I disgree with your points and will adress them here.
But we got to realize something here. There is not a single person in staff or among the Valar that will say that they do not want to be able to jump to new projects. And that is what I believe sometimes gets confused when we seem to be endlessly working on the same projects. Projects take time to being finished especially with the level of detail we put out nowadays.
Then show it. The fact that you receive this kind of feedback from a significant part of the community on server that is supposed to be a community server, should demonstrate to you that something is deeply wrong with the way how it functions or at least with how you present yourselves and communicate to the community. Telling people you want to improve but not actually do anything but saying it, makes you seem very disingenuous.
Starting new projects while leaving others unfinished is something we cannot do.
And yet you do do it. Hypr rushed the finishing of the Carrock and surrounding area, making it look half finished. Cair Andros has keeled over and died, Moria East has been gathering dust for nearly a year now, not to speak about Belfalas and Anorien for nearly two years. You continuely let new projects start while leaving others unfinished, you don't search for replacement, you don't ensure further progress, you just let it sit around. You don't lead, you don't motivae, you don't plan, you don't recruit: all this demonstrates you don't know what proper leadership entails. You let project leaders screw around and when they leave, you ignore what they have build or wipe the slate clean and not do anything with it.
Regarding "most things involved staff members in all aspects were either not touched on our disregarded". I can not comment on since without examples of what is being said here I do not know what has not been touched. I mean we had a staff meeting after the survey last year a team meeting and a community meeting discussing the things that came forward. And addressing the things we would be working on. I guess we could have missed something but nothing was left undiscussed.
Again this is a problem I have pointed out above, you discuss it but then don't anything with it. You sit around, discuss it among yourselves but communicate nothing to the community. That causes this respons, that is what causes this kind of feedback. You don't demonstrate that you have actually listened except by telling people, which is insufficient.
A game plan to try and get everyone working on one thing" sounds fantastic but what does it mean? Arent we already working on the same thing? Our game plan has not changed in the last 12 years. Building Middle Earth. We are trying to work our way to reach that goal according to the Fellowships path.
I am sorry, but that is not a plan. It is a goal, not a plan. Bart's list isn't a plan either, it is mild suggestion. A plan for a map this big, for a community is large should be far more detailed than that. The fact that you haven't come up with anything in 12 years, demonstrates a lack of leadership and vision. And just finishing the Fellowship path is also not a plan, it is again a goal.
But not getting what you want does not mean you are ignored. It does come across a bit self entitled. We all want the same thing to see this project going forward and reaching is destination however not everyone agrees on the means of how we get there. And that is fair, there will always be different roads to reach it. But this is the path that we currently think is best to take. You do not have to agree with it, but without providing a valid alternative I have no means to address it and thus can not treat it seriously.
Maybe you should think about what the person actually means with that sentence. They never said that they themselves felt ignored, they said that they feel the community as a whole gets ignored. That is a crucial difference. Again if you get this kind of feedback on a community server, i.e. the community feels ignored, that maybe should be a sign that you are doing something wrong. Also the point with providing an alternative, what do you mean with that? The person with that quote has given you an alternative: start listening properly to the community. And even then, that is not their responsiblity, they are not the ones who have the power and ability to change things, you are, you are the leaders of this server. Solving problems is your responsibility.
As you mentioned already terrain is a big factor in what limits us. But by far not the biggest. Textures yes they limit us too. Making plans and concepts is possible and in some cases has already been begun. But making of actual concepts requires a couple things. Terrain, textures and someone willing to make them. Our biggest limiting factor in my opinion is and always has been the amount of people that can produce projects with the now required level of quality. Whether that project is terrain, textures or concepts it all leads down to the same missing part manpower.
This can be solved easily, again with having a proper plan. We have a sufficient workforce, we just spread them out like mad. Select a couple (as in two, three or four) projects people can work on and the workforce isn't as spread out as it is now. Letting people do what they want and the only requirement is that they need to convince bart, is inefficient. It spreads out the workforce and makes it that only really two people are ever really active on a project, which burns those people out and limiting our workforce even more. Yes we work on a volunteer force, that doesn't mean they don't requite leadership or structure. And if people don't want to work on the active projects, they can always go and build their own things in freebuild.
I can see why you think textures is the big issue. Since it is probably the most mentioned one when it comes to new projects. And I agree that is not fair to stagnate while waiting on blocks when we already have so many. But that only counts for a region like Gondor. For a region like Mordor we are not waiting for some blocks people want to see added, we are waiting for an entire texture pack. So yes I would agree that if you are working in Gondor or another Human RP region you should be able to continue to work with the blocks that are already provided. But as soon as you leave those area's not mentioning the entire overhaul of vegetation we will be receiving with the forest update, the resources and possibilities in terms of what we have with blocks and the quality that we want to reach become far estranged.
I disagree, the vast majority of the server can be build up in what we have rp-wise. We have swathes of Eriador, large parts of Rhovanion, The whole of Rhun and even Harad and Umbar could be done with the blocks we have and the quality we now hold ourselves too. Other servers and other build manages it with far less blocks and texture alterations than we, yet somehow we are the only ones not building in certain areas because we don't have the blocks. Let the build team be creative, let them come up with solutions. If a builder has to sit around waiting on a certain texture, then I am sorry but they aren't worth their salt. Especially if we are supposed to uphold a certain quality: a builder that can't build with constraints, is not going to be able to deliver that good a build without constraints. It is not as difficult as you make it out to seem. And I am saying this as someone who is only a decent builder, certainly not one of the best on the server.
The past 4 years the quality and detail of builds has risen tremendously, because of the new blocks, and because of the standards that was raised by Bart. And yes that leads to projects taking a significantly larger amount of time. Caused by limited amount of people that can produce to said standard.
I disagree with this. A big part of projects not being as quick is also in part to blame because people were told to wait for better textures: do I need to remind you of Anorien that set untouched for years because we were all waiting on the mythical forest update, same with Belfalas. ''Ah don't finish it now, wait for the forest update, that will gives us better quality''. And thus the project sits there, being unfinished for an unacceptable long time, especially for a server who claims not to start new projects while there are unfinished ones.
We also got to remember we are all spending our free time here, some have more free time then others. And as Bart mentioned we can not force anyone to do anything. We purely rely on the hard work and dedication of those that volunteer to do the work let us not forget that. And let us not forget we are on the same team and help each other finish the projects that we started. Take up that responsibility and help out.
Yes we are volunteers. That doesn't mean that volunteers can't use structure and leadership. You can't indeed force people, but as the leaders in this server you can motivatie, you can recruit, you can streamline, you can oversee and you can guide: with other words, you can lead. Take up your own responsibility, which the community obviously doesn't see you doing considering the feedback you get, before you tell others to do so. Because you fail to do so, as can be seen in a post above in which a Head Builder of a
community server publicly tells a large part of thay community that they possibly can't understand what a good build is, because they don't have the right rank.
with regards,
Rudolphius