Post by Ed.Venture on Jun 14, 2015 10:11:08 GMT -5
UPDATED 6-17-2015
We will be changing how this crew operates meets to address some of the issues we had with invitations at our last meetup. I also hope that these changes will eliminate the need for reservation lists and setup the sessions to truly operate on a "first come, first served" basis. I'll outline the changes below...
1. No more "invite only" sessions.
As was witnessed at our latest meet, we can't rely on Rockstar to get their poop in a group and ensure that a lobby host will have the ability to invite everyone to a meet. We tried everything in our power to remedy issues with the invite system. We had the host restart his game, we had clients restart, we jumped sessions... not only did any of this do nothing to fix the issue, it actually made it worse. The answer to this problem for me is using the closed crew session feature. From now on if someone wants to join a meet, they are free to do so at the designated time, provided that they have The Bullshifters set as their active crew. This is a caveat that we haven't enforced before, but it seems to be the only real solution to people getting locked out. You can set the crew to active and join the host who should also have The Bullshifters set as their active crew. That's the nature of a closed crew session. All participants must have The Bullshifters set as active in order for the matching to work. In this way a host can send invites when he see's people come online (so long as they wear the BULL tag), or as mentioned before, you as the player can just join the host. This will help with managing getting people in as well as making the sessions more accessible.
2. Recruitment is... Openish.
We nearly tripled in size almost over night after we became a Rockstar featured crew. Honestly, the first meet we had after bringing in a lot of these new folks left me wondering how many of these people actually "get it". As in get what the crew is about, or get how we do things. So, we will be working on that with the member base that we have. Anyone who is a consistent problem (see rules and regs) or is identified as being a disruption to an otherwise good time will be taken aside. This crew has an identity, and I aim to keep it. That said, after a bit of reflection I don't think that closing the doors completely is the right thing to do. We just end up shuttering out other good members while we try and sort ourselves out. I think it's possible to still have a functioning recruitment while still focusing on keeping track of who we are.
3. Meets will now happen as scheduled on our calender here at the forums.
When a meetup is posted on the calender, take note of the time. I want to eliminate reservation lists. The host for the meet should start a Closed Crew Session with The Bullshifters set as their active crew. That way when members interested in the meet come online all they have to do is make sure The Bullshifters are set as their active crew and then simply join the host. In this way the lobbies should be able to fill up on their own and the system will truly function on a first come first served basis. If you want in, be online when it starts. This also allows the active players in a session to be a sort of liquid. If people disconnect or drop out for any reason, they can just re-start and re-join without having to message the host and hope that he sees the message, but then also hope that he has the ability to even get them back in due to Rockstars tutorial glitch. Closed crew sessions (should) eliminate all of that.
4. Exit Stage Left.
I'll be ramping down my involvement with organizing meets. The goal is to make it a process that more than less runs itself from this forum. Again we will designate times to attempt to join others in a crew session using the calender function here. The idea being that anyone can coordinate a meet to suit their time and in their timezone. This will also increase the frequency of meets ensuring that more people have more chances to get into one.
5. Feedback.
This thread will remain unlocked. Any suggestions that might improve this new system will be appreciated. We may not implement every suggestion, but any idea that would serve as an obvious boon to the plan mentioned above would be welcome.
::EDIT:: Updated text to reflect the findings of our first closed crew session meet today. Thanks to everyone who participated!
::EDIT2:: Updated recruitment policy.
We will be changing how this crew operates meets to address some of the issues we had with invitations at our last meetup. I also hope that these changes will eliminate the need for reservation lists and setup the sessions to truly operate on a "first come, first served" basis. I'll outline the changes below...
1. No more "invite only" sessions.
As was witnessed at our latest meet, we can't rely on Rockstar to get their poop in a group and ensure that a lobby host will have the ability to invite everyone to a meet. We tried everything in our power to remedy issues with the invite system. We had the host restart his game, we had clients restart, we jumped sessions... not only did any of this do nothing to fix the issue, it actually made it worse. The answer to this problem for me is using the closed crew session feature. From now on if someone wants to join a meet, they are free to do so at the designated time, provided that they have The Bullshifters set as their active crew. This is a caveat that we haven't enforced before, but it seems to be the only real solution to people getting locked out. You can set the crew to active and join the host who should also have The Bullshifters set as their active crew. That's the nature of a closed crew session. All participants must have The Bullshifters set as active in order for the matching to work. In this way a host can send invites when he see's people come online (so long as they wear the BULL tag), or as mentioned before, you as the player can just join the host. This will help with managing getting people in as well as making the sessions more accessible.
2. Recruitment is... Openish.
We nearly tripled in size almost over night after we became a Rockstar featured crew. Honestly, the first meet we had after bringing in a lot of these new folks left me wondering how many of these people actually "get it". As in get what the crew is about, or get how we do things. So, we will be working on that with the member base that we have. Anyone who is a consistent problem (see rules and regs) or is identified as being a disruption to an otherwise good time will be taken aside. This crew has an identity, and I aim to keep it. That said, after a bit of reflection I don't think that closing the doors completely is the right thing to do. We just end up shuttering out other good members while we try and sort ourselves out. I think it's possible to still have a functioning recruitment while still focusing on keeping track of who we are.
3. Meets will now happen as scheduled on our calender here at the forums.
When a meetup is posted on the calender, take note of the time. I want to eliminate reservation lists. The host for the meet should start a Closed Crew Session with The Bullshifters set as their active crew. That way when members interested in the meet come online all they have to do is make sure The Bullshifters are set as their active crew and then simply join the host. In this way the lobbies should be able to fill up on their own and the system will truly function on a first come first served basis. If you want in, be online when it starts. This also allows the active players in a session to be a sort of liquid. If people disconnect or drop out for any reason, they can just re-start and re-join without having to message the host and hope that he sees the message, but then also hope that he has the ability to even get them back in due to Rockstars tutorial glitch. Closed crew sessions (should) eliminate all of that.
4. Exit Stage Left.
I'll be ramping down my involvement with organizing meets. The goal is to make it a process that more than less runs itself from this forum. Again we will designate times to attempt to join others in a crew session using the calender function here. The idea being that anyone can coordinate a meet to suit their time and in their timezone. This will also increase the frequency of meets ensuring that more people have more chances to get into one.
5. Feedback.
This thread will remain unlocked. Any suggestions that might improve this new system will be appreciated. We may not implement every suggestion, but any idea that would serve as an obvious boon to the plan mentioned above would be welcome.
::EDIT:: Updated text to reflect the findings of our first closed crew session meet today. Thanks to everyone who participated!
::EDIT2:: Updated recruitment policy.