Underhanded PR staff
 

This has been brought to my attention several times and I too would like to have something DONE about it. I contacted management several times about my concern but I always seem to be "forgotten". So? What better way for administration to remember than with a thread staring at them in the forums ^_^?

Now I'm sure you folks realize, that development staff are not the sole contributors to keeping the era community healthy and happy. No, Little people exist as well, "middlemen" if you will. These middlemen serve the purpose of dealing with smaller concerns, such as Inquiries, Player Issues, and Events.

Now as you know, the world doesn't revolve around sunshine and stickers, certain benefits must be claimed and distributed to keep work flowing.
Lets look at the benefits to being a member of PR staff, I mean everyone's complaining that we don't have enough active GPs, FAQs, and ETs, instead of having applications at the end of every week why don't we dig into the issue?

GP - Run around and assert yourself with a big pompous attitude, and fly around buildings like a jerk but you receive ONE EC every.... 7 hours of being ONTAG?

FAQ- Sure you get to sit on your ass and hawk the playerlist because you live to answer questions and have nothing better to do. For 7 hours of doing absolutely nothing I'll give you a shiny EC.

ET- You can't idle on tag like the other members of PR staff, no you must be busting balls, and the time you are on tag reflects the amount of ECs that are handed to you. You my friend, the most hard-working of the 3 get an EC every 7 hours.

Has anyone else ever joined an event and won an EC within under 5 minutes? Or am I the only one who finds the benefits to PR incredibly stupid? 7 hours of scratching your nuts and dealing with whinny kids or 7 hours of non-stop hosting and you get ONE EC? Lets be realistic here folks.

Now moving onto RIGHTS for completing your duty successfully.
Hey Squirt and Deo are UN guys, they know more about it than they do Era. On UN FAQs and ETs get RCs, and other unnecessary privileges.
On UN your opinion and word as a member of PR staff is allmighty. On Era you're accounted for nothing as a member of PR staff. Hey, I would love to supervise a trade or administer a bet. But if I claimed that I was present at the time of the event that would make no difference whatsoever, ETs and FAQs alike. Why is my word of advice as an FAQ with 300 hours of tagtime worth less than dirt? Who knows.

But I'm a reasonable guy and I'm not going to ask for anything more than what I need to successfully do my nut scratching duty as FAQ. I'm sure all of you have at one point asked an FAQ a question, and I'm sure some questions were related to completing quests or explaining the purpose of a building, whatever.
I cannot begin to recollect how many pms I receive asking "Please warp to me, I need help with...". So with my graciously granted FAQ powers, I hop on my skateboard and make the scene in a cloud of pearly white smoke.
I'm not asking for something silly, I'm asking for something realistic. You can even administer the warp right (since it's such a huge concern) to whoever administration and FAQ Admin deems worthy. FAQs need warp rights.

Based on that logic, ETs should get jail rights for event disruption.

How many problems in Graal actually need you to be present to show them? I bet most of those "Please warp to me PMs" are the result of someone not wanting to fully type out their situation.

"WARPTO ME EMERGENCY PLZ"
::warps::
"MY SHOVEL BROKE WHERE DO I FIX IT

Yeah, bad thing about being FAQ is that you cant do anything but sit down :[. You can't dig, pick trash, mass message ...almost nothing related to money. and no pking of course <.<.

Perhaps 1 shiny EC every 5 hours + a disscount on the NPC weapon store? :3 (just an idea...)

Though about warping rights... even though they could help you with your job... you probably wont get them x-x. Because you can do it all through PMs, shoudnt involve you answering questions personally...

When you're asked to have a quest finished, or the purpose behind "this" building is, or can you show me where the battery shop is? It's not from laziness good sir.
And ETs wouldn't need jail rights, they simply need a strong enough word to report event disruption without needing "evidence".

I want to be able to mass people. Last time I did that, I got very vulgar words that other players may find inappropriate from a number of staff members that I can't mention their names. So being an FAQ, though higher status than a player, obstructs our privilege to mass. Nice.

If they can just shove off and let me mass my stupid yet witty things, I'm good. I am a social person, I am assuming that the other FAQ members are as well. So that can be a nice privilege.
Oh of course, FAQs are not allowed to be massing what they're selling/buying/similar. Perhaps if they're caught massing SELLING LOL FOR 20K then they can get disconnected or something.

The reason for that is because when you're on staff tag, your mass messages override a players 'ignore mass messages' option. They chose to ignore those "stupid yet witty things" for a reason...Staff messages should be reserved for important things such as announcements.

EDIT: As far as the rest of this thread goes...the reason for most of the restrictions and lack of rights for PR staff is due to the fact that trust has been abused countless times.

They override ontag and offtag, it shouldn't matter. The simplest solution is not to open the bubble. I unchecked the allow mass message box, but still receive messages from staff offtag.

I miss the old days of typing up random Chuck Norris facts. People would anticipate my messages like their favorite podcast. Of course when someone asked me to stop massing all that, I'd politely yield for the remainder of the day.

Then I'd steer mass flamers into making them think they're both wrong and arguing about absolutely stupid things.

I actually did not know that ignores are overridden if it's a red speech bubble. Anyone exploiting that obviously should just get some sort of punishment for doing so. If there is strong punishment for repeatedly being an idiot, I believe that the abuse will dramatically go down.

That's only true for RC staff. You won't recieve messages from FAQs and ETs if they're not on tag and you have the ingore mass messages option enabled.

Most likely you're getting mass messages from admins on RC. RC mass messages override tag or not.

When it comes to on-player messages, you have to be on a staff tag to override.

Showing people where something is makes sense.

But you shouldn't be guiding them through a quest, there's guides for that. Especially if you end up using your invincibility on tag to help him somehow.


As for the ET thing, you missed the point.

Not necessarily. I still get Mesh's and Squirt's offtag player masses. Sales stated that because they are listed as RC staff I still receive messages.

Make your point clear instead of beating around the bush and I'll get it.

I really doubt you're getting Mesh's messages these days...

I love how he use to mass out a selling list then jump on his LAT tag as quickly as possible.

Yet, I disgress...

This is an issue, and it's not one that's really as much as a problem anymore. It's no longer possible for anyone except a select group of staff to warp in to houses (they will be warped out). The only problem is businesses, or if they'll abuse the right somehow (e.g. warping inside a base during a gang raid).

I'll let Squirt know about the problem.

People with RC will override even on player off-tag, unfortunately.
;)

We need to be able to do more as FAQ's I've been on tag over 48 hours since being hired last month and the most questions I've been asked is on the day of battle of the bands on how to vote... Same as wasser I've recieved fairly vulger pm's from staff at the time(Angel) telling me to shutup they know what we do. But the fact of the matter is I get asked more questions running around then pm's you'd be amazed how many players don't check the list (mainly hose that need the most help) another problem is when players ask where something is all I can do is point them in a direction, because if I try to take them there, someone looking for free kills will kill them even if I ask them not to

Deophite and I have all ready been discussing this for the FAQ Team.

I haven't seen any confirmation from anyone other than Houdiniman when I emailed him a while ago. Unfortunately Houdini has moved on, and once again we're at ground zero.

But as I stated, warp rights isn't my only concern. Increase the rewards of PR staff and give them a reason to be active, instead of hiring again at the end of the week.

if your only motivation for being a PR staff is the rewards, then maybe you're not the right person for the job. :rolleyes: it's really not that big of a deal that the job isn't "rewarding." if you don't like it, quit. that's how I see it anyway.

as far as more rights go, I never really supported FAQs getting warp and boot rights, but it's whatever. it doesn't really matter.

Yea, you've reached that point where most FAQs just go inactive and/or quit..and another poor soul takes your place.

Your job is to answer questions. You don't need any more power than what you already have because all it leads to is abuse/corruption. Sure, there's a few instances when having warp or other rights would help, but in those cases you should just forward the problem to a GP or another staff member.

FAQ don't really need boots but they need warp rights, I get asked things that require warp rights and the only really active FAQ's are Sigma Wasser and I, Gaberial also but he is the admin,

I still believe GP's and FAQ's should just come together. As a GP, I answered more FAQ related questions than GP related questions most of the time. And i think it's the same for all the GP's on Era.

BUt anyways to answer the Opening Post, those rights and such WOULD make it easier for FAQ's. And im sure you'd do a fine job sigma with power, but other FAQ's may not. UN has a huge Gmap, and i think thats part of the reason why they may have warp rights. I do feel though that staff members should do their jobs not expecting awards, though i do feel something here and there is fine. I always thought of FAQ as a stepping stone to becoming more on Era. You get your name known as your on the top of the player list, and people look to you for advice and such. That alone should give you better odds at other jobs on Era.

I don't quite know what you expected when applying for FAQ.

What do you think the dev team gets, a paycheck? When you applied, you knew full well you weren't promised any kind of reward whatsoever.

I can see how the FAQ team is easily the most boring job (although digging through logs isn't much better), but that doesn't mean you should get something for doing it.

In my opinion, I don't find FAQs very relevant. An information guide should be available (and just might be, thanks to nataxo's new Era wiki) and posted on the informations tab. That way, you don't need FAQs answering the same questions over and over again, and your "player-relation GPs" can deal with any extra questions.

Where you on FAQ tag when you wrote this?

lol

Obviously this guy is a FAQ and wants more power to fly around buildings like the GPs.

FAQs should be deleted again, the Homepage of Sizzle (Sizzle's Era) got EVERYTHING you need on it, there's no need for FAQs.

Sizzle's Era is a good site, especially on quests walkthrough since it contains 100% images of every step.

but most of the info is outdated...

Sizzles is way outdated now, most players don't know it exsits, I link players to it for completing quests, the rest I walk players through. I will work on a guide but players still need help, I agree though FAQ and GP's need to be combined I get asked to watch trades more then questions about era it seems.

If you've been on tag slightly over 48 hours, and you've gotten PMs from Angel when she was staff, that's not a good thing.

Well, why do you think Dev staff are active? Like someone said, we don't get paid or even get in-game rewards (at least, my departments don't).

GK had a kind of "staff coin" system, I might ask Tig how it worked. Could be used for both PR staff and Dev staff as long as it's not full of "good" items.
I agree, GP and FAQ should be combined into PR.

I was trying to figure based on how many ec's I had gotten today it gave me 4200 minutes but it gave me 3360 minutes 2 or 3 time. But that's not really on topic

Anyone else recall what happened when the FAQ guild was deleted after TSA's time? GPs (PR STAFF) were overwhelmed with extra duties. So far to the point that they took legalizing scamming into consideration, simply to take a load off their chest, and opened up a poll. Remember what happened next?
Sure a wiki sounds like a good idea, Zodiac had one for some time but the newbies were upset because they had personalized questions the guide could not satisfy.

Its not the same thing and you know it. You guys are making the server, and get access to alot of content including having fun with your powers from time to time (Don't even pretend you don't, I can list plenty of examples).
I too wanted to develop and when GAT was hiring, I would beg administration for an application. Squirt told me to talk to angel, and angel has a carrot shoved too far in her rear-end to answer pms.

I can now obviously see why people refer to you as ignorant and annoying.

I think that's over-stating things. I wasn't there for when TSA deleted it, but I was a GP for 4-5 months when there was no FAQ team. There was never a time where I was flooded with questions. Here's a mind-boggling news flash: Graal doesn't have a growing playerbase. There's fewer and fewer new accounts being made each month. Most, if not all, of the small population on Era know what they're doing. They've been doing it for a long time.

Sure, I'd get the random "Where's this", and I'd show him/tell him. It wasn't hard. There never was a time when those kind of things got in the way of my actual duties. Hell, the only thing that ever was a real flood was "UPLOAD MY HEAD PLZ".

And if I recall, Houdini was behind bringing the FAQ team back, saying it was "bad form" not having one, even though alternative methods were being actively discussed and worked upon (tutorial level, information web page, etc). When I was a GP, and there were only 2-3 other active GPs...there was PLENTY of dead time. No PMs. Nothing. Unless of course we're talking about "WHEN DID U LAST UPLOAD HEY CAN U UPLOAD THX". Hell, just look at all the cadets we have now idling around. They've got nothing better to do but answer questions. Do you really think we need 2-3 RC GPs PLUS 5-6 Cadets to handle the GP problems on a server with 70-80 people online at a given time? Hell no. You shouldn't have any more than 3-4, if they're doing their job.

FAQ shouldn't be around, but it is. I doubt that'll change anytime soon. But, Xelnaga, the fact of the matter is you can't go handing out rewards to FAQs just because their job is boring. Staff work on Graal is entirely volunteer, always has been. Don't like it? Quit. Find a staff position that fits your desires more.
Or just play the game.

I never claimed FAQ was THE REASON, I claimed it was only icing on the cake.
And this isn't about me, I don't understand why you're under that impression. If everyone is displeased with something that doesn't necessarily mean the person who steps up is at fault, it means that some changes should be made.

FAQ is fun to me...anyways I made videos on all of the quests today I will be uploading some of them on my youtube channel tonight, as well as making ones about other things on era tomorrow..I've been bored...and it beats a text walkthrough for new players

Well, Charlie just said he has fun with the tag.

Nataxo said about warp rights: "Though about warping rights... even though they could help you with your job... you probably wont get them x-x. Because you can do it all through PMs, shoudnt involve you answering questions personally..."

I added the bold.

So you made the thread, and I haven't seen any other FAQ jump on here and affirm what you're saying. If it's not just you, who else is behind this voice?

They both claimed it was useful, or perhaps you too need a pair of glasses. Go back and read again. And I apologize for my negligence if not every member of the FAQ team owns a forum account, how silly of me.
And sure, Everything CAN be done through pms, you're right! But then why would GPs need warp rights either? If everything can be done through skateboarding and pming?
You really are a waste of effort, you're trying so hard to integrate yourself into this topic with your hardheaded opinion. The topic was directed to administration, as a reminder, whether it be yes or no it's still up here for them to consider.

They also both said you don't NEED them. Don't you get it? EDIT: Okay, CharlieM agreed. I missed that one. Cool, you've got one supporter now. You said people aside from you are fighting for these rights, yet people on your own team admit you don't have any pressing need for those powers.

GPs use warp for a variety of issues. You need to be able to react instantly to problems reported, like if you hear about a wall-hacker. You need to be able to catch people in the act.

You're a FAQ. You just need to answer questions. You have no powers, you need no powers, you never will need powers, aside from a friendly demeanor and an ability to type helpful, informative answers to questions. That's it. Done. Huzzah. You don't need any powers that make it "easier" that beg for abuse. Hell, if typing a response is too hard, maybe you should get warp AND /summon so you can just summon people to the end of quests. That's faster, more efficient, right? I think it's good FAQ have absolutely no powers, it weeds out the people who want staff positions just for the glitz. You might actually get people who, I don't know, care about answering questions and helping players. Not trying to find some sort of item reward for idling on a staff tag or lobbying for more powers.

Everyone owns a forum account, it's their GRAAL account. If they won't take the 5 seconds to register it and post to this topic, it's clearly not a big deal then.

You keep dodging all the questions and just fire back with useless insults, like saying I'm needlessly barging in on an issue that administration needs to desparately attend to. Might I suggest something then? Don't post an open thread in a public forum for meant for discussion. If you meant it JUST for administrative eyes, PM it to them, either in-game or in the forum systems.

I'm sorry for trying to communicate logic and reason to you. I'll refrain in the future.

I'm not going to bother reading it. Thanks for your input.

I was surprised to know that FAQs get ECs. I don't think payment is required. It's voluntary, that's why I do it. Aside from possibly striking conversations with the players and making commentaries on their massing. I miss massing things on the other hand. Not only is it enjoyable for me, but it also makes players go "Oh, look at this FAQ. He seems to have a sense of humor, maybe I can ask him questions or talk to him". My bored buster, once again, is communication. Not silly ECs and staff tools.

Note: I will not be active for the remainder of the week, I have AP testing.

I think we need to close this thread. It is currently being discussed with management.
Thank you.

It's a quote from the Sopranos.