I made a thread a few days ago about the ECC economy and the server in general ( http://ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/suggestion-ecc-economy.112431/ ) asking for suggestions on what can we do as a community to make things better. At one point @eyesee3 suggested that there should be a council that will ineract with the players and act as the voice of the community in a way. This will also help the staff because the council can provide them with clear stats and player opinions on different subjects instead of having 10 different threads on the same thing with just a few players commenting. Me and the people liked the idea and added talked about it. Eyesee3 and I brainstormed for a bit in private and this is the result of mine, his and some of the other people's ideas. General ideas: 1. The council members should be 7. That way if the group is divided about a decision there can be a majority and they will decide how to proceed. 2. Those who wish to join the council will apply on the forums. They will provide IGN, in-game rank, reason why they want to be on the council, in what time zone they are and provide some sort of scheduel so other members can know when this member is active. 3. The council members will be elected by the players and there will be 4 month mandate and after 4 months new elections will be held. The voting will be on the forums. The votes will be devided between 2 threads- Residents only and All Players thread. The reason behind that is that Residents are still new players but they still have some experience with the server and we would like to see how their votes differ from the rest. If a Resident votes on the All Players thread the vote will not be counted and this also goes the other way around. Also voting on both threads by the same player will be still counted as 1 vote. 4. There is no rewards for being a council member, no personal gain and no advantages. 5. The council must ask random players with different ranks questions about ECC in-game via PM or on the forum via mail because the idea behind the council is to get personal opinions on different issues. The council will decide together what question/questions will be asked. 6. The player who is asked the questions is in his/hers right to refuse giving an answer. In that case the council member should stop the survey with that player and move on to the next person. 7. The results of the survey will be presented to the staff and the members should do everything in their power to get staff's attention and response (this doesn't include spamming or anything else that isn't allowed by the server rules) . Until the problem is resolved there will be no new surveys and the council will keep trying to get an adequate reaction from the staff. 8. The questions and the answers to them should be screenshotted as proof to the mods that the council isn't just making the stats up. 9. Any council member who tries to use his council position for personal gain somehow, isn't an active member, harasses players, scams or breaks the server rules in some way should be kicked out of council if the other members decide to do it. 10. If one or more member/s leave the rest of the council will appoint new member/s because new applications+voting will take too much time that can be used to help the server. 11. Communication is key! Every council member should be awere of current events and plans in the group and everyone should contribute and exchange ideas. 12. Council members can be re-elected after the mandate ends. Council member requirements: 1. At least Resident Rank 2. At least 25 Relevant Forum posts 3. Being an active forum member for at least 3 months ( Having a forum account establish that the user is more than just a casual player but interested in learning more or contributing to the community) 4. Ban history will NOT be considered due to this user could have turned over a new leaf, this can be determined based on the votes. That is what we have for now. Pretty much everything here is copy-pasted from my conversation with eyesee3 with a few minor changes. I am posting this suggestion here first because we need the support and feedback of the community to do this right. There are still thing that can be added or changed in the future. This is in not a final draft but I hope that with your help we can turn this idea into reallity.
Uhh So basically you are trying to help the community by getting info from members of the community, then give the staff the info and do something about it? Have you ever considered doing that now? You don't need the server to do something about it. "Oh now they accepted the suggestion, I can ask people questions via forums or ingame, record it, and get things fixed!" Literally you could do that now. You don't have to be in some special group to do something you are capable of doing right now. Group useful members, plan it out yourself, ask people questions, get results, make suggestion. Simple right? How I see it is a group that gets attention for doing something anyone can do. If that's the case that's not helping at all, because all people will do is apply for the recognition. People who truly want to help will do it without expecting fame, reputation, reward, or anything else. If you really think that you need this implemented, I would get a person with some common sense on your "Team" You said in the other thread that you "Don't need the mods permission to do this" Well then you must not need a suggestion implemented either. I don't support attention seeking, sorry -1
A group of people can do much more than just 1 person. Do you really think staff will take notice of one guy? NO! There must be a representative team for the community. Who am I to do this all by myself without asking the community for support? Why not have just one staff member then to do everything all alone? Also why did you assume its my group and I will be in it I might apply but the voters will decide who goes in. And finally what fame, reputation and rewards are you talking about? Read this again 4. There is no rewards for being a council member, no personal gain and no advantages. besides there will be elecetions every 4 months (if that doesn't chnage because at this point everything can) so if the council members don't do what they have to do they wont be re-elected its that simple. Even this fails what do YOU lose? Nothing! The community won't be affected in either a good or a bad way so no one really loses in the end. If the mods still don't do nothing with the council around showing them the peoples problems they will never change a thing anyway so again doesn't really matter. But why not just try for once to be an active community rather than watching the server die a slow death? If you are happy with that happening good for you but I'm not and a lot of other players aren't happy about it too. So lets just try this thing out and see what happens.
I never said that one guy was going to do this. You are capable of organizing a group to do this yourself, even though its not your responsibility. And its not my choice if you do so or not. Sure, if you don't want to be part of it, then you don't have to. Make a voting thread listing candidates and have members vote there. If you do that, I applaud you. Sorry about assuming you wanted to be a part of your suggestion? I won't do that anymore. Lets face it. No matter if you ask for it or not, people who do good things will build up fame and reputation. Is the point of applying for staff to get attention and build up a reputation for yourself? No, but there are people who's intention it is to get fame. They don't ask for attention, they are just viewed differently, with more respect if you want to say it that way. If this happens, I promise there will be people who will apply for fame, and unfortunately thats how today works. Fame will always be a motivation for some users. Im not against making this some kind of user-run organization, however I am against it becoming a serverwide responsibility. If getting into council gives you no special powers or perks like a moderator or a wiki member, then make the organization yourself. You dont need the server to organize it. Get candidates. Get votes. Set it up yourself, because that's what someone with real motivation would do. If you want to know my reasoning against becoming a serverwide responsibility, its because this is what is going to get the people who apply for fame. There is a smaller chance that people who apply for fame will apply if it is user-run compared to server-run. I know that it doesn't affect me at all if this happens. But, this is my opinion, and I will never speak for others. I said it a few times already, but you can make it happen yourself and see how it works out. Then you can get fame and a good reputation for organizing it all.
The only reason I posted this thread is to show people what this idea is about and to see if they want this thing to take off in the first place or to add something to what I have posted. If the majority of people on this thread are with me on this the next step will be an application thread and than voting. I will set this up too so its not a server resposabilty, I am not forcing anyone to do this for me I am only asking for feedback from the community because thats the point of the entire thing- getting the commuinity involved in this. And if I get more negative votes for this I will just drop it and I will not bother anyone anymore and that will be the end of it. I agree that there will be people in it for the fame but those people will always be around and if the community votes responibly those people won't get to council. Even if they do they can't do harm to others and in time this council will lose popularity and will disappear. As you said those who do good things will gain fame and following that logic those who don't will not get it. Lets just hope this wont be the case.
I'm in agreement with @origamimaster10 . Nothing needs to be implemented to do this suggestion. It could easily be user run and I'd rather it be user run. When someone like Phys or an SA opens up something to apply for, people will apply just because they are the ones running it. If it is user run, it is more likely that the council will have more people that genuinely want to help the server. I like the thought behind the suggestion however and I wish you luck
Yes I agree nothing must be implemented. This suggestion is more for tha average player than for the staff.
I'm going to help gear this post back towards the direction in which it was posted. This is ultimately to help improve a community, I don't understand why someone wouldn't be for helping improve something that is literally on the brink of something very nice. If you don't agree it is okay to let your voice be heard on how you feel about a topic there is nothing wrong with that. I've been on here since late September and I've explored the net and this community has truly something special. True anyone can submit an opinion/suggestion but people coming together which is as @silencedterror stated, but having a central voice helps progress be made from the receiving end, there is very much so a disorganization in community when you see users who post thread after thread with the same issue just written in a different fashion with nothing to be done in the end, why is that? I'll leave that open for anyone to interpret for themselves. This thread is primarily for people interested in joining together not to have some sort of +/perk more than any other user of the community but basically to help progress be heard in an efficient nature for the individuals that can do something about it. I've asked questions, watched requests, and personally observed staff members mention possibly being overwhelm or mention the classic statement I even use irl, "Things will get done as time permits" in some form or fashion. What is being proposed is not a paying job or any compensation for the time being spent on this possibility, it is truly whole-heartedly an attempt to unify a community and help it grow as anything can grow when things are done together. Everyone wins in this instance. Just a personal statement: I know if I had something of my own such as a community like this at this point of growing legs of its own, I would be able to invest more brainpower/time helping come up with more creative things to make it better for the users that visit versus just finding away to just handle issues everyday with less progress than I desire. I'm personally offering my assistance here for nothing in return but hope that this will help improve the negative things people feel currently and to take things to another level so I and others can continue to get to know more people as well as continue having something to come to and have fun while escaping the real world for moments at a time. If you disagree you disagree, people of all ages are here and people of all mind-frames are here and maybe it will never be an instance that all will be in agreeance, but i will do my due diligence in being a community and not an individual part of a community.
Sorry guys but this and anyone that has agreed with this are the only logical posts on this thread. Any special group just for this purpose would only attract the attention of players who want to be in it for the title. As it was stated in the quote above, you could simply form a small group among friends or acquaintances and question miscellaneous players about the server, then possible take the results to staff or to the discussion board, all without having to make a special "council".
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If you are interested please don't be afraid to make a reply.
I understand you concern shadowhunter but wouldn't it be better if the people elect the ones that represent them? Imagine you don't know who I am and what I do and I just start asking you questions about ECC and the community etc. you will just ignore me and if you don't most people will. And if I go explainign all of this to every person I survey- it will take forever to get somewhere. Even if I do this without the people knowing what we are and we accomplish something good word will get around and fame seeking people will come in and start asking to join anyway and at one point some old member will quit and when we have to pick a new member there is no way for us to know what his/hers intentions are. But when people vote there is a smaller chance for this to happen because the people have some idea by now who has good intetions and who is in it for the fame. As I said many times before whatever people decide here goes so if they want me to drop it i will if they want me to form a group myself and do this without the peoples concent so be it. Currently I am just happy that people speak their minds about this no matter what they have to say as long as it relevant to this subject.
This is primarily to find those liked minds as someone mentioned above and those who are giving their time for no compensation besides the love they have of the community. It only seems right to do this on the forum for the community for everyone to see and speak on, some people may have suggestions or ideas but never have time to truly follow through with them or to personally try to figure something out themselves because they want to do something else at the moment, where as others do have the time and or resources to do so and find enjoyment in it as well as understand the benefit is only a better experience for everyone.
I do see one problem, however. This does indeed relate to politics. I would like to add that out of all the people running, there will always be a small percentage of users against that player, or believes that the player is not worthy of having that position. This may lead into different people hating on others, and it will cause hate and discrimination at least towards the user running for the position. Unfortunately this will play out in any way, as long as it is election-based, however making it player-run will indeed minimize this effect.
Yes I see what you mean there. That can really be a problem if a controversial person runs for council. There is a way to stop that on the voting post via a rule but not in-game. I hope that the larger portion of the community will put aside personal relationships for a minute and look at the bigger picture. That might be too optimistic but I have some faith in the players here.
You're making very valid points, and honestly there is no system on the server that will ever go without politics, even our server staff in some cases. Maybe a fix to that would be to change one of your points made in the opening thread. Instead of 4 months it could be reduced to 2 or maybe even 1 month. It will take away some of the prestige of being ranked as such and it would still allow enough time for voting. 6 rounds a year isn't much, 12 perhaps might be though.
Actually the first suggestion about a mandate was for the period of 2 months but I thought that its gonna take some time for application, some more time for voting and counting the results and after 2-3 elections people will just lose interest in voting or applying. I agree with that idea as long as people are willing to participate more often and also the people who apply only to gain fame will lose intrest (atleast some of them) and because there is less time for the council to act on a issue/issues they will do what they have to at a faster pace so they can have more results in that short period. I still don't know how long will applications and voting will take, should it be a set period of time or a total number of applications and votes for example: post is lock after 40 applications and for voting after 80 votes (that is just an example don't look at those numbers they might as well be millions ).
