Suggestion Rules

[Coolest Cat 1,266 / 14,449]

Hello, there are only some ground rules for making suggestions here and as long as you abide by them, I will give your suggestions consideration.

You only need to read the gold summaries, really. But if you're unsure of something then read the description for more details. Most of these are pretty obvious.

 

1. Be respectful of the PR Team members. We're all trying our best to make GFL a better place, and while no one should be free from criticism, no one deserves to be insulted. Insults will only serve to derail threads and puts people off from a potentially good suggestion you might have. It's possible to criticize people and their work without attacking them.

• Example of good criticism: "I think we should have voice actors who have better quality microphones and less background noise for our YouTube videos."
• Example of bad criticism: "The voice actors suck and are too poor to afford a high quality microphone like myself!"

One of them serves to point out flaws and features that you don't like so we are aware of how we can improve. The other does the same, but it also degrades our voice actors who might be putting in good effort and work with their current set up. It degrades the morale of the voice acting team unnecessarily and might demotivate them from making future work. Even if their delivery is wooden, you can say that without coming off as rude and inconsiderate. Remember that our team is composed of human beings and we should always try to have constructive criticism and not plain insults.

 

If I see a thread that I feel is being intentionally toxic then I'll go through and edit it so it's less so. This way your opinion can assist the team without us having to waste time arguing over something that is unimportant.

 

2. Don't be a negative nancy! Be optimistic for the future! People aren't machines that can work indefinitely without morale. Our team is composed of people who act and think like human beings, just like you. Being a negative nancy damages morale while not contributing to anything. Please make sure your suggestions aren't smothering. If there's no hope for a better future, then what's the point of trying? Hope is important for any cause. Without it, people would just settle with their situation because there's no point in trying. Try to be inspirational if possible, and if not, then don't make the negativity absolutely smothering.

• Example of a good suggestion: "The YouTube channel isn't being properly advertised, it's not posting very good content either, and the people in charge aren't doing the best job at it. But, I don't think it's entirely hopeless!"
• Example of a bad suggestion: "The YouTube channel is a waste of time. It's not being advertised properly, it's not posting good content, and it's run by talentless people! You should just give up  on it!"

While the 2nd one very well may be true, that doesn't mean that there's no way to improve the sentiment. If you honestly feel very passionate about something being a waste of time, then go ahead and give the reasons why something is a waste of time. Try to avoid being hostile towards people. It's completely possible that YouTube just has no interest for GFL videos and never will. But you don't have to be rude or completely negative about it. And for most things, there is ways to improve something even if the answer isn't obvious. We want to hear suggestions, and sometimes the truth hurts but that doesn't mean you should make it hurt more than it needs to. 

 

3. Be specific! Please do not just post something that is vague unless you really need to. Sometimes it's possible to be able to bring a problem to someone's attention without you yourself knowing quite what is wrong. If that is the case, then please still try to make an effort to figure out what you want to say. 

• Example of good suggestions: "I think you guys should improve in your tutorial department by talking to server admins to get their opinions first." 
• Example of bad suggestions: "I see you guys are lacking in areas that should be easy to resolve, but won't because you're too incompetent!"

The top one says what the problem is, and gives some specific details as to how to fix it. The second one is way too vague and is useless for the team since if we knew what we had to improve on, then we would have already tried to improve on it.

 

4. Make an attempt at a solution. I know it's a lot easier to point out that something isn't working, and we do encourage you to point something out even if you have no solution yourself, but please do try. A fresh view point can sometimes do wonders, especially given how diverse GFL is. You might know something we don't, or maybe you have the perfect solution to a problem we haven't realized we had yet. By telling us about it, we can actually work to improve upon the problem. If you keep it a secret, then we'll waste time finding out something you might already know.

• Example of good criticism: "I feel like GFL is lacking in professional affiliations, Humble Bundle has an affiliation program that benefits both GFL and its users! [link would go here]"
• Example of bad criticism: "I feel like GFL is lacking in affiliates."

While not terrible insight, the 2nd one definitely is less helpful than the first, especially if you already knew about the program and could have shared it with us. The first one presents us a problem and a solution which makes it so much easier and faster to fix. 

 

5. Be clear, please! In an ideal world, we'd have all day to read your suggestions and complaints, but in reality everyone in the team is busy with balancing their GFL work, actual work, school, and their personal life. Please don't waste our time with pointless tangents unless it's to help your point. This is a forum, so feel free to make your post long as long as it's coherent. I will read every post even if it's unbelievably long and terribly written. In addition to staying on point,

 

6. Make it readable! There's nothing worse than being given something to read that defies all the rules of grammar. It's time consuming, confusing, and there might not even be something of valuable hidden underneath all of the nonsense. You don't need perfect grammar and punctuation since this isn't a "professional" setting, but definitely make an attempt to be coherent. I, too, will make an attempt to read these suggestions and translate them, but don't be surprised if it goes ignored for a long time if it's too poorly written. There are limits to human understanding. Proof read your suggestions if you can, and please make an attempt to write in proper english even if it's not your first language. If you need a translator other than google translate then please try to contact someone within the community who can help you with that. 

 

7. Make it in english. The reasoning is quite simple: Most members in GFL speak english, and everyone in the PR team definitely speaks english fluently. While some of us might know second languages, this puts the rest of the team who don't speak that particular language at a disadvantage. If you have a hard time writing in english, then please clearly state what your first language is either at the top or at the bottom of your post. This will help in getting someone to translate your thoughts. Just because you have a hard time writing your thoughts out in english does not mean that we don't care about them.

 

8. Don't oversell your suggestion's importance. We all appreciate your suggestions and everyone believes that they have the solution to GFL's problems, and that's fine. What isn't fine is acting like GFL needs your suggestion. Chances are that if it was something GFL needs then someone would have suggested it before. Even if it is the greatest suggestion of all time or the difference between life and death, please don't try to oversell it. It can come off in the wrong way and can hurt your credibility. It also tends to result in a lot of extraneous tangents that don't assist the post in any way.

 

Please try to follow these rules. The first two rules are the most important ones since they're the easiest to follow and are the most harmful to the team and your suggestion. We are all people, and those in the team are volunteers who want to see GFL succeed just like you. Insulting them does nothing but burn through good will and the team's morale. Furthermore, being overly negative brings everyone down and is not a great way to inspire creativity. Constructive criticism is only possible if there is positivity and the possibility of improving. Otherwise, it feels futile like there's nothing that can be done, even when there is.

 

Thank you for reading these rules and please try your best to abide by them. I will keep edits to a minimum so I don't remove anyone's intents.

Edits will only be made to make a post more legible and constructive. Anything extraneous like baseless insults or unnecessary/unsubstantiated doom & gloom are going to be cut. Saying that "GFL is going to die if you don't do this!" does not help your case. It doesn't hurt it, but it does annoy everyone reading it.

 

Anyway, happy suggesting, folks!

Edited January 15, 2019 by Major_Push