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Official Suggestions Thread

Krazy4Krash

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Can we ditch the Member userbadge in the postbit? I'd rather have my usertitle and avatar meet without something in between them I can't get rid of.
 
I propose that the modchat be removed from Skype. Forum decisions should not be made off of the boards, and the Skype chat likely restricts access for certain individuals who should have some sort of say in what goes on here. There should be a subforum in The Office where the forum staff communicate with each other. Therefore no one is excluded from the discussions that take place. I mean, the Skype group doesn't have to actually be eliminated, but by no means should Skype chats ever be the primary basis on which forum decisions are made. From what I've been told, most of the decisions don't even occur in modchat--just elsewhere on Skype. Well, no more of that. That's stupid. Keep it on the forum, from where it should have never migrated.

You can't solve the problem about the staff not communicating with the rest of the forum without getting to the root of the problem. And that's the fact that most of the staff don't have any sort of idea what's going on because they themselves don't communicate with each other much.
 

Jamie

Till the roof comes off, till the lights go out...
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I propose that the modchat be removed from Skype. Forum decisions should not be made off of the boards, and the Skype chat likely restricts access for certain individuals who should have some sort of say in what goes on here. There should be a subforum in The Office where the forum staff communicate with each other. Therefore no one is excluded from the discussions that take place. I mean, the Skype group doesn't have to actually be eliminated, but by no means should Skype chats ever be the primary basis on which forum decisions are made. From what I've been told, most of the decisions don't even occur in modchat--just elsewhere on Skype. Well, no more of that. That's stupid. Keep it on the forum, from where it should have never migrated.

You can't solve the problem about the staff not communicating with the rest of the forum without getting to the root of the problem. And that's the fact that most of the staff don't have any sort of idea what's going on because they themselves don't communicate with each other much.

I disagree. If ALIT wants an instant response from Locke, who is barely even present on the forum, Skype is by far the most efficient way to do this.
 

Stitch

AKA Patrick
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Aug 13, 2013
I propose that the modchat be removed from Skype. Forum decisions should not be made off of the boards, and the Skype chat likely restricts access for certain individuals who should have some sort of say in what goes on here. There should be a subforum in The Office where the forum staff communicate with each other. Therefore no one is excluded from the discussions that take place. I mean, the Skype group doesn't have to actually be eliminated, but by no means should Skype chats ever be the primary basis on which forum decisions are made. From what I've been told, most of the decisions don't even occur in modchat--just elsewhere on Skype. Well, no more of that. That's stupid. Keep it on the forum, from where it should have never migrated.

You can't solve the problem about the staff not communicating with the rest of the forum without getting to the root of the problem. And that's the fact that most of the staff don't have any sort of idea what's going on because they themselves don't communicate with each other much.

I disagree. If ALIT wants an instant response from Locke, who is barely even present on the forum, Skype is by far the most efficient way to do this.

And secondly, how do any of us other than the people in the mod chat know what does and doesn't happen in it? This suggestion seems really out of the blue.
 

Kybyrian

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Didn't I already answer this one?
I propose that the modchat be removed from Skype. Forum decisions should not be made off of the boards, and the Skype chat likely restricts access for certain individuals who should have some sort of say in what goes on here. There should be a subforum in The Office where the forum staff communicate with each other. Therefore no one is excluded from the discussions that take place. I mean, the Skype group doesn't have to actually be eliminated, but by no means should Skype chats ever be the primary basis on which forum decisions are made. From what I've been told, most of the decisions don't even occur in modchat--just elsewhere on Skype. Well, no more of that. That's stupid. Keep it on the forum, from where it should have never migrated.

You can't solve the problem about the staff not communicating with the rest of the forum without getting to the root of the problem. And that's the fact that most of the staff don't have any sort of idea what's going on because they themselves don't communicate with each other much.

It never migrated from the forums. Early 2008 and before saw all communication on Skype as a requirement.

Instant messaging offers unparalleled convenience.
 

Jamie

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And secondly, how do any of us other than the people in the mod chat know what does and doesn't happen in it? This suggestion seems really out of the blue.

Perhaps the mods and associates are not as faithful to the chat as you seem to believe...


The reason why the staff have no idea what's going on, mandy, is because the upper staff give them no direction. Read Kitsu's earlier post for elaboration.
 
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I disagree. If ALIT wants an instant response from Locke, who is barely even present on the forum, Skype is by far the most efficient way to do this.

As if getting a hold of Locke is easier on Skype. Your acting like you somehow know just what you're talking about all the time is really getting old.

It never migrated from the forums. Early 2008 and before saw all communication on Skype as a requirement.

Instant messaging offers unparalleled convenience.

That's BS and you know it. Even not that long ago, The Office was used for discussions instead of just reports and infractions. Hell, not even just the office, but other boards like Site Projects were used to gather input from other staff/users about decisions. Nowadays decisions aren't even discussed at all it seems. And this isn't even touching on the question of why you all people are even remotely involved in any of it.
 
While it's true skype can be convenient, there's no way to truly enforce anything on there. Nothing stopping people from branching off into other mod chats with non-staff in there. All of the other forums I go to, like, absolutely forbid forum matters being discussed on skype BECAUSE of this. And trust me, they get a lot more done. I know ZD is different; ZD is "special" but, again, the modchat doesn't have to actually be removed... they should just try to use the Office forum more for discussing important matters than just leaving it for infractions and such. It's basically dead.
 

CynicalSquid

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Aren't there non-staff members in the ZD mod chat?

I don't know if that's true, but sometimes a few normal members seem to know way more then they should.
 

Kybyrian

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Didn't I already answer this one?
Kitsu said:
That's BS and you know it. Even not that long ago, The Office was used for discussions instead of just reports and infractions. Hell, not even just the office, but other boards like Site Projects were used to gather input from other staff/users about decisions. Nowadays decisions aren't even discussed at all it seems. And this isn't even touching on the question of why you all people are even remotely involved in any of it.

Main discussion took place in the mod chat even then. Topics in The Office were seen as a way to get input from people who weren't around when discussion was going on in the skype chat. Fast-paced discussion can be a disadvantage when you aren't present, but it also has the advantage of simply being, well, fast-paced.

Decisions not being discussed at all is probably the bigger problem here, and moving discussion to the forums certainly won't solve that either. Why is it, now, that no mod ever even heard of the plan to implement a series of ideas that involved massive changes in the ranking system until the idea was already put underway (read: Locke's latest announcement). That's something that won't be solved without changing attitudes.

Kitsu said:
And this isn't even touching on the question of why you all people are even remotely involved in any of it.

Because I feed off of the power like a leech.




I do have my own suggestion though. It's probably something brought up by multiple people already, in part.

I think that Locke should step down. Or maybe not. I think Locke should resign his current duties and either remain as a technical admin or, more reasonably, be replaced in that manner as well. I'm always willing to give people the benefit of rehabilitation, but Locke said himself that a problem he tends to have is getting really involved in things, then suddenly losing all drive to work in any manner. This isn't a trait becoming of an administrator, and it's one I can regretfully say I hold myself. We need someone who strives to be active, not one who sits back one day and realizes, "Damn, I'm really inactive," and then strives to pick things up only upon realization of that flaw. We need someone who doesn't have that flaw in the first place.

And I think that our Community Coordinators should have deciding power when it comes to major policies and the composition of the forum community. I.e. I believe that, if it was so wished, the Community Coordinators should be able to coordinate with the rest of the community on an issue such as eliminating user rank (or certain user ranks) WITHOUT the consultation of Locke or another "higher" administrator. Our Community Coordinators should have the ability to make changes in the community, not be there as emissaries with a pseudo-admin rank. If it was so wished, then they should this very moment be able to poll the community on the "user rank changes" Locke has in mind, without the need for his interaction in any way. This is in most ways a vocal ability, so it's something that needs to be communicated from Locke. A manual resignation of certain exclusive powers, in other words. However, some physical abilities would need to be granted to these community coordinators as well, to implement changes that have been decided through community coordination.




As for people asking about the Skype mod chat and the inclusion of non-staff members, the mod chat was created by me when I was still an admin. There have been several non-staff members in the chat, but all of them were previous staff. Onilink89 was present in the chat for a little over two years after resigning, and Axle the Beast was also in the chat until recently despite having been removed as a moderator for inactivity over a year ago. Other former mods, like linkman8, Smitie, etc., were also in staff chats for a period of time after resigning from their duties as moderators, though I can say that in particular they were never very active.

The forum staff chat as it currently is was created by Justin (Cooldogs_1) a few years ago to specifically include forum staff members. Before that, forum staff issues were discussed in the public Zelda Dungeon staff chat. This would be the second or third iteration of the staff chat, which was created when the cool skype pencil glitch kinda ruined the other one.
 
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