Cnaym's Deputy Loremaster Application

[Cnaym]

Ckey/BYOND Username: Cnaym
Position Being Applied For: Deputy Loremaster
Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yes
Past Experiences/Knowledge: Moderator, Admin, CCIA Liaison, Wiki-Maintainer -> All on this lovely server
Examples of Past Work:

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Special:Contributions/Cnaym

https://github.com/Cnaym

https://forums.aurorastation.org/search/?&q=complaint cnaym&search_and_or=and&sortby=relevancy (Probably the best way to figure out my style)

Current State of Lore:

I think we got a pretty open and decent workflow going on in terms of new lore, feedback gathering and player contributions. The system of pooling ideas and having it peer reviewed is working well so far and the community votes in the lore discord are honestly amazing, seeing how much value is now placed in feeback compared to some older parts of lore that somehow nobody liked but is still awaiting change. I am usually the person with the really stupid question about an issue which then a lore writer has to think about before giving anything official ("Do diona detectives just drink the evidence?" me, at 4am ). In my opinion those small questions and everyday situations make lore more realistic. I cannot see a single species debate the big war from three decades ago without sorting out the "what do we even eat" question beforehand.

 

Problems I noticed:

My main issue is not the lore itself but how situations regarding it were handled in the past. I remember asking a ton of times about any update on a certain city that was just declared a none NT area (with everyone from there being unable to work for the company anymore) and not getting a single public information blurb out for the playerbase until it was slapped on the wiki as "done". Another large issue is the planning and execution of events. I get that they left a lot of good and bad impressions but with better planning and more information for the playerbase those could go a lot smoother. Seeing fellow staff DM you two hours before an event because half the volunteers skipped boat should be an exception and not the standard. Admins knowing what to do for an even beforehand is a giant aid as well. Casually spawning things was never a thing and that process would go a ton easier for all sides involved with a little bit of planning (i.e. find out your item paths and names instead of going "some badge" and then "slap on this sprite and explenation for like 20 of those").

 

Gameplan:

I am currently a wiki maintainer and not a lore writer, I wrote apps for two deputy positions in the past and always figured the others are a better pick before posting any. I like to discuss lore, read it, give an opinion or suggestion and see what the creative people do with it. My biggest contribution was probably suggesting that we make the oldest IPCs space proof to give them at least one reason to be played. I am however a person deeply into planning and managing projects, with a ton of IRL experience to back that up. I want to create a system and ruleset for events that makes them consistent, fair and in all honesty easier to do so we can have more of them (even small side stuff, not only the "summer blockbuster" arcs). I also want to keep tabs on lore changes and information being clearly define and announced beforehand OOCly and ICly as well, since our characters should have an article or such to point at for big changes imho.

Additional Comments:

Happy about any feedback, give my complaints a read some are funny, some not so much, judge for yourself. I think I treated everyone fair before and after my time as ingame staff and even people who frequently declared their disposition towards me had no problem claiming my aid without having to beg for it ^_^ Mostly ran into issues with making a misunderstood joke or comment, never had any trouble clearing it up with the people involved personally.

Mostly throwing my hat into the ring because I want to improve the system, not see it decline. Kyres did a good job making lore fun and engaging again which I wish to continue through more ingame representation. I got experience with pretty much all our systems, be it IRs or how to code something in. Recently I mostly code dive and tell people to report the wiki errors instead of screeching in OOC about how "wiki bad". My response time is usually pretty fast given that I only work 6ish hours per day and got that premium EU timezone while being a complete night owl.

[Lmwevil]

Where do you think the lore is currently weakest and what do you think you would do to improve it? 

What would be the first thing you would do upon getting the role of deputy lore master? 

You are applying from outside of the lore team currently, how do you feel about being thrust into a position of power from not being part of it at all? Do you foresee any complications arising from this?

[MattAtlas]

2 hours ago, Cnaym said:

I think I treated everyone fair before and after my time as ingame staff and even people who frequently declared their disposition towards me had no problem claiming my aid without having to beg for it ^_^

You are often passive aggressive and downright snarky when dealing with people. I know because I had to deal with this during the Brainmed testmerges and other updates after that - I know for a fact that it didn't stop. This is not a new thing, as just mentioned; you do it on purpose, I would even say, not just in Discord channels but also in OOC and LOOC. I don't want to see you in a management position where you'll be criticizing people's hard work. Especially considering how your early criticisms of Brainmed consisted in insulting my own work. You had to be told by the Head Developer to leave the chat because you were spouting fairly vitriolic shit as an admin.

 

Edited May 13, 2021 by MattAtlas

[NewOriginalSchwann]

I have no desire to see you as the deputy loremaster. Your attitude is often snarky/passive aggressive and you have absolutely zero experience in the lore team beyond two denied applications, some vague suggestions, and some administrative experience that I do not remember fondly. Out of all of these your lack of experience is, in my eyes, frankly the biggest reason as to why I am not supporting you. This isn't a normal species deputy position that simply writes lore: it is in charge of the lore's direction, and whoever holds it needs to have the experience, and attitude, to properly run it.

Edited May 13, 2021 by NewOriginalSchwann
This time without the m.

[Doxxmedearly]

You've no experience with lore, which to me is a red flag for such an important position.

Your tenure as an admin was frankly baffling to me due to the problems with snark mentioned by other responses here, among other reasons. I won't go into details, since this is not a mod app, but suffice to say I don't trust you in a high-ranking staff position anymore.

Matt already touched on your tendency to criticize unfairly and without any tact. I share the same concerns.

I cannot support this application. Regardless, good luck ^^

[Kintsugi]

Strongly echoing the sentiments expressed by Matt, Schwann and Doxx. I respectfully do not think you are the right fit for Deputy Loremaster at all, and thus cannot support this application.

[Cnaym]

1 hour ago, Lmwevil said:

Where do you think the lore is currently weakest and what do you think you would do to improve it?

Consistency honestly. A ton of stuff got changed quickly which is not a bad thing, but instead of additions we had some changes that basicly yeeted some characters or even entire settings out of the window.

This is goes from small scale stuff of IPCs no longer having to worry much about tags, over the pretty much complete retcon of the Aut'akh subspecies or the fact that Vaurca are mostly cute instead of creepy insects over to the larger events like the burning of Mars and pretty much firering everyone from Phoenixport as a monday morning surprise. I don't think large changes are a bad idea but they should be treated carefully and decided upon together with the playerbase. I prefer not to wake up to my characters being ready for deletion, having to change entire backstories or pretty much becoming a surprise war survivor.

We got a pretty solid vote system we could easily use for such things. I get that surprises can be exciting but large scale changes could still do with a lot more communication.

Giving people an early warning shot or clearing over DMs beforehand if characters can be yeeted for event purposes would go a long way in gaining the support of our playerbase and a ton less salt when such things happen.

1 hour ago, Lmwevil said:

What would be the first thing you would do upon getting the role of deputy lore master? 

Getting up to speed on the NBT stuff. As stated above, change is not bad, surprise change that has been done behind closed doors is. Frequent updates would go along way and Kyres has done a stellar job with the news article of hyping it up, which I would love to continue.

1 hour ago, Lmwevil said:

You are applying from outside of the lore team currently, how do you feel about being thrust into a position of power from not being part of it at all? Do you foresee any complications arising from this?

Well as with most positions in our staff team you will always find people willing to welcome the new and happily work together to improve everyones hobby experience and there are those that don't. For myself I tend to enjoy working with the first kind a lot more but have no issue to remain professional with the other part. As for my experience with the lore staff so far. I have worked together with most of them in my other staff position and not encountered any issues that would make it impossible to work together, quite the opposite, some of the kindest people are currently on the lore team.

As for the coding team, there was an incident in which I untactfully questioned as to why a debug message made it into a test merge. This did not happen out of anger or spite but simply me not knowing at the time how such things are planned and implemented. I excused my behavior to the person that felt attacked, ignored getting called a cunt by half the chat and called it a day. The situation was handled by Garn and I have held up my end of not letting it repeat itself.

That being said I understand that for both staff teams projects are highly personal issues and it can easily seem like an insult if one questions or criticizes the results. I have adjusted my feedback accordingly and to my knowledge such a situation has not repeated itself. I'd even go as far as claiming that the people I got most differences of opinions with are the ones that I talk to most professionally. I value honest critic and open discussion and I found that people openly disagreeing with you are usually easier to engage with than those who prefer to withhold their posts from public discussions.

1 hour ago, NewOriginalSchwann said:

you have absolutely zero experience in the lore team beyond two denied applications

I have no history of denied application due to not posting them. Just for the record. I thank you for posting your opinion. As for experience I have helped with event related things multiple times and partaken in the peer reviews of multiple proposals, meaning that lore writers have send me their documents and asked for my take on their proposals. This was not done in any official position though, so I did not find it fitting to put it into the application as prior experience. I likewise see my lack of experience as my biggest weakness, if other members of the lore team want to pitch in on what I provided so far or worked with them on they are free to do so but I do not claim anything of it as my work. Simply said, as wiki maintainer, I do the guides and job pages and not touch the lore pages without being asked to do something specific.

1 hour ago, Doxxmedearly said:

Your tenure as an admin was frankly baffling to me due to the problems with snark mentioned by other responses here, among other reasons. I won't go into details, since this is not a mod app, but suffice to say I don't trust you in a high-ranking staff position anymore.

This is an absolutely fair opinion to hold and I would prefer if you reported any behavior that seems problematic to you to staff (even if it comes from fellow staff). As for my record I have a total of two forum warnings for minor situations and was never banned from it or the discords. Apart from friendly conversation no administrative action was taken against me, likewise my resignation as admin was purely due to private reasons. I have posted the link to the forum complaints against my decisions as staff or me as a player so that people can get an overview over what situations I got confronted with and how they were resolved so that everyone can get a picture of how I worked in the roles of admin / moderator. I recommend giving them a read even if it's just for the entertainment value of it. Furthermore I have not been spoken to or warned about my ingame behavior in regards to OOC or LooC, as such I do not think there is currently any issue with it.

Overall thank you for the feedback so far!

[Mofo1995]

I have chosen another candidate, but I strongly appreciate your interest and your application! Thank you.