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Staff Changes

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Promotions

PercentN joins the staff team as a graphics moderator. Teyla has also been side-promoted to graphics moderator.
Giftshaven and musicalman join the staff team as music moderators.
Major Flare and Maarfy join the staff team as ASM moderators.
BTD6_maker joins the staff team as a Yoshi's Island moderator (for all sections).


Where are Youtube and Events?

While there were a handful of applications for the Youtube and Event Organizer positions, ultimately we decided none of the applicants for these positions were suitable. This is not to say that any of the applicants were bad, but rather that none of the applicants fit with how we wanted to handle events or the SMWC Youtube channel in the future.

We're still deciding what to do with these positions.


More Changes?

There will be some more changes in the near future. It will be a long process, though. In the meantime, if you have any issues or comments, slap that Staff Feedback button.
Major Flare's promotion is for sure something I would never expect. 👀
Congrats to the new peeps!
Windowless ride, feeling alive
Are you alive or just breathing?
I feel like you guys need very very badly someone passionate and with enough free time to get the events department back on track. I know I haven't been around much to judge, but it feels like stuff like the base ROM contest fell in the same limbo as SMWCP2 did (I know, I know, it's not that extreme); we're promised it's going to happen, but it's eternally delayed and we get no dates on it because it appears that no one can work hard enough to even make it happen by a deadline.
Is there really no one around like this? Someone to get the ball rolling again?

Also, best of luck to the new mods. Y'all rock
It's easily the best thing I've done
So why the empty numb?
Congrats everyone #smrpg{mlem} great choices!

I also agree with Koopster. Still though, the continual growth of these contests, both in size and expectations, has reached somewhat of a tipping point. It is harder to deal with the growth of both of these factors with any amount of staff.
Congrats to you all, especially to BTD6, who I know he's a very capable person for the position and will do the best to the section (of course, along with Zed!)

Good luck to everybody! #smrpg{y}
Layout made by MaxodeX
2021 TRENO vibe check thread
Three cheers for Gifty #fim{:D}

Congrats to the other people too, y'all seem pretty good at stuff.
I'm really not surprised musicalman made staff. That guy really knows his way around a sample.
                                                                                                                  
                              


Originally posted by Katerpie
Major Flare's promotion is for sure something I would never expect. 👀
Congrats to the new peeps!


I'm really touched, Katerpie #smw{^_^}

For now, I'll do my best to honor the position given to me. Congrats to the other promoted people as well, and may the luck go with us.





Dream team (feed them, please):






Originally posted by GbreezeSunset
I also agree with Koopster. Still though, the continual growth of these contests, both in size and expectations, has reached somewhat of a tipping point. It is harder to deal with the growth of both of these factors with any amount of staff.

Perhaps, then, contests should stop growing. What's it that makes it better the way we're doing it, progressively having bigger, more anticipated [and in consequence harder-to-manage and less frequent] contests? Why do we need to "do better than the last VLDC", and what makes us think "making it better" entails what we think it does?
Honestly the whole fun in contests to me is just having a reason to have fun making something.

Moreover, contests are so big nowadays I would even say it's less fun to design levels for them, only cause of how "huge" and "important" (and um, "annual") they feel, making it feel like you need to work as hard as you possibly can rather than just have fun.

I would personally enjoy to see someone in charge with this take: smaller, more frequent contests.

I realise this thread isn't about this, but well, sue me I guess.
It's easily the best thing I've done
So why the empty numb?
Originally posted by Koopster
Perhaps, then, contests should stop growing. What's it that makes it better the way we're doing it, progressively having bigger, more anticipated [and in consequence harder-to-manage and less frequent] contests? Why do we need to "do better than the last VLDC", and what makes us think "making it better" entails what we think it does?
Honestly the whole fun in contests to me is just having a reason to have fun making something.

Moreover, contests are so big nowadays I would even say it's less fun to design levels for them, only cause of how "huge" and "important" (and um, "annual") they feel, making it feel like you need to work as hard as you possibly can rather than just have fun.

I would personally enjoy to see someone in charge with this take: smaller, more frequent contests.

I realise this thread isn't about this, but well, sue me I guess.

Sorry for also hijacking this thread. Yeah I agree. Personally I think we could take some inspiration from the romhack races. I think that frequent fun/silly contests would be more enjoyable than the annual huge contest that ends up stressing many people out anyway. In my mind, I imagine something even less serious than the 24 hour contests. However, silly does not mean pointless; they should revolve mostly around designing for fun with few restrictions. These would never be turned into collabs as well because that entire process is absurdly time consuming, and would not need to be over-hyped so the judging process isn't too demanding.

Maybe bringing this discussion back on topic a tiny bit, I don't even know if more manpower would be necessary if the contests were just toned down a lot. Even the KLDC collab never panned out. It's no fault towards the collab organizers. It's an issue with the way things have become.

Of course, we should also try to figure out what would suit the site best. There are a ton of new kaizo-light hacks being submitted to the section every day. Maybe some sort of event/contest/etc would interest these people while keeping the burden very light on the staff/organizers. BLDC is coming up eventually, and I am also slightly worried about the staff/organizers being overworked, but we'll see. Since there is really nothing at all planned after BLDC, maybe we'll see some changes into the future. That's really all I have to say about that, if necessary this could be discussed elsewhere.
We're definitely not trying to make contests even bigger. The mere thought of trying to make something bigger in scope than VLDCX kills me.

The Event Organizer position was just something to help organize contests and handle collab stuff, both now and possibly in the future. It wasn't intended to enable more/bigger contests, just to make hosting them a bit easier.
If there was a way to a create a user poll asking if people would prefer more frequent contests and less super serious, major contests would the staff be up for humoring the thought?

Or does the sound of that make things even more complicated because you lack the proper number of people to handle it?
                                                                                                                  
                              
a user engagement survey wouldn't be hard to macgyver, and is a fine idea.
Originally posted by GbreezeSunset
Maybe bringing this discussion back on topic a tiny bit, I don't even know if more manpower would be necessary if the contests were just toned down a lot. Even the KLDC collab never panned out. It's no fault towards the collab organizers. It's an issue with the way things have become.

I agree with you. KLDC isn't better in that aspect either to be fair because some things behind the scenes are just downright complicated to sort out right now, and making it have a collab wasn't entirely in my plans at first. It was already "toned down" from the very beginning [and maybe other major contests too?] just so not every KLDC has to necessarily have a collab. I cannot stress this enough.
I guess VLDCX is a "lesson" to not make major contests even bigger next time. I feel like things should be a bit more organized, which our events organizer will take care of.
Windowless ride, feeling alive
Are you alive or just breathing?
Originally posted by Koopster
making it feel like you need to work as hard as you possibly can rather than just have fun.

I agree with most of your points, but isn't the whole idea of a contest to get first place? Or at least, put enough effort to be near the top? Now I'm not shooting down less serious contests (I encourage it), I'm just saying don't make contests turn into "Oh just make levels." Otherwise you'll get trolls submitting levels just for the sake of submitting a level (that's kinda where the whole "collab thing" fails).

Speaking of which, if VLDC is still going to be turned into collaborations in the future, I think and believe the reward should be getting in the collab, not try to fit 180+ entries in one rom. That way, if there are 180+ entries again, a lot of fat can be cut out for "Top 25 VLDC Entries" collabs instead. Plus, it will also push people to make better levels just so they're worthy enough to be in the game.

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Oh uh, back on topic: congrats to the new people in the staff team. I wish y'all good luck making the site better!
Want progress on 100 Rooms of Enemies: The Nightmare Edition? Go here to see.

(rip my other userbars momentarily)

Originally posted by Daizo Dee Von
Now I'm not shooting down less serious contests (I encourage it), I'm just saying don't make contests turn into "Oh just make levels." Otherwise you'll get trolls submitting levels just for the sake of submitting a level

That'll always happen regardless of how big the contest feels like as long as it's a site contest, cause some people just don't care a whole lot but still want to participate just for the fact it's something official.
I believe there will, too, always be people who want to win and that will be doing their best, regardless.

(Thinking about it now I also think VLDC is a brand that we should probably ditch altogether. It has not only a huge size but also such a specific level style attached to it now that it feels quite pointless to go on with it.)
It's easily the best thing I've done
So why the empty numb?
Originally posted by Koopster
(Thinking about it now I also think VLDC is a brand that we should probably ditch altogether. It has not only a huge size but also such a specific level style attached to it now that it feels quite pointless to go on with it.)

My views on this are simply that as long as contests don't require custom assets to score well (if you do choose to use them, you incorporate them properly), and you have the choice to enter a vanilla level into a contest, I don't see a point in having VLDC nowadays.
                                                                                                                  
                              
Congrats to everyone, they all deserved staff membership! I barely recognized you, PercentN while I didn't know you at all, BTD6_maker! Major Flare and Maarfy, I did recognize you both, but it was pretty unexpected. And you three, Teyla, Giftshaven and musicalman, deserved it in particular!

As for the point of VLDC, I wouldn't mind if it gets ditched from the site completely, although I feel like it'll be nice if we have it once more as it's traditional for SMW Central. I even had some plans for the next VLDC, but as you can see in my bio, I changed my mind with them. If we have one sometime, I'll definitely go ahead with my idea, but when it's confirmed that we won't have VLDCs anymore, well, I'll do in another SMW level design contest.

When VLDC happens sometime in the future, we cannot allow a mistake we made last time, i.e. we shouldn't even try to create a huge compilation of +180 entries, but rather put at most 100 best entries into one hack.
I have a Discord server as well! (by joining, you agree to the rules)
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Basically, I believe in peace and bashing two bricks together.

Originally posted by Rainbow Man
When VLDC happens sometime in the future, we cannot allow a mistake we made last time, i.e. we shouldn't even try to create a huge compilation of +180 entries, but rather put at most 100 best entries into one hack.

If you're talking about VLDC X, I'd like to remind you that we had settled for a top 60 compilation, and afaik that hasn't changed ever since.
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