Here May goes again, I can hear some people saying, but well. Loueppi's post is something I can offer some perspective on, because I am someone that codes, builds, and otherwise tinkers with a server for NWN as well. I'm not going to get into the details as it's a bit gauche to say the least, but I wanted to comment on some aspects of this from the perspective of a developer or creator.
If I were to put myself in the shoes of a DM or developer or what have you, I would be willing to bet that I'd be there because I enjoy RP, story telling, the setting, watching something I helped build take a life of its own etc. I would nope out so hard when I see my hobby start turning into a series of annoying admin tasks. A lot of the input is well written out, logical and (sometimes) well intentioned.... And something I would expect to hear at work - quarterly reports, transparency, efficiencies on handling 'tickets'.
I build what I build because I enjoy building it, it really is as simple as that. The mere act of making these areas, scripting these scripts, building these classes, is something I have by the by enjoyed. I make them available to others because it is validating to me to see others benefit from the things I make.
In light of that, one thing that's important to me is that I'm making things that people enjoy. Commenting, report systems, et al are
tools - a means to that end. And we should regard them as that. They are not our masters, but rather, we the masters of they. We use them as they help us achieve that goal.
However, for these things to be effective, first, we must set out with a goal that such happiness is something that we aim to actually achieve. Not all modules do. Some are simply some madman's or madwoman's passion project they've lobbed out into the void. However, I'd prefer to think that POTM does indeed care about achieveing that goal, even as I think that, frankly, they miss the mark doing so.
I feel like people need to remember that this is a hobby, an activity to spend free time on, that is supposed to be enjoyable for everyone involved. It is not what pays the bills and it most certainly ain't supposed to be work. Of course a certain level of admin is unavoidable to keep things running smoothly, but I feel a lot of this is admin work for the sake of admin work. I would do everything possible to keep that to a minimum, and yes, sometimes that means that people will feel like they were unfairly treated and if they have enough time on their hands, they'll start interpreting a whole conspiracy of DMs, CC teams and player groups into it. Their loss if you ask me - they should take themselves a bit less seriously.
I would agree the Community Council seems, at best, superfluous. Obstensibly, the purpose seems to be to ameliorate the workload on the DMs so they can focus on plots, however every time I approached the Community Council with matters, I was deferred to an admin anyways. I can only say that is an anecdotal experience, of course.
However I want to pick on one thing there: "this shouldn't be work." Let me tell you, wrangling with the toolset to any degree can be a lot of work. And that's fine. I enjoy it. But to suggest we should not be expending effort on PotM (or some other passion project) is, to my mind, pretty silly. Quality RP is not, after all, effortless. It just doesn't feel like work, because we enjoy it.
You can't expect a roleplay server to have transparency systems in place as though it were a financial institution or something. I feel, if anything, that this server has too much of that 'admin': something akin to a corporate structure, an ever expanding set of rules, elections for the equivalent of a work council.... It honestly sounds exhausting, after I clock out of that stuff and finally get home to relax at my PC that is absolutely the last thing I wanna deal with, so I understand if there is resistance from the side of the people that would put in the work to implement these suggestions. It is going to turn into a bureaucratic nightmare if you allow it to.
You can have transparency effortlessly if you have a proper ticket system. Half of the problem with reporting to begin with is its thankless work. To compile a report I have to take a bunch of screenshots in game, PM a DM on the forums (which you're hopefully not banned from yourself, or you're SOL and just get to deal with it), and then cross your fingers and toes.
This is a terrible hassle for most people and it incentivises people towards just not bothering.
Other games, FF XIV, WoW, you name it, all have in game reporting systems that allow you to make reports in game, and the GM (or DM in this case) can always follow up for screenshots or whatever other information they have. Having a UI that a user can see: a, their ticket was received, and b, a DM is reviewiing their report, would, I think, quell the vast majority of this. Too many things have fallen through the cracks for many people to have trust, and so we must build trust through such demonstrations.
PotM need not even code it themselves if they can wait a bit. As I said, I'm programming such a system based on NUI myself already. It'll be on the vault when it's complete. They're free to fold/spindle/mutilate that or any other code I have submitted there to their heart's content so long as they credit me.
