Class re-evaluation.

[Morgan Evanar]

This post isn't the most well thought out or coherent statement, but I think its probably worth something so bear with me. I've been shorter on time lately, otherwise I would put a lot of effort into this.

Anyway.

The classes are a great idea, but really, we have the wrong people running them, in some cases. Sage pulled his regular dissapearing act, and Helen is really busy. They're not present enough to effectively run a class. I'm a little mad at them that they haven't had the presence of mind to state "I am not here enough (or not at all) and can't run the class."

Troubleshooting that sort of thing all the time is difficult.

As a group, we need to look at what we want to accomplish. I think the classes are really helpful for teaching Padawans the basics, but we need to decide where they are and what we need to to improve them. I'm especially looking for feedback from people in the classes. What is being done right? What is being done wrong?

[Rognan Dar]

I agree. I think the classes are a great idea. And better because of the huge list of people that are masterless. I think there needs to be a few more poeple that are interseted in this thing to help it stay going. That way everyone is not depending on one or two people to run the show.

And feed back woulb be good too. I was wondering how that whole thing was going out but didn't have the time to read up on it.

[Figrin D'an]

For the Jedi History class, I'm seriously thinking about writing an abridged history that covers the important stuff, posting it, and having the inititates read it. Then have a thread for questions and discussion. It'll work 800 million times better, IMO.

[Morgan Evanar]

Go for it, Newton.

[Estelle Russard]

Very good idea.

[Ryla Relvinian]

Very good idea. I personally find it difficult to run even 5 people in an OOC writing class because they're at so many different levels.

I'd want to do a similar thing to Fig (honest, bud, I'm not copying!!) i.e. Write up a guide (with input from y'all) and then have people read it rather than have a class.

I'm interested in how the IC combat classes are going... I think that with some more work they could still be useful.

[Wei Wu Wei]

I like Figrin writing a Jedi History thing and having Initiates read it, but doing the same sort of write-up for other things, like combat, telekinesis, etc would not work. It would be like those martial arts books you find at the bookstores. They offer some interesting insight, but aren't really that helpful.

[Rognan Dar]

I agree with Wei. Reading how to do a fight isn't the same as reading history. Combat and other (present) things would, I think, have to be learned through trail and error. Not through text books. Still like the idea.

I have been going over one of my own (hope no one minds). I have been thinking for the future, when I become a knight, that I might want to try and start a youngin's class teaching. Where I take all the kids that are at the GJO and do a kind of pre-school of the ways of a Jedi. A few other and I have been brain storming this idea and we thought that it could be worth it. I'm bring it up now because I would like to hear if this would be alright with the council. And I'm sorry if this draws this away from the topic at hand.

[Falcon Gyndar]

That sounds neat, Rog. I already gave you my two cents and position on this over AIM.

It seems a lot of issues are based on availability.. Now, myself, whom I consider to have no life in RL at the moment, am obnoxiously available. If I come up with anything, I'll be sure to say.

[Morgan Evanar]

There is a terrible lack of feedback from the people who need to give it most- the people in the classes! Where are you?

[Rognan Dar]

Thats what I was wondering...Maybe you need to post a bigger sign?

[Morgan Evanar]

If you have any suggestions I'd be happy to do that.

[Zeke]

I've got Inu in Figrin's class, but he's currently going through some plans I've had for ages, so he may leave before it finishes. I liked it the way Figrin was running it; only problem is the other students just didn't post. :\

[Morgan Evanar]

Thats a shame. I'm glad there is some sort of feedback, though. Thank you, Zeke.

[Zeke]

No problem. I may run around to the other class threads, check 'em out, and give you feedback if I get the time. It'd be this Thursday at the earliest, Sunday at the latest. I can hunt 'em down myself, but if someone has links, that'd be nifty.

[Rognan Dar]

Originally posted by Morgan Evanar
If you have any suggestions I'd be happy to do that.

Well, is the people that have taken the classes still around? I dontk now who was all in them so I dont know if they still post as those characters. But if there were enough of them still, I would think that I "Must read" thread might get more attention. Having the title be something like: "All class padawans report here" or something.

[Zeke]

Looked over the all the other classes, and this is what I've noticed.

The teachers all demonstrate command of their subject matter. The tasks they set on the students is not unreasonable, and their questions/teachings are relevant to the class. The problem in every case is that the students have either all disappeared, or there is some hang-up where the teacher has neglected to post (or was waiting on students to post that didn't). All I see stopping this whole class bit is lack of motivation to post, which is a damn shame, if you asked me.

[Rognan Dar]

It might just be that the students were away from some time and those that are not on often might foget about it. Its a shame anyway you look at it. But maybe what you need to do is jump-start the system and get classes rolling again. I'm sure that there are many new people that have signed up. Would starting over be a good idea?

[Zeke]

If we don't fix this posting apathy problem, then the answer to that is no. We hafta make sure that the teachers who commit themselves to this will follow it to the end, and that the students will also stick to it and not decide to just drop out or lose interest.

[Leten Snat]

I'm in the combat classes, and I've just stoped paying attention to the classes since nothing has been going on in there. I am really disipointed that they didn't take off, but when the teacher only does 1-3 posts it really makes it hard to keep intrest in the class.

[Garen Selore]

My wife is in one of the classes (I dont remember which one), and since she was just starting on RPing, she got fed up, and turned off of RPing due to the fact that she only ever completed a small number of the threads she was in, since people just stoped posting on almost all the threads she was in.

She said that if every IC thread she was in could be deleted and she could start the same character all over again, she might come back to RPing, but even that doesn't look promising.

[Zeke]

Realistically that will never happen. If she wants, she can create a new character that ISN'T Mitara and try again, but there's gonna be incomplete threads regardless of how hard you try to finish 'em. These threads just happen to be a bit more important than your standard RP, so it's important that we make these things work.

[Morgan Evanar]

I've never been afraid of writing around someone who's decided to stop posting. IMO its far more rude of them to not post than it is for me to ignore them.

[Dae Jinn]

Originally posted by Garen Selore
My wife is in one of the classes (I dont remember which one), and since she was just starting on RPing, she got fed up, and turned off of RPing due to the fact that she only ever completed a small number of the threads she was in, since people just stoped posting on almost all the threads she was in.

She said that if every IC thread she was in could be deleted and she could start the same character all over again, she might come back to RPing, but even that doesn't look promising.

If I wanted to quit just because of my not finished threads, I would have stopped rping long long ago. I would suggest the same thing as Zeke, but maybe say find a group of people who you can have/plan rps with that have the same kind of direction planned for their characters (Like a group, or just a bunch of people you get along with and enjoy writing with). Nudging people via PM or IM also works.

As for the class idea...I haven't posted anything as a Jedi really, so I can't have much of an opinion on it. I thought it was a good idea, but if people don't post, there's nto much you can do about it.

[Rognan Dar]

So then the main problem is people not posting. But is that due to the students or the teachers?

[Mitara Sinar]

Originally posted by Garen Selore
My wife is in one of the classes (I dont remember which one), and since she was just starting on RPing, she got fed up, and turned off of RPing due to the fact that she only ever completed a small number of the threads she was in, since people just stoped posting on almost all the threads she was in.

She said that if every IC thread she was in could be deleted and she could start the same character all over again, she might come back to RPing, but even that doesn't look promising.

I would like to extend on this, since Garen didn't really do a good job a grabing the whole picture. I'm not posting IC because...

1) I got fed up with every thread I was in dying.

2) The people that IC I got to know the best, droped off the face of the earth, leaving me back at square one, with getting Mitara IC Friends.

3) After the classes started, I found myself not really being able to RP any other threads because I didn't know what Mitara learned in the training thread, and this didn't know how to alter her skill set to compensate.

4) I had to take care of Garen IRL after he got draged by the car, got him better, got married, when on the honnymoon, competed in a 3 day long kickboxing tournement, and by the Time all that was over I had forgotten WTF I was doing/done with Mitara IC! So I droped it.

Would it be alright to say that Mitara went back home when she didn't meet up with Garen. If we can say that I might bring her back in with Garen's going home thread.

[Ryla Relvinian]

Sadly, a lot of people's threads get the smack-down from the lazyness monster. I am most certainly not exempt from the beast's deadly powers.

That said, you are allowed your own creative liscense in terms of continuity. I have dissapeared for months, made up a thread on the fly and had it work to explain my absence, both IC and OOC, so it can be done.

However... And I need to hear this sometimes too... creating a character is really up to you. I know that seeking out training can be a pain because we all have busy lives, mine more so as of late with my full time school and increased hours at work, but character development is really in your hands. Don't be afraid to PM people for reminders and try to stir things up a bit. Randomly snag someone in the B&G to meet new people, or run into a master in the halls... I'm open to meeting new people and working on character development. :)

[Helenias Evenstar]

Sadly, a lot of people's threads get the smack-down from the lazyness monster. I am most certainly not exempt from the beast's deadly powers.

Please add the beast of much more to do than time will permit. That is why I keep on dropping off the end of the planet.

[Dae Jinn]

Originally posted by Mitara Sinar

4) I had to take care of Garen IRL after he got draged by the car, got him better, got married, when on the honnymoon, competed in a 3 day long kickboxing tournement, and by the Time all that was over I had forgotten WTF I was doing/done with Mitara IC! So I droped it.



You can always keep a notepad (the computer version, or use an actual one -- I use the latter.) with all your rp info in it.

[Estelle Russard]

Originally posted by Ryla Relvinian


However... And I need to hear this sometimes too... creating a character is really up to you. I know that seeking out training can be a pain because we all have busy lives, mine more so as of late with my full time school and increased hours at work, but character development is really in your hands. Don't be afraid to PM people for reminders and try to stir things up a bit. Randomly snag someone in the B&G to meet new people, or run into a master in the halls... I'm open to meeting new people and working on character development. :)

Such wisdom - to Ryla you listen.

[spada]

yea so i dont forget i put all my char info in the vpad for my user cp. (thats what its there for right!?). I think the real problem is that the amount of Padawans coming in doesnt match the number of Padawans either graduating or dropping out. I happen to get very annoyed when a person dissapears and makes everything confusing. I would suggest that you create a set standard of graduating Padawanship. Heres my two cents;

1) give people a little time to get used to the forum and IC
2) Create set # of lessons required completed to become a Jedi.
3) Get people in contact with all kinds of skills so they can choose which they want and so they wont waste time training for pointless things.

also people need to get more in contact via AIM. That is what I think keeps a thread together because every thread that i have contact with the host in stays until the end of the story.

[Morgan Evanar]

2) Create set # of lessons required completed to become a Jedi. This will never, ever happen. Never. Nor does it make sense.


3) Get people in contact with all kinds of skills so they can choose which they want and so they wont waste time training for pointless things. The person roleplaying the Padawan should know what they want.

Edit; to clarify. While a set number of classes would remove any arbitrary thought, your first goal should be trying to roleplay your character. There are several people that we're waiting on to promote because we need their go to say when the character is ready. So a set number of glasses gives someone who wants to powerboat a free ticket to knighthood. Won't happen.