Problems with the Queues

[AnonymousGhost]

Assistants can be brought in to do the busywork of the queues, like tracking sign-ups and giving mod permissions

. Or running NRG or Open Setups.

This is something I would ove to see btw and would solve most problems you seem to have and would make me extremely happy.

For the amount of people who want to see change happen, I think it should be relatively easy to find people willing to volunteer as assistants.

[Aristophanes]

Oh, and a simple fix to mod permission issues: why not just give mods permission to start threads when their game enters signups? Not necessarily with the intent of the mod

using

it until the game fills, but simply as a way to remove one potential source of delay in the process.

I think this is a good fix to this particular problem. Alternatively, it could an automatic feature that clicks into place when the slots have been filled.

Once again, something that I know has been done on request before. From a listmodding perspective you have ti be aware of the game playerlist, acknowledge it is full, and assign a number to it before the gamethread is setup though. My permissions, when given like this, were so that a Mod thread could be set up. I still expected game acknowledgement before it woukd start.

Simple solution so long as people don't abuse it, and with the number of people who post in queue threads that their game is full and expect insta-grat I don't know if people would respect it.

[AnonymousGhost]

If the Mod was given start thread permissions when their game enters sign ups, a way to prevent abuse would be have consequences for abusing this power and creating their game thread before their game has filled.

[AnonymousGhost]

If they do this once, then they get a warning.

If they do it a second time, that power is taken away from them.

If they do it a third time, they have to have a co-mod or some sort of oversight other than the list mods to make sure they don't abuse it. An example would be to give the required and trusted co-mod the ability to create the game thread, but only after the list mod has given the 'okay'.

Edit: I say 'some sort of oversight other than the list mods to make sure they don't abuse it' as a way to lessen the burden on the list mods.

[callforjudgement]

My guess is that the risk of abuse is nonexistent in practice. I could go create a thread in Mayfair Club right now. I wouldn't without permission from the list mod, though.

[Faraday]

Yeah, the potential for abuse is, like, not a realistic issue. If they're being trusted enough to run the game, then let them create the thread when it's in signups. Makes the whole process a little quicker, as it saves a few mins of that being a thing when the game fills.

[Faraday]

Actually if I were to single someone out on a positive note, I found no flaws in how the Large Theme Queue is run, and have always gotten extremely prompt response regarding Large Themes.

Yeah, I think Large Theme has always been fairly well run - though it's prob the easiest queue to run, too.

[xRECKONERx]

this is a good thread that im posting in to have it my ego

[xRECKONERx]

although dino's OP is overwrought af

[KittyMo]

Replacement Requests

: This thread is almost never updated. Hasn't been for over a month. This is of course the least of the problems.

When I first took over the thread on March 30th, I was initially really frequently posting collated lists of outlying requests. I've since decided to only do this at/near pagetop if there actually are requests on the previous page that haven't been filled. (It seems unnecessary to duplicate info that is already on the page). I check the thread at least every couple of days (sometimes multiple times a day!) and I make a habit of checking to make sure that mods didn't forget to indicate that requests have been filled.

I will change the link you're referring to in the 2nd post that hasn't been updated since april. (Seemed like a good idea to link to the most recent update back when I regularly was making them) but it's completely inaccurate to say that the thread hasn't had my attention for over a month.

[xRECKONERx]

is there a reason we need a masterlist of replacements instead of having people just check the most recent posts

[KittyMo]

is there a reason we need a masterlist of replacements instead of having people just check the most recent posts

I don't think so, unless the thread hits a new page with there being unfilled requests on the previous page. That's why I stopped bothering with it and just spend my time making sure the requests on the actual page are accurate.

[Alisae]

Kmo do you keep track of who actively replaces out of games, or is it just make sure the replacement requests are accurate.

[Alisae]

is there a reason we need a masterlist of replacements instead of having people just check the most recent posts

Its easy to do
And its user friendly.
That’s it.

[xRECKONERx]

seems tedious as fuck for little benefit

[Alisae]

It looks like its only like 10-15mins a page and there aren’t new pages that frequently?

[KittyMo]

is there a reason we need a masterlist of replacements instead of having people just check the most recent posts

Its easy to do
And its user friendly.
That’s it.

If I get feedback that it actually is helpful to people I definitely can go back to doing it more frequently. It just became my impression that it was more confusing than anything if there's a mod with a request two posts above my masterlist that gets marked by them as filled for 12+ hours before I notice it, but the masterlist still says the request needs to be filled.

Like, as it is, the only request needing to be filled in the thread aorn is the most recent post.

[xRECKONERx]

it's every time a new request gets added

otherwise people complain that the OP is out of date
most requests ive seen fill within 24 hours

[brassherald]

I have an idea which may or may not work. Maintaining separate queues, but make one master thread that has a listing of all the games that are in queue. It doesn't need much, but like one post that has like "Open 727 - 9 to 12 (9 players)" with a link the post where Penguin puts it up for signups.

You just centralize the information as a directory, so that people have a one stop thread to see what's in signups, whats been filled, etc.

Maybe don't include the Large Theme, maybe do, but it would certainly be more convenient as long as it was kept up to date.

[KittyMo]

Kmo do you keep track of who actively replaces out of games, or is it just make sure the replacement requests are accurate.

I mean, I wasn't actually given any official job description when I took over the thread. If I notice a player is systematically subbing out a ton I would prob PM the List Mods, but it's not something I've been asked to do.

[Mathdino]

I concede that was an unfair misgiving about the replacement requests forum, although I think including it illustrates the broader point that a LOT of tasks difficult for humans (like frequently updating a rapidly changing thread) are incredibly easy to automate, which would free up that same time for other projects onsite.

I mean the replacement request already requires a very specific format. Or a bot could literally quote any posts less than a week old and without any

tags and paste all the quotes in the OP.

Edit: I resonate with that "lack of job description" thing, haha. Exactly the same thing with the wiki group.
Also why I don't mean to single you out in particular when I'm more describing a broader issue of what seems to be lack of organisation/direction/communication.

[xRECKONERx]

okay are you volunteering to go ahead and whip up all those automation projects or are you just saying "hey someone else should do this very complicated and time consuming thing for free"

[Mathdino]

I have an idea which may or may not work. Maintaining separate queues, but make one master thread that has a listing of all the games that are in queue. It doesn't need much, but like one post that has like "Open 727 - 9 to 12 (9 players)" with a link the post where Penguin puts it up for signups.

You just centralize the information as a directory, so that people have a one stop thread to see what's in signups, whats been filled, etc.

Maybe don't include the Large Theme, maybe do, but it would certainly be more convenient as long as it was kept up to date.

I think that's what chamber was going for with the beautiful viewqueue page.

I'm really confused what argument could possibly have led to discontinuing that project for 3 years.

In response to the idea that there are a lot of backend projects going on, I would point out that in 2015 the forum announced a Instagram plugin, while the last 5% of complete queue automation remains incomplete. There's a question of priorities, basically.

[AnonymousGhost]

My guess is that the risk of abuse is nonexistent in practice. I could go create a thread in Mayfair Club right now. I wouldn't without permission from the list mod, though.

Yeah, the potential for abuse is, like, not a realistic issue. If they're being trusted enough to run the game, then let them create the thread when it's in signups. Makes the whole process a little quicker, as it saves a few mins of that being a thing when the game fills.

Fair point.

[Mathdino]

okay are you volunteering to go ahead and whip up all those automation projects or are you just saying "hey someone else should do this very complicated and time consuming thing for free"

I've already volunteered for what's in my skillset. Wiki group, NRG, open setup review, etc. I have a role PM generator in the works that's on hold because I still don't know what "standard" role PMs should look like.

I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that a lot of volunteer skillsets onsite are being wasted due to mismanagement. If you compiled all the time KMo has ever spent updating her thread, I think it would be at least 10 times greater than the time it would take to code a bot that literally quotes posts without

tags. Those who have worked with forum bots can correct me if I'm wrong.