The office system + deputisation is almost certainly what makes agora so
adaptable and resilient, but in the last year(s) we've had difficulty in
keeping offices filled and reports up-to-date. I believe this led to a
slow cycling-down of momentum as 'playing' became more and more
'tracking down and updating records'. To prevent this in the future we
need to make keeping reports updated as easy as possible, and to make
the assumption and fulfillment of any given office easier for new
players while simultaneously making it easier for more experienced
players to fill the holes when people suddenly disappear.
1) As much as possible, only define office responsibilities and
abilities within the rule that defines the office. Especially for
reports. It shouldn't be difficult to figure out what your job is.
This would be especially useful to newer players.
2) Create an office hierarchy. This should be designed to encourage
someone specific to take over when an officeholder doesn't fulfill
their duty. When a hole appears, we should be able to fill it
immediately.
a) Allow the referee to issue green cards to superiors whose
underlings are neglecting duties. No real purpose except to
remind players that responsibilities are being shirked.
b) Make superiors able to deputise (without assuming the position)
as soon as reports are late. This should be used only when the
superior is reasonably sure the underling will miss that report
entirely, just to keep things smooth.
c) Incentivize superiors for finding people to hold lower offices
and complete reports regularly.
d) Proposed hierarchy:
Speaker Prime Minister
| |
/-------|----------\ /--------|------\
| | | | | |
Herald Tailor Secretary Rulekeepor ADoP Arbitor
| | |
/--------| | |
| | | |
Promotor Assessor Registrar Referee
Rationale: Speaker is imposed, and gotten by playing the game, so
it might as well oversee game-y bits. The other side is
more rule-oriented, and tries to be a logical layout.
e) I'm on the fence about whether the above points should be able
to carry up the chain. It might be nice for a particularly
busy-bodied PM, or very annoying to receive multiple cards
every week.
3) Free the reports from old-ness:
a) Stop relying on plain text for reports, and make it so that
reports are instead published in a format the officer chooses,
as long as it is portable and reproducible on the fora. Right
now, that more or less means plain text, but if we add the
wiki, or some other format, the rules won't hold report keepers
back from playing with the format.
b) Remove histories from reports, or at least weekly reports. They
actually aren't /that/ much trouble, but they do make the
documents look big and intimidating to new players. And when an
officeholder wants to update formatting, they either end up
with a kuldgy mess of different width tables or need to update
a bunch of old documents to their new style.
Again, any feedback appreciated.
--nichdel
