Today, we have an interesting proposition, one that will mean a lot of changes for both us and the guild as a whole. From the time Team Snagem started, one thing that remained a constant was a ranking system, something to give an idea of a member's given progress and a sort of necessity as before Gaia and even for a while afterward, seeing an influx of members both joining and leaving meant something needed to be there to avoid things becoming chaotic. But, things aren't as they were 10+ years ago, and as times change, so must we.
This isn't to say we're suddenly opposed to keeping the ranking system, but that perhaps it's long overdue to take a good look at it and do something with it that'll work better in the long run. Something to modernize it. We've had some discussions with this fairly recently, and realized that if anything, the ranks may be a needless gate nowadays. Pokemon evolutions have points or items to acquire, Master Missions are done in order and gate themselves, so on and so forth. And if a member puts in a ton of time into the Super Training Room or doing missions and team missions, that effort should make itself known without it being thrown behind yet another wall that ultimately slows what they could be capable of doing.
With all of that said, the tiers themselves may still have their use when it comes to permissions and showing some structure. Stuff like making and running Missions and Team Missions for example, though as the administration is often contacted when those are conceived, means there's flexibility there as well. So, what does this all mean? Allow me to give a more concise explanation below:
1. We are thinking of restructuring our ranking system.
This one should be clear already, but to put it in a single sentence, this is our current plan. We have a few proposals in mind for what we think may work, but as big of a change as this will be, the members' input will be invaluable.
2. Many of the "restrictions" in place already have something that deals with them.
This is stuff like evolving a Pokemon, or doing certain missions; you name it, we probably have something in place already that's proven effective. This makes ranks a bit redundant.
3. The few things that don't, we actually kinda do.
Making Missions/Team Missions? We're usually contacted or are making them. Hybridization? Same deal. Channeling or learning moves? Master Missions. Capturing Legendaries? There's a thread for that too, though the limit of two will be staying.
4. New members/characters will still be starting as they already do.
The only difference is that instead of a given rank, they'll simply have the stuff any new member would already, including Pokemon at their lowest stage. Limiting how many one may have in their party or PC after joining/creation, though, may be subject to removal.
Assuming the above makes most things clear, we'll be going on ahead with our proposals:
- Proposal 1: Remove ranks and tiers, let everything gate itself.
We'll start with the most extreme possibility, removing the rank and tier system entirely with the exception of the Administration. What this would mean for members is that, ultimately, what's already in place to keep everything in order will remain while removing a redundancy in the process. The few things that seemingly aren't, you'd ask the Administration as usual as we'd still have the final say. However, this may give the misconception of looking chaotic, which leads into our second proposal.
- Proposal 2: Remove ranks, keep tiers.
This will keep some of the structure the rank system currently allows, but still achieve what this change sets out to do. Permissions tied to tiers will remain as they are, but may be subject to tweaks as things are adjusted to fit the new format. Rank-based permissions will also be tweaked if not outright removed, but the point is that this aims to make things more streamlined for everyone involved. Permissions per character will become irrelevant regardless, as they're both confusing and redundant.
Even with everything brought out on the table as we're doing now, this isn't the sort of thing we want to do lightly and we'd like to consider every possibility going forward. So, as stated earlier, we want everyone's thoughts on this, be it a member or one of us admins. If there's proposition that someone else feels would be better suited to our goals, please, speak up and tell us or post it here. This is an open discussion, so let's make this decision together. FOR SNAGEM!
Reply
