User blog:Flamefang/Moving Forward

As I am sure most of you are aware, our wiki has undergone a series of significant changes over the past few weeks. My primary purpose in this blog is to ensure that you understand the nature of these recent changes, and the nature of some changes still to come. I will also be dedicating a small portion of this blog to describing how I intend to continue the progress of Lilith's Letter. Before I begin, I'd like to emphasize to you that the following information is incredibly important, and should be read thoroughly by anyone who considers themselves a member of this wiki.

Recent Changes
The most noteworthy changes that have taken place as of late have to do with our administration and its members. Many of these individuals have moved on, others have stepped down, and others were demoted. Had this taken place over a longer period of time, there would be no cause for concern, however our wiki relies heavily upon an experienced core of users to ensure its efficient functioning. Thus, when this core is damaged, we must move to ensure that it remains stable, effective, and open to repair. Naturally, the repair process is already underway with the promotion of several new administrators, rollbacks, and even a bureaucrat. However, the experience we value so highly cannot simply be replaced through any process available to us in the current system. The solution to this problem, will be disussed in the changes to come.

Future Changes
A few weeks ago I proposed a piece of legislation addressing the problem at hand; that being the lack of experienced users in our administration and throughout the wiki as a whole. It was voted upon, and passed by overwhelming majority. The specific language of this legislation can be read here, though I worry that its official wording may be confusing to some and so I intend to explain it to the best of my ability here as well as its many implications.

Basically, the current administration system we have in place is the result of months and months of evolution from a flexible system encouraging growth, into a stable system capable of running this wiki efficiently and without error. Had we not experienced the dramatic changes outlined in the previous section, this system would certainly continue to evolve as the wiki evolves, and its static nature would have helped us in that process. The problem is that these changes happened so quickly, and so drastically, that our static system was unable to deal with the effects; leading to a situation which nearly spiraled out of control earlier this month. Thus, what I intend to do with the implementation of this new legislation, is to move us back to something more closely resembling our earlier, more flexible, system which encouraged growth and allowed us to adapt to drastic change more quickly. I do not challenge the fact that our current system is by far the most efficient method of administering a wiki known to us, and so I do see us moving back to this same system once the crisis has been alleviated. For now, though, I think we would all prefer to see this wiki move forward into a period of prosperity once again.

The new legislation has little to no effect upon the functioning of Administrators or Bureaucrats, but instead focuses upon our rollbacks and regular users who represent the vast majority of our users. At present, we have a number of Rollbacks tied into specific departments and under the jurisdiction of specific administrators/Bureaucrats. This legislation cuts those ties to those departments, and instead creates a larger and more comprehensive "rollback department". This department has no specified size and, unlike the current system where rollbacks are suggested for a particular position, members of this department are simply "rollbacks" and nothing else. Thus, one may become a rollback simply because he or she shows general promise as opposed to showing promise in a specific area, thus encouraging more well rounded growth at an earlier stage in a users' career. Administrators may draw from this department at any time in order to acquire assistance with projects or carry out basic tasks. Additionally, they are encouraged to take specific rollbacks under their wing and educate them in more specific areas in order to "pass the torch". However, of course, any rollbacks with tasks already underway may continue as they are or seek re-assignment. It should also be noted that while it may be easier to get into the Rollback position, it will also be easier to leave it. As the department has few limitations, it will function exclusively as a meritocracy. If a rollback performs well, he or she has very little chance of losing his or her position, while anyone who slacks and ignores his or her duties, may be voted out of his or her position at short notice. Since there will be more rollbacks, less value will be placed in each one.

I hope I explained the nature of, and effects of, the legislation. It will be going into effect as of the posting of this blog.

Lilith's Letter
As anyone who's been participating in Lilith's Letter so far knows, we've run into a bit of trouble progressing further in the Broken Covenant Summit and Camp Council. Of course, Lilith's Letter is experimental, so please bear with me through any similar troubles in the future. I will always do my best to address them to the best of my ability, as I am doing right now with our current issue.

For both the BC Summit, and the Camp Council, I will be pausing debate at its current stage. Instead, we will be proceeding with a voting system where I provide you with three or more potential options (somewhat like a conversation choice in a Bioware RPG) and each body will vote which to choose. For future decision making processes in Lilith's Letter, and in any other campaigns created, we will have a short period of debate where each individual can state their position, and then we can move directly into voting procedure. I'll have the specific details laid out when the time comes. Thank you for your participation so far, I hope we can continue to move forward without significant trouble.

Flamefang 21:10, February 23, 2012 (UTC)