Basically I am very reluctant to take part in public popularity contests, mainly because it is a show off for great speakers whose acts might not be on the same level as their speeches are. There are many of those in history who've spoken well to lure people into believing that this or that thing is the right thing to do, then with those speeches they've lead massive and devastating plans which have lead to great destruction.
Anyway, lets move on.
The current problem in DSB is that nobody is controlling the bigger picture, the long sighted approach towards the future, what lies in the future of DSB. That is the main job of the head sysop - to control and decide the path we are to take. We were all looking up to Ent to do the task, however his enthusiasm dried out fast under the pressure the task gave to him. That left us hanging, us all, the community and the remaining staff. At the moment the decisions by staff are short sighted and narrow, mainly because nobody is there to control the big picture and the fact that nobody CAN say: this is what we're going to do, this road and the main goal is this, checkpoints along the way are this and that. Why can't nobody decide such a thing right now? Because with everybody having same power level, there is a vacuum for the leadership required, everybody are mainly focusing on pushing their own ideas forward, thinking exactly as some of the people mentioned in this thread: I know what is best for DSB, give me the keys and I'll be your man.
Obviously with a transition to new leadership, nothing is guaranteed. However the focus with or when the new leadership comes in is to set those goals and checkpoints, then inform the staff about the ideas, then move forward to present the plan to the community. Controlled communication, within your staff and then to the public ensures everybody will be on same level with everything, well planned ideas with a clear vision of what DSB is to become will ensure us all having something to look forward to, meeting the expectations which community is assuming us to meet and also ensuring that the community knows exactly what will happen. Being part of the process is important part for everybody, being on same page will ease the worries the community might have of DSB's future and also could bring in a couple new interested individuals to join the development.
Let's take a short look at the possible plan we could have: priority number one is to figure out the best possible way to get public activated, at least having some of the frequent players playing there together with possible new additions. Development for this is a huge project, mainly it needs to have some of the old but with a new twist. Possibility of moving forward from public to leagues needs to be easier than it currently is, it is so difficult at the moment partly because of low public activity and then there's the skill gap to be mentioned. However, that is priority and a long term goal, to ensure our first and most crucial front is covered and active. Only through public we can gain those new players we're all waiting for, obviously the amount of new visits in DSB is low but let's have some optimism that it will not stay like that forever, we're already past the worst days in terms of activity. Checkpoints along the way are obviously the first launch of a new public concept - how is it treated amongst the old players, does it inspire or bring in any new players - tweaking the system - listening to community input which I am more than happy to hear, but I must remind you that constructive criticism with answers that point out the problems is expected.
League wise, our goal is to maintain leagues running through whole year. The current set of leagues we have consists of BABL, TCL and Sector League. In terms of activity and interest, those are the biggest, with Sector League drawing nearly 65 players - last BABL had roughly 50 and TCL approximately 45. Keeping at least these numbers frequently playing these leagues is important, arousing more interest amongst the old players is a key factor RIGHT NOW. In the past month when our activity started to rise again, I've noticed that many of the players returning had heard about DSB from their friends or then found our Facebook page. In terms of keeping DSB alive and perhaps growing, getting some of those oldies back, I urge everybody who is reading this to contact their real life or other friends who've played DSB. The time is ripe on many occasions for them to come back, but they will only come back if they are reminded through their social connections about the fun they've had in DSB. They won't come back if staff sends out an e-mail saying we're still alive and kicking, they'll probably delete it as spam on the very instant or leave it at the spam folder.
Adding new leagues in the near future is possible, some sort of shorter or tournament stylish leagues for the week can be arranged, similar to the Duel Tournament competition I hosted every Wednesday for 7 weeks during the summer. Obviously these smaller events need to have the ability and flexibility to be played with lower numbers so individual or mixed teams kind of games are the only way to ensure these will happen. Anybody with ideas about these tournaments can speak freely at League Forums about arranging, running and planning this kind of tournaments. You can even run and organize the tournament by yourself, with the backing of DSB STAFF .
Next thing and the most important one at this very moment - assembling the team. Basically, with the names mentioned in this thread, a great team could be assembled - all the people mentioned have their own special fields they are good at, neither of them is good at everything, that includes me. Teamwork is a key factor, however this is where everything gets problematic, basically with a history as long as DSB has, everybody know everybody and sooner or later somebody hates somebody, or some friend of them hates somebody and it starts spreading. People in any kind of authority position often gain the luxury of having their faces posted on the e-tube walls of DSB with a sign of "wanted dead or alive, most likely in a form where they can no longer punish anybody".
It is unavoidable cost of having power, of using it to maintain the good of the community, ensure it follows the rules set for it. I've been part of many internet communities and in general, every community hates the people who have the authority to limit or punish the participants for violations, even though these individuals have had their chances of obeying the rules as the rules are told to them and they can usually read the rules as well. They are written in pretty clear and simple English, in staff to player interactions those rules are even made simpler and the message sent out clearer . Obviously in every case the message does not get through, there are several factors to that. One factor is that this is the internet, everybody can find their inner child again, be the boy who bullies everybody and blow off steam. Other factor is the human nature itself, people have been taught to fight the power, fight the boundaries set for them, there is always a person who is asking why we are having this or that rule, why is this enforced when breaking this rule is much more fun?
Newer and younger generations especially have a built in set up to live up to the expectations they've learnt in school, media and everywhere; be yourself, be whatever you want, who dares to question that shall face endless resistance until he breaks. Obedience, understanding for boundaries and allowance of having peaceful, meaningful gaming experience with less interference is respected by the older players. Obviously there are differences on these behavior patterns explained, it is best analyze I can give based on being part of this community and following this from the front lines for many years.
However, the amount of punishments or discipline has gone down in DSB. The current upgrades to our procedures ensure that every player will be given nearly limitless number of possibilities to learn from his mistakes before a ban will be placed on him. Only very very severe and constant rule breaking which clearly causes harm to other players is punishable by a ban. Obviously smaller punishments can be given but the trend is to, how should we say, let all the flowers flourish. Therefore I can imagine that the opposition against authorities will find new forms to represent itself, basically because that is the way it always goes. We'll never, not under any administration or any sysops, live in a happy dreamland where everybody are satisfied on the actions of the people upholding the last bit of rules between some order and total chaos.
Do I have what it takes to be a head sysop for the zone? Perhaps I do, perhaps I don't. I've been in DSB STAFF since summer 2000. I joined as a op> and remained in that position for over a year, after that my usage was checked by loops who decided it was not enough and ordered one of his smods to fire me. Back then I had 56k modem and the bills were killing me and my family, hogging up to 400-500$ a month. After that I was "free" of commitment for staff until I was recruited as one of the first ER's to the DSBe Staff, that career was short but I hosted some basic games which were available during that time. During that period I also joined the ranks of DSB League staff where I started hosting league games, which I've done frequently ever since, although have given more responsibilities in hosting lately to Eridu. Some weekends I totaled hosting up to 5 games. I came back to DSB STAFF as well and my potential was recognized by the senior staff who made me a senior after a long period of working for it. After that I trained staff within DSB STAFF and DSB League staff, without having calculated, I could say I've trained close to 100-120 staffers so far, including the training for Ent after he had been elected as the head sysop of DSB. I've seen the ups and downs of DSB, inside the staff and within the community - many great moments and a lot of wonderful years to look back into. Working under three different head sysops has been very interesting experience, all of them had their own ways of handling things, some having active approach on management and some having more interest only on development. That is why I can say that the task of Head Sysop is not neccesarily something for one person to handle - development people have a mind of their own which often does not include interest towards management - rather a hope it works out.
Obviously, to survive and to work in staff all these years has meant I've had to work under the rules and orders of the management which has been running the show, for all the three cases the management has been different and my actions based on that. I can imagine there are people holding a grudge over this or that - however times do change, the managements too, the decisions or actions I might take usually represented the current administrations wishes or guidelines, rather than an opinion of my own. Only during the recent transition to Ent, has the staff been allowed to express their opinions more freely and even be more innovative with the solutions, which has improved some things a lot. The people who believe I ban at will and at any time somebody pisses me off might be forgetting a fine line between pissing somebody off and actually breaking the rules. Often the chatter around DSB is that nothing happened but a player was banned - that hardly was or is the case. During any administration, any clear violation of your own rules, as in abuse, lead to you being fired and during some administrations this came along with a nice bonus in terms of having shorter or longer period without access to DSB.
Towards this, I could make a suggestion: to make DSB punishment procedures even more transparent, why don't we just open up a separate forum where you can discuss your punishment and where staff can easily post the evidence needed to prove they are indeed correct with the punishment. I can imagine this would also reduce the threat of bans to minimum because public humiliation would hurt a lot - as well as for the player who complains about a justified ban and to the staff if the ban is found not justified. This is just an idea however, should not be discussed in detail in this thread, however I wanted to take the opportunity to take a step towards the future - or one of the possible futures awaiting to happen.
Where do I lack in terms of qualities for Head Sysop? I'm not a jack of all trades, I can not code or develop as much as others, some basic graphic additions I can do and have done over the years. However my development skills are not as top notch as others who can produce bots, read or create endless lines of code or come up with a complete package in terms of themes or other such work. That is where I need the most help.
I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen, who will be elected. I'm obviously up for the task, although as I've admitted, I am not perfect but nobody is - the teamwork is in crucial role, forget your old grudges if you have any and start building bridges instead. Together we can be much more than alone.
Anybody who might find themselves offended over this text, you'll have my sincerest apologies. I am fairly certain this will be my only input to this thread - still not a fan of popularity contests.
Enjoy!
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)