08-28-2015, 12:01 AM
Ok, so something I've been putting off for a long time now is the work and effort of upgrading our forum software to the current edition which is basically like demolishing a building and then putting a new one in its place. It's going to be a massive amount of work for me and very time consuming, and it will mean when we return everything is a little different. The reason I have to finally be forced into doing this is that our current board software isn't supported anymore and it's getting harder to find fixes to various bugs and glitches that pop up. The day could come when the boards just STOP working and I might have no way of fixing them because the rather unhelpful development team will ignore requests when you tell them you're on the older version.
Once War Games happens, it's going to be time to finally bite the bullet and do this. I fully expect this upgrade to take days, and could possibly end up being well over a week depending on what kind of problems arise. From what I've seen regarding this major upgrade, some people have insanely difficult times getting everything switched over and working again on the new software and once it's all switched over, I have to redesign the entire boards from scratch because all our custom stuff will be gone or reverted to default. Every template I've ever edited will have its customizations gone and need to be hand edited again one by one. Templates are like puzzle pieces that make up ONE page, so a single page might have over 10 templates on it. There are dozens of them that I've customized over the years and will need to redo.
Once we do come back, the staff will also see some changes (in staff members) and the structure of our shows will be different to reduce confusion and make booking a little more RPer friendly. We'll probably be going back to one MASSIVE weekly show that we post in parts on the results through an entire day, allowing people to watch everything unfold "live" and make IC comments about what's going on as each part of the show happens. We'll also be booking cards earlier, so you can look ahead a couple weeks and see what match you might be lined up for, request changes, etc... and basically get a more fun experience with less of a random cluster feel that tends to come with the two-show opt in weekly method we've been doing for a while now. Since both shows are the same now anyway, there's not really a need for two smaller shows anymore and if people want the 3RP limit they'll be able to mark their account as such and always will get booked in 3RP matches with no problem.
As mentioned above, there are going to be some staff members leaving during or soon after this transition as well as some new ones possibly debuting if they choose to make public/IC characters. I am never opposed to additional help either, so if you are somebody with an interest in being on the staff, please let me know privately ASAP so I can begin going over things with you.
If you want to be a part of the staff when the XWF returns after the big upgrade, consider these as the new official positions and then contact me PRIVATELY:
Silent, full time judge: You will be trained by me to look at all aspects of judging and to be able to correctly call even very close matches using a series of varying processes based entirely on what kind of content the RPers supplied in that match and other factors that you need to be able to look at on a case by case basis. You will NEVER tell anybody in the fed other than myself that you are a SILENT judge, unless I explicitly make it clear that "this other staff member" is allowed to know. All your outcomes will be passed to me and I'll then filter and distribute the final judgment to whoever needs it that week. This way, nobody ever has to feel bad about judging their friend to lose, and nobody has to take it personally IF their friend judged them to lose, because it won't be known.
Behind the scenes GM: You won't have a GM character on the boards. You'll help as needed each week with things like match writing and possibly being asked for 2nd opinions on some of the closer matches if the main judges are conflicted or busy that week. There will also be times you will run and complete the show, as in set up the results template and get all the matches/segments in place, etc... You'll also be able to suggest angles, storylines, etc... and help come up with PPV plans and concepts.
On screen GM: You'll have a GM character on the boards and will be one of the people everyone can go to if they have questions, need to be booked a certain way, etc... You will sometimes be the person who posts a completed show and who books/edits future cards. You'll obviously sometimes be running and completing full shows as well, as in set up the results template and get all the matches/segments in place, etc... You'll probably never (or rarely) be asked to judge anything, but you're more likely to be responsible for writing matches and gathering written matches from helpers who volunteered that week.
On screen GM + Moderator: Everything the on screen GMs do, but you'll also have powers to moderate the boards and keep things under control. Removing/editing posts as needed, warning or banning users as needed, and all that other fun stuff.
Once we return I also plan to do some new advertising and we're heading into the busier time of year anyway even without that, so there's definitely room for some additions if any of the positions above appeal to you. Let me know directly, privately.
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