Phase 3: Decision 2004

[legacy-Flynn Flak]

Far and away the most vital aspect in the creation of the grandest community portal of all time is the Unreal Collective Election. This unprecedented opportunity bestows on every member of the community the power to shape the community in the direction they desire.

Every node in the collective will be operated by a team. These node operation teams will consist of a Director of Node Operations and a group of Node Operations Managers. The Director of Node Operations (DNO) will give the node direction, this person will decide what functions the node will perform and how those functions will operate. The Node Operations Managers (NOM), and the staff they appoint, will be placed in charge of the individual functions of the node by the DNO. The DNO is not in entire control of the node however, a 2/3 majority of the NOM's can both overrule a directive of the DNO as well as initiate directives of their own.

The DNO's will in turn be under the direction of the Collective Operations Director (COD). The COD, and the staff she/he appoints, will be responsible for the entire operation of the Unreal Collective. When the community initiates a change in the collective the COD will put that change in place. When there is a dispute in a node, the COD will settle the dispute at his/her discretion or bring the matter before the community. The COD will be responsible for providing the resources the DNO's require to operate their nodes. While the COD has the power to change any aspect of the collective, it is advised that the COD consults the community for major decisions.

As with the balance of power of the individual nodes, there is a balance of power within the collective. A 2/3 majority of the DNO's can suspend a directive of the COD and bring the matter before the community. However, the DNO's cannot initiate directives with a 2/3 majority, as they should concentrate their efforts on the operations of their perspective nodes. If the DNO's feel there is a matter that needs to be addressed they can petition for a community vote.

Which brings us to us, the individual members of the community, the most powerful members of the collective. Obviously we are not elected memebers of the community, yet we do possess the ultimate power to shape the collective. At any time, any member of the community may initiate a change in the collective. A member of the community may express their concern in the form of a petition. If they find the support of 200 other members of the community then the matter will be brought before the community in the form of an official vote. If it is decided in their favor the COD will be directed to initiate that change into the collective.

Just as the COD is advised to consult the community on major issues, the community is advised to consult the DNO in charge of the area they have concerns about. There's a good chance the DNO might not only agree with you, but perhaps even put you in change of what it is you want to see.

This diagram illustrates the structure of the collective:



The initial nodes of the collective will be:

Items in () are just examples, the DNO of each node will be responsible for the content of the node.

Events (tournaments, lan parties, demos, online parties)
Maps (spotlight, reviews, testing, packs)
Mods (editing, mods, muts, skins)
Clans (database, tournaments, challenges)
Game Time (server spotlight, ladders, challenges, strategies, training)

This should be a good starting point for the collective. It covers most of the community aspects of the game, yet isn't overwhelming. Once the collective is established it can be further exanded upon.

The first Unreal Collective Election will be held on Saturday, July 10th 2004 from 12:01am EST to 11:59pm EST.

The positions up for election are: 1 COD and 5 DNO (1 for each node). When the DNO's take office they will prepare seperate elections for the NOM positions they require in their node.

Anyone is elidgeble for any position. People can begin to campaign immediately. On July 10th at 12:01am, or any time after, anyone wishing to be elected for a position will start a poll with the title of the position they seek. They are more than welcome to restate their platform in the text of the message and it doesn't matter what poll options they input, the total number of votes will be counted. People can vote for as many or as few candidates as they choose. The person with the most votes for each position is the winner.

If you vote for every candidate, your vote will not affect the outcome of the election. However, you vote will affect the collective as it is a show of support to the collective in general.

I am aware some people do have multiple accounts. I can only urge them to vote with one account. Obviously the more moral community members vote the less impact less moral members will have on the election.

Once elected, the persons elected are in office until they resign, are removed from office by a community vote, or the next election.

[legacy-Turbidity]

:bulb: :up:

[legacy-M0rtus]

All sounds fairly ground breaking (and surprisingly high-brow for this place :P) but I'm still slightly sceptical about how it will all play out.

I'll keep on eye on things though, it sounds interesting.

[legacy-Flynn Flak]

"I'm still slightly sceptical about how it will all play out."

I think everyone is speptical about how it will play out, I know I am. Only time will tell. However, I believe there is no question that this can work. It plays out in thousands of corporations every day. The difference is, instead of money, the people working for the community get pride, satisfaction, and respect. Oh, I shouldn't forget, a great community to be part of.

The same pattern we currently have is repeated time and again throughout the net. Every other community out there is fragmented into hundreds or thousands of pieces. Members of those communities have to learn the primary places to find the content they are looking for. However, new members to the community can find that task overwhelming!

Take Linux for example. Someone completely new to Linux could take weeks just to figure out the difference between the different distributions.

Everyone working on projects for Unreal do it as a community effort. Well, why not focus all the individual efforts into one super powerful effort that is easier on everyone?

[legacy-M0rtus]

You're right; it's a very good idea. It's something I wouldn't mind being a part of but these days my time for gaming and online projects is short and I might not be of much use anyway given my total lack of modding/skinning knowledge.

I'm a relative UT n00b - a slightly above average player who usually scores highly on pubs but never really got involved with the clan scene. I come and go all the time, and this new community of yours sounds very intensive...

[legacy-Yourself]

:weird: :up:

[legacy-Flynn Flak]

"this new community of yours"

One final bit of clarification from me before I leave this matter up to the community at large. I say bit, but really, who am I kidding? Megabit is bound to be more fitting.

First and foremost, this isn't a new community, and it most certainly is not mine. What this actually is, much like the community it proposes to serve, is spread about in fragments among several threads. So I will sum it up in an effort to avoid further confusion.

Unreal Collective is measurement. It quantifies the Unreal community's desire to come together and work together to stay together. It is a dream, some say an impossible dream, that people can set aside their egos, their petty differences, their greed, and their apathy to create something for the benefit of the whole of which they are a part. It is a challenge. A gauntlet thrown down at the feet of naysayers to simply say aye and see if indeed aye is not the case.

On a much more simplistic level, Unreal Collective is a community portal unlike any other community nor portal before it. Rather than hundreds of individual sites, of varying quality and agenda, spread out across the corners of the internet, each with their own following of fractured shards from the community at large... Unreal Collective would be a singular entity that serves all the functions currently being served in one place, as well as they can possibly be served, in the way the community as a whole would like to have them served.

Unreal Collective is a tool. It provides a way for the individual memebers of the community who have worked diligently to provide a service to the community to focus on exactly what it is they want to do. A person who writes a tutorial on importing static meshes from Maya shouldn't then have to get webspace, create a webpage, publish the tutorial, and then try to advertise it to the community. A person who makes a map shouldn't then have to upload it to dozens of sites and hope a couple of the more popular sites give it a chance and post it with a review. Most importantly, a person who sees how one aspect of something could be done a better way shoudln't have to recreate the entire process in another form that competes with the original and further fragments the community.

Unreal Collective is a service. If you've played UT for years and suddenly wanted to try some new aspect of the game you've never tried before, be it modding or just mods themselves, clans, tournaments, or perhaps just a new server with a different atmosphere what you search for would be but a click or two away.

Above and beyond all esle, Unreal Collective is you. The structure exists only to provide continuity. Unreal Collective is you using it. It is you seeing something you could do and doing it, even if it is something that only takes a couple minutes. Perhaps you played a new map the other night and think the one review it got didn't do it justice. Perhaps you see a button somewhere that could be done better if you just changed the lighting on it a bit. Perhaps you just find a clan you like, join them, have a good time on their server one night that someone just happens to be there to gather information and write a review for a server spotlight article, they then publish a review of the server and a new member of the community reads it and gives the server a shot, they end up having so much fun they tell their friend about it who's never played before and the community just grew by another person simply because you were able to find a clan that looked interesting to you.

What Unreal Collective is not is simply a good idea that won't happen. It is as real as you want it to be. All you have to do is want it to be real, believe it can be real, and let other people in the community know it can be real. You have to be interested in it, and your interest will inspire others to be interested, which will yet motivate others to make it real. There are people out there right this very minute doing far more work than this would require. With far less to show for it. With far less results. They will continue to work alone in obscurity, in the belief that someone somewhere sometime might just stumble upon the service they have provided unless they know about this collective and can see that the community is interested and realize this is a better way of doing things.

Right now, this very minute, Unreal Collective is possible. It is. If you can see that, if you can put aside your apathy and your doubt, and make even the smallest effort, just a thumbs up reply, I think you will be amazed at the results. The dumbest thing you could ever do is say this is a great idea that can't happen, if you think it is a great idea then it can happen.

[legacy-teh roxxors]

Somebody needs to get a life.

You geeks know that there are public offices you can run for in the real world? Instead of spanking your collective monkeys in cyberspace, you could participate in local government and maybe even do something worthwhile for once in your pathetic lives.

[legacy--Loric-]

For someone who wants to make a democratic-run mod, these organisational propositions seem pretty much dictatorial to me!

As in you come up with a structure and names without resorting to public approval this time, Flynn Flak.

[legacy-Turbidity]

This definitely does sound good...however, many people are against the centralization of game news sources on the net. I think i've read a few articles about that being the reason so many people hated gamespy near their beginning...they tried to centralize game news. Good luck though, and here's to the least amount of opposition possible! :up:

[legacy-Flynn Flak]

Originally posted by teh roxxors
Somebody needs to get a life.

Searching through a few of your most recent posts I see that you are a hateful person desperate for attention. I'm not so sure it isn't you that would benefit more than I from getting a life.

As for doing something productive, anytime you see something that can be improved and you do nothing to improve it you are being counter-productive. This would improve the community, making it more efficient and enjoyable. Meaning people would get more out of the recreation time they spend playing UT, and as a result more productive when they are not.

I often wonder why people like you are the way you are. As much as I would like to see this community come together and transform itself, I'd even more like to know why you are so angry and spiteful of your fellow man. If that means dragging this thread with the noblest of intentions down into the deepest regions of flamewar hell, so be it. What is your problem?

[legacy-Flynn Flak]

Originally posted by -Loric-
As in you come up with a structure and names without resorting to public approval this time, Flynn Flak.

I have only sketched out my most basic idea of an initial structure so that there would be something to work with. The person's entrusted by the community, and the community itself can take this structure and bend it to their will.

[legacy-Deadsheep]

The idea sounds good, even promising especially the way you describe it so eloquently. There are lots of great ideas tho. The implementation of those ideas are usually where everything falls apart and nothing gets done.

I predict the voting process you described is going to be chaos, where obvious idiots who only want to draw attention to themselves or to simply **** on the whole idea because they didn't think of it, are going to make a mockery of the whole thing.

Maybe I'm being negative. Or too much of a realist. And, yeah... maybe I could be more positive and try to figure out a way to make it work, but honestly, you need strong leadership and organizational skills from the get go to make something like this get past the initial "ground floor."

Without that, it's just yet another good idea that failed because of lack of leadership and initiative.

[legacy-audi2honda]

Man I'm to lazy to read all that, but did RO win? They get my vote

[legacy-Varsity]

It seems to complex: just go for Wiki set-up and let everyone have *equal* rights, based on postcounts to stop smurfing. I'm pretty sure I could code a system like that.