Structure of the Unofficial Guild Of Writers

Paradox · **Posted:** Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:44 pm

1. b c d e2 f

2. a

3. a/b (Sorry to complicate things I would prefer to see it as a group effort where an idea is brought up, and then a group forms to work on the idea. A leader for the group could emerge through voting, or by means of skill, talent, or knowledge)

4. a

5. c

6. c (I would prefer to see this as a very open role, not as something that is kept behind layers of secrecy. These people don't really have any more power than anyone else, they simply have the means to communicate with others. It wouldn't surprise me if at some point the same five people stayed in the position for over a year... and it also wouldn't surprise me for any of these people to step down at any time.)

7. <null>

8. <null>

9. a/b (Yep, I love complicating things Ideally we would have a "pool" of people for each area (as per a). When a project is started, people from each pool are able to pick a project to work on (as per b))

Robert The Rebuilder · **Posted:** Sat Sep 01, 2007 2:44 am

Added answers from Ozwell Spencer and Paradox.

Paradox wrote:

Yep, I love complicating things

Troublemaker. ;-)

Thanks again for your input, folks. Keep it coming!

misterzen · **Posted:** Sat Sep 01, 2007 3:11 am

People (and Robert who start this thread.)

I'm totally against this Ranking and Hierachy system that people what to implant in some way... It's a unconscious strategy to control things...and it's pretty alienating. Youhou ? It's a game an we are here to have fun. Plus, we are paying for the game.
For the game purposes I believe a Guid should ony be a gathering of
people sharing the same interest. Exchange ideas and ressources to make things better and more interesting.

SO I HOPE Cyan won't let these undesirable driftings,
that I mention at the beginning of my post, happen.

EDIT:

So to answer Robert Survey:
I'll go for:

1. Which of the following ranks should be included in a ranking system?
a. None - every member has equal rank, even on an age creation team.

9. How should departments be organized?
b. One department per skill: concept art, modelling, texturing, animation, scripting, sound, story

NB. Personnaly, I will probably work alone at my own pace and asked for help when I need it.

Paradox · **Posted:** Sat Sep 01, 2007 3:53 am

If you have any sort of organization; there will be organization within it, often including a hierarchy.

It's unavoidable in situations like these, particularly when dealing with something like guilds.

I'm trying to keep the hierarchy as small as possible and make the ranks as similar as possible so that no one is "above" anyone else, but there are places where it is impossible

belford · **Joined:** Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:01 pm **Posts:** 1890

I figure that ideas will always outnumber projects, and projects will always be strapped for talent. This is the nature of labor-intensive tasks among volunteers. Pools of talent are a nice idea, but what I expect is some motivated person going out and beating the bushes for the help he needs.

Corollary: an Age-building team will need a leader. Not because I love hierarchy, but because somebody will have to do the work of shoving the project forward.

This is one reason I keep bringing up small, one-creator Ages... because when the team is one person, you never have to yell at anyone. :) And you're only worried about one person getting dragged away to real life. It really does increase the chance of success significantly.

Ushgarak · **Posted:** Sat Sep 01, 2007 12:27 pm

Good lord, that barrage of questions with its answers and sub-answers and clarifications to answers is painful to look at.

The other question threads were fine but this one makes me nervous. It's far too much at once and it gives me reservations about the way the unofficial Guild is going to be formed. I don't think we need this level of analysis. Things should be very simple indded at this point, and there is no reason for an Unofficial Guild not to grow organically, rather than try and be so set by questions such as these which I am unsure are adequate to the purpose.

The more I see stuff like this, the more I think Belford's idea of the Guild has more merit.

Jojon · **Joined:** Sat Sep 01, 2007 6:45 pm **Posts:** 40

Robert The Rebuilder wrote:

Please select your answers by responding to this post, and I'll put your name next to the answers you selected. In this way, we'll reach a consensus about the structure of the UGoW.

Ok, I am not sure I managed to parse this poll, but here goes:

1) a
9) a

Well, I seem to be the only one wishing a flat population.
I believe all the non-restrictive things people hope to achieve with ranks and departments should be handled by a simple members database. You enter your specialities and whether you are available for work (of varying sizes), with each of these skills, as well as list any project(s) you are- and have been involved with.
Then you can view lists of the database, filtered by criteria such as skill sets and availability and sorted by things like activity level and possibly skill rating from other team members, if we want to go passing judgement on each other... :P

As for project control structures; that is entirely up to each team. Preferably there should be no leaders; I'd hope most people on a team should be able to work together as equals. If it turns out one primadonna or other just can't get along, then that's his/her problem - somebody may just have to take his ball elsewhere and play. (Yes, I see how this could be a problem if someone suddenly demands his contributions removed from a project that is far along...) Perhaps it it is only for the good if there are no standard structures within the "pre-guild": with different teams taking different approaches one can get an idea of what works and what doesn't and create, not a standard hierarchy, but template structures (perhaps based on personality types), which teams in the future may pick from...

Robert The Rebuilder · **Posted:** Sun Sep 02, 2007 11:08 am

Added answers from Jojon.

misterzen and Ushgarak: if you want, I can register your opinions in the same way that Jojon has - by choosing 1.a. and 9.a. as your answers. Just reply, and I'll add your answers to the initial post.

TomahnaGuy · **Posted:** Sun Sep 02, 2007 11:48 am

1.cdefg
2.b
3.a
4.a
5.c
6.c
7.b
8.b
9.b

Perhapse at the end of the Guildmaster's term, he could nominate the next guildmaster himself?

TG

katreeny · **Joined:** Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:36 pm **Posts:** 145

Okay. I've had to think about this a fair bit before I could respond.

First, what is the problem that guild structure is trying to solve? It's not the ability to create ages or age creation tools - that's already happening. It's not making sure people can find the age creation tools or user-created ages. Again, that's already available, if not optimized. That leaves the administrative side of things - building and maintaining a central repository for resources and all the other bits that go with it, managing the guild's public image (and web site), and all of the other jobs that go along with maintaining a guild.

So, my responses:
1 - a. All writers should be just that. Writers. Within different age teams we'll have more specific roles, but those roles will last only as long as the team does.
- g. A person or small team of guild leaders or guild masters elected by the guild members for a limited time period (a year, perhaps?). This would be an administrative role - the guild leader(s) would be the people who made announcements of major new developments (Writer's Guild Age X is now available for download at Location Y.) and acted as liaison on behalf of all guild members in discussions with Cyan and the DRC.

9 - a. Apart from a small number of administrative people (webmaster, forum moderators if needed, etc) who would be volunteers, I don't see a need for separate departments. I think people will attach themselves to age building teams according to their interests and skills, or will work solo ages. Either way, the age building teams will be temporary entities. People will typically have more than one skill set and may well use different skills for each age they contribute to. For instance, I have skills in programming, testing, web development, and storyline. I may not use all of them on a single age team or I could build a solo age and then ask for help in improving textures and sound.

Katreeny

Lontahv · **Joined:** Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:51 pm **Posts:** 265

Ok here's my view:

1
b.
c.
e. 1
f.

2
a.

3
b.

4
a.

5
c.

6
Until they quit or get voted out by Rank 3

9
b. And the skills should be added to the guild title ie. Guildsman SoAndSo D. T.

D. stands for specialty in Design
M. stands for specialty in Modeling
T. stands for specialty in Texturing
β. stands for specialty in Testing (not sure about this one, it may be a Maintainer's job)

And the letters after the name are like badges: as a writer (Rank 2) if you collect them all you can go to Guild Captain (Rank 3).

Robert The Rebuilder · **Posted:** Tue Sep 04, 2007 4:27 pm

Added answers from TomahnaGuy, katreeny and Lontahv; also added answers 1.a and 9.a on behalf of misterzen and Ushgarak.

katreeny: since you did pick 1.g, would you mind also answering the questions related to a Rank 5 person - questions 7 and 8 - please? That will make your answer complete.

metaigahn · **Posted:** Tue Sep 04, 2007 4:57 pm

My replies:

1. b-g, with g being more a chairperson for and among ranks f
2. a
3. a or b (I'm with Paradox on this one)
4. a
5. c
6. c (with renewal or reelection possible)
7. b
8. c (with renewal or reelection possible)
9. a or b (again I'm with Paradox on this)

Thank you,

Robert The Rebuilder · **Posted:** Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:16 am

Added answers from metaigahn, and corrected misterzen's answer for question 9.

katreeny · **Joined:** Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:36 pm **Posts:** 145

Robert The Rebuilder wrote:

Added answers from TomahnaGuy, katreeny and Lontahv; also added answers 1.a and 9.a on behalf of misterzen and Ushgarak.

katreeny: since you did pick 1.g, would you mind also answering the questions related to a Rank 5 person - questions 7 and 8 - please? That will make your answer complete.

Sorry, Robert.

7 - a. Anyone who's a guild member has a say on voting in the leader or leaders.

8 - b. (I think) - the one year option. Between the voluntary nature of it and that I suspect what's going to happen is that the leader(s) end up being the administrivia handlers, I don't think anyone's going to WANT it longer. I do think it should be possible to remove someone before the end of their term if a significant majority (say, 3/4 of members) are of the opinion that person's leadership is actively harmful to the Guild.

A bit of explanation here - a professional organization I belong to recently had its reputation dragged through the muck as a result of the careless (at best. At worst, grossly incompetent) actions of one official. We don't need anyone doing that and we need to be able to grab someone who does - regardless of that person's good intentions - and collectively sit on them until things settle. An easy example for the Guild would be if one of the leaders told Cyan how they were enabling fly mode (a hack that could lead to Cyan revoking any privileges they may have been considering and potentially shutting down age building altogether). THAT is someone who needs to be hauled back and sat on, fast.

Katreeny

Structure of the Unofficial Guild Of Writers

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