The contest this month will be replaced with a community activity that should hold just as much challenge and drama as one of our traditional contests. Some people fear it will be a little too challenging and dramatic, or in other words, that small things will be taken too seriously and feelings will be hurt. It's a valid concern, but I think if the participants will keep a little goodwill and perspective, we will be just fine.
I find that people on the forum really want to be involved with Caravel and DROD. There's actually a large surplus of volunteer energy out there that we just don't know what to do with. I think we want a looser system than the current one. What is the current system? People e-mail me and ask if I want help with something, and I take a few weeks to get back to them with some response like:
"Sorry for replying back so late to this. I've just been horrendously busy! Yeah, what you said sounds great, and if you want to do it, that would be wonderful, and I'm sure people would appreciate it. I can't offer you much help on the project, because I'm stuck with some other tasks I'm already behind on. But I do wish you the best of luck and thanks very much for offering."
As much as I try to say that I value what the person is trying to do, I think my brief and delayed interactions have the effect of sending the volunteer down a lonely road by himself. I can't be surprised when he decides that road isn't very fun and decides to abandon it.
The other part of the current system is that certain permanent positions are filled by shoulder-tapping. "
Shoulder-tapping"
is the practice of myself and a handful of others quietly offering positions to people on our own initiative. There are many advantages to this method of finding volunteers, and I think it works pretty well. The trouble comes when the volunteer's enthusiasm for his position wanes. And it will! I always expect that eventually the day will come when somebody just doesn't get enough fun out of doing the job to make it worthwhile. The people helping us have a hard time figuring out what to do when that day arrives. There are these weird guilt trips and noble reaffirmations of duty, which I wish people wouldn't go through. For their own sake! And then we have the inevitable vacancy, which is always tinged with sadness and maybe a tiny bit of panic to put somebody new in the spot so we can carry on.
I want to fix these problems. We have here in this community the best participants for an experiment in virtual volunteerism. The forumites here are generally much more intelligent and good-natured than members of other game-related forums, and we have a long tradition of keeping the forum in a constructive spirit with scrupulous moderation. So this is the right place to try some new things. I think that some of these things I have in mind haven't been tried in any other online community, and we'll be forging into new territory.
We'll create a bureaucracy that will handle nearly all of the affairs of the DROD community. This bureaucracy would take control of some existing things we are doing, and then, like all good bureaucracies, expand into other areas. If we do this right, the bureaucracy will also accomplish many silly things that aren't really necessary. It will be joyful monstrosity! In the Caravellian Bureaucracy, our members are volunteers that want to have fun--not do a lot of boring work. Here is the guiding philosophy and tenets of our fledgling society:
* Many hands make light work. We will accomplish great things and make the forum a wonderful place with lots of people occupying various positions in the bureaucracy.
* Position duties should be designed to require the smallest amount of time possible. If a position can be broken down into smaller positions, with different people handling them, then it should.
* A person who takes a position can quit any time he wants for any reason. But he is expected to find someone to replace him before doing so.
* As soon as a position isn't fun or the person can't keep up with the duties, that person should find a replacement and step down.
* If more people want a position, we should keep inventing new things to do. Ideally, everybody that wants a role in the bureaucracy can find one.
The Bureaucracy will have a number of departments, each one concerning itself with one area of effort. We are going to start with just one--the Department of Grand Constructions. This department aims to promote the creation of tangible new things such as holds, artwork, writings, or music. It shall cause the embarkation of many projects, and ruthlessly prod the embarkers to completion.
In the Department of Grand Constructions, the following positions are required (for implications of "
required"
position status, please read Meta-Rules found on the Bureaucracy board):
* Director - General boss of the department. Creates, changes, and removes positions as well as making initial appointments.
* Chief Editor - Manages website content and recruits for more of it. Note that
Patrick has retired from this position. He will also be appointing his replacement unless he can't find someone before the new Director is elected, in which case the Director will appoint someone.
* Artfinder - Finds art for projects
* Voicefinder - finds voice talent for projects
* Forum Reporter - Writes up topic picks and sends them to me once each month for inclusion in the Illumination.
The Director would appoint people to these positions after he's elected. After he's filled all the required positions, he can also appoint to optional positions of his own creation. There are many more optional positions which could be created.
Note that the current process for approving and publishing holds is something that was put together very cautiously with a lot of discussion and effort. We're not going to let it be changed significantly by the people in the Department of Grand Constructions, although there will be opportunities to influence it.
We will be electing the Director of the Department of Grand Constructions next. I would like to know who will run. Before you yell out, "
meeeeeeeee!!!!!"
you might consider if you're really a good person to do it. The Director should be someone with the following qualifications:
* Has played DROD for a while and participated in the hold building process.
* Is great at talking with other people and collaborating with them.
* Has a lot of enthusiasm for doing creative things.
* Doesn't start unnecessary arguments and considers people's feelings before speaking.
* Has about 4 hours each month to spare on Director duties.
If you think you could do the job well and want to do it, then by all means, announce your candidacy. You could also throw in behind somebody else that you want to be the Director, if not yourself. If you are a candidate, then expect to do some speechifying to convince people you're the right pick. Above all else, please remember to keep your goodwill and perspective.
I will wait about a week to see who announces and then we'll put up a poll. For more background information about how the new system will work, check out
the Bureaucracy board!
-Erik
____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 08-20-2007 10:03 PM]
