by say 5-10 active people is not going to make much of an impact. If its there for them to do now and they aren't doing it... then what's to get them motivated to do so via a poll? The only real true and honest thing we can say is that we need the help and that mizahar can't run without volunteerism.

We've said that.

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Poll: Small contributions to reduce ST workload

Postby Aren on January 30th, 2015, 1:47 am

The real problem I've always experienced with creating for the lore page or anything like that is that I don't know where to start. Yet, I read others' articles and sometimes think, "well this might be a good idea for this particular article" though never say anything because I don't feel it's really my place to say.

Perhaps strategic division of labor might lend some assistance to the cause here. It's hard to do an entire project all by yourself or to interfere in someone else's, but when you're only responsible for a part of it, it might seem less daunting and get more people to try.

I think if you had several people developing the background for NPCs under specific guidelines given by someone authorized to say, state the level of skills these NPCs could have, then it might be productive. If you have ten people willing to help, you could empower one to decide what skills they should have (I assume this would need some kind of dispensation) seven to create the background for a dozen or so NPCs (or however many are needed) and then two to double check the work for errors and such.

This distribution is just an example, obviously, but something like this might work if properly implemented. I don't know exactly what an ordinary contributor is authorized to create when it comes to things like NPC development or city development or whatever area is in need of work, but if we try it and it comes out all wrong, nothing created using this format has to be implemented.

Really, the most concerning issue I can see is deciding who is knowledgeable enough when it comes to lore and such to entrust with the responsibility of checking the work and coming up with reasonable NPC skill sets.

Honestly I have no idea if it would work (or even if its been tried and failed), and I don't think rewards should be given for participating, but if someone sent me a PM with a name and a skill set it would take me 5 minutes to come up with a three paragraph back story if I don't have to worry too much about potential lore conflicts and whatnot. Someone else can check that and we can all do a part of the overall job and possibly get something done.
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Poll: Small contributions to reduce ST workload

Postby Sayana on January 30th, 2015, 2:19 am

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Just a quick confirmation. Although I've been using NPCs frequently as an example, this could extend to storytelling related items like writing a single post prompt (not a full moderated thread but an interesting event like a fire or a riot or something more creative to start conflict in a thread).

Also, even shorter would be the calendar events/prompts that many cities have, or the seasonal challenges.
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