The town is growing!

Hey Manic,
Neat idea. I like it.

Might I suggest we move it to another thread tho? I think it deserves a good amount of discussion. And I'm sure Aikar and chickeneer will need to comment on feasibility too. (i.e. I don't want to see the subject dropped once this thread is locked)

If it is needed now on Utopia (4% of residences) this is perfectly understandable. But that does not justify skipping a quality decision making process for the other towns which make 96% of the residences. It also does not justify skipping the community and rushing for a decision in less than 40 hours from announcement, it does not justify dry, bureaucratic approach.

Exactly. Starlis is a service provider and we are customers - personally and as a community.
So I think it is not only understandable but necessary that we
- ask for and request quality
- ask for and request that the people here are respected
- ask for and request that the community is respected

That's what my criticism is about. Only quality and respectful cooperation with the community will make the new players stay and will keep EMC alive. AFAICT Aikar knows that very well. That alienating bureaucratic approach is more a relict from old EMC times, that is not coming from Aikar. I hope.

We also need to distinguish about necessary operating decisions in the domain of the service provider and the community life. Of course, there is no sharp border and there is high influence in both directions, but a question like the shape of the town is IMO much more community domain than provider domain and not asking the community about this is not nice, it is not a good approach, not a good idea.

It is about future. IIUC, there still would be enough time to ask the community few questions and call for ideas about the shaping of the town and then make decisions according to that input. SMP1-SMP9 do not need to be expanded right now.

But much more important than this particular question is the question of the relationship between the service provider and the community.

I guess we're not that far. What happens here in these particular issues is suboptimal, but not a show stopper.

Nevertheless, good cooperation between the community and the provider is one of the top concerns.
The people and the community will tolerate quite some "suboptimalities" before leaving, but Starlis would be very ill advised to experiment and try to find that edge. My experience with comparable communities is that if like 10% of the key people leave, the community will likely go *poof*. That 10% here are mostly the more mature ones and I guess more likely ones that won't tolerate dry bureaucratic approach and less than full respect.

Quality community life will attract quality players.
If new players see that the community here is voting about the shape / design of the town - wow!
That's a community I want to stick with!
And this participation makes the community, this makes the player stay.
EMC has potential and should be striving to be one of the very best high-standards servers and communities.

I'm 100% with you on this. Town growth is a natural process you need to expect and accept.

That.
But in both directions!
Both community -> provider and provider -> community!