As you all know, MLG_JV has decided to give us our own regular user group here for our BR, with a colored name and everything. What needs to happen now is we need to decide on some guidelines for admittance. As one of this room's mods and contacts with JV I have taken it upon myself to get this whole thing started, but it should also be a collective effort from the whole room. You guys have a say in deciding what it takes to become a member of your room, because it is your room. It was given to you by JV at your request, which is a pretty awesome thing for a forum of this size.
As for the admissions guidelines themselves, this is what I've come up with so far. I feel like I've already thought of most of the important stuff, but of course if anybody has any more suggestions, I'm all ears. Here's basically what I see being put in the Workshop soon:
Preliminary Admissions Rubric
I'd like to reiterate here how important the Contribution requirement is to our room and our project. I know that once this group gets set up the actual admissions should still remain fairly low. I was given the example of 5 members being admitted monthly, and I think that's a fairly good starting point. Lower numbers being inducted (without being too stringent) will help us by making membership something desirable, promoting users to be on their best behavior if they want to join our group. This is why we have to make sure our applicants are going to be committed members.
Now, the important part, especially for you all, is how you want membership admittance to be conducted. In other Smash BRooms, users similarly fill out applications for admission, and when I was in the SBR there was a corresponding nomination/vote topic for all the people applying during that round of admissions. In the Forum BRoom, which I'm in now, they nominate people more passively, based on members' own observances about a user's posting style/quality, and nominees are then subject to more open-ended discussion as opposed to straight voting, though that often comes in after everyone's had their say. I'm in favor of a very formalized process incorporating as many of these things as possible. I'd like for people to take the initiative to apply to join the room, and show us they have what we're looking for in a new member, but past that things are very open for discussion still. I think it's important for us all to talk it all over concerning the applicants, so everyone is together on where we stand about different people, and then we vote if necessary. If any of you have any other ideas don't hesitate to speak up.
And of course, handling pending admissions is the last step in the process. Currently, whether JV is going to give one or more of us mods direct leadership of the user group and control of member admissions remains to be seen, as far as I know. Suggestions are of course welcome here, too.
That's all I have for now. Discuss.
As for the admissions guidelines themselves, this is what I've come up with so far. I feel like I've already thought of most of the important stuff, but of course if anybody has any more suggestions, I'm all ears. Here's basically what I see being put in the Workshop soon:
Preliminary Admissions Rubric
- Forum Name: self-explanatory
- Characters played: also self-explanatory
- Smash Brothers Tournament Experience: Not just Brawl or Brawl+ mind you, but all Smash games.
- Interest and Contributions: This is the big one. JV says he really wants for new members to be active and contribute to the project. Now, with this project steadily getting closer to our "Gold Release," the scope of the room could change slightly. We might start looking at more people involved in the greater community as an outreach to more players, or top players to start helping us chart the metagame. Whatever the facet of skill or knowledge we're looking for, however, the core requirement of admittance to this room should always remain Contribution.
- Links/Examples: This is where the users get to show off a little. We have them show us posts or topics where they demonstrated their knowledge or discussion abilities.
I'd like to reiterate here how important the Contribution requirement is to our room and our project. I know that once this group gets set up the actual admissions should still remain fairly low. I was given the example of 5 members being admitted monthly, and I think that's a fairly good starting point. Lower numbers being inducted (without being too stringent) will help us by making membership something desirable, promoting users to be on their best behavior if they want to join our group. This is why we have to make sure our applicants are going to be committed members.
Now, the important part, especially for you all, is how you want membership admittance to be conducted. In other Smash BRooms, users similarly fill out applications for admission, and when I was in the SBR there was a corresponding nomination/vote topic for all the people applying during that round of admissions. In the Forum BRoom, which I'm in now, they nominate people more passively, based on members' own observances about a user's posting style/quality, and nominees are then subject to more open-ended discussion as opposed to straight voting, though that often comes in after everyone's had their say. I'm in favor of a very formalized process incorporating as many of these things as possible. I'd like for people to take the initiative to apply to join the room, and show us they have what we're looking for in a new member, but past that things are very open for discussion still. I think it's important for us all to talk it all over concerning the applicants, so everyone is together on where we stand about different people, and then we vote if necessary. If any of you have any other ideas don't hesitate to speak up.
And of course, handling pending admissions is the last step in the process. Currently, whether JV is going to give one or more of us mods direct leadership of the user group and control of member admissions remains to be seen, as far as I know. Suggestions are of course welcome here, too.
That's all I have for now. Discuss.
