Recent changes in the Ops team.

[Kylerryth]

Hello again!

As some of you may have noticed, there have been changes in the Ops team. I'm here to explain why that is.

First and foremost, let me assure you that the internal restructuring was not caused by any personal animosity on the behalf of one person or a group of people, nor was it because any one person or group of people were doing a bad job, or because they were a problem -- nothing like that. We're all still friends.

To put it simply, there was an underlying difference of opinion in what direction the channel should go; and after a discussion about the subject, certain members of the team decided to part on completely civil terms. Their dedicated time and service to the channel is extremely appreciated, and I'm certain their love and caring for the Broken Dagger and its players will not be affected by this. I'm very glad they've decided to stick around and continue roleplaying with us, and I hope to see more from them soon. The Ops team will always welcome their feedback, just as we welcome everyone's.

With that said, I would like to welcome Lex, Wendy, and Rattrap back to the Ops team, and to introduce our newest additions: K (Channe) and Heather (Jirai).

Here's hoping for good times and lots of roleplaying, folks! Take care, and stay awesome.

[Suede]

I appreciate the attempt to at least... provide some explanation to this, James.

I would however, like to request, I don't know, a bit more information. The situation is obviously somewhat severe, as more than one person has been rankled by it, and despite your assurances that things are fine and people aren't put off by it, we haven't even seen at least one of the former Ops in several days.

To be honest, myself, and I know at least a few others would like to know exactly what the cause of the differences were, what direction do you intend to take the channel over what others chose. And why exactly did it lead us to losing two ops who were very good people?

It feels like this post and the new Statsbot are just here to smooth things over instead of really letting us know what's up... and as a player that bothers me. If there really was/is such a difference of opinion on how things should go, why not let us know? Why is so much kept out of the light for players to see. After all, isn't this channel ours in the end, and isn't it here for us?

We should be able to decide the direction the channel takes, instead of it being hidden away on the Ops boards where we're not even aware of it. Let us decide where the channel should go so the Ops don't come to sides against it.

I don't know, maybe I'm too optomistic to expect us to know what cracked the elite ops echelon, instead of getting a propoganda-esque response.

[Civet]

We should be able to decide the direction the channel takes, instead of it being hidden away on the Ops boards where we're not even aware of it. Let us decide where the channel should go so the Ops don't come to sides against it.

I agree entirely. The ops stuff may be op business.. but if it's over stuff involving where the channel is going and will affect the players, I think we should all be included.

[Carnath-Emory]

Hi.. *g* I just wanted to make a quick note about the Statsbot.

A more comprehensive bot had been in the works for several months -- however, the abrupt popularity of several side-channels was creating a new difficulty for our players, particularly the newer ones. We'd reached the point, in just a matter of days, at which players were sometimes feeling excluded simply because they didn't know in which of these channels roleplay was occuring. It wasn't unusual for them to find out, several hours later, that they'd missed out on something in which their character could have been plausibly involved - and which they'd wished very much to be a part of.

For that matter, we'd gotten to a stage in which it wasn't unusual for a player to be in #BD_OOC, #Broken_Dagger, #BD_Meetinghouse, #BD_Fort and #BD_Barracks simultaneously -- simply so that they wouldn't miss seeing something in one of those channels. From where I stand, a player shouldn't be obliged to monitor upwards of four channels at once, not when a way around it can be found.

... and that whole description is probably preaching to the choir: most of us were there at the time, watching it happen. Most of us were a part of it. *g* It had become a very difficult situation; an immediate solution was required -- and it came in the form of a bot that would monitor those side-channels for activity. It was simply practical to add the few lines of code that would cause that bot to parse those logs nightly, and upload their stats to the stats page.


I hope this clarifies things a little. The most exciting thing about that bot, to me, is that it was coded so swiftly (thanks, Mong and Ratty!). It is not a dazzling new feature. It's simply a practical and necessary tool.

[Pipkin]

I am in agreement with you, Dan.

Though I, being no part of it, can really offer up no real explanations to you as to why Liz and Rance are no longer part of the ops team.

This would be for James, Liz, and Rance to discuss here, and depending on the situation, they may not really..want to.

I myself am a little annoyed that it appears they had to leave before we started working on improving things in the channel. I did not like to see them go one bit. I am hoping in the future that we can have them back.

The case, however, as I see it, is that there was a growing rift between some people on the ops team, and that had to be settled before things could get moving in another direction. If dropping them from the team was the right action on solving the rift, I do not know.

[Kylerryth]

That's fair enough, Dan, but I can only offer my side of things -- I won't presume to speak for the others in question, because that would be totally unfair to them and I have no intention of doing something that would essentially amount to gossiping. As for the person we haven't seen in a while, well, I can't speak for that person, either; I can only assume they haven't been able to be online.

Perhaps "in what direction the channel should go" is a bit vague -- and with how it's phrased, understandably cause for concern. What I should really say is that the goal was the same, but there were differing ideas on how to reach that goal -- and as a result, there were questions regarding my Foundership. (Which, I might add, I'm still learning about. I'm only human!) In the interest of maintaining a unified Ops team, they decided the best course of action was to step down. Like Annie, I didn't enjoy seeing them leave ... but who knows? They may come back to the team. We can't predict the future.

The overall direction of the channel, however, is a completely different story. First and foremost, let me say this: the direction the channel is taking is the same direction it has always taken. The channel is running purely according to the rules and guidelines listed on our website, and aside from one that was poorly worded, those rules and guidelines have not been altered in a very long time.

In the past, we have always consulted with the players before implementing any major channel and/or setting changes, and that continues to be the case now -- after all, we all play here; we want the channel to be fun for everyone. We respect the players' feelings, thoughts and opinions, and take them into full consideration where these and other issues are concerned. Conversely, if you don't hear about something, that's probably because we thought it was a bad idea and discarded it. We're not going to bother you guys with our rejected ideas because, well ... frankly, they sucked. *g*

[Mongrel]

Ok...at this point the old Founder would like to make a few comments, offer up a bit of information, and make a request of anyone and everyone...

First I'd like to speak to Dan's post and I will do this by saying that, yes, this is most definitely -everyone's- channel. However, a great many decisions are made--and in my opinion should be made--on the Ops board. The truth of the matter is that, if every bit of information that the ops make decisions about were put before everyone, nothing would ever get decided. Voting things approved or not approved is time-consuming enough as it is and the larger the committee the longer it takes. As a result, the Ops team does decide a great many things on its own and should continue to do so, if for no other reason but because it's tedious to do it any other way and it's really just not worth all of your time.

Now...to get to the juicy bit of information. If you want to know the REAL reason that Rance and Liz stepped down, it's because -I- asked them to and they honored that request. I'll get into why I made that request below.

The heart of the matter is that I am responsible for a lot of the issues that have been cropping up around here lately. When a manager is leaving a company and a replacement is hired, usually there is a certain amount of time where the two people have some overlap so that the replacement can be trained so that when the former manager leaves, the ship can continue to sail without too many problems. I did not do that for James and the rest of the Ops team. I didn't debrief. I didn't advise. I left. And that wasn't fair. I apologize for that wholeheartedly.

As a result of that lack of guidance, James--being a human being--made a couple decisions that didn't sit well with certain ops in the beginning. That, coupled with a lot of real world distractions, led to a bit of frustration for some ops. As a result of that--and some other things along the way I'm sure--the ops team lost its cohesion, its ability to operate as a team, and its faith in one another.

Because of this, both Wendy and I were contacted by Ops and non-Ops alike to help sort things out because at the end of the day all everyone wants is for this place to be an amazing place to create stories. James wants that. Rance wants that. Liz wants that. I want that. Everyone wants that! So the goal is clear--make this place rule. Unfortunately, as the team was, it was becoming exceedingly difficult to do that. So, I asked Rance and Liz to walk away.

Were they the problem? No. Were they the reason that the ops team was having a harder time functioning? Again, not at all. The truth is that no one person or group of persons is to blame. The fact of the matter was that certain situations occurred that brought us to this current situation and, as a result of that, something had to give. So, just like when there are differences of opinion in the Oval Office, the cabinet members politely resign and the President remains. The situation is the same in this instance.

Could these old ops return? Yes! I hope that they will one day because they are amazing people! They love this channel as much as the rest of us do. They love our players. They create amazing plots. They have only helped this channel become what it is and I know they will continue to help it. I can't thank them enough for their service here. I know that James appreciates their hard work...he's told me as much! I just think that there's some value in taking a little break so that everyone has a chance to cool down, let bygones be bygones and move on from here.

So, right now, we're going to press the reset button on the Ops team, get back to the fundamentals and make sure that we're all on the same page in order to insure that this channel stays the best RP channel of all time. I am certain that James and the rest of the ops team are ready for the challenge. Wendy and I are ready to help out and make sure that we pass on all of our experiences and "best practices" so that we can try to do everything in our power to avoid situations like these from coming to be in the future.

I said in the beginning that I was going to make a request. My request is this...please be patient. I know that some of you are unhappy. I know that some of you are reading this post and don't have a clue what the hell this is all about. The rest might not care a tick! All I can request is that whichever group you are in, just be a little patient with us as we try a few new things. But more importantly than anything else...know and understand that we really are all united in a single, solitary goal; to make the Dagger kick butt.

If you have questions, concerns, suggestions, or anything else, please don't hesitate to talk to any operator from the Founder on down. I will also be available to anyone who wishes to message me on here, on the wiki, or on IRC (when I am online). We are here for you!

Thanks.