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  1. #1
    Viator Mundi

    EXP: 155,108, Level: 17
    Level completed: 18%, EXP required for next Level: 14,892
    Level completed: 18%,
    EXP required for next Level: 14,892


    Shinsou Vaan Osiris's Avatar

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    7,753

    Name
    Shinsou Vaan Osiris
    Age
    34
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    Telgradian
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    Important update: Judging, Scoring and Judge's Choice changes

    Hello everyone!

    Today we are announcing some changes to the judging and rewards system. Althanas is unique in that the rubric we have, and our scoring and rewards system, has mostly been left unchanged for almost 18 years. As with all things that stand the test of time, there is a reason for this and with this in mind, we have been extremely careful to not change things for the sake of change, nor “fix what isn’t broken”.

    More and more over the years, the administrators have been discussing and debating behind closed doors on how best to adapt the rubric and our judging / scoring system to better reflect the way people write and play on Althanas in the modern era. The fact that these debates have gone on for the length of time they have done should tell you all that this type of change has been carefully considered, and not something we have rushed.

    Over the past few years, we have been taking stock of a number of factors, including site activity. We have noticed that member activity tends to come in waves, with older members taking hiatuses and being replaced in cycles by newer members. As a result, some judgment types have seen a decrease, whilst others have increased. As the main example, we are getting far less requests for full rubric judgments now, and far more basic reward and workshop requests, and as a result we find ourselves with some core sections of the rubric being made obsolete.

    With this in mind, we have decided to change the way we judge and score threads, as well as the way we recognise high-quality threads that would normally qualify for a Judge's Choice award. These changes are summarised below:

    Full Rubrics

    Full Rubrics have been the staple of our site for many, many years, but as writing and play styles change, so too does the demand for these more intense judgments. Although these judgments offer the opportunity to score up to 100 (increasing rewards beyond normal) and give members the chance to be nominated for a Judge's Choice award, there are fewer and fewer members requesting them. With this form of judgment being the most time consuming (for both the members who have to wait for them, and the staff who have to commit the time for these in-depth write-ups), we have decided to shelve Full Rubrics for non-competitive RP for the foreseeable future.

    Tournaments and Citadel battles will continue to be judged using this format.


    Workshops and Basic Rewards

    The most popular methods of getting rewards at the moment are by either submitting a thread for Basic Rewards (scoring 55) or a Workshop (scoring 65). The original purpose of offering a higher score for Workshops was to incentivise member feedback for those who wanted it, but essentially it has now become a quick "go-to" option for a better score, and we have often been left with a plethora of empty Workshop threads. It goes without saying that this somewhat defeats the point.

    With this in mind, both Basic Rewards and Workshop options will now both score 60 (this is an aggregate of the old basic rewards score of 55, and the workshop of 65, which we believed was the fairest way of making the change).

    Workshops will, for the time being, remain open but we will continue to review this. We would like to remind members that leaving feedback on an open workshop thread will earn you additional EXP and GP, and we encourage you all to use this function to not only net a few extra rewards, but also leave constructive feedback for the thread authors.


    The re-branding of the Judge's Choice award to "Althanas Choice"

    Most of you will remember the old Judge's Choice award (or a 'JC', as we often abbreviate to), but for the new members here, the basic premise of this forum is that threads of particularly high quality (on the old rules, scoring 75 or more on a full rubric and with a recommendation from a judge) would earn an extra EXP boost and a place in our very own hall of fame, the Judge's Choice forum.

    We recognise that the changes we've made above will have a destructive effect on the Judge's Choice award. With this in mind, we have come up with an alternative that fits the changes mentioned above, and will recognise the high quality threads and their authors in a manner befitting a JC award.

    We are therefore re-designing the JC award to be the "Althanas Choice" award.

    How this works:

    Any member that is NOT a participant can nominate a thread for the award, which is then put to the administrators. If at least one administrator (either myself, Philomel, Breaker, Lye or Max Dirks) gives it our endorsement, we put the thread to a 30 day public vote. If the public vote is at least 70% positive (on votes of five or more members (no alts)), then we will award additional EXP and GP to the authors, and place the thread in the Althanas Choice section. Be under no illusion that the AC will be our top award!

    Should all ACTIVE administrators be involved in a thread, the nomination MUST come from Max Dirks, the forum owner.

    The original Judge's Choice forum will remain archived and will be accessible as normal.

    Final comments

    We understand that changes of these kinds often provokes mixed reactions, especially from more seasoned or writing-focused members. As always, the most important people on Althanas are you, the members, and we work for you. We do hope that you understand the changes and please know that whatever your opinion may be, we will take stock of how these changes work and are received over the coming months. We will of course keep an eye on feedback and if demand for certain obsolete functions spikes and remains consistent, we will review the above.

    Please note that all changes above to scoring and the AC award are effective immediately.

    Thank you all for your time and, as always, stay safe.

    -Shin and Philomel-

  2. #2
    Viator Mundi

    EXP: 155,108, Level: 17
    Level completed: 18%, EXP required for next Level: 14,892
    Level completed: 18%,
    EXP required for next Level: 14,892


    Shinsou Vaan Osiris's Avatar

    GP
    7,753

    Name
    Shinsou Vaan Osiris
    Age
    34
    Race
    Telgradian
    Gender
    Male
    Location
    Corone

    View Profile
    Apologies, just a small edit that I have made to the above.

    - To clarify, a member CANNOT be a participant of a thread they nominate for an AC award.

    - Also to clarify, if demand dictates, we ARE open to the possibility of providing the full rubric option again (demand meaning a high and consistent level of requests for it). We are also looking at the way members submit for canon, as we understand that the lore of Althanas is an important factor to consider.

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