It seems that Foam isn't going to be running again and Basilica's too smart for politics, so I'm up for TA again.
Philosophy is much the same as before: we should set expectations that we can keep, keep expectations that we make, and provide expectations that are the game we actually want to play. I think we're terrible at that last part, on account of the labels and terms we bandy about on the forums/ website/ advertisements/ charter, but that it's also not usually the TA's call.
I usually want to accomplish the above by improving automation and reporting. People here have enough to worry about already, and most of the problems we have come from one of a few things-- either people don't know something is wrong, people think the right thing is too damn hard, or people think that other people are far simpler beings than they actually are. I burn out pretty much immediately if I try to help on that last one, but the others are things that can be improved my making computers do more of the work.
In matters of all-admin votes, I reliably resist motions for per-situation arbitrary rulings (argued by the flaws in human perception and cognition, and the inherent inconsistencies in human judgment and behavior), I support motions for sunshine in admin dealings (but generally not for things that were presumed private when they were written; you need to tell people that their words will become public record before they write them or ask permission to make that change), and bitterly complain about subjective and fallaciouis argument when it appears.
Likely products from tech in the next several months are probably going to be static, regardless of who sits in the admin chair. The Chooser and the Creator continue to be so profoundly broken that their oppressively-complex and unrewarding projects still merit progress and attention. Castano has recently dug up a good deal of feedback and information about the tools that are misused or misunderstood, which helps us target training and documentation. We have a number of projects requested that change some fairly-central workings of the ACR which will probably need multiple passes of fixes to work entirely right. Many aspects of our game are poorly logged, or hard to access by people responsible for acting on them, which we could improve to general benefit. It's likely to result in two...ish... hak releases until the next election, and smaller projects in between meant to target usability/training/discoverability issues that are about.
My thanks to Zelk for volunteering to be TA. And thanks to Foam, and Ronan, and SSM, and Hialmar, and all those who stand up to do the Admin job here. Thanks for putting in the time and the effort to keep this place going.
M.
ALFA1-NWN1: Sheyreiza Valakahsa
NWN2: Layla (aka Aliyah, Amira, Snake and others) and Vellya
NWN1-WD: Shein'n Valakasha
yay! I hope the second time around is a [better] one.
Formerly: Aglaril Shaelara, Faerun's unlikeliest Bladesinger
Current main: Ky - something
It’s not the critic who counts...The credit belongs to the man who actually is in the arena, who strives violently, who errs and comes up short again and again...who if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement, but who if he fails, fails while daring greatly.-T. Roosevelt
On bad governance: "I intend to bring democracy to this nation, and if anybody stands in my way I will crush him and his family."
You're All a Bunch of Damn Hippies
I hope the second time around is a good one.
