Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

[Gradiant]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

I had nothing to say about the apology thread.
Read it, appreciated it for its intent, if not its execution, didn't reply.
That thread was not the issue I am talking about.

Though, My post is a valid counterargument of your implying that all negative conflicts between staff and userbase are because of the userbase, no matter what specific thread you are referring to.

[hi19hi19]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

Though, My post is a valid counterargument of your implying that all negative conflicts between staff and userbase are because of the userbase, no matter what specific thread you are referring to.

There would be no issue if there was nothing to apologize about; the fact an apology thread exists at all kinda shows that.

I'm not blaming all users, far from it.
It's the small subset who seem to think that constantly saying "the staff is a joke" is not something that is hurting real people.

And honestly I need to be careful with absolutes, the staff fuck up all the time and I'm sure there are instances where the staff has started shit without provocation.
But at least as far as the recent issues this year, from my perspective, have a rather one-sided source.

[DossarLX ODI]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

A concise and sweet way to put this is "be a part of the resolution, not the problem." It's not the necessarily criticism itself that could cause problems, but rather how the criticism is presented. If all that happens is a blasting at someone, there isn't any effort displayed towards resolving the issues with that person.

The manager in my first co-op experience has dealt with plenty of people who literally just yelled at him in his face and he had to keep his cool. That's what made him a good manager: leave the emotion out and see what can be done.

I underline the last part because it puts emphasis on a course of action. It's not enough to mention a problem -- a direction needs to be given. Anyone can take two seconds to thoughtlessly post "Staff Sucks" without any explanation as to what can be improved. Even then, it's always better to word things in a way that don't make the other side get on the defensive. Show that you actually want improvement instead of resorting to bashing.

[gold stinger]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

I'm not blaming all users, far from it.
It's the small subset who seem to think that constantly saying "the staff is a joke" is not something that is hurting real people.

nonetheless it's still blaming the userbase rather than considering that we're all at fault here. Sure there has been a lot of attack on staff as of late but there's also been a lot of whistle-blowing at the same time.

[Gradiant]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

And honestly I need to be careful with absolutes, the staff fuck up all the time and I'm sure there are instances where the staff has started shit without provocation.

thats all i was trying to point out.

[Untimely Friction]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

My only complaints were combo scoring and that's fixed so I will harass the staff only about multiplayer from here on!

[gold stinger]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

Mind if I repost some stuff from Zenith's thread?

Yeah money is an issue. Being non-profit is an issue. But these would be mitigated if the community expectations were in line with what is actually happening.

Being non-profit has nothing to do with it. I haven't done it publicly, but I have explained that opening up FFR to contributors is what needs to happen. Look at any huge open source project on Github for example. They can add functionality rapidly because of their open nature.

Whether making parts of FFR the game and the website open source will actually solve the issue is something I don't think anybody can predict.

I'll talk about the dev team and the simfile review process because that's what I know best. There's tons of shit going on behind the scenes. I'm sure you guys know the dev team have big goals- redesigning the homepage, new engine, raw scoring, the list goes on. I'm sure you guys also know that AJ quit being a game manager and left a leadership vacuum that Silvuh is doing his best to fill.

Here's the problem: new functionality isn't delivered quickly enough. You can have plans all you want but if you can't deliver them then it doesn't mean anything. The reason being is because FFR needs to be focusing on cleaning up the infrastructure. A lot of the website is still written in spaghetti legacy PHP and needs to be significantly cleaned up. By doing this, new functionality can actually be delivered in a timely manner.

These changes go by slowly because, without throwing money at it, all the staff have other jobs and obligations that take priority over FFR. And so large periods of time go by where it feels like nothing is going on to the average user, but things are in fact actually happening. This is an area that can be improved- I talk a lot about increasing transparency, and I think it's the simplest first step to take and could even be fun for the staff if done well.

The suggestion of changing staff or adding more staff is more complicated than it appears. Throwing more people at the kinds of issues that need to be solved with dedication and care doesn't nessecarily deliver a better product. And replacing "lazy" staff has its own pitfalls. AJ is a great example of what happens when a staff member leaves (note that he certainly wasn't lazy). A gap in the structure like that takes time to fill properly. Cycling new staff constantly is just as disruptive as having lazy staff. With this in mind it's obvious that striking a balance between finding staff with the free time to no-life work on the site out of pure passion versus replacing people too quickly is difficult. It's an issue with the site since its start (Tass aside, he was his own issue) and it's not going to go away so long as we aren't throwing money at it.

These two paragraphs conflict each other. You claim that throwing people at the problem isn't going to fix it, but you also mention that staff has other obligations outside of FFR. This is a pretty obvious indication that FFR is understaffed.

I agree that cleaning up infrastructure should be a priority. I don't think suddenly dumping several new people on that task will help complete it any better.

This is what code reviews are for. Full control of development still belongs to the head developers -- they don't have to include subpar code if they don't want to. It's simply fact that the development team is getting pulled in too many directions right now and it's too difficult to cover a significant amount of ground without easing the onboarding process for more developers.

My point is, whatever new staff members are added are also inevitably going to have obligations outside of FFR.

You may have ample free time to work on FFR now, but suddenly you get a different job. Have to move. Get a girlfriend. Start taking classes. Get sick.
You still contribute when you can but suddenly now you're the "lazy staff" and so you're worthless and should just be thrown out for someone else, right?

I'm not suggesting to get rid of them, don't get the wrong idea. I'm stating that because people can't commit full time to FFR's development that it needs to have more developers than an organization that can afford them full time.

I have seen some talking in the actual thread by Dossar about this being a decent idea, but other than that, no one else really addressed this or noticed this stuff, beyond some talk for outgoing support to try and get Fission on the development team. Has there been any real consideration to these ideas, or is this the first time noticing it?

Considered I might as well bring this up being a bit off-topic considering staff is currently viewing this thread

[Velocity]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

Quick Reminder, I did leave staff around a month ago, and only act as an assistant when prawnskunk has trouble with something on the server. I no longer have and responsibility in terms of a staff/administrator.

I finished up my last active project for the site when I finished the combo -> raw scoring switch.

[gold stinger]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

welp I'm no longer working for the FFR TCG



It was a pleasure opening packs for you guys.

Still would like to apply for something else though considering that was my main past-time.

Real talk though rushyrulz, all this is doing is creating an even bigger divide between the userbase & FFR Staff. You acknowledged it, not me.

[rushyrulz]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

stop fucking leaking our private skype messages, Jesus H. Christ.

@Zenith: Now that's an apology. I felt that this time it was sincere and I apologize for the way I responded to you, both in public and in private.

[gold stinger]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

I simply posted proof that I was no longer part of the FFR TCG. Is there something wrong with that? If so I do apologize.

[rushyrulz]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

Still would like to apply for something else though considering that was my main past-time.

Good luck. You've just shown that you can't keep private conversations private. Instead of confronting me in private about things I may have said that were offensive to you, you posted them on a public forum.

Real talk though rushyrulz, all this is doing is creating an even bigger divide between the userbase & FFR Staff. You acknowledged it, not me.

I'm not sure how removing an untrustworthy person from a major project that other TCG staff have invested months of their lives to is a detriment in any way.

I simply posted proof that I was no longer part of the FFR TCG. Is there something wrong with that? If so I do apologize.

You may as well have quoted from a PM. I don't need to explain why that is wrong.

[Gradiant]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

Yo rushy, tcg is saxrunner's thing you know. Probably should go through him first before removing goldstinger because of the pm thing.

[rushyrulz]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

I hired gold stinger. I have every right to fire him.

(with loose definitions of hire/fire)

[xXOpkillerXx]

Re: Attention Staff & Users: Please Stop Fighting

Good job staff, nice progress!

Am I doing it right ?