A Land Far Away

not interested in this election.. all is well as far as I'm concerned..

I propose lead should be voted by everybody in the election immediately after this one.. this is because PR is a huge part of this role apparently, so lets elect the best possible figurehead next time..

Most of the Lead's powers relate to Charter interpretation and governance stuff, which most greatly impacts those doing the voting... PR, yes, is a role as well, but not one most LA's have been known for (yes, lots of efforts made, but normally through a capable staff head as opposed to personally). May as well call them the Governance Admin to keep them from looking like "the boss of everything", since they're really not.

PA come to think, since they do recruitment (applications & acceptance) and are apparently responsible in the Charter for a Bioware Guild page and the NWVault entry, all of those functions together sound a heck of a lot like PR to me. PR seems shared among all, inherent as it may be to their roles (example: IA & team makes a sexy webpage, that's PR. TA may elect to showcase cool content on the vault if they wanted to, say Bartleby's book system any time now, that'd be PR).

I vaguely remember that opening up the vote for Lead was tried once before but didn't pass. I'm not sure it's necessary. I have to agree with Brokenbone that Lead Admin is a misnomer. General Manager is probably more accurate in terms of work done.

Faeryl wrote:I vaguely remember that opening up the vote for Lead was tried once before but didn't pass. I'm not sure it's necessary. I have to agree with Brokenbone that Lead Admin is a misnomer. General Manager is probably more accurate in terms of work done.

Indeed,

keeping the other admin and their teams morals up, ensuring good communication between them, and keeping up to date and pushing forward what the other admin and their departments are up to at all times is the main requirement for the LA the way i see it. It's all about coordinating efforts, setting up project goals and seeing them through to the end.
In that regard, it is definitely a general manager type job.
A part from that, the job likely also entails answering a flow of PMs from concerned members. While the amount of PMs may be high, the amount of senders is usually fairly small.

Of course there is also the main organizational aspects,- mostly in terms of change. I think in the last couple of years change like this has happened, twice. Many seek to make changes,- I personally would like simplicity wherever possible. Less red tape, less beurocracy,- more sane organization for a group of 300 roleplayers running a small internet community.

I realize i got a bit off topic.
But to get back on, the reason everyone doesn't vote is that many don't know what they're voting for, its not really possible to make a place like this really democratic in the first place. So the people who actually do the work, should get to decide on who gets to lead them.

For the record, you definitely seem like the best choice. I only hope you'll be able to stay in the loop on what everyones up to all the time, because that's the sort of admin we need, and one we have not had for a very long time.

zicada wrote: Indeed,

keeping the other admin and their teams morals up, ensuring good communication between them, and keeping up to date and pushing forward what the other admin and their departments are up to at all times is the main requirement for the LA the way i see it. It's all about coordinating efforts, setting up project goals and seeing them through to the end.
In that regard, it is definitely a general manager type job.
A part from that, the job likely also entails answering a flow of PMs from concerned members. While the amount of PMs may be high, the amount of senders is usually fairly small.

Of course there is also the main organizational aspects,- mostly in terms of change.

What? You mean I might have to do all of that? I thought I just signed up to be sweet and motherly!
Just kidding of course. I agree.

I think in the last couple of years change like this has happened, twice. Many seek to make changes,- I personally would like simplicity wherever possible. Less red tape, less beurocracy,- more sane organization for a group of 300 roleplayers running a small internet community.

I realize i got a bit off topic.
But to get back on, the reason everyone doesn't vote is that many don't know what they're voting for, its not really possible to make a place like this really democratic in the first place. So the people who actually do the work, should get to decide on who gets to lead them.

For the record, you definitely seem like the best choice. I only hope you'll be able to stay in the loop on what everyones up to all the time, because that's the sort of admin we need, and one we have not had for a very long time.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Zic. And again, I agree on all points. I expect to be quite busy for the next six months.

But to get back on, the reason everyone doesn't vote is that many don't know what they're voting for, its not really possible to make a place like this really democratic in the first place. So the people who actually do the work, should get to decide on who gets to lead them.

Bull. Hear that everyone? If you aren't sticking your hands in the pie, you're obviously stupid and don't have rights!

ALFA's relative to a circle jerk. Always has been, always will be.

~Kill~

Killthorne wrote:

But to get back on, the reason everyone doesn't vote is that many don't know what they're voting for, its not really possible to make a place like this really democratic in the first place. So the people who actually do the work, should get to decide on who gets to lead them.

Bull. Hear that everyone? If you aren't sticking your hands in the pie, you're obviously stupid and don't have rights!

ALFA's relative to a circle jerk. Always has been, always will be.

~Kill~

I didn't say stupid anywhere did I ?

But yes, If you are a player, you don't have any "rights" per se. You have the right to play in the game we're working hard on delivering to you for free.

Over the years, ALFA has somehow gone from people being happy to have been let into something quite special and unique, making them feel honored just to be allowed in,- to statements like the one you just served up above.

I wonder how I would be welcomed if I wandered into any other gaming community on the internet and started demanding rights as a player.

Here's a question for you then, hence why I believe you just called everyone stupid. Why are the Lead Admin candidates posting their platforms for everyone to see? Do you truly believe we can't read and see what their platform is, and make a logical decision?

Not everyone here that is a player is someone that just "hopped" in recently. They may have contributed while retaining their player status OR no longer are of DM, or Admin status. Are you telling me that since they are not currently contributing that their opinion and efforts mean nothing?

I guess so!

~Kill~

Killthorne wrote:Here's a question for you then, hence why I believe you just called everyone stupid. Why are the Lead Admin candidates posting their platforms for everyone to see? Do you truly believe we can't read and see what their platform is, and make a logical decision?

Not everyone here that is a player is someone that just "hopped" in recently. They may have contributed while retaining their player status OR no longer are of DM, or Admin status. Are you telling me that since they are not currently contributing that their opinion and efforts mean nothing?

I guess so!

~Kill~

In a roundabout way, yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying. We could use a great DM like yourself in NWN2. Would be epic win if you stepped up to do that. You'd get to vote too!
See what I did there ? Voting is one of the few things we have to offer people as compensation for helping out. You seem to be very interested in getting a vote, so I guess it even sort of works,- or should work.

I am very interested in having ALFA be more than an enclosed circle of people deciding everything, more than being able to vote in this particular election.

I am even more interested in ALFA giving credit to people that have contributed past or present.

And I'm sorry, but if everyone was a DM... well, then we'd have no players.

~Kill~

Killthorne wrote:I am very interested in having ALFA be more than an enclosed circle of people deciding everything, more than being able to vote in this particular election.

I am even more interested in ALFA giving credit to people that have contributed past or present.

And I'm sorry, but if everyone was a DM... well, then we'd have no players.

~Kill~

So you're saying, set up a special 'past contributors' group in phpbb ? and add people to that group ? Would you be willing to help pick every one of the 1900 or so people in the database who should be in that group ? Do you foresee any issues what so ever with one person picking ? Maybe we should make a "committee" to do this highly important work ?

Could it be, that you are in fact arguing just for the sake of it at this point ? Could it be that there are perhaps more pressing matters for the people who want to help out to tend to ?

I think it's worth starting the ball rolling for another vote on changing the voting constituency for Lead. If I recall correctly, it was only very narrowly defeated last time it came up, and we've had a lot of turnover in the Admin and HDM ranks since then. I expect it would pass handily if revoted (though I could be wrong on this, as well).

Lead Admin took on a fair bit of the "Public/External Relations" organization, because the Player Admin already has a pretty huge list of duties between Admissions, Disputes, etc.

One of the other major duties of Lead Admin is to check/balance power (Charter admendments, veto, etc), so it makes sense to look to the wider community for the choice, to help the general membership feel more invested in the "direction" the project is going.

AcadiusLost wrote:I think it's worth starting the ball rolling for another vote on changing the voting constituency for Lead. If I recall correctly, it was only very narrowly defeated last time it came up, and we've had a lot of turnover in the Admin and HDM ranks since then. I expect it would pass handily if revoted (though I could be wrong on this, as well).

Lead Admin took on a fair bit of the "Public/External Relations" organization, because the Player Admin already has a pretty huge list of duties between Admissions, Disputes, etc.

One of the other major duties of Lead Admin is to check/balance power (Charter admendments, veto, etc), so it makes sense to look to the wider community for the choice, to help the general membership feel more invested in the "direction" the project is going.

AL is spot on. The vote just failed last time. I tried to put it through again when I was LA, but gave up after been attacked constantly by another member of the Admin. If it was put to vote again, I'd be surprised if it didn't pass.

Let them eat cake.

AL wrote:One of the other major duties of Lead Admin is to check/balance power (Charter admendments, veto, etc), so it makes sense to look to the wider community for the choice, to help the general membership feel more invested in the "direction" the project is going.

QFT.. +1