Tournament Assistants

[Optimus Prime]

Suggestion Idea: Adding one or more Tournament Assistants to the Tournament Forum in order to assist the Tournament Directors in various capacities.

Specifics: There has been a little bit of discussion over the past couple of weeks about this in various threads and so I figured why not just make in an official suggestion.

I think it would be nice to have a couple of extra helpers in the Tournament Forum much like they now have in the Foundry. These new Tournament Assistants could have the following responsibilities:

1. Updating and Recording an official Tournament Newsletter that would be stickied to the top of the forum.
2. General answering of questions by up and coming tournament organizers.
3. Assistance in some of the more mundane procedures of running tournaments such as how to post standings, keep track of games, etc.
4. Any other tasks given to them by the Tournament Directors.
5. Required to actively host tournaments (perhaps at least 2 at a time).

These new Tournament Assistants would not necessarily be given the power to grant tournament privileges; that would stay with the Tournament Directors, as would the ability to move threads between the Ongoing, Completed and Abandoned Forums.


Why it is needed: I personally feel that while the Tournament Directors do a great job in handing out the privileges and moving the threads to the appropriate places that there could be a benefit to having a couple of individuals who are available to help out with questions and more mundane things on a more regular basis.

I do not know who would be the best candidates for the Tournament Assistant job, but as it has been discussed by various people in the forum I felt it might as well be an official suggestion. I believe that the Tournament Directors probably have a decent idea of who could serve in the capacity of Tournament Assistant in a good way.

Priority: 4/5 (I think it would be of a great benefit if done properly).

[Rocketry]

sounds good - i think a lot of people would be willing and if you need the help, you should get it.

Rocketry

[Coleman]

I'm not knowledgeable on this issue. Is there currently a large inconvenient delay in the response times of most of these services? Couldn't some others be started by motivated members instead of someone with moderation capacity?

I started the Foundry 'newsletter' before I was offered my CA position. (Which I hope to update on weekends from now on. Thursday became inconvenient.)

[Optimus Prime]

I'm not knowledgeable on this issue. Is there currently a large inconvenient delay in the response times of most of these services? Couldn't some others be started by motivated members instead of someone with moderation capacity?

I started the Foundry 'newsletter' before I was offered my CA position. (Which I hope to update on weekends from now on. Thursday became inconvenient.)

I wouldn't say that there is a largely inconvienent delay in any of the services as far as I can tell. I have been doing my best to help out whenever I see someone with a question or a concern. I know of several others that do the same.

In regards to the newsletter there is a thread currently about starting one, but I believe it is quickly growing a bit large for one person to handle.

Other than that, I just figured I would make it an official suggestion rather than letting it just float round in the Tournament Forum. I figure the powers that be will do with it what they will.

[Optimus Prime]

In regards to the "helping with mundane" matters idea. I am not certain how much AK_iceman, Hugh.G.Rection and Steelhorse deal with along those lines. I am of course not privy to information like that.

However, I do know that I think if there was a place that tournament organizers could submit helpful information to be included in a "Tournament Helps" section it would be of great benefit. Having the tools readily available makes running a tournament a FAR easier process, the real deficiency I see at the moment is a lack of these tools being available.

If nothing else, having someone in charge of just that would be helpful to all the budding organizers out there. The thing is they would need the ability to update a stickied post, or just submit the information to someone else.

[Twill]

could the moving be automated with a phpBB hack

i.e. the person with tournament organizer privs can move their own announcement thread and it automatically gets moved to abandoned if there are no posts in a certain amount of time?

Giving people mod positions tends to mean that they just stop posting and stop having fun....and that sucks for everyone involved

If the only delay is in moving things around (the grunt work) and the assigining of privs is done on time by tourney directors, then shouldnt automating the grunt work solve a lot of problems?

[Optimus Prime]

could the moving be automated with a phpBB hack

i.e. the person with tournament organizer privs can move their own announcement thread and it automatically gets moved to abandoned if there are no posts in a certain amount of time?

Giving people mod positions tends to mean that they just stop posting and stop having fun....and that sucks for everyone involved

If the only delay is in moving things around (the grunt work) and the assigining of privs is done on time by tourney directors, then shouldnt automating the grunt work solve a lot of problems?

I'm not sure I understand what you are meaning by "grunt work". What are you talking about moving around?

[Coleman]

On a different, but possibly related enough topic. A mass pm service would be very very helpful. It could be director access only to help prevent abuse by regular members. I'm growing a bit tired of waiting for an official update the forum software to perform this task.

I would have tried to build a script for it myself if there wasn't that post rate delay. Where you can only send 1 pm every 15-30 seconds or whatever it is set at.

[Optimus Prime]

It most certainly would be helpful. I can only imagine the number of organizers that abandon tournaments or don't even start because of the task of sending out the PMs.

[GreecePwns]

I 100% back this and the mass-PM ideas.