Council Reboot

[AndyP]

Greetings, Citizens ~

The last Council term ended with the impression from our side:

A next term would not get the needed attention, participation, and support the Council needs to operate properly. Because of this we decided to suspend the Council, and take the time needed to identify and document what went well and what did not. In this way we could seek to improve the Council to everyone’s benefit, and strive to avoid the issues that befell previous Councils.


Black Box: Council <> Community

We had made use of the Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) we signed with the councillors, directly asking their opinions and ideas on the direction of StarMade's development. While the councilors gave invaluable input, there were obvious downsides. Almost everything the Council had worked or debated on was not meant for the public and so was barred from public discussion by their collective NDAs. Despite our best intentions, we had inadvertently gained 7 voices in the discussions on future developments but restricted much of the content from the community at large.

This was probably the most significant failure on our side. Understandably, this led to a negative public opinion of the Council and our interactions with them. It would appear as if nothing was happening, with very little feedback or further discussions being put back into the wider community.


Black Box: Council <> Schine

After the first term, the attention the Council initially received from Schine slowly decreased, to the point where not even Schine as a whole knew exactly what the council was working on, and the two only shared information when one side asked for it. As a result, very little got done.


A Train Without Rails

The Council were free and encouraged to pursue their own projects. To host events and take on projects in line with their own or communities priorities. However, the lack of guidance, affirmation or feedback on specifics from Schine ultimately hurt the Council's ability to carry out their tasks. The pipeline for us all at Schine facilitates working remotely on our own initiative, but we also expected the council to function similarly without the same level of infrastructure or coordination.

We recognise there needed to be a greater level of communication and clear protocols to ensure the Council had all the tools required to successfully complete projects.


Restructuring

We knew the Council needed a major restructuring when councillors began resigning mid-term. To this end, we set up a structured method of handling suggestions on the forums via the Council. We also reserved time for the Council in our weekly Schine meetings for their input and give feedback on any projects or issues that arose. This allowed the Council to synchronize with Schine, and provided a stable, frequent two-way communication.

The feedback we had received from these changes were overwhelmingly positive, and things began improving quickly. One of the first results came in the form of processing and discussing community suggestions. The Council finally felt useful and productive, and started seeing real changes from their efforts.

Sadly they faced the communities built up negative mood in a thunderstorm going down on them. By then the council's reputation was already in a bad state and their new found efforts couldn't turn the tide. We decided to pull the plug for now, clean things up and reboot it at a later stage. This way the burden from past mistakes would not affect any of the new councillors.


Reboot

We discussed all of the changes we made with the former Council, and with their help we wrote a framework for Council operation.

The Council’s focus has now shifted entirely to the community, allowing them to interact actively and directly with StarMade players as a whole. While handling and coordinating community feedback and suggestions is absolutely important, we realize that this should be only one of the Council’s abilities. They should also have the tools and support to host public events, and should both promote and participate in these.

We will attach the document containing the rebooted Council’s guidelines to this thread for public review. Constructive feedback is most welcome!

Council Framework Definition
(or download attached .pdf file)

and as always, thank you for playing StarMade!

~ The Schine Team

 

[Comr4de]

 

[therimmer96]

Nice...


So when are we getting that properly done roadmap we've been promised? :D

 

[Reilly Reese]

Can someone refresh my memory as to who is going to be the new councilors for this?

 

[therimmer96]

Can someone refresh my memory as to who is going to be the new councilors for this?

We don't know, no vote has been held yet.

 

[Reilly Reese]

We don't know, no vote has been held yet.

I could have sworn we voted for a council and then they froze the council. So are those no longer the new councilors or am I not remembering right?

 

[nightrune]

I could have sworn we voted for a council and then they froze the council. So are those no longer the new councilors or am I not remembering right?

I would assume another vote would happen.

 

[therimmer96]

StarMade Registry

Those are the last results, and it's the one in which Keptick and Toaster resigned.

 

[Shaker]

New vote, As long as there is a mix of player types that get voted in, all the better

 

[DukeofRealms]

I could have sworn we voted for a council and then they froze the council. So are those no longer the new councilors or am I not remembering right?

You are not remembering right, we cancelled the council before we held another election.

 

[Calhoun]

Thanks for the info.

Can we assume that a new council term will be coming soon™?

 

[AndyP]

Thanks for the info.

Can we assume that a new council term will be coming soon™?

That was the intention.
We wanted to make sure there is a neutral stance toward a posssible future council.
If the rather negative tone from the last council related thread would continue unaltered,
it would not make sense to even open the elections.

 

[kikaha]

Mmmm...

Not sure about a new council. Maybe its good, maybe not.
What i'm certain of is if you start now talking about it and it is decided to go ahead with a new council its a bad timing. A lot of players are in the northern hemisphere.

By the time things get organized and elections decided we'll find ourselves right in the middle of summer. Hollyday time for most people. There won't be a lot of players ready to present themselves at that time or follow the campain of the would be councillors then vote...


May i suggest September to start talking about a council again ?

 

[AndyP]

Applications will be held long enough for everyone to participate in a reasonable time.
I hope we get the elections going before hitting the summertime.
We do not have set dates in stone nor coordinated them yet, but as a blind guess I would say:
2-6 weeks from now for gathering feedback and talking with former councillors again to get their opinions and possible suggestions.
Then plan the next election timeframe not too far in the future.

 

[kikaha]

Fair enough.

 

[Gasboy]

I think it's a good idea to get a council in before the power rework proposal moves much farther forward. A council as outlined in the document in the OP would be very helpful for you devs, I think, in helping sort through the mass walls of text.

2-6 weeks from now for gathering feedback and talking with former councillors again to get their opinions and possible suggestions. Then plan the next election timeframe not too far in the future.

This is a pretty tight timeline. +1

 

[SkylordLuke]

ah! I was wondering if this is ever gonna come back,glad the idea is still alive

 

[Crusade]

While I like the idea of the Council, and it is good in theory; I feel a major issue it had/has is the falloff of interest in the council members and the community. It seems like an unnecessary barrier between Schine and the community.

I understand Schine does not have the time, energy or resources to be perusing through the suggestion forums. Finding issues and feature requests is time that could be spent on bugfixes, coffee and sleep.

I propose, in order to discover the communities demand quickly; Make the community vote for features/updates instead of the council.

So the process would go something like this:

Major update release:

• Update notes
• Bugfix list
• Videos, etc

"... so now we should have [x] because [y]
What would you like the next major addition to be? Vote here:
(link) "

The link will take you to a forum post or webpage to vote on the next feature, which should be decided upon by Schine.
There should be 3-5 selections, you must set preference for all of them - this will provide information on what order the additions should be completed according to demand.

This will ensure Schine still ultimately has control over what information they want to release to the public, as well as revealing a short term plan of game development, as well as involving the community by allowing them to directly influence the development pacing and short term direction.

The additions that Schine list for voting should also come with an approximation the work involved, not an ETA, but the theoretical workload.

I feel this would engage the community a lot more than a 7 person filter to it's voice.

EDIT:
I should make it clear that the additions Schine outline must be possible short term options.

 

[Gasboy]

I understand Schine does not have the time, energy or resources to be perusing through the suggestion forums. Finding issues and feature requests is time that could be spent on bugfixes, coffee and sleep.

I propose, in order to discover the communities demand quickly; Make the community vote for features/updates instead of the council.

The link will take you to a forum post or webpage to vote on the next feature, which should be decided upon by Schine.
There should be 3-5 selections, you must set preference for all of them - this will provide information on what order the additions should be completed according to demand.

I feel this would engage the community a lot more than a 7 person filter to it's voice.

How would the community make suggestions to Schine then?

If they don't have time to peruse the forums, and the council isn't doing it and vetting ideas, why have a suggestion forum at all?

You'd have Schine dictating what features get into StarMade in that the community could only vote on what Schine offers them.

This appears to me to be a backwards step, moving from the openness and transparency that Schine has stated it wants, to obscurity.

Why even have a vote for features, at this point?

I do not think that the community would feel more engaged this way.

 

[Crusade]

It will show the community what is actually achievable in the short term of the game - Schine already has a long term roadmap, they already know what direction they want to take the game in. Issues that arise will be communicated with Schine - we have a very vocal community.

The community voting on features/additions that Schine lay out is to reveal what is possible in the short term. Revealing achievable goals and prioritising them according to what the community votes seems like a much better way to go about organising short term goals. Perhaps expanding on this and somehow gathering suggestions without the bias of a human council (perhaps a keyword/thread/tag sorting method to find popular suggestions)

Robot council?