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Post by drenrin2120 on Jan 13, 2015 20:22:41 GMT -5
I've been thinking... maybe I've been going about this all the wrong way. I've been under the assumption that if we just keep plugging away and promoting where we can, then eventually the players will come and we can recruit from their ranks. Obviously, that hasn't happened. The only two recruits we've managed have been Manan and Kab, who both have been amazing and invaluable additions to the team. They've offered guidance and they're skills to make this server a much better place.
But the vision of this server is too large for just three people to manage. Maybe it's time to recruit people specifically to fill roles: Builders, promoters, moderators, etc. This will of course require a rehaul of the permissions system to tailor roles to peoples' tasks and we'll need incentives and rewards for those who help bring the server to life.
I bring this up because I honestly don't know how much longer I can maintain my own interest in the server if it remains quiet and lonely and I get the feeling many other members are feeling a bit of despair over this issue as well. I believe the server can become popular, or at least populated, but obviously I'm doing something wrong here and we need a change of strategy.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
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Post by manan on Jan 13, 2015 22:37:58 GMT -5
Well, the thing I've been waiting for to test our mettle was the update, and it just happened recently. I say that you, kaB, and I put our heads together and we put out some ads across PMC and the Minecraft Forums. Once we actually get a playerbase - hopefully from said advertisements - we can gauge what we do after that, and determine who's trustworthy. Also, if you intended for people besides me and kaB to see this, you put it in the staff's 'General' section. xD
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Post by quaint256 on Jan 14, 2015 4:14:18 GMT -5
I can understand Dren if the interest is drifting off because of the low people that are online and really joining in the community. I'm not the big promoter but i am willing to help with the things i can! maybe its a good idea to have some more people to supervise but not really have the moderator status but a lesser one just to keep things in order and in balance if necessary. The update like manan was talking about was an point for me too, but i still missing stuff around from Pam, BoP and the 1.7 update in the overworld. I think a good quest line like talked about earlier is a good things to have and the survival world more things to do (all in the plans and doing already) and has already a couple of very great things in there!! Maybe ATM Launcher is an good place to have a link in to the modpack and server, many people are looking at that to get to some servers (just an idea and a thing to look at). This server stands out to me because of the metallurgy and tinkers to start with and having such a big world to explore! but maybe other players are looking for a much larger modpack because that is all i find on the most modpack links and having a lot of machining in it what generally quite hard is to understand and work with like, EnderIO, Industrial Craft, Applied Energistics, Buildcraft and so on, maybe people are looking at those things but it will create a whole other thing to make and to do! But i might think its a bit too much to look at those things to have in here! Just saying a couple of things and hope you will have something to think about i hope (maybe i'm just saying rubbish here )
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Post by drenrin2120 on Jan 14, 2015 14:15:43 GMT -5
Quaint, I understand, the 1.7 update was pretty huge. It took a lot of work. I guess I forget how recent that was. I was just swinging through the castle the other day and noticed that a lot of the rooms that had been destroyed by the update still hadn't been fixed. Pam's has recently returned to us, I'm glad to have that mod back. I've given up on implementing BoP outside of just the Nether without a full a reset of the survival world, and even then I don't think it can be done, atleast not in 1.7, without a fresh new everything.
My point with hiring staff was maybe to give people incentives for joining the server. This could also be done with gift packages for voting, or being new to the server and stuff.
I like the idea of maybe expanding more mods. But of course, as it stands, more mods means more configs means more work maintaining the server means less work promoting it.
When you say Launcher, you mean like adding our modpack to a site. I know what you're talking about I just can't think of it specifically. I like that idea, but there was some reason why I never went through with it, I can't remember exactly, might have just been a lot of work when I was concentrating on other things. I'll look into it again. That's definitely something that someone else, if interested could look into doing for the server. *wink*nudge*jonsaj
Manan, I agree with you about the 1.7 update, and now we have 1.8 looming ahead in the spring. This time, I'm not updating until all the mods have also updated. I made a huge mistake last update by just sort of ramming it through and trying to fix block ids in game. A lot of stuff got messed up during that update and it created a lot of extra work. That can't happen again.
If all three of us put our heads together, maybe via skype, we could talk at length about all this.
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Post by manan on Jan 14, 2015 23:33:30 GMT -5
My point with hiring staff was maybe to give people incentives for joining the server. Okay, if there's one thing I really gotta say should never be done, it's that - I've personally seen many a servers go down because staff were not hired meticulously. Owners' irresponsible friends, people being allowed to donate for a position, players being awarded for being some of the first few to join a server, the list goes on. Giving people incentives to join/be loyal should almost always be aesthetic. Nicknames, titles, colored chat messages, whatever - but never power. We may be short-staffed if we get ads out and lots of players join, but keep in mind that we have plugins to help pull the weight, as well. We can suggest players that see rulebreaking occur to make reports of it, and give screenshot/video evidence(or give staff co-ordinates if something's been griefed), and then take it from there until we get more staff. As for hiring staff, I'd suggest we watch the community and see which people are just generally helpful, respectful, and responsible. If the pattern continues for a while, we get together and decide if maybe we would consider asking them to be staff. For cases like this, I'd suggest someone with all the perms or a normal player, with added /mute, /kick, and /co i if everyone doesn't have that already. A sort of guard/constable type of deal. I suppose we could also have an application system where people request the aforementioned position themselves on the forums. Generally that works by giving people a set of questions to respond to, and making a case for their promotion all the while. Good spelling, grammar, reasoning, etc. to show that it took some time and consideration. It's a nice way to see how people may treat the community - if someone can't be bothered to speak coherent English when they are given questions to think about and respond to whenever they please, then who knows how they'll treat people they have to deal with on the spot. An issue with this system is that it seems to make a lot of people feel like they should move up just to "climb the ladder." Applications are much quicker and more direct than simply being chosen based on one's actions. Well, that's my brainstorm... Thoughts?
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Post by drenrin2120 on Jan 15, 2015 2:44:23 GMT -5
I agree. I think that thought of mine was more than a bit shortsighted and reactionary. Not much else to say, you totally annihilated that idea and it's really honestly for the better. I don't like the idea of arbitrary rewards and roles just for the sake of making people feel special and hopefully encouraging them to stick around by giving them gifts. Especially with the added consequences of leaving most player's feeling devalued who don't have those titles or rewards(over an arbitrary title or reward system).
Other methods will have to be thought up to encourage people to join. I wonder if people just feel that our modpack is inaccessible or untrustworthy? What were your thoughts on the server before you decided to download the modpack and join the server? Did it feel sketchy or like you were taking a risk?
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Post by manan on Jan 15, 2015 16:27:02 GMT -5
I wonder if people just feel that our modpack is inaccessible or untrustworthy? What were your thoughts on the server before you decided to download the modpack and join the server? Did it feel sketchy or like you were taking a risk? "Hey! This guy's posting about a modpack with Tinker's Construct but without the other 30,000 magic, progress-hindering and/or horribly unbalanced mods that usually come with it! *Join, invites kaB*" Also, where have you been advertising? I'm fairly certain I found you in an ad where you pretty much hijacked the Minecraft Forum TiC thread and shamelessly advertised yourself. That ad didn't last long. XD It also may be notable the number of other modpack servers there are out there? What makes ours stand out and how do people find that out? I'm asking this so that I can know, too, because I haven't a clue where we're getting any of our playerbase from at this point. We've got the huge series of adventure world quests and whatnot, but do people know that when they find out about this server? Etc...
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Post by drenrin2120 on Jan 15, 2015 20:22:54 GMT -5
I've been advertising in random threads, but mostly planet minecraft and the cauldron's forums. I had a thread on MCF but I stopped updating it because.... I don't have a good reason for it. Maybe more shameless adverts are in order? xD
You may have pointed out the thing that makes this modded server stand out. It's not just a survival world with a modpack attached to it. I don't think the Adventure world is very well advertise and prominently advertised.
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Post by guinesswalker on Jan 18, 2015 0:27:12 GMT -5
I'm sorry the youtube thing didn't go through, that would really help with advertising. I recorded a bunch of videos but the frame rate was just awful, if I could just solve that problem I could get videos out there about SM, maybe even one looking for staff ? idk What do you guys think, should I keep trying at it or not?
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Post by guinesswalker on Jan 18, 2015 0:29:45 GMT -5
And to remind you dren, I can't remember the exact search, But SM was the first result when I searched something like "Minecraft custom NPCs server" or "Minecraft quest server" . Maybe contact google search? see about getting SM attached to certain search queries, I know that's possible somehow, I'm fairly ignorant on it though.
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Post by drenrin2120 on Jan 18, 2015 23:00:32 GMT -5
We could pay for ads but... I'm not entirely about that idea. Also, SM does bring up some interesting results on google. xD
Google searchs tend to be highly individualized, using your own personal web data to pick and choose which search results to show you. So while you may find SM during a google search, others might not. As far the youtube channel, don't sweat it! That is your project to do with as you want or not to.
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Post by quaint256 on Jan 19, 2015 5:11:50 GMT -5
As for me if i search Super Massive than i tend to find anything but not minecraft or anything related to this server, i think its region bound or something like that
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