Post by Fleece on Oct 28, 2016 17:09:21 GMT
TLDR: We should remove BPs and assign race pl upon application approval to improve workflow, player satisfaction, and to reduce churn rates of new users. Plpw can be adhoc'd by staff and logged/averaged throughout the character's tenure.
New members bottleneck upon entry due to the work load associated w/ processing each character. This has been an ongoing issue for the span of the sites life since I first arrived about two years ago. I've experienced both sides of the issue, being a member i've waited over a month for characters to get approved (in the past). My spouse literally cried thinking that people didn't like her after a ~three week wait, putting her off to the site entirely.
On the other hand there is a lot of work that the staff has to do, and we are almost always short staffed because life is obviously more important. Recruiting new staff is another workload in and of itself which requires a lot of training, often with a high turnover rate (myself included, several times). Being complained to about grades/aps/bp/techs/behavior is enough that I often actively avoid the c-box altogether (this is speaking over my span of modship over multiple accounts), and I know I am not the only one.
Thus we have on group of innocent people trying to get into the site to enjoy all that it has to offer, and another group trying to keep things running in competition with offsite demands and short staffing.
With all other issues, such as the TTG being slow, or wanting a shop item... well that is something that people can suck up. You are still able to play despite the backlog. On the other hand, if you are new to the site, then you are stuck through a lengthy process that will typically take a week and a half (and probably thinking we hate you or something). New members, or even new characters, are fresh muse that someone has and the longer they sit on it the more agitated they become. Most people coming from the outside in are used to the idea of having to wait to get an application approved, but not for having to wait for something like an evaluation of their writing sample.
The current purpose of the beginners post is for staff evaluation of your work. However, I believe that this could be done without the need for a beginners presentation. Although I can't get into detail here, things are looked at and adjusted over time, your first grade typically being adhoc until multiple threads are presented for evaluation. I don't need yur fancy solo post to get an idea of what your grammar is like, whether you try to pad your posts, or to examine sentence structure. I can get more honest looks at that from evaluation over time.
So, what I am suggesting is that we scrap the BP and assign an appropriate racial base pl with application completion. If after that point the person wants to go and write a solo post for pl so that they start off strong, that is wonderful and they can just throw it in the TTG like everyone else. This will destroy the bottleneck for character entry and bring us to the standard that other roleplaying sites have: the staff signs off on your character and then you go and play.
New members bottleneck upon entry due to the work load associated w/ processing each character. This has been an ongoing issue for the span of the sites life since I first arrived about two years ago. I've experienced both sides of the issue, being a member i've waited over a month for characters to get approved (in the past). My spouse literally cried thinking that people didn't like her after a ~three week wait, putting her off to the site entirely.
On the other hand there is a lot of work that the staff has to do, and we are almost always short staffed because life is obviously more important. Recruiting new staff is another workload in and of itself which requires a lot of training, often with a high turnover rate (myself included, several times). Being complained to about grades/aps/bp/techs/behavior is enough that I often actively avoid the c-box altogether (this is speaking over my span of modship over multiple accounts), and I know I am not the only one.
Thus we have on group of innocent people trying to get into the site to enjoy all that it has to offer, and another group trying to keep things running in competition with offsite demands and short staffing.
With all other issues, such as the TTG being slow, or wanting a shop item... well that is something that people can suck up. You are still able to play despite the backlog. On the other hand, if you are new to the site, then you are stuck through a lengthy process that will typically take a week and a half (and probably thinking we hate you or something). New members, or even new characters, are fresh muse that someone has and the longer they sit on it the more agitated they become. Most people coming from the outside in are used to the idea of having to wait to get an application approved, but not for having to wait for something like an evaluation of their writing sample.
The current purpose of the beginners post is for staff evaluation of your work. However, I believe that this could be done without the need for a beginners presentation. Although I can't get into detail here, things are looked at and adjusted over time, your first grade typically being adhoc until multiple threads are presented for evaluation. I don't need yur fancy solo post to get an idea of what your grammar is like, whether you try to pad your posts, or to examine sentence structure. I can get more honest looks at that from evaluation over time.
So, what I am suggesting is that we scrap the BP and assign an appropriate racial base pl with application completion. If after that point the person wants to go and write a solo post for pl so that they start off strong, that is wonderful and they can just throw it in the TTG like everyone else. This will destroy the bottleneck for character entry and bring us to the standard that other roleplaying sites have: the staff signs off on your character and then you go and play.