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Hey everyone,
So, as was promised, this post is going to provide some insight into the Inner Council that Andrew and I mentioned in the "initial announcement":http://forums.obsidianportal.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=4019&page=1 about the changes to the team. As we get some more items in place these members will be able to actively Beta Test features for the site before they go live to help ensure we have less potential issues with new releases moving forward. As it stands, here is what we are thinking.
*Inner Council Members*
We are looking to bring on board a small group of initially 3 volunteers from the community to help facilitate the desired direction OP needs to get moving in. Additionally, we needed to have someone available who is active in the community and engaged with our members (basically, being the awesome and helpful folks everyone nominated for this has been in the past). So, at the very core of all this we have:
_Community Ambassador:_
We have a significant backlog of items on the support site/forums that need to be reviewed, curated, and then addressed. With that in mind, our Community Ambassador would be granted some additional permissions around the site to be able to better fulfill these types of tasks. In essence, this entails engaging with the community on a regular basis and help to keep information flowing efficiently and quickly.
All in all, this is essentially a support role to help ensure timely responses to items that come in fresh and to address the backlog of items already present. Much of this will still be getting directly addressed by me, but it can’t hurt to have a few more eyes watching out for things.
"Belrathius":https://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/Belrathius has accepted our invitation for this role.
"bluesguy":https://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/bluesguy has accepted our invitation for this role.
_Curator of Knowledge:_
The next spot we have on the Inner Council at this time is the Curator of Knowledge. Over the years of OP being around, a trove of useful bits of information have been tossed up from many members of the community. The problem here is that many of these items are posted on to the forums, and over time and more new discussions they get themselves buried and lost to the ether. We are now looking into building a resource archive to be able to better handle this kind of information. This will require gathering details, reaching out to folks who created the content to ensure their approval of it being added to such a resource, and helping to build that resource up.
"Wolfhound":https://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/wolfhound has accepted our invitation for this role.
_Keeper of the Sheets:_
Next, we have the Dynamic Sheet Templates (DSTs). Historically the creation and management of these has been something handled directly by the members, and we have no actual intention of changing this process. For the time being we are foreseeing the need for a member to be able to handle this process. This essentially entails the review and approval of new DSTs, and if we can work it our the creation of new DSTs for systems that may be lacking them. A degree of technical knowledge is needed for this role.
"ChainsawXIV":https://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/ChainsawXIV has accepted our invitation for this role.
----
And there you have it. I will be in direct contact with these individuals on a regular basis to keep the chain of communication flowing and to ensure if any issues crop up that they are brought to my attention in a timely manner. The council members were chosen based on their contribution to OP and their standing within the community. We’ll be initiating a series of updates and features based on their feedback, so we’ll announce these in due course.
That is all for now, keep on gaming!
--Alex
Comments
Just an FYI, as can probably be evidenced in the forums, I'm not Mr. Gregarious. I come from an operations perspective and tend to work hard behind the scenes. I am happy to lend my years of software testing experience to both beta testing and bug triage, but I am by no means the best candidate for additional community liaison. On that front, Killervp (and several others that I could mention) do a much better job of community communication.
As for killervp, they are already on my list of names, and I fully agree is a good fit for this council as a Community Liaison. I had something else in mind for the third spot of the launch phase, but now you have some ideas of how I hope to expand upon this as well. For now, as a sign of good faith, the Community Liaison is basically me. The community deserves the communication, and I don't think any of that buck should be passed just yet. I expect things to pick up around here more and more though as we go on, so I forsee that being a facet of expansion.
So, in closing on that since I sometimes ramble, I didn't mean to make you feel singled out there Belrathius - I will correct the post accordingly. (Fixed)
Congratulations to Belrathius and Chainsaw!
twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
Keelah Se'lai,
Keryth
"Shadows Over New York":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shadows-over-new-york
"2013 Campaign of The Year":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/2013-coty-shadows-over-new-york/
"Campaign of the Month July 2013":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/shadows-over-new-york-julys-campaign-of-the-month/
Well done- now to see at least the first fix- as it has been almost 2 weeks since the talk began, but not a fix seen yet.
Just trying to help out.
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
GM of Rise of the Durnskald: Wrath of the Fallen Goddess - February 2016 CotM
GM of Core: The Ashes of Alcarna - April 2020 CotM
GM of Stream of Kairos
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Would it be possible to correct that?
Such a minor quibble, I know, but it would make one rogue I know very happy!
twiggyleaf
CURRENT CAMPAIGN: "Mysteria":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/mysteria - set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: "Shimring":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shimring
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
Just trying to help out.
@all - I have finished up talks with the 3rd member for our launch of this, and I am happy to announce that Wolfhound is now on board in our third position (details have been added to the opening post).
twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
As for beta testing, I would argue that the group should be as large as possible. My "original thread on the Reforge failure":http://forums.obsidianportal.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=3415&page=1#Item_12 actually presents my opinion on opening up the beta testing. In short, I feel anyone with an Ascendant account who voices an interest should be allowed to beta test. The Inner Council should have different objectives, objectives that are clearly spelled out without ambiguity. Sure, they can and should also be involved in beta testing, but council status should be independent. Many companies have to pay for testing services or staff. If you have a community willing to do so for free, a company would be a fool not to leverage that opportunity to the hilt. It's not like you would be risking trade secrets or anything.
@ Belrathius: I not sure I agree 100% with your point about the numbers in the 'small council'. as a general rule, there is a law of diminishing returns for each additional person in a meeting. That said I do wonder if the small council would benefit from one additional new member :- "the official noob" (you may want to rename that! ) In my experience there is a tendency for the 'old guard' to stay in in position and, being human, they forget what its like to wonder into a new service. In fact they actually have no direct experience of entering 'the new service' after they have implemented several reforms over a period of time - having a relative newbie sit it in on a meeting once or twice a year can be helpful.
you may be right about the beta testing though - anyone got any data to say what the optimum number of beta testers are? if your shooting for a normal distribution of responses ~35 is a good starting number in many systems
I agree with Belrathius about KVP - he should have been "IN THERE" - maybe he still could, but he does seem to have clearly stated his new preference.
I agree with NikNak about a "NOOB" position. Great idea.
As for talk of general numbers, I think both Belrathius and NikMak have good points so I will leave the decision to you guys, but the number of the Ringwraiths of Reforge should be met by an appropriate number of Inner Council Members, therefore determining the maximum (before diminishing returns) to be nine. (This is, of course, purely based on a book I read)>
twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
A "noob" position is a very interesting idea, and one I had not even really considered so far. Thanks very much for bringing that one up, I can see a lot of potential merit in that (beyond what has already been expressed here). As I said, I had planned on trying to expand this as I was able to do so (I have also mentioned a Community Liaison spot as well that I am thinking about).
Regarding the talk about numbers, this is something that varies depending on the nature of the task. When we are talking about the council, depending on the position more numbers can have a varied impact on things. Our Community Ambassadors who are assisting with support items should be kept fairly low, we have backlog to be sure that needs worked but once we stabilize the workload here will see a stark downturn so we don't want to over extend and have to later drop a bunch of folks. For Keeper of the Sheets, some more assistance there is presently not something I think is needed - we don't have a ton of DSTs rolling in every day, and it also takes a bit of technical knowledge to properly address items there. The Curators of Knowledge could certainly be expanded upon as time moves forward, curating together and generation of new useful resources is something that usually improves with a few more hands in the pot. For our Community Liaison I have mentioned, since this is a supplementary role to essentially what I do we would not need a ton of folks again, one or maybe two would suffice as it stands. Finally, the newly suggested "Noob" position would again likely be a small number, but would regularly change as well since after so much tenure we couldn't really consider you a new guy any longer.
Now, Beta Testing is an entirely different beast altogether that has a few outlying factors that have to be considered. More hands than what we have on the council are most assuredly needed, as in Beta Testing the more users you have going at it the more live use situations will come up and be tested against in the process. People have a habit of performing the same task different ways after all. But, you must also consider that hosting a live testing area requires more system resources, and the more users you have the more data that has to be parsed through. These can play a big part in deciding on a suitable number for any Beta Test. My hope is to certainly include the Council members and the KS Backers who paid in to levels that offered this as a reward. For this round I will likely cap it at that though, and the big part of that is that people did get that as a reward from the KS - if that was a deciding factor for some on why they donated to the level they did it would be a disservice to them to allow the floodgates to just open. With that said, once the KS items are actually live, future Beta Testing can be addressed in ways that have been described, such as opening it up to our Ascendant users or some other manner entirely.
I hope this sheds some additional insight on my line of thinking with things. Please keep on tossing out ideas, comments, questions, and concerns though. I am here for you guys.
Just trying to help out.
Just trying to help out.
Do YOU as council members have any information about what's going on (or NOT going on)?
twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
I don't have any information about what is going on with the forum. I do have a meeting tonight w/ OP management.
They reached out to me.
Just trying to help out.