Popular Post Homer Posted January 2, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted January 2, 2015 Hope everyone had a great New Years! With that comes a new HG! As promised, below is an update for the public regarding HG's direction and future. Related: Hello Everyone, I wanted to take a moment to publicly post about something that came up in a Council meeting the other night: a public perception that little is happening right now with HG in general or that we're stagnating. We want to let you all know that we've got some big plans we're working on for HG that will lead to some changes in the semi-near-future (3ish months hopefully). Because we've been putting many of our collective efforts (Homer especially here) into this project we've had less time to deal with other things. We just wanted to make sure that it was known to all of you out there that we're not being complacent, we're just preoccupied. I'm not going to get in to specifics or ramble on a lot about nothing, but we get it...What the public can see of us has been a bit slow or lacking lately. We'll make an effort to up our community activity, but know that we've got good things on the way and that's what's been holding our attention. Thanks for reading, -Ur'Shulgi, on behalf of the Council Announcement addressed to Leadership: As your Commander in Chief, on behalf of HellsGamers Council we are going to be making some improvements to our Leadership structure over the next few months. I ask that you read this message in its entirety for an insight into what Council has been working on for the last several months. We believe this is long overdue, we have decided instead of rolling out small updates and enduring many questions, we are going to be transparent with a number of issues that we are addressing and our plan of action. If you have additional issues to bring to us, we would be glad to hear them, but due to many repeated topics, we ask that you first let us complete our set of prioritized plans. First, I would like to say Council is going to be showing a more active role throughout the community. We have come together, meeting after meeting and formulated a set of plans; a series of actions to make HellsGamers a better place. I hope after reading this message you will be as excited as we are for what is to come in 2015. Below is a lot of information to take in at once. Do not let change worry you; we are going to be just fine. Keeping things how they are is something to worry about. First order of business is strengthening Leadership so that our divisions can thrive. I hope that when all of you made the decision to join Leadership, you joined with the best of intentions to make HellsGamers a better place. Your collective efforts will make this happen. HellsGamers has to evolve; this is not the first time we have either. It is a learning process and we will continue to modify operations for the best interest of the community. Upper Management List of topics: Name Change Specializations by Game Lead in Training Renamed to “Community Directors†and overhauled. CDs will be in charge of building relationships with Divisional Leaders and help with the day-to-day operations. CDs will choose which games they specialize in as a go-to person for specific divisions. CDs will make efforts to build relationships with DLs outside of their game of specialization as a backup when other CDs are unavailable. CDs will have their game of specialization listed on the leadership page. CDs will have refined training by Council on policies and procedures. With this knowledge, CDs will be in charge of properly training DLs. DLs are in charge of training their fellow staff. CDs will report to Council when needing help and clarification. CDs will participate in auditing internal operations and bring attention any issues. Council will not arbitrarily override CDs decisions. If Council disagrees with a CDs decision, Council will talk with CDs and come to a joint agreement. Those of you not in Upper Management probably think “Isn’t that what uM does already.†The answer is not really, uM never effectively met the expectations and most became inactive. This time Council is going to make sure this level of management succeeds with close attention. Divisional Leaders List of topics: Voting Process Quarterly Reviews Inactive / LOA Leaders DLs will be voted on by their DS when a division is doing poorly. There will be no term limit for active DLs. However, there will be a Quarterly Reviews to assess the health of each division. Quarterly Reviews will consist of an anonymous poll with short answer questions about how you feel the division is doing. Council and CDs will review these and have the power to start a vote if they feel the division is performing poorly. When its voting time, every DS (including current DLs) will get one vote, and Council as a whole will get one vote (this will mostly be used as a tiebreaker vote). DS/DLs can vote for themselves, for another, or abstain. Voting will be anonymous. Council will only intervene if necessary. We want to preserve the process and let it do its thing. LOAs will not be permitted. If a DL wishes to go on LOA, they will be resigning the position and become DS on LOA, and another DS will be voted on. Our goal is to put the most active and helpful minds in charge. No more inactive DLs. Divisional Advisors List of topics: Name Change Training and Certifications “Interest in Leadership Position†form Cross-Division approval Renamed to “Divisional Staff†and overhauled. DS will be a position of multiple levels of training and optional specializations. What that means is there will be multiple areas of responsibility and access, all of which require a training process. Newly promoted Staff will start passing each level of training to gain their access. The term "Advisor" is now known as a certification of DS; the first steps that DS are trained for. DS will be listed publically on the Leadership roster as a go-to person only after passing “Advisor†certification. Steps of access and certifications are as followed in order from top-first to bottom-last: “Advisor†– Knowledge of basic rules and policies, able to assist member questions “Forum Mod†– Access to forum moderation commands and warning system “TS3 Admin†– Access to Teamspeak server moderation commands “Recruit Apps†– Access to promote recruits, TS3 HelpDesk “Ban Reports†– Access to HG Bans, review, approve, deny “Server Admin†– Access to in-game server admin commands "Events" – Access to create and lead events “Server Manager†– (Optional) Access to work on game servers, updates, ftp, HGOffice Issue Tracker This allows each DS to be properly taught how to use things, be effective, and what procedures to follow when needed. This is a major improvement because many times leadership go to higher-ups to get something done, when they themselves have the access and didn’t know it due to lack of training. This will improve “Role Uncertainty†and the experience for newly promoted Staff that are just given rank and don’t know what they should be doing. For the first time ever, we are going to have a form available on our website for interested members to submit an “Interest in Leadership Position†This is a big deal because previously there was no way for intelligent individuals to apply. We have been telling members to not ask, and do vague things like ban reports to maybe get noticed. This paves a road for members of the community to actively advance and participate in the upkeep of our servers and the community. ILP submissions will appear in a DL private forums were DLs can draw from a pool of people who wish to join when they need more DS. The form is like a dropbox, DLs do not have to respond; it is just a way for members to show their interest. We are going to allow DS to work with multiple divisions with approval by both DLs. DS will no longer be restricted to one division, currently the limit will be two divisions. There will be a form in DS private forums to submit an “Interest in Leadership Position†the same as non-leadership. However, their submissions will be received is a separate pool for the receiving DL to pick from present leadership that are already trained ad needed. All Leadership List of topics: “Notice of Resignation†form Goodbye & LOA policies “Inactive Status†policies “Years in HG†Loyalty badge We have improved the leave process. There will be a new form located in DS private forums for a “Notice of Resignation†with a few questions for processing anyone that wants to retire their leadership position, also known as "Stepping Down." This form will help us fix issues in need of improvement and be somewhat beneficial to us rather than no help at all when someone leaves instantly; which is highly discouraged. There will be a field for your date of resignation to be effective. You must give two weeks notice minimum for your resignation to be considered "honorable." As a part of the resignation process, members wishing to resign will be contacted by Council to conduct a frank discussion on their reasons for leaving. We will do what we can to resolve issues and keep members on board. If the resignation policy is adhered to, it will be received as "honorable" and the member will reap the following benefits: The resignee may request at time of resignation to be granted the "retired" tag; name listed on Leadership page indefinitely, and retain admin privileges. If so desired, they may reapply for a staff position at a later date (will require Council approval, but once that clears they will use the normal process) Leaving HG will forfeit the above benefits, which includes the "retired" tag. “Dishonorable†resignations not adhering to the policy will not receive any of these perks, and other action may be taken upon them if they disregard the policy to an extreme degree. “Goodbye†“LOA†"Stepping Down" threads of any kind by Leadership will now be located in Divisional Staff private forums. Leadership forfeit posting any Goodbye, Leaving, or LOA threads in public areas of the forums when joining Leadership. This is for community cohesion (public Goodbye threads made by staff often stir discontent) and it protects those with second thoughts. We have had many times where a staff member publicly steps down and immediately regrets it. We have improved the demotion process. Staff will be put into “Inactive Status†if there is an activity issue brought to attention. “Inactive Status†means there will be a two-month grace period to improve activity and show you want to be here or else you will be warranting your own automatic demotion once two months expire. *This qualifies for honorable retirement. We are implementing new “Years in HG†badges that will be visible on the website in a few areas. Badges for Veterans, and Leadership that you get to keep for honorable status members. More plans with this are being discussed. Development Community (HGDC) List of topics: New name New website Private development environments Contracts Tutorials HGDC is the future of HG innovation, a place for creative skilled minds to join current and future proposed HellsGamers projects. HGDC will have their own featured website listing the latest on development updates, list of current projects and its team members. HGDC is where we develop new and unique game servers, mods, and gamemodes for the HellsGamers community and its members. Developers will be given a private development environment that includes web hosting space and development game server access for projects. Developers will have many development tools in HG Office v2.0 and work with Code Repositories such as Git and Mercurial for team collaboration. Developers will sign a contract of non-disclosure as well concenting that all intellectual property is ownership of the HellsGamers community. HGDC will provide helpful links and tutorials for interested members to learn programming and graphic design. HG Office (v2.0) Where most of my work has been, HG Office v2.0 is going play a big role with executing some of the plans above. For example, DS certifications and training will be in HG Office v2.0. DS will have to pass training to gain access to certain features. This custom all-in-one control center will have hundreds of features for community management and leadership collaboration. One example, our own HG Chat; a replacement for Skype. I will save the details for another thread. None of the above is up for debate outside of Leadership private forums; public discussions of staff forums are prohibited. However, you are permitted to talk to anyone that asks you what this announcement was about. This thread will make it to the public very soon. Our 10th year as a community is upon us. Let’s make it a great one. Effective dates and Execution Progress: Upper Management Improvements – [EFFECTIVE JAN 10TH 2015] Divisional Leaders Improvements – [EFFECTIVE JAN 10th 2015] Divisional Advisors Improvements – [PENDING HG OFFICE RELEASE w/ TUTORIALS] All Leadership Improvements – [EFFECTIVE JAN 10th 2015] HGDC – [PENDING WEBSITE and HG OFFICE w/ DEV TOOLS] 56 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted June 21, 2015 Author Share Posted June 21, 2015 Updates: The resignee may request at time of resignation to be granted the "retired" tag; name listed on Leadership page indefinitely, and retain admin privileges. If so desired, they may reapply for a staff position at a later date (will require Council approval, but once that clears they will use the normal process) Leaving HG will forfeit the above benefits, which includes the "retired" tag. “Goodbye†“LOA†"Stepping Down" threads of any kind by Leadership will now be located in Divisional Staff private forums. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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