Reworking our recognition ranks

The way i see the LG vs Veterans admin power gap is that LGs should have CA powers while Veterans maintain their SA powers. I understand this may be a confusing or unpopular opinion, but i believe since the LGs are being treated like CAs already (forum access and whatever), theyre obviously being trusted enough with sensitive information, so they have the level of trust to have extra commands. This way LG is more of a prestigious rank as well, as these people not only did enough for the community to receive lifetime admin, but lifetime CA as well.

With this, i would propose reinstating the Veterans rank with admin powers, because as it currently stands the rank seems to be nothing more than a Glorified Honorable Gamer. Obviously people in the Veterans rank would be given a little more recognition than HGs, and since theyve earned the trust of the community and put those hours in to help it out, they should be allowed to maintain their SA powers.

Obviously the two suggestions i provided may be a disagreement point between the board and i, but i believe that changing the two ranks to fit the LGs with CA perms and Veterans with SA perms would give people that drive to continue working hard and well to earn a well respected and trusted spot in the community forever without having to climb to BD or Code for countless hours giving plugins, bots, and forum changes that push the community forward.

I'm gonna be honest, it kind of saddens me to see all these previous LGs that were trusted with some of the highest ranks in the past, and admin after they stepped down for the longest time, just for 67% of them to lose all their power they have to be demoted down to what pretty much simplifies down to is glorified honorable gamer. Many of these people have poured out their heart and soul for this community, devoting multiple hours of their free time, devoting to volunteering on an online gaming community, possibly skipping out on possible opportunities in their school, work, and social life. The community they loved before has turned into one that looks for things that usually don't and shouldn't matter in an online gaming community. Now most of them are left here feeling unappreciated, and powerless, because the Board didn't see them as Legend material who gets CA on the forums, so they get bumped down to glorified HG. LG has been a great motivator for many here as well, and the opportunity for LG has been thrown out the window for most of them. Wawa was literally a BD twice, has donated like $230 to this community which could have been spent on food or rent or whatever bs he has IRL, and he still continues to support the community with subscriber. And you guys aren't able to trust him with your highest level of recognition? There's multiple other examples like Wawa's that just make no sense to me personally. I don't want this post to come off as passive aggressive, attitude, or unprofessional, whatever the big boys in red hate seeing, but I'm going to be real with you, it's honestly sickening to see what's happening right now.

At least give Veterans SA powers so they can handle situations on servers, unless you don't trust your previous AO's, AT's, and BD's.

I have some varying opinions on this change and I'd like to respond to a few things being brought up in the thread. The main thing I'd like to start with, as it ties into my overall opinion on these changes as a whole, is that these ranks are meant for recognition.

I see quite a few people mentioning a lack of trust when it comes to the decision for Veterans not having admin powers. While I understand that the people split from LG may be upset about this change, I think it's best to look at it from an outside perspective. Of course, most server managers or longtime admins are trusted to administrate the servers. On the other hand, you stepped down. While you may be trusted with admin, Veteran (or previously LG) is not a rank for people to step down into and become lifetime SAs. As much as some people would like to push the admin powers thing, I don't see a need for them. If you intend to stick around and/or play on the servers you should be stepping down to a lower rank, not stepping down completely. If you stepped down previously and decide to come back and play on the servers actively again, you can apply for admin. That's really all there is to it in my eyes. I don't think this decision had anything to do with trust but with what the rank is for as a whole.

As for the argument behind Veteran being a "glorified HG", minus the negative connotation, that's exactly what it is. I think that's literally the entire point of a middle-tier recognition rank. If you get rid of the extra powers Legend has (which I'll cover next), it's a glorified Veteran. That's the point of roles built around praise or recognition for the amount of work you did. Elevation from one role to the next based on how much you did is literally what makes these ranks, I don't think that's really something to use as a negative in this case. At the end of the day, these ranks are here to recognize people for their contributions to the community, not reward them with extra perks. To be blunt, anyone asking for more than that just sounds entitled. We shouldn't be dedicating ourselves to the community for extra perks when we're ready to step down. We should be dedicating ourselves to the community because we love it and we want to make it a better one.

This leads me to my own suggestion, which I can see being somewhat controversial. On the flip side of giving Veteran's admin powers, I don't think any of these ranks should have them. It undermines the entire point of them. These are ranks meant to give praise to our staff members and honorable regulars that did their share to better the community. While I understand the desire for rewarding some of these people past a title and name color, I don't think it's necessary. I honestly believe that we should separate these ranks from admin completely. If a Veteran wants to come back and admin the servers they should be able to do so but they should also have to apply for an admin rank (or ask for it). The same goes for an Honorable Gamer or Legend just the same. This would give people the recognition they deserve, while at the same time, allowing people the opportunity to administrate the servers if they plan to still come around from time to time.

Legends having access to the CA section is really something I can see swinging either way. While I stick by my previous statement for server related powers, I think it's fair to say that anyone that's done enough to deserve Legend is worthy of having a voice in that section. The rank is made up of some of the most dedicated and hardworking individuals in the community's history. Suffice to say, their input is valued and appreciated.

I can't completely relate to all of you guys. I want to look at these changes objectively and see that we make the best of it. Obviously some of you have had the rank for some time. It comes as no surprise that you'd feel like you got the short end of the stick. To that end, I'm sure the Board made this decision with the community's best interest in mind. As Prez said before, these things get put out knowing there will be additional feedback. I very much doubt these ranks will be exactly as they are now if we look on it in a month.

they should all just suck it up like all us former supporters did when that rank was made obsolete.... things change and you need to get over it.... if you don't like it move on.

Grats on legend litkey

I have some varying opinions on this change and I'd like to respond to a few things being brought up in the thread. The main thing I'd like to start with, as it ties into my overall opinion on these changes as a whole, is that these ranks are meant for recognition.

 

I see quite a few people mentioning a lack of trust when it comes to the decision for Veterans not having admin powers. While I understand that the people split from LG may be upset about this change, I think it's best to look at it from an outside perspective. Of course, most server managers or longtime admins are trusted to administrate the servers. On the other hand, you stepped down. While you may be trusted with admin, Veteran (or previously LG) is not a rank for people to step down into and become lifetime SAs. As much as some people would like to push the admin powers thing, I don't see a need for them. If you intend to stick around and/or play on the servers you should be stepping down to a lower rank, not stepping down completely. If you stepped down previously and decide to come back and play on the servers actively again, you can apply for admin. That's really all there is to it in my eyes. I don't think this decision had anything to do with trust but with what the rank is for as a whole.

I find re-applying for admin pretty redundant, unless I have been gone for 6 - 12 months (in which case the person should go through SOME process). As well, I don't think SA and Veteran have to be mutually exclusive. SA is a rank, Veteran is a title.

This entire question can be resolved by allowing active veterans to request the rank of SA in addition to Veteran. This way you can step down to a lower rank and still retain this cool purple name :,)

I find re-applying for admin pretty redundant, unless I have been gone for 6 - 12 months (in which case the person should go through SOME process). As well, I don't think SA and Veteran have to be mutually exclusive. SA is the rank, Veteran is the title.

 

This entire question can be resolved by allowing active veterans to request the rank of SA in addition to Veteran. This way you can step down to a lower rank and still retain this cool purple name :,)

That's more or less what I was suggesting by the "asking for it" part of my post.

 

The lowest HIGHEST recognition rank you can receive is Honorable Gamer.

 

fixed it for you mate

I'd be willing to part with admin in exchange for the highly desired Kermit skin across all servers

No worries with this. Don't think I've used admin since the hyphen.net period started anyways.

At least give Veterans SA powers so they can handle situations on servers

After a bit of thought, this is what I keep coming back to.

In a nutshell, I'd rather have a group of veterans with SA powers on my servers than not. Worse case scenario, they aren't active anymore. Best case scenario, you've got a sleeper cell of admins who keep the servers clean and lighten the loads of !calladmin