Council of Intergalactic Representatives

[DukeofRealms]

Council of Intergalactic Representatives
​

Greetings Citizens!

We have a problem, we want to be able to hear and gain input from as many of you as we can. Schine team members are generally too busy to go through suggestions, comments and messages effectively and efficiently. We want to give everyone an equal chance to say something and to contribute something. The solution? A player council, or the Council of Intergalactic Representatives as we've called it. This will be a group of users elected by the community to basically filter all that raw feedback, suggestions and general content back to us. This will save us time and more importantly give us a greater reach into the community.

We haven't fleshed out all the details yet, but we welcome suggestions in this thread. Down below is all the information you need to know (hopefully) about the council. You can also find this information on our council page: http://starmadedock.net/council/

Some questions:

• What should the application questions be? (Applications will be made public)
• How many councillors should there be?
• What other functions (if any) should councillors perform?
• Requirements for applying?

​

Council Roles

• Seek opinions from the community on ideas and suggestions, issues and concerns, and present them to the dev team for consideration.
• Represent the majority opinion of the community in discussing with the dev team new projects and initiatives.
• Hold public and private forum discussions on key ideas and issues in order to deliberate and decide what the community thinks to be the best course of action.
• Convey the council's thoughts, opinions, and decisions to players who inquire to representatives in-game on servers they are active on, and to take note of players' concerns or ideas to bring to the rest of the council.
• Put forward candidates to administration for community medals.

Elected Representatives

Representatives on the council are elected by the community, and serve one six-month term on the council after which new council members are elected. Citizens apply to become a council representative if they believe they would be well suited on the council, then during an election period citizens will be able to vote for who they would like to see on the council. Elected Representatives are denoted by the intergalactic council medal

located under their name in the forums.



The Ballot

In order to become a council representative citizens apply to have their name go on the ballot to then be voted in by the community. Citizen applications must first be approved by the Schine team before their name makes it onto the ballot. Every six-months the council has an election period, where applications are open and concluding with the ballot being voted on by the community. During an election period citizens will be able to vote on the current ballot list on who they would like to see on the council.

Requirements

To vote and to apply for councillorship, one must be a Citizen in order to do so. Citizens are members who have registered on the forum for 30 days or longer and have 20 or more posts.

The voting will be conducted through a poll on the Starmade Dock forums. The number of names on the ballot will determine how many names citizens will be able to vote for in the poll.


The Process

• Applications will open for people to apply to get their name on the ballot.
  
• Citizens applying will fill out an application form, comprised of a lot of the questions you all have been suggested here, but boiled down so it's not a massive essay to write.
• Those applications then need to be approved by a member of the schine team (this may include the admin team as well), most likely Bench or myself, where we look at the applicant's history on the forums and on the council. If they're littered with bans and always trolling then well, sorry but you're not going to be suited for the council. Otherwise it gets approved and their application is posted in the Council Applications forum (found here).
• When applications close we will collate the list of applicants into a ballot, that will then be placed in a poll in the council forum.
• Citizens will then have a finite time to vote (most likely one week) where you will be able to cast several votes (probably 3) for who you are voting to see on the council.
• At the end of the voting time, those with the highest votes become council members for one six-month term. The number that get in matter on the number we plan to have on the council, and how many apply.
• Council Members will have to follow a code of conduct. If a council member keeps being unruly, breaking the code and acting in a way that's either abusing their position or that we feel no longer represents the community accurately, they will be removed.
• After six-months, the current application threads will be archived, and the applications will open again. The current council will then be retired and if they wish to join the council again they have to reapply and the process starts again.

Thanks must go to Bench for the logo and writing out all the content for the council page.

 

[HerrColonel]

Awesome I'll vote for the one who bring us astronaut PVP

 

[Mered4]

Interesting! I like this idea - very similar to the Vanguards from Planetary Annihilation.

 

[Jake_Lancia]

This could be interesting - adding more community integration into the development of the game is always a good thing

 

[En_Dotter]

Nice!

I would ask you to put variety criteria into account when it comes to hiring the council members. Reason for that is the fact this game has so many different areas of interest for different "types" of players - creative building, logic systems, combat, mining, resource production, trading, etc...

So, instead of just hiring active members of the forum, take into account what they are best at. For example, a guy how is rly good at weapon balance should get into the team, but he cant really help with logic system (and other cases). We need different ppl to be "in charge" of different aspects of the game so all of us (hopefully), can enjoy the game to the full extent.

 

[SkylordLuke]

this is the coolest idea ever!
so when does it start?

 

[Mered4]

Nice!

I would ask you to put variety criteria into account when it comes to hiring the council members. Reason for that is the fact this game has so many different areas of interest for different "types" of players - creative building, logic systems, combat, mining, resource production, trading, etc...

So, instead of just hiring active members of the forum, take into account what they are best at. For example, a guy how is rly good at weapon balance should get into the team, but he cant really help with logic system (and other cases). We need different ppl to be "in charge" of different aspects of the game so all of us (hopefully), can enjoy the game to the full extent.

I was thinking this exactly.

We shouldn't base the membership of those on the council on their *representation* of the *majority opinion* (both of which are suspect in any situation). Instead, it would be more efficient (and we'd get more quality people) to get the best at certain gameplay areas.

So, for example, Dalmont would be a good candidate for a *ship building* seat, Bench (were he not a resident Schine Agent ) would be a good *logic* seat candidate, and Tomino_sama would be great for *server-side testing and community interaction.*

That way it doesn't turn into some clique of players that half the community likes and the other detests.

 

[HerrColonel]

I was thinking this exactly.

We shouldn't base the membership of those on the council on their *representation* of the *majority opinion* (both of which are suspect in any situation). Instead, it would be more efficient (and we'd get more quality people) to get the best at certain gameplay areas.

So, for example, Dalmont would be a good candidate for a *ship building* seat, Bench (were he not a resident Schine Agent ) would be a good *logic* seat candidate, and Tomino_sama would be great for *server-side testing and community interaction.*

That way it doesn't turn into some clique of players that half the community likes and the other detests.

I don't like that, people will be elected if they suggest interresting things to the game AND players support them. You will be supported if you suggest something the game really (in the majority opinion) need and devs don't seem to be interested in.
If there is already someone very good at doing something (like bench for logic) for what purpose elect someone else after 6 months? You want to challenge the bug logic master? (joke )

 

[Mered4]

I don't like that, people will be elected if they suggest interresting things to the game AND players support them. You will be supported if you suggest something the game really (in the majority opinion) need and devs don't seem to be interested in.
If there is already someone very good at doing something (like bench for logic) for what purpose elect someone else after 6 months? You want to challenge the bug logic master? (joke )

Because, as the devs have quite plainly noticed due to the term limit, not everyone sticks around the game for that long. In addition, the majority opinion is almost impossible to determine. Just as a general marker here, more people are active on MushroomFleet on the weekends than the entire forum. Most of those don't voice their opinion, for whatever reason. Let's not alienate half the playerbase by electing people because they are well liked.

 

[T4PWN]

This is great!
Voting is the best way to equality!

What would be nice is a real "campaign" time : people that apply would have like (i don't know) 1 or 2 month to present
their ideas, their skills also..! (Why not even debates ?)
And videos could be made and published (on youtube, forums..)

Also, why not voting for a list of persons and not only for one person (then there should be like 4 lists elected, and like 5 persons per list so a total of 20 persons in the council for exemple).
To me the benefits of voting for a list is that maybe if you go alone, some won't vote for you because they don't know you,
even if you're skilled or have good ideas etc... or even won't give attention to your application. If you're a list, that makes less applications to
see (instead of having 200 application you have 50). So you vote for people that allied themselves, allied their ideas and each have his own speciality.

(Maybe, later, there could be a link between the cuncil and factions... So there could be a real political system, but i don't think everyone would like that idea haha)

Again, this is a really great idea! I hope it will work well!

 

[Gamel]

this is interesting, i need to get all the players in my server register for starmadedock.net first
More of them just get the game from steam.

 

[Pancake]

Neat!

 

[xlBlackhawklx]

I vote.....for me! :D

 

[Bench]

To reply to some of the comments above, the idea primarily behind the council is they are community elected. So if they are good at logic, art, etc then they will already stand out as obvious choices, but the key thing for us is that the council represents the voice of the community, and so you as the community are the ones to vote for who you want in the community. One thing not mentioned here is that if you have been on the council and your six month term ends, you can put your name up again to be voted for, we see no issue in letting someone be elected in again if the community thinks they're doing a great job. The requirements on posts and age of account are to prevent people creating heaps of dummy accounts to try and get themselves voted in, and it also ensures that at least if you're electing to join, you've posted enough that someone else in the community will know you; 20 posts is just the minimum.

 

[Keptick]

This is the part where you drain every single like I have to give.

 

[CaptainTaz]

This sounds like an awesome concept, and I can't wait to see it in action!

 

[Snk]

To reply to some of the comments above, the idea primarily behind the council is they are community elected. So if they are good at logic, art, etc then they will already stand out as obvious choices, but the key thing for us is that the council represents the voice of the community, and so you as the community are the ones to vote for who you want in the community. One thing not mentioned here is that if you have been on the council and your six month term ends, you can put your name up again to be voted for, we see no issue in letting someone be elected in again if the community thinks they're doing a great job. The requirements on posts and age of account are to prevent people creating heaps of dummy accounts to try and get themselves voted in, and it also ensures that at least if you're electing to join, you've posted enough that someone else in the community will know you; 20 posts is just the minimum.

The elected representatives idea is really good. I have a question: Will there be a "Citizen badge?" Also, I believe to vote you should be a citizen, but to run you should have been a member for two months and have 40 posts, mainly to narrow down the amount of people that can run. Will moderators be allowed to run?

Bench/DukeofRealms, I love how you guys read a thread complaining about the lack of developer action and in less than a week took steps to prevent it. I really like that.

 

[kupu]

I have a question: Will there be a "Citizen badge?"

Elected Representatives are denoted by the intergalactic council medal

located under their name in the forums.​

Bench/DukeofRealms, I love how you guys read a thread complaining about the lack of developer action and in less than a week took steps to prevent it. I really like that.

This has been in on the cards for a lot longer than a week.

 

[rece ktore leczo]

Since we already have a "Council" tab under Starmade portal forum, let anyone who wishes to be in the council be able to create a new thread, where he might present himself and explain why he would be a good representative for the community.
This candidate could present his opinions on different topics, link whichever suggestions are the most important for him, show how he already engaged in Starmade community, etc. Whatever he likes to write about (without dirty politics) he may write to convince us to vote for him.

They should be able to edit their posts only with the help of mods, so there wouldn't be any quick editing to conform more to the general/popular view. Of course people could ask questions to the candidates in theirs threads.


I think 10 counselors is a good number. 5 is kinda too little and more than 10 aren't necessary. Maybe even 7 or 8 would do the job. Why so many? Well as mentioned before we definitely would like to have more specialized counselors which could dig into the details of specific topics.


The voting should last at least few days and the voters probably should have as many votes as there are seats in the Council. I would also give the Schine team a veto for the application of specific candidates for whatever reason. I highly doubt it would be used but if they did i pretty much trust the Devs to not use it without a cause.


Oh and of course one or two Devs who would overlook the actions of the Council and would be responsible for the communication between community/council <--> Schine/Schema

 

[Endcar]

I'm very glad to see the team is really putting themselves out there this month.

The idea actually sounds pretty solid though like the application says and some seem to gloss over is that the Schine development team will first have to "approve" of your application before it being posted up in the first place.

So I believe in the teams judgement to only pick from the best of the crop that would take the time and effort to hear and record everyones voice. Sadly some small fries might not have a chance compared to that of the larger force of veteran players who've known each other since the games first launch.

I can only hope that the majority of the hardcore, casual, and w/e players will come in to participate otherwise this will surely be one sided. Either way, whoever gets voted needs to pay attention to not only the forum but, that of steam, other players who are not on the site, and take this game out to their friends, family, or random people to get the best possible feedback.

This stuff will help the game prosper with a better sense of marketing, what players outside the game feel about it, how the game plays now, what people believe should or shouldn't be changed, and of course how players might see this in the future.