I got denied rank today because my build wasn't good. Kind of pissed me off, but I can understand that people have differing opinions on what's good vs. what's bad. So. Perhaps the staff could make some example builds of what is a build worthy of a certain rank? You know, a novice build could look like Example 1. And that's about as far as I understand the ranks. If my Court of Hell or NageekEgel's and I's Noah's Ark, Pagoda, and Viking Ships do not qualify above the criteria of, "people who have played a while and shown SOME building talent," then I don't know what does. (The website said my MC screenshot was too large, I cannot upload a pic of my Court, but I did upload an old old pic of the Ark because it 'wasn't too large') So maybe the staff can build some stuff on their own to show us how it is done? I request though that each of the builds be built by a single person because that is how most people build and it gives you a fari idea of how good you have to be alone to get a rank. Until said things happen, I will grumble under my breath angrily and maybe even press the WASD keys a little harder than normal.
The main issue I had with you was that you were pushy. You continually insinuated that I was not paying you enough attention. I get asked to do quite a lot when I'm the only staff on. Yet when you said you wanted a rank for your build, I tp'ed to have a look at it. I was not talking due to the fact that I was maintaining conversations with other people but I was there. Another thing was that your original submission was rejected. I'm not entirely familiar with the current system yet but I do know that the way I'm meant to rank you is by reviewing your application. Since there was no application to review, the only way to rank you would be directly through the permissions system. I can do that but I prefer not to since a system is meant to be in place. I understand you could not apply at the time because your first application had been rejected. That is unfortunate, but you could have made a post about that with less animosity and it would've been considered fairly. As for whether your build was adequate, my words were "I'm not sure if I'd rank you up for this." I meant it that way. There was no euphemism, I was literally unsure whether that rank was worthy of Experienced or not. Had conditions been more straight-forward, I probably would've given you the rank. If you feel like that is not a fair assessment of your build, I have been known to be a bit strict on builds. But also, I genuinely feel that build was rather simplistic. Not as simple as some, hence the uncertainty, but I have seen far more elaborate and natural looking builds than it. Also, "Court of Hell" does not feel like a fair description of the build. I understand it is meant to be a place of torture but how can we really grasp the pain and misery of the place when it's mostly a dull grey. Hell sounds more red and fiery to me. Rather than take it as an insult, take it as a careful and calm criticism. As for my build, here is a screenshot: I appreciate natural building styles and plenty of thematic inspiration. A "Court of Hell" sounds like a cool idea, it'd just be cool to see it and think "woah, that looks creepy but still kinda impressive." In short, you'll cool off. Just try to understand that I'm doing the best that I can to make Megacraft what Blue's trying to achieve. Sometimes, when a change occurs, I'm not sure how to work with it and I lean on the side of caution. I just hope you have the strength to take the criticism without feeling hard done. If you want to earn the highest ranks on the server, you're going to have to keep criticising yourself until your happy with your building standard.
I am still kind of pissed, but I'll get over it. I however want to see what qualifies for each rank. I do not think that you or any of the staff can give rank w/out having a basis for comparison. I agree it (my Court) is a little lackluster in terms of space filled and finite details, unlike some of my other plots. However, I don't really have a way of knowing what needs to be added other than just guessing and I feel sort of 'done' with the plot, as in I don't want to invest anymore time in it because it has sucked so much out of me, probably because I don't use WE too much for anything (I believe this makes you dependent on mods to make your builds good, which is entirely untrue.) All in all, yes I was angry at you yesterday or whenever it was dooff, but I shall try and make my build more worthy of rank. I believe that there is a flaw in the system (which I have obviously found), where if a staff member believes your build is not done, then it should be removed from the queue. Problem is, there is no way of putting it back in the queue. (sad face) TL;DR I am sorry. Staff need clearly set and defined builds to judge other players builds against. Need to have a way of putting your build back in the queue.
Yes there is an issue of staff having different opinions of what counts as a good build. Maybe a voting system rather than single reviewers would make a more balanced system. @BlueFusion12 , to summarise, here's what I think could help: Add a way of balancing building standards of reviewers. Either a standard build to compare to || a voting system. Add a way that plots can be readded to the queue(or maybe just say why you don't let them). Squidnado =]
I liked the voting idea maybe before the player gets ranked up 3 staff members/reviewers would need to aprove it so their is more of a balance
The voting system would take longer for the plot to be reviewed... I would say a voting system for architect and maybe experienced.I don't know if it would really be needed for builder.
From what staff have been doing, we generally talk and ask each other what they think of the build before ranking people up in the first place. I have noticed that there wasn't a way for the person who was getting the review to see what needed to be changed, and such i have been leaving signs suggesting things that staff would like to see fixed. Naturally the ranks arn't going to be very simple to get, and having bad attitudes when dealing with staff who do the ranking dosn't really help anyone case in the matter. On the post that describes each rank gives us a vague idea on what to rank for, but we don't look for the cookie cut version of each thing. we interpenetrate the skill of the build with many different factors that go along with it. And if you dont get a rank, you can always try again. there are people who have had builds denied more than once, Do you see other posts with them complaining? or do they trust in staffs decision to rank them fairly? when someone gets denied do you see them ranting and raving or do you see them asking people who have been ranked to see their builds so that they can get a better understanding? The re-added plots thing as far as i know has been taken care of The voting thing would be interesting get individual input from more than one staff member? what like three strikes style? ( it would take longer, but it i guess it gives more than the verbal agreement of the judgement) @dooff_ Squidnado :3 @BlueFusion12
Lordy Jesus, I am catching a butt-ton of flak for this post. I will not take it down as some have suggested, and I want to address some things with this post. I have not changed a single word of the original post. How it is now is how it was when i posted it. I was not ranting and raving as most people over the internet seem to think when they read my post. HOWEVER. I wish there was a way that I could have been warned that there is no resubmition for plots and that the plot that I wanted to get my next rank with has now been rendered obsolete. I still can't resubmit plots (I just tried) and it is rather irritating being told afterwards by one person that your build is not worthy of the next rank up (not trying to be mean if that is what it seems like). It is also irritating for some people to be getting experienced, architect, and even reviewer ranks when I look at their build and all I can come up with as for how good their build is is, "Meh, it's alright." Also, several of the staff members that have seen my original appear to be taking it quite seriously, which is good, but please don't take this post or any of my posts personally. I am not pointing out a singular staffs fault, or any of the staff's fault for that matter. Again, I am not pointing out a singular staffs fault, or ANY of the staff's fault for that matter. I am not deliberately or unintentionally insulting anyone. I am not being cynical, snarky, sarcastic, hateful, angry, rude, bossy, bitchy, whiny, arrogant, condescending, belittling, and other synonyms when I make posts on the forum unless I say so in the text body. So please, for the sake of all things sacred and furry, stop responding as though I have called you all a bunch of eggheads! I love this server, and this post was to genuinely try and suggest some new ideas for the server as well as some solutions to problems at the time! Also, what is wrong with asking to see other people's builds to get a better understanding of what is considered an experienced or an architect level build? Generally when I do ask people if I can see their builds for whatever rank it may be, I am pleasantly surprised by what I see! So please, calm down and think before responding to this post in the future. Read it to yourself in a Morgan Freeman voice or perhaps in a tone of voice that you would hear at a jazz club's poetry reading (I use Morgan Freeman's voice when I am reading stuff, and it helps to create a more positive tone). Once again, I am not being sarcastic or jerky, I just want everyone to calm down and stop sending me death threats through the message board (nobody has actually done that, though I feel as that is what is coming next). Anyway, I know that was bit of text to read but please read it. I am waaaaaaaay done with this one-sided "Everyone vs. Portal" war that has erupted. I do not hate any of you (staff members), I do not even dislike any of you, and I don't want their to be any misinterpretations in the future! Thank you if you have actually read this post before responding again, it should certainly save some angry typing (hopefully). I might make this a separate post as well in order to get more people to see it. Sincerely and tiredly, -PortalPlayer
My first reply was in response to your behaviour on the server. While you didn't do anything against the rules, you did come off a bit rude. I guess it snowballed a bit from my response which is probably a bit unnecessary but I don't think my response was unprovoked. It's been a while now. Such a small issue should be sorted. I'm not going to hold a grudge. And I think everyone else will have settled or forgotten about it. On the plugin-based issues you're having, suggestions have been made and Blue has been tagged in this post. It really just comes down to whether he reads this or not. The rest of us can't do much more about it.
In response to this specific section, here is basically the thesis: The reason behind no plot resubmissions is so that someone doesn't submit the same plot twice.. obviously, but this is because I might come on and think a build is good, rank it up, and then the person resubmits it, and then dooff_ logs on and thinks it's good as well, and then ranks it a second time, while the person has done nothing to improve it. So you see where we are coming from with that? The only real way to solve that is not allowing people to resubmit the same plot. We cant just simply run this off of the honor code, because you might be the excruciatingly small minority of people who would use it honestly, while the other 99.99% would take advantage of it, and so yea. As for you thinking your plot deserves more ranks or other people don't deserve what they have, i have 2 comments: The system is primarily based on the staff's opinion, and while this can be a bit unbalanced, overall, most of our staff members have a pretty clear understanding of what deserves a certain rank, so I don't think it is a huge grey area. Any higher ranks we discuss more drastically, being the reviewer rank (which only 1 person has btw, not a couple) or artisan, perhaps architect if it is on the line.. As for your build that you have posted here, honestly, I wouldn't give you experienced for it, resubmit or not, :/ I just see very minimal detail. I guess that solves this whole ordeal, but I'm just saying. Anyway, hope this helps.
I understand. I thank you very much for your reply, and also thank you for a thought out bulleted list of useful information. The plot you see in the picture is from quite a while ago (September 19), and I doubt that I will use either of those plots anymore due to the fact that there isn't all too much more I can add. Anyway! I have lots of other plots that i am working on and these two are no longer an issue.
