Proposal: abolish rank transfers and promotions

[Dasquian Belargic]

In the early days of this community existing, ranks and promotions were a big deal. New members had to prove themselves and over time, often years, build up to the point where they would be promoted to the rank of Jedi or Sith Master. I know that it was a big deal for me, years ago, when I was promoted to a Jedi Knight. Getting to wear that rank like a badge that demonstrated people respected my characters journey and trusted me as a writer? That was so cool.

That being said... I personally don't believe that this system makes sense for our community anymore. We do not have any formalised rules around character progression, if we ever did, and instead tend to favour a narrative-focused roleplaying format. We have evolved a lot over the decades (!) that this community has been in existence, but some of our basic rules haven't.

For this reason, I think we should do away with the notion of rank transfers and 'promotions' altogether. In their place I'd propose we have a single rule (wording not ideal, but hopefully the theme comes through):

You can play whatever rank you like, but we would ask that you think of a credible backstory to explain your choice, and that you consider the wider community narrative when writing here.

What do you all think?

EDIT: Also, just incase it wasn't clear.. I think this should apply to any new characters, whether it's new people joining the community or old-timers creating a new character.

[Droo]

I agree completely.

[Emelie Shadowstar]

I’m all for it. 👍

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Sounds sensible to me. Having the single requirement be that the backstory makes sense and that it fits into our setting is both simple and elegant, in my opinion.

[Satkia Beltrak]

I love the idea; but I am unclear on how it goes when we wish to progress a currently-existing character.

Would we be supposed to seek feedback from admins/mods? Speak to the faction leaders if we change the character's position/rank as story progression? :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

IMO, if you think narratively that you’ve reached that rank, just become the rank? I don’t think we need to have stamps of approval from the staff or whoever. If you play a Padawan and feel like you have reached the point in their story where they become a Knight? Just become a Knight. Maybe you want to roleplay out the change with a ceremony or something but I don’t see that as essential.

I think the only time this wouldn’t make sense is if, say, you want to become the Empress herself - or maybe the ruler of a particular planet or whatever where someone else already is. You wouldn’t want two Moffs if wherever.

Narrative above every else, I suppose?

[Satkia Beltrak]

Thanks, Jenny! It makes a lot of sense; but I wanted to get a better feel of this possible (awesome) change!

[Bette Davis]

Sounds good. Hope you all like the sith masters I'm about to unleash!

;)

[Fredal Rabeak]

Hi, I'm Freddie Rabeak! I'm fifteen, and now I'm the new head of the Alliance of Free Planets! Yaaaay!

=P

But, yeah, I agree with being able to play what you like. Though if someone suddenly puts in a character which changes the balance of power dynamically, then it might be best to talk to them and see if things can be worked out.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Absolutely. For existing posters I think that should happen pretty organically.

For new members, we may need to hold their hands a little but that’s par for the course when it comes to introducing people to the galactic context and such.

[Satkia Beltrak]

If/when this change is implemented, would all the permission groups may thus become un-moderated, instead of having the higher rank ones requiring one of the group leaders to grant the request?

I guess that my poor brain is being all practical, besides the general storytelling squeeee-fest in it. ^__-

[Kiimiti Taassaurra]

I'm completely in favor of this

[Dasquian Belargic]

If/when this change is implemented, would all the permission groups may thus become un-moderated, instead of having the higher rank ones requiring one of the group leaders to grant the request?

I guess that my poor brain is being all practical, besides the general storytelling squeeee-fest in it. ^__-

Probably? I think that would make sense.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

So long as we keep a close watch on things, and monitor the permissions groups I don't have a problem with it.

[Miranda Tarkin]

Agreed on that.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

If the permissions groups are to be unmonitored then who is keeping a close eye on them?

[Satkia Beltrak]

I know the permission groups are a "technicality" but like many, I do like those nifty little tags for my characters. That was why I was curious about how if there is no more rank/promotion in the semi-formal way there currently is, they would work, still be monitored or not.

I'm always happy to discuss character progression with relevant people if I create new ones or have them gain a new position if need be.

My brain always comes up with weird questions. >.>

[Miranda Tarkin]

Would we as staff monitor the requests?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The way they are now the Knight/Master/Admiral tags are moderated by a trusted member, I think either a full staff member or a group mod. TBH I don't see why we would change that, even if a formal promotion or rank transfer system is abolished?

[Zeibura Kal'Nett]

100% for this idea :)

If I'm following correctly, would a centralised "Permission requests" thread allow us to keep the permissions tags semi-moderated and make it easy to keep an eye on if the need arises?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

As it is you can pick whatever usergroup you want in your profile settings, only some are moderated by members of that group (and board admins) before you get the tag.

Of course, those people have to actually LOOK at the requests every once in a while.

[Miranda Tarkin]

I would make sure the writer attached to the permisson group is still active under that name. If not, grant it to the most logged in user name so requests are seen quicker.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

After looking through the list, I'd say that 90% of the writers are indeed active.

It could be that we whittle down the number of P. Groups that need approval? Maybe just keep the levels of Master (for both Jedi and Sith) and Admiral (for Alliance and Empire) as needing approval?

[Dasquian Belargic]

I’m not sure I see the need for moderating any of them, if we remove the need for people to prove ranks?

All they do is give people a custom title, right?

[Dasquian Belargic]

If there are no objections, I say we go ahead with this now.

[Satkia Beltrak]

-thumbs up-

[Aliya Shalynn]

Sounds good!

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Works for me.