saveyourselves | Entries tagged with *important

All four of us are sorry for the mess, hurt, poor decisions, and the wait that's put the entire OOC environment of the game in a state of limbo - and especially for our respective roles in it.

However, we thank everyone who came forward and to openly discuss their views of the situation, and in the process forced everyone - us included - to consider and air out several long-standing problems with the game: the mods communicate and organize poorly, make decisions out of haste or emotion, act without each other's heads-up, can't balance the demands of StE with the needs of its playerbase, and in the meantime, fail to foster an air under which players feel comfortable or able to bring up their concerns with the way that things are working without either being brushed off or put in the metaphorical doghouse.

Discussion among ourselves, Linda, and Guin has led us to settle on the fact that things aren't working - not with the current modteam, dynamics or structure. And so we have agreed to - for the most part! - call for a change, regroup, and rebuild:

Blue is remaining on as a head mod.

Olga is stepping down to a helper mod position; she will be handling list, app, Echo, etc. duties, but not be considered at authority.

Anduin will remain - only technically - on the modteam long enough to tie up loose ends and show replacement mods the ropes to see the team out of a state of transition; after this, she has decided to step down.

Mini has also agreed to step down from the modteam.

We will thus be opening new mod apps immediately, which will remain open for three days - from evenings of 5/6-5/9 PST, with the decisions to be contacted and announced by no later than night of 5/10 PST.

Our goal is to take on at least three new head mods and three new helper mods - and we'll be making a point to put together a new team with complementary skillsets and preferences for areas of work! Exact roles within the modteam are to be discussed with the new team once we first call together, and will be restructured and announced accordingly.

The new team will also be conferring and settling on ideal methods, mechanics, and protocol for ensuring balancing the breadth of tasks that come with managing a game as demanding and exciting as StE is meant to be at its top potential with the thoroughness and attention they deserve, including new methods for scheduling, coordinating, and helping with the planning of plots (meta- and player); keeping up with the plot; and knocking out issues and questions in a way that's both timely and that guarantees that nothing passes until all moderators involved are sure they're satisfied with and have talked through the responses or action to be given. These will be presented to the playerbase for their blessing or feedback as they're settled over the course of the new modteam finding their feet!

In the meanwhile, all players who were issued warnings in the mess that led to all this have been given notification that their warnings have been rescinded - and, this time, given proper apologies.

Also, the April AC period will be extended until May 15th, and May's AC (to be posted June 1st) will waive the usual thread requirement; a check-in with summary of your characters (even offscreen) activity will do!

Thank you all for your time, and for your exceeding patience and honesty. Actions speak louder than text, naturally - but we hope that the change that we're promising you proves to happen, and that it gives you everything you wanted to see - from us, and from StE.

theearth

As many of you are aware, there has been a recent incident involving ourselves and a few players. We wish to address this matter here.

Firstly, we apologize not only for our delay in speaking on this, but for our own behavior during this. We do take fault for having been too inflexible on the matter which started everything. All of us are to blame for this inflexibility and we all take responsibility for it; not just one mod is fully to blame for anything which happened. The plot the player desired should not have been dealt with in the way that it was. Our reasoning had been that we had not seen evidence that the plot had been set in stone, we had not been given reason why change was necessary to reconcile the plots, and that the details behind this plot/what was needed to occur to bring it to fruition were not brought to us. We offered one compromise, it was not taken, and we should have been more flexible about offering further compromises. We are, again, sorry for that inflexibility on our end.

Secondly, to prevent any risk of this sort of situation ever happening again, we are discussing a frankly overdue new system of accounting for, organizing, and simplifying coordination between planned plots, both meta and player. Details on it will be coming soon.

And thirdly, the mod with the most concerns voiced about her has been issued a warning, and will be taking far less of a stance involving plot-related issues for the time being. We will monitor her behavior to ensure a repeat of this kind of situation does not occur again and, should it, she will be dealt with. In line with those concerns, while she will still be involved in plotting and whatever issues may come to us, the other mods will have far greater a say, and will be considered the figures of authority where directly addressing player concerns and needs is concerned.

However, what we stand firm about is that ganging up on a person while refusing their own comfort is not permissible. The mod in question had become extremely uncomfortable having so many people, including one not in the game, on her all at once while she was not feeling well. This was the reason warnings were issued. We do, however, concede to having been too impulsive in issuing warnings to all involved, and once more, we do apologize to the parties who had been warned without having acted severely enough to warrant a warning. All but one of the warnings has been lifted.

Finally, not all the mods are experienced mods, and even the more experienced mods will acknowledge they can always use some help. So please, we ask that if any of you have any suggestions on how we might improve to come and tell us.

Thank you and, once again, we all apologize for our respective parts in this situation.

Comments to this post are enabled. At request, they have been unscreened. If you have left a screened comment and would like it unscreened, please indicate so! As per the suggestion of Guin, if you would prefer to leave us a screened comment, please do so on the Mod Contact post.

We will make a second post addressing those concerns, resolutions, and invitation of a second round of feedback as soon as we're able.

UPDATE - 5/3:

The StE modteam is currently planning to come together as a group and discuss all the issues brought to them on this post. Linda and Guin will be present while we are all on to continue discussion as a full team in order to ensure that all points and issues are thoroughly addressed.

This discussion will be happening as soon as possible - but coordinating schedules has proven difficult, so please bear with us.

This post will be edited accordingly once the discussion's day and time have been set.

UPDATE - 5/3:

The discussion will begin Sunday, May 4th, 5:00 P.M. CDT/3:00 P.M. PST.

UPDATE - 5/4:

The discussion has begun and is underway; it's proven to be more intensive than anticipated and hasn't yet ended, but will resume tomorrow and continue until concluded.

In the meantime, screencaps of the discussion thus far are posted at Linda's public Plurk; further updates will be made on this post and the linked Plurk, including the date, once set, of the second post.

UPDATE - 5/5:

Discussion has now concluded - we're sorry for having been quiet for so long!

Formal address of the points brought to this post as well as a second OOC post and a mod apps announcement will be coming by the end of tomorrow - Tuesday, 5/6.

- THE STE MODS: Anduin, Blue, Mini, and Olga

theearth

PLEASE READ.

The polls are now CLOSED!

( Read more... )

theearth

Hello, Earthlings! A few refreshers ( under the cut )

theearth

When Save the Earth opened last April, we never dreamed it would become what it is today. It has grown tremendously, thanks to the energy and activity of all its players. However, three main mods aren’t enough to handle something of this size and complexity, and we’d also like some fresh blood as we move into the end of season one and begin our transition into season two. Therefore, mod applications are open once more!

Applications are open to all current players in the game, and will be open until the end of the year. If you are interested, please complete the application form below and comment with it to this post. Applications will be screened.

( Mod application under cut )

Please answer all questions as best you can. For the hypothetical scenario question, we would strongly urge you to think of how you would want this situation handled as if you were the mod, the player doing the complaining, and the player being complained about before answering. The ability to balance sympathy for a player with professionalsim and responsibility is a crucial trait for a mod.

We need people who are interested in helping to steer the plot, play NPCs, process applications/Echoes, and keep things organized.

If you have experience running games, are familiar with more canons than most can fit in their heads, and/or are creepily obsessed with either tables or spreadsheets, please do speak up! We want to hear from you.

Because comments are screened, we'll be setting up three headings in comments for you to respond to: one for mod applicants, one for questions/concerns, and one for general discussion. Good luck!

theearth

The StE modteam would like to announce two new changes to rules/policy.

First, as per player suggestion, we are introducing three new tags to the main community at savetheearth: !open, #network, and #action, for post navigation and organization's sake. From here on out, posts are to be tagged according to type as applicable, and we will work through old posts to put type tags into place - although any assistance to speed this effort along will be greatly appreciated!

Second, as the ability to play within, respond to, and follow the game's plot is important for all players and characters under their control, we wish to explicitly remind everyone that all players must remain flexible and willing to fairly accommodate, cooperate with, and coordinate with other players and with us as the mods in plotting, and have updated the Rules page accordingly. If ever you encounter difficulties in playing due to difficulty reaching compromise with another player, or if you have any other concerns you'd like to bring to our attention, please contact us on the Mod Contact page - comments are screened, and anonymous commenting is enabled.

theearth

The Save the Earth modteam would like to remind everyone that out-of-character harassment between players is not acceptable under any circumstances and will not be tolerated in this game. In a perfect world we wouldn't have to bring this up at all, but it has become necessary to implement a strict harassment policy, starting now.

Harassment here is defined as "continued unwanted actions from one party to another." It is a two-strike system: if we receive a complaint about a player's behavior and confirm it, we will send them a warning with full expectation that the harassment will stop. All complaints will be investigated, and we will ask for evidence (links, screencaps, etc). If the harassment continues at all, the player will be banned. In severe cases, such as instances where the harassment victim's privacy is violated or they otherwise feel threatened, we reserve the right to ban the player without waiting for a second strike.

The rules have been updated to better reflect this.

If you're having an issue with another player that cannot be resolved privately, or you have concerns in general regarding another player's conduct, please contact us on this post or privately. Anonymous commenting is now enabled on the Mod Contact page to help players who might not otherwise feel comfortable come forward to us.

Please remember that we cannot take action if problems are not brought to us directly. Keeping our thumb on the pulse of this game is something we can only do with your help. Thank you.

theearth

All right, now that it seems like most of the storm has passed, it's time to begin thinking about new leadership. Mod applications are therefore open to all current players in the game, and we strongly urge everyone to at least think over the possibility of joining the team. There are many duties in a game of this size and complexity, and we need what help we can get.

If you are interested, please respond to this post answering the questions posed in the application form below. Applications will be screened because of reasons (okay, so we want to see how you guys respond without knowing what other people who are applying are saying), but rest assured that we will be making them visible later on in the week so that our players can see what's going on/possibly weigh in with opinions or testimonies. (Note that this was an idea that was tossed around but may not actually happen.)

In the interests of saving space, the mod app itself (and obligatory text-area for east copy-pasting) will be under a cut. ( Here it is! )

Please answer all questions to the best of your abilities. For the hypothetical scenario question, we would strongly urge you to think of how you would want this situation handled as if you were the mod, the player doing the complaining, and the player being complained about before answering. All three scenarious could conceivably happen to all of us, and as moderators are still players at the end of the day, we need to be able to think of ourselves as such.

We need people who are interested in helping to steer the plot, play NPCs, process applications/Echoes, and keep things organized most of all.

If you have experience running games, are familiar with more canons than most can fit in their heads, and/or are creepily obsessed with either tables or spreadsheets (not that either Anduin or Lina can comment), please do speak up! We want to hear from you.

Because comments are screened, we'll be setting up three headings in comments for you to respond to: one for mod applicants, one for questions/concerns, and one for general discussion. Have at it!

secondcomingof

Resident ~~mad with power~~ co-mod and Casval (Full Frontal) player here again! At this point in time, I'd like to express my intense appreciation of everyone's interest in the hunt for ~~Red October~~ our furry friends. Casval's post got a staggering 21 top level tags, which means a majority of the entire game is interested in getting in on the action. Fantastic!

Because so many of you have expressed interest in involvement (which is a great thing, it cannot be stressed enough) the log will be organized in the following way as to best avoid chaos... or as much of it as we can, given the number of people involved here. IC chaos is good, but OOC chaos is not! So here we go.

First of all, similar to the Vermini log, the werewolf log will be divided into three sections -- before the hunt, the hunt itself, and after the hunt. Before the hunt, characters will be given a chance to mingle as they see fit with each other. This would be the time for characters who have made previous arrangements with Casval to hit him up, and I will have a subsection specifically dedicated to this. In addition, Casval will be giving a short schpeal (with handwaved basic training for the characters who requested it, so everyone will at least have a basic idea how to use a gun without offing themselves) in the final stages of preparation to drum up morale, which you may react to as you see fit. At this time, Casval will also be dividing you all into teams, which I will address momentarily.

Once team captains have been assigned to their respective teams, the hunt is on! Lyall-mun, as well as Aragorn-mun, have agreed to provide our teams with some direction beforehand so we're not hunting in the absolute dark, so to speak. They will have a scent and paths to follow for a chance at a werewolf encounter. Each team will have a separate subthread, because traveling in one massive group is just unwieldy, for both IC and OOC reasons. So rely on your team captain for direction here!

Lastly, there will be an aftermath thread for... well, the aftermath. Pretty self-explanatory and I don't think this needs any subthreads for it, you can put pretty much anything you'd like there post-shit hitting the fan.

Now, onto the teams! Team assignments don't have much rhyme or reason to them, other than selection of relevant and experienced team captains; they were largely done in the order of contact on Casval's post (with the exception of Une, who he made a special arrangement with). These team assignments are for OOC organizational purposes only, to keep things straight. Once Casval makes the team assignments in person, your character is free to argue, disagree, jump ship to another team, what have you. And you as a player are also free to request that you be shifted to another team, but please let me know sooner as opposed to later. We do need to keep the teams fairly even, so requests for moving will be done on a first come, first serve basis. So here we go:

Commander
Casval Mass (Full Frontal,

secondcomingof)

Second-in-Command
Kotetsu Kaburagi (Kotetsu T. Kaburagi,

wildhonor)

TEAM ONE, "ALPHA"
Captain: Dr. Mordin Solus
Christobel "Chris" Starsky (Starcream,

reapsthewind)
Hajime Aikawa (Hajime Aikawa,

chalicejoker)
Elizabeth Victoria Bishop (Euphemia li Britannia,

unfearing)
Dr. Mordin Solus (Dr. Mordin Solus,

testsonseashells)
Anthony (Anthony Janvier,

scramasax)

TEAM TWO, "BETA"
Captain: Rue Oslo*
Robert "Robb" Smith (Robb Stark,

northless)
Hajime Fujisai (Hajime Saitou,

iaijutsu)
Toshirou Katase (Toshizou Hijikata,

redelivers)
Rue Oslo* (Legretta the Quick,

withregret)
Elle Une (Lady Une,

11ady)

TEAM THREE, "OMEGA"
Captain: Kotetsu Kaburagi
Kotetsu Kaburagi (Kotetsu T. Kaburagi,

wildhonor)
Toushirou Hitsugaya (Toushirou Hitsugaya,

icy_heavens)
Bakura Ryou (Bakura Ryou,

shiromadoushi)
Dr. Aaron Strider (Aragorn II Elessar Telcontar,

elfstoned)
Randall Lyall (Randolph Lyall,

professorwolf)

Annoying Dude Who He'll Conveniently Ignore
Souji Sasaoki (Souji Okita,

deathcough)

Bromance Buddy Doing His Own Thing I Guess
"Raiden" (Jack Sears,

twopercent)

*We haven't gotten to that point in our thread, but I'd assumed Rue would be coming along. Feel free to correct me if this is not the case!

If you are uncomfortable with your team assignment or would rather not have your character as captain, again, please let me know. If I have missed you or you did not get the opportunity to tag Casval's yet for whatever reason and would like to go, please also let me know! Otherwise, this is the setup we'll be sticking with. Remember, each team = separate thread = separate encounter. Who will Casval be going with, you ask? Well... I'm afraid that's a secret, for now. Uhuhuhu.

Things that will need to get handwaved will get handwaved. I understand not everyone is available on the weekends (forgot to mention, this is all tentatively scheduled to go down Sunday IC-wise, with the log itself either going up late Saturday or early Sunday) so if you need a little extra time, a helpful note here or somewhere I can see it would be great. Feel free to plan and scheme and do whatever else within your own teams! This is only structured the way it is so we don't lose track of ourselves; beyond that, the world is your oyster. Be bold! Shoot guns! And never forget the Rule of Cool: if it's awesome, then do it.

As always, I am open to any and all questions on this post, or on my personal plurk via

notagundam. I will also be tossing a link to this post on the mod plurk, simply because so much of the game is involved and thus it's just easier to get involved that way. EDIT: And because I can never post these sorts of things and NOT forget something, Casval will be sending out a mass text to all of you with the designated meeting location once we're good to go for the hunt. Yep.

Save the Earth

Out of Character Community

Entries tagged with *important

MOD ANNOUNCEMENT: 5/6/2014

MOD ANNOUNCEMENT

Several announcements and two polls!

A refresher on the Network, Echoes, and location!

MOD APPLICATIONS OPEN

Update to Rules/Policy and Tagging System

Important annoucnement regarding game rules/policy change.

Mod Applications Open - Sign Up Here!

werewolf hunting: the ooc post movie: THE SEQUEL