The Community Manager: Who, What, and Why

[501warhead 1796]

Greetings LotC!

 

Today I come here to talk about what I briefly talked about on the FAQ posted this week; the Community Manager. I hope to break down this new role to the LotC staff for you today and announce who will be filling this role for the first time.

 

What/Why

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The Community Manager is a role that we've come to believe we need that fulfills a critical role which we have not yet been able to fill properly. Often times the days of the Administration are busy with the daily tasks and goals we set for ourselves and in doing such we often find that we forget or even are unable to find time to organize events, make announcements, and gather feedback - all things that, while we view as critical, we have unfortunately left to neglect.

 

The Community Manager is a role intended to assist with this subject, bringing on an individual whose sole focus is on the state and concerns of the Community. The hope is to work closely with this individual to try to increase our communication with the community and hopefully as well try to offer more events for the community as a whole to attend, both serious and non-serious. They'll be working with the Administration and Team Directors to remind us and encourage us to be more forthcoming with out ideas and passions while also organizing events for us to share our thoughts with you, the playerbase.

 

Who

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When we were looking through the applications for the position one name stood out above all the others and I believe that many of you reading will already know why before I even explain. We've selected @marimbamonk (formerly BoogerBuster/BGBuster) as the Community Manager.

 

 

He has gone above and beyond lately in his efforts, trying to bring together the community he loves and find ways to address issues within it. Even without holding this role he has pushed the boundaries of what we've been able to accomplish in the past while also fighting for what he believes in; accountability, communication, and unity.

 

We're very proud of his efforts so far and hope that he will be able to go above and beyond expectations from both ourselves and the community as a whole.

 

That will be all for today from me, expect more from @marimbamonk himself in the coming weeks!

[Zacho 2177]

First

Also, a big congratz to Marim for stepping up to the plate, good job and good luck.

[Algoda 885]

Riding out the storm eh, i'm sure it'll work as it always does.

You're not solving the root of the problem with this.

[Unwillingly 18120]

Big mega +1

[Vaynth 3005]

Awesome pick. Excited to see how he does!

[5itty 66]

Couldn't of picked a better candidate and I know the community will respect him greatly for his contributions.

 

 

[Sky 0]

That position tends to be an Administrator because of the insight they have of all the staff teams, how will he be able to be the bridge to the community if there are locked staff doors for him to deal with? Unless, you plan on letting him see the inner-workings from all staff teams?

[monkeypoacher 8055]

at least you picked a cool guy to do it

[thesaintjaleel 792]

Omg you picked the best person for the job really 

[Narthok 10416]

4 minutes ago, dsdevil said:

Congratulations @marimbamonk! Definitely a positive proactive member of our community.

 

He's the perfect person to organize community events and communicate with the player base. His live stream is a great platform for his position as community manager and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of it.

 

However, I think this is a terrible pick in terms of keeping the administration accountable. I do not think he is the person who will passionately debate and fight for issues that the community feel strongly about. The recent Admin Q&A that happened on his live stream kind of shows this. He only recently returned so he wasn't completely informed about community issues. He defaulted to defending the administration although they were clearly upsetting the viewers with what they were saying.

There is a clear disconnect between players and staff to the point where it's an "us vs them" situation. I believe you need someone who actually understands what makes the community react the way they do. A person who won't dismiss issues as "oh the players are being whining babies again" like a lot of staff members do right now. At this point I do not think the staff is willing to hire someone who will call them out on their sh-i-t. And honestly I fear that marimbamonk will inevitably become the target of hate and an admin scapegoat. 

Marimba is a great person from what I've seen. A kind soul. I know he will do great in terms of community events and communicating information. I hope I'm wrong about the rest. I hope he does great and mends the rift between staff and players. All I can say is goodluck.

I agree with Ds to be honest. Marimba has no great history of deep community involvement or activity. He organized a few live streams and did some random atlas march that a few new players attended before it failed due to repetitive server crashes. All I'm seeing here is a scapegoat who will be gone in 6 months because they cannot actually handle the role and buckle under feedback and criticism. This just seems to further exacerbate the Mount Olympus syndrome upper echelons of the staff seem to have absorbed at a frequent rate of late. I think this is the wrong choice for the job, but will withhold judgement for a few weeks to see what marimba gets up to with his shiny new tag.

[ThatGuy_777 220]

Many congratulations! I look forward to seeing how he acclimates to his new position, couldn't think of anyone more suitable for the job.

Blessed be!

[L0rdLawyer 2272]

1 hour ago, Narthok said:

I agree with Ds to be honest. Marimba has no great history of deep community involvement or activity. He organized a few live streams and did some random atlas march that a few new players attended before it failed due to repetitive server crashes. All I'm seeing here is a scapegoat who will be gone in 6 months because they cannot actually handle the role and buckle under feedback and criticism. This just seems to further exacerbate the Mount Olympus syndrome upper echelons of the staff seem to have absorbed at a frequent rate of late. I think this is the wrong choice for the job, but will withhold judgement for a few weeks to see what marimba gets up to with his shiny new tag.

When you disagree with the higher ups you just get called a conspiracy theorist and questioned on why you have pex. 

 

It's why people tend to just agree with them and invest time elsewhere. 

#ETPex4ETOnly

[Arhbi 181]

Isnt this the guy who called the entirety of LOTC stupid on his livestream?

[Joltastik 506]

2 hours ago, Algoda said:

Riding out the storm eh, i'm sure it'll work as it always does.

You're not solving the root of the problem with this.

This.

 

Yet again, you choose to drown out the complaints with a piss-poor announcement aimed to "hype" the community out of any sort of uproar. Fool-proof, right? You've done it before, and you'll do it again.

 

Just remember that you're not solving anything.

[Chimp 528]

¸poor marimba, he is a cool dude but he will almost certainly become 501's shield against criticism, he will be bombared by complaints and critics. He doesn't deserve all the poo poo he is about to get thrown at lol.