Ex_Libris

Wow Ace that is some serious stuff..... I rummaged through my closet and found me old pair of "Moon Boots" oh darn I wish I had a picture to show off those wonderful consumer creations.

Anyway the design for this looks tight, lets see if we can't get any attention here.

Ex

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There is no need to keep up on myspace if you really aren't into it because everything we have here will always be here.

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Web Design 101. Leave a link on an off site to your main site. Oops. If I were to try to refer someone to the game, I would NOT be using this site. Why? Because it is utterly and completely devoid of info that would be of usefulness to them. There are pretty pictures and a blurb about the game, but that's it. If a person wants to get actual info they would be many many times over being better served to be pointed to the actual home page of the game. But they aren't on the MySpace page. Only the "refer" link which gives a indirect link is there. A little "Learn more" type link at the bottom would do wonders here.

I could point out other little things which back up why this isn't the best idea, but then the page is made and I'm just part of the so called minority anyway. Meh, indeed Ex.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you for the feedback, I guess the link to the header hasn't been updated yet.

Link to official myspace page.


To add some clarity to the issue.

The question was "Do you myspace?" 33% of the people who were polled answered yes.

That is one third of the polled people, there were roughly 1000 people who voted. Which is safely around 1 % of our over all subscription base.

So if 1/3 is my corollary number then it is safe to say that doing a page like this would benefit roughly 1/3rd of our current subscribers. This is a potentially large number of individuals.

The benefits of advertising etc. aside, this resource was just an additional way for us to gather the community together, many of whom do not regularly use the forums.

This question was not phrased to bring about a majority consensus or opinion. The majority clearly does not use myspace and for their own reasons, which I support. The question was do you use it, as in currently.

This was the justification for going through the process to bring the page online, which I might add did not take away from our current resource pool for game development or our web design.

People want us to use other means of networking and that is fine, but there had to be a first choice and this one because of ease of use and populations already using the source was the choice we made.


We just hit 800 friends!

Meh, 20 or so dissenting opinions but 360 new friends on myspace since the announcement this afternoon.

This isn't a this and that thing. There is no need to keep up on myspace if you really aren't into it because everything we have here will always be here.

This is to gather together and build community on an already networked site. Could we do this with other sites, yes, will we, maybe.

All in all there are people who are not forum regulars that frequent other sites and can utilize that tool as a resource.

And for those of you thinking that we have newly assigned Positron or other "Dev's" to do the button clicking add this friend. Nope sorry, wrong again.

This is a community endeavor. Development ----------------->Community<----------------Playerbase.

No bugs were left alive due to the development of this page!

Pant's Stealer made this one... thank you for the reminder.

City of Heroes/City of Villains Myspace

So the myspace City of Heroes/City of Villains page is now live, if you have a profile and would like to link up, feel free to add your profile and send us group invites.

Discussion on this topic is located here!

So a few months ago we announced that we would be opening an Official Myspace Page.

There was some heated debate over the topic and we want you to know we heard you. This page will not take the place of regular updates to our page or our forums, this is merely a way for players who already have profiles to keep in touch and to promote our game in a public manner.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to PM me or Lighthouse.

Discussion about COH/COV myspace is located in this thread.

Well,

To me it seems like things are sifting out nicely.

I don't have a lot of time today to visit this thread as I am currently preparing my build and pulling my newest costume off the rack to show up on Test server this evening and lay down some smack for the PvPEC kick off party in Pocket D!

I'm also helping Lighthouse, who is changing in his heroic post to get in touch with his darker alter ego...basically there will be a painted target on both the Villain team and Hero team tonight.

But... I digress!

I knew that Protector was the little server that could!

I hope I see some of you in Siren's Call and Pocket D tonight.

Ex

The latest City Scoop, June 1st Edition is here for your enjoyment.

Discussion about this current edition will happen here.


If you would like to take a poll to give the team members of the "City Scoop" some ideas about what the community most enjoys please see this feedback for City Scoop Poll!

We hope you enjoy the latest issue of the news for Supers by Supers.

Ex

Spurred by a PM and Aerone's Post I did some digging.

The Protector Forum Goers have fun here thread has been reported 18 times, all by people who are considered regulars here.

So the problem is we need to discover some middle ground and set some rules about using the notify moderator.

BTW an interesting fact, one of the most commonly reported posts are the ones that happen right after a redname post.

"The first post after a redname!"

Seems a bit like post envy to me.

So I think after all this discussion this is the summation.

1) Be respectful and realize that you have different personalities and that each person adds to the overall community.

2) Live and let live....keep things in perspective.

3) Toughen UP.

4) Make a disclaimer or title your posts specifically so that people know the expectations, asking people politely to stay on topic is a reasonable request and should be respected.

5) The notify moderator button is not your personal vendetta tool to report someone you don't like. You notify the moderators on issues that break the rules, if you don't want to see a post disrupted or if a post is in general "for fun" use some discretion on reporting or you may be upset at the end result.

6) Communicate with each other in private instead of airing out battles in public.

7) Agree to disagree.

8) Cut the mods some slack, remember they are not the enemy, they are merely responding to posts that you...point them to. BTW Lighthouse and I are not Moderators, just for a clarifying point.

9) The moderator team is not a suggestion box, they do not read your post for content nor do they send it to the development team. If you use the notify moderator button you will be getting someone who is trained on the rules and policies posted on the boards.

10) Don't forget that we all have bad days, sometimes we need to cut each other some slack, after all we are all here for the same reason.


To Have Fun!

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So then Ex, I want to come here, but the problems you've posted here are a problem everywhere, so I don't feel it's worth the time. You guys gonna do anything about thread jacking and intolerance everywhere because me and many others care about other sections too? Well, regardless, after i9 testing, I and many others have become pretty disillusioned about player input and how you guys take it into consideration, if you even bother reading any of it.

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Disillusionment about feedback and whether it is received or is bound to happen. There is a lot of great feedback about I9 and we are working on a big upcoming patch that includes a lot of that updates and fixes, I believe Lighthouse will be making a post later today but in essence we do hear you, it is the commenting that is the tougher part.

We sometimes have over 10k posts a day, that is a lot of data to process, but we make a dent on it daily.

I don't think this topic applies to all people, and as some have already mentioned they think the idea is unworkable, but I believe those are people who aren't necessarily affiliated to Protector as much as following the Community Digest. This topic was and still is listed in the opening title.

Meeting everyone's needs is highly impossible, but we try and keep a balance. We are working daily with our moderator teams to keep things as on track as possible, without disrupting the culture of the community.

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Okay, my brain is not functioning properly.

Does this mean, that when someone starts a thread, they should include the coding L/N/C in the thread subject?

i.e. : Statesman TF [L]

And then, those that post contrary to the thread should be reported?

Basically, policing ourselves?

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I think it would be best that if it got way outta hand then report. Not every little one. I mean then it would be an extreme amount and then Ex will come in and bop us!



I think Ex loves us she always comes in here to talk to us!

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I do love you, but I can see where if someone who say on an [L] post puts in a one eyed jack, I don't want to be called in, and I can try to get the Mod team up to speed but that could be hit or miss depending on time of day.

So I think in that case you would politely educate someone who might be new to what the coding meant, and I would suggest doing this in PM, as to not accidentally set someone off.

Even with a system like this the outbreaks will occur, so in some ways there needs to be some "water off a duck's back" because I don't want a PM every time someone falls off the wagon.

Ex

OK,

So I have read every post in the thread, and followed the discussion etc that has come about from Protectorites and others.

First, why did I come here and not to other forums, and yes I did receive PM's saying um hey you need to stop over here and do the same thing. But... this is a Protector issue because people from Protector have contacted me, not once, not three times, but over the course of my tenure I have been contacted about Protector the most.

Obviously people who dwell here care deeply about this issue, so anyone else coming in from the outside please use care in bringing an outsiders perspective because this discussion is for and about Protector.

Live and let live, are very good words to live by as long as your living doesn't infringe too far into someone else's living room.

Using respect as a ruler only works as long as people know, so what happens when someone steps in and unknowingly jumps off the track, are they all the sudden summoned to the guillotine?

I don't want to be an enforcer, I have already stated as much, because if I am called upon to enforce I have a whole list of rules and guidelines I must uphold and honestly the forums would look down right barren. Nobody wants that.

But there does come a point where your fun causes someone else tribulation. A full page of smileys or quote pyramids slows the forum down excruciatingly for some people. We have to schedule forum maintenance to take care of some of the mindless fluff and no matter how hard we try or notify the public of the purges stuff gets lost, valuable posts, guides, that fun thread.

Think before you post, that is a great practice, including the type it out, wait 30 seconds, read it again and then hit post. You will find yourself back spacing more often then you think.

As far as solutions, I like the suggestion that the OP has some rights and responsibility to watch their thread take shape. I guess on the title system, as I was thinking about this on my commute, that the good old Chaotic, Neutral, Lawful system would probably be a decent metric.

Ex.

Event: Friday 7 PM PST Be there! (Lawful)

Silliness Abounds! (Chaotic)

What costume should I get for my Dom? (Neutral)

It's a suggestion that I think for this server could work.

What are your thoughts?

Ex

Click here to take the latest poll

This post will be marked for public view once you have voted. This is for us to see what features of Issue 9 you enjoyed and to discuss what you like most about Issue 9 and what if anything you would like to see changed in the future.

With all polls they only represent a sampling of people, so please keep this in mind with the results.

Ex

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Aerones,

Brings up some good points. Cliques. A very natural occurrence.

In some ways I blame the inflexibility of the forums themselves as I personally would love to create a safe place to play for everyone.

What about creating several (safe) threads and see how they can go about in taking shape and form?

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I think there are a lot of molehills being upgraded to mountain status here...

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I don't agree, I think that some people are not quite as comfortable as say you are at hopping around the forums on this side of the pond or the other and putting in your say.

Some people really have some emotions and anxiety tied into posting. Trying to make a place safe for someone to be themselves even in a virtual world means a lot from a community standpoint and from a retention viewpoint.

If my needs are met in COH why would I ever need to go out there... and play another MMO. Most often times people who play MMO's play them because of the community and the friends and family they make while playing.

But if that environment becomes hostile or downright painful, well then it is my molehill/mountain to deal with.

So I have made several suggestions:
From running an index to commonly visited threads.
Titles which denote level of chaos.

Here is my latest... doing days of the week. example is:

It's Wednesday How do you like your pizza! Topic only valid on that day of the week, then the next day it rotates to a new topic new OP.

There I have made three suggestions.

I still see a pile of concerns though and no headway towards solutionville.

Aerones,

Brings up some good points. Cliques. A very natural occurrence.

In some ways I blame the inflexibility of the forums themselves as I personally would love to create a safe place to play for everyone.

What about creating several (safe) threads and see how they can go about in taking shape and form?

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it's because Protector is so dead that they have to come on the forums to have any form of entertainment.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe true, maybe not.

When I first started here I had our moderator team track what forums were most popular. Now among the server forums you would expect Freedom and Virtue to be on the top of the list because there in game population is often double what some of the other servers reach on average.

However, what I found is that the numbers were not corollary. Freedom is commonly one of the least posted and visited in server forums, maybe that is because so many people can get their questions answered in game.

Maybe it is just a fluke.

Protector however was one of the median groups, never the highest never the lowest, usually right on par with a few of the others like Protector.

If forum activity were a precedent for folding a server under, Protector would be on the safe list.

So from my viewpoint you have a server that doesn't necessarily have the greatest population but are very communal and active.

Obviously we have all seen how quickly good things can go to bad in the Virtual world...one day it just seems that the pulse of a SG or VG just dies.

It doesn't happen over night.

So we have recognized there is a problem, some believe change can happen, others are suspended in disbelief.

And...others attempt to throw in a jack where there is no flat tire and believe you me the velocity of a moving truck with your jack sitting in the middle, you will get hit.

I make these points and I am here because I do care about the community's best interest. That said I am not going to be so bold as to pick out those who I think are the worst offenders and slap them with a warning, that will get us all about ..so far.

I know from experience what can happen to a community group when you remove two or three of the "problematic" posters, it may all seem good for awhile, but any void just begs to be filled.


So... Protector, the little server that could...what will you do?

Ex

Manam and Zekiran,

You both make great points and they both point to the software version of UBB that we are running. We are currently working towards the upgrade of this version, but we do not have word yet on when that will happen and what additional features we will get. We will get a merge thread option which will help in many ways with cross posting etc.

I am afraid our efforts on this first front will have to be more rigid and personal.

Creating a thread that people can add links to other cool threads will help to disperse some of the rapid fire posting.

Creating a topic system that if a person utilizes symbolizes the tolerable level of chaos...this would be more difficult to uphold and see the through but I think would have a decent impact and would help to clarify the gray.

Ex

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Not so true on other server forums, which brings me back to the point of: if it doesn't need to be modded, leave it be. Or, please, balance and fairness - if one section's gonna get modsmacked because of threadjacking, please go to the other forums and do the same. Remind others that their behavior is telling of their attitudes. Recent cross posting and attacks came in several waves, and it became very easily seen that protectorites are often singled out for smacking, where other forum goers don't seem to share that aspect.

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I think you and I were writing our posts at the same time... but honestly this statement points right back to home.

If other servers are doing such and such then it is not being reported by those other areas. Protector seems to have a dichotomy on this edge. Moderation would not occur if reports were not being generated.

So while I could open this up to the entire population, this seems to be a unique problem with this specific community in that we haven't found the gray area, and marked it clearly as such.

Maybe a title system is in order, allow the OP to specify the level of chaos.

I'm just here... seeing what comes about from this. Because I don't believe the problem is with a handful of people, it is those people who I am also tasked with looking after.

I think that what binds you all together can easily destroy you as a group, and I don't want to see that happen.

Just jumping back in to answer some of the questions that have been raised.

1) what happened to the "Forum goers have fun here thread." Well most likely someone hit the notify moderator button on a thread or portion of that thread. The moderator taking the notification acted, and I am trying to find the justification on our end. Certainly what they saw goes against the posted forum rules and policies so in some ways there is no fault in them removing it, they were simply upholding the rules. The problem in this case is reporting a thread meant for fun and threadjacking for some reason even if it is fun or threadjacking. This could have happened from a Protector member or not. At any rate the sheer amount of moderation has been called into question from our end.
<ul type="square"> [*]Posts that have notify moderator flagged will get looked at and subject to be hit.
[*]Using quick reply causes your post to be tagged to the post directly above you, creating a chain of posts, sometimes when you remove a post it will take out a portion of the chain. The best solution is to hit the reply button instead of quick reply, especially directly after a threadjacking. Many innocent and constructive posts get removed for this reason alone.
[*]We have asked our moderation team to consider the regular server forums, fun &amp; games, and PWNZ to be on the low moderation level. So in essence there is more leniency when it comes to violations in these areas, and in some ways this is good and bad. Good because the culture and environment here is allowed to be shaped by the people who dwell here. Bad because if an annoying habit forms amongst the community or a person goes a bit crazy one weekend it can appear as the hammer will hit hard all of the sudden out of nowhere.
[*]When posts do get modded there is a tendency to see an outbreak of "I'll show you" type posts directed at getting the moderators attention and basically acting out about the moderation, which in turn equate to more moderation.
[*]The moderators do not troll the forums looking for threads to take out, each action is justified by a report notification. So either people need to adjust what they hit notify moderator on and be a bit more selective or realize that because we do take a hands off approach to the area that when we get called in there is likely to have an action occur.[/list]
What is threadjacking? How seriously do we take it on the forums?

I think these are two questions I saw, and mainly it is making a post on a posted topic that is off topic, the main threat here is that a topic can be completely derailed. When this occurs someone will notify the mods and the situation above occurs where a post that was informative and meant to be on topic disintegrates into a pile of mush that might need either a shovel or translation text to deal with.

Do we take threadjacking seriously? Honestly it would be a thankless and never ending job if we focused our attention on threadjacking and the destruction/elimination of the art. I think the people that take it the most serious are the ones who take the time to plan an event or to tailor a discussion thread only to have it one lined to death...you can see how they might be the people most affected by the results.

In my opinion I don't mind a bit of sift in my daily read, but it is too easy to fall into the trap of overlooking it as something that isn't problematic for more people that are just not verbal about the issue. I look over these boards approximately 6 hours per day, so I see my share and I am unaffected by most. But some people only have 6 minutes because time here is time that they could be playing or doing something else. SO at a glance they want to know what is cooking on the home front.


Solutions...are there any?

Yes, I think there are, and more than just simple awareness.

Here is what I see are necessary components.

1) A commitment to be aware and responsible is a necessity.
2) The fun must go on! So what format can the fun take without imposing or dominating the other topics.
3) Impending Doooommmm--we need to check this, when a post gets moderated, or when something happens we do not agree with or like, we need to be more proactive and positive than reactive and impulsive.

Certainly I could start making a list and watching for culprits, and then send out an onslaught of PM's warning so and so for such and such... but I'm not the thought police, and I am a Community Coordinator....so lets coordinate something that works.

One thought I had over lunch, was to do a post similar to the guide to guide with links to posts that the regulars really enjoy, whether they are located in the forum games, Pwnz, or anywhere on the forums that Protectors Frequently Fly. This would be one way of keeping those who have more time to comment and browse to keep a handy list of topics hot or not, that you all like to follow. This wouldn't be too hard to do, and would probably make a dent into some of the fly by posting that occurs.

Otherwise I am still looking for suggestions and solutions.

What would you do?

Ex

Well, it seems Protector has bubbled up on my radar again, and from the looks of the moderator report (which I am looking into as we speak) you have come across their radar as well.

What I see when I pop in here is a healthy daytime community that has quite a few regulars. This in my opinion is a good thing because you will also be the first to sign up and support events and happenings on your server, as well as point people to facts and resources when they ask.

So I am wondering why I have a half dozen PM's regarding the behavior down here, and I am staring at 20 pages of removed posts from the 'Protector forum goers have fun here' thread.

I would like to discuss this with all those who have a vested interest, so that it doesn't appear as though some supreme decision is cast down upon the lot of you. I think that everyone who considers this forum their first home needs to weigh in on the issue.

I see two problems...and this is just a bird's eye view so please don't take it to heartily.

1) Threadjacking...this speaks for itself and was the original reason for putting in a sanctioned threadjacking thread. But it happens here on other more serious threads, and quite often.

2) Tolerance...this issue will always be present in one way or another, whether it is personality clashes or just down right arch rivalry. We need to figure out how to agree to disagree at times without making it personal.

So lets talk about Protector forums, how we can organize the posts and threads so that people can police themselves a bit more on the jacking part, and that we can all be who we are without changing how we interact.

I think most of it comes down to there is a time and a place for everything.

So lets focus on solutions and how we can either organized the Protector forum for optimized enjoyment or remind each other kindly to be respectful of the posts that are for events, and general knowledge.

I for one don't want to lay down any foundation that will affect this community without the community that already lives here having direct input.

Ex

With any new feature there can be issues that arise that we were unable to prepare for during the beta phase of testing. The Consignment Market Crash was one of these events. While it has taken us some time to find a full resolution of this issue, we wanted to thoroughly study, test, and put safety measures into place that will ultimately bolster this system.



The majority of people that lost items on the Market were reimbursed successfully last week, and we had a remaining group of Support Tickets left over from that process that we have as of today fully investigated and resolved. At this point we consider this issue closed and future tickets generated about this incident will be summarily closed.



We appreciate your patience in this matter and those who have endured the wait, it did take longer than we had hoped to get a complete resolution but that was because we wanted to ensure proper procedure, operations, and resolutions were in place before we took any final action and considered the matter closed.



If anyone has additional comments, concerns, or questions feel free to PM Lighthouse or Ex Libris or email them at lighthouse@ncsoft.com or exlibris@ncsoft.com.



Again we appreciate you continued support of “City of Heroes” &amp; “City of Villains.”

The meet and greet will not be scheduled during the Con, we are actually looking at Saturday for this event, but we will keep you posted as we know more.

Ex

Discussion on the latest City Scoop!

If you would like to take a poll to give the team members of the "City Scoop" some ideas about what the community most enjoys please see this feedback for City Scoop Poll!

We hope you enjoy the latest issue of the news for Supers by Supers.

Ex