[TERA PC & Console] En Masse is closing, but TERA lives on! We will continue to support TERA PC (NA) and TERA Console until service is transferred. Stay tuned for more information.
[TERA Console] The Grotto of Lost Souls update (v85) is now live! Read the patch notes here: https://bit.ly/TERACon_v85
[TERA PC] The 64-bit update (v97) is now live. Check out all the changes delivered on August 11 here: https://bit.ly/tera64_patchnotes
[TERA PC & CONSOLE] Summerfest Part 2: The Beach Bash is on from August 11 until September 1! Participate in event activities to earn tokens redeemable for costumes, consumables, mounts, and more! Details: https://bit.ly/tera_sf20
Comments
The 2 sentences right after the one you quoted:
Player Council will have the ability to edit and move forum threads for the sole purpose of keeping things well organized. They'll also help report disruptive individuals so that the En Masse team can moderate more efficiently.
But, noooo, it's not a bottom tier mod team. Editing and moving topics, keeping the forums well-organised and reporting disruptive individuals has nothing to do with being a forum moderator and everything to do with...what exactly? Improving the game?
I actually did read it as a whole, you are the one who stopped reading after 1 sentence.
Also, I don't see why saying "I'll do what you ask me to do and enjoy it" won't get somebody in. But I do see Yosha saying "1h moderating the forum per week is too much time" and not being selected for it. Because, obviously, they don't want a janitor who refuses to clean up.
I did mean it, but not quite in the way you took it. Let me amend to say "not to be the sole source of the feedback" -- in other words, you want someone who listens and considers, and doesn't just assume they already have all the answers. That is also what I meant by "willing to serve, not just wanting to be listened to". You want people who are there to participate and help -- to do what they can for the good of the game -- not only to pontificate. But that doesn't mean the people would not or should not have their opinions to bring to the table, or else you wouldn't seek out people with that much in-game experience. You're banking on that experience to provide good input.
My reason for saying all that is this principle, even if it's over-simplified: if you just go out and ask for experts, every prideful person will apply. As we see on the forums all the time, a lot of people believe themselves to be experts on all sorts of things, including "what's wrong with this game". So I think there's wisdom in emphasizing not only privilege, but responsibility. If someone's idea of helping is restricted only to "they should listen when I tell them what to do", then there are other ways to incorporate that feedback.
So, of course I think the people on the council should be experts with something valuable to contribute and be worth listening to. But I think the best candidates will also be good listeners and have a desire to help the game by serving the community (even if that isn't by doing forum janitorial work, but in principle). I think the combination of all these attributes would make them ideal leaders.
That's basically what Player Council will be. Please read through the introduction post. They won't be responsible for cleaning up trash threads, and they won't have the ability to. Anybody can report a post for moderator cleanup.
No, we're looking for community leaders willing to help enable players to voice their opinions and be heard. They won't be forum moderators.
Can you elaborate? Player Council is an opportunity for players to help each other. Nobody is being forced to apply.
If you attack another person on the forums, you'll be breaking the forum rules and will face suspension or a permanent ban.
You've jumped to the conclusion that spending time on the forums means you're doing nothing but reporting "disruptive individuals." On the other hand it looks like you agree that the forums should be made into a healthy place where people aren't harassed by disruptive individuals. Everyone can help by reporting posts. Player Council aren't moderators. The only thing that makes Player Council different is that they'll be able to see which posts have been reported, are waiting for moderation, or have already been looked at by moderators.
If you're a "top player" with a ton of game knowledge, you won't be a good fit as a Player Council member if you aren't interested in spending time on the forums, sharing that knowledge.
On top of that, I don't think Player Council is all about endgame knowledge. There's room in the council for people with a variety of interests, including event planning, roleplaying, guild management, economy, fan art, fan fiction, etc... and there's more to TERA community than reporting game issues. In fact I think getting people with a variety of interests is key to making the Player Council a strong and effective group.
If anyone reading this is interested in helping the TERA community, but has refrained from applying just because you aren't full +15 VM geared, please click the survey link and tell us about yourself!
Oh, no, you also get to edit posts, move topics and organise player feedback. And keep the forums a happy and healthy place. I'm just waiting for somebody to tell me how that's not the same as trial moderator.
I'm not sure what gave you that impression. I'm strongly opposed to safe spaces, reporting people for being "disruptive" and removing/editing posts for any other reason than pure spam(and by that I mean stuff like advertising websites or other games). I've been on these forums for over 2 years and I have never seen anybody harassed by "disruptive individuals". I have seen plenty of people claim they were harassed when somebody disagreed with them or hurt their feelings though. I disagree with moderation of opinions or language because I believe people should be allowed to form their own opinions about an issue or a person. In order to that, they/we need to see both sides which is not something one can do if one side is being moderated for being "disruptive".
So, what are they? Your description is "edit, move, organise, report". That's a trial moderator. Not a full moderator as it doesn't come with ban, delete and close, just the very basics.
At least we agree that time spent on the forums matters more than game knowledge. I guess that tin foil wasn't wasted making the hat after all.
Think of the ability to move and edit discussions as a tool Player Council members can use to help get information where it needs to go. There are a lot of new forum members that come in and post discussions in the wrong subforum, for instance. Or forget to add a server tag in the Trading Post and Guild Recruitment subforum. Or post a link/image with broken BBCode. Player Council members won't be responsible for fixing any of these, but they'll have the ability to do it if they want to.
I think we'll just have to agree to disagree there. The forum rules and guidelines aren't just here to prevent website spam.
So, what else can they do? Because forum moderation and "organising the files" is all you talked about in OP. Plus, you said that game knowledge doesn't matter as much as time spent reading and moderating the forums. I think the biggest misunderstanding here is that a lot of people, me included, thought the Player Council would be tasked with helping EmE localise the game better for Western players(you know, every time a patch hits, there's whining for a month or two or three until stuff gets changed...I figured the Player Council would help skip over the whining part) and not with sorting the mail.
I tend to think people with game knowledge worth listening to are easier to find because their expertise is already recognized by the community; if you ask these people for their input directly, they will likely provide it, and if you really want them involved in some specific capacity for their expertise, you can always seek them out even if they don't apply. A lot of the people that the community recognizes were already named in the thread; they have an established currency of trust and are already giving their opinions anyway. If the most important point is to gather all the recognized community experts to solicit their opinions about future game decisions, you don't need applications, but nominations. And no matter what happens with the council, it's always possible those sorts of nominations could be considered if they really want to get specific recognized experts involved.
In any case... I think the point is probably made and it's up to EME to consider how to address it. We're just approaching it from different points of view, so have different ways of accomplishing the objective... but I think we both agree on what the goal should ideally be in the end.
(Edit: The clarifications added to the opening post now probably help to address at least part of the concern, in that people on the council will be involved base on their area of expertise, not required to do forum moderation duties as if it were some sort of quota. So that may help a bit.)
Localization team in En Masse will be doing all the localization. Player Council expectations are:
Playing the game is what actually helps you understand problems. #rocketscience
No kidding. Which is why a lot of the application focuses on people's experience playing the game. But there a lot of people who play the game. They don't all need to be on the council to give their input.