Staff Project: Helper Re-work!

[Empty]

How's this project coming along though?
It's almost been a month

[Wir3d]

How's this project coming along though?
It's almost been a month

Can you not be toxic for one day?

[Empty]

How's this project coming along though?
It's almost been a month

Can you not be toxic for one day?

Not being toxic!
I am genuinely curious since we haven't heard anything about it!

[Ryan]

We’ve gathered all the ideas discussed in this thread, discussed them on the staff forum as well and I’ve sent the idea through to mike for approval. When I hear back from him, I will make an official post with regards to what will and won’t be changed

[Rapsey]

Some context from back when we had this discussion for the current helper rank:

What's the purpose of the helper rank? We felt it was helping people with game-related questions, not doing moderation of administrative tasks. We already have ranks for those things so that seemed pointless.

At the time, everyone who wanted to become a helper was only interested if there were no strings attached. No duties, no requirements for keeping it. That's fine if the rank is only there to indicate friendly people who don't mind being asked for help, but it's really not an option for a rank that comes with in-game benefits.

Personally I don't see how things like xteleto and yell timers would turn helper from "useless" to useful. At best it seems like it would make the helping a little easier. But they're also massive QoL benefits for personal use that many players would love to have...

So yeah, back then we felt it would be better to have a low-threshold helper rank that we can hand out to anyone who is helpful, rather than to have another gated rank that deters most of them due to oversight and activity requirements. Which you would need if you don't want this to be just QoL unlocks for your account.

Funny how the helper rank keeps cycling between adding and removing powers. I think all in all this is the 4th or 5th time now? Might be easier to create a new "lite mod" rank or something, so we can switch back and forth between the two every few years without having to ask Mike to change the code every time.

[Markymark]

Some context from back when we had this discussion for the current helper rank:

What's the purpose of the helper rank? We felt it was helping people with game-related questions, not doing moderation of administrative tasks. We already have ranks for those things so that seemed pointless.

At the time, everyone who wanted to become a helper was only interested if there were no strings attached. No duties, no requirements for keeping it. That's fine if the rank is only there to indicate friendly people who don't mind being asked for help, but it's really not an option for a rank that comes with in-game benefits.

Personally I don't see how things like xteleto and yell timers would turn helper from "useless" to useful. At best it seems like it would make the helping a little easier. But they're also massive QoL benefits for personal use that many players would love to have...

So yeah, back then we felt it would be better to have a low-threshold helper rank that we can hand out to anyone who is helpful, rather than to have another gated rank that deters most of them due to oversight and activity requirements. Which you would need if you don't want this to be just QoL unlocks for your account.

Funny how the helper rank keeps cycling between adding and removing powers. I think all in all this is the 4th or 5th time now? Might be easier to create a new "lite mod" rank or something, so we can switch back and forth between the two every few years without having to ask Mike to change the code every time.

Just bring back pvp mods, senior mods, junior mods, trial mods if we go that route. No need to add more, just utilize what we have. Although im not sure Ryan would like all that more hassle.

[Church]

Some context from back when we had this discussion for the current helper rank:

What's the purpose of the helper rank? We felt it was helping people with game-related questions, not doing moderation of administrative tasks. We already have ranks for those things so that seemed pointless.

At the time, everyone who wanted to become a helper was only interested if there were no strings attached. No duties, no requirements for keeping it. That's fine if the rank is only there to indicate friendly people who don't mind being asked for help, but it's really not an option for a rank that comes with in-game benefits.

Personally I don't see how things like xteleto and yell timers would turn helper from "useless" to useful. At best it seems like it would make the helping a little easier. But they're also massive QoL benefits for personal use that many players would love to have...

So yeah, back then we felt it would be better to have a low-threshold helper rank that we can hand out to anyone who is helpful, rather than to have another gated rank that deters most of them due to oversight and activity requirements. Which you would need if you don't want this to be just QoL unlocks for your account.

Funny how the helper rank keeps cycling between adding and removing powers. I think all in all this is the 4th or 5th time now? Might be easier to create a new "lite mod" rank or something, so we can switch back and forth between the two every few years without having to ask Mike to change the code every time.

The "lite mod" version of it is how I suggested we do it but I don't think most others are really that into the idea.

[Pim]

I volunteer

[Iron podge]

TBH this seems like a waste of time/attention

If there were regular updates, we were cranking high player counts, & new players were entering it would be a different story.

Players that require a lot of help are few and far between. A veteran or staff usually takes care of them as it is.

Aside from Juntow, I rarely see helper accounts online and interacting anyways. I play a little during all times.

This thread being 4 pages deep made me cackle. Ya'll need to focus on better content

[Fungamer]

Aside from Juntow, I rarely see helper accounts online and interacting anyways. I play a little during all times.

... Thats the whole point of a rework.

Juntow is literally the only helper we have left because the rank is in such a bad spot. Props to him for continuing his good efforts despite that.

This thread being 4 pages deep made me cackle. Ya'll need to focus on better content

What baffles me is the fact that people think that x, y or z takes away dev time in any way, shape or form. The majority of these 4 pages are pretty much filled with people who don't work on updates. As for some official response by an owner, well, Rapsey (usually) doesn't make content. He's a sysadmin.

Not even that, but, even if he and everyone else on this thread was a developer, what do people think software development entails? Mash a keyboard with the right screen open for 8 hours, with the slightest bit of distraction meaning you have to restart? Do people think a helper rework is going to delay [insert content here] by another 3 months? Pretty much all of the extra functionality coming with the rank that is proposed already exists, it mainly comes down to assigning it to the helper rank. It's likely one of those things that can be done when stuck on a problem with another piece of content, because yeah, sometimes you get stuck. Would you rather have devs stare aimlessly at the same code for hours when they get stuck on something, or take their mind off it for a while and still do something that has a positive impact on the server? Or how about this: Motivation. Maybe a dev just doesnt want to work on a certain piece of content that day. Would you rather have them do nothing at all?

I'm all for the community steering development in a certain direction (e.g "no, dont do osrs nex, finish toa first") but ffs, the entire community can sod off with trying to micromanage every 15 minutes that developers spend on PKH.