Lead Admin Election Platform: Clouddancing

[CloudDancing]

The Lead Administrator is not a hard job to do. However, it requires a good deal of responsibility, communication skills, and the ability to work within your leadership domain. This is not a position for someone who wishes to bully others, who wants to be a dictator, and who is not willing to use the collective knowledge of Alfa to solve problems in and out of game. This is a position for someone who wants to be a positive role model, a promoter, a collaborator, and a listener.

You have be extremely impartial and exercise the utmost discretion because you will be able to access a lot of personal information about past issues and disputes, the ability to monitor the logs of all the servers, and the ability to veto any policy that comes across the table from the other admin.

And with that in mind you will HAVE to work and be able to get along with each of the administrators, work with them respectfully, and maintain these bonds as a united front. There is no room for personal drama and grudges, either. So think long and hard about your motivations and I hope this will be a friendly experience.

I wrote the above in order to describe what roles a Lead Administrator must play in Alfa. Specifically, I targeted the things an LA is expected to do. And I targeted the things that I have done as an Lead Admin.

So this is what you will get if you wish me to continue on as Lead Admin for another six months:

1. Continued public relations and social networking via Facebook and Gaming Websites which includes both keeping up our Facebook Alfa pages and posting on behalf of Alfa and NWN2 multiplayer gaming in order to promote the cause of developing more "do-it-yourself" multiplayer type games.

2. Continued support of the Alfa Wiki and my encouragement for players to create their own networking profiles and to record the histories of notable characters and adventures in our Alfa timeline.

3. My personal dedication to seeing that every player is treated fairly. I don't believe in quick, easy answers or snowplowing people to the wayside to get what I want and to promote my personal agendas.

4. Continuing moderation and mediation of the Admin team. And with that continuing support to individual players in helping connect them with people who can solve their problems and meet their needs.

5. An assurance that any proposed changes from the DMA, HDMs, and TA are given to the community to discuss openly IF they will drastically change the gaming environment or they will challenge any of the accepted rules in place. And if a new policy is found lacking in fairness, thoughtfulness, logic, or is destructive, I will veto it.

6. My commitment to supporting our community through positive, progressive initiatives to preserve and maintain the NWN and NWN2 gaming experience, BUT also develop a vision for Alfa's future as an social organization that will outlive the games themselves.

7.My promise that I will always encourage the community to constantly be challenging us with new content, new ideas, and new perspectives. Evolution is a disconcerting and even sometimes painful process, but I promise to be there to help give birth to new perspectives and ideas.

Any questions? Ask away!

(btw you have two days till the election starts so ask fast!)

[FoamBats4All]

Hypothetical situations:

1) The DMA and TA disagree on an what scripted content should remain or be put into ACR. How do you settle this dispute? Who is in charge?

2) The IA and TA disagree what content can be included in hak files. How do you settle this dispute? Who is in charge?

3) The DMA does not punish/moderate an inappropriately behaving DM (alternatively: PA does not do the same with a player). Do you intervene and oversee, or do you stand by the relevant admin's decision?

4) The PA implements X characters per player, and you believe that X is too big. How do you handle this? Feel free to substitute an issue you personally care about.

[shad0wfax]

Spoiler:

The Lead Administrator is not a hard job to do. However, it requires a good deal of responsibility, communication skills, and the ability to work within your leadership domain. This is not a position for someone who wishes to bully others, who wants to be a dictator, and who is not willing to use the collective knowledge of Alfa to solve problems in and out of game. This is a position for someone who wants to be a positive role model, a promoter, a collaborator, and a listener.

You have be extremely impartial and exercise the utmost discretion because you will be able to access a lot of personal information about past issues and disputes, the ability to monitor the logs of all the servers, and the ability to veto any policy that comes across the table from the other admin.

And with that in mind you will HAVE to work and be able to get along with each of the administrators, work with them respectfully, and maintain these bonds as a united front. There is no room for personal drama and grudges, either. So think long and hard about your motivations and I hope this will be a friendly experience.

I wrote the above in order to describe what roles a Lead Administrator must play in Alfa. Specifically, I targeted the things an LA is expected to do. And I targeted the things that I have done as an Lead Admin.

So this is what you will get if you wish me to continue on as Lead Admin for another six months:

1. Continued public relations and social networking via Facebook and Gaming Websites which includes both keeping up our Facebook Alfa pages and posting on behalf of Alfa and NWN2 multiplayer gaming in order to promote the cause of developing more "do-it-yourself" multiplayer type games.

Until Foam updated the main page a few days ago, the last update to alfa's front page was two years ago. How do you reconcile the two year out of date content with the statement that you will provide "continued" updates?

Spoiler:

2. Continued support of the Alfa Wiki and my encouragement for players to create their own networking profiles and to record the histories of notable characters and adventures in our Alfa timeline.

3. My personal dedication to seeing that every player is treated fairly. I don't believe in quick, easy answers or snowplowing people to the wayside to get what I want and to promote my personal agendas.

4. Continuing moderation and mediation of the Admin team. And with that continuing support to individual players in helping connect them with people who can solve their problems and meet their needs.

5. An assurance that any proposed changes from the DMA, HDMs, and TA are given to the community to discuss openly IF they will drastically change the gaming environment or they will challenge any of the accepted rules in place. And if a new policy is found lacking in fairness, thoughtfulness, logic, or is destructive, I will veto it.

6. My commitment to supporting our community through positive, progressive initiatives to preserve and maintain the NWN and NWN2 gaming experience, BUT also develop a vision for Alfa's future as an social organization that will outlive the games themselves.

7.My promise that I will always encourage the community to constantly be challenging us with new content, new ideas, and new perspectives. Evolution is a disconcerting and even sometimes painful process, but I promise to be there to help give birth to new perspectives and ideas.

Any questions? Ask away!

(btw you have two days till the election starts so ask fast!)

That is the first question that I have for you. The second question that I have for you is how will you have the time and energy to perform well in this position. A couple of days ago, you mentioned in IRC that you did not have time for it, and could not devote your full attention to it, so you would be stepping down. What changed? And can we be assured that you will, indeed, have a full six months to devote to the position?

[CloudDancing]

1) The DMA and TA disagree on an what scripted content should remain or be put into ACR. How do you settle this dispute? Who is in charge?

This depends on if they ask me to intervene. I could mediate a discussion between the parties and I could research and provide insights into the dispute, but in the end the final choice belongs to the admin who's domain the content belongs in. In this case scripting is specifically the TA's domain.

2) The IA and TA disagree what content can be included in hak files. How do you settle this dispute? Who is in charge?

That is the Tech Admin's domain entirely. Again I would only intervene if it was pointed out to me that this hak content would be detrimental to the environment Alfa is trying to maintain.

3) The DMA does not punish/moderate an inappropriately behaving DM (alternatively: PA does not do the same with a player). Do you intervene and oversee, or do you stand by the relevant admin's decision?

The first scenario would be the DMA's domain first and foremost. However, assuming the innapropriate DM had indeed abused their privilege and offended a player I would encourage the offended parties to bring up a complaint with the PA. Now alternately, when a dispute comes up with a player, the PA posts a discussion thread that allows everyone to comment and at least be informed of the others opinions. If a PA pardons someone who is grievously causing problems, i'd have my say in it.

4) The PA implements X characters per player, and you believe that X is too big. How do you handle this? Feel free to substitute an issue you personally care about.

With this example, i'll go back to when we implemented 2 PCs. This process went through three waves of commentary requested by the PA from the admin and staff. We discussed it thoroughly in the forums and out of the forums. And pretty much everyone got their say in the matter. I watch these discussions (in fact I watch every single discussion the forums i'm allowed to) and if at the time I had found it was ultimately detrimental to Alfa, i'd have thrown in the veto. So if something like that comes up again, I expect we will discuss it it long and hard before anything is implemented permanently.

I think all these questions come down to one theme: How far will you let someone go before you intervene? To start I have a very clear vision of what sort of behavior is appropriate for Admin, HDMs, and DMs. I have great expectations for the people in each of these roles and if they fail me and do something grievous, it wounds me personally, as well as it demoralizes the community. I believe the trick is to continually be vigilant and maintain transparency in our roles and decisions. While domains help us understand our roles, we are still accountable to Alfa in general to check each other when things become entirely out of balance and perspective is skewed. So while a admin might not have the power to intervene in another's domain, at the least, as a friend, or as council, is entitled to make their comments and deal with the consequences.

[CloudDancing]

Until Foam updated the main page a few days ago, the last update to alfa's front page was two years ago. How do you reconcile the two year out of date content with the statement that you will provide "continued" updates?

I'm a little surprised as I always login to Alfa via the server status page. I have always assumed it was the Infra Admin's job to update the front page since I didn't have access to it as lead admin. Instead, about five months ago, I went through and updated all the other pages I did have access to.

That is the first question that I have for you. The second question that I have for you is how will you have the time and energy to perform well in this position. A couple of days ago, you mentioned in IRC that you did not have time for it, and could not devote your full attention to it, so you would be stepping down. What changed? And can we be assured that you will, indeed, have a full six months to devote to the position?

I have just as much time as Castano or Zelk does. They work full-time jobs and they make it work. I have my concerns with the current election and through various discussions, I felt I wanted to maintain a special balance in Alfa. I love the project and I love the community. It has helped me through many tough times in my life and I feel like I owe Alfa for the five years of consistent free content that has been given unto me as a player all that time.

[shad0wfax]

Spoiler:

Until Foam updated the main page a few days ago, the last update to alfa's front page was two years ago. How do you reconcile the two year out of date content with the statement that you will provide "continued" updates?

I'm a little surprised as I always login to Alfa via the server status page. I have always assumed it was the Infra Admin's job to update the front page since I didn't have access to it as lead admin. Instead, about five months ago, I went through and updated all the other pages I did have access to.

That is the first question that I have for you. The second question that I have for you is how will you have the time and energy to perform well in this position. A couple of days ago, you mentioned in IRC that you did not have time for it, and could not devote your full attention to it, so you would be stepping down. What changed? And can we be assured that you will, indeed, have a full six months to devote to the position?

I have just as much time as Castano or Zelk does. They work full-time jobs and they make it work.

I have my concerns with the current election and through various discussions, I felt I wanted to maintain a special balance in Alfa.

Spoiler:

I love the project and I love the community. It has helped me through many tough times in my life and I feel like I owe Alfa for the five years of consistent free content that has been given unto me as a player all that time.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. If you have any concerns that you would like addressed, I am more than happy to answer questions in my platform thread and I do not at all feel that it would be incorrect of me to say that boom would be happy to answer any questions or address any concerns that you have as well.

It's not easy to enrich a community if concerns can not be raised.

With that in mind, I fear that based on recent statements from you that you are likely to burn out or feel overwhelmed in a short period of time:

IRC: 2014-05-01 10:11 Cd: I am afraid my energy for being LA ran out like two months ago

I know that I brought this up previously, but I felt that it was doing you a disservice not to ask in more detail about how you plan to alleviate some of the stress and time commitments with some constructive questions, as opposed to only focusing on the negative.

Do you have plans to add to the LA staff roster and take some of the burden off of you if you do get elected? Are you willing to accept others who have self-nominated and wish to contribute their time as staff? I can not speak for the others, but my intention in running is to be a positive influence on ALFA, and if you are willing to accept help, should you win, I would be more than happy to volunteer my time.

And if you do not have plans to add to the LA staff, will you resign and hold a special election if your energy does run out?

[CloudDancing]

Well, first I have my various moods like most people and I was feeling down that night when someone asked me if I would run again. And I did expect someone would dig through 4+ days of logs to find that little nugget of melancholia. I merely needed a peptalk from two previous LA's to perk me up.

Do you have plans to add to the LA staff roster and take some of the burden off of you if you do get elected?

I always did want a team. It is just no one ever stepped up to join me. Mainly that was because all the people I am friends with were either admin or or in an admin role or were running a server or dming something. It is really hard to find people around here who aren't already doing one job or more.

Are you willing to accept others who have self-nominated and wish to contribute their time as staff? I can not speak for the others, but my intention in running is to be a positive influence on ALFA, and if you are willing to accept help, should you win, I would be more than happy to volunteer my time.

I never turn down help from anyone. That is the biggest way we can loose a player's enthusiasm is to refuse them the ability to contribute to Alfa in their own way. And I don't see the election as any kind of polarizing event, though in the past elections have gotten awfully stormy and people have stomped off the project in a huff. It is not a popularity contest, it is merely a reflection of the communities needs for the organization's vision.

And if you do not have plans to add to the LA staff, will you resign and hold a special election if your energy does run out?

I'd resign if I couldn't perform my duties. For me that means maintaining daily "office hours" where I can talk to people. Right now I catch up with the Admin pretty regularly on a person to person basis. I also make sure to read every new forum thread each day briefly. If I could not do those things and keep up the rest of our PR stuff, i'd be happy to pass the job on.

[shad0wfax]

Thanks for the detailed response Cloud. Should you prevail, I'm happy to lend my help to your team.