Discussion of the Ranks and what they mean.

[Ego Trip]

Alright, so in the SG right now we have the ranks.

The Firsts
The Trusted
Known Quanity
and
New Kids.

Now, the SG leaders are "The Firsts" in game, their the people who founded the group, and are the policy setters for the group as a whole.

On an OOC level what I want to talk about is the other ranks and what they mean.

My personal Opinion, I'd really like to Avoid a Burecracy. Our Group is a bunch of Teenagers who came together for mutual support. I don't see them as having a very rigid rank structure..

For the most part I look at it as, people listen to the First, and everyone else gets accorded respect, without worrying about "Who's over who".

In game what this means is, every rank has the same privalages and abilities as every other rank, except Leader... and pretty much the only thing the Leader Rank has, is Kicking people (Which lets hope we never have to do) and setting the message of the Day.

To this end then, Rank becomes more of a Roleplay thing..

Is your character Brand Spanking New? Have they been around for awhile? Or are they almost a "First" themselves now?

I figure as the group expands and is needed more people will Join the ranks of "The First" To help lead the group..

But the big thing I want to avoid is rigid burecracy, bossyness and all that. I want this to feel more carefree and like a bunch of kids who enjoy hanging out together.

I'd love to hear thoughts from the Other Firsts as well, and of course the other members on this too!

So Speak up!

[Quickshot]

You may already plan it this way, but I'm not sure so here it is.

This is only my opinion on the matter.

Firsts are first. Now I'm not saying that they should always be the only leaders, but they're named 'first' for a reason. Maybe the name of the rank should be changed if we plan on not using it like the name suggests.

On a related note, I would hesitate to have more than a handful of leaders at any given time. Now I love 'council' leadership in groups, it's SO much better than having just one or two people leading. But too many people leading and it becomes a problem.


The ranks themselves should be like.. timed. People who just joined are 'new', after so many days or weeks they move up in rank, and so on and so forth up to the second rank.

So rather than have the group be 'rank based' have it be 'respect based.' The same function as ranks OOC, but not IC.

There does NEED to be structure, but that doesn't have to be explicitly stated as ranks in character. Just call it respect to those that came before you.


My two cents.

[theshamrock]

THat's actually why I named the ranks that way.

When you join you're known as a "New Kid" and becuase we're a little paranoid we're a little suspicous of you.

Then after a probationary period you're a "Known Quantity". We know who you are and we can trust you with certain things.

"The Trusted" represent those that are like The Firsts but weren't here first. They have shown over time that they can be trusted in all things, can be, in a sense, leaders of the group, and of course "The Firsts" are the First 5 to form the group.

For "beauracracy" I see it a little wild west in that there isn't a need for councils or votes for 90% of stuff. If someone's a Trusted then we simply trust their judgement on most things. We may have disagreed but we trust we didn't get all the facts that they did.

I would like to reserve all recruitment for Knowns and up, and promotions only for Trusted and up. And keep things like "officers' meetings" stirctly for emergencies where there would be a need for all of us to get together unless there is a OOC issue that needs all of us to get together.

Shamrock@storm-herald

[@Ceadol]

No offense, but Known Quantity? What the hell does that mean? We're not merchandise sitting on a shelf in a warehouse somewhere.

We're people. More than that, we're heroes. It doesn't exactly make you feel unique.

[theshamrock]

Oct 18, 2009 16:01:17 GMT -5 @Ceadol said:

No offense, but Known Quantity? What the hell does that mean? We're not merchandise sitting on a shelf in a warehouse somewhere.

We're people. More than that, we're heroes. It doesn't exactly make you feel unique.

~blink blink~

Uh....

I used that name because I've heard it used in reference to people all the time. A "known quantity" is someone you can trust to a degree. You know what to expect. You don't expect surprises, aka you know they're not out to break up the organization.

Didn't mean for the name to be offensive.... I guess I can change it back to 'full member'...

[Phantasm]

Known Quantity: Someone whose character, personality, and behaviour are recognised and understood. "We need not worry about how Nyx will behave, she is a known quantity."

I personally like it. As they've been explained, the ranks are about how trusted/known an individual is within the group. I think it fits quite nicely.

[flinch]

This is good Riot. To me it makes it feel like a club. And comfortable.

[turbonutta]

I like this

[barelyhomosapien]

Makes perfect sense to me.

However, and I guess this is a topic on rigidity aswell. Ranks shouldn't be entirely based on passage of time.

I mean some people are very hard to trust for some reason or another. While others are quite clearly trustworthy. This works both ICly and OOCly.

If your character(s) really does trust someone, doesn't that make them trusted by default?

I'm thinking a very black and white approach to the ranks in regards to whether they are IC or OOC, rather then be grey about it. Either you're giving the character the rank, or the player.

It might save some confusion on how they should be viewed by us all.

[turbonutta]

Personally i like the idea of ranks being purely IC based, one person might even have multiple characters at different ranks.

[theshamrock]

Oct 20, 2009 5:57:26 GMT -5 barelyhomosapien said:

If your character(s) really does trust someone, doesn't that make them trusted by default?

I'm thinking a very black and white approach to the ranks in regards to whether they are IC or OOC, rather then be grey about it. Either you're giving the character the rank, or the player.

It might save some confusion on how they should be viewed by us all.

I see where you're going and agree and disagree.

I figure that anyone besides "New Kid" is trusted more or less both IC and OOC. The New Kid is a rank to get everyone getting to know the player and the character and being sure that ~both~ fit the group.

The Trusted was something I saw a type of Guild Leader but not quite. Most of the power of a leader but still not one of the 5 founding members. A lot of the same privledges (inviting, promoting, etc) but not able to hijack the group completley.

Hmm... must think.