Community Leaders Program

[TwoCents]

SStunned with the assignment of CL's and from new non battletested people i have only seen recently before the sudden assigmnet. Seems to be more mayhem than ever. IMHO .

[Faith_4]

Most of the dates you'll see below, I have gotten from the forum member's user page. It should reflect when they joined the game/forum. As for any Blue Byte employees, this too reflects when they joined the game/forum but NOT when they started working at the company.

Community Leader game start dates:
July 21, 2011 ShuttlePilot created on Zeus
November 09, 2011 Aquila created on Zeus
December 15, 2011 AlphaSmitey created on Zeus
April 22, 2012 immaduck created on Zeus

June 30, 2013 Aquila-Plume created on Ares
December 03, 2013 immaduck1 created on Ares

BB forum sign up dates:
April 24, 2013 BB_Effiluna’s created on Zeus
October 08, 2013 BB_Rawren created on Zeus

It wasn't as obvious back then as it is now, as we were not officially CL yet and did not have the change of text color. That still didn't stop us from learning how to best help the community. We will probably still be learning, until we retire from the CL position, as this game has so many different possibilities and there are still many things to come from this program. And now for an idea of how long this program has been in the works.

Community Leader program participation dates:
Unfortunately I'm not 100% of the exact date ShuttlePilot and AlphaSmitey joined the alpha phase but once I find out I will update this info. I think it was quite a few months before we started in the beta phase, but that's just a guess.
July 25, 2013 Aquila is invited to participate in the community leader program's beta phase
July 26, 2013 immaduck is invited to participate in the community leader program's beta phase
January 16, 2014 Community Leader program is officially rolled out and made public.


As you can see, the community leader program has been in the works for quite a few months and we have had a good amount of time in playing the game. It still won't help in getting to know us as people but that's something we'll have to do together. At least now you have an idea of just how long we've been around.

Well at least I can easily see how Ares got skipped with finding someone from our own community to be a CL, when both BBs you noted are on Zeus. I also know that you joined Ares during the balloon event (loss for what it was officially called atm and too lazy to go look it up lol). I get that Zeus is a longer standing server...guess I'm just tired of feeling like I am getting hand me downs from big brother/sister. I want my own clothes thanks :P Besides the fact that anyone in any type of real life business situations knows that when people have to divide their time/energy into two places, both of those places tend to suffer. I am not negating anyone's ability to be a leader (liaison), but I do think its set up for failure when the 2 people assigned to our community have divided interests. So I guess I am still a bit skeptical about it all and leery about voicing optimism when I see so many signs of it causing some major problems.

However, since I am a glass half full kind of person, I will say that I am happy that BBs are working with people that actually play the game to help better serve us the gamers.

[BB_Rawren]

As requested, we will be having a BB Q&A today at 4:15 PM EST. The Community Leaders will also be joining us, so bring your game-related and fun questions.

[BB_Rawren]

Spoiler

I'm on both sides of this debate... I personally think the community needs people who aren't BanBots to help create a communal atmosphere and help redirect convos that are going south--BEFORE REPORTING THEM. However, all I've seen from the one CL I was aware of (Smitey) is an advantage in trading as he spams horrible trades all day that mostly target noobs. If said n00bs ever discover the price guide then they'll likely realize that their "Community Leader" took full advantage of them, which surely wouldn't sit well... So this leads me to my first of several suggestions (some repeats from others) that I think are critical to making this successful:

1) CLs should not be permitted to advertise in Trade Chat. Their font clearly makes them stand out and provides an absolute advantage. Until this rule is implemented then I give no credibility to any of these "Leaders" who misuse their power for their own advantage (sry Smitey, I like ya and all but you can overdo it a bit with the bright green advertising of bad trades)
2) CLs should be voted in by the server they are to serve. I think this point has already been driven home...
3) Bug reporting should not be part of CLs job as rule, but instead as an exception--only when a bug is truly having negative impact on the game that makes it unplayable. Impacts to trade pricing is not justifiable, and is a rather silly argument. I can go on and on about bugs, so perhaps one of our CLs will start a thread where we can take that debate, but for now this role will clearly impact CL credibility as leaders vs. hall monitors.
4) CLs should always remember that EVERYONE is part of the community, not just those who agree with them (**cough** Aquila **cough cough**) and maintain respect even when they feel people are attacking them... you're pretty much a politician now and attacks against new ideas should be expected, and absorbed with a smile on your face while you're kissing a baby.
5) A front page post should be made immediately announcing the program. Many of us aren't forum rats searching this stuff out and are only aware of what is put on the launch page.

"Maybe with a little time you'll come to trust me and we'll start over fresh." - Aquila

Or maybe with a little time you'll prove you can push for implementation of some of this feedback and EARN our trust... A newly assigned font color =/= earned trust.


Ok Aquila, you made it clear you wanted constructive feedback--BAMM!! now you've got it.

-SG

PS: One thought on bugs for those who are having the discussion here already... Perhaps it's the developer whose poor coding led to the bug who should be penalized, not the players. I have yet to see a list of known bugs so wouldn't have a clue if I was doing something that goes against the unknown intentions that your developers failed to meet. Such a list would also satisfy those with Aquila's viewpoint, that bugs are bad because they aren't equally known amongst everyone and lead to an advantage for some and not others. This would also help facilitate a community-level conversation around any bugs and perhaps help identify those that should be reclassified as "features". Oh, and gem reward for anyone who finds and reports a bug would also be cool to flip a negative into a positive...

Just to elucidate on this CL's reporting bugs issue:

CL's absolutely can still report bugs, exploits, scams, etc., just as players are invited and encouraged to report bugs, exploits, scams, etc. This doesn't mean that CL's are snitches, tattle-tales, chat police, or any of the sort. They are players, first and foremost, concerned about the quality of the game. Bugs, exploits, and scams hurt everyone, and I would think that having players that can report these items directly to the BBs would be seen as a plus. The quicker BB knows about it, the quicker we can do something about it, right?

I know CL_Aquila went into this a bit further in the forums and you gave her quite a hard time about it, but I need to take responsibility for not communicating this aspect of the program clearly.

If you are unsure if something is a bug or an exploit, please message Support and let us know about it. You won't get in trouble for asking a question, or reporting a bug/exploit/scam.

[Thambetochen]

As requested, we will be having a BB Q&A today at 4:15 PM EST. The Community Leaders will also be joining us, so bring your game-related and fun questions.

Silly question, but, erm, where?

[BB_Rawren]

Silly question, but, erm, where?

Not a silly question - 4:15 PM EST on the Zeus server. Then 4:30 PM EST on the Ares server.

[Zeffin]

Rawern,

I would really rather have gotten some information about this event a week before it was to occur. The time stamps say that you posted tonight at 4:54pm (I'm assuming that was last night at 4:54pm), that's less than a days notice. With enough notice I could've change my schedule and be there for it. This is another item that makes me wonder how well the announcement and the rollout of this was thought through. Sorry a bit frustrated by this.

Now might be a great time to plan and announce the next one of these you are going to have. Again I'd make time if possible to be there.

Zeffin

[Greek_Spartan]

well said faith.

and i'm scratching my head trying to figure out why the q&a was never heard about before today.

i have a small nagging feeling that ares is being left in the dust of no information. i don't know about zeus

[Faith_4]

Thanks Greek. I think its the fact that I see you and others being helpful ALL the time and having a true knowledge of our server, that I get a bit vocal about how I truly feel about all of this. You, Khamuul, and so MANY others have been around for years as well and I am somewhat perturbed that some of you got passed up. Course, I am sure most of this has to do with the change of BB leadership in our community during the time the CLs were chosen; however, that isn't a good excuse in my mind. Though, I am hopeful that they will refrain from such neglect in the future and that ultimately this program will be successful.

[BB_Rawren]

Rawern,

I would really rather have gotten some information about this event a week before it was to occur. The time stamps say that you posted tonight at 4:54pm (I'm assuming that was last night at 4:54pm), that's less than a days notice. With enough notice I could've change my schedule and be there for it. This is another item that makes me wonder how well the announcement and the rollout of this was thought through. Sorry a bit frustrated by this.

Now might be a great time to plan and announce the next one of these you are going to have. Again I'd make time if possible to be there.

Zeffin

Hey Zeffin,

Thanks for bringing this up. Historically, BB Q&A's began as unannounced or occurred with very short notice, as they were planned for around the BBs free time and ever-changing schedules. However, for this kind of situation, we should change the format a bit and schedule it further in advance. We will plan another BB Q&A and give you guys a week's notice. As soon as I get the details, I'll let you know. If you still can't make the Q&A, we will still answer questions in this thread or via private message.

Further, we're going to start making use of the Calendar feature in the forums. That way, players who don't necessarily visit this thread in the forums or the main news page will be able to see information about in-game events, contests and upcoming maintenance. I'll make an official post about the calendar once we get it working.

Again, thanks for your feedback. The CL program roll-out has been admittedly slapdash - the focus was on making the program official and public since it had waiting in the rafters for far too long. Due to this focus, other details were not given as much attention as they should have or were slotted with a "we'll fix this afterwards."

The plan is to begin open nominations for the Ares server on Feb.3rd, followed shortly by Zeus open nominations. I will post more about this later. As far as the nominations go, I am open to any suggestions about format and qualifications, although keep in mind that there will be no open vote. The final decision will still be made by the community management team.