As you might have seen FPC is asking for help from the community PlanetCalypsoForum.com - The Frontpage needs you! PlanetCalypsoForum.com - Tutorial Competition to be honest I really think that is kinda wrong for an official forum, why the hell should we the players make tutorials and get a piece of crap armor for it??!! or do hours of work writing a news article for 100 ped (if Hanne likes it). Sure we all do that kind of stuff for free here and love doing that, but for an official forum I would, have expected more. I guess they are afraid of us and wanna make the front page a dynamic (mmm, where did I hear that word before) as our frontpage. So whats your view on this?? [edit] Just saw the small writing on the bottom of the article and I think that is just very wrong: You basically give FPC the right to do anything with your tutorial (even sell??)
I belive that all news are good news, if people wish to make it and it's in the benefit for the community - go for it :) What I don't understand more is the need of all those tutorials, since a lot of Entropians already made great tutorials. My guess is, that FPC doesn't want to favorise one for another, and therefor wish to give everyone the opportunity to make tutorials. Then again, we also ask people for help (HELP) to wikify things for example. Having tutorials is a great asset for a forum, so of course, it's also done because it will attract players to use the forum more. The thing is though, that this is a community forum - this is 'our' planet and 'our' place - not owned by any planetpartners or anyone else speculating in the game. It doesn't get more community based as this, and what we do here, we do for the love of the game and the people playing. And that is the difference. FPC is a PlanetPartner with a lot of money at stake - and we're their customers, buying their product and they should serve us - not the other way around ;) I see this to be only the start of the burgeoning competition between the different planets. The more planets, the more each of them will have to 'fight' and 'give' to get the needed attention and by that, customers. But this is business for you! And we cannot neglect the fact, that money is involved. The question is how the different planets wish to 'keep' us on their ground. I know what I prefer over tutorials and cheap armor, and that is heavy content, great game play and a story line ;) As a forum owner though, I know that getting great tutorials for newbies can be near vital, and we also tried gathering tutorials for EP - but unfortunately we cannot offer armor or PED LUCKILY we have an amazing bunch of people helping out because of their honest wish to help the community. So despite the fact we can't bribe people to do some work here, I feel, we're the lucky ones :)
Just saw the small print below the post about the tutorials (see my first post), you basically give FPC the right to do anything they like with the tutorials :( And yes all news is good news, but why would a company that we pay for our entertainment need us to make those articles, don't they have people sitting around there that are supposed to do that, like Hanne?? And the tutorials is even worse if you ask me.
lol refresh, I added more to it :D I also wrote this: And I do believe that is what makes the difference! We're customers, we wish to be served for the money we pay.
Personally i think it's a very good move. It's more collabarative and essentially good in helping build a community. If they just made the articles themselves they'd have to employ more people for that and we wouldn't appreciate it as much as if it's written by people from the community for the community. For the tutorials they could have used the existing tutorials from the forum as they allready have the rights to it but this is better because it's a way for them to show us how much they appreciate our efforts. If they had just given the award to people with existing tutorials people for sure would have complained about favouritism. This way they allow everyone to compete, which is good but has it's own drawback because people who may have written very good articles in the past e.g. Alice may not win. There is no perfect solution everything has an advantage and disadvantage. Given the circumstances I think the method they have adopted here is a good one. So all in all a very good move for the articles and tutorials. In the end ultimately it's for the benefit of the community so I see no reason to criticise it.
And I agree with you too, George - if it's for the benefit of the community, I see no harm done either.
True it is all for the community.... BUT.... the right that you give to them for making a tutorial (essentially the right to do anything they like with it) is the thing I don't really like
But that clause has been in the TOU for EF all the time. We had it in our Terms of Service as well, but recently removed part of that to show people that we do not intend to sell off their content for personal gain.
Yes Admin, but the BIG difference here is that EF and EP are community run and are not intended to make any money and PCF is run by FPC and they DO wanna make money. As I said on PCF I sometimes feel that we the players need to do everything for PFC and MA (tutorials, news, trailer movies, mobs, news articles all over the web about new stuff in game) and they make all the money from our work an we still have crapy loot. I am happy to put stuff on here (as I do) even with that article in the TOU no problem at all, it would be different if you guys would be buying castles in Germany with the money you make from the forum (yes the castle was an investment I know and probably a smart thing to do as well) or turn in to a official forum for one of the planet partners.
I definitely have a view, and I'm going to be back to post a more in-depth response after I teach my classes this evening. But I will say this in the meantime ... first they buy the database from the existing independent forum basically capturing an entire community audience that made that forum what it is forbid us (EP) from posting certain things in the public area of the now PCF planet partner area which prevents us from reaching the majority of the community membership and now resort to what's basically (IMO) bribery to get people to write articles guess it's the only way to go since they couldn't get people to keep the front page active before For years, this community spent time, effort, blood, sweat and tears helping to build that forum out of love for our universe, and not because there were big rewards involved, but for personal satisfaction that they were contributing toward the greater good of our community. Now there's a selection process going on to see who's good enough to make the front page and be rewarded? I have a lot more to say, but I need to do something first, and then will be back after I get home from teaching classes. This does not surprise me in the least.
yo ... I am a bit simple minded ... a forum owned by a company will serve the company's wishes and requests. If I remember right we all demanded it in the past: an official MA forum. But we didn't connect it with conquering the (halfway-) independent user forum EF. Now it's MA/FPC's forum. They should operate it by themself. Comments of participants should get attention. But they shouldn't ask their customers for free help as long as they don't offer PED for it. I have to pay for each f*****g hunt RL money. Serious folks! Why the hell should I give them help for free, ehh?
There is a serious reason why I am here at EP. I don't want to be domesticated by a company and I don't want to help a company without payment. They do their job and want to earn money. That's okay. I have to pay for the service and I am able to decide how much I want to pay. Wonderful! But I don't get nothing for free from MA/FPC. (Sweat ... okay ... don't nerve with this BS!) I like the game. But I don't like to help them for free. It's just business ... ehrm ... RCE
What we have here is a company using its resources. Why hire someone for lots of money when you can have someone do the same work for table scraps? Sure you can dress it honey and sugar--but the offering is still table scraps. Also the terms should not be a surprise. Every competition MA offered always required you to give up every right for the works. Why do you think the people who get paid for this stuff are not doing it for free (mostly). I just have a feeling the MA jumped the shark a few months ago. We are no in the era of a company shoving graphics and new mechanics down our face and telling us it is the same game--it's not. I still have a big hope for EU and believe there is still plenty of potential...oh crap I'm ranting! Sorry :) Nothing to see here carry on.
LOL! Probably they missed the change of user viewpoint. Maybe they look throu Hanne's glasses? No offense, Hanne. But probably you (MA/FPC) should realize that the forum is no longer a user forum but a company forum.
they already bought all of the tutorial info and or links to tutorials along with all of the EF content that the community collectively built over many years anyhow. Now, I havent' been over to PFC at all, but is all of that history not still there? wtf. did they goof up the indexing or something. a-holes, i say.
i would like have tutorials written by MA/FPC only. Why? simple, so they will explain me how freaking scopes , amp, missing, evade, chipping, hit rate, maximum hit, etcetc work.
I totally see the points made by MS9, Lykke and others. And it`s easy and cheap for MA/FPC as well as looking to many that they are rewarding people with stuff even if it`s just pixels. But from another perspective who do you think would write the better tutorials? Probably the same as in the past....real everyday players.
I posted a comment to Hanne's barefaced calling: Write your own articles at your forum! This forum is FPC's forum now. So do your job and serve the community with tons of informations. Don't ask for help from the community. You might offer a special section for participant's articles. But the front page should always be filled by FPC staff! This front page is kinda homepage of YOUR company now. Keep that in mind. I am ready to write articles for your front page. Just tell me how much you pay per row. Since I have to pay for each single feature FPC offers to me, I don't like the idea to work for you for free. ... or ban me ... I've just left in mind ... Edit: ... and oops! What do you pay to the former moderators if they continue? Or are you so audacious to utilize their service for free?
Well, I did not comment on anything related to PCF yet but I think it's about time. So what can I say? I can't really find much I like about it. - I don't like that 1 Planet Partner just bought the biggest community forum. Maybe the worst thing about that is the fact that 1 Planet 'Partner' simply f***ed all the other Planet Partners. This might have been a brilliant move from a business perspective but in my understanding of ethics it's just something one does not do. - I don't like that the former owner of EF just sold the content 'the community' has build over years and pocketed the earnings. As above, in my understanding of ethics this is something one does not do. (However, it fits the image I had.) - I don't like that the content that has been produced in the believe of doing it for an independent game forum and concious membership on an independent game forum has been sold to exactly the company that is producing the game. This has made everything that was about something simply a part of something. I think it's vital to have the opportunity to talk about something without at the same time make the talk a part of it. We need independent media! - I don't like the way the migration has been done, especially not the short notice despite the deal for sure was planned long beforehand. This cloak and dagger operation is a hint that the parties involved have been aware of the dubiousnees of their actions. And that does make it rather worse than better. - I don't like the fact that someone who is a contractor of FPC providing a service to them at the same time also is a 'regular' EU participant and investor. The same applies for people officially moderating an official forum no matter whether there is any formal contract or not. I'm not saying that those persons are in any way suspicious or not capable of dealing appropriately with this situation. But generally similar kind of affiliations and relationships are regulated by law and monitored by authorities in almost any country of the world for good reasons. - I don't like the forum rule that restricts EntropiaPlanets and other community sites to "blog at PlanetCalypsoForum where they can advertise their updates, events, offers". A blog? The staff at EP alone is managing the workload of several full-time employees and spending many $ to inform and entertain THEIR (PCF's) customers. They should not restrict other community sites, no, they should give them any publicity and support they can! - I don't like those kind of competitions that are meant to produce content of which many people think it should be provided by FPC to their customers and not by the customers for FPC. It might be cheap for FPC but at the same time it's really expensive for 'the community' for one reason: Many people are producing quite similar content but just one of them will be getting 'paid'. Btw in this century we have tools that allow many people to work on the same thing and they are called wikis. - I don't like the fact that "Community Recognition Armor" will be given away for a selected guide about one aspect of EU. It has been discussed extensively in the CR Armor thread who or what achievement qualifies for the CR Armor. In my opinion whatever allocation formula you use it will always be the wrong one, consequently you should not do it at all. - I don't like guides being managed on forums. They are not really well accessible, restricted in design and content and always need the original poster to update them. Like said above, in this century we have tools that allow people to create and maintain guides collaboratively and that allow the integration of almost every kind of content. Those tools are called wikis, example: Vehicles. K, I would have some more but basically that's it. (Shall I go and post this on PCF now? ) However, if you have created or will create a guide (no matter whether it's text or video or slides or big or small) bring it to the EntropiaPlanets Wiki. If you are interested in writing or contributing to frontpage/magazine articles, organizing events, coding or whatever... consider EP too. ;) EDIT: And then I had this idea: Collaborative contribution to PCF tutorial competition. Check it out.