Max Dirks
02-11-09, 02:03 AM
Two big announcements for you guys today:
First, you may have noticed two new bold names on the member listing. That's right, Taskmienster and Tainted Bushido are now Althanas' newest administrators. Taskmienster is replacing Bloodrose, who recently stepped down as Story Administrator and Tainted Bushido is filling a vacancy as our new Content Administrator. Congratulations go out to both!
In other staffing related matters, Witchblade has stepped down as Head RoG moderator to focus on Dheathain (so check for some sweet changes there) and Ataraxis has retired as Head Judge. He'll be sorely missed. Inkfinger has been hired to to replace Ataraxis as Fallien writer. Raelyse has also retired as a judge to focus on his schooling. Even though they've been with us for awhile now, please also welcome Ebivoulya and Mathias as judges, Caden Law as the Raiaera writer and Viola Conda as the new? bazaar moderator. Wow, can you keep that straight? Check www.althanas.com/world/showgroups.php for a forum based listing of all the moderators and their contact information.
On that note, we're looking for new RoG moderators, a Scara Brae moderator, two judges, two features moderators, and an OOC news writer to fill all the vacancies left by our retiring staffers. If you're interested in any of these positions, please fill out an application and PM it to me!
Second, in order to combat our current judging backlog and to give players more control over their own writing, Althanas is instituting a new judging system effective two weeks from today. The integration should be seamless and results should be noticed immediately.
From now on, when you submit threads for judgment you will see a drop down box with a couple of judging options: A workshop option! If a you choose the workshop option, your judge will create a thread in the new Althanas Workshop forum (to be made as a sub-forum of the RPC) where anyone, yes anyone, can critique your writing. Think of it as a "rate my RP" thread for everything you complete. While your fellow role-players offer praise, criticism and suggestions, a judge will grade your thread using a "condensed rubric" (see below). The presumption is that a judge will be able to grade your work quicker to grant rewards, but will defer commentary to the player's evaluating your work. Please note the judge's decision is independent of what's written by fellow players. This will also be a good way for the staff to pick out potential new judges! Standard Althanas rules of conduct apply, so while you can be critical of other's work, you can't flame or troll.
The condensed rubric. You can thank the now defunct League of Extraordinary Intrigue for this one. The staff realizes that there are those of you who just wish to RP with little interest in the writing development side of Althanas. There are also those who are tired of waiting for judgments and would rather receive rewards to build their characters. The condensed rubric is for you. Under the condensed rubric, your thread would be expedited (usually to a less experienced judge) and you will receive a simple judgment much faster. The condensed rubric consists of the general categories of our main one:
Story (out of 10)
Character (out of 10)
Mechanics (out of 10)
There is a total of 30 points under the condensed rubric, with no wild card. We have not adjusted the EXP formula for the condensed rubric, therefore, the score will be adjusted to fit the 100 scale using the following formula: (score/30) x 100
The standard rubric, with limited commentary. This, per usual, will be the standard for judging tournaments, ToW, and other features related events. Since there is no need to submit those threads for judging, commentary will be added only upon special request (or necessity).
The standard rubric, full commentary. Did you know it can take a skilled judge upwards of 8-10 hours to take thorough notes and judge a long thread of any writing quality? As such, don't expect a quick judgment on this one. Only the most experienced judges on Althanas will take on such a task. Don't worry though, this format allows the judge to give extensive reasoning for his or her decision which will help you grow as a writer the most. Consider it one on one time with a judge so it's worth the wait for those of you who are interested.
So those are your new choices, I hope you like them. Because of the nature of the drop down box, we'll be reverting to our old system of submissions. You'll barely notice the change save for one minor detail: you'll no longer be able to check the status of your thread using your userCP. Instead, a moderator will PM you when he or she claims the thread and you can contact them directly with inquiries related to its status. This applies to all four judging formats listed above.
The change will be effected on February 25th, 2009. If you've submitted a current thread and we haven't judged it by then, we'll give you full commentary on the thread (or what you requested in "add user comments" portion of the judging submission page). If you'd like to change to a condensed rubric or workshop, please let Taskmienster know.
If you have questions, comments, suggestions, please let us know in a reply. Thanks!
First, you may have noticed two new bold names on the member listing. That's right, Taskmienster and Tainted Bushido are now Althanas' newest administrators. Taskmienster is replacing Bloodrose, who recently stepped down as Story Administrator and Tainted Bushido is filling a vacancy as our new Content Administrator. Congratulations go out to both!
In other staffing related matters, Witchblade has stepped down as Head RoG moderator to focus on Dheathain (so check for some sweet changes there) and Ataraxis has retired as Head Judge. He'll be sorely missed. Inkfinger has been hired to to replace Ataraxis as Fallien writer. Raelyse has also retired as a judge to focus on his schooling. Even though they've been with us for awhile now, please also welcome Ebivoulya and Mathias as judges, Caden Law as the Raiaera writer and Viola Conda as the new? bazaar moderator. Wow, can you keep that straight? Check www.althanas.com/world/showgroups.php for a forum based listing of all the moderators and their contact information.
On that note, we're looking for new RoG moderators, a Scara Brae moderator, two judges, two features moderators, and an OOC news writer to fill all the vacancies left by our retiring staffers. If you're interested in any of these positions, please fill out an application and PM it to me!
Second, in order to combat our current judging backlog and to give players more control over their own writing, Althanas is instituting a new judging system effective two weeks from today. The integration should be seamless and results should be noticed immediately.
From now on, when you submit threads for judgment you will see a drop down box with a couple of judging options: A workshop option! If a you choose the workshop option, your judge will create a thread in the new Althanas Workshop forum (to be made as a sub-forum of the RPC) where anyone, yes anyone, can critique your writing. Think of it as a "rate my RP" thread for everything you complete. While your fellow role-players offer praise, criticism and suggestions, a judge will grade your thread using a "condensed rubric" (see below). The presumption is that a judge will be able to grade your work quicker to grant rewards, but will defer commentary to the player's evaluating your work. Please note the judge's decision is independent of what's written by fellow players. This will also be a good way for the staff to pick out potential new judges! Standard Althanas rules of conduct apply, so while you can be critical of other's work, you can't flame or troll.
The condensed rubric. You can thank the now defunct League of Extraordinary Intrigue for this one. The staff realizes that there are those of you who just wish to RP with little interest in the writing development side of Althanas. There are also those who are tired of waiting for judgments and would rather receive rewards to build their characters. The condensed rubric is for you. Under the condensed rubric, your thread would be expedited (usually to a less experienced judge) and you will receive a simple judgment much faster. The condensed rubric consists of the general categories of our main one:
Story (out of 10)
Character (out of 10)
Mechanics (out of 10)
There is a total of 30 points under the condensed rubric, with no wild card. We have not adjusted the EXP formula for the condensed rubric, therefore, the score will be adjusted to fit the 100 scale using the following formula: (score/30) x 100
The standard rubric, with limited commentary. This, per usual, will be the standard for judging tournaments, ToW, and other features related events. Since there is no need to submit those threads for judging, commentary will be added only upon special request (or necessity).
The standard rubric, full commentary. Did you know it can take a skilled judge upwards of 8-10 hours to take thorough notes and judge a long thread of any writing quality? As such, don't expect a quick judgment on this one. Only the most experienced judges on Althanas will take on such a task. Don't worry though, this format allows the judge to give extensive reasoning for his or her decision which will help you grow as a writer the most. Consider it one on one time with a judge so it's worth the wait for those of you who are interested.
So those are your new choices, I hope you like them. Because of the nature of the drop down box, we'll be reverting to our old system of submissions. You'll barely notice the change save for one minor detail: you'll no longer be able to check the status of your thread using your userCP. Instead, a moderator will PM you when he or she claims the thread and you can contact them directly with inquiries related to its status. This applies to all four judging formats listed above.
The change will be effected on February 25th, 2009. If you've submitted a current thread and we haven't judged it by then, we'll give you full commentary on the thread (or what you requested in "add user comments" portion of the judging submission page). If you'd like to change to a condensed rubric or workshop, please let Taskmienster know.
If you have questions, comments, suggestions, please let us know in a reply. Thanks!