What's on the Agenda

[Alain]

Hey,

So I was reading through some old Forum posts and there was an aspect about the system that I think we should try to bring back/that I think was really useful. The overall formality of the system was a bit to confining but I think we need an Agenda Thread again.

Having an Agenda thread helps players feel like they can make suggestions. It shows that the site is a constant work in progress and that the admins/mods are open to suggestions about how to improve it.

I think the Suggestion Board can be a bit intimidating. Instead of having a thread that basically says, "hey we're always looking to improve this or that here is what we're discussing next" we have a board where individual players have to stick their necks out to make a suggestion. From a player side it can feel like you're rocking the boat or even that you're criticizing the admins or mods by pointing out something that you may see as a problem. And I don't think thats a feeling anyone wants to inspire. Admins and mods can't be everywhere. Often players will notice that something is not working at a lower level and they should feel comfortable saying something.

And, for bigger issues, players should get the feeling that their admin and mods are open to having a discussion about something. When you see, "Ok we're going to discuss morph pool changes soon," on the agenda you feel like the issue is seen, known about and getting dealt with. But if you don't see anything anywhere you may feel like you're the only one who has your particular issue when it may be a lot of people are thinking the same thing.

Not making much sense anymore. Can anyone else speak on this issue?

[Drake]

How dare you suggest making any change to the site. The site is perfect as is! (kidding, kidding)

Actually, I like the idea of having a place to go see what potential issues the site may have. Sometimes suggestions get buried or forgotten if nobody posts anything for a while. That doesn't meant the problem went away. It just means nobody had anything left to add. Sometimes threads go stagnant like that for one reason or another.

Also, it is always nice to make it easier for people to communicate with the "higher ups." I have been on all sides of the scenario suggesting or hearing ideas between member and staff. Sometimes it can be intimidating, on both ends.

But I guess, being too close to the recent changes myself, I don't really know what to include on an Agenda. What did you have in mind, or where would be a good place to start?

[Alain]

Well I guess the issue of getting the Factions started should be at the top. Then any morph pool changes that we may want to make and what to make classes count for if anything. The last two issues may be the same or different depending on what solution we arrive at. Then the issue of what the leveling system should be after 900 can be revived.

The best thing about the Agenda is that you can modify it. If more pressing issues come up they can be added and put above the less pressing issues. But if there is nothing pressing there is no reason not to work on long term projects like the morph pool changes. And, frankly, I think figuring out where the Academy stands as far as game mechanics go is at least a moderately pressing issue because it will be harder to make changes once we start getting new people without worrying about being unfair to those that already went through it.

EDIT: As for where it should be, I'm not sure what the purpose is of having a Suggestions Board separate from the Forum except for special, constant suggestion threads like New Cities and New Morphs. But I suppose an Agenda thread can be in the forum and maybe people can make suggestions, "let's put this on the agenda." Then, when the mods are ready to talk about it, they can open a thread to discuss it in the forum. Or just combine the two boards. People could make suggestions and the mods can add it to the Agenda. Maybe lock the thread until they're ready to talk about it if something more pressing is being discussed.

[Alain]

WE NEED AN AGENDA!

Ok, I'll be obnoxious too and hope it pays off. If we are going to have regular meetings (bi-weekly, weekly, monthly whatever) then you need an agenda BEFORE the meeting starts. I'm all for hanging out with you all and sharing funny stories but, call me stodgy, if I join a chat to get work done I want to get work done. We can hang out after we do what we need to do. And there is no better way to ensure that we go off track than to have no track for us to follow.

So, I propose that an agenda be permanently posted somewhere on site. I don't care who keeps it updated or who contributes to what's on it, we can figure out those details later, as long as there is one. And we stick to it when we have meetings so that things get done in a timely fashion. Like I said, I like hanging out with all of you, but I can do that on my own time. If we are going to have a pre determined time to meet then meetings should really be no longer than an hour, tops. Half an hour ideally since this is a website and not a bigger organization. And, if you're going to invite the entire site (which I think is a good idea) the meetings are only going to get more unstructured, not less, as more people join if you don't have an agenda.

And an agenda is the most basic thing needed to run a meeting. Hopefully we'd also have some sort of parliamentary procedure in place so that people don't just talk over each other, something that is very easy to do in a chat, but, again, those details can be worked out after we get the basics down.