Discovery Feedback Thread

[Laowai]

OK ladies and Gents

The noise coming from around here lately is warranting this - So we want to hear what you have to say here. The admin team has the interests of the Discovery Mod and its community at heart and so we want the communities' feedback here in one neat place.

Constructive feedback only please - any flames or attacks on people or anything that takes on a less-than-sensible approach will be removed. If people cannot do this nicely the thread will be locked.
Once this thing wears itself out we will sift through it and take what is said on board.

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http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/3289/...047770.png

[13CentKiller]

The community is great. Select few are ruining it for majority at times. Furthermore, I think more problems are becoming more noticeable because as we all know, the mod is about to change, and everyone is on edge.

As for problems with administration. Things arn't all as straight an narrow as it may seem from your point of view.

Once upon a time, selection for administrators was made by Igiss. It still is along with all the other server administrators, but I think lack of community input is what is making others a little upset.

I think Vero is a good example here. Many many did not know Vero, but his vote still came out positively (in the hundreds I believe) because others voted yes for the sake of voting yes. Maybe next election should actually be an application/election/vote deal like it was before. I'm not sure how much you relied on the comments made in the threads of the admin polls, but the "Yes" answer always seemed to out-weigh the "No" answer.

I'm trying to put what I'm thinking into words, but its 4am and its hard to explain.:unsure:

Sanctions. A very important part of keeping the order on the server agreed. But, guys...You have really blown it off the scale. Especially with no-braininess. I mean, I saw a sanction once where a player had his head lopped off basically because he was 3 levels above what the Civilian ID allowed. Unacceptable in my opinion. Sometimes I get the feeling, the sanction is based off mood.

Which brings me to my next thing. It is still possible to be polite in a sanction thread. Please exercise that more often. Although I know the responses aren't always polite back, but your job is to move past that.
Also, when someone goes so far as to acknowledging his wrong, stating what he is going to do about it and taking responsibility, please at least give them merit for that. There has been a few cases like that recently, and certain admins have still come off like down-right pricks towards said new member.

In-game activity needs to be raised also. Granted I'm not always on, and not in the most ideal time-zone either. But there are still a good amount of people on at my time of the day, and I see maybe 3 admins in-game out of the total count. Im sure that will change as three new ones have been recruited, so I'm not so concerned about that as I was before.

Don't get me wrong, the team do a great job at protecting the server and all. There are still imperfections and room for improvement though.

My thoughts in a nutshell. I hope you take them to heart.:cool:

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"Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do."

[swift]

I will just post here that I approve of the admins' reaction to what was said. Will post later once I form a nice little complete opinion, but just want to say this goes a long way to improve the admins' standing in the eyes of the "little player".
I just hope you will really listen to what is said, and this is not just an attempt to ease the masses:P. (Which are by the way, not in a state of unrest).

Adding now that I agree with 13centkiller's opinion. (Will formulate my own once I have time however)

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<span style="font-familyalatino Linotype">

<span style="color:#000000">All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

</span></span>

<span style="color:#33FFFF">The CFF</span>

<span style="color:#33FF33">CFF Communication Channel and RP Collection</span>

[McNeo]

I saw a post in another thread that I think needs considering. It said words to the effect of:

"Maybe admins should have to be voted in again every year." - Which I think would be good for easing the minds of those who feel that admins who havent fallen out of favour actually have (if that makes sense..).

Sanctions as well, are starting to be a bit of a problem. I see the precendence was set recently for swearers to be banned for 30 days. Fine, but then I saw a relatively recent sanction by Xoria in which the person was banned for 7 days for dropping the F-bomb..

EDIT: Fair enough Hood, I thought it might be something like that but I dont like to second guess people.

Its also true that I see the admins getting frustrated a lot with the volume of people they have to sanction, and can be seen to be very non-receptive to new players who are trying to make the effort. The rules are a very large handbook, and while the more accomplished members might be able to follow them all by instinct, its very mindboggling for a new person who cant be slowly dipped into it. I think that the rulebook plus the admins general frustration(at most people saying "omg ur stoopid admin u cant do ur job") makes this place very hostile to new people genuinely wanting to make a start here. I would've been driven off in short order if I joined at this time, as would many other people most likely. Generally, people dont have an interest in persevering with an entirely voluntary activity if its hard and unrewarding, and this applies to both admins and players. Since I assume the admin job is rewarding, and following the rules for accomplished players is easy, new guys are left out to dry finding it both unrewarding and hard... I'd like to see a bit of leniency applied to particularly receptive new people, rather than across the board.

[Fellow Hoodlum]

I will just try to explain the disparity between the sentence length when it comes to swearing and insulting.
If a player types 'EFF YOU YOU EFFING BITCH' in system chat, they will still receive a much harsher sanction
than those who inadvertently just type 'eff' in small case, not directly aimed at anyone in particular.
Unfortunately recently, the cases of the former have far outweighed the latter, and if players think they can
get away with continued behaviour like that, then they have another thing coming.
The sanctions for insults like that will continue to be extremely stiff.

Hoodlum

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Some say he is a proud member of: "The most paranoid group of people in the Community."

[swift]

I really got no objection to the swearing thing.
But for "normal" rules, a first time offence should be mild if the player acknowledges his guilt and promises to learn from it.

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<span style="font-familyalatino Linotype">

<span style="color:#000000">All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

</span></span>

<span style="color:#33FFFF">The CFF</span>

<span style="color:#33FF33">CFF Communication Channel and RP Collection</span>

[Thexare]

I think Vero is a good example here. Many many did not know Vero, but his vote still came out positively (in the hundreds I believe) because others voted yes for the sake of voting yes. Maybe next election should actually be an application/election/vote deal like it was before. I'm not sure how much you relied on the comments made in the threads of the admin polls, but the "Yes" answer always seemed to out-weigh the "No" answer.

To be fair here, while I understand what you're saying, I still think Vero was one of the best admins we had. Hard to get a straight answer about damn near anything from most of them.

Which brings me to my next point. I'm tired of saying this and getting it overlooked.

THE RULES NEED TO BE REVISED!

Ditch the ones never enforced (system-owning factions for example), add the ones that aren't listed but are enforced (jump hole abuse), and rewrite the whole damn list.

Will it take some work? Yes. Will it be beneficial to the server? Yes.

Something else that was said that I want to emphasize.

Which brings me to my next thing. It is still possible to be polite in a sanction thread. Please exercise that more often. Although I know the responses aren't always polite back, but your job is to move past that.
Also, when someone goes so far as to acknowledging his wrong, stating what he is going to do about it and taking responsibility, please at least give them merit for that. There has been a few cases like that recently, and certain admins have still come off like down-right pricks towards said new member.

I have seen attitudes like those of a few admins here destroy communities. I have seen servers for other games rise and fall plenty of times to know that one. I have, regrettably, been involved in one such gigantic screwup. I am not making an off-hand remark, I am dead serious here: Hoodlum, Xoria, Del, lighten up if you can and take some time off if you can't. Its for your own good and the server's.

EDIT: See, your post here, Hoodlum? Perfectly fine, not at all what I'm talking about. You just posted faster than me.

[Exile]

That would mean the admins would have to start checking up on everyone who's name appears on their naughty list. Gonna be a helluva lot of work for some people.

To be honest, (Not connected to the sanctions) Problems exist if you allow them too. Got treated wrong? Don't like this or that person? Got sanctioned wrongly? Let it go. Staying angry over a game's rather 'unintelegent', no? If everyone just took a breather every once in a while and swept everything off their table, this place should be alot nicer to any newcomers.

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[Jinx]

lately - the most pressing issue i have with the community and its leadership is the politeness. members are not very polite to each other - mockery and bullying appears to be common.

same thing in the sanctions ( which was addressed already ) - i do not think we need a patronizing tone ( or sometimes worse ) there. - keep it neutral. don t treat people as if you re in a higher position than them - treat t hem as equals. they get sanctioned, and the sanction is what they deserve ( maybe ) - what they do not deserve is to be spoken to in a disrespectful manner.

other than that - there hasn t been much change. - i am pleased to see that the population is still around ~150 players - a precious resouce!. - disco is poor when it comes to features ( even 4.85 ) - but we have a currency that most other servers would give their arms and legs for - and that is players ( every single player, not only the good ones ) - we MUST treat the people as if they are the most precious goods we got - cause they are. - the mod raises and falls with the players... i have recently took a tour to the freeworlds mod and other mods. - there are people doing things with the game that is far far beyond what we do or can do.... . but disco is way ahead of them in terms of a community. - don t waste that.

sanctions in general - i d like sanctions to be considered a tool to give people a chance to do better. - lately i have seen sanctions that make people fed up and LEAVE. - ( this is NOT what its supposed to be ) - if people leave cause they are sanctioned, the sanction has failed its purpose. - a sanction is meant to make the player think about his actions and to improve. - when a player leaves, he won t think about his acations and most certainly won t improve ( at least not in places that we care for ).

a softer approach - more talk, less banning. - don t put people into bastile without giving them a really good talk. - if they ( in that moment ) appear to regret and see reason - there is no reason not to beam them out instantly again. - some players need an authority to talk to them - in a kind and respectful manner. - it is more harmful to punish them. ( thats where you need emphaty )

additionally - i would like to see admins open for suggestions all the time. - and that means the whole admin team. many a players just cheer at something that is done to other people - but sometimes there are ideas and critizism that one must think about.

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[Tenacity]

My thoughts can be summed up by the number 42.

Ok, i'll elaborate:

-I know the admins generally have the good of the community/server/mod at the forefront of their actions, but I cant help but disagree with how some of the admins are 'elected'. I know several others have brought up this point, but basically... the only nominations for new admins are chosen by currently-existing admins, rather than the players of the community. It just seems a bit biased to me, even though the majority of the admins I know are handling things well, it's just a select few I have issues with.

-4.85 is taking far long to release than I'd like =)

-I honestly think the admins have lent too much of an ear to the vocal minority, listening to those whining players instead of the factions. I dont want this to turn into another big faction vs indy flamefest, but really... every official faction has to be admin-approved, and every one of them has a structured ranking system and a set of rules they operate by in order to best manage their players.
On top of that is the cost of the faction, a billion credits overall once a system is purchased. Despite this, in the past few months admins have removed any and all power or influence official factions once had here - and I know I was heavily outspoken against faction control before, but things change. There are good faction members, and bad faction members, just like there are good indies and bad indies. Problem is, the indies have no accountability, no one to 'report' to when they screw up, and that basically lets them get away with whatever they want within the server rules, even if it goes directly against their affiliation's normal RP.

-4.85 could've been released by now, y'know =P

-This mod owns, as I said in a thread a while back; if the movies made by frozen for 4.85's "previews" had been advertisements for a new game coming out in stores today, I'd probably spend 60$ on it. The developers have done an awesome job keeping this aging game alive with severely limited tools at their disposal.



EDIT:

-I agree with everything jinx said, too many sanctions being tossed around, lighten up. Even though we have that message playing on the server "Sanctions are a LAST resort, not a goal!" or whatever it says, it seems that sanctions are the first course of action to any offense here. Personally, I never post a sanction report unless the player in question has done the following:
a) refused to listen to in-game advise on what they're doing wrong and how to fix it
b) blatantly disregarded RP (i.e., pvpwhoring or F1'ing)
c) is using cheats/hacks/mods to gain an advantage

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