Elements Council - General Discussion and Feedback

[SpikeSpiegel]

Following.

[bogtro]

I honestly didn't know Council still existed. I thought it just died off. I gather from this thread that it doesn't currently do anything besides appoint staff, which it's done perfectly well, so I don't see anything wrong.

[Higurashi]

Yes, with me being unable to post new Council apps for a while, Council stayed the same and most of its members became less active. However, most still voted in polls regarding Staff hirings, which was nice.

Effective today, we've removed the inactives and added Chapuz and Dm1321 to the list of Council members. They join majofa, Calindu and n00b. The latter three stayed on the Council due to still being active and exceptionally resourceful.

This is the first time we've cherry-picked Council members, and the first time we make use of a newly created system: we want to have Council members that represent different areas of the forum. All of the above come from different sections of the forum: Chapuz as Brawlmaster, Dm1321 as Competition Organizer, majofa as PvP Event Organizer, Calindu as Tournament Organizer and n00b as Guildmaster. Suffice to say, many of these are also Chat Moderators and fill a few other roles as well.

To fill up the rest of the Council, I'm discussing with antiaverage about a method to involve the community again. We used to let people apply in a public thread, then run a poll on who everybody wanted on the Council. The one with the most votes became Council Head. This method was good for putting a good kind of pressure on the Council members and showing them that people care about the Council and being represented well. I would like to return to this system in some iteration, though it may not work just like it used to.

I've let you all know this in the interest of transparency, and now I would like your opinions. Fire away.

[Rutarete]

That post you just made here higs is something I'm glad to hear ('read').

[MyNameIsJoey]

Yes, with me being unable to post new Council apps for a while, Council stayed the same and most of its members became less active. However, most still voted in polls regarding Staff hirings, which was nice.

Effective today, we've removed the inactives and added Chapuz and Dm1321 to the list of Council members. They join majofa, Calindu and n00b. The latter three stayed on the Council due to still being active and exceptionally resourceful.

This is the first time we've cherry-picked Council members, and the first time we make use of a newly created system: we want to have Council members that represent different areas of the forum. All of the above come from different sections of the forum: Chapuz as Brawlmaster, Dm1321 as Competition Organizer, majofa as PvP Event Organizer, Calindu as Tournament Organizer and n00b as Guildmaster. Suffice to say, many of these are also Chat Moderators and fill a few other roles as well.

To fill up the rest of the Council, I'm discussing with antiaverage about a method to involve the community again. We used to let people apply in a public thread, then run a poll on who everybody wanted on the Council. The one with the most votes became Council Head. This method was good for putting a good kind of pressure on the Council members and showing them that people care about the Council and being represented well. I would like to return to this system in some iteration, though it may not work just like it used to.

I've let you all know this in the interest of transparency, and now I would like your opinions. Fire away.

I like the way of going back to public voting. It does become a popularity contest in some way, but it reflects what the community wants. And to be honest, I'd rather it become a popularity contest than hiring tons of newbs that disappear in the following 2 weeks and then have tons of inactive staff.

noob may be guildmaster, but guild isnt doing anything, at all.

Also, the way you are telling us about it, the council is staff that it applies itself. Am i the only one to see something wrong about this?

If you're going to make a public vote anyway, why did you decide to add 2 people like that?

I love the transparency, thanks higs.

[TribalTrouble]

I think Chapuz and Dm are good additions to the council. I'm curious what discussions will be like with Dm in them now.

As for voting, I think this could be an interesting idea to try.

Thanks for the transparency.

[Chapuz]

@Jijo:
Dm and I have been interested in the council for a while. Dm worked with majofa in the formation of the new council and I have been in touch with the admins and previous council members being aware of what they were and were not doing, even asking some council members to propose a couple of ideas I had, besides saying somewhere that I was interested in being part of the new council. I guess that's why the admins wanted us in the council, but it's just my guess.

[Higurashi]

As I said, selecting qualified individuals from different sections of the forum is part of a new system where the Admins add people to the Council before the public applications are accepted. This is done to ensure that we have an active Council from now on, as well as one that can cover all important parts of the forum. This has, as you know, been a big problem in the past. With the three left of the Council that didn't disappear despite everyone else doing so and two fresh Councillors who I know are motivated, inactivity should finally not be an issue anymore in the Council.

With 5 Council members and 2 Admins, we have achieved functionality. 7 more Council members will hopefully be found volunteering when we accept public applications. We may or may not also have a separate poll for who you want to be Council Head, in which the 5 pre-picked Councillors will be included of course.

[PlayerOa]

7 more Council members will hopefully be found volunteering when we accept public applications.

What happened to the council application thread majofa put up ~2 weeks ago?

[Higurashi]

That was premature and not agreed upon on by a majority. anti is currently developing the system we'll use. I'll do fine-tuning if necessary.

majo likes to get things done fast. It's very useful most of the time.

[MyNameIsJoey]

Could I know why some of my posts were removed? They in no way broke any forum rules as far as i know.

[Hyroen]

I'm actually glad this topic came up. Council issues have always been around, having been a part of Council a few times myself.

Usually what happens is there is unfortunate amount of disinterest in taking the initiative to start on projects aside from hiring Staff.

Hiring Staff is an important aspect of the forums, and generally only requires a few thorough people and a general consensus. Though once that's passed, it's the motivation to be on board with the initiatives of other council members, or even just the motivation to participate in anything that comes Council's way that really keeps the train chugging along.

I'll admit that while last Council started with a decent amount of activity, there was not enough total initiative from everyone to keep moving on to other aspects of Council work. Being in the chat helps, sending PMs helps, teamwork. This, apart from sensitive topics on which differing opinions caused some Council members to rethink of the values of the team made flies drop in terms of activity.

Council is a crucial part of the forums, but if there won't be teamwork, Council -will- fall apart.

I look forward to successful Council endeavours and wish luck to all those participating.