PCW State of Address: ALL READ

[A Ghost in the Wind]

Hello again, Everybody.

It's been just about a week since I last sent you guys an email, so I know you're just itching for me to send another **. In this email, I'll talk about some of the important things we have going on in Pure Class, while also trying to shed some light on some of the conversations we've been having over in The Department in regards to them. But before I do, here's a brief update on the results:

As stated previously [in the Shout-Box], all matches have been submitted from the Mules to the Management team. So, a big thank-you goes out to them for that. Only match that has yet to be submitted is the Deadly Rumble, but as you may know, due to the match itself, the Deadly Rumble is going to take some time to write.

From what has been written to what is left to write, I'd estimate that the match is about halfway, 60% done. We are aiming for tonight to have the match completed, but as with anything, plans can fall through and may have to be changed. We'll continue to provide updates as necessary.

Moving on, the next thing I wanted to address with you guys is the schedule. At this moment, there is no current schedule or lineup in place; at least as far as I know. And because of that, I’m making an Administrative Decision- at the conclusion of this email, PCW will be placed on Holiday Break.

For those of you that have been around for the last few years, this break in action should not come as a surprise, but for everyone else- we have effectively taken this break for…ever, actually.

I always try and schedule us the last few weeks of December into the first week of January off. That way everyone can focus on their holiday plans (or lack thereof) and not be so stressed out about trying to make deadlines.

(…I wanted to segue into deadlines, but I’ll get to that in just a second.)

Of course, during the break I always try and find you guys something to do in order to keep you coming back, so I wanted to announce that we are due for the next edition of The Icey Awards!

For those who do not know, The Icey Awards are our two-times-a-year set of awards for both In-Character and Out-of-Character recognition. I will have more on the awards, including the nominee list as well as the deadline to submit ballots, in a separate post, so be on the lookout for that.

Alright, now back to the deadline…I’ve been talking to the Creative and Management teams and now it’s my chance to bring it up to you, the Community. I am proposing a change to the overall PCW Schedule/Rulebook. My proposal is as followed:

• Changing the RP Cycle from a 14 day to a 10 day schedule
• Keeping the RP Incentive Bonus but removing the RP Sandbagging Penalty
• Establishing a credible deadline for the Mule team to submit matches
• Establishing a credible deadline for the Management team to post results

Let me elaborate a little more- The reason for the change is that I know that we’ve been running without a schedule for the past few months. There are a ton of reasons as to why that has been happening, but reasons or not it still continues to take place.

When it does happen, results have been going up late, which causes the handlers to have less time (usually, not always) to RP, which then causes lots of the handlers to (ab)use the hard deadline for posting, which makes it harder for me to score RPs and get winners and my set of notes to Shannon (Murdoc) in a timely fashion.

It also doesn’t help that the deadline is still 11 PM EST on Mondays, which hasn’t been a super viable option for me personally for the past several years.

Shannon and I also run on different schedules offline now, which means when I send him my notes (usually on Tuesday morning/afternoon), he’s sleeping and can’t get his notes to the mules until later Tuesday night.

Then we expect our Mules, who VOLUNTEER for the position of mule, to crank out 1-3 matches each as quickly as possible…and that often times hurts their quality of writing. Not to mention that the 1-3 matches that they’re writing, they also had to write their RP for the show (if they’re booked) as well.

Then Shannon gets the results and has to edit and format everything together, which, anyone who has had to do it knows post-production is a tough task without having to rush it because results are now 3-5 days late.

…All in all, we, and this we includes all members of the Community, do a very good job keeping PCW open and running- even with an outdated Roleplaying Schedule.

By officially cutting the RP Deadline by a few days, which has been happening unofficially for a while now, I can get my notes to Shannon quicker, which should mean he can get his notes to the mules quicker, which gives them more time to get their assignments in, which gives Shannon more time to edit and publish the results.

Remember, my proposal puts deadlines on the Mules and on Management as well, so the extra time they get to write isn’t going to allow them to kind of forget about their assignment(s) and sandbag it in.

The beauty of it all is, if the Mules and Management teams honor the deadlines that we will have in effect for them, we should have an idea of when results will be up, give or take a few hours. And if the writing gets done from the Staff sooner than deadline, then we can post the results and the extra time will cycle back into the handlers for the upcoming show.

The reason for the Sandbagging Penalty getting removed in this process is, if I am committed in giving you guys less time to RP, and giving Management and Mules more time to take care of their responsibilities, I am not going to penalize the handlers for using up a shortened deadline.

I do ask, however, if this does go into effect that you, the handlers, try not to wait until the final minute to post your rps. If you do, there’s not much I can or will say, but I ask that you guys don’t procrastinate for the sake of procrastination.

So how will all of this work?

Well, PCW will still “air” Trauma on Tuesdays. The idea is to get the results out on the air date or as close as possible to that date.

That means new cards should be posted on the same day (or the very next day in rare cases) as the results. You would then have until the following Friday at 8 PM EST, which would be the new deadline.

The bad news to all this means that you’ll only get one weekend to write roleplays, so if you’re one of the ones who wait until the last weekend to post, you will have to change up your posting schedule.

The good news is that the Mules will now be given a weekend (or at least most of Saturday and all of Sunday) to work on their assignments as well.

Deadline goes up on a Friday with the idea that results get posted by Tuesday. Mules get a weekend, Handlers get a weekend…and I think it’s fair all the way around.

So please, vote in the poll, give your opinion if you want, and hopefully the new schedule goes into effect following Holiday Break. And once again, be on the look-out for the post regarding The Icey Awards and for the Deadly Intentions V results!

[Grimm]

I voted 'yes', in the hopes that all deadlines will be followed for scheduling's sake. My only question is, if (heaven forbid) results and/or the following card are not posted in a timely manner, will the subsequent RP deadline be adjusted to reflect that?

[A Ghost in the Wind]

Dec 5, 2014 15:03:21 GMT -5 Grimm said:

My only question is, if (heaven forbid) results and/or the following card are not posted in a timely manner, will the subsequent RP deadline be adjusted to reflect that?

Yes. As we do currently.

[Deleted]

My current worry for having stricter deadlines is...it doesn't sound like a viable solution. Everyone is having a hard time keeping to the lax deadlines now. Making them tighter isn't going to solve anything, things are still going to be late if the mule team ad roleplayers just has too much on their plate IRL to stick to an even stricter deadline.

[Eira]

Dec 9, 2014 16:19:33 GMT -5 whitey said:

My current worry for having stricter deadlines is...it doesn't sound like a viable solution. Everyone is having a hard time keeping to the lax deadlines now. Making them tighter isn't going to solve anything, things are still going to be late if the mule team ad roleplayers just has too much on their plate IRL to stick to an even stricter deadline.

That is a very valid worry, and while it may not be the One Solution to Rule Them All, it's what we've got to work with right now.

There will be essentially no deadline change for handlers - it won't be stricter deadlines, just shaving 4 days off the 2 week roleplay time. Personally I feel this is a viable idea for two reasons.

1. There's routinely 3-5 days pulled off roleplay time owing to results turnaround as it is. Not much changes here.
2. Having 10 days to roleplay instead of 14 is still more than a week, and seems like plenty of time.

The creative team requires more structure to better manage our assignments, and a deadline for us will help the same way a solid roleplay deadline helps handlers plan their writing. A four day turnaround gives us plenty of time to put out the quality results we've all come to enjoy, without focusing so much on speed that we're producing rough hack-jobs. That rush has by necessity created holes in everything from character development to overall quality and even storyline support; leaving more work in post-production for impromptu segs being cold written to buttress storyline and character progression, even rewrites of matches or segs to repair rush job damage.

Is it a viable solution? A solution, perhaps not, but it's the most viable plan we've got; I feel we should give it a try in lieu of any better ideas.

[Sadistic]

I don't believe, for the most part, that people have trouble meeting the deadlines. I think some - not all, but some - are just prone to procrastination. I would bet that the same guys that hug the deadline now would be the same that would hug it if we were given four weeks to roleplay. I think if we give this a chance things will stay pretty much the same. I'm in favor of giving it a try.

[Nathan Saniti]

May I offer up an easier solution? Keep the deadlines as they are and move the show to a different day of the week. Also, will the deadlines for the PPVs still be another day short? That always Confucius me. Ah. So.

[Eira]

Dec 9, 2014 18:54:40 GMT -5 Nathan Saniti said:

May I offer up an easier solution? Keep the deadlines as they are and move the show to a different day of the week. Also, will the deadlines for the PPVs still be another day short? That always Confucius me. Ah. So.

I sincerely do not feel that moving the show to a different day of the week will be enough to help the issues we're having right now. Mostly because all that does is moving the process to a different part of the week - the part of the week not being close to the entirety of the problem.

[Sadistic]

To echo Kris, the way the cycle is set up is what's causing the problems. Changing the day wouldn't alter the cycle at all.

[Mr. Showtime]

I'm on my phone and not able to vote right now, but I say do whatever is best for the creative team. You guys put a tremendous amount of work into these results and I want to make it easier for those that have more of a responsibility than a RP every two weeks and a segment here and there.

The one thing I mentioned to Josh which I'll echo here just as a suggestion is, can the miles get their matches when the card is set. Josh had some good counters on why that wouldn't work and the closest I've been to a mule is offering to write a match here and there when I am bored and happen to be talking to the right person.

It seemed that the biggest issue here is that the strats could change a match that was already written which is frustrating. But if the dtrats aren't left to the last minute this might not be an issue. The only thing the mules would need to finish after the deadline is the finish. Just a thought, but as I said I am for whatever makes the mules lives easier. I personally don't have the time to volunteer so I vote with them.

[Eira]

Dec 9, 2014 22:05:31 GMT -5 Mr. Showtime said:

The one thing I mentioned to Josh which I'll echo here just as a suggestion is, can the mules get their matches when the card is set.

While it seems to be a reasonable idea (and has been suggested by a member of the creative team in the past), this wouldn't -generally- work because often there will be something specific that A Ghost in the Wind or Murdoc need or want to see in the course of a match. Even as it stands there is occasionally a match or seg a mule isn't aware of is sent in after the bulk of the work is done; a match write up or seg that MUST be included as-is into the results and so the mule's work must be heavily revised or rewritten completely. This is not only a pain in the ass when it occurs, but it also means a lot of wasted time and work on the part of the mule(s).

Plug-and-play match writing is possible, but most find it lacking. If we wanted a match with little to no psychology (individual character win/loss, character history as pertains to this particular match win/loss), little to no storyline progression (interferences, upsets, special endings, specific spots), then writing the match way ahead of time would be a great idea. The way results are presented in PCW, not so much.

[Sadistic]

What she said. ^

[Deleted]

I'm just curious...how many people have complained about the lack of deadline structure? I've been a no show offender for quite some time, unfortunately, but I BARELY keep myself together to meet most of the deadlines. I may or may have not said some snarky things in the last few days about the show being horrendously late, but seeing as Luis hasn't even been on to comment for most of the day I assume he had something happen. That, in itself, is ok with me.

I think for the most part, we're all pretty lenient with shows being late. Is a deadline change even needed for the mules at this point? How many people are PMing the mules, Shannon, and Luis with complaints?

[Eira]

There was never an actual, solid deadline for the mule team. The idea is to institute a deadline so the creative team has a window to work in and the fed as a whole has a window in which they know what's going on. It will make expectations across the board entirely clear, and hopefully cut down on some tension all around.

Ideally it will cut down on the fed feeling as though the creative team is disregarding the hard work put in and their observation of deadlines in favor of engaging in some kind of literary circle jerk rather than getting anything done. Rather than not knowing what's going on or when the fed can expect to see results, the fed will know the time frame that has been agreed upon and is in place. Ideally it will cut down on the fed repeatedly asking for updates, oblique or direct complaints, and yes - PMing various creative team members with aforementioned requests for updates and complaints. Everyone will know what is expected from either side, with no further in-fighting or bickering or snide remarks.

Not about results, at least.

[Stormm]

Honestly, the deadline/results conversation has come up a couple different times in the past, and I've been on board with and gone on record in saying that a slightly shorter RP period to try and get results up on time is A-OK with me. However, it's ultimately up to those behind the scenes to say yay or nay, I'll go along with whatever is decided here.

[A Ghost in the Wind]

I haven't added anything new to the conversation because Kris and Josh have been answering the questions pretty spot on.

But just to reiterate:

The Handlers shouldn't see much difference on their end in terms of RPing because as it has been the past several months, you guys are getting fairly around the same amount of RP time. The ONLY difference I can see is that the second weekend into Deadline Monday has been cut in favor of giving an actual weekend of writing time to the Mule team. What I AM hoping for is some more Fed consistency by holding the Mule and Management teams to the same expectations that we hold towards the Handlers.

Establishing a schedule for the Creative Team (Mules and Management) should allow us to establish a time-frame for important PCW things, like results and cards. That will only help with keeping our Handlers, and our Fans (yeah, we actually have a few people who come in and view our stuff) in the loop as to what to expect in terms of postings. You guys shouldn't have to hound Eira, Murdoc, myself, or other members of creative for updates- this way, you guys already have the idea of what's what.

[A Ghost in the Wind]

Dec 9, 2014 18:54:40 GMT -5 Nathan Saniti said:

Also, will the deadlines for the PPVs still be another day short? That always Confucius me. Ah. So.

My hope is to keep the deadline standard for all events. So PPV deadlines will be Friday at 8PM EST, just as Traumas will be. The only difference is the "air date" and "importance of the show."

I feel, and I can't and won't speak for anyone else, as long as all set of results are posted by a Wednesday the latest (which is a little later than the planned Tuesday postings...but sometimes you just can't plan offline stuff), we'll have a much better time creating activity and keeping people (including the Handlers) coming back.

[Derek Cosmos]

I'll go with the flow.