While this year's Expies were a success, they were less successful than last
year. The number of nominations was lower, the number of final ballots
received was lower, and ceremony attendance was the lowest I've ever seen. Of
course, the ceremony being on both a Friday night and Valentine's Day doesn't
help that, but... On the whole, in general, participation levels were a bit
disappointing.
As a result, we were brainstorming some ways to boost participation and
encourage people to look at Expies as a year-round thing instead of something
you mainly only think about for a couple of months at the beginning of the
year, wracking your brain trying to figure out who/what to nominate.
First off, no, we won't offer an incentive. We won't wave a token or coupon
before you to get you to send in nominations or final votes. We want you to
participate in the community and help recognize your peers because you WANT
to, not because we bribed you to. You may receive a thank you note or
something after the fact, but it won't be a guaranteed thing and shouldn't be
expected.
|U6
So on to the actual point of this post, the actual idea...
To encourage people to think of the Expies throughout the year and note
accomplishments, notable deeds, and neat things that happen every month of
the year instead of only recalling those that happened in November or
December, we came up with the idea of having an Expies board. The board would
be a place for you to post things you notice through the year that you might
want to nominate in January. Instead of having to keep a text file on your
computer or sort through multiple emails of ideas, or keep a note in your
inventory with your observations, you could post them to the board instead.
Yes, we know, campaigning is illegal. Posting a cool illusion you saw to a
board specifically as a reminder to yourselves is different. How? You aren't
out there advocating anyone vote for it. You may not know who created the
illusion but someone reading the board may. Commenting how helpful so-and-so
was when you hit that agg mob then DT'd after your rescue and they helped you
re-eq is something people do on the news board.
But the news board gets regular cleaning maintenance. The Expies board would
get cleaned once a year, after nominations are all sent in, and during the
year to make sure people aren't campaigning or going against the spirit of
the boards intent...
So what do you think? Stupid god-awful horrid idea or would you actually USE
a board like this?
|U6
|U6
From: Craven
Saturday, February 15 2003, 08:27AM
Good idea in spirit, but I can't see it actually being used much. Seems
like there are so many boards these days we can't keep up with them as
it is...but who knows, I could be wrong. If it is used, 99% will be RP
related and isn't there an rp board? I can't remember, too many boards.:)
- David
|U6
From: Maloth
Saturday, February 15 2003, 10:36AM
I know I have that problem around Expies time, thinking of who
to nominate and vote for, and having a board like this
would keep everything fresh in my mind. I'm not certain
if I would use the board all too often, but I would
definitely read what others had written, and I might end up
using it if I feel that someone definitely did deserve
recognition for something.
Maloth
|U6
From: Sandman
Saturday, February 15 2003, 10:41PM
I think this is a good idea, I was planning on putting something
up on the Legendmud group/club page actually. I always have problems
trying to think further back than 2-3 months and figured the best way,
and a way to have others read it, would be there. So I'm all for a board
or site.. not sure which would be more efficient.. that we can just
ramble on about things we've seen during the year. Giving ballots
for the expies possibly 2-3 times more choices than normal. Better than the
the same players every year, or the ones that "show up" at the end of
the year.
Sandy and his many alts
|U6
From: Yohn
Sunday, February 16 2003, 08:54AM
I also like the idea - I always forget all the cool things I saw during
the year, so it would be very helpful for me and I do think a lot of
people would use it. Perhaps a constant reminder that the board is here
on the welcome board would also make new players find it.
-Yohn
|U6
From: Rillifane
Sunday, February 16 2003, 11:19AM
The real problem wont be people adding to it so much as getting
people to remember to use it, or how to get people to go over it
when it's expie time next year, or having a board so filled
that people dont want to have to look at it at all... Unless maybe
there is a way to send some form of pre-expie letter with the
nomination email and listing the huge list of 'possible expie
ballot suggestions' as taken from the board? Otherwise people may
note stuff but they wont check back, especially a 200 item + board
From: wink
From: So how do we get around that?
Plus the fact that some people wont write little things
because it will be their personal note/observation and they may not
feel it's worth sharing with others... Like that "PERSON" just
really seems like a nice guy in general... or that "COUPLE" seems
really sweet... or that "ITEM" was neat (because others may totally
disagree with them and by nature people dont want to feel like
maybe others dont agree with them)...
So.... those are my issues with it (that and thinking it
would have to be a board sitting in an inn or something cause
people tend to moreso use what they see everyday and if you hide
the board in OOC like this one, people wont use it as much ;)
From: smooch
From:
Me :)
|U6
From: Chocorua
Sunday, February 16 2003, 11:44AM
I was originally against this idea as I generally assume
the worse about people. I thought that it would end up
jst getting used as a plac eto campaign. Given that
I can delete any post on any board I choose then I can say that
people who were just campaigning wouldn't get the long
term satisfaction because I would regularly police this
kind of board and make sure that wasn't happening.
I think that if we don't use a board there needs to be something
done to encourage the expies to be more of a "year" of contribution
rather than the last 3 or 4 months. Generally the areas that
win the expies have had major changes late in the year, as that
is what is most fresh in people's minds. The same goes for most
of the imm relates stuff like PR,admin and the like. A smart
PR person would run lots of games starting in alte november
and on until the voting is done.. I don't think this is how the
whole thing should work. I think a board like this might be a good
tool to store information on for consideration later in the yea
r when your (and mine) short attention spans have completely
forgotten something.
One argument against this board was that it wouldn't get used.
Well then you would be defeating the purpose by ignoring it
and causing it to be a failure instead of giving it a chance. Another
was that it might be to spammy to really go through. Again
I don't see this as somethin you would post a whole melodrama
to but more something that you would put up a reminder about.
If you didn't go read it at teh end of the year before nominations went
out then that would be being lazy and narrow focused. The
real problem that I see with the expies process is the short
attention span that most people in teh world have today. THis
sort of tool would atleast be an aid in fixing that. If not
the entire solution.
CHocorua
|U6
From: Cheyla
Sunday, February 16 2003, 08:17PM
The next post from me is rather long - you may want
to alter your screenlength buffer if you don't have some
backscroll.
You have been forewarned.
Cheyla
|U6
From: Cheyla
Sunday, February 16 2003, 08:18PM
An in-game board (OOC) was decided upon as the best possible solution after
other options were reviewed and the pros and cons of each weighed for a few
days.
What else was considered? And why were they decided against in lieu of a
board?
|11- Encouraging people to keep their own files/lists|U6
Pros: No maintenance from imms in any way.
Cons: This is a current option that few utilize, it has seen little
success. Little to no sharing.
|11- An Expies-specific channel similar to idea/bug/etc with a bulk mailing
before/with nomination ballots|U6
Pros: Accessible to anyone from anywhere. Single-time imm intervention to
clean up and produce mail. Could be issued large-scale anonymously by
stripping names.
Cons: Line-length limits on channels. Fear that the list becomes the
nomination instead of people utilizing it as a tool to supplement their
own ideas. Have to wait until January to see the year's submissions.
Could be difficult to submit something more lengthy without having
problems (like a large illusion). Would only be sent to those that
receive the LT.
|11- A web-based forum
|U6 Pros: Most people are familiar with a web-based system. Easy to
copy/paste from your screen to web.
Cons: Requires imm monitoring and maintenance outside the game. The
current web-based forums we already have rarely get used - when was the
last time you used the web discussion area or the Yahoo group page? Not
everyone has the ability (or desire) to open a web page while playing.
|11- An Expie board|U6
Pros: In the game already. Easy to get to with the potential it could be
provided to have in housing. Can share with others right now instead of
later. Easy to set up and get installed.
Cons: Another board for imms to maintain. Can get lengthy if it actually
gets used.
|U6
As you can see, the board idea had the most pros compared to cons. I read all
the public boards already, adding one more to the list wouldn't be difficult,
especially if kept up with daily/weekly instead of less often. The first idea
has the most potential to be a very short list because you would be the only
person contributing to it. The rest will be long based solely on how much use
they each got - so the list could be short or it could be incredibly long.
Essentially, any idea to get the community to make the Expies a more
year-round thing is going to require some effort. YOU would have to put
effort into any of the above to utilize the option, regardless of which it
was. In all cases except the first, the imms would have to put additional
effort into the venture, some more than others. Obviously, we're willing to
put in a good amount of effort - the board idea doesn't require the most but
nor does it require the least. But the imms aren't the only ones that will
have to put effort into it to make it a success. The players will have to,
too. The Expies are a community thing.
Tired of it being solely a popularity contest? This could potentially
decrease that some by helping people to remember the various things that
happened throughout the year instead of just the past couple months. But
ultimately, it is YOU that determines whether the Expies are more of a
popularity contest or less of one. If all you do is go down the ballot and
look for the names of people you know or your clan or the area or code bit
that was put in the most recently or got the most publicity, then you are
helping to make it a popularity contest. If you sit down and look at the
ballot and actually think about who deserves the award regardless of the
name, then you are doing what we want you to. We don't want people to
basically do a search/replace to fill out their ballot. We want you to spend
a little more time on it than that, to think back on who fits each category
you're placing nominations for or to think about each nominee and what
they've done to deserve that spot on the ballot and if they deserve your vote
for their accomplishments... Not because they're your friend and you either
feel obligated to vote for them or don't feel like voting for anyone else,
even if you don't think your friend necessarily deserves the award, either.
Not voting in a category is not a crime. If you don't think anyone on the
ballot deserves it, even your friend, then don't vote for them. It's as
simple as that. The only people that know how you voted are yourself and the
imm that tallies it (and then I don't even notice names beyond the inital
check that there is one and you haven't sent a ballot in with another alt).
But just because you'll skip categories doesn't mean we don't want the rest
of your votes. Some ballots only had votes for 4 categories. Some only vote
for players. Some only vote for areas. Some skip 'Best Deathtrap' because
they don't think any DT is good.
|U6
Can one vote really make a difference? Absolutely. Many times one ballot will
break several ties, whether they are for the winner of the category or the
runner-up. Every vote put toward a single nominee in a category gets counted
and moves that nominee one vote closer to winning.
These are some of the things we're hoping to accomplish with encouraging
people to think about the Expies more than just in January and February each
year. Do we think a board like this will do that and fix all the perceived
problems with the Expeis? No, we're not that stupid or naieve. But we hope it
will at least help and get us all moving in the right direction.
|U6
From: LadyAce
Monday, February 17 2003, 02:38PM
One way to help organize the board would be if we pre-seeded it with
posts, one thread for each award. The post could include a description
of the award, and past winners, too.
-LA
|U6
