Transcript of meeting between players and Unk on Saturday Feb 10, 2001: This transcript is presented largely unedited: only irrelevant spam has been deleted from it. For those looking for a timescale for the meeting; its duration was almost exactly two hours and thirty minutes. Unk says: Ok: the format of this meeting is roughly going to be: Norbert seems to fall, but takes a step and recovers. Galeck whispers something to Wyndalen. Tron says: huh?? heard my name. did I meiss something? Unk says: I'm going to bring up a couple of things which I'd like to ask the players, then I'm going to open things for players to ask me questions about future developments on DR. Wyndalen whispers something to Galeck. Rakhir seems to fall, but takes a step and recovers. Norbert looks drunk. Norbert seems to fall, but takes a step and recovers. Unk says: First off, I'd like to ask the players here whether they feel it's easy enough to get meaningful contact with the admin on issues regarding the game which they're concerned about. Unk says: And if not, any ideas they might have as to improve this. *War raises his hand!! Unk says: (If nobody raises their hand, I'll assume the admin are doing something right here.) Unk says: Ok....War? Rakhir burps. War says: Yes, I think the admin is doing a wonderful job, but some people for some crazy reason think you guys are unapproachable... War says: I'm wondering how we can fix this misconception. *Rakhir raises hand and foot Norbert hiccups. Unk says: Rakhir? Norbert hiccups. Tron rejoined the game. Rakhir hiccups. Tron lags. Rakhir says: I'm thinking you might want to put idle time after the title, so players know how long you've been idle... Norbert seems to fall, but takes a step and recovers. Rakhir says: that way, players can see which wiz to approach. Norbert nods. *Norbert raise hand War agrees with Rakhir. Unk says: Norbert? Norbert says: sometimes when you get a smart ass answer to your question it can be discouraging Norbert seems to fall, but takes a step and recovers. Unk says: What sort of thing do you mean there, Norbert? Norbert says: just that players dont automatically know everything about the game Norbert seems to fall, but takes a step and recovers. Unk says: Are you thinking in terms of a rules context, or otherwise? Norbert says: no rules just try not to talk down to the player *War raises his hand like Horshack on "Welcome Back Carter"..ooooh ooooh Mr. Unk! Wyndalen says: May I give an example? Norbert nods. Tron has disconnected. Unk says: War, first, then Wyndalen. Tron rejoined the game. Tron has connected. Wyndalen smiles and nods. War says: I think the thing here, is that some wizards don't realize that some of the people asking questions are either newbies or people who haven't been around in a while, and confuse them with smart-asses like myself.... Norbert seems to fall, but takes a step and recovers. Unk says: Wyndalen? Norbert nods. War says: as a result, the questions can sound "smart" instead of being truly inquisitive. Norbert hiccups. Norbert burps. Wyndalen says: When I was a newbie, I died in newland, and so I asked a wizard (an elder, but no longer active) if there was a place I could regenerate in newland. Wyndalen says: His response: "Um, the church?" Unk nods. Wyndalen says: I felt pretty dumb after that, but I was really new here, no more than level 4. Hastur arrives. A disk of energy gently floats in after Hastur. Rakhir has disconnected. Wyndalen says: And still, I don't think there's anything in the newland temple to tell new players that they can regen there like they can in the oldland church here. :) *Boudicca raise hand Norbert seems to fall, but takes a step and recovers. Unk says: Wyndalen, that has been fixed now. Unk says: Boudicca? Wyndalen says: I realize that this doesn't reflect on the current admin, but we're all people, so we may so something without thinking about it, so that's why I gave this example. Unk nods. Wyndalen thanks Unk. Boudicca says: nevermind Boudicca pouts. Norbert hiccups. War giggles. Norbert burps. Unk says: I guess what I''m getting here is a feeling that we shouldn't assume mortals know as much as we might expect...any comment on that? Hastur raises an eyebrow. *War raise hand Norbert agrees with Unk. Unk says: Hastur, then War. Tron nods. Hastur says: any plans for the mage guild? Norbert burps. Unk says: That's something we can come to a bit later in the discussion. Hastur says: ok Unk says: War? War says: Well, I'm an immortal, and I still don't know near as much of DR as I'd like, so I'd give that assumption a resounding "YES!" War says: There's areas I've never even seen. Rakhir rejoined the game. Rakhir has connected. War says: oops...eternal...not immortal War giggles. Unk says: Ok. Any other concerns about contacting the admin? For example, use of the boards? *Norbert boards are good War agrees with Norbert. Unk says: Any further comments regarding making it easier to see idlers? Any wizard want to comment on that? Norbert looks drunk. Messiah says: yes and yes Unk says: Messiah? Messiah raises an appendage. Norbert seems to fall, but takes a step and recovers. Norbert burps. Hastur raises an eyebrow. Messiah says: i believe it would be nice to see idlers ... so if there is an immediate problem the non-idlers can help first. Norbert agrees with Messiah. Norbert burps. Messiah says: basically agreeing with rakhir :) Emrys raises an eyebrow. Unk says: Emrys? Emrys says: The wizards have discussed this at the last wiz meeting and we all wanted to do it, the only questions were about the details of how it might work and what the defaults would be if it were made an option, etc. Unk nods. Norbert looks drunk. Emrys says: I'm not sure if the implementation is on my list or Unk's, I think it's Unk's... any idea on a timeframe if that's so, Unk? Unk says: Perhaps we should get together and bash out a system at some point over the next few weeks. Galeck raises his hand. Freya says: (I think Hastur got skipped) Unk says: It was sort-of on my list, but sort-of waiting for agreement on how we wanted to do it. I can code it in an hour or so if I have to. Unk says: Oops. You're right: Thanks, Freya. Unk says: Hastur? Hastur says: how about idle time in who list? Norbert seems to fall, but takes a step and recovers. Unk says: I think that would be one of the options we might consider if we want to go over this thing again and bash out a plan for it. Hastur nods. Hastur says: ok Messiah raises something. Norbert looks drunk. Unk says: Galeck? *Norbert raise hand Galeck says: sometimes I'm just not typing here on DR, I'm coding in another window or something like that, and am still able to help and would like to... I'd like to be able to indicate that in some way (i.e. not show myself as idle) Emrys raises an eyebrow. *War raises his hand. Unk says: Messiah? Freya raises her hand. Messiah says: in addition to the idle, how about for coding/mudmailing? example would be Sen [Messiah] for coding/mudmail Messiah says: if we are in edit mode Messiah says: it isn't idle per se, but would be informative in case we'd 'miss' a tell Unk says: Hmm. The only negative about that would be that I think (particularly with ftp) a lot of coders aren't in edit mode when coding. Norbert hiccups. Unk says: And with 'missed' tells, we do at least have the 'tells' command for reviewing tells. Messiah says: true. but if they send us a tell and don't get a response...just scenarios Unk nods. Messiah is finished. Unk says: Norbert? Norbert burps. Norbert says: i was wondering who is the over all approver of these ideas and is it going to happen Unk says: There's not any one person. Usually the admin try to come to a majority view, preferably reflecting the views of the wizards and players in general (if that's reasonably practical). Norbert says: do you put it to a vote? Norbert hiccups. Norbert burps. Unk says: If it has to be, we might. Usually we'll prefer to discuss, and if possible, come to a compromise between differing views. Norbert nods at Unk. Unk says: Obviously, we don't always get it right, but I think we try. :-) War nods. Unk says: War? Norbert seems to fall, but takes a step and recovers. War says: Ummm, I might be over-simplifying it, but what if, just as a rule of thumb, wizards who aren't available(whether idle or coding), just make themselves invisible? Norbert hiccups. Norbert agrees with War. Unk says: That would certainly be a possibility, if we could persuade wizards to do that. War nods. Unk says: Freya? Norbert burps. Freya says: ok, I can give part of an answer to that, War Freya says: Since I often go afk cause I lose use of my hands to the baby, I tend to use the afk -