Quarterly Report for January - April 2013
An Evaluation Of Progress; Analyzing the Central Question:
Where do we go from here?
Prepared by: Kaleb (AKA K2323) -- Adviser / Global Moderator
Report Summary - Analyzing the status of the board after approximately a month since the changes (i.e. new management, launching of Shattered Evolution) went into effect. Outlining long-term goals, solutions to current problems, and gauging member input.
** In this report, I will use the term ‘Opposing Kingdoms’ (“OK”) to refer to the board located at http://opposingkingdoms.com. I will use the term ‘Shattered Evolution’ (“ShEvo") to refer to the board located at http://shatteredevolution.com. To refer to the board multiverse as a whole, I will use the term ‘Shattered Multiverse’. **Recapping The Change in Management
To begin, let us recap the events leading up to the recent changes to the Shattered Multiverse. The Shattered Multiverse boards have never had a stable foundation of leadership. The multiverse was literally born out of power abuse, the idea of moderators fighting moderators for turf on a website named Code Lyoko Trading Card Game, locking topics and controlling parts of the board. This idea gave birth to the original Opposing Kingdoms roleplay and the multiverse as a whole.
Moving forward, there were three ‘defacto’ leaders of the roleplay -- Kai, K2323, and Hikaru -- though the RP was arguably unstable with no real rules and constant “staff” fighting. As such, from the start, the RP never had stable leadership foundation. This is what ultimately led to the original RP’s shutdown in 2007. Any attempts to revive the original incarnation of the roleplay failed.
A second incarnation was born named “Galactic Empires”. It also lacked stable foundation. Started by OK/CLTCG member Logan (Blackcat124gt), it was protested by the original three founders of the roleplay. Logan brought about important changes for the better of the roleplay (introducing the request system and integrating it with science fiction, as well as the addition of actual gameplay and community rules). However; the staff situation was still slightly unstable at best, with numerous incidents occurring nearly shutting the board down. Ultimately, Logan was judged to be abusing his power by declaring certain territories which he owned as “unconquerable”, by excessively banning or suspending those who disagreed with him, and by declaring take-over topics in which he lost as non-cannon.
The third incarnation of the roleplay, “Shattered Planes”, came next. Former staff members Nisorin, Gaserlake, and K2323 (as well as Hikaru, a member named Orpheus, and Logan) decided to relaunch the site -- this had always been the intent, but work took longer than expected, and Shattered Planes ended up opening approximately a year after Galactic Empires shut down. While Nisorin, Gaserlake, and K2323 worked together as a relatively stable staff team (as they had done on a similar roleplay named “Cosmic Empires” between the shut-down of Galactic Empires and the launching of Shattered Planes) though a need for more management would lead to other staff members joining the team.
Over the three years in which Shattered Planes was in operation, the site underwent numerous changes, with the staff often fighting and causing problems for the board itself. Nisorin operated as head administrator though staff’s refusal to listen to him, combined with his sometimes frequent gaps of activity, led to further staff problems. Furthermore, interference from member Hikaru on multiple occasions (threats to pull the board down, sue the site, etc. if an issue was not settled in a way as she saw fit) led to stalling by staff on major issues.
Jeebus became head administrator in 2011, around the time of the Plex event. As head administrator, he gave the staff some sense of direction, and some exciting changes began to develop. Staff began to fight less and less. Unfortunately, while staff fighting slowly declined, so did staff activity. The board as a whole began to lose activity as members lost interest over time. It should be noted that Jeebus’s first six months as head administrator brought about a time which some may argue was the peak for Shattered Planes -- it’s highest moment. However; Season 5‘s lack of planning and poor execution (as well as poor planning on the P3C event) led the board to, likewise, enter its lowest time of activity.
Jeebus, understandably so, was quite busy and unable to act as head administrator during much of Season 5. This ultimately became problematic first in summer 2012. It was during this time period that the member-base became so tired of staff antics that they ultimately left the site (or nearly did so) and began planning how to move forward (The SP Resistance facebook group). The board barely survived this occurrence, but Hikaru’s resignation combined with a pledge by staff to change creative directions saved the board, if only temporarily.
Unfortunately, staff did not live up to their promises, and the board began to die again. Lack of leadership led the staff to placing administrator Lyoko222 in charge of the board as a whole, replacing Jeebus. In the months that followed, the board actually saw an increase in activity. Staff hadn’t fought in months, and things were looking up.
Unfortunately, things began to decline again in February after Lyoko222 had a run-in with many of the members. The inciting incident occurred in a fight between Lyoko222 and new member Hitoper in the Internet Relay Chat channel of #shatteredplanes at IndirectIRC. This incident and others which followed led to members complaining about the new direction Lyoko222 was taking the board. Ultimately, Lyoko222‘s goal was to provide the board with the stable leadership it had lacked in the past, though his execution of such ideas was arguably mishandled.
Which leads us to today...
Problem: Lack of Leadership
This is more-so a problem for the Opposing Kingdoms board and not the Shattered Evolution board. The two current boards were founded upon member input, which is good. However; there is a clear lack of organization among the staff of the Opposing Kingdoms board. The Shattered Evolution board, on the other hand, does not lack leadership -- the project is being led by Jeebus.
To be clear, it was decided that the Opposing Kingdoms board will have no “head administrator”. However; the current staff team must lead the member-base, or else the site will not thrive. This is also true for Shattered Evolution -- the entire staff team (myself included) must begin to lead the members.
Solution
A solution I would advise to the staff is to have frequent staff meetings. The Shattered Evolution board has no staff-only section, and the Opposing Kingdoms staff section always seems to lack input from all staff members. To remedy this, staff should consider using the IRC chatroom or some other chat software (Skype, Tinychat) to regularly schedule staff meetings. It can be difficult to work around everyone’s schedule so I would recommend finding a good time for all staff members (i.e. Sunday at 2:00 in the afternoon GMT) and having your staff meeting at that time every week. For the staff to be able to lead the member-base, it is crucial that they communicate with one another.
Which brings us to our next point...
Problem: Lack Of Communication
The most recent April Fools day incident seems to confirm that there is a real lack of communication on the multiverse. Not only is there a lack of communication between staff and staff, but also between staff and the member-base. Nobody really seems to know what’s going on with the Opposing Kingdoms board, for example. Staff needs to communicate among each other and then
communicate with the members.Solution 1: Polls
Polls are a good way to gauge member opinion on particular issues. Staff does a fairly good job of using these already.
Solution 2: Official Chats
We learned in the Skype chat in which the current two boards were founded that a lot can happen when members can provide their input in a live setting. More importantly, this allows staff to express what they have to say as well.
Solution 3: SMF News Feature
News boxes. SMF has a nice, built-in news function which allows staff to post short, simple updates. For longer updates, staff can use the News/Announcement sections on the boards.
Solution 4: Website
A website of some sorts could greatly benefit the community -- a static series of pages (perhaps located at
http://opposingkingdoms.com while the OK forum could be located at some forum.opposingkingdoms.com) where information can be listed in great detail. A wiki is also a good idea (we had one before but it wasn’t updated enough). This would also provide some sort of link between the two projects, acting as a portal between OK and ShEvo.
Moving Forward
With the above in mind, the primary goal of this report, as stated above, is to determine a course of action moving forward. Before such an event can occur, the problems above desperately need to be addressed.
Opposing Kingdoms
Plot Summary: A play-by-post nation builder roleplay, Opposing Kingdoms centers on the nations which inhabit the stars of one particular realm, and their ever-expanding goal to gain dominance over the entire universe.
Status: Dying. Quickly. It was already dying slowly, but now it’s bleeding out. I do not think this is due to Shattered Evolution, more so because of the aforementioned lack of communication. So, what should staff do about it (once they start communicating)? I see two possible solutions:
Solution One: Decide that it’s time to end the plot of Opposing Kingdoms. This is a fair claim -- it’s been in the making since 2006 and is at times quite overgrown. But to do the ending justice, staff truly needs to come up with an epic way to end things, and needs to give members fair notice to wrap up their story-lines (one to two months). Staff should make the ending one of the most exciting moments the roleplay’s ever had.
Solution Two: Continue operating the site, but truly take a creative change. The Opposing Kingdoms story is so vast. There are so many aspects to focus on -- be it the nation-building aspect (truly the roleplay’s most unique quality, which could really be used to its advantage if done right) or certain story aspects (perhaps making the RP, for example, centered around the Zarethians or the embodiments or the sages). Once you begin to explore these ideas, the possibilities are endless.
Shattered Evolution
Plot Summary: In an alternate story-verse, the “what-if” questions of the Opposing Kingdoms plot are raised. What if sages had never taken over the dimension? What if technology had been allowed, then, to flourish? This roleplay centers heavily on characterization and detail.
Status: Dying. Slowly. This is the moment when it needs to be taking off. The board is new. Now’s the time for it to strive -- this is absolutely when it’s going to have the most momentum. The longer time goes on, the harder it will be to increase site activity.
Solution: Fix forum bugs. Figure out what to do about subforum posts not showing up on the index, about requests, and so on. Provide more informational topics for new members. And most importantly, come up with some key plot element that makes things interesting. This roleplay is partially about discovery, so the possibilities are endless -- bringing in a truly advanced alien race to make the others bind together, for example, or bringing in some terrorist group like the Anrufe (only much less powerful).
Conclusion
To conclude this short report, a lack of communication and stable leadership is quickly leading to a decline in the state of the boards. The problems addressed in this report need to be dealt with first and foremost, before anything else can happen. Once these problems are dealt with, more of the changes discussed in the initial Skype chat (when ShEvo was founded) can be implemented. Ideas such as an economy can be toyed with. Issues like how time works can be discussed. But first, the issues discussed here must be addressed.
Thank you for your time.
