Announce Post #3371: March Report Cycle

We'll be opening reports later this month but before we do so I'd like to ask for feedback on the current report format. Chiefly the issue of anonymity of report comments and current discouragement of open report discussions. We could make comments visible after reports close but perhaps still keep them anonymous. We could also once again encourage collaboration. There are also other report variables we could adjust, like length of phases, etc.

This upcoming cycle will feature both combat and QoL reports but we will lower the amount of reports from 3 to 2 per person to make them more manageable for review and implementation.

This announce post will auto-generate a forum post, please leave your feedback there or message me personally if you would like to do so in a more private manner. I know how much you all dislike posting on forums instead of Discord, but for something like this, we need focused feedback and a more structured debate that won't have anyone miss out on the arguments being made, or require them to read through a week's worth of chatter to get caught up. We'll make a decision after March 10th.

Comments

  • Feedback goes here!
  • I know conversation gets heated over reports, but I do think it's important to be able to see comments. Sometimes the report submitter, or a commenter, gets facts wrong. Sometimes seeing a comment from others helps informs opinions on best solutions to vote for. I think keep them anonymous for protection is ok but seeing the comments (which sometimes actually drive to offering a better solution than the submitter first considered) is important. I know it might require some policing but maybe smack hard anyone devolving into personal or nasty comments. We can disagree with an idea without insulting the person.

    I say the same for discussion of reports on the discord. I assume the reason was to cut down flaming and personal wars and attacks, but also it is through discussion and debate and collaboration usually that the best ideas and outcomes can be found. So I'd maybe suggest allowing them in the discord. Maybe their own channel. Maybe slowmode. It also means people could get some feedback before even submitting a report.
  • Firstly, we need more often reports. Even if you limit things down to 1 report per person, having these once a year is just not enough. I understand coding resources are limited, but combat is just not something you can look at once a year. Really, it needs to be closer to a monthly thing, even if it is a more limited thing such to 2-3 reports per org.

    phase length probably should be shorten too. Voting doesn't need to be 15 days. Having month before even the admin start judging feels too long with how important some things are. I might be go as far to admin review is too long as well. Lusternia is at the point that waiting that long does more harm than good. Again, I know you want to be careful and admin sign-in time varies, but this goes back to the more frequent updates rather than having combat updates once a year and basically never looked at again.

    Keeping comments visible in all phases is a good idea while still keeping them anonymous, although I might suggest making to so we can see if comments are made by the same person - giving each person a random anon name for that report so we can see if it is a back and forth between two people or six.
  • Definitely think that comments should be viewable by all throughout the process. Basically what Sapphira said above. Keeping them anonymous seems like the way to go, as it should help keep certain biases at bay. 
  • 100% support being able to view all comments. Anonymous commenters are fine for aforementioned bias reasons. It helps being able to see the comments because if someone has incorrect information, we cannot provide correcting information if we do not know they posted it.

    I support whatever you have to do to make reading the comments chains easier and also having more report cycles throughout the year. 

    I think we could also have different times of the year where do do special reports. To give an example: I have collected a large portion of the active player base and we have been discussing what we would like to see changed with Timequakes/Revolts/Wildnodes. As it stands we have 6 reports open for debate from the player base which means some of us are going to have to sacrifice report slots for a collective conflict report list. 
  • EnyalidaEnyalida Nasty Woman, Sockpuppeteer to the Gods
    I don't really have a meaningful dog in this fight anymore. That said:

    I suggest making comments pseudonymous, rather than plain anonymous. Assign every commenter a random ID or name, like the Vengeance personas... and for all the same reasons Vengeance has that option.  

    Have those IDs/names persist across reports.  Often times several reports will reference each other, and in my experience a broader discussion about the group of reports can have specific threads in more than one report. Having "Foo" and "Bar" on report #1 be the same Foo and Bar on report #2 will help make it all make sense. 

    Numbers are fine, but probably a pool of random names would work better. It's just easier to tell names apart versus numbers, I think it'd probably be a lot less confusing. 

  • Agreed on visible but anonymous commenters. Seems like a no-brainer from what I am hearing and reading. It's already being coded with pseudonyms assigned for the exact reasons outlined above. Numbers as names would be confusing. 

    I will be able to comment on frequency, size, and shape of future reports only once this cycle is complete. We need to see how it goes first with me spearheading them and MCs handling the coding. 
  • Thalkros said:
    100% support being able to view all comments. Anonymous commenters are fine for aforementioned bias reasons. It helps being able to see the comments because if someone has incorrect information, we cannot provide correcting information if we do not know they posted it.

    I support whatever you have to do to make reading the comments chains easier and also having more report cycles throughout the year. 

    I think we could also have different times of the year where do do special reports. To give an example: I have collected a large portion of the active player base and we have been discussing what we would like to see changed with Timequakes/Revolts/Wildnodes. As it stands we have 6 reports open for debate from the player base which means some of us are going to have to sacrifice report slots for a collective conflict report list. 
    My apologies, I should have clarified this in my original post but I was firstly focusing on the style/shape of reports before the actual report announcement. I have wrongly assumed that phrasing it as combat/QoL will not suggest conflict is up for discussion now. Please don't spend your report slots on conflict events, and rather focus them specifically on combat skills/balance and general QoL (not conflict, economy, etc).

    If you have so many of them ready, however, here's what we'll do. Once they are finalised, please post them here or send to me (support@lusternia.com) and I will be able to say upfront if this is something we can do this cycle. If so, I will file the reports myself so nobody has to sacrifice their slots for this. Things like small tweaks (numbers, frequency, rewards, etc)? Sure. Way bigger changes though? More difficult but will consider.

    The amount of work, in terms of discussions, design, and implementation on our end that conflict, as a whole, would involve is massive compared to combat/QoL. Those are small, incremental changes, while conflict was selected as an overhaul topic for a reason. Of course, nothing has moved on that front and it would be better to do small changes than no changes at all in the meantime, hence my proposal above. 
  • We're almost done making all the requested adjustments and should be opening reports tomorrow! An announce post will outline all the changes and also two additional 'features'. I'll be making my test server available during the report season and we'll have a code question day to help provide facts and figures for report writers. 
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