Omnimaga

Omnimaga => News => Topic started by: Geekboy1011 on October 26, 2014, 09:51:55 pm

Title: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Geekboy1011 on October 26, 2014, 09:51:55 pm
So internally there has been a debate on our hiring process and our current staffing roles and regulations. So with the forum upgrade (yeah I know this is a little late!) we are rearranging how the staff teams work as well as the permissions of the Team Members! Most users wont really see a major change as its all internal to the moderation

To Our staff members. This update is being rolled out, This post will be edited as the changes are applied. That being said when its done if you notice things are really wrong. Please Let me know!!!!


What this means to the rest of you? Maybe there will be a hiring run soon. So keep up the good project work and be active!
Thanks in Advanced!


All changes are done... That being said if you get permission denied on something please put in an issue on the form above and I will fix it ASAP!
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: aeTIos on October 26, 2014, 10:40:12 pm
wat (geekboy lost the gametoldmetoposthere)
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 26, 2014, 11:06:31 pm
To be honest, until this news article, whenever an admin or another staff told me that the staff team and the rest of the sub-forums (non-projects) would be redone soon, in my head what I told myself is "I'll believe it when I see it", because I heard the same thing for about two years. I am glad that the staff will be updated soon for real, although I hope it won't take another two years for the one after. >.<


I can seem to write stuff here and if it sends then I guess I can still post. I'm not necessarily supposed to be news editor anymore, though, so if you remove me I will check again if I can still post in case (although it appears aeTIos can). I can edit too and quote.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Juju on October 26, 2014, 11:08:36 pm
We;l, nice to see you guys are doing something.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Geekboy1011 on October 26, 2014, 11:09:12 pm
I dont plan on removing you from editor I expect you will randomly see things and will news them because that's just who you are and always have been That being said yeah im trying to move some stuff forward whilst i have some motivation so yeah its getting done a little bit at a time. Its also getting setup in a way that is more proper to use because arbitrary promotions and such are less risk involving (we no longer HAVE to give powers with promotions we can just give titles. )
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 26, 2014, 11:14:17 pm
I dont plan on removing you from editor I expect you will randomly see things and will news them because that's just who you are and always have been That being said yeah im trying to move some stuff forward whilst i have some motivation so yeah its getting done a little bit at a time. Its also getting setup in a way that is more proper to use because arbitrary promotions and such are less risk involving (we no longer HAVE to give powers with promotions we can just give titles. )

The issue tho is I am not 100% certain I'll remain very active here after this year, although hopefully still post in project topics and showcase my own stuff like on Cemetech, so news editing from my part would most likely be self-promotion and the occasional Reuben-related news, unless you don't mind that.


The splitting of powers from specific member groups is a good move, though, because the fact we could moderate as CoT and board manager is why I didn't really want such position again. I liked being able to move topics, though (especially after the Invisionfree board merge).
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Princetonlion.tibd on October 27, 2014, 12:18:03 am
So keep up the good project work and be active!
I think that's a part of the problem right?
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: pimathbrainiac on October 27, 2014, 12:22:08 am
Yay reorganization (and possible promotions)! Does this mean we can have other (no-power) usergroups (in other words, custom user groups)?
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 27, 2014, 12:36:17 am
So keep up the good project work and be active!
I think that's a part of the problem right?

Well, basically to be part of the programming team, being active on the forums is one of the many requirements. If someone has a 3D first person shooter in the works but only post once a week on the forums, then perhaps he isn't that interested in contributing to Omnimaga and thus, doesn't deserve a staff position.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Princetonlion.tibd on October 27, 2014, 12:47:52 am
Well, I still need to improve my code :P

(Just don't give me a staff position)
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: rcfreak0 on October 27, 2014, 12:51:47 am
So I need to be active to be staff?

...Crap.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 27, 2014, 01:01:03 am
Yes. Well I guess it depends of the current policies, though. Considering almost the entire CoT team is inactive I would say you would be fine but again it depends if admins want to go a different route. :P
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: rcfreak0 on October 27, 2014, 01:04:18 am
I think I'm just grandfathered in since I'm around and pretty easy to get ahold of unless I'm at work.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 27, 2014, 01:09:18 am
Actually the ARS group was created due to the nDoom invasion, but at one point I think it was renamed to Support staff and reduced in size then a new ARS group with minimal powers was created.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: alberthrocks on October 27, 2014, 01:21:16 am
Yes. Well I guess it depends of the current policies, though. Considering almost the entire CoT team is inactive I would say you would be fine but again it depends if admins want to go a different route. :P
So I need to be active to be staff?

...Crap.
Eeek, I guess I fall into that category, too...

Indeed, CoT is a bit weird - it was originally a position for those who had many projects and could be a mentor for new coders. Now? All it has are old people like me who don't have any projects at all!  :evillaugh:

In all honesty though, me and rcfreak0 could be classified as "Support Staff", if you take it literally - staff that support Omnimaga operations (server, hosting, etc.). I'm not too sure on internals, but I'd imagine that most of the admins will get placed into this category, and we'll promote a few of the more active members to keep things going. (Disclaimer: this is 100% speculation!!!)

IMO, it's not a bad idea - we definitely need fresh new sprouts in the team to keep things going, and to make things even better! :D
(This is sorta how college clubs/activities work - clubs will gradually fill executive positions to younger members so that the club can stay alive, and hopefully develop into something better. If this isn't done, the club/activity dies the following year - and no doubt, this HAS happened in the past!)

The other thing - PROMOTION. In the past few years, a certain other calculator enthusiast site (http://www.cemetech.net/) has been promoting aggressively. No, it's not a bad thing - despite them getting more users, we didn't really respond and promote much at all! As a result, we didn't experience much user growth, and things stagnate. We need to start promoting much more, and that can happen through project linking, more development.... and simply "spreading the word"! Of course, this isn't a job for us oldies to do - it's a job for the new kids on the block!

Finally, it might be a good idea to prune some of the subforums. We might be scaring off some newbies if they see that a lot of the subforums are inactive! Again, it's something that the new leadership should really take on!

...just realized this would probably fit more on here (http://www.omnimaga.org/site-feedback-and-questions/general-decrease-in-omnimaga-activity-from-2011-levels-what-can-we-do/)... (Maybe I should cross-post there?)
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 27, 2014, 01:39:10 am
Actually I have to agree about the lack of promotion. It seems to have decreased considerably in the last year or so. For example, almost nobody puts http://www.omnimaga.org in their calculator game readmes anymore. That said, if you post about Omni contests elsewhere it depends if other sites allow such promotion, though. Also, some incentives like giving big projects a sub-forum can help a lot for younger members (providing they're good enough to pull such program off). Only giving sub-forums to projects called Pokémon or Zelda just because they will be popular won't get you far.


There are many factors that can contribute to activity/inactivity and what you usually want is to keep members around and make them feel like they're welcome and that their contributions are appreciated here.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Princetonlion.tibd on October 27, 2014, 10:10:20 am
I put Omnimaga in Dodge (in the actual game, not readme)

And the promotion, I try to get people to join, I'm just bad at persuasion.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Sorunome on October 27, 2014, 11:09:04 am
I guess I won't have an activity issue :P
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Eeems on October 27, 2014, 12:14:42 pm
So I need to be active to be staff?

...Crap.
Support staff, no. Just let us know you are alive and sometimes be around to, you know, support.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: rcfreak0 on October 27, 2014, 12:22:53 pm
So I need to be active to be staff?

...Crap.
Support staff, no. Just let us know you are alive and sometimes be around to, you know, support.

I'm around!
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: alberthrocks on October 27, 2014, 12:24:24 pm
So I need to be active to be staff?

...Crap.
Support staff, no. Just let us know you are alive and sometimes be around to, you know, support.

I'm around!
Me too!
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Juju on October 27, 2014, 03:20:55 pm
I put Omnimaga all the time in my games.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Geekboy1011 on October 27, 2014, 05:16:34 pm
Yay reorganization (and possible promotions)! Does this mean we can have other (no-power) usergroups (in other words, custom user groups)?
No. No custom groups just gets hard to manage and is annoying.

@ Rcfreak0 technically your part owner and therefore immune from my whims anyway :P

Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 27, 2014, 05:40:57 pm
I put Omnimaga all the time in my games.
Your new site didn't have it until I told you, though :P
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: TIfanx1999 on October 27, 2014, 06:41:46 pm
We are definitely overdue for a staff refresh. :) Keep your eyes open as Geekboy said. We're looking at inactive staff at the moment and moving on from there.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: ordelore on October 27, 2014, 06:44:54 pm
Only giving sub-forums to projects called Pokémon or Zelda just because they will be popular won't get you far.
So I can get my own sub-forum for my TI-Basic, grayscale, multiplayer, Doom clone? :P
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: TIfanx1999 on October 27, 2014, 06:48:13 pm
Only if it has a quadratic solver somewhere in there. ;)
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 27, 2014, 06:58:23 pm
Probably. :P

But actually no. The main issue though is that from what I could gather, sub-forums are mainly given if the author needs one, so if you keep everything in 1 topic then you won't even be considered. The game also needs to be very popular, so basically, if Sorunome wants a sub-forum for Reuben Quest: The Lost Mirror then under the current rules he would probably need to rename the game to Final Fantasy: The Lost Mirror.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Sorunome on October 27, 2014, 07:31:31 pm
Probably. :P

But actually no. The main issue though is that from what I could gather, sub-forums are mainly given if the author needs one, so if you keep everything in 1 topic then you won't even be considered. The game also needs to be very popular, so basically, if Sorunome wants a sub-forum for Reuben Quest: The Lost Mirror then under the current rules he would probably need to rename the game to Final Fantasy: The Lost Mirror.
Actually there will be a Reuben sub-forum after the current ones get re-organized.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: pimathbrainiac on October 27, 2014, 07:33:02 pm
Will it be a subforum for all of the different Reuben remakes?

/me hopes yes

EDIT: And by that I mean a single subforum entitles "Reuben Quest remakes"
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Sorunome on October 27, 2014, 07:33:38 pm
My plan was to put all reuben stuff in there, no matter whos the author.
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: pimathbrainiac on October 27, 2014, 07:34:52 pm
Awesome!

Now to remake some maps for nReuben!
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: Juju on October 28, 2014, 09:56:45 am
I put Omnimaga all the time in my games.
Your new site didn't have it until I told you, though :P
But the thing I used (http://fontawesome.io/) didn't had the Omnimaga logo!
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 28, 2014, 10:01:29 am
Probably. :P

But actually no. The main issue though is that from what I could gather, sub-forums are mainly given if the author needs one, so if you keep everything in 1 topic then you won't even be considered. The game also needs to be very popular, so basically, if Sorunome wants a sub-forum for Reuben Quest: The Lost Mirror then under the current rules he would probably need to rename the game to Final Fantasy: The Lost Mirror.
Actually there will be a Reuben sub-forum after the current ones get re-organized.
Ah ok. I think there should probably be just one for all Reuben games, since many people might work on sequels or remakes at one point or another and the games are pretty short in terms of hours of gameplay. I would say maybe Reuben Quest series, especially that the old Reuben topics and questions from 2005 or so could then be moved there. (although I think most were on Epic Programming Studios forums)

Same for Illusiat series I guess, although right now all Illlusiat remakes and projects are pretty much on hiatus (Streetwalrus' Axe remake of Illusiat 11, Hexatron's Celtic2CSE remake & Illusiat 13)
Title: Re: The Status of our Staffing and the changes That are being made
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 03, 2014, 09:30:23 pm
I like the new sub-forum names. Granted, in the recent posts section that could be a bit confusing, but it helps making the board index and navlinks much less cluttered.