The current work load between Layonara and our other commitments to things such as family and job have greatly slowed the responsiveness to the grievance forum. With the onset of the Graceful Plea system, this forum has seen heavy usage by the community as a whole. This was anticipated, but perhaps not to the extent to which the community has utilized the option. Due to these growing demands of this forum and our other responsibilities, Dorganath and I have found it necessary to bring in additional help but also pull our involvement in this forum back to a large degree.
In place of our presence, Carillon and Twidget have graciously accepted responsibility of keeping a watch on this forum, and they will handle the day-to-day management of such requests. Dorganath and I will continue to work on some of the more complex issues as the needs arises. Were this the only 'change' coming to the way things are handled here, a public announcement would not really be necessary but it is not the only aspect of the Grievance forum that will be changing.
The primary focus of most GMs is to run Quests for the community. It is the criteria we are asked to meet when we apply. Some of us gather other responsibilities as our time as GM lengthens, but for the most part the primary focus remains the same. For Twidget and Carillon, Quests will still remain their primary focus as GMs. What does this mean, and why do I bring it up? This means, for the community, that handling of grievances and requests will be considered a secondary priority. We are sympathetic to the wishes of the community to have their requests managed in a timely way, so be assured that all requests will still receive due attention and review, and that nothing will be ignored.
In an effort to streamline what will likely be a longer process, priority of all requests will go to whatever is most urgent and then to what is quickest to handle. In the past we have tried to work from oldest request forward but this is no longer going to be the most efficient use of time due to having far less to contribute. Issues such as an unjust loss of one's final Soul Strand, for example, will receive the highest priority and consideration, whereas the unperming of a long-dead character will likely receive the lowest. In making this shift, we hope the process as a whole will be more responsive to those needs which are more immediate.
I'd like to address the 'f' word (favoritism) head on here, because we all hear the whispers from time to time. In reality many perceived things of this nature are often a misunderstanding of the circumstances, and with a somewhat more subjective criteria on determining the order in which grievances will be handled, we can see that some may suspect they are being discriminated against, intentionally delayed or that others are given arbitrary preference over others. The selection of when or how the grievances are handled will have nothing to do with any personal preference among individual GMs or the GM team as a whole about one player over another. Anything that is quick and easy to handle or which is considered to be a more urgent issue will be selected first. All requests that require research of any kind are going to take time, into a number of weeks quite possibly. The amount of time passing will depend on what kind of research needs to be done. This is no way intentioned to punish or show a preference from one player to another, but simply just a consequence of time available to provide this service.
I am writing all of this to ask in advance for the community's understanding and ever continued patience when making a claim or complaint in the Grievance forum. We will continue to do our best to to serve the community with this feature of Layonara.
Regards,
~row
