[font=Tahoma]The lack of a proper GRN faction is holding this mod back. It is affecting a lot of other major factions who’s entire point of this mod version is to fight the Royal Navy. I think something needs to change.
The GRN has been plagued by inactivity for months now. I used to be part of you myself, and I noticed that after Exile left, it never achieved it’s former glory. After the very slow start in 86, you guys had a short spike of activity and daily raids. I feel that at this point, your inactivity is actually hurting the mod.
There are a few things fundamentally wrong with your organisation.
[size=medium]Leadership
There is no clear leader of GRN. While, after many delays, Jeremy_Hunter was appointed as official leader, but it is very unclear because Dab is still in control of a lot of things by the look of things. I don’t know if that is because Jeremy doesn’t do his job or something else, but the current situation isn’t working. My attempts to contact Jeremy regarding various GRN business came back with responses like *meh* or some sighs. This seems to me like a lack of interest in GRN. A lack of interest from a faction leader ploughs through faction morale, resulting in desinterested members as well. A faction leader should be the face and the example for the faction. Come up with idea’s, take initatives and support members doing the same.
Communications
Justice League is one of the few people posting communication threads on the forums, representing the GRN or the King. I have no idea how he ended up in High Command, but in my opinion, he is very unsuitable for a responsability like this. Not only does he show the clear lack of internal communication, his English is extremely lacking and his attitude is plain arrogant. He doesn’t understand the more complex replies and simply ignores 80% of the response. This is shown for example in the following threads:
It is simply embarassing to see that he is the voice of an official military faction.
The internal communications issue is another matter to adress. It seems like there is a lot of confusion amongst your own High Command regarding decisions like base permissions and laws. Gallic law STILL lacks any form of ruling, apart from a general prohibition. When people build a base anyway, they get a weak response from someone, resulting in a very weak show and lame excuses to keep the base intact. You don’t have the forces to enforce your patch-up laws or any other laws for that matter. Get those regulations up and running and you’ll have a much easier time managing your house.
Next to that, threads pointed to the King, the Royal Navy or Gallia in general usually get ignored until it is bumped several times. How can you deserve the power over an entire house when you can’t handle basic forum responsabilities?
Activity
If we take a look at the activity tracker, we see a LOT of Capital ship usage. It is a general policy for respected military factions to use a limited number of capital ships. Seems like GRN has a different policy, as you can even fly a tagged cruiser at the lowest rank possible. The rule allowing official factions to shoot transport now changed, but the reason official military factions were an exception was because they showed some responsability with their usage.
Moving on, there are zero patrols. The GRN has a huge area of operations. That you don’t patrol Gallic House Space seems reasonable, as activity there isn’t very booming (it’s increasing though), but you have the entire Tau sector the Royal Navy claims as theirs. There is a very diverse group of people flying around there. Why aren’t you out there enforcing Gallic law? Why aren’t you out there at all?
Cooperation
GRN’s will is law, no matter what. That is the impression I get from dealing with GRN on a skype-political level. Gallic players should unite to make the best of this wonderful house, but every attempt at a proper government is blocked by GRN, or Dab who claims power and screws all others. Even in a time where GRN lost their official rights cause of the lack of members, you still claimed total leadership over Gallia and its affairs. The GRP took some initiatives on adapting to 4.86, weeks after it was released. All progress was publicly slashed away by Dab, who on its own didn’t agree with every other faction leader in Gallia.
Accept the fact that you’re failing and broken, and adjust your attitude accordingly. Accept that there are better and more active factions in Gallia who have just as many rights dealing with the running of Gallia, instead of the GRN “because that’s how it is”. It doesn’t work, and the players are the victim
So, your main argument against all this is “join us or stfu”. The GRN in its current form is something I don’t want to be part of. The leadership structure is broken and the general policy is fundamentally flawed. I don’t want to be part of such a GRN, but I do want a GRN that works. Why not get your act together and get it done? If you’re not up for it, just stop trying and disband, you’re doing nobody a favor by going on like this.
Oh and before you post a serious/official response, please respond to the general points I’m making. Picking out minor things out of this story and ignoring the main line to draw away attention isn’t going to work.
I will answer a few of your points now. The others are being worked on.
1.) Leadership
I am the Faction Leader. Dab is Second in Command. My High Command is as follows:
Jeremy_Hunter
Dab
JihadJoe
Neil Barnes
Justice Leauge
Dreadskull
I am inactive, and I have seemed uninterested, but it has been a rough time due to a million school projects and me having to ferry between two houses every damn week, one without internet. Real Life > Freelancer. You know this. I can't help it when I am exhausted and want to enjoy the game when I can and not have to deal with so much stuff when I have no clue what to do. Why the hell does Dab do stuff still? I'm watching, letting him take the weight, and learning.
Neil Barnes did a lot of initiatives, mostly in the area of the Logistics Fleet. Now I have an initiative, and that's to fix all this crap you have thrown on my lap.
I am the leader. If you dislike how I acted, rejoice.
I got over my idiot phase for now.
Initiative has been started. Now, if you, Phoenix, and Joe would kindly come onto Skype to help?
2.) Communications
I will limit such communications to myself until all can be sorted. Happy?
As for the ignoring, my fault, and mine alone. Won't happen again unless I get a headache or am just pissed.
Which, I am both right now, so my tone is not the best.
3.) Activity
I threw out the capital ship rank restrictions. So sue me. You want to join and have your cap? Be active, and fly a snub once in awhile. You don't like my way, then deal with it. We're here to have fun, and not everyone has fun in a fighter.
As I have said before: if you are going to bitch about the activity of MY FACTION, then you best be prepared to HELP WITH IT. otherwise, take a hike, because the relentless bitching does little besides me playing a parrot and worsening the already bad headache I have.
4.) Cooperation
Get your ass on skype then, so you can help with the revamp. or I'll grab Timo to represent IDF, because I need the Gallic Official Factions, and I need them now. Faster we get together, the faster everything can be rectified and hopefully a lot can be done to fix the Gallic Royal Navy, as well as the Gallic Goverment.
I can't fix everything alone.I got about 5-6 people helping me with the revamp. Would be nice to have the third official faction stop by and help.
I also refuse to comment on Abuzar at the present time. End of that line of discussion for now.
That is my serious/official response. if I missed a point, inform me.
I understand what phoenix is talking about considering it's pretty much the same reasons that got me to leave. There is no room for anything to happen as all initiatives get blocked. Instead of fixing the faction you prefered to incorporate indies. It fixed the faction for a while, but the roleplay quality severely suffered.
Dab was also supposed to "leave" his official factions as he got sick of official factions apparently, but the truth is, he still is the real 1IC. Nothing changed.
Nothing changes because we CAN'T change anything without getting stopped, and this is why many, even me that dedicated 2 entiere years of my discovery time to Gallia and the GRN, simply decided to stop trying and moved to zones where powerstruggles are not as hardcore as they are in Gallia.
Yes, leadership has been having problems. In fact, since Mike left GRN has always had leadership problems. I was the 2nd longest leader after him, but it's been tumultuous. Exile gave it to a committee-type HC leadership, who decided that didn't work and choice a leader (sorry, I can't remember who), who was succeeded by I believe Monte next, who then abdicated to someone followed by Alley, who then ended up detained for real life issues for a few months resulting in my leading as 2IC followed by her return followed by her resignation followed by my resignation and handing of the faction to Jeremy.
So yes, it's been a rough ride for GRN, but we've always come out with our head above the water. There will be storms, but they pass, this one is in the midst of sailing out of it.
As for my involvement, I don't know why people keep asking this. I did not say I was leaving Gallia for good, nor that I was quitting the GRN. This is a rumor that has spread for god knows what reason considering there is a thread in the GRN section that clearly states I abdicated to Jeremy but have stayed on as 2IC for a temporary period of time. This is probably going to last another few weeks, after which I will abdicate the 2IC position to whomever Jeremy feels best fills that role (I'd recommend Andre). After that I'll be purely in an advisory role and possibly have diplomatic duties, but nothing beyond that. Now everyone knows the exact nature of my present and future involvement in the GRN, and we can stop speculating.
On communication, Jeremy will handle most of it, I might pop up here and there. I have spoken to Abuzar concerning transmissions before, I'll have a talk with him again. Unless otherwise stated by the two of us, assume any transmission made by anyone other than Jeremy, myself, or the King account is NOT an official statement by the GRN.
Activity is a temporary issue, and always has been. We went 3 months just below the LN before our guys got bored of fighting the BAF over and over and over. There is very little in terms of traffic in the Gallic core worlds, not to mention the absolute size and shape of Gallia makes player-to-player interaction very difficult there. That's why every non-trading faction in Gallia has, or has had, activity problems. This holds true now. GRN had been able to keep up 6 days of activity for quite awhile, but final season for students hit a few weeks back and our activity has plummeted by 4 of those days. It will rise again after finals is over and Jeremy fully takes the reigns. GRP is also having problems with their activity, for the reasons stated above. Fortunately, the dev team has looked at that problem and a hopeful solution is being implemented to fix it. Gallia has similar problems as to Kusari, and it can be partially remedied the same way. See activity issues, come over to our space and liven things up a bit just by being there. Activity is bred from activity, and the more people who come to Gallia, the more you'll see the GRN and GRP.
I don't know why you think GRN will is law, since it hasn't been since Exile abdicated and the other official factions were formed. I especially always went to great lengths to talk to other faction leaders in Gallia, and get opinions, and we have always had Gallic leadership chats to talk about large changes. Most of the time I only see the GRN and GRP participating. Saying we don't have any cooperation with the other factions is ignoring the history GRN has had of involvement with the rest of Gallia. Pointing your attention of the GRN appointing GMS to handle the drafting of treaties with the IMG, the IDF involvement in Kusari affairs, etc.
There is and always will be a cardinal rule to cooperation; It requires efforts by both sides. If you never talk to us about your concerns or wishes, we can't know that it needs discussed.
As to the claims that I've "slashed GRP attempts to adapt Gallia" those are false. I disagreed with Duncan on a few issues. If you'll remember the incident you're trying to refer to, it took Loken and I a couple minutes to come to agreement on the steps needed to be taken once he arrived. GRP got what it wanted without causing problems that the GRN would have to suffer consequences for (most importantly the diplomatic ramifications with Kusari in the actions GRP wanted to perform). You'll also remember that the community overwhelmingly agreed on the point that the GRP stepped past their right on that issue as well.
I know there are some people that say I'm a powermonger and do whatever the hell I want however the hell I want, and I do pay attention to the people who come to me with those opinions and I speak to them, usually at length, concerning their objections and concerns. However, the people who refuse to speak with me and instead go around making these claims I don't put much thought to, especially when my entire history as a faction leader has example after example that I operate in the exact opposite manner. Gallia has a lot of internal drama going on, and that's why I lost interest in it. Because there are so many people out for themselves and not out for Gallia.
From my experience, it's a completely self-destroying climate, very similar to the one Kusari found itself in awhile back. If you have reservations about my intentions or my methods, go ahead and talk to ANY of the Bretonian faction leaders or former faction leaders about how I operated when I was 2IC and leader of the BAF for the last 3 years. I have done my best to always put the well-being of the house and faction I find myself in/leading, above anything else, and I've always held strongly to the belief that a faction and house leader has an obligation to talk to any person who has objection or concerns about how they behave or operate, and I've never once turned a person away when they come to talk with me about it.
Gallia is no different, nor is the GRN, and that's why I'm still in the faction. I know first hand how problematic it is when a leader up and vanishes from a faction leaving everything in the 2IC's lap. It's happened to me three times, and it isn't fun. When I announced to my HC that I was stepping down as GRN leader, I gave them the choice of my becoming an advisor, or any other role they wanted me to perform. They requested I stay on as the 2nd in Command. The GRP and other players had problems with me still being around, saying I was refusing to "let go of power", when they never stopped to even ask the GRN HC whether they wanted me in that position or not.
In short, if you want cooperation, you yourself have to be cooperative. Intentionally trying to exclude an entire faction from the decision making process, as was attempted by some of the Gallic players against GRN, gets you nowhere, especially not any closer to a cooperative environment. Nor does trying to exclude certain people because of personal dislike for them. Furthermore, trying to tell GRN to screw off when the GRP unilaterally makes a decision to restrict all factions other than IDF from transporting Cryocubes doesn't help either. Yes, I stepped in and said no, GRN would not back such a move. Why? Not because GRP made the decision, but because it screwed over the EFL, Solar, GMS, and seriously threatened the diplomatic standings between Gallia and Kusari. Furthermore, and most importantly, that decision that GRP made had also very nearly resulted in the dev team adding Cryocube sale locations to other areas of Sirius, removing it as an exclusive Gallic good. It was the tweaking of that decision, the tweak that Loken and I easily and cooperatively discussed and agreed upon in the span of a few minutes after hours of arguing between others, that prevented that calamity from occurring.
Now, Loken and I aren't chums, we aren't friends. But we also don't hate each other or spend all our efforts on politicizing every argument. Good god, be like <strike>Han</strike>Loken.
Jeremy_Hunter Wrote:As I have said before: if you are going to bitch about the activity of MY FACTION, then you best be prepared to HELP WITH IT. otherwise, take a hike, because the relentless bitching does little besides me playing a parrot and worsening the already bad headache I have.
This and some more of what has been posted here really makes me wonder if the system of one faction leader designating his successor is really a good system. Seems like people just put their friends in place to make sure they retain power and control. The "its MY FACTION deal with it" attitude only shows one thing: wrong guy in power. Maybe have elections or something? Cause some faction leaders in disco kinda remind me of the North Korean dynasty.
I see where you are coming from, but I am not like that. Some factions are run by people who are unfit for leadership, but I'm new to the entire thing; GRN| is my first official faction to lead. I'm doing the best I can with a crumbling faction, and the best I can with what I was given and what I am given.
But I'm only human, and humans make mistakes. We get angry. We make some bad calls. My post was made during a headache, and I still have a slight one right now. I'm not infallible. But I am trying, and all I really want is for patience to be given to me.
Given the circumstances that is Gallia. I do believe that Jeremy has been doing the best he can to his abilities and RL problems, as do all faction leaders at one point or another.
No problems from me aside from the activity lacking in Gallia, yes its a traders paradise, nuff said on that, but also to that degree, they as a whole can't do much cause of the enviroment working against them. In such saying, its almost too well protected. The way gallia currently is virtually eliminates the need for patrols and such cause pirates can barely do anything and the current stalemate with the council, from a certain point of view.
-"If we do not learn at least one thing a day....Our minds turn to stupor"- Kyle Sparrgrove -2005
' Wrote:Given the circumstances that is Gallia. I do believe that Jeremy has been doing the best he can to his abilities and RL problems, as do all faction leaders at one point or another.
No problems from me aside from the activity lacking in Gallia, yes its a traders paradise, nuff said on that, but also to that degree, they as a whole can't do much cause of the enviroment working against them. In such saying, its almost too well protected. The way gallia currently is virtually eliminates the need for patrols and such cause pirates can barely do anything and the current stalemate with the council, from a certain point of view.
The fix coming that I mentioned is designed in large part to solve these problems. We all know that traders = Pirated = Navy = Traders/More pirates. You've pointed out the biggest problem with Gallia, in that pirates cannot fulfill their role given the way the systems are setup. The dev team noticed this as well. Hopefully the solution will remedy this problem. When I did the whole trade thing with my GRN, I too noticed how incredibly easy it was to avoid people. It felt almost like cheating.
Quote:I am inactive, and I have seemed uninterested, but it has been a rough time due to a million school projects and me having to ferry between two houses every damn week, one without internet. Real Life > Freelancer. You know this. I can't help it when I am exhausted and want to enjoy the game when I can and not have to deal with so much stuff when I have no clue what to do. Why the hell does Dab do stuff still? I'm watching, letting him take the weight, and learning.
If that has been the case for the past months/weeks, why did you even accept leadership? You should have known leading a military faction is hard work, carries a lot of responsibility and will take a lot of paperwork time. If you don't enjoy that, why do you even bother?
Quote:Neil Barnes did a lot of initiatives, mostly in the area of the Logistics Fleet. Now I have an initiative, and that's to fix all this crap you have thrown on my lap.
I didn't throw anything on your lap. The issues I describe are there for weeks, I'm not adding anything new, just describing the situation and urging you to do something about it
Quote:I will limit such communications to myself until all can be sorted. Happy?
If you can answer threads by yourself in a reasonable amount of time, ofcourse I'm happy. If you can do it in a way that suits Gallia and the GRN, and if you stick to the things you say, there wouldn't be any complaints. I can go into more details regarding that if you wish.
Quote:I threw out the capital ship rank restrictions. So sue me. You want to join and have your cap? Be active, and fly a snub once in awhile. You don't like my way, then deal with it. We're here to have fun, and not everyone has fun in a fighter.
If that is your policy, so be it. I strongly disagree with such regulations, because heavy capship use from official (military) factions is heavily frowned upon. Apart from that, capship restrictions are a good motivator for promotions. Why would someone bother becoming a captain if they can fly a tagged Valor at Sous-Lieutenant? This policy also results in a lot of inexperienced, poorly armored and equipped capital ships. People will just die in them, how much fun is that.
Quote:As I have said before: if you are going to bitch about the activity of MY FACTION, then you best be prepared to HELP WITH IT. Otherwise, take a hike, because the relentless bitching does little besides me playing a parrot and worsening the already bad headache I have.
I got plenty of other responsabilities, like y'know, running the bottom-of-the-foodchain faction. GRN's problems are you problems. Just because I'm not willing to join under the current circumstances does not mean I can't say what I think you're doing wrong. Blaming it all on your current mood isn't going to help either. The pressure and responsabilities don't account for that. If you're not up for the job, why did you take it?
Quote:I can't fix everything alone.I got about 5-6 people helping me with the revamp. Would be nice to have the third official faction stop by and help.
This is about the problem of GRN, not just Gallia. I'm more then willing to help with a proper government, and I'm glad we're already making some good steps.
Quote:On communication, Jeremy will handle most of it, I might pop up here and there. I have spoken to Abuzar concerning transmissions before, I'll have a talk with him again. Unless otherwise stated by the two of us, assume any transmission made by anyone other than Jeremy, myself, or the King account is NOT an official statement by the GRN.
Good, saves you the public humiliation next time.
Quote: ('¦) Activity is bred from activity, and the more people who come to Gallia, the more you'll see the GRN and GRP.
Ever since the player bases, there is plenty of traders activity in Gallia. But like I said, I can understand why you're not in the Core worlds very often. That does leave the Tau's though, why aren't you there? It's not the daily brawl with BAF, there are all sorts of people to interact with, miners, pirates, Outcasts, bretonians, colonials'¦ The tau's are the weakspot of the supply routes to and from Gallia, be there!
Quote:I don't know why you think GRN will is law, ('¦)
That is caused by your general attitude of what the GRN should and will be doing. Even when you had your rights taken away, you still had the 'You're working with US, not the other way around' attitude. At least that's the impression you left the rest of us with. I'm not the only one thinking that.
Quote:As to the claims that I've "slashed GRP attempts to adapt Gallia" those are false. I disagreed with Duncan on a few issues. If you'll remember the incident you're trying to refer to, it took Loken and I a couple minutes to come to agreement on the steps needed to be taken once he arrived. GRP got what it wanted without causing problems that the GRN would have to suffer consequences for (most importantly the diplomatic ramifications with Kusari in the actions GRP wanted to perform). You'll also remember that the community overwhelmingly agreed on the point that the GRP stepped past their right on that issue as well.
I don't want to make this thead about this incident, but I'll say that it's pretty amazing how your experience differs from the rest of the participants. We all agreed that GRP ruling wasn't going to work. They rushed it, and made a mistake. My problem was with the way you reacted instead. Going solo against talks that were going on to fix it. Using the King account to public mock the GRP's decision was very wrong in our opinion.
Quote:In short, if you want cooperation, you yourself have to be cooperative. Intentionally trying to exclude an entire faction from the decision making process, as was attempted by some of the Gallic players against GRN, gets you nowhere, especially not any closer to a cooperative environment. Nor does trying to exclude certain people because of personal dislike for them. Furthermore, trying to tell GRN to screw off when the GRP unilaterally makes a decision to restrict all factions other than IDF from transporting Cryocubes doesn't help either. Yes, I stepped in and said no, GRN would not back such a move. Why? Not because GRP made the decision, but because it screwed over the EFL, Solar, GMS, and seriously threatened the diplomatic standings between Gallia and Kusari. Furthermore, and most importantly, that decision that GRP made had also very nearly resulted in the dev team adding Cryocube sale locations to other areas of Sirius, removing it as an exclusive Gallic good. It was the tweaking of that decision, the tweak that Loken and I easily and cooperatively discussed and agreed upon in the span of a few minutes after hours of arguing between others, that prevented that calamity from occurring.
That is very hard when you enter a conversation presenting your opinion as the only possible option. No matter if you intended it or not, you start by arguing, then after other people have to calm you down, you start to compromise. We didn't exclude GRN, we had a working government with a voting system. GRN was the only one against these plans, and you said this whole new system didn't apply for issues that should have been discussed in the past. What's the point of a government if you get to decide when it applies or not? We didn't exclude GRN, GRN's plans were outvoted. Period.
Again, I don't want to make this about you, and this is my opinion of why things are going wrong as they are. You should wonder why so many people thing badly about you. Maaaybe it's you instead of everyone else. I'm sure you have good intentions, but your way doesn't work, as it is confirmed many times by many people.
We'll never agree, so don't bother trying to convince me. I'm sharing my point of view, as did you.
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