Something That's Been On My Mind As Of Late....

k ill see if i can shoot him a pm



EDIT- his inbox is full

@ soul products: Adam's inbox is almost always full. The best way to contact him is through his email: gametavern@gmail.com



I don't disagree with most of what's being said here, and I thought it might be revealing to let you guys who are pointing out all these issues that internally many of us have been asking 'What can we do to help?' and making these same suggestions to the boss for ... well, if not years, then certainly it's been pretty close to that. I know that a few of our former mods left their posts citing the lack of organization and direction. Personally I do feel numbed to the situation having seen topics like this internally and within the forums sit for weeks unanswered, typically only to result in a few lists being made that are rarely if ever acted on, then later to watch the very same issues and suggestions freshly brought back up in 6 months time.. To see that process repeat over and over.. it's wears you down over time.



But I empathize with Adam. I know how busy he is between this community and managing his other websites, looking for work in a difficult econimic climate, planning for his wedding this July, working on armor projects, defending the website from routine DDOS attacks from total asshats, doing publicity and press for the 405th, planning for the convention season, ... and probably a dozen, dozen other responsibilities that I'm not aware of. It has to be more than one person can keep up with.. which is why whenever this topic comes back up I have to point out that the root cause of all this routine atrophy is that the necessary administrative responsibilities have never been properly distributed to the moderating team, and that routine site maintenance chores haven't been delegated. The mods are really just a crew of peacekeepers. Adam has the only set of keys to the controls of this place, and therefore has to do the lion's share of the actual maintenance. He's overloaded, undoubtedly, but we've just never crossed that line of delegating administrative power, and until we do I think theres just always going to be this issue of neglect and maintenance... every 6 months or so.



The other side of this too is that it's very routine that every 6 months a group of people will collectively ask for a change and usually make a very compelling case for it. But what would the 405th be like if we fundamentally changed it every 6 months? What effect would that have if the structure and the rules of the forum were constantly changing? I'd have to hazard that lack of consistency is cause for many of the discipline issues here, which is why I think that we all can affect just as much change ourselves by fostering a strong sense of community and supporting and helping each other.



Many times we make requested changes only to find that there are just as many people against the change, whether it's for the better or not. Change is highly requested and just as often protested.. but we can't really go back once the change is put in place.. it's a slippery slope when we make decisions about the function of this place... especially if based solely on the previous few weeks or months.. opinions can turn on a dime here. It takes time and resolve to see through the issues that come and go and to address the root problems.



I know that some of you have cited that we need more mods, and agreed, truly we do need to clean house of the mods that have moved on for one reason or another and to determine how many of the current mods can devote the necessary time here. We have just recently added Rundown and Ruze, and thats an enormous step in the right direction, But clearly, more mods should follow.



I'd also really like to see all these issues addressed. More mods, more delegation, more organization, but I know that things are much more likely to stay the same than they are to change. Why you might ask? Inertia. We need to build inertia and momentum to make these changes and continue effort to keep moving in the same direction to build upon the momentum we gather. We can't do that when we keep changing directions.



So that;s Newton's first law in action... lets see if we can get the third law in effect also .

quote_all of the above_-sean bradley-



couldnt have said it better. i think the only major change that we need are more highly dedicated mods that plan to stay for a long while. i also couldnt agree more with the fact that we couldnt just do an overhaul to the site, it would have to be gradual



if i have time today ill see if i can shoot adam an email

@Sean That's a valid point about opponents of change. It's something I would not have considered, but I suppose is very important. I think the site overhaul might make things flow a bit better. Hopefully with less friction...See what I did thar?

Not that I really have any say in the matter, since I would be concidered a noob due to my postcount and joindate, mostly lurking from me, but...

I used to hang around these parts back in the day it still was Mjolnir Armor, and I acctualy think I might have had to send Adam a mail asking to join. You could allways go back to that, and keep the masses at bay and all that, but I dont really think that would solve anything.

As some of the earlier posters have pointed out. there's been an increasing tendency all around with the "i want, and i want it now" mentality. Not just here, but any forum really, not to mention RL. This isnt something any amount of moderation or banning would solve, unless you'd want to ban 90% of the internet.

Another post earlier pointed out that the noob section should be renamed The Sandbox, and shouldnt be moderated, or incase lightly so. Now this I would see no point in, as that would exclude most new people, like me, from the whole point of the forum, and likely be a deterrent for people that could be a real contribution to the whole community, as they wouldnt even get a chance to show their work, since no mods would ever see the work they did. I'm ofcourse stricktly speaking from a Noobs point of view here, so the vets around here might have another view on it.

Ps: Excuse some of my rather poor grammar. English isnt my first language

- Aslak

Hi

I'm a long time lurker full time noob. I'll probably never have a huge post count just because I try to use the search function most of the time. In fact the only two threads I started only happened because PMs were down and search wasn't working for me. In fact I think the biggest problem of noobdom is being lumped together in the noob forum and wondering when we will be allowed to post in certain areas. Like classifieds

Being a noob I didn't have access to the classified section until the overhaul and can now understand why. Granted I do like the classified section and hope to retain access to it. Maybe it could work like hardocp where you can't post if you don't have a high enough rating, but you can still pm sellers and view threads.

That being said I think you guys are doing a great job with the new forum considering it's convention season. Some of the online communities I know wouldn't be nearly as helpful during normal times let alone what is probably the busiest time of the year for some of us. So ah... thanks and I hope some of that made sense.

wolfeborne said:

In fact I think the biggest problem of noobdom is being lumped together in the noob forum and wondering when we will be allowed to post in certain areas. Like classifieds

Click to expand...

What he said, only he said it better than I managed to

I will just say, when I go to some other Forums, there is a general cleanliness of it.

Not entirely sure how it is, but my best guess is; Some of the other prop stuff is gear more for older people. Like star wars generally attracts an older crowd from what I've noticed. Halo is a relatively new video game. Much younger people are going to be attracted to it.