Dictatorship Or Democracy?

[Kohola_KinG]

Originally Posted by Spikedude

I understand now that you weren't trying to be offensive, I'm just saying that it was pretty easy to take it offensively based on the tone and content of the thread.

And I'm not current management or really even close to it, I'm a developer who has been around for a long time. I don't make any decisions as it is, other than what project I personally feel like working on at the time. I currently manage 0 people on Era (and can't even change rights, so I couldn't hire/fire someone if I wanted to). I more took it offensively because I've been positions like GBA before, where instead of doing visible work that people say "oh wow, he made ____," I was doing things constantly behind the scenes. It was always "This broke, fix it" or "This guy went inactive, replace him as leader." That's the kind of position management is in, and it gives everyone an automatic bad reputation when all you do is keep things normal (and never get to give that new thing). It just feels ridiculous to me when players who aren't on RC and actually being led by the manager complain about them. It isn't really their job at that level to be a popular guy with the people.

Maybe what we need is a revamped Player Services department. Have a "PSA" again (Player Services Admin) that would be elected by players. He can manage the directly player-impacting side of the house (like gang administration, PRAs, ETAs, etc), while a "Development Manager" helps make new stuff. The Development Manager can continue to be selected solely by the PWA. Obviously they could overrule the choice of PSA as well, but it would be "rule of thumb" to go with the player's choice except in extraordinary circumstances. It would be a win-win in my eyes.

Honestly. I'm sure staff knows the difference between me being offensive and friendly. If i wanted to overthrow the manager, i would have attempted it with other measures but that's not what i want here. Definitely not.

You're right. We need somebody here for the players. I'm sure we can both agree that there is a missing gap between the players and staff. It's like they're against each-other all the time.

That's not right, staff should be for the players not themselves and the players should be for the staff. We need somebody who cares about the players and somebody who has power/influence. Somebody who can make sure players aren't being treated badly etc.

We need a respected report system. The current one is over looked,old and not really used in a way it should be.
This is getting off-topic again but i liked how your post was going. We also need that.

[Spikedude]

I sincerely apologize for derailing completely, and also for jumping to conclusions about your post, we just hear it a lot from players and we're all doing the best we can (so it gets pretty frustrating). But hear me out for another minute.

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

You're right. We need somebody here for the players. I'm sure we can both agree that there is a missing gap between the players and staff. It's like they're against each-other all the time.

That's not right, staff should be for the players not themselves and the players should be for the staff. We need somebody who cares about the players and somebody who has power/influence. Somebody who can make sure players aren't being treated badly etc.

We need a respected report system. The current one is over looked,old and not really used in a way it should be.
This is getting off-topic again but i liked how your post was going. We also need that.

I mean, that's always been what the PRA, GBA, and ETA were supposed to be (and at one point FAQA and GPA instead of PRA), but now they're all managed by the Manager (when we used to have a Dev Admin and Player Services Admin). And I've always personally thought of Manager as a position that should be able to focus on development, and as it turns out, most managers have been developers.

Maybe it would make sense to split the two entirely. And I think it does go along with your original post - players shouldn't be able to choose the development manager, because we all know most of them don't have the slightest idea what goes in to producing software. But Players know exactly what they want in terms of gang leaders, special events, rule enforcement, etc. Why not let them have more of a say in who gets to be Player Services Admin?

[Kohola_KinG]

PSA sounds good. So does Stephens idea about reping current manager.

The question is.. Will the PSA be in it to help players out or just in it for themselves (like previous ones).

Support system needs revamped imo. A PSA & Active PRA need to be hired. (Friendly one, who listens and respects players).

I don't think PR's, PRA's & PSA's get it. They're suppose to defend the players and try get them of their bans, jail terms. They're suppose to solve the issues not make things worse. We can both agree that they have been a little to harsh over the years and as a result of this the player count has been effected.

As a former staff member myself, i've seen the support system and the sloppy replies people got that did not help them whatsoever, people being ignored etc etc. It's just not on.

It got to the stage where i had planned my message to hit out at the current manager but i was fired for standing up for people before hand. It has always been corruption within eras staff team. (I dunno about now) but it's been that way for years.

Now i'm starting to go off topic

So what i believe what we need right now is.

1. Stephens Idea so we can rate managers.
2. A PSA & Active PRA (Friendly, caring members)
3. A support system that needs to be treated correctly & players must be treated respectively within them.

I think we would be getting of to a good start if these were implemented.