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Rank Update

Rank Update
Assistant/Lead Builder Merger
​
What? Another Rank Change???

That's right! The Valar held a meeting (Sunday, November 11th) wherein we discussed several topics. One of these topics was the current state of the Assistant and Lead Builder Ranks. As you all know, the ranks caused quite a bit of controversy this year as they are unprecedented in the traditional MCME Rank System. So, during the meeting, in an attempt to simplify the Build Team a bit (As per requested by several staff members) we analyzed the Assistants/Lead Builders and their role/niche on MCME.
We've came to the conclusion that:

1. The two ranks on the server have too few people to constitute an individual rank alone.
2. The Assistants and Lead Builders (While diverse in responsibility) share a similar niche on the server.
3. It is more beneficial for this group to join into one Assistant Team.
4. The Assistant's Local chat is abysmal.

What this means is, instead of Artist Lead Builder, Foreman Lead Builder, and Designer Lead Builder, we will now have Artist/Foreman/Designer Assistants. Just as Raffyyy is Guide Assistant and Toti is Media Assistant. All in all, the permissions, status, and responsibilities of each person currently with holding the Assistant/Lead Builder Rank will remain the same - this is all just a means to organize our rank system better.

Getting to this Point:
In reflection on the history of these two ranks: Upon their creation there was much upset due to the oddly specific nature of the roles of the Assistants and Lead Builders. It didn't rest well with the community, and as many of you know, caused a lot of backlash. I guarantee to all of you that the Valar heard and understood clearly the points and anger that revolved around the creation of this new rank. That said, we made the decision to create these ranks and we weren't going to go back without first analyzing their use and ability on the server.

Flash forward several months and here we are reevaluating the two ranks' value and purpose on the server. We (the Valar) of course met this past Sunday. Then we brought this discussion to the Assistants and Lead Builders themselves. Once we got approval there, we discussed the decision with the Staff. Finally, we bring ourselves to this public announcement.
I understand that this decision was made without first consulting the community as a whole and for that I am deeply sorry. It has been the trend recently that any change or update such as this is met with animosity and offense which is why I address it now. This change is made in response to the dissatisfaction of the community and doesn't really change or affect the gameplay of any member save for the Assistants/Lead Builders. It is a decision made to increase the productivity of the now Assistants and help them become a more collaborative unit.

What is the Duty of an Assistant?
Before I end this announcement off, I'd like to reiterate the duties and responsibilities of each of the Assistants as this is something people have a hard time grasping. Indeed, it took me a while to give an overarching definition to the rank and I was one myself!
In short: The Assistants are a group on the server who aid and assist the management of the community.
They are each representative and responsible for a unique aspect of this management whilst also holding the duties of their underlying rank/position on the server.

@TotiGonzales Is the Media Assistant. His duties lay within managing the Media Team, Developing MCME Videos, and *GENERALLY* helping in YouTube Collaborations and Events.
@Raffyyy Is the Guide Assistant. His duties revolve around managing the Guide Rank. Updating Guide Documentation, Reviewing Guide/Badge Applications, and offering as a Second-in-Command to the Guide Team.
@Lindolas Is the Artist Assistant. His duties involve managing Artist Applications, Assigning Trial Builds, and Monitoring Artist's Projects.
@QuantaCube Is the Foreman Assistant. His duties consist of reviewing Foreman Applications, attending Trial Jobs, Managing the Foreman Rank.
@ooitsbirdo Is the Designer Assistant. His duties involve managing Designer/Build Projects on MCME. This includes checking concepts and monitoring progress and activity on projects.

In Conclusion
Thank you all for being understanding of the new change. If there are questions or concerns myself and all the Valar would appreciate hearing and addressing them. Till our next!
 
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Good idea merging the two roles for the sake of simplicity and functionality.
I have one question though: You have only mentioned one of each Assistant, I might have missed something that clarified this, but is there only to be 1 Assistant of each type? Seems a little... Rough. Since the role (in my understanding of it) has a lot to do and has a key part of making everything run smoothly.
 
Wasn't there a kind of documentation assistant role that managed stuff like the MCME timeline, staff documentation, general documentation and other behind the scenes stuff as well? Or did I get the initial Assistant rank duties mixed up like many others?
Also, why doesn't the Enforcers have an assistant? Surely they have a lot of organising that needs doing as well?
 
I don't know if many noticed but we lost a couple of assistants since the creation of the rank. Since Super and lizzy left, their tasks were assigned to the remaining assistants. I believe we are still looking for replacements. It's not easy to find someone tho as these are positions that require specific skills and a certain amount of dedication.
 
I noticed but never thought about what effects it had on the ranks.
 
I believe it's best to see Assistant rank as a very flexible staff role. Assistants are assigned to additional tasks which are not part of Designer and Enforcer roles. These task are usually related to organization or documentation.
So far experience showed that these tasks depend quite a lot on the possible candidates. If a Vala wants help with organizing some stuff and has an idea who would be a good helper he might (after staff discussion) create an Assistant position for his helper. If the task is done or there is no good candidate an Assistant position might be removed again (as already happened when Lizzy and super resigned). So there is no fixed number of Assistants.
If the Artist Assistant would step down an there is no great candidate but the Foreman Assistant has a lot of time he might overtake the Artist Assistant task too.
If managing all (social) media would become too much for the Media Assistant we would maybe look for a second Media Assistant.
If the Head Enforcer would decide that he needs some help with organization of Enforcement duty roster he might look for an Enforcer Assistant
I want to stress that you can't apply for Assistant rank. It's always the initiative of a Vala to search for someone to get help. The Vala might openly ask at the forum who is interested but that is not mandatory. The Vala can also decide to privately talk to players he wants to help him.

Before we introduced Assistant and Lead Builder ranks the additional tasks like giving feedback to Artist applications or keeping documents up to date were done by Designers and Enforcers without further public notice. The additional Assistant rank just makes these additional tasks more visible and enables us to involve people who are good with organizing but not with building or enforcing.
 
As I said in my forums post, they each are representative and responsible for a unique role on the server. That said, their similarities lie in how their roles revolve around managing communal functions (generally speaking). As eriol said, these are just the jobs of the current assistants and their acting titles.
 
As for this, super and Lizzy were they but we strongly discourage filling gaps for the sake of filling gaps.
As for the enforcer assistant, currently dyno is perfectly capable of managing the enforcer team by himself and doesn’t need that role
 
ryttyr said:
I noticed but never thought about what effects it had on the ranks.
Click to expand...
Basically the assistants are/were when I was one very specific to the person that was the assistant and as you can see filling the position is nearly impossible, me and lizzy did very different jobs to Toti and raff but I guess now they had to take on our work as well as theirs
 
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