x339's Thoughts...

You really don't know if they've ever recovered those lost players or not. Maybe they've lost them but attracted new players? Also, people that first started playing and have quit because of how "shit" RuneScape probably quit for other reasons as well. There's other factors to someone quitting, be it age, etc. I, for one, don't play a game for yearrrs. I quit before that and like to try out new things. What you may have liked, people hated. What you may like now, people might hate it. It's how its always have been and its how it will always be.

 

The decline is pretty prevalent based on that graph, but this is not a thread about runescape, please stick to the main topic.

 

One slight thing - I know this is a small point, but I really think the vouch system is better than the feedback/rep system.

Feedback is misguiding. Although staff try to prevent it, there are always some hooligans who try to do a hundred two dollar trades just for vouches. While you can also include comments for the value of the trade or whatever, most people (and newcomers) will not go the extra distance to one or two more weblinks or whatever, to see the actual value and quality of the trades.
That is what I like about vouches over feedback - you can see the quality, value, and satisfaction.

In addition, would you have feedback lower over time, or have everybody keep the same feedback forever?
Vouches help tell how active a user has been recently, something that would be impossible to tell with just a number (feedback).

Maybe I'm just completely misunderstanding the feedback system you propose, but that is at least my opinion.

I do agree with you on some of the other points though, this is just the one I'm most opposed to.

 

That's a valid concern, but you can look at the ebay system as an accurate representation of a good feedback system. You can see the user's overall rating, but if you dig further you can see which each specific +1 or -1 is for, which leads to essentially a more organized version of what we have now.

 

I have been on Sythe since 2010 and was lurking a while before joining. I have never played or intend to play Runescape, but i still love to come to Sythe to talk to people and visit the xbox market and other general discussion threads. I do agree that this place is a little behind in the tech elements. My point in all this is not everyone is here for the runescape market or discussions a majority of the Sythe users are but there are others like me who have never even played Runescape and are still here. Kudos to you for standing up for what you think. I would like to see some newer stuff to the site as it seems the same as when i joined. <3

 

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Just wanted to point this out:


This was somewhat recent also....But anyways.....x339, I do agree on maybe like 70% of what you have just mentioned on this thread and think something should be definitely changed and new ideas should be embraced upon instead of being instantly denied and shot down.

 

I agree with most of the forum tech stuff, VB4 is very overdue when it should have been here already.
Bump timer seems like a good idea, would reduce on all the spam reports and all that crap.
Feedback, I don't think we need really. It's just a different version of vouches, un-needed addition but its kinda like whatever.

EDIT: Also better advertising would be nice, it seems like Sythe doesn't manage it at all.

 

Sure that wasn't a DDoS attack?

I'd also like to voice my concern about the vB4 upgrade.
It would be nice to have a bit of insight into progress, upcoming features etc.
Information like that would get the communities interest and create some hype for the massive upgrade.

 

VB4 isn't going to change much for us (the common user) other than add a new theme and some other little things. What I am concerned about is the fact that we are so far behind in terms of technology, which really makes us a "weaker" site. If I am not mistaken upgrading to VB4 will also open the door to use new plugins as well, but that won't matter if my other points I brought up are not touched upon.

 

I'm actually pretty sure that was during a DDoS attack - a lot of those members probably fell under the guest category.

 

Admin activity cannot possibly be 100% gauged from any normal members point of view.

We might not post as much but believe me the amount of reading we do is still very high. I tried to participate in one of the latest contests but 72 hours of work in a single week @ 2 different jobs knocked me out.

I see it as a good idea, considering a lot of things we don't have power to we frankly don't need nor should have power to. The only exception is the adding of ranks.

 

Forgive me if I say something wrong, but I am just going based off the knowledge I can obtain as a normal member.

As the general admins you guys are supposed to be the ones involved in the community correct? If Matthew/Govind/Sythe are the ghost-tech-admins, then it's up to you 3 to be in charge of the community. If that is the case, then why is it the majority of things we see you do (i.e. closing threads, banning people, etc.), are that of a global or sectional's job? I understand that you may add your thoughts to a discussion in the staff lounge, but really, what else is it that you do? I say leave the global/sectional jobs to the globals and sectionals, and focus on being the administrator of this community that works for the progression of this site as any administrator should do. If you disagree with that role, then let me ask you this, what is the point of a global? A admin with less power? A sectional with more power? I think it's time to get these roles straightened away.

 

More or less yes

The majority of what we do is inside staff lounge, which as you know you cannot see. I know the 3 general admins are very involved and watch the feedback and suggestions forums even if we don't make 100 posts a day there.

IP bans + Twc + Censor requests for starters. We also watch over the other mods to ensure that the staff can work fluently with each other and take care of all staff related issues, pretty broad but that is much more then it looks like.

Generally we do. i will say however I still go on short-term modding sprees to go ban a few vaders or lock a thread here and there. I am also the most involved staff member in the pardon process of all time. I spend a lot of time in that forum and looking at who should and shouldn't be given a 2nd chance.

They have been straight for a very long time now.

 

Again I am just going based off of the information I can obtain as a non-staff member; I have heard countless times that the staff lounge is boring, and that it is mainly a place for you to discuss things such as I.P. bans, TWCs, pardons, etc.

So as a general admin, you feel that your duty is to do those tasks. That brings me back to my other point again, then what do the globals do? It seems to me as though the two are essentially the same, with admins just having more say then the globals. What you're saying is that we have 3 admins who do their job by maintaining Sythe. That still leaves us with the unfulfilled job of someone who is working towards the progression and growth of sythe. Let the globals and sectionals do the maintenance, after all that's what they're here for isn't it? The administrator role is a much bigger role. Instead of just thinking "Hey what we have works, lets just keep things running", it's your job to be the ones who think "What we have is working, but what can we do better", because if you don't, who will? Admins are the only ones with enough power to do that, but instead they are tasking themselves with just "maintaining". Sure there are people like me who want to make change, and perhaps there are other staff members who want to as well, but to make that happen, an admin has to step up to the plate. The admins really have to be working for progression and growth, because they are the ones who can, and must.

 

Not quite - the main reason the admins have their roles is that those things are placed in adminCP rather than modCP
for example - adding a TwC is effectively handing out a rank to someone and nothing more. As far as vBulletein is concerned, it's practically a fun rank. It is either extremely difficult or impossible or impractical to hand these tasks to a global and I see no problems with having hte admins do them - However while they may have to reach a TwC quota or something of the sort, don't have to actively pursue scam reports and spam reports - the mods do those. I'd like to know what other tasks the general admins have to complete, because as far as I am aware handing out TwCs from a list takes alot less effort than reaching the decision of who deserves one and completing the scam reports, and Unless there is something that I am missing about what the general admins do then they definitely have to do less work than a global does which in a way doesn't make much sense. Potentially simply outlining the tasks all tiers of moderators do in some more detail would help get the right impression across as to what the admins do

 

So you're saying that admins don't necessarily have to do as much work? Then that pretty much exemplifies what I am saying about Admins having a bigger role then just handing out TwCs and making staff lounge decisions?

 

Pretty much as far as I'm aware - feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

 

I don't know how you figure there are too many admins. I think we need at least a 1-1 ratio for globals to admins since Matthew and Govind do alot more.

Now I work 50+ hours of physical work a week and keep up while just using my iPhone when I can so I consider myself doing more than most mods but I balance it.

 

I don't think there are to many admins, but I know how people are, and I feel like that would be a complaint some people would have (because some people like to complain for the sake of complaining).

 

In my opnion you are very wrong. Runescape is one of the most popular games to ever hit the market. Only very few social games can boost same member stats.

Also runescape has more active players than diablo 3+2 combined.