I guess advice or an idea?

[MilkMan 569 / 10,710]

So, I was thinking about this for a while now... We have made new servers yes? The VERY first problem we have with this is our population and getting it started. One thing we could do and it's quite obvious, is putting it on a newer machine and making it more visible to other players. We can also develop a server COMPLETELY before it is started (testing, adding newer and better things in PS, and fixing all bugs). We shouldn't be desperately making servers to be seen, that makes us look bad.

 

And yes I guess many of you guys are going to say "We already do this don't we? Why do we need to be told the same thing over and over?" Well it's more so a reminder of why we should and how we should do it. GFL needs to find it's "peak" again and we need ideas and the right people to run this or unfortunately we will go out. Yes, I agree we are pretty big right now, but one wrong move and we could be gone.

 

Speaking of the right people, we should add interviews for the staff members we take in. I myself have realized that not only when they get power their personality is truly shown, but even in an interview you can get a slight glimpse of their personality before you say "yes" to them. Violator had mentioned back round checks and I am sure it's a standard thing (i hope) that Managers do. Training is a big thing as well with the people we accept. I have came across a few admins that have not even been trained on source bans (which is very sad). 

 

The biggest things a community needs are it's people and it's servers WITH LOTS of creativity and ideas. I know we can give GFL it's peak performance again if we really try new ideas that everyone here has to offer. 
 

So, I wanna ask do we really need all these servers? 

How can we choose the right people for our staff and members?

How can our training improve?

What will interviews do or not do?

What ideas do you have for population?

What can we do to improve our servers (THAT WE HAVE)?

 

I believe once we get a clear focus and take the right steps, GFL won't be dying unless something happens to Roy and he shuts it down, but I don't think Roy wants to shut down a small hobby of his.

[Pyros 1,796 / 30,750]

For the sourcebans training. We expect Server Managers to train their new admins on how to be admin in their server and how to use Sourcebans.

 

 

1 hour ago, MilkMan said:

How can our training improve?

 

I can try to create a guide on how to use sourcebans and post it for Server Admins+.

 

 

1 hour ago, MilkMan said:

What will interviews do or not do?

I'm not quite sure how Reeve and Snowy choose their managers, but how Vio and Zebra does is interview them to get their general idea of the skills and what they lack. I will try to speak to them all and try to create an interview template.

 

 

1 hour ago, MilkMan said:

How can we choose the right people for our staff and members?

For members, we don't look for the right person to be really honest. As for Staff, DLs are chosen through a vote by the current Staff and a few selected former Staff. Council is chosen through applications that are reviewed by current Staff where everyone can apply. Directors and Roy pick people for Directors, I think, not quite sure on this one. For Technical Administrators, Directors pick one.

 

 

As for the other questions, I believe they are either too specific and can't be generalized or personal opinion.

 

Hope it helps a bit.

Cheers!

[kneegerrlover123 389 / 8,946]

• Trust newer members with the Manager role. Individuals who have been here longer are more likely to get Server Manager to then just leave or go inactive, loss of interest or not having one at all in the first place is also a cause.
• Keep the server with a temporary manager for a month or so, preferably a Council Member, then have him pick a member within the community he has designed and formed to become a Server Manager.

The two statements above are just ideas, as for your questions, here are some answers. These are answers based on personal opinion and nothing is made up to trigger any individual whatsoever. (No targeting)

1. No, we do not. But for the most part, if a server is dead or is dying, the staff team is to blame, there is NO such thing as a bad server or a dying game, it's just the lazy ass manager with no other thing to do apparently other than playing some random game besides than the one he should be playing. Yes, we do have lives, and yes you don't get paid to do this but if you can't do it then just let someone have it, or are you too power hungry to let it go?
    
2. Lots of SMs make the mistake of picking experienced individuals, while it can be rewarding to have someone who knows how the thing you're managing works and will usually offer a helping hand, you should also consider other impactful factors, such as Activity, Maturity, and Problem Solving. No matter how good you are at what you do if you don't like it you won't do it that often, and thus most of the times we have really decent admins that don't play that often. Try to go for people who are ready to dedicate themselves to the server, personally I've been staff multiple times and each time that I'm really in love with what I'm doing I'd stay up until 3-4 AM or longer. (12+ Hours/d)
    
3. The training is already decent enough. Or atleast as far as I know the one I had was pretty well structured, it varies from a Server Manager to another I believe, but usually it's just a general introduction to SB and other critical things.

Ill stop here, since I have a shit ton to do, but hopefully this has given you an idea of what I believe is the issue with current servers, and hopefully no guy with a cyan name gets offended.

I won't write too much since I'm quite busy nowadays but servers mostly die due to their Managers being inactive, if you think that some servers have managers that are trying but it's just not working then you must be dumb, and if you're a higher up you should be demoted.

Thanks,
Syntax.

Edited August 1, 2018 by Syntax

[Joshy 4,364 / 44,940]

There's no right answer for these questions and suggestions.  You can make all the right moves and still fail.  So far as having the right people with creative ideas and being a champion for it...  GFL has seriously burned some bridges.

 

Your best bet is to focus on the culture within your community.  We're sitting here waiting for the next person with technical skills, creative ideas, and the drive to do a lot of work for us.  It's not that it can't happen, but it's unlikely.  I've seen these people hop along and get their attention really quickly for a brief amount of time, and then they become like ghosts in the weeks after.  The cycle repeats over and over.  Focusing on your community isn't about interviewing people and finding the right person in a crowd hoping you'll get lucky... it's about transforming the community you have into the one you want.  I dare say every person here is qualified for the roles here, but you have to make it happen.

Edited August 2, 2018 by Joshy
grammar is fun

[MilkMan 569 / 10,710]

48 minutes ago, Pyros said:

For the sourcebans training. We expect Server Managers to train their new admins on how to be admin in their server and how to use Sourcebans.

 

 

I can try to create a guide on how to use sourcebans and post it for Server Admins+.

 

 

I'm not quite sure how Reeve and Snowy choose their managers, but how Vio and Zebra does is interview them to get their general idea of the skills and what they lack. I will try to speak to them all and try to create an interview template.

 

 

For members, we don't look for the right person to be really honest. As for Staff, DLs are chosen through a vote by the current Staff and a few selected former Staff. Council is chosen through applications that are reviewed by current Staff where everyone can apply. Directors and Roy pick people for Directors, I think, not quite sure on this one. For Technical Administrators, Directors pick one.

 

 

As for the other questions, I believe they are either too specific and can't be generalized or personal opinion.

 

Hope it helps a bit.

Cheers!

The questions are really to jump start ideas and that's what I have done (kinda). Everyone here seems to jump to the same old thing.

 

As for what you had said Joshy, I know a lot of people go ghost and honestly if we have to we might have to get the people while they are young and have the time to put into the servers and help us out. Change isn't just going to happen but it's made. It's gonna take more than this suggestion post to take this community back to it's peak but I know a lot of people love GFL and are willing to help out we just got to make it fun and as productive as we can for our staff and fellow members.

[MilkMan 569 / 10,710]

36 minutes ago, Syntax said:

• Trust newer members with the Manager role. Individuals who have been here longer are more likely to get Server Manager to then just leave or go inactive, loss of interest or not having one at all in the first place is also a cause.
• Keep the server with a temporary manager for a month or so, preferably a Council Member, then have him pick a member within the community he has designed and formed to become a Server Manager.

The two statements above are just ideas, as for your questions, here are some answers. These are answers based on personal opinion and nothing is made up to trigger any individual whatsoever. (No targeting)

1. No, we do not. But for the most part, if a server is dead or is dying, the staff team is to blame, there is NO such thing as a bad server or a dying game, it's just the lazy ass manager with no other thing to do apparently other than playing some random game other than the one he should be playing. Yes, we do have lives, and yes you don't get paid to do this but if you can't do it then just let someone have it, or are you too power hungry to let it go?
    
2. Lots of SMs make the mistake of picking experienced individuals, while it can be rewarding to have someone who knows how the thing you're managing works and will usually offer a helping hand, you should also consider other impactful factors, such as Activity, Maturity, and Problem Solving. No matter how good you are at what you do if you don't like it you won't do it that often, and thus most of the times we have really decent admins that don't play that often. Try to go for people who are ready to dedicate themselves to the server, personally I've been staff multiple times and each time that I'm really in love with what I'm doing I'd stay up until 3-4 AM or longer. (12+ Hours/d)
    
3. The training is already decent enough. Or atleast as far as I know the one I had was pretty well structured, it varies from a Server Manager to another I believe, but usually it's just a general introduction to SB and other critical things.

Ill stop here, since I have a shit ton to do, but hopefully this has given you an idea of what I believe is the issue with current servers, and hopefully no guy with a cyan name gets offended.

I won't write too much since I'm quite busy nowadays but servers mostly die due to their Managers being inactive, if you think that some servers have managers that are trying but it's just not working then you must be dumb, and if you're a higher up you should be demoted.

Thanks,
Syntax.

I suppose I answered some of your stuff by adding into my paragraph about getting the younger or newer people to help out. To answer the second one, that's how Violator got me into GFL. I didn't know shit and I just kept learning until the years past and didn't want to learn because either life or I didn't think it was worth my time. Now, I may be leaving or resigning in a couple weeks but it doesn't mean others will want to grow this post into something more than just an idea but an action.

[Worgee 812 / 13,264]

57 minutes ago, Syntax said:

f a server is dead or is dying, the staff team is to blame, there is NO such thing as a bad server or a dying game, it's just the lazy ass manager with no other thing to do apparently other than playing some random game besides than the one he should be playing. Yes, we do have lives, and yes you don't get paid to do this but if you can't do it then just let someone have it, or are you too power hungry to let it go?

As This is the case for some of the servers. It is far from the case for all. If you take a server like rust which I used to manage. We lost a Big playerbase due to banning 2 individuals That were causing major issue in gaining population from outsiders. I Was handed the server right after This and did not recieve any Technically training though promised. I spent countless our trying to populate and be social with Those That came on. The server however broke due to an Update That caused issues for several servers and were Down for too long (2months). I told Roy That we should leave rust for now since noone from GFL really wanted to help populate as it takes a rather large group of people to gain a playerbase in rust. Many managers seem to not be trained/passed knowledge from the former manager and are told to go watch videos and re-learn all That the former manager knew instead of passing on some of That knowledge and save time etc.

 

When blaming managers is one thing. Also consider how admins do things and if the managers knows of some of those things. Realising as an admin what your job is and what you're actually able to do for a server will make you feel valuable for both the server and the community rather quickly and You'll experience new ways of seeing things. 

 

-Worgee

[MilkMan 569 / 10,710]

I'm not blaming anyone I am just wanting to bring change in EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. We all need to step up our game (yes it might be hypocritical that i'm leaving) but like I said others care. Also I do agree on passing info from manager to manage but not everyone has the time on their hands to teach you, as you don't have the time to watch the videos and relearn everything. Which could be the biggest problem with gaming communities is time to do the things we need to do.