Logs from Public Zone Meeting from August 8th.

[Izor]

Cres, its past the point of even trying. Just do what me and some others are and watch the circlejerk. What you should be understanding is that the people in charge are so new and disconnected that theyre bringing up those old discussions as though its new. Its much more fun to watch them sort it all out and throw in the occasional comment when youre bored waiting for a doctors appt.

[Izor]

To put things into perspective the 3 things that were considered were res limits the community overwhelmingly struck down 2 years ago, consolidation of arenas which really went nowhere, and repealing fis's #1 change to pub so far. Its like the ss version of obamacare

[Crescent Seal]

its so infuriating...i was actually getting active again in the game too

[Zeebu]

To put things into perspective the 3 things that were considered were res limits the community overwhelmingly struck down 2 years ago, consolidation of arenas which really went nowhere, and repealing fis's #1 change to pub so far. Its like the ss version of obamacare

thats not true. it was struck down by many of the old time wb players. there was and still is a good argument against increasing the res, but dont say overwhelmingly... that part is very much not true.

i think that it probably will change and should change. the good wbs will still be the good wbs... bajillion pixels or not.

[Zeebu]

actually i didnt click that link to the previous poll from earlier. i wish i had access to see who voted in that poll though. i really didnt think it was that skewed

[Zeebu]

i pretty much stand corrected due to not reading/remembering that thread.

[Ephemeral]

I was surprised that the meeting went as well as it did (thanks to Shaddow, staff, and participating players) but obviously it had some problems. We should learn from these mistakes and make improvements.

Meeting Flow
We all knowledge that TW chat sucks as a medium for a meeting. Even though Shaddow did a decent job at managing the meeting and maintaining order, it is easy to see the impact of having multiple people trying to present/speak at once. What are the feasible alternatives; is there a good way to allow players to ‘take turns’ when speaking? Is it feasible to consider other online meeting solutions?

Meeting Agenda and Scope
I thought the published ‘free form’ of the meeting agenda was problematic. Shaddow set the agenda as ‘staff will discuss a few things and then players will get to respond’. I am pretty sure he was targeting a ‘brain storming’ kind of meeting, wanting to provide players with a chance at influencing decisions that are being made. Shaddow also solicited meeting topics before the meeting and I don’t think he got much input.

So we ended up with a meeting where the scope of the meeting was far too broad and diverse. (For example; some elim/duel players might not care to sit through a detailed discussion about Pub settings.) Having a meeting where the scope covers all of TW will generally result in a meeting that feels that little got done.

Possible Solutions
I suggest that moving forward the meetings be targeted at specific areas of TW. Perhaps one meeting specifically for pub 0 ships and settings, one meeting for suggestions on elim/dueling arenas, one meeting that covers input on events, etc. This should make meetings more productive.
These targeted meetings should also have a much more highly defined agenda. Players get a few days to submit topics for inclusion in the agenda but after it is published the meeting stays on topic. At end of meeting the floor can be opened for ‘new business’ but it is understood that this rarely results in productive time spend on the topic. (‘New business’ usually drives some new discovery for another meeting and is not meant to have a real-time in-depth discussion on topics that no one is really prepared for.) ‘New business’ is not used for ‘brain-storming’. Brainstorming meetings should be separate meetings and not mixed with general meetings.

While brainstorming meetings are some of the best meetings that I have ever attended but they are very difficult to hold. The meeting flow is by definition the opposite of one that has a detailed agenda. It has an intentional broad scope since all ideas are up for consideration.
I have seen very few people who can hold good brainstorming meetings; they have to be masters at meeting control. Brainstorming only occurs when people feel like they can present ideas without criticism, it has to be a judgment free environment. Great brainstorming meetings have a organized chaos feel to them. Ideas are coming out of left field and at a rapid rate. No one competes by being critical of other ideas, they simply try to ‘best’ the last idea with one that is even more ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking.

It would be great to have brainstorming meetings but it seems unlikely in TW. I just don’t see TW supporting the creative and judgment-free environment needed. Following a targeted meeting agenda built upon player input seems to be the best solution. They support anecdotal input but keep the meeting focused and productive. If true free form brainstorming meetings are desired they should be; held as a separate meeting, moderated by a meeting master, and support anonymous participation.
eph

[Shaddowknight]

Pretty spot on Eph. I was hoping for more topics from both the players and staff, but there just didnt seem to be any interest for most to participate in the agenda, and half of the PM's I got were not worth bringing up in the meeting. The best thing that came out of this was the info from Dev. There were a few people who contacted Kane about it after with an interest in helping. There are good things happening in dev right now, and we're hoping to roll the changes in to try out, as long as we can get the upperstaff approval for some of those (which has held back some ideas, but not completely destroyed them).

[squallFF8]

For a guy that invests so much of his time chirping at new players in pub with "Ez" and "Get good newbie"
(Izor - Which has been over a decade... you irrelevant lifeless p.o.s )

You clearly have no actual interest in any thread that relates to preserving the future of the game ..

Collecting data from general tw population seems pretty critical, now more than ever.
Keep up the good work guys! The time you're investing to keep this thing going is much appreciated.