How best to set up and run a Community Op?

[nonde]

This thread is for brainstorming options as to how a community op might be set up and run and anyone with ideas can post, ie not just those who will directly benefit.

Steering Principles to my mind are:

1. The op must both serve it function as a resource for those without outposts and be seen to be serving this function by the community at large.

2. Proposals should foster continuity with respect to there being the least chance of disruption to both the op serving its function and to it being seen to be serving this function.

3. Proposals must be able to be implemented by the parties who will be implementing them [and for this reason I intend to leave the decision as to which will be adopted to them and will start a new thread for this purpose on the weekend].

Thus far, the following proposals as to how to structure a community op have been advanced:

1. Ownership of the op rotates among the participants with agreed to amounts being distributed according the size of the owning guild.

2. Participants and those who wish to donate to the group form a guild of alts and the alt guild owns the op with the guild leader resetting HOs for direct withdrawals.

3. The op is owned and managed by one guild who distributes 4 days output a week to participants.

4. The op is owned and managed by one guild via establishing an alt guild for this purpose.

I am deliberately using the phrase "one guild" rather than Eley as it will facitilate brainstorming to view vesting ownership and management in one guild as a model rather than as an issue complicated by attitudes re: Eley whether for or against. Yes, if the group of participants elect a model wherein Eley is no longer the owner who distributes 4 days output a week Eley will get less cats than they have been getting. Tough is my view on that as this is a community op not Eley's op and if the participants want to run it a different way it shall so be run. It is an untenable position for any of the stakeholders in a community op to say I have more right to this op than the rest of you and were Eley to assert that occupancy granted them some sort of inviolate right to be the owners into perpetuity and manage it as they rather than all participants desired I would call upon them to live up to the guild's promise to return the op to me at any time I so wished. The issue isn't are we being mean to Eley if participants want a model which conflicts with Eley's interests, or can Eley be trusted, or let's be mean as they deserve it. The issue at hand is how a community op can best be structured and managed and discussing this has to be facilitated if we refer to models wherein one guild own and manages it as a one guild model rather than as the Eley model.

New day, fresh start and for Eley too folks so let's let the past rest and move forward with some good ideas as to how a community op can best be set up and run.

Zysha

[vguerin]

TBH man, you guys got alot of spirit to even be attempting to please everyone. I couldn't do it, IC or OCC it is a difficult as herding yubo's. I see all the work you all are doing and just believe in my heart that some things should just be left in a "survival of the fittest" style. There are ways for folks to get the mats/items themselves without the tireless effort you guys are doing to try and sate others.

"Give a man a fish, you have given him a meal... teach a man to fish and you feed him forever".

Just as in all our game choices, all the folks you are breaking your back for could have chose a path that would bring them all these things. I want to give you a medal for your generousity, and a smack for not teaching homins to fish.

[varelse]

Perhaps a brief study of some real life cooperatives would help you come up with a working plan. I'm partial to a system that allows contributors to choose to share their surplus either openly with the collective, or donate it anonymously.

That is the reason I like proposal #2 the best - it allows for 'donor' alts that would never be given status above rank & file member, so that they could drop donations into the guild hall without wasting game time setting up an exchange.

A close second is having one guild manage the op and take full responsibility for maintaining the roster both as a public 'stickied' list and setting up the in game mechanism of sharing out to each group on the list.

As with any cooperative, it's important to the community that we know who to deal with... for this reason I think having the outpost rotate among guilds would make it difficult to maintain the sense of good faith that the community will need in order to support this cooperative.

I'm interested to see what others have to say, and I hope to be able to help make this community outpost work.

[mehanson]

"Give a man a fish, you have given him a meal... teach a man to fish and you feed him forever".

I like this version better:

"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, then he'll hang around your kitchen every day waiting for his next handout. Teach a man to fish, and he'll spend his days on the riverbank, out from under foot every day!"

[thurgond]

Teach a man how to play an MMPOG, and you'll never see him again.

To try to be a little on topic, I don't understand a "community outpost." One guild owns an outpost and gets the benefits. If the guild wants to share with a few friends, that's a little more work. If you want to share equitably with a large number of friends and strangers, that's a full time job. If you just want to come up with an equitable sharing system, well if I was in consultant mode and was to quote you a price, you couldn't afford it.

To quote Denis Moore, "Wait a tic... blimey, this redistribution of wealth is trickier than I thought."

[vguerin]

To try to be a little on topic, I don't understand a "community outpost."

As good an idea it is, most homins think it a defense mechanism... state your handing mats out Atyswide and none would dare attack it. Seems to have been working

[acridiel]

I like this version better:

"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, then he'll hang around your kitchen every day waiting for his next handout. Teach a man to fish, and he'll spend his days on the riverbank, out from under foot every day!"

Give a man a fire and he´s warm for a night.
Set a man on fire and he´s warm for the rest of his life. *eG*

Sorry, couldn resist.

But as to the "how to do it", ask racoonb (Forumname) alias Mardok Ingame.
he´s the one very successfully organising our Freehaven

CU
Acridiel

[totnkopf]

2. Participants and those who wish to donate to the group form a guild of alts and the alt guild owns the op with the guild leader resetting HOs for direct withdrawals.

the problem with this setup is with the solo guilds. The alt will be on the same account as their main, so the cats would have to pass through another person to get to the main character. Also some of us have all the alt slots filled on their accnt(like... well, me )

[mehanson]

Give a man a fire and he´s warm for a night.
Set a man on fire and he´s warm for the rest of his life.

Hmmm .... I like that one, think I'll borrow it from time to time!

[dakhound]

As good an idea it is, most homins think it a defense mechanism... state your handing mats out Atyswide and none would dare attack it. Seems to have been working

bah, why do I find myself agreeing with DT more and more these days

while I respect what your trying to do with this outpost, some people use the moral highground of "we share for all" as a defense mechanism that any person attacking instantly looks bad.

good luck in forming a community op where everyone is happy