The insane time needed to report/request...

[Bandit.]

In this topic I'll be covering the very task that everyone here knows about... reporting any and everything. 

 

I won't be focusing on forum reports of players but the very thing that takes up to weeks for a response. iFM, LFM, Refunds, CK appeals, Staff reports.... you name it. At what point do we stop having to halt our RP and wait for these things to be filled. At what point do we get transparency from the staff team? 

 

Also take into account that I can provide all the necessary evidence in-game and the report will still be referred to the forums. I just want to hear everybody's opinion on this.

[Sim]

i really dont like the current system in place but it is what it is, daily 700+ players are hard to handle, not defending the staff team on it but i can see why the staff have slow responses 

[Bandit.]

Sure, I can see that too. But let's take a look at a few examples that I found within 5 minutes...

[Coburn]

Said this in the other post I'm guessing this was stemming from, but would be nice with lowered requirements for small niche businesses. Like:
 

- Less paperwork (I've written more essays for businesses on GTA:W than I have during my time as a student)

- Release certain vehicles pertaining to smaller businesses (Keep heli's and big limos but why do I need to write a 150 word essay on why I want a hearse?)

- Shorter processing time.

Edited October 3, 2021 by Coburn

[i dont wanna od in LA]

Wait times on some reports are just ridiculous. Situations that could be solved ig in under 20 minutes are dragged out for 2-3 weeks on the forums. On the other hand, I do sort of understand that while there's around 500-600 people on and only 2-3 admins, it might be pretty difficult to deal with. Perhaps if players were given more tools in order to mediate or settle certain things between themselves without the need to report, situation would slightly improve.

[Trupiano]

GTAW is the only server where I've seen the staff team grow and grow yet the amount of work that gets done seems to be less and less. 

 

And I know somebody is reading this and immediately rage typing about how much hard work staff does that we don't see or that they are volunteers. Frankly I don't really care and neither should you. This server is unable to meet it's most basic management duties in a timely manner, that's unacceptable for a community with thousands of players that generates tens of thousands of dollars in donations a year. The worst part, on top of that there seems to be a never ending and always changing amount of bureaucratic hoops to jump through to get anything done. Something that only puts more strain on the staff team by creating more work to sift through. It's ridiculous how many times I've seen someone report a situation only for it to take so long for staff to address it that said situation spirals into two more reports and a CK appeal. 

 

Whatever staff is doing, its not working and I hope a serious discussion is had within staff about find a solution. But it's become very clear to me as a player that the entire system of how staff operates needs to be reworked from the ground floor because this issue is systemic. 

[Esc]

Can say I have been in this position.

Applications and requests that take weeks and months to be looked into... Applications and requests that are very alike, however the conclusions are quite different.

You need applications and requests for everything but then you need to halt any progress due to the excessive time they take. I get it... short on IFM admins but most things appeal to common knowledge so I dont see why other admins couldnt give a hand with them. This is just not on IFM. RPQM is also along those lines. Currently have RPQM reports that have been up for 6 months +.

Edited October 3, 2021 by Esc

[peteyy]

Requests, reports and everything that takes an application is fucked up. Even reports in game take hours.

[peteyy]

30 minutes ago, Trupiano said:

GTAW is the only server where I've seen the staff team grow and grow yet the amount of work that gets done seems to be less and less. 

 

And I know somebody is reading this and immediately rage typing about how much hard work staff does that we don't see or that they are volunteers. Frankly I don't really care and neither should you. This server is unable to meet it's most basic management duties in a timely manner, that's unacceptable for a community with thousands of players that generates tens of thousands of dollars in donations a year. The worst part, on top of that there seems to be a never ending and always changing amount of bureaucratic hoops to jump through to get anything done. Something that only puts more strain on the staff team by creating more work to sift through. It's ridiculous how many times I've seen someone report a situation only for it to take so long for staff to address it that said situation spirals into two more reports and a CK appeal. 

 

Whatever staff is doing, its not working and I hope a serious discussion is had within staff about find a solution. But it's become very clear to me as a player that the entire system of how staff operates needs to be reworked from the ground floor because this issue is systemic. 

 

[knppel]

4 minutes ago, Trupiano said:

GTAW is the only server where I've seen the staff team grow and grow yet the amount of work that gets done seems to be less and less

 

3 minutes ago, Esc said:

short on IFM admins

I have no full insight obviously, but my impression after looking at it for a year now is that overgrown bureaucracy within the staff team.

In particular this concerns decisions individual staff teams take, or may not take depending on which respective sub-staff-divison they're also on.

 

As mentioned I've not observed this server as long yet, but the amount of micromanagement that happens here does, even with best efforts, decrease efficiency in handling many things.

 

7 minutes ago, Esc said:

RPQM is also along those lines. Currently have RPQM reports that have been up for 6 months +.

 

31 minutes ago, Trupiano said:

only for it to take so long for staff to address it that said situation spirals into two more reports and a CK appeal. 

As I've said some months ago on a related topic, rpqm more than any other section suffers from a lack of guidelines for players on how to interact with it as a body, as "bad roleplay" is first of all subjective impression and not easily objectively to prove fact.

 

Unrelated to specific issues that could possibly be tackled by delegating more staff to handle topics (may it be rpqm or anything), I've recently seen a new systemic issue evolve here:

 

Reports are made on the normal section over rulebreaks , often things that seem petty, but are (so usually the consensus on discord general and quite often the verdict on reports too) without question bad roleplay.

However, often involved players get let off with a warning despite clearly breaking a rule, and reporters are thanked and told to please also submit a rpqm report if they also feel bothered by the roleplay quality and not just the nit-picky rules bad roleplayers tend to constantly break.

 

Obviously, this is an individually comfortable solution for the handling staff members as they can be lenient and file reports off, even when the issue isn't solved at all (see reports on repeated rulebreakers for examples).

However it's not really encouraging for players bothering to report rule breaks to be sent from Pontius to Pilate over what in a typical case was a short, unpleasant and unremarkable encounter where someone broke rules (general disregard is also covered by IG 1, it doesn't need to flag it as rpqm handled imho).

 

And of course creating a more of work for the staff team as a whole (by requiring players to file additional reports over already handled incidents) is mid and long term not achieving the goal of less work (demonstrated by rpqm reports piling up, but not only them).

 

As mentioned that's my observation, I don't have actual insight, but in comparison, where lsrp looked like bad internal communication to me, here I am quite sure this runs better, however the amount of micromanaging and different responsibilities in staff is what prevents efficient handling , and internal communication has established borders further preventing this (such as splitting roleplay quality from rule reports. As if good roleplay allowed me to break rules to my liking and upholding them wasn't like, a base to begin with anyone should uphold as a bare minimum... 🙄