Questions for Vendrin (also his platform)

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 9:14 am

Vendrin wrote:Well Swift, you got your opinion I have mine. I can't do anything else but run with it. I think I'd be a decent leader, and I think things would get done. If you don't, don't vote for me. I answered honestly, and thats all I can do.

The part i wanted answered (will this make ALFA better) has been entirely avoided on your part.

With the main thrust of your platform being vetoing rusty and reforming how standards are done (a DMA thing), i think it very important you explain how turning Rusty into a lame duck admin will be beneficial for ALFA or move us forward, something you have so far failed to do.

Vendrin · Post by **Vendrin** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 9:29 am

Because I believe his continued actions as DMA will harm ALFA as I believe they have done so in the past.

I won't be turning the DMA position into lame duck, but simply Rusty in there. The main thing I'll try do is remove standards from Rusty because under him this is what has happened.

Mikayla wrote: As originally conceived, the Standards team was put together to do only a few things, and basically that boiled down to determining the rate at which DMs gave out experience points and gold, and how to price magic items. That was it.

NOW, however, under the current DMA, Standards has absorbed much more - now it appears that Standards gets to redesign classes (a tech thing which affects players, not DMs), Standards gets to decide which classes go in or not, and same with races; etc. etc.

Standards has become "Rules" - they have slowly but surely expanded their reach to include just about any and all rule-making for ALFA. Infact, at this point, when it comes to how ALFA is actually played, the Standards team is far more influential than the Admin.

Given that the Standards team now involves itself in things that more directly fall under the Tech Admin's purview or the Player Admin's purview, the Standards team should be moved under the Lead Admin.

I want to undo that, and I see it as beneficial because if Rusty can't piss off people like Rick, Hialmar, Mikayla and other valuable members of the community to the point of where they think they might want to leave rather then deal with him, I think it's well worth the effort and beneficial to ALFA as a whole.

Wynna · Post by **Wynna** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 3:47 pm

Every term by every Lead has one overriding legacy and one overriding unreached goal. What would you like your legacy to be and what do you suspect will be your unreached goal? Asking this now, before any term, ensures that the candidate goes into his term looking forward.

I think the absorption of Standards under the Lead portfolio is a good idea. How would you go about it?

How would you support the PR team?

Thank you.

HATEFACE · Post by **HATEFACE** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 5:08 pm

Wynna wrote:Every term by every Lead has one overriding legacy and one overriding unreached goal. What would you like your legacy to be and what do you suspect will be your unreached goal? Asking this now, before any term, ensures that the candidate goes into his term looking forward.

I think the absorption of Standards under the Lead portfolio is a good idea. How would you go about it?

How would you support the PR team?

Thank you.

LOL!

I will move to give all ALFA members a choice in the Lead Admin position, and future administration must partake in the actions of those who vote for them, and while NWN1 is important, NWN2 is now where most of our support is focused, and as such that is where they must partake. So PA needs to play on an ALFA nwn2 server, and DM admin needs to dm on a NWN2 server for ALFA. It does not need to be a live server, but the server does need to up and open for Beta Testing

Will you institute a "motion of no confidence." & a system of "checks and balances" within the player elected administration?

Vendrin · Post by **Vendrin** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 7:54 pm

Wynna wrote:Every term by every Lead has one overriding legacy and one overriding unreached goal. What would you like your legacy to be and what do you suspect will be your unreached goal? Asking this now, before any term, ensures that the candidate goes into his term looking forward.

Legacy? I'd like to have been the lead that got players Planetouched and Warlock/Favored Soul, and moved standards back to lead. Goal, well it probably is unreachable, but it has to do with Exodus.

I think the absorption of Standards under the Lead portfolio is a good idea. How would you go about it?

Admin proposition, get the vote, and have it moved.

How would you support the PR team?

I'd have to talk to them once elected and see what they need, and do my best to give it to them.

Will you institute a "motion of no confidence." & a system of "checks and balances" within the player elected administration?

You mean giving the players the ability to recall the player admin? Most likely not.

Senor T · Post by **Senor T** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 1:28 am

I refer to voting staffers yes, however I do think that admin should be closely involved in all their parts of the domains and not leave things solely up to delegates and only checking in once a month.

Alright then, so you seem to agree that it's okay to have the help of several people, you're just saying that you want to have communication with them and you want to set the vision and have them help achieve it. Absolutely, on that we agree.

How would you do that? Scheduled fairly-mandatory meetings? A private forum? Catching them in chat whenever you can? A private chat room?

Vendrin · Post by **Vendrin** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 4:22 am

Forum most likely, and chat when I catch them or they catch me.

Brokenbone · Post by **Brokenbone** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 2:36 pm

LA's current charter role:

A. Lead Administrator—Oversight of Administration, Veto & Referral Authority, and Public Relations. Also responsible for resolving disputes over domain classification of any particular issue.

Arguably, the LA hasn't got a lot to do with the NWN1 / NWN2 game, except for promotion (PR). Guess there's a significant, but indirect game-changing power if they pick an Admin whose views they feel more sympathy for, in categorizing a cross-domain dispute (i.e., policy making by proxy, pick someone whose views match yours and claim it was due to "blurry domain lines").

Other than domain classification, LA does have a chance to stop or at least delay game-changing policies which originate with other Admin. Could be based on their own views, could be because some group has lobbied them to exercise power due to reasons they argue well enough to move the LA to action. Veto though is not final, other Admin & HDMs can always override that.

Anyhow, if you support giving LA an actual "game-changing" item in the portfolio, would you also support one or more admin also gaining veto powers? I.e., today, Standards policies out of the DMA can be vetoed (not that past LAs have done much of that), in the future, could Standards policies out of the LA be vetoed? You do not need to describe in any detail that "yes, each will have a veto", or "yes, any alliance of two can veto" or any other formula, just seeing if this tradeoff has been considered. Note I do not see the lack of any other Admin authority to veto "PR policy" as actually important ("hey, I veto using a blue background for that logo?")... it's the game-changing stuff I am interested in.

Basically, making a "checks and balances" Admin into a "policy making admin" might mean someone or everyone else needs to borrow some of the "checks and balances" power. As a candidate for Lead Admin, are you supportive of this idea?

MShady · Post by **MShady** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 3:33 pm

Other Admins can overrule the Lead with a majority vote IIRC. I think that procedure is established...

Rotku · Post by **Rotku** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 7:33 pm

Not exactly. The other Admin can overrule Lead's vetos. If, however, the Lead was to make a call about something in his domain (PR, if you will), there is currently no official way of dealing with overruling that.

Hialmar · Post by **Hialmar** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 8:29 pm

Well there is always the recall procedure

Still something else would be good.

Vendrin · Post by **Vendrin** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 8:42 pm

Brokenbone: On first glance I wouldn't be against it, but details really would have to be planned out if I'm elected and am able to move standards

Nalo Jade · Post by **Nalo Jade** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:18 am

When I first joined ALFA, I didn't use the forums for probably the 1st year. A group of my friends had all gotten the game and we were eager to join a PW and be able to play D&D together without any of us having to DM. We set up a schedule and would play whenever we could...very soon though one of us died, and then another, soon the dream of playing PnP D&D vanished for some, I still wanted to try playing that way, so I went to the forums to see if there were any other people wanting to join a once a week game...

When I asked if there were any players that wanted to play exclusively once a week, meaning no soloing just playing like a PnP game...the thread I posted in was slammed. So I tried to start a new thread that wasn't clutter with "Your idea is dumb." comments. The second thread got flamed as well...

This was a bad first impression for me.

I wanted to get a group like this going so bad that I became a DM and went to NWNConnections to find a group of players that were interested in playing a PnP game in Forgotten Realms with me as the DM. I found a group and showed them how to join ALFA...only a few are still members, I was told by some they did not enjoy being treated like a "newb" when they had been playing D&D for as long as some ALFA members have been alive, they did not like the "elitest" attitude.

This was a bad first impression for them.

I wanted my wife to play, she was new to D&D but had been playing on another server that had "light roleplay" and she liked it. She refused to go any further after spending 2 hours in an OAS class. She said, "are you serious? you want me to spend hours in a class to play a F-in video game?"

This was a bad first impression for her.

To sum up my little experiance I would say that recruiting was not a problem for ALFA, telling someone they can play PnP D&D in the entire FR campaign setting is a HUGE selling point, MANY MANY people have come to look at ALFA, Few have stayed.

I believe that the first impression is the most important. I am sure others have experiances that are similiar. I think the ones I have seen can be summed up here...

1. Being flamed as a "Njub" does not help the community, it hurts it.

2. Being treated as an "Inferior RPer" right from the start does not help the community, it hurts it.

3. Taking ourselves too seriously does not help the community, it hurts it.

What, as the PR chief, will you do to improve a potential members first impression with regards to these three things?

Nalo Jade · Post by **Nalo Jade** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:31 am

If you had to pick one of the ALFA pillar's to destroy, which pillar would you choose as the least important pillar?

NickD · Post by **NickD** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:54 am

Vendrin, I seem to remember you went for an Admin position - Lead, I think - some years ago.

Back then, I expressed pretty much the exact same concerns about you as I expressed about Rusty when he put himself forward for DMA. I found you to both be abrasive and negative people and would be likely to drive members away. If memory serves, you both gave the same response: That as an administrator you would behavour yourselves in a more moderate and professional manner.

So what kind of assurances do we have that you will behave yourself better than Rusty has?