Raistlin's Round 3: Welcome to the Frontlines

And by that, of course, I mean the frontsite.

The Good

First, I'll give the positives. I like the integration of the site and the forums. It seems to work smoothly and, most importantly, makes it much, much easier for non-Editor members to help out. I remember a couple of years ago when I was trying to help out tuh by coding my own FFXIII stuff, and it was an extra hassle that the new system has all-but eliminated for a variety of the most common submissions. Now, any clueless dimwit can create an article on the frontsite, and a staff member can publish it with the click of a button.


The Bad

Now, for the bad. This morning I noticed there was a new Letter from the Producer for FFXIV, and so keeping my promise to help out with that stuff, I wrote up a piece for the frontsite and had BoB promote it. Just now, I Google'd FFXIV info posted within the last day, and the first couple of pages are devoted to the latest news, but... nothing from EoFF.

EoFF is not a legitimate news source. It's just not. I'm not sure how many people outside of the forum read EoFF's news, but I doubt it's very many. I think that is the biggest hurdle EoFF faces right now, and the staff needs to address it.

For that, I think there needs to be more Editors actually doing work. Lately I've seen Freya posting a bit of everything and BoB posting the occasional FFXIV stuff, and that's been it. That's not nearly enough.

I think there needs to be more Editors who are more focused. Editors could still be free to write about anything, but I think it might be best if an Editor had a focus on one category of FF/Square news. For instance, someone could be the MMO guy, the FFXIII + spinoffs guy, the KH guy, etc. You could require each Editor to have a Google alert for their category. And, of course, maybe 1 or 2 Editors who focused mainly on articles. Focusing Editors helps keep their workload someone limited to prevent burnout, while also better ensuring that the specific news will be reported by making each individual responsible for a certain area.

This would require a fair number of Editors, but I think running the frontsite is a more pressing issue than running the forums right now, as it's the most important aspect of getting new members. There should be more frontsite staff than forums staff, to be honest.


Game Content

There's also the issue of FF game content. This is a tougher issue to tackle than doing the news, because we're entirely dependent on volunteered, user-generated content. I think one big thing to do when a new FF comes out is to start working on stuff when they first start playing the game, whether it's a full walkthrough, a boss guide, or an overview of a sidequest or minigame. I know I was personally kicking myself when I didn't start working on my now-mostly-completed mark guide in FFXIII when I first started doing marks.

Encouraging this is obviously difficult. But maybe a little event could be held, like a Let's Play, except not for just a month, where the people that play the game and submit content can compete for certain little prizes or titles or privileges awarded to the people who submit the best content (both quality and quantity).

And now I'm starting to ramble on and on, so I'll stop here.

EDIT: Jesus, that is longer than I thought. I'll break it up into sections so it's not such a wall of text.

Roogle and I discussed your first negative point back at our first meeting in January. Or maybe it was at the second meeting. In any case, getting ourselves into Google as a news site is an important first step.

The issue with having more Editors is that nobody really wants to do it, and of the handful of people who do want to do it, very few of them could actually do it. I think it's a sad fact we might have to live with. Until we actually get the manpower, EoFF Editors are going to have to either bust their asses or just watch as we slip farther and farther behind. I do agree quite strongly with your idea that we should have different Editors with designated fields to worry about, it makes it a lot less work per person. That being said, I have Square Enix and Final Fantasy both set up as google alerts and there isn't an overwhelming flood of news. As I have said elsewhere, having people who can go out and generate news is what we really need.

This whole event is my secret way to get more editors :D How many people want to be an editor? Not many. How many want to be a Ck? Loads! By having this round as the third, not only do I have the people who worked hard to get here but also who would care about the site. At that point having them do something FOR the site shows if they'd be willing to help me out when in staff.

I actually just brought that up IN staff that in my google alerts, nothing pops up. BLOGS pop up before us. It's something we need to change. Speaking of those, I have it for FF, SE, mistwalker and KH. To be honest there isn't as much news about the different stuff as you think. Not only do we need to report on news but we need to generate it as well. I agree with more editors. I've been kinda campaigning/complaining :shifty:

Oh I know there isn't really all that much news, which why it shouldn't be a problem keeping up (even with one Editor handling multiple categories). But there's still a lot that we miss, which your posts in the Round 3 thread have highlighted. I have the urge to just write a ton of news articles, but I don't want to be unfair to other competitors. I will still definitely write some more though, as at this point I need to put my money where my mouth is. :p

I've always thought EoFF should never really just post news, as why come to us when you can go to IGN or Kotaku or a bajillion other general gaming news sites? Insightful comment and content about news should be the direction we take. I'm not the boss man though!

I agree with Psy. We get most of our news from those sites anyway and just re-post it. However, I think we could have more news commentary. This takes more effort though.

Random blogs about FF topics appear in my Google alerts, fyi. It's not all news. It's what we do with our features, but it gets more attention. I need to figure out how though.....

Seriously, ask Roogle. He knows. We discussed it.

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Originally Posted by Raistlin

I have the urge to just right a ton of news articles, but I don't want to be unfair to other competitors.

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Disqualified.

Wow, I can't believe I did that. xD In my defense, my hands are possessed and sometimes type things of their own accord, unrelated to my intended message.

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Originally Posted by Psy

I've always thought EoFF should never really just post news, as why come to us when you can go to IGN or Kotaku or a bajillion other general gaming news sites? Insightful comment and content about news should be the direction we take. I'm not the boss man though!

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That's also a great idea, but it still requires finding and posting the significant news.

Also, dear readers, I have an immunity award that I can use on myself or on someone else for this round, which makes it very interesting. I'm planning on writing an article tomorrow, and that plus my news work should hopefully be enough for me to survive this round -- and if not, then the staff was going to eliminate me next round regardless. So I think I should award someone particularly entertaining. The two people I'm considering right now are Bleys, because of his amazing FFV revisited thread, and krissy, because he's always hilarious and might not make it past this round otherwise.

I think Bleys would not like it if you used an immunity on him. That may be even more a reason to use it, though.

Just showing up to say that I think you're doing a great job in this contest so far, and if you weren't actually Raistlin and blacklisted for life by most of the membership, you'd probably already be staff. :p

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Originally Posted by I'm my own MILF

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Originally Posted by Raistlin

I have the urge to just right a ton of news articles, but I don't want to be unfair to other competitors.

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Disqualified.

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The irony, man. The irony.

I agree with the commentary thing. I always find news with commentary more enjoyable anyway.

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Originally Posted by Pike

Just showing up to say that I think you're doing a great job in this contest so far, and if you weren't actually Raistlin and blacklisted for life by most of the membership, you'd probably already be staff. :p

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It might seem a bit weird to you considering you've only been active relatively recently, but I spent a good amount of time in the 2004-2005 timeframe being a deliberate thorn in the staff's side for my own amusement. Which is why I couldn't help but laugh and give kudos to the 2005 April Fools prank, even though it got everyone worked up to the point that some people (including Bleys at the time) left EoFF for many years -- because they deserved to get one over on me. Ironically though, considering that I used to be the poster boy for the "good ol' days," (or maybe it's not really ironic, but I'm exhausted and had a little to drink and need some sort of segue) I've probably cared more about EoFF in the last few years than I have since the EzBoard. Maybe the downturn in activity helped spike a realization that I really don't want anything to happen to this place.

I'm not sure where I was going with that. Anyway, thanks. :)

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Originally Posted by Del

I think Bleys would not like it if you used an immunity on him. That may be even more a reason to use it, though.

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If you couldn't tell from our team's name in round 2, my personal entertainment is far more important than Bleys being happy. :D

Hm, that was profound and from the heart. So when exactly did you take over Raistlin's account, BoB?

You're so smurfing sentimental, Raist.

My post tricked Raist into showing his softer side! Just as planned! :mwahaha:

What a sneaky sneaky robot

Is this what I get for saying something nice??? I'll be sure to stick to calling you all jackasses from now on. :mad2:

Raistlin, would you like a huggle?

Hypothetical question. You've just won this contest and are now Eyeson's Next Cid's Knight. Naturally, the first thing you do is go into the staff forum and search your name. You get about 5,000 posts as a result. After reading every single one (I know you would) you find a not very flattering picture painted of yourself. In fact, it may at times be downright insulting. Many personal digs have been taken at your intelligence, your compassion, and your hygiene. What would you do?

That is actually a very good question. But I would laugh and get over it; hell, I would probably get a kick out of it. I really don't take things personally, and I'm sure most of the comments there were in response to me trying to provoke some sort of reaction some years ago. If there's one thing I can do, it's laugh at myself (and write love poetry to Neil deGrasse Tyson, but that is not relevant to this post). And in some hypothetical bizzaro world where that actually happened, that would probably mean the staff was also passed it.

Plus, can there be anything worse in there than Shlup has already said to me personally (and publicly)? :p

You'd be surprised.

No I jest, it's really not that bad.

He's lying, they are always saying you smell of farts.

I'm sure that's all Shlup blaming me for her own!

Oh, and I suppose I should decide who to save with my immunity, because this round might end in a day or two. I figure I should save Bleys on the off-chance that he might be cut, just because he's so fun. The only other people I'd care to save are involved in the Thunderdome already competing for immunity. Well, and Vivi22, but as he's my pick to win, I'm refusing to accept that he'd need any help this round.

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Originally Posted by Raistlin

Oh, and I suppose I should decide who to save with my immunity, because this round might end in a day or two. I figure I should save Bleys on the off-chance that he might be cut, just because he's so fun. The only other people I'd care to save are involved in the Thunderdome already competing for immunity. Well, and Vivi22, but as he's my pick to win, I'm refusing to accept that he'd need any help this round.

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Give me your immunity.

If you were still in this round, I would have considered it, if only to confuse people.

So I'm writing an article about sexism in Final Fantasy. I was hoping to be able to complete it today, but I had a headache most of the day, so I only have an intro and outline done so far. I think to give the subject any fair treatment and analysis, it's going to have to be fairly long. But I hope it will be a good discussion starter.

Get what you can done and make it a two-part thing if need be.

I should be able to finish it in time, or at least a good draft of it. But making it a two-parter might be a good idea anyway.

The staff understands the tight timeframe for this event. If you send us something incomplete we will at least get a sense of what you are going for.

Whew, submitted. It's fairly complete, at least for a draft. I tried to balance coverage of the major female characters with brevity, which resulted in me giving a bit of a short shrift to FF8-10, but I think my main point got across. I couldn't go into too much detail on why this is significant, because that is a whole article by itself, and this was already pretty long. I hope it'll make an interesting discussion topic on the forums, at least.

So I made the cut to round four, which is apparently the final round. Am I the only repeat finalist (not counting Bleys as the last mystery contestant)? Of course, that's probably because almost every other finalist last time was made a CK at some point. WK, Shiny, MILF, Rye....

Vivi22 is still my pick to win. Quin and Sephex are my dark horses. They don't have the FF-forum posting and Editor potential that Vivi has, but they're both active and well-liked.

Gobo is a repeat as well.

Sephex is pretty active in the lower forums, don't underestimate him.

How could I forget Gobo?

And I put Sephex in my top three and called him a dark horse to win! I don't think that's underestimating him. But I'll make my repeat finals run-down/smack talk/SERIOUS TIME analysis of all the competitors tomorrow night.

Wouldn't it be great if you and Bleys won.

Considering you've been in the staff forum, you should know how wildly unrealistic that is. :p Bleys seems to think he'll never be considered, but I think he could be if he stuck around. He definitely has more to offer EoFF than most of the membership. After all, there's a reason he was one of the most valued admins back in the day.

Just because it's hopeless doesn't mean a man can't dream :(

Raistlin, I have two concerns about you being in a position of power on the EoFF staff that I would very much like to discuss with you.

When it comes to General Chat, I actually quite like you. You are an easy going chap who can take a joke and give a joke. You are one of the better posters for sure. When it comes to Eyes on Each Other, however, you are a complete and utter bell end. You incessantly argue pointless and inane things endlessly. I am convinced that although outwardly you may appear like it is not a big deal and you are trolling, deep down inside you are a stubborn son of a bitch and genuinely want to crush your e-opponents into the dust. I thus have a fear that if you were in the staff forum, you would endlessly drag out debates and make the staff dither and not do anything. What say you?

You may also recall a certain TOP SECRET SHAMEFUL FORUM that Eyes on FF used to possess. You held its existence over the staff and quite gleefully publicised its existence. I do not believe this was out of any attempt at whistleblowing, more just to cause difficulty for the forums staff. There are a lot of TOP SECRET things in the staff forum which nobody would want publicised for the sake of mischief and/or scoring e-political capital. Given your history of blabbing top secret information, why could you be trusted to maintain those secrets?

Gauntlet: Thrown!

EDIT: I was going around asking people Serious Questions but Psy has kind of outdone me before I even tried. Way to blow, Psy. :( But all the same, questions, questions...

1. Redirection. Do you think you can handle being on staff? I mean, you always like to have a go at us. Who will you turn to should you be on staff?

2. Pranks. What would you do if you had to pick between being able to do pranks on staff (and other members) and being on staff?

3. Serious Business. When arguments get heated and people are getting agitated, how do you go about getting things back in control? Think of this as both within staff and between members in EoEO or whatever.

Fine, we can ignore my fourth round thread and stay in this one. Bastards. :mad2:

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Originally Posted by Psy

When it comes to Eyes on Each Other, however, you are a complete and utter bell end. You incessantly argue pointless and inane things endlessly. I am convinced that although outwardly you may appear like it is not a big deal and you are trolling, deep down inside you are a stubborn son of a bitch and genuinely want to crush your e-opponents into the dust. I thus have a fear that if you were in the staff forum, you would endlessly drag out debates and make the staff dither and not do anything. What say you?

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May I ask what you consider "pointless and inane" that I argue in EoEO? Because I can be very uncompromising on certain passionate issues of mine, which I personally consider of great significance. Most of which you're probably familiar with, such as religion/atheism, criminal justice, free speech, science, etc. As The Newsroom likes to say, there are not two equal sides to every story, and against certain arguments (like "all cops are great people; we should just give them a break"), I will not pretend there are. I do not throw my atheism, for example, randomly in everyone's face, but if there's a thread on a relevant issue for public discussion, I think it's important to discuss it. I think Huxley and I generally have pretty similar attitudes on this issue.

That being said, I'm aware that historically I've had a problem with letting these sorts of arguments go, even once they're beyond hopeless. That actually has something I have consciously tried to change over the past few years, and I think I've done a pretty decent job, at least from my perspective. There have been several less-than-rational people in certain EoEO threads, such as the police brutality thread, that I just gave up on and stopped posting responses. I'll say my piece, but I don't want to sit there repeating myself over and over.

Now, unless you want to start talking about how great Obama is on civil liberties issues in staff, I just don't see this as an issue. My posts in the B^3 forum and in mock-staff discussions of this and the last competition are much more representative of my actual interactions on forum issues. BoB has worked with me on tGA and other projects, admittedly fairly long ago, but I don't remember being much different. I care about EoFF, but I learned long ago from the 2005 prank that it's not worth the emotional investment to get worked up over.

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Originally Posted by Psy

You may also recall a certain TOP SECRET SHAMEFUL FORUM that Eyes on FF used to possess. You held its existence over the staff and quite gleefully publicised its existence. I do not believe this was out of any attempt at whistleblowing, more just to cause difficulty for the forums staff. There are a lot of TOP SECRET things in the staff forum which nobody would want publicised for the sake of mischief and/or scoring e-political capital. Given your history of blabbing top secret information, why could you be trusted to maintain those secrets?

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I think this is a very strange way to characterize the events. I did not intend to "hold anything over" the staff; in fact, the former existence of Eeyore's Corner is, if anything, only an indictment of my staff and not the current one. When I first started discussing it, I was not aware Eeyore's previous existence was a secret at all, and then was given conflicting messages about whether or not it actually could be discussed (with most staff not seeming to care). Then I posted about it in my CK comp blog (originally thinking that only staff could read it), and none of the staff seemed to have a problem. In fact, I thought we had a very informative conversation. As for whistleblowing... why would anyone else have even cared? You seem to be inferring an intent on my part to bring some sort of shame on the current staff that I absolutely did not have; in fact, my whole point was that it wasn't something to be so ashamed of, but understood in context.

As regards to "TOP SECRET" life-or-death info, I'll just say that I take my promises very seriously. I couldn't work as a lawyer-in-training with tons of clients if I didn't. I have gotten quite used to biting my tongue in public, especially when I was doing civil litigation work. And to be honest, I can't even begin to think of a motive where I'd want to "leak" information. I think EoFF has matured and mellowed out quite a bit over the past 7-8 years, and I am just not the same drama hotspot I was in 2004.

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Originally Posted by BoB

1. Redirection. Do you think you can handle being on staff? I mean, you always like to have a go at us. Who will you turn to should you be on staff?

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I would just yell at Shlup for everything. So basically, what I already do now. And what would I possibly not be able to handle? I am not going to have some sort of meltdown xD (unless it's March and Del's in on it :shifty:). Plus, these questions make it obvious that it's you all who's concerned about handling me. :p As if I was just constantly plotting the ways to make all your lives' miserable. Please, I only do that on Tuesdays.

Anyway, I assume you're referencing my old LJ rants about dealing with certain unnamed people at FG and tGA? Oh, those were the days. As I said earlier, EoFF is a much more mellow place now, and I can't even imagine getting that irritated. If I did, I'd quit in a heartbeat. Dealing with murder cases definitely puts EoFF into perspective.

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Originally Posted by BoB

2. Pranks. What would you do if you had to pick between being able to do pranks on staff (and other members) and being on staff?

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I would certainly refuse to be on staff then, even absent any desire or plan for any pranks. If I was seriously given that choice, then that wouldn't be a staff or even a forum I would want any part of.

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Originally Posted by BoB

3. Serious Business. When arguments get heated and people are getting agitated, how do you go about getting things back in control? Think of this as both within staff and between members in EoEO or whatever.

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I like this question, and it's something I've worked on in legal debates. It's too easy for people to talk passed each other using vague language or undefined terms. The first thing to do is narrowly lay out what the points are, so that everyone knows exactly what everyone else is talking about. Then, to rein things in, the important thing is to find some common ground. Maybe it's not even a specific common goal (though that would make things easier), but a common value that they want to achieve, and work from there. Within a generally good-natured staff that's only here because they like EoFF, that really shouldn't be too difficult (I know this sounds a little vague itself, but I can't think of how to articulate it any better without specific examples).

Well, that or I'd make fun of Shlup's saggy boobs.

So considering these are all apparently still issues of concern, I think it's safe to assume the decision's been made to cut me. I look forward to my chance to three-peat in 2014! :D

I made the decision to cut you before this even started. :p

I will say in all seriousness that we do try to give as much a clean slate for this competition we can. For some it is more difficult than others, but you would not be in this final if you did not show us something in the challenges.

We've been grilling plenty of other candidates too, don't you worry.

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Originally Posted by Del Murder

I made the decision to cut you before this even started. :p

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Well yeah, I know that! I meant officially.

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I will say in all seriousness that we do try to give as much a clean slate for this competition we can.

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I WILL BE THE JUDGE OF THAT: How many staffers have threatened murder, suicide, and/or resignation if I'm ever even considered? If it's under 3, I think I've made progress!

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

We've been grilling plenty of other candidates too, don't you worry.

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Pffft, I'm not worried. I have never shied away from criticism.