Lower Decks Gazette - Player Ran News

[Marlon P.]

This suggestion borrows elements from our Library system with elements of the journalist role. It addresses these conditions:

1. Currently the newscasters' real stories are lore articles. While important, the newscasters formatting means they are - at least for me - difficult to navigate, textually dense in the small screenspace, and very old news. 
2. Journalists who write stories have their stories wiped at the end of the round, with only their own efforts to save and post their content elsewhere.
3. Lore writers don't have the time or inclination to write slice of life articles on a regular basis.
4. Our players have a lot of collective free time, imagination, and desire to contribute.
5. Being a cosmic equivilant of a "small town" a newspaper dedicated to the aurora population will have the same small-town newspaper justification for focusing on trivial stuff that's still important to players.

These are five parts of the human condition that can be addressed by providing access to small scale living lore to trusted players.

The Lower Decks Gazette will be a newscaster channel that is accessed via regular in-game means or the Aurora WI with a new tab underneath the library tab.

Articles are submitted, reviewed, accepted or rejected, and then posted. The full process is:

• Articles can be written by any player. They must choose a journalist name to be their alias.
  • This can be changed but locks in after some time and follows the same rules as changing your name in-game.
• Submitted articles are reviewed by any staff member or players with the forum role Volunteer Editor.
  • A submitted article must receive 2 positive reviews from a Volunteer Editor and/or staff members to be uploaded. Either role can also edit the submission, which is meant for spellchecking, minor fixes, etc. Changes are noted like a wiki page's changes would be.
  • A single rejection locks the submission from being uploaded. The reason for the rejection must be chosen from a list of options. The original draft is still available to the player in the WI. 
    • Rejection comments would be "Involves antagonists" "Violates established lore" "Violates rules" "etc" and then an "Other, please explain" field.
    • A rejection can be overridden only by a member of moderation or administration. If the rejection is confirmed then the story is removed completely from the queue.
  • An article with 2 positive reviews will be uploaded to the Lower Decks Gazette newscaster channel. This should ping its own special channel in the discord similar to #Lore_Diary.
  • Comments can be left from a newscaster as normal. 

So say I want to write an article about a costume contest I or a friend will be hosting in 5 days time.

1. I write an article about the upcoming contest in 6 days time and submit it.
2. Within 12 hours, 2 Trusted Editors find no problem with it and give it positive reviews.
3. The article goes live on the newscaster.
4. People leave comments, and all this engagement carries over rounds.
5. The event comes. Someone writes a story about how it went.
6. This story receives 2 positive reviews, and . . . .

The guidelines for posting will be that the story's scope must be contained to the NBT Aurora itself. The goal isn't to compete with the grand narratives written by lore developers, but to create smaller scale drama or comedy for the ship itself. The LDG is a local newspaper with minor social media elements, not CNN or Al-Jazeera.

Stories on a Captain who recently crashed the ship into an asteroid, stories about an off-screen party to celebrate someone's birthday, the canon obituaries, wedding announcements, interviews with crew, biting editorials about some subject or another, announcement of impending cooking contests... With these tools players will have a great ability to run their own little media eco-system.

After 20 days stories are archived, no longer visible on the in-game newscaster but accessible via the Aurora-WI in an archive.

Thank you for reading my suggestion.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Marlon P.

[Korinra]

So on the surface I really do like this idea, but in practice it's a lot of effort for a feature that very few people actually use. The problem is, the journalist role is supposed to be mostly a faff about role meant to have just enough integrity to ask personal questions without being yelled at for doing so, as it's their job after all. The journalist role is great for people who like to stick their nose in and be involved in other people's RP'ed drama, but the newscasters simply aren't a frequently used thing, and it's not for lack of good articles being printed. Some journalists write some really impressive pieces, but the fact is, not enough people want to take the time to sit down and just read it. The idea of expecting multiple people to read and approve/deny every article just doesn't sound like a good use of time, as only a few people would likely read it anyway. It's sad, but true.

There might be a good way to make the journalist a more engaging role for the crew to get involved with, but I just don't think this is the right route to go with the current system. It's a cool idea, and I give you props for really thinking it out and making it well written, but realistically it just is a lot of work for almost no reward.

-1 from me.

[Marlon P.]

Thank you for your post. I want to make sure I understand your criticisms.

Any player, at any time, can submit an article to be considered. They could even write one entirely in the Web Interface.

Are you saying that this would only be used by journalists, who themselves are rare?

[Caelphon]

4 hours ago, Marlon P. said:

Lore writers don't have the time or inclination to write slice of life articles on a regular basis.

4 hours ago, Marlon P. said:

Articles are submitted, reviewed, accepted or rejected, and then posted.

4 hours ago, Marlon P. said:

Submitted articles are reviewed by any staff member or players with the forum role Volunteer Editor.

4 hours ago, Marlon P. said:

The guidelines for posting will be that the story's scope must be contained to the NBT Aurora itself. The goal isn't to compete with the grand narratives written by lore developers, but to create smaller scale drama or comedy for the ship itself. The LDG is a local newspaper with minor social media elements, not CNN or Al-Jazeera.

Considering all these points, there are a series of issues:

1. You yourself say that Lore Writers dont have time or inclincation to write slice of life articles on a regular basis, so what encourages them to review these articles instead? Why do you think Lore Writers devote some time to evaluate player-lore that would largely be insignificant to the greater scheme of lore development? 

2. Staff outside of the Lore Team are often not privy to the intricate details of what goes on. This means that "Volunteer Editors" would need some kind of continious update on lore, in order for it to make sense. Can't have them approve an article that hosts an event on the Upsilon, but the article goes out after the Upsilon suddenly explodes? See what I mean? They'd need to basically be lore staff. 

4 hours ago, Marlon P. said:

Stories on a Captain who recently crashed the ship into an asteroid, stories about an off-screen party to celebrate someone's birthday, the canon obituaries, wedding announcements, interviews with crew, biting editorials about some subject or another, announcement of impending cooking contests... With these tools players will have a great ability to run their own little media eco-system.

This already exists on the Relay Discord. I'd rather encourage you utilize that forum instead of making an entirely new process. 

 

 

[Marlon P.]

7 hours ago, Caelphon said:

Considering all these points, there are a series of issues:

1. You yourself say that Lore Writers dont have time or inclincation to write slice of life articles on a regular basis, so what encourages them to review these articles instead? Why do you think Lore Writers devote some time to evaluate player-lore that would largely be insignificant to the greater scheme of lore development? 

2. Staff outside of the Lore Team are often not privy to the intricate details of what goes on. This means that "Volunteer Editors" would need some kind of continious update on lore, in order for it to make sense. Can't have them approve an article that hosts an event on the Upsilon, but the article goes out after the Upsilon suddenly explodes? See what I mean? They'd need to basically be lore staff. 

This already exists on the Relay Discord. I'd rather encourage you utilize that forum instead of making an entirely new process. 

 

 

Great questions.

1. Any staff member can evaluate a story, and any community member with an editor role. This is more oversight than the relay. How do you answer this same concern about the relay? Right now i could go on the relay and write whatever i want. What stops me or corrects me?

2. If a story is written about the Upsilon and then it explodes, then new articles will have to be written talking about it, and saying any scheduled events around it were cancelled. This already happens a lot irl with covid. 

3. I dont want to just use the relay. Major elements should have some station presence. 

We already have newscasters. This has more oversight than any normal story an onstation journalist would write.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Marlon P.

[Marlon P.]

3 hours ago, Marlon P. said:

Major elements should have some station presence. 

To clarify, what i mean by this is I believe we should have to alt-tab as little as possible to use all elements of the game.

The same, someone who never installs discord should be able to engage with in-character things we put behind the NTrelay and other discords.

The forum falls under alt-tabbing.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Marlon P.

[Korinra]

On 04/11/2021 at 20:54, Marlon P. said:

Thank you for your post. I want to make sure I understand your criticisms.

Any player, at any time, can submit an article to be considered. They could even write one entirely in the Web Interface.

Are you saying that this would only be used by journalists, who themselves are rare?

No I mean more that players who read the stories are rare. There aren't enough people reading the stories to justify all this extra work in publishing them.

Edit: To be clear, not enough people who read the newscasters during the round. There are lore-wise stories posted out of game that people read, the newscasters really are just for during-the-round kind of stories.

Edited November 9, 2021 by Korinra
Added second line

[Marlon P.]

On 08/11/2021 at 23:33, Korinra said:

No I mean more that players who read the stories are rare. There aren't enough people reading the stories to justify all this extra work in publishing them.

Thats right. What stories exist:

1) are on the forum.

2) get wiped every round.

3) are auto-generated and have practically, though not literally, zero impact on a round.

On 08/11/2021 at 23:33, Korinra said:

Edit: To be clear, not enough people who read the newscasters during the round. There are lore-wise stories posted out of game that people read, the newscasters really are just for during-the-round kind of stories.

A story may average 10 - 20 readers per round if we assume half a highpop staff reads it. That story only lasts 2 - 4 hours.

Lore news made by the crew for the crew thats up and visible for a week or two at a time will have more interest and engagement. Players who write the stories will no doubt talk about them IC and get people reading them.

What do YOU think would draw attention and interest if players were given the power to write news stories for the crew on the newscasters?

[KingOfThePing]

I like the idea but how would you prevent people from shitposting/writing very conflicting stuff about existing lore? Through this editor role you mentioned?

[Marlon P.]

23 minutes ago, KingOfThePing said:

I like the idea but how would you prevent people from shitposting/writing very conflicting stuff about existing lore? Through this editor role you mentioned?

A great question.

Any player given the Editor role, or a staff member, can post a rejection of a submitted story in the queue.

On 04/11/2021 at 21:11, Marlon P. said:

A single rejection locks the submission from being uploaded.

 

On 04/11/2021 at 21:11, Marlon P. said:

A rejection can be overridden only by a member of moderation or administration. If the rejection is confirmed then the story is removed completely from the queue.

This means that if a story is found to be sus, it only takes 1 person to notice and have it paused until its given a review by a staff member.

Even stories that go live can be removed ICly or via a staff member.

Edited November 11, 2021 by Marlon P.

[KingOfThePing]

I think it's a great idea. The argument people bring "no one uses it" is also not a good one. Some things are not used because no one cares to engage people with it. I think this is a great way to make the newscaster more interesting. I'd have a million stories I would want to write.

 

Maybe after some successful or liked stories one can be something like a trusted editor? There are good options this can be moderated now that I think about it.

[Marlon P.]

3 hours ago, KingOfThePing said:

Some things are not used because no one cares to engage people with it. I think this is a great way to make the newscaster more interesting. I'd have a million stories I would want to write.

You're right, and I agree. I would also write stories.

3 hours ago, KingOfThePing said:

Maybe after some successful or liked stories one can be something like a trusted editor?

What would the difference be between a trusted editor and an editor? And would these be staff?

[Korinra]

12 hours ago, Marlon P. said:

A story may average 10 - 20 readers per round if we assume half a highpop staff reads it. That story only lasts 2 - 4 hours.

Have things changed where half of a round reads a newscaster? I thought fewer than two to three people would often read them at best.

[Marlon P.]

4 hours ago, Korinra said:

Have things changed where half of a round reads a newscaster? I thought fewer than two to three people would often read them at best.

Based on entirely anecdotal evidence I base these numbers.

More people read them even if they dont comment. I see people sharing newspapers. (Which themselves need a fix - another suggestion coming soon.)

[KingOfThePing]

On 12/11/2021 at 05:16, Marlon P. said:

What would the difference be between a trusted editor and an editor? And would these be staff?

No, I think it could be similar to the new PR system where people who have shown to be trusted with "moderating" this can have the same ability to veto a story. To take the workload from staff, you know what I mean?

[Marlon P.]

Is there any interest in this? With the growth of Slice of Life articles, it kay be beneficial.

[Marlon P.]

Sorry for the necro. I stumbled on the old 'antag objectives' thing when looking for something else and the structure of it could easily be adopted for a player ran newspaper.

Spoiler

 

With some modifications. Staff and player editors would have all the buttons currently shown. Players would see just the info on the left. Obviously terms and presentation would have to be changed, as well as where this stuff shows up. Rerouting these former antag objectives into the newscasters would be pretty good.

Also I wrote this one. The content is silly - still funny - and I'm more looking at the structure around it all.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Marlon P.