TW Council - UPDATED w/ structure

[roxxkatt]

[roxxkatt]

why waste time reading that when u could be watching gordon ramsay

[Wormhole Surfer]

TLDR?

For you lazy bastards, Eph's longass restaurant analogy can be summarized in one sentence:

What we need is upper staff to define the zone, make a high level plan, and communicate that to the developers.

And I agree for the most part. I just wish I didn't have to wade through all that shit about waiters and chefs.

[qan]

Elections have begun:

http://forums.trenchwars.org/showthread.php?44564

[Reckful]

its ok they deleted my reply too

[Crescent Seal]

y u delete my reply to my fake nomination but not the fake nomination itself

[Reckful]

NOMINATION

In-game name(s): cres / crescent seal

Years playing TW, SS: lots

Primary arenas played: TWD/TWL

Short TW/SS Bio in a few words: NC17, pro, bff with Sir spider, we all know about cres and roxxkat's sister, syne, potenza, savanger, wolf, practically already a boss in tw

Why choose you for Council?: self explanatory

Zone issues important to you: all the important things

How u not mention his roty

[oDer]

LOL @ everyone typing their life story

[Exalt]

exalt..for real?

In my defense.. I was really, really stoned at the time. LOL

[qan]

Update

I've completed the modifications to the present polling system that are necessary for candidate voting to take place. (Not yet tested.)


Due to some confusion regarding exactly how long TWL would go -- I was told it would go until the end of February, but it looks like it's much closer to the end of March -- we won't be running votes after TWL ends, but much sooner (I'd like to try starting voting within the next week).

I'd also like to try running votes with a small window of time in which new, last-minute candidates can still be added. Of course, these people (if any take this option) wouldn't have quite as good a chance of being elected, as people who already voted once on all available candidates might not repeat the process just to vote on one or two others. But it would be possible, due to the way the voting system works, so I don't see any reason why not to do it if it can possibly increase participation. If anyone sees something wrong with this, please let me know.

[qan]

If TW understands this, if this is what TW is headed for, I am in. But if this council is the extent of the changes, I am not in. If this nonsense of making all these bottom up changes coming from disparate people is the direction of TW, I am not in. Only M_M and Demonic have the power to change TW to ‘top down’ thinking. I am willing to assist in any way possible, including doing a lot of the actual work like writing a possible plan, if the zone is willing to stop being so fucking myopic operationally-centric. Frankly I think that I am not the only one might really step up of this happens.

The analogy that Eph is using is to illustrate a distinction I think he made in another thread regarding the difference between policy and procedure.

Policy refers to the overall goals of an organization -- the top-down, high-level principles that provide guidance and focus ... a direction. It's the what and why behind what the organization is doing.

Procedure is the how -- how do we implement policy? So long as procedure aligns strongly with policy, there is no need to oversee how every procedure is executed.

Of course, there is blurring between the two. To say that Council should only handle policy would imply that it's always a cut and dry difference. And of course, what is called policy often dictates procedure very specifically.


I agree that the first focus should be establishing a clear policy -- however difficult that might be for a video game. (Yes, we're providing a service, but it's a free service, and it's provided courtesy of the dedication of volunteers.)


Without beating a dead horse, I'd like to bring up the very important fact (as a chef) that in this kitchen our wages are rather pitiful. That makes it more difficult to tell us what exactly we should be cooking. (And why the current management-chef system is so ineffective, and constantly at loggerheads.)

That said, I don't know any chefs on board who wouldn't believe that policy direction would benefit the zone. (I think we can all agree on that.) Just: where should it come from? With respect, our managers don't know how to cook; in fact they know only a little more about restaurant management than the average long-time restaurant-goer (and in some cases, a good less about food), and really have no significantly stronger ability than such a person to decide how our group-owned restaurant should be run. That doesn't mean we should leave it all up to the chefs, though, no. (Or to the managers -- who are sometimes even less qualified than the chefs to manage.)

But it does mean that a management team made up of a group of cooperating individuals could really turn around a struggling restaurant -- so long as chefs are still able to operate with some freedom at the procedural level. If you start simply lining up orders and expect them to fill them to exact spec, you might see a very small crew turn into a very no crew. (But this is not what you've ever desired, I know; and you know how unlikely it is to work.) As I've said, the chefs aren't paid. Neither are the managers, it's true; but it's not exactly all that challenging to tell someone what to do, especially when you don't even need to have any reason behind it other than that you're a (very, very green) manager who is really, really important.

This is why Restaurant Council is so important. When we have few people with experience in volunteer management and management of any other game than SS -- that is, close to 0 people in the entire game are individually qualified to be at the top in a top-down structure -- we need quasi-democratic group management to survive. Let's finally work out real solutions to some of the things that have been left up in the air for more than a decade, due to indifference and a fear of making waves in an all-volunteer staff, of being hated on an individual basis for making a difficult but necessary alteration. Decisions on the policy level (and to some extent, on the procedural level) made by a group via majority vote can be respected by almost everyone.


Interestingly, according to this analogy, ThePAP is the new Head of Kitchen. Sorry, fiS.

[the_paul]

Way to get the big picture out of everything Ephe said, captain dipshit. You haven't changed a bit.

[roxxkatt]

http://www.hulu.com/kitchen-nightmares

[roxxkatt]

and yet guy is still too dumb to figure out his name is next to his posts and says chefs dont know anything about food and dont make menus

[Vatican Assassin]

It would be pretty hilarious if Ephemeral doesn't get accepted to tribal council, guy spends 25 minutes on every post and literally has trenchwars law degree.