Aerineth(OD)

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As far as the Evaluation process is concerned, how do you feel the process is aging? Are there pieces that need work or improvement? Things that work really well? As far as Evaluation activity, do you think the overall level of contributions, especially from fellow Administration, is an issue? Especially on the evaluation of a Commander?

Do you feel you should have done anything more than what was done? Your evaluation is a perfect example for this question. My post here marks the 12th post on your evaluation. Do you feel this is a problem in terms of getting a fair review of your contribution and efforts to ensure the community is taken care of? Overall, turnout gets more and more lackluster each evaluation period we do, we generally have become very lax on what we expect the Generals to do in regards to their contribution to the process. I'll use Sassy as an example. Sassy automatically approved your evaluation with the reasoning of 'awesome girlfriend' and your '14 evaluations speak for themselves'. Or even Sunset's evaluation of you explicitly stating he's bias and automatically believes you should stay at your rank. Do you feel this is a fair assessment of your contributions? How would you, if you feel these are an issue, address them moving forward to ensure our Generals are held to a higher standard?

I'm going to jump right into my questions for you Rose and I'll summarize my opinion after my questions. 1) What was the most difficult time you've ever had here in OD. How did you overcome the difficulty and the challenges it presented? 2) Can you elaborate on a time where you had to enforce or administrate something? 3) Specifically in regards to your Conflict Resolution, can you explain the processes you will take to resolve a conflict? 4) Do you foresee any complications when it comes to fulfilling the responsibilities that General will have, and how do you plan to address any complications.

It's hypocritical is what it is. When someone progresses to Phase 2, all members are required to put a well thought out vote for the General, regardless of the voters rank. That same expectation should be held for us here in the General Ranks for Phase 1. We have taken votes down because it was a simple 'active, gm, low dsl' type of vote. Generals don't partake in Phase 2, so we should be held to the same level of effort when it comes to Phase 1. Terra's a bit more eloquent in her comment, and that's well and good, but we don't actively stop Generals doing this.. and that needs to change, sooner than later. I'll likely propose this later in the Generals forum or in our next Evaluation meeting to modify Phase 1. Good questions though! I look forward to questions like this!

I think that Evaluations are pretty critical to how we appoint the highest echelon in the community. It's definitely not perfect.. nothing ever really is. I think the biggest flaw is actually the people themselves, not necessarily the system. For example, Phase 1 is designed so that Administration (1* - 5*) can evaluate our peers. It's designed to push the individual being evaluated. And in that process, there should be a lot of questions, some of them hard, some of them easy. But there should be some kind of interaction. I've noticed a growing trend over the last couple of years, where generally speaking, we have Generals/Commanders putting forth one liners and just approve or denial of the evaluation. There's less and less interaction in the actual evaluation process. Firstly, I'm using 2 current evaluations; Badboi and MelodicRoses merely as an example and does not reflect on the outcome of either of these evaluations. If we look at Badboi's evaluation for this period at the time of my post. This is an evaluation for Commander and whether he should keep his rank. We have Sassy (2*) and Sunset (Senior Officer going for 1*) both automatically approving the evaluation. While part of me is fine with this.. I find myself disappointed that the actual level of interaction to evaluate a Commander is largely lackluster, especially from our Generals (as a whole). So far, the same could even be said to some degree for my own and Terra's evaluation. Now if we take a look at Roses evaluation at the time of my post. There is a multitude of questions from numerous people. People who want to know more about her, and people who have genuine interest in different perspectives she can provide. The interaction of those in Roses evaluation is nearly the opposite of whats happening in Badbois. Every thing that's mentioned is being highly analyzed and criticized. While my own opinion on each evaluation mentioned is irrelevant in this example, I think it pinpoints the issue at hand. That issue being that we seem to be far more critical of some people, while less critical of others. I don't have an exact answer on how to fix this. Whether this is an issue with the system or again, just with the level of engagement we have. It doesn't explicitly depict a fair and efficient system when we do only so much for some and do an extra level of scrutiny for others. I'm also aware that Badboi has been in the General ranks for a long time. And he's been a Commander for a lot of that time. He has a lot longer of a history to look at and fall back on while Rose doesn't. This is her first attempt. But I would personally like to see more of an interaction with all of our members.. not just those newly attempting to attain their first star. These are somewhat of a rambling of the thoughts in my head because again.. I don't have an answer to this yet and I haven't officially decided if this is what needs to be addressed or something else that will improve this. You always want to address the problem itself, not just address the symptoms of the problem. It's something that I feel could use some work, but to actually improve it, we need to discuss it as a whole to attack the issue from different angles. Part of what we (should) do when we determine our vote for the individual, is not only the questions that we ask an individual, but the responses made to questions from other people to paint a broader picture of the individual themselves.

1) OD is essentially my family. It's one of the first places that I ever became a part of that let me be who I am without fear of judging. During my time away, there was an emptiness that was left due to the departure. I had always known it was only a temporary time away from the community, but I couldn't ever tell just how long my time away was going to be. I needed to focus on myself and dealing with my problems before I could return.. and I'm confident in saying that I've done so. 2) Well, as I mentioned my departure was only temporary. That said, as I began improving, I craved being able to talk to people again while I gamed. Whether that was gaming with someone else, or just playing while chatting about whatever came up. And initially I wanted to come back to be a streamer, but I've found Final Fantasy XIV to be more entertaining than the idea of being a streamer, so for now, it'll be Final Fantasy that has my full attention. 3) As much as I would like to say that yes, I have indeed come back with ideas, I did not think much about betting OD in my time away. I needed to focus on myself, and there wasn't much room left after that. But since returning, as I mentioned, I've undertaken several projects. Each project will be seen through to their completion as I work towards bettering OD as a whole. Thanks everyone who's given me support with my addictions and problems. It's been a rough journey, and it's encouraging seeing all of the support. Good questions guys! Keep them coming! Nice. I need to hop back in sometime and try to get all the way to hell. It definitely was a really good game. Amazing mod!

You and I both. I suspect I'll be switching from whatever game I'm playing to this when it comes out. I'm so excited for this! More than I was for Diablo 3, that's for sure. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint like D3 did.

We shall see. Though I'm perfectly happy with not drinking anymore at this time. Thanks! 🙂 At the risk of sounding conceited, I always did feel this was my best attribute when it came to being a Commander (or to being me in general). The ability to empathize with someone is a very useful gift.. and it's something I've overall become very adept with. Thanks JD 🙂 I look forward to continuing to work with you. Normally I wouldn't have posted them public.. but since they directly related to my decline in efficacy and eventual departure, I felt they were necessary to paint the whole story. Without these details I feel any explanation I would have given would have been filled with holes where those personal struggles happened.. and that would have been disingenuous. I really did enjoy Reign of Terror. I made it to Nightmare but then got distracted with my return to OD and never got a chance to go back to it. How far did you get in it? Thanks man! It means a lot to hear your kind words. 🙂 I look forward to beginning to work with you on a daily basis. Well, I haven't started yet on the medals.. it's just the very next project on my plate. Though I hope that everyone will like the changes we propose. 🙂I know how much the medals mean to some so that's why we want them to be more applicable and more appreciated by even more people. Addictions are the devil.. plain and simple. I wish them on no one. Especially one as detrimental as some of them out there. Thanks Purplez! I look forward to working with you as well!

Firstly, I want to thank you for the service you've provided to the country. It's an admirable profession to pursue what you have and I have nothing but admiration for the men and women who do so. 1) Being a General is definitely not always about being a superhero. There will be times when you have to do something you don't like. There may be times presented to you that you need to take someone who is your friend or someone you respect aside and say 'look, you messed up' and then be capable of setting that friendship aside temporarily and address it as an administrator. Is this something you can do? I don't know you well enough to say if you could or not, so I'd like to learn a little more about this side of you. 2) While not providing names, can you elaborate on your contributions to conflict resolution or your input on issues? 3) You specifically mentioned defending members. Could you elaborate on what you were defending them from and why they needed defending? 4) In terms of the community as a whole, do you see any problems with it? These could be anything from rules, to layout, to policies.. whatever. If you do, can you elaborate and how would you go about fixing that problem. And in the event you do not get this promotion, would you still fight to have that issue addressed?

I'll ask you the same thing I asked Badboi: What steps did you personally take when I announced my initial IA that led to my Disablement as a fellow Commander to ensure anything that I was initially responsible for.. was still taken care of?

What steps did you personally take when I announced my initial IA that led to my Disablement as a fellow Commander to ensure anything that I was initially responsible for.. was still taken care of?

Thanks Sassy for your vote. ❤️ It means a lot. No, it didn't help overcome the demons.. in fact sometimes they made them worse. When you've nothing to do, or incapable of doing something to get your mind doing something, then all you have are the demons. I can definitely say it did not help at all. Fun fact, I actually had a heavy drink a few weeks ago, and after two shots, I was so sick of it. My body essentially rejected the notion of drinking. Beer I can stomach maybe a can/bottle but then it just knocks me out.. so I just don't bother anymore. Turns out the brief time I get from it only grants me an annoyance so I don't feel my money is well spent, so I just don't anymore. In re-reading my eval briefly, I realized I didn't actually clarify who I worked with. Compfreak and JD both helped me with the system and by no means do I claim total ownership of the project. We each worked together to come up with what we presented, and I posted in the Clan Information Forum.

Welcome to my Commander Evaluation for July 2020 As part of the stipulation to return to the community, I was required to put in another eval and see this evaluation through. As such, I find it fitting to explain to the community what problems I actually had to deal with that prevented me from being able to perform my duties as a Commander, and be around as a friend to everyone who needed me. This journey I had to take was a long and arduous one. Some may say I'll continue this journey for quite some time still. There was a lot of pain and recovery involved, acknowledgement and addressing of my own personal flaws, faults, and problems. Many of which I pent up and refused to show the world or even those I trusted the most for fear of it distancing myself from them, or fear of them wasting their time with my petty problems. First and foremost, I had to deal with alcohol. It's a problem that consumes many individuals all around the world. At first it was a coping mechanism, then it formed into a habit, and finally an addiction. I wanted it and needed it to feel even some what normal. I used it as an escape from the demons in my own mind, whether brought on by stress here in the community, real life, or my past. I lost who I considered to be my true self in that fight. And it wasn't till I realized that it was officially beginning to damage the things I once enjoyed, namely this community by the disservice I was doing, to even my own job, did I realize.. it needed to change, it needed to be fixed. And so, I took the IA initially with the fairy tale hope that I could resolve the problem in a few months. Obviously, that didn't happen, and I refused to remain on IA indefinitely till I addressed my problems. For me, my resignation was a sobering fact that made all the realizations set in. Almost immediately I began accepting my problems and faults and addressing them. I stumbled a few times, but have since significantly reduced my alcohol intake, to a much healthier level, that being practically none outside the occasional drink. I coupled this with confiding in someone who I trusted and offered multiple times before finally succeeding in getting me to open up. We tackled some of my inner demons that haunted me from my childhood that I thought I could just lock away and pretend like they never happened. This journey was my entire focus, because I knew if I didn't beat it, no one would ever do it for me, namely because no one but myself could have done it. Today, I find myself enjoying little things again. Things like gaming or reading a book, I can find joy in again. Life isn't the chore it once was that needed to be coped with. I have greatly missed this community, and as I look forward to the next chapter in my life, I didn't see it happening without being a part of the family I had found here within the community, regardless of what capacity that may be in the future. That brought me to my re-enablement and the decision by Terra, R.agnarok, and Badboi to allow me to retain my rank till at least this evaluation period, by which I would be required to submit myself to the community for judgement. I made the decision accepting full well that I would be coming back at 4* General. It is ultimately up to this evaluation to determine if I retain the 5th star or drop down to a 4* General. Upon returning to the community though, I jumped into the rigorous duty that being a Commander. I formed a committee to look at addressing some of our shortcomings or work towards redesigning certain systems, namely the Donation system. This committee sparked discussions that led to a revamp of the entire process. We redesigned it to include potentially better rewards and remove ones that weren’t popular in the past. The post detailing the new system can be found here: In this discussion the idea of Rank Images came up, and we have ultimately agreed to include a Rank Image to every rank here on the forums. Those of you who have opinions on these now that they're live, I'd love to hear them, both good and bad. We will also be instituting a new plugin for the forums to allow Donators the ability to have both their rank icon and a Donator Group Icon visible on their profile. This process is still in the works though, so it's not quite live just yet. Stay tuned to the immediate future for this feature. Further, I will be convening with a few members to discuss the medal system and hopefully update it and provide a new list of medals for members to be able to learn while potentially retiring some medals in the past. As a note, this does not mean removing them. It simply means that, if there are any, we will retire it. Members who received the medal in the past will keep it, but it will be no longer be able to be distributed. Next, I wanted to revive our name in an MMO, and over the past several weeks, I’ve been familiarizing myself with Final Fantasy XIV. With the help of a few more members, we’ve been in the talks to bring the division back full force for a second attempt. This process is still in the infant stages, but we do have a Squad for the hopeful division and will be creating the Free Company (In Game Guild) this weekend after a name for the Free Company has been decided. These are but a few steps I've partaken in upon my return full time to the community. I welcome any question and will be happy to answer any that come my way. Like Terra this period, I will also waive the limited questions due to the nature of this particular evaluation. I want members to have full reign to be able to hold me accountable and ask me what they feel they need and make a judgement call based on that. I feel this is the right step in that regard. I look forward to everyone's questions.