How should turn chats be planned/announced?

The 24 hour rule for advance notice of a turn chat is not working well. Several options have been brought up by various people (actually, I think all of them were from chiefpaco).

Basically, it boils down to individual notice for each chat or a preset schedule. The first two options on this poll and the 3rd and 4th will be aggregated for the overall opinion on individual notice versus scheduling.

Shaitan, no more coffee for you. Don't you think you should have introduced a discussion thread on this before a full blown poll?

I'm going for the presidential schedule option, since he is the one who is supposed to be playing out the game. I can see a fixed schedule getting changed regularly as large numbers of people discover that they can't make it on a given night. This would result in the current situation where it's quite hard to work out when the chat is going to be. A weekly schedule thread would solve both those problems in one swoop.

Originally posted by Cyc
Shaitan, no more coffee for you. Don't you think you should have introduced a discussion thread on this before a full blown poll?

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"Hello. My name is Shaitan, and I'm a poll-aholic."
*cue polite clapping and pats on the back*

Originally posted by Cyc
Shaitan, no more coffee for you. Don't you think you should have introduced a discussion thread on this before a full blown poll?

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Seriously though, the subject was already discussed in the Turn Chat thread and appeared to be bogging down. The choices were out there and commented on already so I took the next step in resolution.

Plus, i had way too much coffee today.

Hard to find "one size fits all". What works this term for the President & cabinet might not work for the next, because of scheduling & time zones. This should be a reviewable rule for each term so as to not handcuff future cabinets. What if the next Pres works nights? etc...

I vote the rule be re-written from the Constitution. I like the poll, but instead of putting it down in the constitution, the Constitution can just enforce a rule be made at the beginning of each term. Maybe some guidelines can be included in the Constitution that enforces the most popular time convenient for the President be chosen.

That said, for this term:
I see 2 issues. Day & time.

Day:
I like having fixed days. Whoever shows up plays. Reduces confusion & uncertainty on when/where we will play. Eliminates the need for the President to write a tedious post to say when the next turn will be. Allows citizens a regular schedule to know when the games will be played & check back on the forums. Regularity reduces confusion, IMHO. (I should really take the H out of my opinions, seeing as where they are typically leading ...)

Time:
We have a president at +1 GMT. Much of the cabinet is at -5. Most of our turns up to this point were played on the President's 2AM-5AM timeframe. Isn't that a scary thought ? We also have difficulties when the CoC covers different time zones.

I think we still need the President to set a regular time, & post any changes in the "Turn instructions" thread. However, Presidents rights come into question. What if the President posts to be an hour late, but 7 advisors are sitting in the chatroom for the usual time?

I vote for some type of fixed schedule, adjusted weekly is fine. I think there are two issues here, and one is being overlooked. Yes, the availability of the President and other cabinet members is important, and the amount of notice given may affect attendance. But the second reason for giving notice is so that decisions and polls can be posted in time! We have several issues ongoing (such as FP construction) as well as past examples (Leader, rushing, etc) which generated much debate in polls, but if we don't know when the next turn is going to be, it is hard to set deadlines for the poll!

For example, when we posted the polls about pop-rushing, I set them for 48 hours, since that was to be the next turn chat. What if (on only 10 hours notice), the chat was moved up one day? Can you imagine the outcry if citizens, who may have been at work that day, came home to find that we had already moved forward with those decisions. On the other hand, if it had been delayed another day, maybe more opposition would have built up, after the supporters had assumed the poll was already closed.

For this reason, I think a scheduled chat time is important, so we (cabinet members) can set our discussions/polls with a specific end date and a known time for execution. Also, our new turn instruction threads are based on the date of the next turn chat. If it is going to be 3 days till the next turn chat, I know how much time I have to work on something before posting my instructions. Since I don't have internet at work, it is entirely possible that notice could be posted, say at 1200 GMT (on GF's lunch break, or whatever), and I would get home from work at 6:00 CST (2400 GMT) to find out the turn is already underway, with no time to post polls, etc. (BTW, that is why I try to check the forum on my lunch break!).

If we know in advance that there will be a turn Wednesday, I can set polls up on Monday, and tell the people (those who vote, anyway) that it will end at 2300 GMT Wednesday, and that is when the decision will be implemented. We have polls that have run for a week, and no one knows when they will end, or even when they will be acted upon. The FP poll is a good example. It has been running, who is to say that during the last chat, the cabinet could not have started construction based on the highest total at that time, while many others didn't think it was done yet. With a schedule, a poll could have an end date AND an action date.

This is my point exactly, Shaitan. Your poll is being blown out of the water by a huge discussion. You took some posts from a differnt sub-forum and turned them into a Leader sponsored poll in another forum without discussion first. THAT"S RAILROADING.


SLOW DOWN!

Originally posted by Cyc
This is my point exactly, Shaitan. Your poll is being blown out of the water by a huge discussion. You took some posts from a differnt sub-forum and turned them into a Leader sponsored poll in another forum without discussion first. THAT"S RAILROADING.


SLOW DOWN!

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The poll is progressing well and there is excellent discussion. I do not see a problem here.