AcadiusLost: Tech Admin Platform

[AcadiusLost]

Aimed to be brief with this, but it ran long; my apologies.

For the TL;DR contingent; you know who I am and more or less what to expect if I am reelected for another term.

My top priority as Tech Admin has generally been keeping the servers online and working; this necessarily has a lot of overlap with Infra, but I feel that if we don't have servers up to play/DM on, everything else is pretty moot. This has meant a lot of "behind the scenes time" checking on the servers by remote desktop, testing alternative ways of hosting (virtualization alternatives, different base operating systems for the hosts, NWNx4 plugins to help with server process stability). We had some hosting hardware failures that had to be worked around, but currently our live servers are all quite solid and generally behaving nicely. At the start of last term, I was managing autodownloader updates for all three servers myself; now I'm happy to say we have people for all three Live servers who have been trained up to run walkmesh-affecting updates autonomously. I haven't been able to roll out much new in terms of central content lately, but some heavy RL time commitments have kept me in damage control mode for a while now.

Next after Live server uptime / troubleshooting, I'd say my priority is builder support- helping builders troubleshoot configuration problems, learn ACR systems, and get over the toolset interface issues. Part of this includes hak updates to support requests from the builders, which have been infrequent of late, but are (over)due to accelerate now with underdark servers in development and Moonshaes expanding into some more exotic locales. We've had a longish stretch in which both supply (in terms of NWN2 developers releasing new quality material) and demand (active builders looking to incorporate said material) were low... given the resurgence in server-building, I expect to be looking towards more frequent hak updates again.

I feel a major part of my role as Tech Admin is to provide an approachable presence to which questions, suggestions, etc can be directed, who will remain more or less impartial on "policy issues" like advancement rates, PrC's, speed of expansion to new server areas, and the like. I feel I have fostered good working relationships with other Admin, HDMs, builders, and members of the wider NWN2 community that have contributed to a more positive impression of ALFA overall. I have also attempted to conduct myself in a mature and professional manner at all times in my interactions with ALFA. I can remember the continual frustrations that were present during the latter period of Murky's tenure, when the Tech department had a lot of friction with other elements of ALFA, and it is something I should hope we never see again here. To what extent that was driven by personality conflict as opposed to just a lack of time combined with a steadfast belief that he was still the best possible man for the job, I can't be sure. Should I show worrisome signs of being on the wrong side of that comparison, the election cycle is certainly a good time to provide a reality check.

Regarding time availability: in the course of the last year or so, I have had some large time constraints; grant-writing, reviewing papers, and long experiments. While I have now submitted the last of this set of grants, I have a large degree of uncertainly with regards to my time in the year to come at present. At a minimum, I can say that I should be able to keep up the same level of interaction I have had. More likely, I expect to have more time opening up to do hak rollouts, and push through some of the stalled projects that have been pending too long. There is also a significant possibility that I will have a great deal more time on my hands, if neither of this current set of grants gets funded. Bad for me professionally, but good for ALFA I guess? I am certainly not hoping for the latter, just trying to be above-board about my situation.

Immediate goals for next term would be:

• rolling out a minor hak update for the builders (in progress, aiming for this or at latest next weekend)
• cleaning up one of the many testmods I have lying around to serve as an updated basemod (by the end of May)
• working with Hialmar to finish testing and rolling out Vaultster to banish the #1 lag source on the Live servers (timeline uncertain)

I also like the discussion that's come out of Zelk's platform discussion regarding bug tracking as well; though I don't have familiarity with the systems suggested, I would certainly support setting up something of the sort. Our Sourceforge project page has bug tracking functionality, but it may not be the most user-friendly for ALFA players, DMs, and builders (who are generally not programmers by trade).

I am open to questions regarding this or other issues involving tech, will try to get to them in a reasonable time, though I've got my mother-in-law visiting for another week or so, which means I won't be hovering over the keyboard to reply.

[Thangorn]

I have a question: Will you and Lou come and play with me before I bugger off to Argentina in June? and if not will you come play in August?

That is all

[hollyfant]

Hi,'lo. Good luck with the election race. Here are my questions:

The Tech Admin's domain, by its nature, overlaps with that of practically all other Admins. Currently there are "grey areas" aplenty. Do you favour peaceful coexistence, clearly defined borders or co-operation?

To me, and possibly others too, the Tech department appears "aloof". Communication is difficult and haphazard, and what does and does not show up in the HAKs a mystery in itself. How would you improve the visibility of Tech announcements and the availability of contact points?

[AcadiusLost]

Do you favour peaceful coexistence, clearly defined borders or co-operation?

Co-operation whenever possible, followed by peaceful coexistance. Clearly defining borders is a decent fallback for those (hopefully rare) occasions when the former two break down.

To me, and possibly others too, the Tech department appears "aloof". Communication is difficult and haphazard, and what does and does not show up in the HAKs a mystery in itself. How would you improve the visibility of Tech announcements and the availability of contact points?

I've generally attempted to remain accessible by IRC for quick answers to questions or direct discussions- the nature of the medium probably lends itself to the haphazard sense. I keep my forum PM box open and read all my PMs, though I don't always reply to them promptly, especially when the reply would essentially be "I hear you, will look into that sometime soon". If this is a source of frustration for anyone, I can certainly increase my use of "message received" type PM replies.

Regarding the contents of the haks; there tends to be a qualitative evaluation of size/ease of implementation vs. quality done at the time of hak preparation. I have preferred having a trained eye (GrandFrommage) to vet nwvault recommendations for
ones that have low-quality textures, models, or otherwise look jarringly amateurish, though more recent updates I've had to make these calls myself, and with the advisement of whatever builders happen to be around (in IRC) at the times I'm working on the haks. Regarding things like new clothing pieces, I tend not to add things that are only implemented for human character models, as they are bugged for all other races (without easy ways for players/builders to discover this). Systems like bulletin boards, auction UI's, new animation interfaces, etc tend to involve a lot more time investment and adaption to get to work with our core scripting, so those tend not to be prioritized unless they are really amazingly good. Hak updates also involve things like 2da updates to roll in things like new/fixed spells, PrCs, etc- those are added or not added depending on the evaluations of the DMA, as advised by Standards.

In terms of making the process more transparent, the forums could certainly be used more actively for this, certainly during the heyday of NWN2-ALFA development (when there were 4-5 active contributors on the tech end of things) this was a necessity to keep people coordinated. I acknowledge that I haven't kept up with the organization of these forum sections, and propose to do some reorganization to make them more usable. Namely: to combine the "Custom Content" and "ACR Forum" sections into one section for "Technical Development" or something similar, which will serve as a single point of access for hak requests as well as "work in progress" updates.

Thank you for your questions.

[AcadiusLost]

I have a question: Will you and Lou come and play with me before I bugger off to Argentina in June? and if not will you come play in August?

Where are you playing these days, Moonshaes? Our current PCs are embroiled in a campaign in distant reaches of TSM these days (during the rare times we have a chance to play), though that's building towards a dramatic finale for sometime soonish, so IC travel prospects (or rerolling should PC death occur) may become feasible at that point. I always enjoy crossing paths with your PCs when possible... less time overlap since we moved east though.

[Mirabai]

Hi AL,

I think this is the first time in my recent memory that someone has stepped up to run for this position who's not you. How many terms have you held this position for?

And that said, why do you feel it's necessary for you to run again after so long in the office when there is someone else who is probably just as qualified stepping up to volunteer? Totally nothing against the job you are doing, of course (although it's certainly not very transparent, but such is the nature of the job I suppose), it just occurs to me that in a community-driven, volunteer-driven project it might be a good thing to give someone else a shot, thus encouraging others to step up and volunteer, thus adding to the overall health and growth of the community as a whole.

Thoughts?

[Swift]

If he still has the passion, why should he?

[Zelknolf]

I'd hate to publically decry something Mirabai said, because I love Mirabai and want to snuggle the jeezhus out of her more often than not and all, but yeah-- for as broken as democratic processes can be, they're most functional when everyone fit and willing to stand does so.

Would even tend to think that "AL has had the post without breaks since 2008 (when he beat me after Cipher resigned), with multiple terms as TA before that." ought to be a line on the curricula vitae; and I'd prefer that it is, and that the election be by who people believe would be a better TA, without sense of whose turn it is.

[Mirabai]

Just to clarify- I am in no way saying I think AL is holding ALFA back or anything like that. It's a philosophical question more than anything and one I've been thinking about for a while in regards to ALFA. I am of the opinion that some sort of term limits would be helpful for the whole, it's nothing personal, but seeing that AL has been in the TA job for quite some time now I am interested in getting his thoughts on it. That is all.

[AcadiusLost]

Immediate goals for next term would be:

• rolling out a minor hak update for the builders (in progress, aiming for this or at latest next weekend)

Hak update is now available via ADL to Baldur's gate, moving the other two Live servers on to the new haks today.

Details here:
http://www.alandfaraway.org/forums/view ... 97&t=45516

[Tridisus]

Great work!

Calimport is coming all!!!!!