State of the Community (04/13/08)

[Ramsey]

State of the Community

The SWGEmu staff strives to be more and more user friendly every day. We have been monitoring the forums, irc, and community members in general and have compiled a list of ways we feel would overall strengthen the bonds between the project staff and community. Changes are necessary to meet our goals and will be made within a short period of time.

The purpose of these changes are all centered around the following goals;
1) Create a better environment for new and existing members on all forms of SWGEmu (TC, IRC, Forums).
2) Engage and keep the community informed on current project operations as often as possible.
3) Speed and enhance the development process by harnessing _all_ community members that have a passion to contribute.

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Biweekly Updates have been a great way to update the community on a regular basis about project operations. The problem is, these biweekly updates have become less and less "regular". Something that made it hard to produce a biweekly update was the fact that there was no structure. We had a hard time deciding what to put, and what to leave out. To combat this problem, we have created a Biweekly update outline that we feel the community should expect of us to follow and something we will use to make a BW update more enjoyable to read. The outline is as follows:

Structured Biweeklys:

1) Update Overview: (TOC)
This section of the BW contains a brief overview of what is contained in the update, organized in order by which
they appear within the update. This section may be presented with bullets or in paragraph form.

2) Body:
The body of the Biweekly update will contain major developments that have occurred since the last BW, as
well as the progress of meeting milestones/goals set in previous updates. The Body will usually contain a mix of text
and visual media, depending on what is being updated. Items within the body can pertain to any aspect of the project, such
as community, test center, or code enhancements.

3) Developer Perspective: ("Round Table")
This section will be have comments from _every_ registered developer on the project. Each developer will contribute anywhere
from a few sentences to an autobiography. The idea of this section is to have the community more aware of who
the developers are, what is going on in their e/real lives, and their thoughts on the project's latest update. Other SWGEmu staff/leaders are also welcome to contribute to this section if they choose to do so.

4) Closing:
This section should bring the Biweekly to a close while incorporating the following:
-Small tidbits that did not make it to the body, but the community should be aware of
-Where this update leaves us / What this update means to the project
-What still needs to be done / What is already in progress RIGHT NOW.
-Final comments by the Biweekly poster.

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Community Rules.

Flaming, rudeness, and other any actions that degrade from the well-being of the community will no longer be tolerated. Inappropriate nicknames, forum logins, and/or signatures will be changed. Anything that violates any kind of law, is not allowed. A fair enforcement of community rules in every form of SWGEmu is the key to maintaining a more welcoming environment.

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Treatment of New People.

If you do not want to be helpful to new members, then please keep quiet and let others be helpful. We NEED people to be in #swgemusetup, and to be friendly.

Here are some options to select from when a new person asks a question that you may or may not know the answer to:

A) Nicely direct them to the FAQ
B) Direct them to #swgemusetup
C) Answer their question, then goto A and B
D) Offer advice and help, not flames. Direct the person to someone that might be able to help.

SWGEmu, and servers powered by SWGEmu technology, will not succeed if newcomers are not treated with respect. A first impression is everything, and we as a whole (the community & swgemu staff) need to ensure the future of PreCU SWG by welcoming everyone.

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IRC.

Is not a free-for-all. #swgemu needs to maintain a respectable level of conversation. Use other rooms for anything that could be considered worse than PG-13.
We also need more people actively signing onto IRC. Signing onto the TC and never talking about the project as a whole is a terrible waste. Connecting with people on IRC leads to bugs being tackled in a much more organized fashion. The community is a team, and no team succeeds without communication.

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We hope these changes will enhance the community's experience with the project. This may come as a shock to regular forum trollers, but this project has far outgrown the "corner of the internet". The project is expanding and reaching the minds of people faster than we ever thought possible. To compensate for this fact, we as a community need to act in a more professional and constructive manner.

The next biweekly is in works and being drafted in a private forum RIGHT NOW. Expect it to be out in the near future.

[1]

To all those who needed my citation as to why I was Moderating the way I was.

Heres your answer folks

Great post Ramsey.

Have a Good Day, and be good people.

[Antisnow]

nice !

[Vrej]

I find it nostalgic that every day SWGEmu feels more and more like the live pre-cu SWG we enjoyed. What really hit the spot was the developer perspective section they added. It is greatly appreciated guys!

Here here to the Emu!

[MrBlonde]

Excellent, I will continue to do what I have done my entire time here.

Thank you for posting this Ramsey.

[Sti1garWormrider]

Well said, and i ultimately agree with the changes, and understand their importance.

[Andewa]

Fantastic! We must all do our part!

[Serifin]

Nice to see a change guys

[rohar]

Ok I promise to be good and keep the good work up guy's

[TheA-froChild]

Goodness Gracious

[Audune]

I tried this Ramsey...and it epically failed.

Or do you not remember all the "Communist!" and "What about first amendment rights" idiots?

Anyways...

[1]

Originally Posted by Audune

I tried this Ramsey...and it epically failed.

Or do you not remember all the "Communist!" and "What about first amendment rights" idiots?

Anyways...

Moderation rights FTW.

In the past few days I've deleted more posts and threads than I've read.

Trust us, this is going to work, because it has to.

[Audune]

Originally Posted by Megatron

Moderation rights FTW.

In the past few days I've deleted more posts and threads than I've read.

Trust us, this is going to work, because it has to.

Yeah, it HAD to last time I did it.... lost most of my team, IRC was a mess....I got more angry posts like "why you delete my post, cant you discuss like adults" than I EVER should have had to have seen or delt with.

Believe me...as soon as you start saying "Moderators have to do this" and "Obey or be banned" you'll have a ban list longer than the empire state building is tall

[Ramsey]

Last time we had leaked code circling the internet, people claiming our work as theirs, and people signing on irc to flood until they got their proxy glined.

This time we are attempting to bring a relatively quiet community together and have everyone making some kind of contribution to the project. The posts we delete now are the 3 letter "LOL" posts.

Now and then are different times.

[nostyleguy]

Originally Posted by Audune

Yeah, it HAD to last time I did it.... lost most of my team, IRC was a mess....I got more angry posts like "why you delete my post, cant you discuss like adults" than I EVER should have had to have seen or delt with.

Believe me...as soon as you start saying "Moderators have to do this" and "Obey or be banned" you'll have a ban list longer than the empire state building is tall

while its obvious power like this can be abused, it's also obvious that the moderating efforts taken up until now haven't worked. i agree its a fine line to walk, but it needs to be done.