With Cipher's resignation, we need to elect a new Tech Admin. Self-nominations for the position are now open.
The self-nomination period will last for seven days.
All members in good standing are eligible to run.
Please do not post in this thread unless you are self-nominating.
Congratulations to AcadiusLost on being elected Tech Admin
Moderator: ALFA Administrators
Congratulations to AcadiusLost on being elected Tech Admin
Last edited by kmj2587 on Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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AcadiusLost
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I would like to think Cipher isn't formally quitting, but since it seems to be the case, I'll throw my hat in to stand. If he reconsiders before an election is held, he's welcome to the seat as far as I'm concerned. Platform to follow sometime later this weekend, have a lot of work with the NWN2 haks I was in the middle of when this whole thing went down.
The short version will be:
1) NWN2: Business as usual, or as close as we can manage with one fewer on the team. Getting the infrastructure in place to accommodate more NWN2 servers when possible.
2) NWN1: Getting a worldgate configuration up in the near-term to help players get set up for play under 1.68. Also, getting some answers on what needs to be done for a 1.69 conversion. If it's do-able, it will get done in time. If it's major incompatibilities that are going to mean pulling the servers offline and rebuilding significantly, I would share that decision with the NWN1 HDMs whose teams would have to shoulder that workload.
The short version will be:
1) NWN2: Business as usual, or as close as we can manage with one fewer on the team. Getting the infrastructure in place to accommodate more NWN2 servers when possible.
2) NWN1: Getting a worldgate configuration up in the near-term to help players get set up for play under 1.68. Also, getting some answers on what needs to be done for a 1.69 conversion. If it's do-able, it will get done in time. If it's major incompatibilities that are going to mean pulling the servers offline and rebuilding significantly, I would share that decision with the NWN1 HDMs whose teams would have to shoulder that workload.
I hereby self-nominate for the position of Tech Admin.
There are two major parts to my platform, and I realize that I’m likely to get a lot of the TL;DR response to them… sorry. I have lots to say. I’ll try to keep it down to a couple pages.
Part One: Division of Technical Administrator Responsibilities
The fact is that the job of the tech admin is huge. Managing one platform is probably more than any sane person should try to do; attempting to manage two platforms just plain won’t work: something is going to give, and in our only example, something did give. I’m not blaming or pointing fingers or any of that stuff – I think most people would have buckled under the pressure long ago, and Cipher did an amazing job with the new platform. (As did Acadius, frankly. I get the feeling he could hold a successful campaign against me by merit of that alone.) The pressure and the responsibilities are still, in my opinion, overwhelming, and too much to expect from one person.
With this belief, I have two statements that I whole-heatedly believe: the worst thing that can happen to Neverwinter 1 is to have a Neverwinter 2 player in charge of its tech, and the worst thing that can happen to Neverwinter 2 is to have a Neverwinter 1 player in charge of its tech. I’ve heard the arguments for both platforms, and I realize that we’ve some very strong opinions in the community about what we should and should not work on. To the staunchest defenders of Neverwinter 1, I would point out the greater power of Neverwinter 2; more can be done with it, and it thus has massive potential that, if the right talent was channeled into it, is nothing short of amazing. To the staunchest defenders of Neverwinter 2, I would point out the sheer quantity of custom content created and still being created for Neverwinter 1. The fact is that it’s much easier to make things for Neverwinter 1, and many more people can afford systems that can run Neverwinter 1 with all of the bells and whistles. It might not be able to do everything Neverwinter 2 can, but it has vast potential in the size of its community and the number of things we can afford to do to it, thanks to its lower stresses the game exerts.
In my opinion, we can’t afford to neglect either game; doing so would kill fun for a sizeable part of the community -- and killing fun in a gaming community probably earns a special kind of damnation. So my plan is thus:
Step 1: Acquire a NWN2 TA: This is unconventional, I’m sure, but I plan on it being a temporary state. I don’t think I am as qualified as a few key people working on Neverwinter 2, and I would rather have them calling the shots for Neverwinter 2. I wouldn’t mean to do that part of the community wrong, but I can only run the game at a neck-break 2 fps. (3 fps if I turn off all of my networking protocols!) I’m certain that if I tried to manage it, I would do something wrong entirely by accident, simply because I’ll not have been exposed to the game as much.
Thus, I will look for someone to be the TA for NWN2. Should I win, the first person I will ask will be the runner up in the TA election, and I will grant broad authority over technical issues of the Neverwinter 2 platform to him (should he accept, of course). My admin vote on all issues NWN2 will be his voice, not mine, and I will ask this person to be a filter to my comments in admin discussions that relate to the NWN2 platform, if I feel the need to comment at all, just as if I weren’t an admin (insofar as that discussion is concerned, that is.) If begging the runner up doesn’t work, and for some reason the runner up isn’t AcadiusLost, I’ll ask Acadius, and then Cipher; if both refuse, I’ll beg the CC chair to ask for nominations and run an impromptu election. I’d do my best to take care of NWN2 in the interim, of course, but I truly don’t want to let the power rest with me for long.
Step 2: Charter Amendment: I’ll probably ask about this very early on; I want to propose a charter amendment that makes it so that power officially rests in the NWN2 TA’s hands, rather than my acting officially based on this person’s opinion. Division of power would be proposed to be by platform, and when issues don’t concern platforms or when issues apply to both, they would come to a consensus or the TA seat would abstain from voting (like a Roman consul.) Whether or not this gets passed like that (or at all) is, of course, not up to me. This is what I’ll propose, though, and how I intend to act until the charter is changed.
Step 3: Step Down as Overall TA and Run as NWN1 TA: This’ll just simplify things. If I get that charter amendment passed, I’ll spare us the question of what to do with the current TA. I’ll go willingly and just run as NWN1 TA.
Part 2: What to do with Neverwinter 1
Right, so this is the part where I actually do some frolicking around in the realm of possibilities.
First: Upgrade we need to update to 1.69. No ifs ands or buts about it; if I’m the only one who will work on it, then I’ll do it. If not, awesome; I’d love all the help I can get. There are new toys in 1.69 and our only hope of regaining a body of players and putting Danubus/ Lusifer’s vigorous PR work to good use is to minimize needless barriers to joining ALFA. Being on a different patch than the NWN1 world would be a big barrier. Not insurmountable, of course, but we’re narrowing groups down substantially when we’re looking for someone who is willing to schedule an appointment, able to role play well enough to impress an OAS DM, and willing to rollback and re-patch for the sake of playing on one of our servers.
Second: Tidy Up Loose Ends I have some unfinished business in the tech world! I know we still have spell casters, and I know there’s a big list of spells that I promised caster level/save DC fixes on that I didn’t get to, which I would bet they would be happy to see implemented. Putting these fixes in will also leave behind a trail of breadcrumbs, so to speak, for other ideas, as well as circumventing that bothersome engine bug that kills the caster level on spell-casting prestige classes.
Third: Debug: We have some odd quirks in some of our NWN1 servers, a lot of times just because we’re not sure why they happen. I’m likely to put myself wholly into looking at our NWN1 servers and asking about bugs or memory problems once I have those spells handled. The better our servers run, the happier our players will be, and the less maddened our hosts will be.
Fourth: Accessorize: This is the SRD: link
It is full of fun stuff that we don’t have, and it is full of fun stuff that would be a massive selling point for ALFA1 if we did. I won’t give a list of what I could/would do, as the list would be both stiflingly long and likely inaccurate. Holding the admin position would technically come with the power to decide what goes into our haks, but I’d rather not be the one making that call. The fact is that our DM corps have to run a game with whatever is in our haks (players have to play with it, too, of course, but when we’re in the realm of accessorizing, well, would you make a PrC if no DM would approve it, or code a spell if scrolls of it never got to our faithful wizards?). I plan on polling the Neverwinter 1 HDMs about ideas, and I plan on asking them for theirs. Our surviving servers are run by some good, honest, level-headed fellows, even if the real world waylays them from time to time. I believe that fostering discussion and looking for consensus among that group will result in a game with the best-implemented things in it. I’m also sure that they’ll know enough about their servers and player base to know what they can use, and pray that I can foster enough of a rapport to hear about it.
//edited for a typo
There are two major parts to my platform, and I realize that I’m likely to get a lot of the TL;DR response to them… sorry. I have lots to say. I’ll try to keep it down to a couple pages.
Part One: Division of Technical Administrator Responsibilities
The fact is that the job of the tech admin is huge. Managing one platform is probably more than any sane person should try to do; attempting to manage two platforms just plain won’t work: something is going to give, and in our only example, something did give. I’m not blaming or pointing fingers or any of that stuff – I think most people would have buckled under the pressure long ago, and Cipher did an amazing job with the new platform. (As did Acadius, frankly. I get the feeling he could hold a successful campaign against me by merit of that alone.) The pressure and the responsibilities are still, in my opinion, overwhelming, and too much to expect from one person.
With this belief, I have two statements that I whole-heatedly believe: the worst thing that can happen to Neverwinter 1 is to have a Neverwinter 2 player in charge of its tech, and the worst thing that can happen to Neverwinter 2 is to have a Neverwinter 1 player in charge of its tech. I’ve heard the arguments for both platforms, and I realize that we’ve some very strong opinions in the community about what we should and should not work on. To the staunchest defenders of Neverwinter 1, I would point out the greater power of Neverwinter 2; more can be done with it, and it thus has massive potential that, if the right talent was channeled into it, is nothing short of amazing. To the staunchest defenders of Neverwinter 2, I would point out the sheer quantity of custom content created and still being created for Neverwinter 1. The fact is that it’s much easier to make things for Neverwinter 1, and many more people can afford systems that can run Neverwinter 1 with all of the bells and whistles. It might not be able to do everything Neverwinter 2 can, but it has vast potential in the size of its community and the number of things we can afford to do to it, thanks to its lower stresses the game exerts.
In my opinion, we can’t afford to neglect either game; doing so would kill fun for a sizeable part of the community -- and killing fun in a gaming community probably earns a special kind of damnation. So my plan is thus:
Step 1: Acquire a NWN2 TA: This is unconventional, I’m sure, but I plan on it being a temporary state. I don’t think I am as qualified as a few key people working on Neverwinter 2, and I would rather have them calling the shots for Neverwinter 2. I wouldn’t mean to do that part of the community wrong, but I can only run the game at a neck-break 2 fps. (3 fps if I turn off all of my networking protocols!) I’m certain that if I tried to manage it, I would do something wrong entirely by accident, simply because I’ll not have been exposed to the game as much.
Thus, I will look for someone to be the TA for NWN2. Should I win, the first person I will ask will be the runner up in the TA election, and I will grant broad authority over technical issues of the Neverwinter 2 platform to him (should he accept, of course). My admin vote on all issues NWN2 will be his voice, not mine, and I will ask this person to be a filter to my comments in admin discussions that relate to the NWN2 platform, if I feel the need to comment at all, just as if I weren’t an admin (insofar as that discussion is concerned, that is.) If begging the runner up doesn’t work, and for some reason the runner up isn’t AcadiusLost, I’ll ask Acadius, and then Cipher; if both refuse, I’ll beg the CC chair to ask for nominations and run an impromptu election. I’d do my best to take care of NWN2 in the interim, of course, but I truly don’t want to let the power rest with me for long.
Step 2: Charter Amendment: I’ll probably ask about this very early on; I want to propose a charter amendment that makes it so that power officially rests in the NWN2 TA’s hands, rather than my acting officially based on this person’s opinion. Division of power would be proposed to be by platform, and when issues don’t concern platforms or when issues apply to both, they would come to a consensus or the TA seat would abstain from voting (like a Roman consul.) Whether or not this gets passed like that (or at all) is, of course, not up to me. This is what I’ll propose, though, and how I intend to act until the charter is changed.
Step 3: Step Down as Overall TA and Run as NWN1 TA: This’ll just simplify things. If I get that charter amendment passed, I’ll spare us the question of what to do with the current TA. I’ll go willingly and just run as NWN1 TA.
Part 2: What to do with Neverwinter 1
Right, so this is the part where I actually do some frolicking around in the realm of possibilities.
First: Upgrade we need to update to 1.69. No ifs ands or buts about it; if I’m the only one who will work on it, then I’ll do it. If not, awesome; I’d love all the help I can get. There are new toys in 1.69 and our only hope of regaining a body of players and putting Danubus/ Lusifer’s vigorous PR work to good use is to minimize needless barriers to joining ALFA. Being on a different patch than the NWN1 world would be a big barrier. Not insurmountable, of course, but we’re narrowing groups down substantially when we’re looking for someone who is willing to schedule an appointment, able to role play well enough to impress an OAS DM, and willing to rollback and re-patch for the sake of playing on one of our servers.
Second: Tidy Up Loose Ends I have some unfinished business in the tech world! I know we still have spell casters, and I know there’s a big list of spells that I promised caster level/save DC fixes on that I didn’t get to, which I would bet they would be happy to see implemented. Putting these fixes in will also leave behind a trail of breadcrumbs, so to speak, for other ideas, as well as circumventing that bothersome engine bug that kills the caster level on spell-casting prestige classes.
Third: Debug: We have some odd quirks in some of our NWN1 servers, a lot of times just because we’re not sure why they happen. I’m likely to put myself wholly into looking at our NWN1 servers and asking about bugs or memory problems once I have those spells handled. The better our servers run, the happier our players will be, and the less maddened our hosts will be.
Fourth: Accessorize: This is the SRD: link
It is full of fun stuff that we don’t have, and it is full of fun stuff that would be a massive selling point for ALFA1 if we did. I won’t give a list of what I could/would do, as the list would be both stiflingly long and likely inaccurate. Holding the admin position would technically come with the power to decide what goes into our haks, but I’d rather not be the one making that call. The fact is that our DM corps have to run a game with whatever is in our haks (players have to play with it, too, of course, but when we’re in the realm of accessorizing, well, would you make a PrC if no DM would approve it, or code a spell if scrolls of it never got to our faithful wizards?). I plan on polling the Neverwinter 1 HDMs about ideas, and I plan on asking them for theirs. Our surviving servers are run by some good, honest, level-headed fellows, even if the real world waylays them from time to time. I believe that fostering discussion and looking for consensus among that group will result in a game with the best-implemented things in it. I’m also sure that they’ll know enough about their servers and player base to know what they can use, and pray that I can foster enough of a rapport to hear about it.
//edited for a typo
Self-nominations are now over and voting for Technical Admin has begun in the following thread.
http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpbbforum/ ... 558#480558
Eligible voters includes all current HDMs, EADMs, ADMs, Admin, and vote-enabled staff heads.
Good luck to both candidates.
http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpbbforum/ ... 558#480558
Eligible voters includes all current HDMs, EADMs, ADMs, Admin, and vote-enabled staff heads.
Good luck to both candidates.
With a majority of the vote cast in his favor, AcadiusLost is declared the victor and will serve as ALFA's next Tech Admin. Congratulations and best of luck AL!
Last edited by kmj2587 on Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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FanaticusIncendi
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Arkan Bladesinger
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