Academy HQ chat - Mandatory for ALL clan members!

Vampir_Kifla wrote:Even we in Croatia understand it, we say "lavina"

same word is used in czech republic  

Not wishing to rock the boat too much, but just wanted to say we had 11 members online tonight, we got 2 new people to the clan who both entered the chat and introduced themselves, and got acknowledgments from 3 people. Now whilst I appreciate players can be in battles etc, and thus only notice comments in chat channel when in the garage, this was over a period of 60 minutes, during which time 8 people couldnt even manage to say a hello or welcome to the new players.

Maybe in the grand scope of things, its not that big an issue,it just appears to me on occasion that we may appear to be a bit unfriendly in chat

Kokotni wrote:Not wishing to rock the boat too much, but just wanted to say we had 11 members online tonight, we got 2 new people to the clan who both entered the chat and introduced themselves, and got acknowledgments from 3 people. Now whilst I appreciate players can be in battles etc, and thus only notice comments in chat channel when in the garage, this was over a period of 60 minutes, during which time 8 people couldnt even manage to say a hello or welcome to the new players.

Maybe in the grand scope of things, its not that big an issue,it just appears to me on occasion that we may appear to be a bit unfriendly in chat

There can be many reasons for this. People can be afk, in platoon/TC/class (there was a class yesterday), or doing anything else that requires concentration. In which case not everyone checks Academy HQ during that time.

Other people use TS for comms, which btw everyone should use. When you're on TS and playing it's easy to miss something in Academy HQ. At least that's the case for me. I use Academy HQ mainly for saying hello, announcements and for looking platoons when those in TS are full.

What I'm trying to say is for me and many others TS is for chit-chat and Academy HQ for everything else. As it was intended.

Kokotni wrote:Not wishing to rock the boat too much, but just wanted to say we had 11 members online tonight, we got 2 new people to the clan who both entered the chat and introduced themselves, and got acknowledgments from 3 people. Now whilst I appreciate players can be in battles etc, and thus only notice comments in chat channel when in the garage, this was over a period of 60 minutes, during which time 8 people couldnt even manage to say a hello or welcome to the new players.

Maybe in the grand scope of things, its not that big an issue,it just appears to me on occasion that we may appear to be a bit unfriendly in chat

It's always good to raise issues like this, and indeed I think at least I will pay more attention to say hello when newcomers introduce themselves.

Now, if I was to speculate, I'd give the reason that SGTA has a very VERY high membership turnover rate. It's not uncommon to see 3-4 new people join SGTA every 5 days or so, and this continues endlessly. This is of course no excuse for not being friendly, and I totally believe it is right we should adopt a more friendly approach.

Unlike Vallu, I tend to use Academy HQ for chit-chat and TS for more formal things or when necessary. Which only shows to outline various differences in how people interact and behave. I do not believe there is a viable and reliable excuse for failure to welcoem newcomers, and I sincerely hope the newcomers do not feel unwelcomed, but unfortunately the reality is as it is. In order to change that, management will have to force people's behaviour, which is not something the management of SGTA is willing to do concerning social aspects of SGTA, especially something which is not per se actively negative, but more inconvenient/unwelcoming.

SGTA is defined by its students and instructors. While I am by no means inventing excuses for this, I do ask for some understanding regarding how little management of SGTA can actually do to force people to welcome newcomers. If you have any ideas, please feel free to message me personally, I'm 100% weager and willing to lsiten! But I hope you understand what I've written.

Vallu and Ding thank you both for your responses.

I will have a think about it and reply to you personally Ding over the next day or so.

Take your time mate, no rush

And give me some time to reply too I'm a bit busy lately but I'll definitely get back to you?

Speaking for myself, I sometimes have HQ minimized when I am busy. When playing TC, I tend not to look at HQ much. Same when running with a toon. Those times I am too busy playing and chat time is occupied by chat within the group.

Sometimes I walk away to make a sandwich or whatever, get distracted and not come back for an hour.

And sometimes I am taking a small break or trying to wind down from a game I played and I will be actively chatting.

What I am saying is that there are many reasons I might not be active in HQ for a while and the same will go for others. I have only been here for three months myself and have never felt unwelcome.

Nilz

From a personal point of view, I totally agree with you, I myself have never felt unwelcome on here or in game.

The issues I have I will raise privately with Ding, as requested, I just didnt want ignore your response, hence posting an acknowledgement of your post .

I say Hi, and often give up after 4 attemps. I say toon, and give up after a few attemps.

People just chat over and around you. Your invisible! It's bad manners but what can you do?

Computer games historically encouraged bad manners and cultures differ to!

The other thing you need to recognise is that within a couple of minutes (sometimes seconds) the chat screen rolls up and your posting dissopears!

How's anyone going to play at all if they have to scroll the chat every time they come out of a game!

So we created a monster that both informs and hides our comments!

To be totally honest it's an intrusion to have 2 sgta chat rooms on screen when I'm configouring my garage/consumables.

I often see 15 to 20 players logged in but just two of us in the TS. Now having TS and 2 chats is loco! I cannot possibly be

expected to be looking out for newbies, while failing to be acknowledged myself when I say hi (not always). Either:

1. Have a compulsary class on good manners? (screen shot cases where members are ignored and ban the guilty)!

2. Get rid of one of the chat windows?

3. Enforce all members on line to use SGTA's Team Speakor else! Hope this helps?

We are planning to implement a new system of introduction of new members of SGTA very soon. This will mitigate the "unwelcoming" feeling of new SGTA members. Mind you also that with the new clan plus the high turnover rates, bonds have not been easy to create as fast as we would like. Give it some time too. Await announcements for this new system soon.

That been said, it's a lot easier to log in on TS, see who is in pairs or alone and get a toon spot like that. Btw when I toon and we are in pair, we will always announce on the HQ that we have a spot between battles. As far as I am concerned, when I log in I say hi and I get 3-5 replies to my greeting. So people do follow what is said in the HQ. We could also issue a recommendation that when a discussion concerns only 2 clan members they should open a chat room, but I am affraid that this is as much as we can do.

I don't think that would solve anything ziggy, in fact, you are likely to end up the only member of SGTA if we had employed all the methods you listed.

The reasoning is simple, internet manners differs from real life manners. While I totally understand theoretically it shouldn't, but us being mostly teenagers (or older) who live online a lot, this kind of behaviour is simply the norm, and is accepted and dare I say preferred by a lot of people as while it might not be pleasant, it is very convenient.

I think on average I try to look for a platoon 2 times, and give a 5 minute interval in between. As a precaution for people who were in a match when I called out the first time. The fact is, if nobody replied the first time, they are unlikely to reply if you ask again. The truth is people most likely have different preferences on what they want to do at that particular time.

As regarding the TS and Academy HQ chat, I've always noted that it is a lot of mandatory work to keep up with, and personally I keep TS as a secondary communication device for classes and the likes.

Differences in preferences is obviously a big issue, but a lot of other factors such as culture, habits and age plays vital roles too. I am resolutely against introducing any measures which I think isn't reasonable to be followed by a universal audience. As management of a highly multi-cultural and diverse membership base, SGTA management has to cater for a lot of tastes and likes to keep people as happy as possible. In situations like these, common ground rules are introduced but I do not believe in introducing too many specific rules that goes to direct the actions of all of the membership.

Sapaki wrote:As far as I am concerned, when I log in I say hi and I get 3-5 replies to my greeting.

Well Sapaki, you are well known in SGTA as every new member has to go through you to get into the academy. Hence every new members will know you and will give you a greeting.

For the new members themselves the experience is not quite the same as they will most likely be an anomaly for anyone who does not check the 'Applications' section of the forums.

Think beyond the realm of management, and more towards the actual and realistic needs and preferences of the members. The experience in SGTA for a staff member is exactly the same as a student is not comparable.

Also, since when was there plans to introduce new ways of initiating new members? I was not aware we had such plans.

Hi Ziggy!

On the good manners part:
Yes your partialy right. But as you mentionend not everybody scrolls throu the chat windows to check if somebody says hi or has a question because that might take ages after a 15 min battle (I got a slightly advantage on this because my keyboard displays the chat windows in a display even while in battle).  Also think about what happens if the rules of "normal" (not online game) politness where used correct somebody says "Hi" in the Acadamey HQ Chat and  (potentially) 150 members greet him back. I fear that might create a sort of chaos. Also I think there are many members out there trying to answer questions on the game, tanks, mods, even computer issus and stuff as far as it is possible for them if they are posted in the academy HQ. To improve communication in it as you might have noticed I as an example use @membername to adress to whom I am talking if there are other topics going on.

In my opinion the Academy HQ is a very good thing and one of the strong points of the academy.
Why? Because it allows us all to ask quick questions like what equipment for a new bought tank, discussions about playstyle of a tank, possiblities to ask for a platoon or announce open spots in platoons and so. Also it is the only possiblity for former SGTA members (also some instructors) to stay in contact with us.
I know there is also often raging on losing streaks, teams and so on but I think this is a much better place to do this then shouting on the team in game.
Another point is like the forum chat from time to time the Academy HQ is good for some lulz.

On your 3 points:
1.) I don't think hard rules will help ...
2.) Impossible ... at least in my opinion. Why? Because one is a clan window which can not be removed (at least in SGTA2 there is not much going on except some trolling because everybody has to use the academy HQ). The second window is the only possibility to talk in the academy since the introduction of the second clan. Also there are guys that are not in sgta or not any more in sgta but want to help too like PointyHairedJedi, Kostis, and several others.
3.) On this I want to refere to this: https://sgta.forumotion.com/t120-how-things-work-here-aka-read-this
espacially the voice communications part. As you see there normally everybody has to be on TS.

This are just my 2 cents about this.

Greets
Ronin

@Ding: People replying to me saying hi is an example to illustrate that people read and follow the Academy HQ.

You are aware of the new system as it wad discussed during a staff meeting we both could not attend and whose abstract can be found in the private office. Additionally we have added a section only visible to mods in the applications and recruitment section of the forum. It's still work in progress though

People say hi and platoon. My biggest complaint is that they ask for a platoon, I and others say yes and they don't reply. Maybe because I'm not blue or purple yet?

Nah it's just probably because people don't like you...

Joke apart, I know what you mean, although this is a matter of mentality we can do little about, but be assured we will take some actions to indirectly mitigate this there are ways.

I think all of this should be taken into account and discussed in our next staff meeting.

It's a good thing that issues are arising, it id easier for us to know where we should focus our efforts to improve things.

Ok Sapaki, checked it, it was there...moving swiftly onwards! D:

Right, Ok I got a few PMs about this topic and I think it's good to let this subject matter die for discussion for the time being. This subject matter is obviously something worth solving so management has taken consideration of it.

I feel this subject can turn a bit charged very soon, so let's call it a day here on this and stop talking about it for the moment. If this subject comes up later and is an issue, please create a separate topic about it.

Thanks for your understanding.