Questions - Wynna

[indio]

You've been active in NWN2 building and discussions. Rick and I both are planning to be live within 6 months, and possibly sooner. Whilst your role as Lead needn't involve such ideas, I'd be very keen to learn how you might support the combined NWN2 effort?

The current admin of Cipher, Mikayla, Hialmar and Rusty are individuals for whom you and I both have great admiration. Is it important to remove the 'friction' Mikayla refers to currently existing within the team, or is that fricton useful (in that we have an effective admin whose friction thus far does not boil over into public).

Do you see any need to alter the existing culture of our forums? To what extent can the people still here be regarded as ALFA Tragics, and thus deserving of their occasional expressions of dissatisfacton?

Your reputation precedes you as the single greatest influence of fairness and reason ALFA has known, and your return is a significant occasion. With this awareness, and knowing yourself how you operate, are you in a position to handle the work that you typically so selflessly take on board?

[Mikayla]

Hi Wynna. Thank you for throwing your hat in the ring for the postion of Lead Admin, as Rick has. I have a question for you:

Recently, you reminded me that a newly-elected Lead Admin would not have the power to scrap the server selection process and server selection team we put in place so long ago, even if the newly elected Lead Admin wanted to. As I recall, you were one of the architects of that system (and, in my early days as PA, I was one of its defenders). That said, the 'explosion' of servers that the selection process was designed to protect us against (to promote density of players and prevent too many servers for too few members) never materialized. As pointed out by Rick, the server selection process and the server selection team do not appear to be relevant to ALFA's current situation - are you prepared to scrap them and try something new, as Rick suggests? Or will you try to "stay the course" with the plan, team and rules that are currently in place?

Thanks in advance for your answer.

[Wynna]

Hi, Indio, and thanks for the questions.

You've been active in NWN2 building and discussions. Rick and I both are planning to be live within 6 months, and possibly sooner. Whilst your role as Lead needn't involve such ideas, I'd be very keen to learn how you might support the combined NWN2 effort?

My role as Lead would be to give support to each department in the push to NWN2 and to give any aid in my power towards coordinating the multiple aspects of a timely launch. More directly, PR is within the purview of Lead. This is an area in which I can be of direct use, through contacts with the outside community. I've already spoken with IWS and am pleased to report that he is willing to continue on in his role as PR Lead. Thank you, IWS. Through IWS and with my own efforts, I would coordinate PR efforts for a membership drive, with a target date for Live. As DMA confirms the progress of various servers under construction we will have a better idea for when that might be.

The current admin of Cipher, Mikayla, Hialmar and Rusty are individuals for whom you and I both have great admiration. Is it important to remove the 'friction' Mikayla refers to currently existing within the team, or is that fricton useful (in that we have an effective admin whose friction thus far does not boil over into public).

We're all human. We all have merit. We all have opinions. In our current Admin we also have highly functioning human beings with the capacity to separate personal and professional issues. As far as I can see, no friction ever boiled out into public. Any personal differences were kept out of the working relationship. As a matter of fact, the Admin have a perfectly viable working relationship and I know for a fact that they can cooperate quite well on important issues. There will always be differences of opinion, it's what keeps driving a community to grow and change. I don't know to what extent any of this reputed hidden friction might have contributed to Rotku's decision to step down, but I'm confident that if it had anything to do with it, such a sobering reaction must serve as a signpost to rational human beings that even publicly private (as in only on the Admin boards) friction can serve as an irritation rather than as an impetus to growth. Finally, I have very strong relationships with each of the current Admin and it is my hope that my experience in dealing with truly apocalyptic interactions in the past will help smooth any of the inevitable differences that crop up.

Do you see any need to alter the existing culture of our forums? To what extent can the people still here be regarded as ALFA Tragics, and thus deserving of their occasional expressions of dissatisfacton?

I'm quite happy with the state of moderation on the boards right now. It seems fair and effective.

Your reputation precedes you as the single greatest influence of fairness and reason ALFA has known, and your return is a significant occasion. With this awareness, and knowing yourself how you operate, are you in a position to handle the work that you typically so selflessly take on board?

I'm not sure if that's a question or something to chisel on my headstone. Thank you. The answer is, I believe so. If, unfortunately, Admin becomes as time consuming as it has been in the past, building of Silvy Uni will likely slow to accommodate that. I'd rather have a nicely balanced, undramatic term of building and PR, though, thank you very much.

[Wynna]

Hi Wynna. Thank you for throwing your hat in the ring for the postion of Lead Admin, as Rick has. I have a question for you:

Recently, you reminded me that a newly-elected Lead Admin would not have the power to scrap the server selection process and server selection team we put in place so long ago, even if the newly elected Lead Admin wanted to. As I recall, you were one of the architects of that system (and, in my early days as PA, I was one of its defenders). That said, the 'explosion' of servers that the selection process was designed to protect us against (to promote density of players and prevent too many servers for too few members) never materialized. As pointed out by Rick, the server selection process and the server selection team do not appear to be relevant to ALFA's current situation - are you prepared to scrap them and try something new, as Rick suggests? Or will you try to "stay the course" with the plan, team and rules that are currently in place?

Thanks in advance for your answer.

Hi, Mik, and thanks for the questions. First, let me just smack you for the "stay the course" rhetoric. Very naughty. Second, as I stated in my candidacy announcement, I'm quite happy that the NWN2 plan, of which I was a chief architect, has been growing, changing and adapting to our needs. As I said repeatedly all that time ago, it was always subject to whatever situations arose. It was an engine to get us going. Server selection, server building, server staff....they're all in the purview of the DMA. I will not be shy about expressing my opinion to DMA practices, but I'm quite willing to see proposed changes upon which to express such an opinion.

*edited for left out word

[Mikayla]

Wynna:

Hi, Mik, and thanks for the questions. First, let me just smack you for the "stay the course" rhetoric. Very naughty.

Well, to borrow a bit of phrasing from your answer, I've never been shy about expressing my feelings here in ALFA, even when I am just asking a question. Thanks for your answer.

[fluffmonster]

Wynna,

From your platform and responses here, I gather a reactive stance. Maintain communication, achieve compromise, press on, etc.. This certainly contrasts with the stance of Rick who presents himself as a change advocate. This could possibly also reflect the extent to which one's heart is really in it. Are we well served by an admin who does it because of a sense of responsibility but without a sense of purpose? I ask because I cannot help but to wonder if this is a candidacy you've been contemplating on your own, or if its a reaction to Rick's candidacy. Perhaps I presume too much, but still...

[Wynna]

Hi, Fluff. Thanks for your question. I'm glad to say that you do presume too much. From the moment I woke up and found that Rotku had stepped down, I began considering stepping up.

Although Rick and I have stood on the opposite side of political issues in the past, I've grown to have great respect for his desire to make a difference and give back to ALFA. In any case, my decision to run cannot ultimately be about anybody else but me, and my confidence in my abilities. That's what it is. And if I seem to be conservative... *me flips back through four years of conservative input....* Well, consistency is very important, don't you think?

[indio]

Thanks Wynna.

While I found myself pleasantly surprised by Rick's nominaton, and reassured by the quality of his answers, the prospect of having someone of your callibre as Lead, allowing Rick to focus on co-ordinating his server, well, it's almost too much to hope.

Good luck to both of you.

[psycho_leo]

1. One of Rick's propositions is to give more power to the community and allow the community as a whole to decide on the most contentious points. What are your thoughts on that?

2. ALFA is, sadly, known for it's tendency of generating bickering and driving away it's members. It's happened many times now. Sometimes folks really go away and sometimes simply step down from their positions. Most recent examples being Zel from standards, DMing and tech work and Rotku from Lead. It seems clear, at least to me, that the systems we have in place now to prevent this sort of burn oout don't work. Wether it's because they are simply flawed or because they are not fully enforced i don't know. So, how do you see this issue?

3. What do you think of Rotku's suggestion of an Admin team?

Good luck on your candidacy.

[Wynna]

Hi, Psycho_leo and thanks for your questions.

1. One of Rick's propositions is to give more power to the community and allow the community as a whole to decide on the most contentious points. What are your thoughts on that?

I quite like the idea of informing myself on the opinions of the whole before making Admin decisions. Actually going one step further and throwing over contentious issues to a binding popular vote seems extreme to me, for two reasons. 1) Admin are elected to make those decisions and the check and balance on whether or not the populace feels represented by the decisions made comes at election times. 2) Widening the arena on contention from Admin decisions to an all-ALFA decision doesn't really promise to provide less contention. Making the circle of decision-makers larger really only makes the circle of contention larger.

2. ALFA is, sadly, known for it's tendency of generating bickering and driving away it's members. It's happened many times now. Sometimes folks really go away and sometimes simply step down from their positions. Most recent examples being Zel from standards, DMing and tech work and Rotku from Lead. It seems clear, at least to me, that the systems we have in place now to prevent this sort of burn oout don't work. Wether it's because they are simply flawed or because they are not fully enforced i don't know. So, how do you see this issue?

People come when the community is a fit for them. People go when it is not a fit for them. Some people try to change the community to fit them. Sometimes this engenders disagreement. Burn out over workload or community style is a personal issue. Burnout over bickering can always be handled better, both by the parties involved in the bickering and by the peanut gallery throwing advice and catcalls. In general, I find that 'departures of passion' usually lead to a 'return of reconciliation' and that 'departures of mismatched style' lead to longer or permanent absences. As an aside, I toned down my ALFA involvement for more than a year and now feel recharged and rejuvenated because of it. I came back. Many do.

3. What do you think of Rotku's suggestion of an Admin team?

As one of the original drafters of the Charter, I've always been an advocate of staggered elections by domain, the current system. I feel that elections by domain serve as a check and balance among the Admin and prevent a single block of like-minded Admin driving the community in directions that might benefit more from varying opinions.

Good luck on your candidacy.

Thank you.

[Cassiel]

I have a question.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING? HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHAT IT'S LIKE?

Actually, scratch that - no questions, m'lady.

[Grand Fromage]

Are you now or have you ever been a njub?

[Twiggy]

3. Server proposals: This process will be thrown out and replaced by a vote from all 5 admins on new servers with a brief server statement of intent (1 or 2 pages of a simplied summary). This will make it easier for builders with real experience to put in a proposal, hopefully attracting back the builders we chased away.

Wynna I would like to hear your thoughts on this excerpt from Rick's platform in particular the bolded text. Many DMs/builders were lost during the planning phase of NWN2 which you spearheaded and more during/after the proposal selection. Many of the HDMs at the time, myself included, raised concerns with the planning, the emphasis that was being placed on numbers, and the fear that there would be too many servers and not enough players. One year into NWN2, we have no servers live, only a few in progress, and a handful builders. There is no question that ALFA lost talented members as builders, some entirely, and it has hurt the NWN2 efforts.

As for questions...

Do you intend, as Rick did, to try and draw back builders that felt disenfranchised by the proposal and selection process? If so, how do you intend to do this?

The heated density debate, the fear that we would have so many build teams creating a large number of servers without a player base to fill them, was a sticking point in the planning phase. Since this obviously never actually became a problem but was a factor in the loss of enthusiasm and talented builders, would you have handled this differently? If so, how?

(Apologies if you can't see the linked thread and for others that can't due to access levels.)

[psycho_leo]

I feel that elections by domain serve as a check and balance among the Admin and prevent a single block of like-minded Admin driving the community in directions that might benefit more from varying opinions.

One could likely argue that a like-minded team of Admin could skip all the petty bickering and power struggling and have an easier time working together towards the betterment of ALFA, while using Rick's poll proposal as a universal check, but I digress.

Seems to me at least, by the tone of your answers that while many people agree on "what's wrong with ALFA", you're not one of them. Seems to me that you feel that a lot of those "wrong things" are actually a natural ocurrance and should solve themselves. So my question is, right now what are ALFA's, lets say, three greatest problems and what would you do to resolve them?

[Wynna]

I have a question.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING? HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHAT IT'S LIKE?

Actually, scratch that - no questions, m'lady.

The blessings of age and senility wipe away both the good and bad.