The Future of the Hylian Knight Usergroup

[A Link In Time]

Hello everyone.

I recently received word from the Zelda Dungeon Mod Chat that Mases desired for a Community Coordinator to pose the question to the community about whether or not the Hylian Knight usergroup should be kept. There has been a lot of talk in recent years about this rank and its purpose. Now the members of the forum will get to decide whether or not it should remain or be discarded.

Since I expect things to potentially get heated in here as both sides of the argument present their points, I would appreciate if everyone remained respectful and refrained from voting until they have made up their mind. There is plenty of time to vote on the matter so there is no need to rush. This poll will remain open for two weeks. Please take note that this is a public poll so others may see your vote.

Thank you for your participation.

 

[Stitch]

Would this apply to the Hylian Nobles, too?

 

[Jamie]

I know we have a lot of time, but I had already made up my mind on this ages ago.

"Do not keep HK" was my vote.

Why? Because they are pointless. As Seth pointed out in another thread, no other forums have this kind of system (that I know of) and no one has trouble finding role models. You should pick your own role models, not have them voted in by other role modes.

Simply put, I don't see the point of having HKs, to me the rank offers nothing to the forum. It's great that they finally fixed their voting system, but that won't give them a purpose. The HKs are all lovely individuals, but they would be equally as lovely not being HKs.

I doubt anyone will change my mind, but I am willing to hear opinions. My vote has been cast, however. I am firm on this one.

 

[CynicalSquid]

I feel like this should have been asked after they implemented their new system.

I know I said they are worthless, but I truly want to see if they fixed it or made it better.

I say keep them for now.

 

[Jamie]

I feel like this should have been asked after they implemented their new system.

I know I said they are worthless, but I truly want to see if they fixed it or made it better.

I say keep them for now.

As I said in my post, fixing the system they have to get people into the ranks isn't going to give them a purpose.

 

[A Link In Time]

Would this apply to the Hylian Nobles, too?

No. This thread purely concerns the HK rank.

 

[Terminus]

HNs should go bye-bye. You don't need a special badge for being buddy-buddies with Mases.






































Oh right, the HKs. Useless. There's no real point to them, but maybe we can buy name colors after they're gone.

 

[Wolf Sage]

I've always thought that people took the HK role too seriously. It's just a "here's a member that you can look up to" thing. I'm not sure if it was ever meant to be taken so seriously. I find it baffling. Plus, it's a lot better than what some other forums have going for them with their "Platinum" and "Gold Members" and their "This Member Has Reached This Many Posts or Reputation Points That They've Earned This Rank/Color" thingies. ZD is easily one of the more laid back and mellow forums I've joined regarding things such as this—before whatever happened with the HK voting system(?)—and everything else.

I have no formal vote on the matter, and I do not wish to partake in the proceedings.

 

[Krazy4Krash]

I reckon it's worth keeping around. I partly agree with Ayano Keiko in that I'm intrigued by how the new implementation will work. I'm not concerned by the statement that's it's "useless" or "has no purpose", or even as to why people take it way too seriously in the first place.

 

[Blue Canary]

I reckon it's worth keeping around. I partly agree with Ayano Keiko in that I'm intrigued by how the new implementation will work. I'm not concerned by the statement that's it's "useless" or "has no purpose", or even as to why people take it way too seriously in the first place.

Ditto.

 

[Seth]

Get rid of it.

It's a fundamentally flawed rank that'll always be more of an exclusive club than anything useful. I honestly believe it does more harm than good for the forums. It has always been a point of contention ever since I have been here. Time to cut it out.

 

[Justac00lguy]

I voted Keep it.

I'm going to admit that some biased may apply here, but this is me being honest. I don't see why a lot of the hate is thrown at the HKs, even back when I became active in December 2012, people had this attitude that HKs were all egotistical and thought of them as superior to the rest of the forum. Fact is that this simply doesn't exist, possibly some HKs have this trait, but that's more of a personal issue - there is literally no feeling of superiority among us in any way (I'd even go as far as saying inferiority due to some of the hate we receive). All HK discussion is done with the community's vision in mind because now it's got to the point where anything we do wrong will be criticised.

I don't think that getting rid of the HKs would be necessarily bad by any means, but from my point of view it would be contradictory of me to oppose keeping them. I remember stating way back before I was a HK, when speaking to Spirit when she was one, that I didn't care for the rank, but I'd only like to be one in order to possibly improve the rank itself. When I got the rank I wanted to stick to my word and try my best to make sure that I could stop this bad perception. Thing is, it was only a handful of us that attempted to initiate change, we were outnumbered and it was very frustrating. I guess it's kind of ironic that we actually have a new system working to full effect and now the abolishment of the rank is being brought up in a formal manner. For me to vote against would really be odd considering I've put a lot of effort into trying to initiate change.

This isn't me wanting to really keep the rank either, I've been thinking of quitting due to the fact that sometimes I feel like it's more so a burden. The HKs are so subject to hate that I think people will see me and make that perception. "Oh look he's a HK, he must have a superiority complex" or even the fact that we have to live up to a certain standard otherwise people will criticise us for acting out of line. Truth is, I didn't want my time in the rank to be worthless and quit which wouldn't accomplish anything.

If I was to the do anything about the HKs it would be to change its meaning and this is something that has been briefly brought up here and there within the section. The term "Role Model" is obviously somewhat controversial and quite subjective. I see all the complaints that anyone can be a Role Model and a purple colour doesn't justify their status. In fact I remember speaking to Curm on the matter and he made an excellent point that HKs shouldn't be seen as some elitist group but more so community leaders that are essential to the health of the community. I'm still sure that whatever the definition of the rank will be, people will still have animosity towards it, so It's near impossible to persuade the naysayers, but this is something that I'd like to see happen.

 

[Mercedes]

I reckon it's worth keeping around. I partly agree with Ayano Keiko in that I'm intrigued by how the new implementation will work. I'm not concerned by the statement that's it's "useless" or "has no purpose", or even as to why people take it way too seriously in the first place.

Agreed. I think in general people take this forum a bit too seriously. The HK's, whether they're useless or not, aren't doing any harm, we've always had them, I used to be one a long time ago, and they've never been so complained about before. If anything I just think they're under-utilised and so people's perceptions of them have changed, and that can be fixed in many ways. And with hearing about a 'new system' coming then I want to give them a shot first.

Also, I think it'd be silly to remove the HKs but not the HN's. I think the poll should be keep the ranks or abolish the ranks, not pick and choose either one.

 

[Zorth]

I've always thought that people took the HK role too seriously. It's just a "here's a member that you can look up to" thing. I'm not sure if it was ever meant to be taken so seriously. I find it baffling. Plus, it's a lot better than what some other forums have going for them with their "Platinum" and "Gold Members" and their "This Member Has Reached This Many Posts or Reputation Points That They've Earned This Rank/Color" thingies. ZD is easily one of the more laid back and mellow forums I've joined regarding things such as this—before whatever happened with the HK voting system(?)—and everything else.

I have no formal vote on the matter, and I do not wish to partake in the proceedings.

Maybe a little too laid back?

There are a lot of things like this on the forum (and IRL for that matter) that are kept around/not changed because the people in charge are too lazy to do anything about it. It reminds me of a cleaning lady at a Hotel I used to work at. She would clean everything on a superb level except when it came to the dust that gathered in the corner behind a nightstand. She could just never bring herself to take 30 seconds to pull the nightstand back and clean in the corner too. Key thing to take note here: laziness.

In regards to the rank HK itself I find it completely useless. It is supposed to be some role model rank but I haven't seen 4 of them for quite some time anywhere on the forums. The ones that do post and are somewhat active don't seem to be any better in what they are doing than other regular members. So this just makes for a confused supposed new member who is in need of a HK role model. A funny thought to throw in too: If one of these regular active members were to wear an exploited HK banner, being a HK both in rank & behaviour, they would probably still get warned/infracted for impersonating one.

I also have to add this (be warned, a little off topic), when looking at Wolf's examples of other rank systems, I still don't understand what makes HK's better. The process of becoming one at the moment (and has been for years) is very complicated, slow, and it is to be honest "Hylian Knight" is just another word for a rank like "Gold Member". From what other forums I've visited that has some kind of rank system they are usually decided by 1. The community 2. Time. Meaning that usually anyone can vote for a certain member to attain a certain rank for maybe being a good poster, friend, thread starter, etc. Not a club of already ranked members that get to choose who joins them. Then for the other point it is the experience with the forums so after say X years of being a member of forum Y you'd get a new rank showing that you've been part of the forum for that long. I don't really care for any type of ranks, but if we look at the HK role model system and compare it with other basic concepts, then it is quite obvious which one is more fair.

 

[Ronin]

I could care less whether the position is sustained or abolished, but having spent a sizable amount of my free time constructing the gist of the quarterly rolling nominations and coordinating with as many HKs as I could, I'd hate to see all that effort go to waste. Already several nominations have sprung up, and a decent amount of votes have been dispensed to at least half of them. In about two and a half months there's almost no doubt that a handful of those nominations would become promotions given the time span. All that's needed is 60% approval and right now I'd say that at least two have 40%.

If the majority of the community would be willing to withhold its removal then they would see the results they've been craving. If not then there's simply nothing else to be said; I'm not trying to persuade anyone, as the choice is yours. Again, it wouldn't matter to me either way since the role model aspect could function with or without the Hylian Knight position.