Community Development / Public Relations

This thread is sort of a "sequel" to this: Tell the CDT What To Do

Ideally, I have noticed we have three separate groups: Community Development, Public Relations, and Technical Core.

I understand where the technical core comes into play, but what I am suggesting/getting feedback on is: it seems that the "public relations" is more-so just a group (from what I see) that is there just to say they're participating and have a rank. The "community development" is from what I gather, a way to improve the community, develop a relationship between older, more knowledgable members to newcomers, and help improve the site quality.

Why can't we have the two basic groups merge into one, rather than separate them? They both are their to do the same thing -- develop the community into a better place and give incentives / ideas for members to stay rather than come here and leave.

I ask that this thread stay open so we can get an incentive of feedback and see where people stand, and if they can separate the two with more than a couple factors. As of now -- it seems they do the same thing and really, the public relations group could become merged with the community development to have added help; rather than have two separate groups.

What are your thoughts?

 

We (Public Relations) have only existed for a couple of months now, I do agree however that the start of the team was somewhat troublesome in regards to reaching certain deliverables. Right now we are somewhat on track and aiming to get fully on track short-term in regards to the earlier mentioned deliverables. A recent thing that has come forth thanks the the PR-team is the activity in the Rocket League market, making it almost self-sustaining at the moment (no more in need of constant promoting).

Besides the Rocket League market we have been working on, we also worked on different things. A few of these things are contacting other websites to see if they are interested in combining our efforts for the greater good, having specific plans to get our Twitter active and we (PR-team) have had a part in the Halloween events and will have a part in the Halloween events in regards to promoting certain things yet to be published (which will have some cool PR-stuff as well). Other things besides these are being done as well of course.

The difference between PR and CDT is, in a nutshell, that PR's main focus is to attract new members while CDT's main focus is to keep those new members in and prevent them from leaving.

 

Not meaning this to sound condescending, but what does it matter how many different groups there are? The three that you listed have different purposes, so it just makes sense. I'm not fully understanding the purpose behind this.

 

Thanks for the reply, Buyacc. I again do not mean to come off rude or anything, so I hope nobody takes offense in me asking for feedback on these two teams.

I'm curious as to why we can't merge both the public relations and community development team, and have just one group that does it all, rather than have it seperate? I just feel more could get done with more manpower and thoughts into the process. I understand the public relations group started a couple months back, but you could have it become all just one team.

Again this is just my opinion and I am trying to get feedback behind it. Thanks again.

Ultimately, it doesn't, but I don't see why we can't merge them two if they ideally are doing the same thing? I mean, one keeps members from leaving and the other gains members that aren't registered. I feel if they both work in coherence, the they can double the effort and manpower to do both rather than having them split differently.

 

Well I suppose in reality it creates more "jobs" if you will. Allows people to show that they can or can't perform whatever task is asked of them. Think of it as going to McDonald's and ordering a burger. Someone starts making it, passes it down, bagged, delivered. (Unless you work at my local McDonald's, then it's just mass confusion)

 

Hey Aroxez.


I have been a part of the CDT and moved over as PR founder and leader when it was first created.

Richard has stated that he felt like the CDT wasn't doing its job correctly in terms of game servers and content created around the technical aspect of the community; so the TCT was created.

The PR team was made to serve as "the face" of Sythe through social media platforms, attracting new members to the website and helping those new users out around the website.

Although alot of people do think that some of these teams would work better if they were merged together, It's probably not something that's going to happen soon. Just like with staff these people dedicate their free time and being forced to do something you dont like (let's say PR for example) just because your a part of CDT would ultimately turn people who may have good qualities from team away from applying.

As of right now all three groups have access to see and cross post in each others forums, and they should be communicating about how to best interact with each other.

 

Understandable. The way I see it using that scenario -- McDonalds is one big chain. So why not have the PR/CDT work among each other? When you work at McDonald's, you're hired as a crew member to be apart of the big picture. You could name the official team "Public Relations" and have different divisions or job titles underneath. Again, it boils down to "it really doesn't matter", but it's just how I look at it.

Separate them into teams, have certain people in charge of different areas within the public relations and then go from there and help where needed.

How I see it: (numbers are not realistic, just examples)

You have 15 members that are apart of the community development, who are in charge of everything the team does.
You have 7 people apart of the public relations team, who are in charge of everything that team does.

Why not merge the two, have a total of 22 separate members completing different tasks, but coming together to get to the finish line?

You create the "Public Relations" section into different categories:

Public Relations
-- Events
-- Social Media
-- Section Activity
-- Future Brainstorm Ideas
-- Community Development
-- Applications/Voting

This way, you have a combined count of 22 members each being able to engage in all of the conversation, rather than the a set amount which each team has.

I hope where I am coming from makes sense to you. Like I mentioned before, it's just my idea and feedback on the situation.

 

Thanks for replying, Tyler. Having the PR as the face of Sythe is a good idea, and I don't really quite understand why someone wouldn't want to be apart of PR, but would want to be apart of CDT? Nobody is forcing anyone to really do anything. You apply because you want the position, so if they don't want it that's fine, they can still be a contributing member of the community.

I've addressed a lot of this and how I feel it would work smoother in my above post. It may never happen, and that's fine but I am just trying to get feedback on it.

 

Because both teams have different objectives and do different things.

Some CDT may not want to do review roundups, regular game updates, or go along with new sections.

Just like some PR members may not want to discuss events, run events, help with forum icons and update stickies around the forum

The teams are however enforcing strict guidelines on activity in all areas. If a CDT member was forced to do PR stuff he does not want to do they would fall behind on their tasks.







Look, I understand what you are suggesting. It has been done before in the past many times. If the teams are all openly communicating and working together with each other then there is no reason why they should be merged, You dont see the operations consultants of large companies jumping on the companys facebook page and doing PR work.

 

I don't understand how this is a problem. When you are a supervisor for a job, you don't expect everyone to do everything. You look throughout your whole team and find each of their strengths and weaknesses, and then approach the situation and have them do that.

I understand how it works, I was a user educator for about a year. We had strict guidelines we had to follow along with what requirements were to keep the title. FishFishy and R33l2R33l (or whatever his username was) were our HUE's (head user educators) and they were lenient on some aspects of the tasks because of the fact we were contributing members and helping the site grow. Just because you don't do one task, shouldn't effect your score. As I mentioned in my above post, you're splitting it into different sections within the public relations whole section. You can assign certain members to certain tasks, or make such tasks more vague. You're applying for a position, and if someone is in one "team", they're mind is to help the community.

I'm really not suggesting anything, more-so putting my input into the community on this situation hoping to get feedback on such. Thank you for your feedback. If they're openly working with each other, there really isn't any reason why they shouldn't be merged.

Again, thanks for taking the time to respond and give your feedback on this situation Tyler.

 

Making the teams one does not mean forcing people to do anything. I'm really not sure where you are coming up with that.

 

Okai, as of now the CDT/TC/PR have a development center. We can all cross-post, share, aid, involve each other in the other teams development. So basically it is really one big team.

The difference is that CDT has it's aims and it's aims are marginally different then PR or TC, however we're trying to attempt to merge the ideas over, by creating events and stuff that all teams participate in creating.

Some members in some teams of CDT have no knowledge of PR; and no knowledge of technical skills like TC do. Some do; there is an overlap of skill sets for all three teams and the members in them.

I.e. If I need PR for CDT, it works best that I contact someone because PR wont be able to really understand how CDT works. Or if a PR member is involved with a CDT event then they can have their input. Same with when/if TC have something CDT and PR can get involved in; with event organisations, game events and forum events for the servers; or sharing that on public media about the games and the events.

I'll give you an example; CDT work on making the forum better in terms of look and design and what works best for the community based on suggestions. TC do the technical input in actually getting the site looking that way, based on organisation. PR then promote it, i.e. Rocket League subforum, SOTM events, Game servers, to get people on site.

At the end of the day it is basically one big team; but CDT deal with event organisation, and forum design in forms of stickies, and ensuring people stay on site, and other. PR bring users in, also by promoting cdt/tc events/game servers, and to try communicate with outside sources, TC deal with technicalities of the site, and gaming aspects etc.

As of right now it works pretty fine. Except TC and PR get funranks.. to make them look special. (really CDT members should get a funrank too to make it equal).

I totally understand your viewpoint, and it does seem like it would easy enough to just merge the two, but at the end of the day if you look at our forums, it would become 1 big mess; it is much easier for the teams to work like this currently. If anything look at TC/PR/CDT as development teams, rather than individual teams. We're basically .. we all have the same main purpose, developing the community and the forums, yet we have individual main specific skill sets and aims within the teams we are in.

 

Brought this up many times.

 

So, essentially they are one big team, so why not make it into one big team?

So, you're trying to merge the ideas of the teams into one, so that all members of each team can participate? I never said that the technical team should be integrated, even if they should be. It's common sense that CDT and PR both have the same role, attract and keep members on the site.

What do you mean that PR won't understand how CDT works? What can be so complicated about any of the groups that another member can't understand?

This is what it sounds like:

Community Development Team and Public Relations have two simple jobs (but go more in-depth). CDT aims to keep members on the site while PR targets people to join the site. There is no reason they can't merge into one group.

It's not about equality and it shouldn't be about fun ranks, it should be about having members be in a community and have incentive to stay.

It's not hard to merge the forums, regardless of the amount of posts. I've outlined above in my previous post how the "Public Relations" group should go (in my opinion, also having CDT merged). Your whole post has really been supporting saying that you guys are one big group.

Listen, I am not putting up a suggestion of any kind, more-so sharing my viewpoint on this situation. The CDT and PR do the same thing, and it isn't hard to incorporate current members to incorporating more (if they want to) into their routine and guidelines. If you merge the two, you have one (or two) Head Public Relation Members. Those one or two folks will manage the entire section (just like how the UE section use to be). Those two will give more vague guidelines and responsibilities to incorporate each members strength and weakness and allowing members to utilize what they're best at. This is how I see it.

Thanks, Sonia for your input on my feedback. It's greatly appreciated.

 

I agree, it all falls under the community development tag. Since I have just barely had my account reinstated, I am unsure how they came about, but do not feel the need for the two separate groups, let alone three.

Thanks Wonderland for your input on my feedback.

 

I wouldn't mind getting some input from a global moderator or administrator for feedback purposes. Looking to have a discussion rather than a "suggestion".

 

Because they have separate aims.

It was @Sythe who created PR separate from CDT.
As the idea of putting in someone who is more tech savvy into CDT fell apart; TC was created.

Naturally the idea was to get CDT on a tech aim and to go in that direction.

PR wont understand because their aims are meant to be outwards, not become CDT.

Lately I've noticed PR do more CDT sort of jobs around the site, rather than being Public Relations.

The idea was funranks as an incentive to stay, if your slacking then you wouldn't be needed and that role can be used by someone who can be active. Having people forced into one whole group I personally don't believe will give individuals incentive to stay. I do agree partially that PR and CDT are similar; but the concept is that the aims are different and hence why the teams should stay different as they can focus easier on getting what they're supposed to do done.

Merging the forums would cause a mess. There's a reason why they're separate at the moment. Having separate entities under one forum is perfectly fine for now. (dev center) When people signed up for PR they signed up to do jobs that rotate around social media and outward communications. Some members of CDT/PR/TC have all skills and can cross post easily into the other teams. Some members who signed up to CDT have no knowledge of PR.

Currently it's 2, 1 staff/1 non staff leader in CDT, and I believe @Buyacc is leader on PR (i don't know if there's a second). You keep saying you have feedback, but that feedback does stem into a somewhat suggestion of a possible merge.

I totally get that TC/PR is just really under CDT, but because there aims are different, they have people to assess those duties within their team because they have knowledge on those topics involved, rather than having them specifically under CDT, it causes a lot more clarity for all members being separate I believe.

 

But really, they're the same thing. It all falls under the part where their aim as a big picture is to develop the community, whether that's attracting members or trying to keep members, it's ideally the same thing.

I don't know why you bring in the technical core group all the time -- I never mentioned them once.

Give me an example where Public Relations won't understand what the CDT does, because as far as I see it, PR and CDT inquire similar tasks.

1. Funranks should be a bonus, the incentive to stay should be that they're doing their part into helping the community grow, and the website as a whole.
2. You need to remember that this is all volunteer, "slacking" should be more lenient and really, the more the merrier.
3. I never mentioned that having members "forced" into one group is an incentive.
4. They're more than similar, they're nearly the same thing but with different names. I honestly don't understand where you get that their "aims" are different. You've clearly said one team is to attract members while others is to keep them. How is that any different? A lot of the times you use the same methods to attract members as you do to keep them.

I've responded to these comments plenty of times.

It revolves around that I am looking for input from the community on the synopsis of what the original post refers to.

Thanks for your feedback within my post, Sonia.

 

Bump to get input.