View and vote on the article here: Issue #2 : Interview with ViceCinC wa1800z about ranks
Issue #2 : Interview with ViceCinC wa1800z about ranks| Category | | | Summary | | An interview with VCinC. wa1800z regarding his personal views on ranks |
| | Body | Disclaimer: The following are wa1800z's personal opinions/view/wishes, and should not be considered in any way official CyberArmy policies or statements.
Q. Who created the ranking system and is it still the same as it was on day one?
A. As far as I know or can remember, the whole CyberArmy website concept itself is overlord's, and it's still essentially the same today. Only the basis of promotions has changed, and two ranks have been added - Troopers in mid-2000 (coinciding with TheGame's rewrite of the site, and Vice CinC in 2001, when pengo started to become less active.
Q. Who designed the rank images?
A. The old credits page credited "jagis", but I have never met him/her/them, nor do I have the slightest idea of who he/she/it is.
Q. Do you believe that ranks are useful, and if so, why?
A. I find them handy as an offhand measure of trust, dedication, or veteran status, yet they do suffer from the Zebulun legacy. However, when we had to choose between legacy problems or a rank reset, we chose the former for stability and historical heritage. Time will fix legacy, while resetting all ranks means starting everything from scratch, which in turn meant rebuilding at least a skeleton of a chain of command, which was then vulnerable to questions of legitimacy. The biggest fears were seeing responsibilities assigned based on a personal basis - with the potential of bias - and the need to have someone in a position simply to fill the position without having proved their ability therein.
Q. What do you tell those who say "ranks are just decorations. They're not needed and reflect nothing"?
A. I don't agree. :) Seriously though, I have yet to be given a real reason as to why the current ranks are worthless or bad. Of course the system's not perfect; it has problems (which I described earlier), but it does the job simply. While all humans are, of course, equals, all CyberArmy members are not equals in terms of their dedication and engagement, and those things deserve to be shown.
Q. Maybe rank has weight in Staff decisions and discussions, but do you believe that they have in brigades?
A. While I personally want to see ranks treated the same everywhere, it depends mostly on the brigade's culture.
Q. As of late, the Marshal rank was decided to be limited to those who work as Brigade Coordinators. What, in your opinion, do the General and Kernel ranks represent?
A. Marshal is not for those who work as Brigade Coordinators. Marshal means you have to work as a Brigade Coordinator. :) As for General and Kernel, apart from the brigade commands, I'd love to see them involved in one-on-one mentoring and general relations with the lower ranked.
Q. Mentioning the "Kernel Ceiling" problem, did Staff find a solution for it?
A. Let's first review the problem: the "Kernel" part of the problem is simply that these folks are usually longtime members, so there are much fewer opportunities left for them, or at least cool ones or ones they will accept. At this level, one starts to think, "what I am doing in here? Why can't I easily go up now?" or "Do I want to go up?" The "I have an account and hang on CyberArmy/IRC but I don't really consider myself in CyberArmy" is mostly because he or she feels s/he has nothing to do or that s/he isn't wanted around here... at this point, one needs to make a decision regarding his/her CyberArmy engagement. If it's "have I something better to do?"/"I can be much more happy/useful/rich by doing something else", and in that case: best of luck buddy (but s/he will be back in some way or the other, and maybe his/her newly acquired experience will be useful), or s/he says "damn, I wanna try to fulfill this engagement and push my own and the org's limits", runs off a few dramas because he stepped on someone's toes (rightly or wrongly is another matter) and/or because people don't like to be pushed or try to think of all kinds of personality conflicts. If s/he passes the dramas and finds his/her niche, and can actually dedicate himself to it, hats off, otherwise, s/he will leave in disgust and will start trolling on the forums... We are a bit off topic here, sorry. :)
That being said, the solution is not really evident; artificially boosting "opportunities" being the worst solution, and people really wanting to feel they give newcomers the more or less fun experience they had in CyberArmy being the best. Reality is that we need to be somewhere between the two extremes.
Q. Is there, literally, a promotion from the rank Kernel to General? Or is it limited to direct assignment from the CinC? If so, how does it work?
A. It is mostly a direct assignment by the CinC.
Q. There was, and still is, an idea within higher-ranked members of CA that higher ranks should have more privileges. As we know now that the only privilege Lieutenant Kernel or above gets is editing the "About" Wiki, what would you tell those people?
A. That's a deeper problem; apparently some folks need privileges (in the sense of responsibilities) to feel they are useful. This is due to multiple factors, ranging from personal, to structural problems in CyberArmy (which is the main focus of our work in Staff now: ease and provide support/backend for personal initiatives). Now when it comes to real perks, I'd love to offer some, but not sure what.
Q. Why did Staff refuse the medals and decorations system? The CinC said before that it is still "under review". What do you expect? What do you personally would like to see?
A. Mostly because of a horrible previous experience with it. Yet again, it was implemented overnight by Pengo, without preparing the field in any way whatsoever, or even notifying anyone. That was bound to be a huge mess/failure, which is precisely what happened. Now, since the proposal is up again, we gave it serious thought and the results were one, how do we ensure that decorations are given fairly, and two, is creating a good system the solution to the problem? Moreover, do we all agree on what the problem is that we are trying to solve?
Q. What does your rank represent to you? Do you value it?
A. This is one question where it is hard to escape canned or stereotypical answers. Since I can't find some original way to express it, the following is really what I think: I see my rank as a overall symbol of trust and expectations coming from the members, which I value a lot, and try not to fail.
Q. What do you say to the fact that there were no promotions to Major and above for the last five months? Is it because there isn't anyone who worked hard enough in that period?
A. Nowadays, to pass higher ranks, more effort and dedication is needed than before. Effort and dedication require morale, engagement, and time, which are three things that have been heavily affected by the dramas we have had to face in the last six to eight months, as well as the summer, which is always the slowest period for CyberArmy. We are watching the issue, and it's hopefully temporary. If it turns out it's not, we will consider it again.
Q. Do you believe that the ranking system will stay? Are plans to change it in the future?
A. It will probably stay. However, I think that in the next year, it's going to be influenced by more "direct peer factors" - something among the lines of points or karma.
Q. What do you think that rank should represent? Respect? Power? Privileges? Weight?
A. Respect should be given to personalities, work and dedication, not ranks. On the other hand, someone respected will probably get a higher rank quicker than someone who has no peer respect whatsoever. To answer your question, for the holder of the rank, it is a responsibility, but the holder doesn't own it: your rank isn't yours, it's for others.
Q. Do you believe that demotion is a better than banning, as a disciplinary action?
A. It depends. Demotion is needed when the behavior of a individual becomes inappropriate to his rank. Bans are for when someone would really benefit from a break from CyberArmy. |
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