Note: this thread has been opened with some results after one week of it being up. And also opened for any discussion you all want to contribute. https://forms.gle/FLcA1pWaNo1uBHvb9 Thanks
I am unlocking this thread and de-emphasizing the survey, as we are a week-in and it has served the purpose that I sought. At the time of this post there have been 58 responses. I am including below the results thus far. I am leaving the survey open for anyone that wishes to give more information to me. After the survey results. I am including my initial thoughts about what my first priorities are. I am working on some other things in the background that need some more time to cook. The first question was confusing due to me initially naming the "EMC Game Servers" - which some interpreted as /games. That may have skewed results, and I did rename it with the results shown below. Which EMC services do you ACTIVELY use EMC Forums/Website: 52 (89.7%) EMC Minecraft Servers: 48 (82.8%) EMC Discord: 15 (25.9%) Note: Remember this next one mention the "EMC Game Servers" for half of the survey. Note there were like 9 respondents that chose Other. With some type of description of Minecraft. (Fair)
Some next steps. One of my highest priorities right now is implementing the Helper Team. Stay tuned for a "Recommend a Helper" form soon. An actual application for that will come at a later time, but I have a lot of interest of who the community thinks amongst them is a trusted member of the community. What is a Helper? The concept of a helper is an in-game rank which empowers the person with basic kick/mute/tempban abilities (also a new /warn action). And also a special notation that they are a Helper. This is where the abilities end. Various community members may not want to be a full staff member, but just have the ability to shut down spammers/trolls. Well, that's great; but aren't you going to add new staff? Yes... but that is easier said than done. Since Krysyy has taken her indefinite hiatus - it left a void in our leadership on choosing/onboarding/training new staff. That is a structural leadership issue that I am working a solution on. The Helper Team is not a permanent solution, but it will alleviate some of the daily functionality of the server. On that note. I did include a request in the survey for... That request still stands. Due to personal lives - I don't see anyone currently on the staff team filling the traditional role of "Community Manager" in the near term. Additionally, it doesn't seem realistic to jump someone from community member to that role in one step. I am just looking for anyone that thinks that they could bring something to the table in steering the trajectory of EMC in a leadership role - not all alone. Part of a team. Some final thoughts are that a lot of survey responses centered around some type of development goals or prioritization of particular EMC features (like the economy). That feedback is welcome and appreciated, though a lot of my current focus is going into the the non-developer side of things to get us on a track where I can do some more dev work. In other words, you may not see as much dev work in the short-term as I like, because I am trying to set EMC on a path towards long term stability. EMC is more than adding new features. It is more than staff hosted events. In my opinion, one of the core things that people have been drawn to with EMC is how the community gets along and treat each other. Do staff need to have a larger presence? Sure. But are we each collectively welcoming each new player with the vigor that could lead them to being another major contributor to this "community" that we hold so dear. I know that some people's interests in Minecraft has waned, but I find it exciting to see that 89.6% of the survey respondents agreed with "The EMC community is important to me". I hope that more people respond in that way with more time. Do EMC staff need to host more events? Sure, I guess. But I want to work towards empowering community members hosting of events. That will take some dev support! I have other thoughts and stuff in progress. As I mentioned earlier, some of those are still cooking. I will share them with the community when they are ready to be shared. Stay Tuned! Sincerely, chickeneer
I really like that idea! That's smart! Yeah, I agree. Even just a jump from moderator to community manager would be a big jump. If there's a new community manager, it'd make the most sense for ElfinPineapple, Hashhog or MoreMoople to be promoted or someone else to go through a senior staff phase first. Not all even senior staff may want the responsibility of being an admin, though, not to mention that I'm unsure whether the legal limitation on developers having to live in the USA would also apply to admins. I trust your judgment, but I agree that it's best for staff to be promoted one step at a time. If Elfin, Hash or Moople can and wants to be a community manager and you're on board with that, I'd support them, but at the same time I'll also say, no pressure for them to do something if they're not up to it. About the events, I agree too. The staff can do things to give new players a reason to stay, but they can only do so much at a time. Certain non-staff could also build things, host events, establish outposts, etc. that may attract new players or incentivize them to remain.
I did not check off the Use EMC Discord because I only joined in about a week ago and don't know enough about how it all works but I do read posts there, so +1 for Discord. The results are great to see. The community spirit is alive and well and one new player this week summed it up by roughly saying, wow, this sure is a friendly server, after many players welcomed them to the server.
I think it was amazing that a majority of our community has agreed about the importance of this community and the love and care that is shares! it is easily one of the best parts about EMC. that notion of community needs to be fosters and expanded into welcoming new members and allowing for new people to feel welcomed and assisted. The addition of the "helpers" is a great temporary idea to get more members of the community involved in assisting with smaller tasks, to help with moderation tasks but also to give a sense of assistance in managing the day to day community of the server. I do think though that Events are a key aspect to bringing the community together and having people hang out, meet new friends and feel welcome. i understand that events are not the only thing that is needed, but i do think it is a super important aspect. whether these are staff events or player hosted, the purpose of them should be to give players something to look forward too, a place to go and hang out with others, foster the community and bring everyone together. this can hopefully spark this sense of community into newer players and giving them a place to go and meet people, with a purpose of the night. I believe that having something to do, and look forward to within the weeks is a key factor into maintaining this community that we have while also expanding it for new players. its too often i hear the tropes of "i feel like i have nothing to do anymore" or "Minecraft has gotten so boring, i just log in and run around, then log off because no one is talking, all my friends are leaving and I'm just bored". I'm not going to sit here and say that events will fix all this, but i do believe that it will address some of these issues and that with the right combination of events, allow for the community to grow and blossom together. I am going to take this moment to do a lil self promo and plug that i have announced a plethora of new events for all different player styles.. that forum is here : https://empireminecraft.com/threads/events-upcoming-star-events.87709/ hopefully i can catch some of you at our upcoming trivia, dig event and in-game auctions All this to say that i'm looking forward to the coming weeks to see what there is planned and to see it play out! Cheers o/
chickeneer, A question regarding adding more staff. Is the issue that you just can't get staff or that people have an issue of being staff/moderator (e.g. time it takes from their game play, commitment, etc.)? I know there were some days when I would play and then pause to go investigate an alert. If was a cheating incident, I would additionally have to video capture it, taking more time. Maybe more low level staff (like you propose) and the ability of the staff to login/play without a name color change...like an "off the clock" mode? Not sure if that would help.
This is so incredibly true. chat for 65-85% of the day is completely silent or dead. When it does get active it will be slightly active before just dropping off a cliff typically. From what I,ve experienced is most keep to their friends and merely talk with them unless something interesting pops up in chat. Giving the feeling of cliques in high school. Community events/events do a really good job at just getting involvement from a large array of players who may not typically chat or even interact with one another.
Some staff do already have alts and can use them to fly under the radar to at least some people. I know this because several former staff on SMP6 from EMC's heyday had at least one alt and often used them to do other in-game things and not be as remarkable. Still, that got me thinking, what if there was a command staff could use to turn their name cerulean and remove the star so they look like diamond supporters until the command wears off, they disconnect and reconnect, they perform a moderation duty or they voluntarily remove their disguise?
i have like joined on 3 acounds or 2 i tink it was 2 as new player with out telling any 1 the point is the thing i was notering is as a New player u see a lot of players u ask for help but some 1 like notises 10 minutes later when most pipel are alrady gone than they do a explination thats prety good but this shut be done by the tutorial than as a New player u tink what do i do now it would be fun to have qeast or objectives plus a tutorial for New players go to the waste gather resourches like that so like emc can be explained
